European Satyananda Yoga Family

Bihar School of Yoga (1964)

Bihar School of Yoga was founded in 1964 by Swami Satyananda Saraswati in Munger (Bihar, India). Its purpose is to make authentic yoga accessible to the modern man in a practical and scientific way. 

Bihar School of Yoga combines the traditional teachings of the Vedas, tantra and yoga with insights of modern medical research and science.

To enable the promotion of yoga on a scientific basis, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, the official successor of Swami Satyananda, founded in 1995 the yoga university Bihar Yoga Bharati and in 2000 the Yoga Publications Trust.

In cooperation with well-known governmental institutions and industrial companies, BSY contributes in many ways to society.

Bihar Yoga Bharati (1995)

The yoga university Bihar Yoga Bharati was founded by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati in 1995 to preserve and revive the yogic science in its totality and to make it available according to academic standard.

The institution offers different courses in yogic philosophy, yogic psychology, applied yogic science and yogic ecology.

Bihar Yoga Bharati combines gurukul-oriented learning (students and teachers live together in a community) and scientific methodology. The teachings combine ancient knowledge with academic standard and enable a deep integration of positive qualities like seva (selfless service), samarpan (surrender) and karuna (compassion).

The training programs of the European Satyananda Yoga Academy are supervised by Bihar Yoga Bharati.

Yoga Research Foundation (1984)

The Yoga Research Foundation was founded by Swami Satyananada Saraswati in Munger in 1984 with the aim to study and evaluate the efficacy of yoga techniques using scientific methods.

Directed by the vision of Swami Satyananda and Swami Niranjanananda, countless research projects were conducted by recognized specialists over the past 30 years. These researches cover, among other subjects, the following areas: health and medicine, psychology, pregnancy, education etc.

Many of these research results were published in the magazines YOGA and YOGA VIDYA.
See yogamag.net

Yoga Publications Trust (2000)

While developing the Bihar School of Yoga in Munger over a period of 20 years, Swami Satyananda Saraswati also travelled tirelessly around the world to promote yoga. Out of his innumerable lectures and teachings many books resulted which are published and distributed by Yoga Publications Trust.

Swami Satyananda spoke about different topics of spiritual life and provided insights into the original philosophies and sciences of yoga, tantra and the Vedas.

He adapted many of the ancient techniques such as Satyananda Yoga Nidra®, antar mouna and ajapa japa for the modern seeker, described the techniques in detail and taught them in a systematic way.

His successor, Swami Niranjanananda and some of his close disciples continue this tradition and until today, several hundred publications were released by Yoga Publications Trust.