Our Teachers

“The only basis of true and lasting unity of all humanity is the religion of the heart.
Religion of the heart is the religion of love”
- Swami Sivananda Saraswati

Our Panel of Teachers

Our Yoga and Vedanta courses will be taught and assisted by some of the teachers / volunteers from the list below. Some of them are not really staying in the ashram throughout the year.

Swami Govindananda Saraswati

Swami Govindananda
Saraswati With about 40 years’ experience of teaching Yoga and Vedanta philosophy, graduating a few thousands of fledgling yoga teachers, Swami Govindananda Saraswathi is a gifted teacher. Much loved by his students for his unique style and humour, Swami Govindananda is a rare jewel of integrity and truth, has inspired many spiritual aspirants around the world.

A direct disciple of Sri Swami Vishnudevanandaji Maharaj, Swami Govindananda started his ashram life in Sivananda Ashram Neyyar Dam, Kerala in 1987. Swamiji served Sivananda Yoga Vedanta organisation in its ashram and other Indian centres from 1987 to 1993. He was instrumental in establishing the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Meenakshi Ashram in Madurai serving there from 2003 till 2010. During his association with the ISYVC organization Swamiji has travelled many times abroad visiting Canada, USA, UK, Germany, Austria and Bahamas. After spending 23 years of teaching yoga in the ashrams and centres of Int’l Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres he left the Organisation in Apr 2010 to continue spreading the messages of his Gurus, H.H. Sri Swami Sivananda and H.H. Sri Swami Vishnudevananda, and established the ashram - Sivananda Yoga Vidya Peetham in South India.

Combined with his yoga teaching qualifications from the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre organization (www.sivananda.org), Swami Govindananda has graduated in Physics and has a Bachelor degree in Education before entering the monastic life, giving him a unique ability to dispense complicated philosophical teachings to be easily understood by people from all over the world.

From two-week yoga vacation courses, to month-long advanced teacher training courses, intensive sadhana courses and children’s Yoga Camps, Swamiji has empathetically engaged thousands of students, through a variety of material to help them bring Yoga into their day-to-day lives and share some of the joy with which he beholds the world. He is familiar with teaching of such subjects as: Raja Yoga, Vedanta Philosophy, Bhagavad Gita, Sanskrit, Yogic Diet and Hatha Yoga teaching skills.

Swami Govindananda follows and shares the teachings of his Guru H.H. Sri Swami Vishnudevananda Saraswati - the five basic principles of Yoga for well-being.

Since its beginning in 2010, Sivananda Yoga Vidya Peetham (SYVP) is guided by Swami Govindananda spending his time there conducting the ashram activities. He also travels to different parts of the world, meeting spiritual aspirants to share his Gurus’ messages with many more people.

Swamiji can be contacted directly by email: govindanandaswami@gmail.com or by mobile # ( 91 ) – 8547879642
Personal blog URL : http://swamigovindananda.wordpress.com

Robert Sankara Moses

Robert Sankara MosesA direct disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda, Robert Sankara Moses has 50 years experience as a teacher of Yoga and Vedanta. Born in South Africa, Robert studied architecture, travelled abroad and met his guru, Sri Swami Vishnudevananda, in 1972. Robert spent the next 22 years with Swamiji, studying and serving in the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers (ISYVC). He directed ISYVC centers and ashrams and taught yoga teacher training and advanced training courses worldwide, including at the ISYVC ashram in Neyyar Dam, Kerala (from 1982 to 1994). In the early 1990s, Swamiji appointed Robert as one of seven original members of the newly formed executive board of ISYVC.

After H.H. Sri Swami Vishnudevananda left his body in 1994, Robert left ISYVC to marry and raise a family. Robert continues to teach Yoga and Vedanta, and maintains his daily sadhana based on the teachings of H.H. Sri Swami Sivananda and H.H. Sri Swami Vishnudevananda. In 2003 he founded and continues to co-publish Namarupa: Categories of Indian Thought - a magazine about the philosophies and arts of India. Robert leads annual pilgrimages to sacred places of India. www.namarupa.org.

He lives in New Hampshire, USA with his wife and three children.

Swami Saradananda

Swami Saradananda Swami Saradananda is an internationally-renowned yoga and meditation teacher who inspires you to want to practise. Her classes are practical as well as theoretical in nature and always enlightening!

Swamiji is a direct disciple of H.H. Sri Swami Vishnudevananda.

From her web-site: https://www.yogamentor.yoga/about:
I have been teaching yoga for over 50 years. Although I am now a free-lance yogi, I worked with the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres for 26 years and directed yoga centres in New York, Toronto, London, San Francisco, Delhi and the Himalayas.

I hold an MA in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London. In addition to studying, teaching and writing, I’ve spent time in the Himalayas, focusing on my personal practice.

I’m based in London and travel frequently to teach. I also write books on various aspects of yoga that otherwise don’t receive much attention. Until recently, I organised pilgrimages to India.

