Vishnudevananda Saraswati

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Vishnudevananda Saraswati
Born
Kuttan Nair

(1927-12-31)31 December 1927
Kerala, India
Died9 November 1993(1993-11-09) (aged 65)
Uttarakhand, India
Occupation(s)Yoga guru, peace activist

Vishnudevananda Saraswati (31 December 1927 – 9 November 1993) was an Indian

peace activist who rode in several "peace flights" over places of conflict, including the Berlin Wall prior to German reunification
.


Early life and training

Sivananda (seated on tiger skin) by the Ganges
, c. 1950

Vishnudevananda was born Kuttan Nair in

sannyas, becoming a monk, in February 1949,[1] and was appointed the first professor of hatha yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy.[2] In this capacity, he trained many students in the Pacific Rim area in 1957,[2] and became a recognised yoga guru.[3]

Sivananda Yoga

A practice for the West

Further information:
Sivananda Yoga

Vishnudevananda arrived in San Francisco in December 1957, and began to teach

vegetarian), and meditation and positive thinking.[6] In the 1960s, he introduced The Beatles to yoga.[7]

The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga

Soorya Namaskar" (salute to the sun) in large monochrome photographs[8]
Main article:
The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga

He published his guide to hatha yoga,

as a health cure, and presented it as fitness exercise.[8]

Centers and ashrams

Vishnudevananda founded the first Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in

Uttar Kashi on the banks of the Ganges. As of 2021, the organization founded by Vishnudevananda has 11 ashrams[17] and 31 centers around the world.[18] In addition, it has 33 affiliated centers.[19]

Peace missions

Piper Apache

In reaction to a vision of a world in peril, Vishnudevananda began his peace mission. The first act was to create the Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Course in 1969;[15] this is said to be the first training programme for yoga teachers.[20] Later he conducted peace flights over the world's trouble spots, earning himself the name "The Flying Swami".[21][22]

On 30 August 1971, Vishnudevananda piloted his Peace Plane from

Piper Apache plane painted by artist Peter Max. Upon landing, he was joined by actor Peter Sellers.[24] Later that same year, on 6 October, he took off with his co-pilot Bren Jacobson, who had been with him during the entire trip, from Tel Aviv to fly over the war-ridden Suez Canal and was buzzed by Israeli jets. The same thing happened with the Egyptian Air Force on the other side of the Canal. He continued eastward, "bombing" Pakistan and Bangladesh with flowers and peace leaflets.[15] On 15 September 1983 Vishnudevananda flew over the Berlin Wall, from West to East Berlin, in a highly publicized and dangerous mission to promote peace.[25][26]

In 1984, he and his students toured India in a double-decker bus, conducting programs to awaken the Indian people to their ancient tradition of yoga. In February he tried to mediate between the

Larchmont.[27] He organized yearly symposia on topics relating yoga to modern life.[15]

Vishnudevananda died on 9 November 1993. His body was then placed into the Ganges at the Sivananda Kutir, and the rite named jalasamadhi was performed, merging the abandoned body with the water.[28]

Allegations of abuse

Further information: Sexual abuse by yoga gurus

Julie Salter worked for 11 years as Vishnudevananda's personal assistant, until his death in 1993. She has stated that she was continuously overworked and sleep-deprived, and that she became dependent and unable to leave. She stated that for three of these years Vishnudevananda abused her sexually.[29][30]

In 2007, Salter reported sexual abuse committed against her by Vishnudevananda to The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, but they did not accept her allegations.[30][31] In November 2019, Salter posted a personal testimony to Facebook, detailing the long-term physical, mental, and sexual abuse she received from Vishnudevananda.[30] The testimony prompted several other women to publish their own testimonies about abuse by Vishnudevananda; Pamela Kyssa stated on Salter's thread that Vishnudevananda had raped her in 1974.[30] The next month, December 2019, the Board of Directors published an apology for not believing her 2007 allegations.[31] The Board promised to run an independent investigation of the allegations made by Salter and others.[31] The investigator, Marianne Plamondon of Langlois in Montreal, declined to comment on whether the results of the investigation would be made public.[29]

Salter and 14 other women described their experiences, including alleged rape, to the

yoga teacher Ishleen Kaur. Salter stated that when she told Vishnudevananda she did not understand his instruction to lie down next to him, he replied "Tantra yoga", implying some form of spiritual sexual activity.[32][33]

Works

References

  1. ^ a b c d "His Holiness Sri Swami Vishnudevananda Saraswati Maharaj". Divine Life Society. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d Krishna 1995, p. xv.
  3. ISBN 978-0-374-23676-2
    .
  4. ^ Vishnudevananda 1988, p. v.
  5. ^ Singleton 2010, p. 219.
  6. ^ Vishnudevananda 1988, p. x.
  7. ^ Roth, Martin (12 September 2016). "Let's harness the revolutionary optimism of the 1960s to counter dark times". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  8. ^ a b Goldberg 2016, pp. 329–331.
  9. ^ Jain 2015, p. 69.
  10. OCLC 368900
    . Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  11. ^ "The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga". Yoga Journal: 10. January 1989.
  12. ^ "H.H. Swami. Sivananda Maharaj Ji". Sivananda Sevas. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  13. ^ Krishna 1995, p. 15.
  14. ^ a b Goldberg 2016, p. 322.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Krishna 1995, p. xvi.
  16. ^ Krishna 1995, p. 16.
  17. ^ "Sivananda Ashrams Worldwide". Sivananda Yoga. 10 February 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  18. ^ "Our Yoga Centres Worldwide". Sivananda Yoga. 10 February 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  19. ^ "Affiliated Sivananda Yoga Centres". Sivananda Yoga. 10 February 2019.
  20. ^ "Yoga Teachers' Training Course". Sivananda Yoga Europe. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  21. ^ Kaminoff, Leslie (6 December 2018). "The Flying Swami: Vishnudevananda". Yoga Anatomy. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  22. ^ "Photos". Outlook Magazine. Retrieved 27 April 2021. Swami Vishnudevananda The Malayali, known as the 'Flying Swami' for piloting his small plane to peace missions around the world, founded the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta centres
  23. ^ Mullally, Una (26 January 2019). "The Way We Were: Hippies with plans for Skerries". The Irish Times.
  24. ^ Krishna 1995, p. xii.
  25. ^ "Around the World: A Swami Flies Over The Berlin Wall". The New York Times. 16 September 1983.
  26. ^ a b Krishna 1995, p. xvii.
  27. ISBN 978-0-19-982788-6
    .
  28. ^ Krishna 1995, p. xviii.
  29. ^ a b Remski, Matthew (27 January 2020). "How a #MeToo Facebook Post Toppled a Yoga Icon". Medium.
  30. ^ a b c d Salter, Julie (10 December 2019). "Julie Salter". Facebook.
  31. ^ a b c "Statement by the Board of Directors of The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres". 16 December 2019. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. and archived screenshot, same date
  32. ^ Kaur, Ishleen (15 June 2021). Guru: Living a lie (Podcast). Guru: Yoga – Power – Abuse. BBC. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  33. ^ "'Coercion and rape': Investigating my yoga school". BBC News. 1 July 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.

Sources

External links

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