Swami Vishnudevananda
Swami Vishnudevananda was Sivananda of Rishikesh’s disciple who built the international Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres — the worldwide network that fixed the classical five-points curriculum of modern postural yoga.
Life
Sent by his guru to the West in 1957, Vishnudevananda founded the first Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Montreal (1959), then centres across North America and Europe and the ashrams of Val-Morin (Quebec), Neyyar Dam (Kerala), and the Bahamas. He trained thousands of teachers in the standardized month-long format that became the global template.
Teachings/Works
His Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga (1960) codified the five points (proper exercise, breathing, relaxation, diet, meditation and positive thinking) and the twelve basic asana sequence; his Meditation and Mantras carried the Vedanta curriculum. In the 1970s he flew his “peace plane” into conflict zones (Belfast, the Suez) — the celebrated meditation-in-war missions.
Legacy
The Sivananda organization remains among the largest classical-yoga teaching networks; his teacher-training format underlies much of the world’s yoga education.
Verification notes
- Life and institutions are documented; the peace flights are well recorded.
- Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).