Swami Sivananda Saraswati
Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887-1963) was one of the greatest spiritual masters of the 20th century. Born and educated in Tamil Nadu (South India), he served in Malaya as a medical doctor for a number of years. In 1924, deciding to renounce worldly life, he travelled to Rishikesh (North India), where he was initiated into the Dashnami sannyasa tradition by Swami Vishwananda Saraswati.
In Rishikesh, Swami Sivananda practised intense yoga sadhana for many years and at the same time lived to serve humanity. He often spent more than twelve hours a day in meditation and then visited the sick to offer medical aid. Passionately inspired to serve the divine in everyone, he founded the Sivananda Charitable Dispensary (1927), the Divine Life Society (1936), the Sivananda Ayurvedic Pharmacy (1945), the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy (1948) and the Sivananda Eye Hospital (1957). He also toured extensively throughout India, encouraging people to practise yoga and lead a divine life. He attracted thousands of disciples and aspirants from India and abroad, and authored over 200 books on yoga and spirituality.
Central to Swami Sivananda’s teachings was his integral style of yoga, known as the Yoga of Synthesis, which promoted a harmonious development of the head, heart and hands through the practices of jnana, bhakti and karma yogas. For serious aspirants aiming to reach the heights of self-realization, he developed an eightfold path: serve, love, give, purify, be good, do good, meditate, realize. Ever innovative and creative, Swami Sivananda offered yoga in ways that would appeal to the public, and he often drew on stories, songs and humorous ditties to enliven his teachings.
