OUR LINEAGE

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Our Lineage

Our Lineage & Tradition
(The Yoga Institute of Santacruz, Mumbai, India)

The Yoga Institute, Santacruz (East), Mumbai, India was founded in 1918 by Shri Yogendraji and is the oldest organized centre of Yoga in the world.Shri Yogendraji as a young college student became an ardent believer in Yoga when he met his Guru Pujya Shri Paramahamsa Madhavdasaji. Shri Yogendraji studied Yoga at Paramahamsa Madhavadasaji’s ashram in Malsar, Gujrat. From the beginning, he was a non-conformist and a very close bond developed between the Master and the student. The Guru taught him many things by direct experience. With a broader vision of becoming a householder to propagate the message of Yoga, he left the ashram on completion of his training as he felt that the benefits of Yoga could be given to all instead of keeping it a secret for very few. Thus Shri Yogendra became known as the“Father of Modern Yoga Renaissance”.

The Yoga Institute continues its work quietly and sincerely.

The Yoga Teacher Training Programmes have been conducted since 1954. Many individuals come from all over the world and have set up their own centres after being trained at the Institute. – The International Board of Yoga has been set up and in collaboration with the Yoga Institute a great deal of research is being undertaken. Research has been carried out in Asthma and Bronchitis, Diabetes, Back and Joint Disorders and Reversal of Heart Diseases and research on Weight Management through Yoga.

Visit The Yoga Institute website: www.theyogainstitute.org

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Paramahamsa Madhavadasaji & The Yogendra Family

His Holiness Paramahamsa Madhavadasajiwas born in 1798 to a Mukhopadhyaya family in Bengal in a small village near Shantipur in Nadia district. He renounced the mundane life and made efforts to learn different traditions and by going around Assam, Tibet, Himalayas and various other places in India, he got opportunities to get first-hand knowledge of technical Yoga. He was also a follower of the Bhakti-path earlier of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and later of the Order of Vaisnavisam influenced by Gauranga. He acquired various “Siddhis” (perfections or supernatural powers) during this long period of over 60 to 70 years but these only made him more humble.Paramahamsa Madhavadasaji took a voluntary Samadhi in 1921 at the age of 123 years.

Shri Yogendraji kept very clear records of all the work he has done in Yoga right from the beginning and many more people came to him mainly for solution of their physical and emotional problems. He wrote books and did a great deal of research and slowly the Institute grew in stature. Shri Yogendraji felt that many people came to Yoga for solution to their health problems and slowly could then be guided on to spirituality. He insisted that Yoga was a way of life and removing obstacles in one’s personality would gradually lead people on to a better way of living.

Our Guru Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra (M.A., PhD.) took up the Directorship of The Yoga Institute, Santacruz in 1985. Ever since he has been involved with the activities of the Institute, he has been introducing several courses, pioneering work in Yoga Education and Therapeutics. He was initiated into Yoga from the beginning by Shri Yogendraji and grew up with hard work and with sterling yogic qualities of perseverance, humility, detachment and deep integrity.

Our Guru Smt. Hansaji Jayadeva is at present the Director of The Yoga Institute and the President of The International Board of Yoga. She is perhaps best known throughout the nation (India) as the charming lady who is the Yoga expert in the popular television series ‘Yoga for Better Living’, first televised in 1980 which was judged the best programme of this time. But unlike many ‘stars’ she just does not act the part on the screen but lives what she preaches.