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The realization of a saint’s vision… shining jewel-like on a hilltop overlooking the Ganga, Bihar Yoga Bharati is dedicated to the study of yoga in an ashram environment, providing a spiritual oasis in the material and technological desert of the 21st century. Bihar Yoga Bharati (BYB), an Institute for Advanced Studies in Yogic Sciences, is the first of its kind in the world wholly devoted to the subject of yoga.
“Everyone’s good wishes are working. My guru, Swami Sivanandaji, conceived the vision of a Yoga Vedanta Forest University. Now the decision has been taken. This new educational institution will be called Bihar Yoga Bharati because I want to make it clear that I have immense gratitude towards Bihar, the place where yoga has again emerged.”
Sri Swami Satyananda
Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati first had the vision of a yoga institute when he established the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy in Rishikesh in 1950. This inspiration was carried forward by Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati, who established Bihar School of Yoga in Munger in 1963, followed by the Ganga Darshan complex. Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, with the blessings of his predecessors, founded Bihar Yoga Bharati in 1994, to preserve and regenerate the total scope of yogic science by combining academic and scientific methodology with a spiritual vision.
BYB has been established along the lines of Nalanda and Vikramshila, two great spiritual centres of learning. It continues the work started by these ancient centres, as a pathfinder for the current and future spiritual awakening of people, in the spheres of Yoga, Vedanta and other allied subjects. This ashram based institute is the first of its kind in the world to impart a comprehensive yogic education.
Normally an educational institution focuses solely on academic goals, whereas a yoga institute in an ashram environment combines both intellectual and experiential learning, aiming towards the holistic growth of the student. Emphasis is laid on both the mental and spiritual development of the student.
Education is not the amassing of information and its purpose is not mere career hunting. It is a means of developing a fully integrated personality and enabling one to grow effectively into the likeness of the ideal that one has set before oneself.
Sri Swami Sivananda
Education is a drawing out from within of the highest and best qualities inherent in the individual. It is training in the art of living.
Sri Swami Sivananda
Education is not injecting knowledge or information from outside. It is creating an atmosphere in which you will be able to express the knowledge which is already in you.
Sri Swami Satyananda
Education must be designed so that it can serve two purposes. Firstly to enlighten the intellect, to purify the emotions and to improve the quality of social awareness, and secondly to awaken and express the inner knowledge.
Sri Swami Satyananda
At Bihar Yoga Bharati, students are exposed to three different environments – the ashram, yoga and spiritual life. Education has to be imbibed; it cannot be learnt just through books or lectures. The aim of Bihar Yoga Bharati is to provide the right samskara or impression for imbibing the yogic sciences and lifestyle so that learning is not only an intellectual concept, but becomes a part of one’s life.
Swami Niranjanananda
