Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize.
Swami Sivananda is known to be one of the greatest Yoga masters of the 20th century, he is the inspiration behind the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers. The above given six words summarize the teachings of Swami Sivananda. He is still known to be the best Yoga instructor.
HIS EARLY LIFE
Swami Sivananda was born in 1887 in Tamil Nadu, he was then known as Kuppuswami. He was highly brilliant in studies as well as in gymnastics. He was naturally inclined toward spiritual and religious practices. His selfless spirit lead him to a career in the medical field. Swami Sivananda Saraswati started extremely intense daily spiritual practices and austerities for about ten years of his life. From that time Swami Sivananda became one of the most prolific Yoga teachers in the world. His teachings spread quickly throughout our entire planet. Since there were no computers at that time he personally wrote more than two hundred books connected to Yoga and Philosophy.
He has trained a number of exceptional disciples in Yoga and Vedanta- among them, Swami Vishnu devananda, who he sent to west in order to reawaken the spirit of the teachings of Yoga.