The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres is a non-profit organisation founded in 1957 by Swami Vishnudevananda and named in honour of his teacher H.H. Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj, one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. The Organisation propagates the teaching of yoga and vedanta, preserving its purity and tradition dating back several thousand years. We are a centre for spiritual growth and learning, with many thousands of yoga teachers worldwide trained since 1963.
The mission is to spread the teachings of classical yoga, integrating the Four Paths of Yoga through the Five Points of Yoga of Swami Vishnudevananda into a means to achieve physical, mental and spiritual well-being and Self-realisation. Swami Sivananda’s dictum ‘an ounce of practice is worth tons of theory’ is strictly followed. Many of the teachers dedicate their lives to the study and practice of yoga, living within the Organisation as renunciants or swamis.
With headquarters in Val Morin, Canada, the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres is represented in over twenty-six countries with headquarters in Quebec, Canada. In India we have four Ashrams situated at Neyyar Dam (headquarters), Madurai, Uttarkashi and Gudur and five Centres—Kailash Colony (New Delhi), Dwarka (New Delhi), Chennai, Madurai and Trivandrum. Our Ashrams provide a spiritual retreat to live, study and practise under the guidance of our teachers. Our Centres are an oasis of peace in the midst of the bustle of city life. Click on one of the Ashrams or Centres below to find out more on our courses and programmes in India.