European Satyananda Yoga Family

Tradition and Inspiration

SATYANANDA YOGA® draws inspiration from Adi Shankaracharya, the codifier of the Dashnami Sannyasa Tradition, and from the four spiritual masters who make up its lineage: Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati, Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati and Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati.

Adi Shankaracharya was born in the 8th Century AD. He is recognized to be the undisputed spiritual leader of India, and propagated the Advaita Vedanta philosophy which leads directly to the experience of higher yogic life.

During the course of his life, he established the Dashnami Sannyasa tradition in order to unify the various and diverse groups of sannyasins which were scattered throughout the country, bringing them all under the banner of sanatana dharma.

Dashnami Sannyasins still continue to convey his eternal message of the synthesis of all beliefs culminating in Advaita, the monistic vision of reality in which all things are understood, ultimately, to be one.

The roots of Satyananda Yoga are in Rishikesh, India, where the yoga master Swami Sivananda Saraswati lived and worked to propagate an integral yoga.

Swami Sivananda was born in South India in 1887. After studying medicine, he served several years in Malaysia as a doctor. In search of a master, he returned to India in 1923 and settled in Rishikesh where he was initiated into the Dhashnami Sannyasa order by Swami Vishwananda.

During the following years he devoted himself to intense sadhana (spiritual practices and asceticism). The question, how personal spiritual development can be used for the upliftment of the underprivileged and the poor, would impact the rest of his life.

He travelled extensively through the whole of India in order to inspire people to live a pure and divine life.

In 1936, Swami Sivananda founded the „Divine Life Society“ in Rishikesh and over the next few years several institutions followed to support the underprivileged of society.

During his life Swami Sivananda accompanied thousands of students worldwide and wrote more than 200 books on the topic of yoga, spirituality and health.

Swami Sivananda is one of the most important and influential spiritual masters of the 20th century. He saw integral yoga as a suitable way to manage the problems of modern society and instructed Swami Satyananda to spread it from ‘door to door and shore to shore’. Born out of this vision is what today is known as Satyananda Yoga – Bihar Yoga.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati was born in 1923 in Almora in northern India at the foot of the Himalayas. In search of a master, he met Swami Sivananda in 1943 in Rishikesh and lived with him until 1955.

He left the ashram of Swami Sivananda with the mission to spread yoga „from door to door and shore to shore“ and spent the next few years as a wandering mendicant in India. On the basis of his mandate, he founded the International Yoga Fellowship Movement in 1956.

His mission became more concrete when he settled in Munger (Bihar, India) in 1963. Here he founded the Bihar School of Yoga, started travelling ceaselessly through all continents to spread integral yoga and authored more than 80 books on the topics of yoga and tantra.

In 1984, he founded Sivananda Math, a charitable institution, to help the underprivileged in rural India. He also created the Yoga Research Foundation, a research institution with the aim to prove scientifically the effectiveness of yoga techniques.

In 1988, he handed over all the institutions he founded and went into seclusion. From then on he lived as a Paramahamsa Sannyasin in Rikhia (Jharkhand, India) and devoted himself to an intense sadhana (spiritual practices and asceticism).

On 5th December 2009, he left his mortal body consciously and achieved Maha Samadhi.

Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati was born in Rajnandgaon (Chhattisgarh) in 1960. Guided by his guru, Swami Satyananda Saraswati, from birth, at the age of four he came to live with him at the Bihar School of Yoga in Munger where he received training in yogic and spiritual sciences through yoga nidra.

In 1971 he was initiated into Dashnami sannyasa, and thereafter for eleven years he lived overseas, mastering skills in varied areas, acquiring an understanding of different cultures and helping establish Satyananda Yoga ashrams and centres in Europe, Australia, North and South America.

At the behest of his guru, he returned to India in 1983 to guide the activities of Bihar School of Yoga, Sivananda Math and the Yoga Research Foundation at Ganga Darshan. In 1990 he was initiated as a paramahamsa sannyasin and in 1995 anointed spiritual preceptor in succession to Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

He established Bihar Yoga Bharati, the first university of yoga, in 1994 and the Yoga Publications Trust in 2000 in Munger. He also initiated a children’s yoga movement, Bal Yoga Mitra Mandal, in 1995. In addition to steering the activities at Munger, he travelled extensively to guide seekers around the world till 2009, when he received the command to embark on a new phase of sannyasa life.

Author of many classic books on yoga, tantra and the upanishads, Swami Niranjan is a magnetic source of wisdom on all aspects of yogic philosophy, practice and lifestyle. He ably combines tradition with modernity as he continues to nurture and spread his guru’s mission from his base at Munger.

Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati, popularly known as Swami Satsangi, was born in 1953 in Chandernagor (Westbengal, India). Despite her modern upbringing and education, she was drawn to a traditional life of renunciation and sannyasa.

At the age of 22, she met her master, Swami Satyananda, and accompanied him on his countless tours in India and around the world. Due to her intense exposure to and study of the tantric and yogic sciences she evolved into a scholar with deep insights into the original teachings.

Swami Satsangi is a truly inspiring teacher and author of several books on the topics of yoga and tantra.

In 2007, she was nominated by Swami Satyananda as the first Peethadhishwari of Rikhiapeeth. The development and establishment of Sivananda Math and Sivananda Ashram, two relief organizations for underprivileged people in rural India are her achievement. She is in charge of all activities and ceaselessly advocates the aid for the poor.

Swami Satsangi joins efficiently compassion with clear reason. With creative power and a strong assertiveness she builds the basis of Rikhiapeeth and ensures that the vision of her master is realized into a concrete form.