He studied with Master Sivananda for 12 years in Rishikesh and was the first professor of Hatha Yoga at the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy.
He also acted as a personal secretary to Master Sivananda during some years of his stay in the Ashram. When he was 30 years old Swami Sivananda gave him the mission of bringing the ancient teachings of Yoga to the West. Masters words were, people are waiting. spread the seeds of Yoga in the West. For 37 years Swami Vishnu worked tirelessly as an active and dedicated spiritual teacher. He travelled around the world many times teaching Yoga and establishing Centres and Ashrams where his Masters words could be carried out.
Swami Vishnu-devananda was born in the south Indian state of Kerala on December 31, 1927. After completing school he entered the Engineering Corps of the Indian Army. It was while he was in the army that he first met his Guru Swami Sivananda, one of the great saints of modern times. After being discharged from the army, Swamy Kuttan Nair, as he was then known, taught school in his native Kerala for a short while, before entering the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh in 1947. Within a year, he had renounced all things of the world and embraced a life of Sannyas on the auspicious night of the Sivaratri. At the time he was given the name of Swami Vishnu-devananda.
During his time in the West, Swamiji realised that the Westerners were so caught up in the whirlwind of their lives that they neither had knew how to relax nor how to live healthy lives. Swamiji devised the concept of the Yoga Vacation and set about establishing places where people could have a complete rest of body, mind and spirit. Within a few years the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams had been established. This is now an international network located in major cities around the world.
In 1969 he established the True World Order. The purpose of this organisation is to establish unity and understanding between peoples of the world. This was his motivation behind setting up the Yoga Teachers Training Course in order to bring more harmony to the world by training its future leaders in the basics of Yoga discipline. Over the years, thousands of people from around the world have taken this course.
As well as this Swamiji did many impressive peace missions in different parts of the world bombing the trouble spots with flowers and leaflets of peace. He taught himself how to fly so that he could carry out these missions. Swami Vishnu was one of the twentieth centurys most extraordinary activists for world peace, justice and the realisation of the global unity of all humanity. In addition to being a tireless worker for world peace and an ispiring teacher he also wrote several books one of which is The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga often referred to as the Bible of the Yogis.
All his life work was dedicated to his Master, Swami Sivananda. He never took credit for anything he did and always reminded us that he was just an instrument.
