Bihar School of Yoga
The Bihar School of Yoga (BSY), founded by Swami Satyananda Saraswati in 1964 at Munger, is one of India’s most influential yoga institutions — the publisher of the standard modern texts on pranayama, kriya, and yoga nidra, and the seed of the Satyananda yoga tradition worldwide.
Overview
Satyananda, a disciple of Swami Sivananda, established the Munger school to systematize tantric-hatha techniques for modern practitioners; the Ganga Darshan complex overlooks the river at Munger; the Yoga Research Foundation and Sivananda Math (the charitable arm) extend its work.
Core teachings
Integral yoga in Sivananda’s synthesis with the tantric technical corpus foregrounded: the kriyas (shatkarmas), pranayama sequences, yoga nidra (Satyananda’s signature systematization), antar mouna and ajapa-japa among its teaching staples.
Practice and work
Residential training (the yogic studies courses), publications (Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha, Yoga Nidra, and theagarbha of BSY paperbacks are standard references), health-management programs, and the 2013 handover of institutional leadership to Swami Niranjanananda’s successor line with the Rikhiapeeth ashram (Deoghar) as the second seat.
Modern status
Continues at Munger and Rikhia; the Satyananda tradition’s centers span the world; its manuals remain standard teaching texts.
Verification notes
- Founding (1964) and the yoga nidra systematization are documented.
- Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).