The Yoga Institute

Located in Santacruz, Mumbai, The Yoga Institute is known as the oldest organized yoga center in the world. Its founder, Sri Yogendra (1897-1989), played a key role in developing medical hatha yoga, a step in the history of yoga that would later lead to the development of Yoga Therapy.

Today the Yoga Institute serves more than a thousand people daily. Yoga courses available include: children, couples, elderly, prenatal, and yoga therapy for health conditions like cardiac problems and hypertension, respiratory problems, diabetes, orthopaedic conditions, and stress related problems. Concentration, relaxation and mind and memory training are also available. These topics are based on the Samkhya principles of the Bhavas, or attitudes which lead to a healthy state.

Yoga teacher training courses are also available over the course of one, three, and seven months. The Institute publishes books on yoga therapy, asanas, pranayam, couples counseling, traditional scriptures, ethics for everyday life, and a variety of other subjects on yoga education.

The Institute is run by Smt. Hansaji Jayadeva Yogendra, who also serves as President of The International Board of Yoga. Hansaji was recently appointed as Special Executive Officer by the Government of Maharashtra on June 20, 2011.

The Yoga Institute was founded in 1918 by Shri Yogendraji at “The Sands,” the residence of the Grand Old Man of India, Dadabhai Naoroji, at Versova beach near Bombay. It was the first yoga center to offer courses for free to men, women and children of any caste or creed.

In 1919, Shri Yogendraji set off for America to found The Yoga Institute of America on Bear Mountain, New York. Until his marriage in 1927, Shri Yogendraji toured the world, teaching yoga, treating patients and gathering manuscripts on Hatha Yoga.

The first journal of The Yoga Institute, “YOGA,” was published in 1933 – the pioneering journal continues to be published today. In 1940, publications of the Institute were microfilmed and preserved in the Crypt of Civilization to be read 6000 years later at Oglethorpe University, Georgia.

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