I hope you will be in touch if you are interested in deepening your own practice, feel you need some personal mentoring and/or would like to find ways of living a more yogic lifestyle.

She has authored the best-selling books "Chakra Meditation", "The Essential Guide to Chakras" “The Power of Breath”, “Mudras for Modern Life”, “The Cleansing Power of Yoga” and “Sitting Comfortably: preparing the mind and body for peaceful meditation”.

Swami Nivedanananda

(Details Coming Soon)

(Mani Raman)

Mani Raman Mani Raman is a dynamic, inspirational teacher of Yoga and meditation who brings his wisdom, high energy and humour to every class he teaches. Growing up in India, where he met and learned from many Yogis, saints and spiritual teachers, Mani developed a strong foundation deeply rooted in the Vedic tradition. He took to the practice of Yoga at the age of 12 and continued with Eastern philosophy and religious studies. After his wandering time in the Himalayas and a short stay at the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh in 1996, Mani devoted himself full-time to Yoga and joined the gurukula of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres at the age of 21. For almost two decades, Mani studied and taught in the tradition of H.H. Sri Swami Sivananda and H.H. Sri Swami Vishnudevananda, guiding thousands of graduates in many international Teacher Training Courses at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram in Kerala/India, and travelling extensively worldwide for courses and workshops, mainly in North America and Asia.

For more than 12 years, he directed the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Nataraja Centre in New Delhi, and was the director of the Centres in Tokyo/Japan and Bangkok/Thailand. He is a recognized senior teacher for the international Teacher Training Courses and Advanced Teacher Training Courses. Mani teaches Hatha Yoga (asanas, pranayama, kriyas, bandhas) and meditation, and gives inspiring discourses on Vedanta philosophy and the Bhagavad Gita. Holding a M.Sc. in Western Psychology, and having studied many systems of Eastern philosophy, meditation and Ayurveda, Mani responds to each student's individual condition with profound understanding and insight. Much loved by students from beginners to advanced, he teaches appropriately on any level from gentle to challenging. Mani's unique strength lies in fusing the traditional yogic teachings with practical examples from modern life to allow his students to access the ancient messages with ease and incorporate them into their daily lives.

On a regular basis, he conducts yoga and meditation courses, teacher training courses, workshops and retreats all over the world. More details : www.yogavana.in

He can also be reached at : www.maniraman.org and pranamaya@gmail.com

Sri Raghav Kumar

Sri. Raghav Kumar Sri Raghav Kumar comes from a family lineage steeped in the Vedic tradition – a background which has guided him & shaped his spiritual pursuits. After a degree in electronics engineering and a stint in the corporate sector as an IT professional, he felt drawn to a full-time pursuit of meditation and also charitable service activities to underprivileged sections of Indian society through the Ramakrishna Mission.

In 2001, Raghav first travelled the Himalayas, to Uttarkashi & Rishikesh, where he studied Sanskrit, Vedanta and Yoga Philosophy under the guidance of Swami Dayananda Saraswati and also other respected spiritual teachers. Since 2011, he has been dividing his time between Uttarkashi in the Himalayas, Thiruvannamalai in Southern India near the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharshi, and teaching Yoga philosophy, Bhagavad Gita and other Vedanta texts.

Raghav Kumar can be contacted directly by email: : raghavkumar72@yahoo.com / WhatsApp: +91 99491 75527

Smt. Dr. Sharada Raghav

Dr. Sharada Raghav Dr.Sharada Raghav worked as Assistant Professor in an allopathic medical hospital viz., SRM Medical College, Chennai for eleven years. She had always been interested in spirituality and over the last twelve years, gravitated away from a regular career and chose to pursue a lifestyle based on Vedanta and Yoga at Thiruvannamalai.

With her background in both modern Western medicine and a strong foundational degree in the Indian Systems of medicine, she loves to teach Yoga Anatomy and Physiology with several yoga schools and has been doing so since 2013. She also teaches holistic health care and Ayurveda and considers herself lucky to have learnt ethnobotany from senior Ayurvedic scholars. She has taught Yoga Anatomy in numerous 200hr and 300hr Yoga teacher training courses in Bali, Dharmashala, Goa and at the Angkor Vat, Cambodia.

Her focus is on bio-mechanics and the anatomy of movement along the lines of Western Yoga Anatomy experts like Ray Long, Leslie Kaminoff, David Keil, Jules Mitchell etc., and avoids a bookish information-heavy approach to teaching Yoga anatomy. This greatly helps with the practical assimilation of anatomical understanding relevant to Yoga postures.

Dr. Sharada Raghav can be contacted directly by email: srisunandini@gmail.com / WhatsApp: +91-8220863167

Founders of Sivananda Yoga Vidya Peetham

Sivananda Yoga Vidya Peetham was founded in the year 2010.
Sri Swami Tatwarupananda, Sri Swami Govindananda and Sri Swami Nivedanananda were the original founders (shown above).