Niranjanananda Saraswati

Niranjanananda Saraswati Biography

Niranjanananda Saraswati is a monk, who is the successor of Satyananda Saraswati and the founder of Satyananda Yoga. He hails from Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, born in the year 1960. In 1990, he was initiated in the tradition of Paramahamsa, and in 1993 he was chosen as the spiritual successor of Satyananda. One of the Padma Bhushan awardees for the year 2017 is Swami Niranjana Nanda Saraswati, the founder of Satyananda Yoga. He is considered by his followers to be a yogi from birth. He is the first founder of a university for yoga.

Swami Niranjana Nanda Saraswati was born in 1960 in Rajnandgaon in the state of Chhattisgarh. He started living at the Bihar School of Yoga at the age of four, with his guru Swami Satyananda Saraswati. He started practising yoga-nidra and practice of other yoga techniques at this tender age, and hence regarded as a yogi from birth by his believers. It was through yoga nidra that he received his spiritual and yogic sciences training. He was named Niranjanananda by his guru too. His initiation into Dashnami sannyasa happened in 1971. After that he extensively travelled across the globe, preaching this thoughts and beliefs. He also established Satyananda Yoga centres and ashrams in America, Australia and Europe.

He returned to India in the year 1983 and started to manage some of the organizations started by his guru. Yoga Research Foundation, Sivananda Math and Bihar School of Yoga are among those. In 1994, he founded the first university of yoga, Bihar Yoga Bharati. The following year he was declared as the spiritual preceptor and a successor of his guru. He founded Yoga Publications Trust in Bihar in 2000, and published many books related to yoga, religion and spirituality.

Published: July 28, 2018

Updated: July 28, 2018