The Oldest Organised Yoga Centre In The World
During the year of The Yoga Institute’s 100th anniversary, World Yoga Festival is pleased to be welcoming the world’s oldest organised Yoga Centre to the programme this year. Read on to discover more about their history.
Yoga: The union of the individual with the divine consciousness. The age old healing science that originated in India over 7000 years ago was considered a secretive and mysterious practice and was only common amongst sages of that time.
Great yogi of the 20th Century, Sri Yogendra ji student of the legendary Guru Pramhans Madhavdasji Shri Yogendra Ji had a broader vision and believed that the invaluable yogic knowledge should be shared with all. He then propagated the message of yoga amongst householders and in 1918, established what we see today as the oldest organised centre for yoga, The Yoga Institute and became the first yogi to teach yoga to a common layman. He authored his first book on Modern Yoga ‘The Lost Science of 5000 years’ and was keen on spreading the classical yogic knowledge in west for which a series of lectures were conducted across America, which attracted general public as well as medical doctors. Later in 1940, four publications of The Yoga Institute, by Shri Yogendraji and his wife Smt. Sita Devi were microfilmed and preserved in the Crypt of Civilisation to be read 6000 years later (8113 AD) by Oglethorpe University, USA.
Spread over one acre of land, The Yoga Institute is running successfully at Santacruz, Mumbai with the mission to spread yoga to every household. The legacy of Sri Yogendra ji is being carried forward by his son Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra who is serving as the President and his daughter-in-law, Smt. Hansa Yogendra, the Director of the institute.
Everyday over thousand people visit the institute to learn and practice yoga. With the three generations of Yogendra family and more than fifty thousand teachers trained globally, The Yoga Institute is working relentlessly to make yoga a way of living. The institute has conducted various mass yoga camps for police, school teachers and children, corporates, and general public across the country.
Its excellent efforts and quality teaching have made The Yoga Institute the first institute to be certified by the Quality Council of India. As the world’s oldest organised Yoga Centre, The Yoga Institute has also received numerous awards and is on the threshold of its 100th year on 25th December 2018.
The first celebration of its kind, yoga students, teachers and experts will oversee and conduct programmes from more than 130 different locations situated in different countries. From the onset of the Centenary Year Celebrations of The Yoga Institute, and with immense pleasure, The Yoga Institute invites you to be a part of this very special year long commemoration! Partaking in these celebrations, including at World Yoga Festival, will prove to be a meeting place for great yoga masters, spiritual leaders, doctors, researchers, teachers, yoga practitioners, students and general public from across the world, providing all a platform to network, collaborate, learn and grow.
As The Yoga Institute’s saying goes "World Harmony Begins Within." May all become one with yoga! Join the journey at World Yoga Festival, 19th-22nd July 2018.
