Swami Dayananda Saraswati was a renunciate monk of the Hindu Saraswati order of sannyasa. He was also known as Pujya Swamiji and was a traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta. He was the founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulams in Pennsylvania, USA; Rishikesh, Uttarakhand and Coimbatore Tamil Nadu, India. He was also the spiritual Guru of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan,, for his service to the nation in the field of spirituality in 2016.
Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, also known as Guru Dev, was the Shankaracharya of the Jyotir Math monastery in India. Born into a Saryupareen Brahmin family, he left home at the age of nine in search of a spiritual master. At age fourteen, he became a disciple of Svāmī Kṛṣṇānanda Sarasvatī. At the age of 34, he was initiated into the order of Sannyas and became the Śaṅkarācārya of Jyotir Math in 1941 at age 70, the first person to hold that office in 150 years. His disciples included Swami Shantanand Saraswati, Transcendental Meditation founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Svāmī Swarūpānanda Sarasvatī and Swami Karpatri. According to the partisans of Shantānand Saraswati, Brahmānanda made a will five months before his death in 1953, naming Shantānand as his successor.
Gajanan Maharaj was an Indian Hindu guru, saint and mystic. His origins remain uncertain. He first appeared at Shegaon, a village in Buldhana district, Maharashtra, as a young man aged 30, probably on 23 February 1878. He attained Sanjeevana Samadhi on 8 September 1910, which is thought to be a process of voluntary withdrawal from one's physical body. This date of his Samadhi is commemorated every year as part of the Shree Punyatithi Utsav. The date of his first appearance is considered an auspicious day and is celebrated as Prakat Din Sohla.
Radha Soami is a spiritual tradition or faith founded by Shiv Dayal Singh in 1861 on Basant Panchami Day in Agra, India.
Swami Ramdev, known also by the prefix Baba, is an Indian yoga guru, businessman and brand ambassador for Patanjali Ayurved. He is primarily known for being a proponent of yoga and ayurveda in India. Ramdev has been organizing and conducting large yoga camps since 2002 and broadcasting his yoga classes on various TV channels. He co-founded Patanjali Ayurved and Patanjali Yogpeeth with his colleague Balkrishna in 2006. Ramdev has received criticism over his comments related to modern medicine, yoga, and ayurveda.
Amrit Desai is a pioneer of yoga in the West, and one of the few remaining living yoga gurus who originally brought over the authentic teachings of yoga in the early 1960s. He is the creator of two brands of yoga, Kripalu Yoga and I AM Yoga, and is the founder of five yoga and health centers in the US. His yoga training programs have reached more than 40 countries worldwide and over 8,000 teachers have been certified.
Swami Vishnu Tirtha (1888–1969), also known as Munilal Swami, was a sanyas, writer, and guru with a prominent place in the Shaktipat tradition of Siddhayoga. He was born on 15 October 1888 in Jhajjar, Haryana, India. He stayed with an uncle while obtaining an undergraduate degree, then married and was employed as a teacher in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh while he obtained a postgraduate degree and a baccalaureate in law from Aligarh Muslim University. He then practised as a lawyer in the Ghaziabad District of Meerut where his assistant was Late Chaudhary Charan Singh the former Prime Minister of India.
Swami Sundaranand was an Indian Yogi, photographer, author and mountaineer who lectured widely in India on threats to the Ganges River and the loss of Himalayan glaciers due to global warming.
Aastha TV is an Indian spiritual Television channel, founded by the visionary, Mr. Kirit C. Mehta and now owned by Acharya Balkrishna in India. Established in 2000, by Mr. Kirit C. Mehta, it is owned by Aastha Broadcasting Network Ltd. The network's directors are Santosh Kumar Jain and Prabhat Kumar Jain. In 2005, the channel started the broadcast of Aastha International through UK affiliate as it had done previously in the United States as a 24x7 service on the DTH platform of BSkyB in UK. By 2006 it was reaching 160 countries around the world.
Shiv Brat Lal Verman, (1860-1939) popularly known by the honorifics "Data Dayal" (Merciful) and "Maharishi", was born in Bhadohi district of Uttar Pradesh state in India in February 1860. He was a post graduate and a famous writer. It is believed that he wrote as many as 3,000 books on various social, historical, religious and spiritual topics. Being a famous writer he was called as the modern Maharishi Ved Vyas and hence became famous with the name Maharishi ji.
Devraha Baba was an Indian Siddha Yogi saint who lived beside the Yamuna river in Mathura. He was known as "ageless Yogi".
Patanjali Yogpeeth is a yoga institute located in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India. Founded in 2006 and named after the Rishi Patanjali, the purpose of the institute is to practice, research, and develop yoga and ayurveda. The institute is the flagship project of the yoga teacher and entrepreneur Ramdev.
Swami Mukundananda is a spiritual leader, Vedic scholar, author, and a teacher of spirituality, yoga and meditation from India. He is a senior disciple of Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj and the founder of the yogic system called Jagadguru Kripaluji Yog, widely known as JKYog. A proponent of the path of bhakti, Swami Mukundananda is a sannyasi (monk), who has a technical and management background which complements his spiritual knowledge.
Sri M, also known as Sri Madhukar Nath, is an Indian yogi, spiritual guide, orator, and educationist. He is an initiate of the Nath tradition of Hinduism and is the disciple of Sri Maheshwarnath Babaji, who was a disciple of Sri Guru Babaji. Sri M lives in Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, India. He received the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, in 2020.
Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari born 10 May 1949, is an author, motivational speaker, spiritual teacher and humanitarian. He lives in Kolkata, India, where he founded and is the current mentor of Lokenath Divine Life Mission. He has authored several books and travels internationally, speaking on stress reduction, mindfulness and meditation and microcredit.
Shri Swami Keshwanand Satyarthi Ji Maharaj was an Indian guru of Shri Nangli Sahib lineage. The spiritual institution Paramhans Satyarthi Mission was led and governed by him. In 1985, Shri Paramhans Swami Ramanand Satyarthi Ji Maharaj anointed him as his spiritual successor and the patron saint of the Paramhans Satyarthi Mission. Swami Keshwanand Satyarthi Ji Maharaj travelled around the world and preached about spirituality and enlightenment. Swami Ramanand Satyarthi Trust, Shri Satyarthi High School, Shri Satyarthi Sevadal and Shri Satyarthi Sandesh Magazine were also administered under his guidance.
Sexual abuse by yoga gurus is the exploitation of the position of trust occupied by a master of any branch of yoga for personal sexual pleasure. Allegations of such abuse have been made against modern yoga gurus such as Bikram Choudhury, Kausthub Desikachar, Yogi Bhajan, Amrit Desai, and K. Pattabhi Jois. There have been some criminal convictions and lawsuits for civil damages.
Swami Avdheshanand Giri is an Indian Hindu spiritual guru, writer and philosopher. He is the current Acharya Mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara. Juna Akhara is the largest and most ancient Akhara for Naga Sadhus in India. Giri has initiated about one million Naga sadhus. His Ashram is situated at Kankhal, Haridwar. He is the president of Hindu Dharm Acharya Sabha and also a board member of the World Council of Religious Leaders.
Shivkrupanand Swami known as Baba Swami is a spiritual master and author who is the founder of the Samarpan Dhyanyog Technique.
