YOGACHARYA
Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani
Guruji
CHAIRMAN · ICYER AND YOGANJALI NATYALAYAM
M.B.B.S
GOLD MEDAL IN COMMUNITY MEDICINE
D.Sc. (YOGA)
SVYASA YOGA UNIVERSITY, 2019
325
PAPERS ON YOGA AND YOGA THERAPY
100,000
PATIENTS BENEFITED FROM YOGA THERAPY
Guruji Yogacharya Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani was born on 16 April 1972 in Pondicherry, South India, the son of Yogamaharishi Dr. Swami Gitananda Giri Guru Maharaj and Kalaimamani Yogacharini Smt. Meenakshi Devi Bhavanani.
He was reared in the Gurukula atmosphere of Ananda Ashram, first at Lawspet and then at Sri Kambliswamy Madam in Thattanchavady, Pondicherry, where the Yoga Vidya was imbibed as a 24 hour a day Sadhana and not just a few classes now and then.
Born into the Gurukula
Nominated as his Guru Father's successor on his fourth birthday itself as Madathipathi of Sri Kambaliswamy Madam, an ancient Samadhi site, Ananda took great interest in the Hindu rites and rituals, Mantra, Yoga and the Carnatic fine arts from a young and tender age. He has from that tender age assisted his parents in the Yoga training imparted at Ananda Ashram, Sri Kambaliswamy Madam and ICYER.
His initial schooling was in the Ashram itself. Only at thirteen was he sent to Bhavan's Gandhi Vidyashram, Kodaikanal, where he was Athletic Champion, won the K. S. Jayarama Iyer Award for Best Instrumentalist three years running, and served as School Captain in his final year.
The Arts
He began classical Carnatic vocal music at the age of four under Puduvai Kalaimamani Shri V. Manikannan, performing his Arangetram at twelve at Marie Hall, Pondicherry, on 11 August 1984. At seven he began training under Kalaimamani Srirengam R. Ranganathan, one of the most famous Carnatic vocalists of South India, and continued for twenty years until his Guru's death in 2002.
He has studied Mridungam since the age of five, later accepted as a disciple by Thiruvarur Shri R. Krishnamurthy and completing his Arangetram in 1987. He is a B Grade Mridangist recognised by All India Radio.
He began Bharatanatyam at five under his mother in the Kalakshetra tradition, and at eight was accepted as a disciple by Padmasri Adyar K. Lakshmanan of Chennai. For the past decade he has shared a special Manasika Guru-Sishya relationship with Padma Bhushan Sri T. V. Sankaranarayanan, one of India's greatest vocalists.
Medicine
He undertook the Diploma and Advanced Diploma courses in Yoga at ICYER under the guidance of his Guru-father in 1991, and following this joined medical college in order to combine the best of eastern wisdom with the best of modern medical science.
During his medical studies at J.N.M.C. Wardha, Nagpur University, he was the top student in a class of one hundred. He secured Distinction in Surgery and a Gold Medal in Community Medicine in his final year, topping about 500 students from the five medical colleges affiliated to Nagpur University. He completed his internship at JIPMER Hospital, Pondicherry.
He has since completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Family Health with distinction, diplomas in Psychological Counselling and Stress Management, and a Certificate in Pediatrics. He was awarded MD (Alternative Medicine) by the Indian Council of Alternative Medicines, Kolkata, in 2013, and the Doctorate of Science in Yoga by SVYASA Yoga University in January 2019 for his lifetime work in the field of Yoga and Yoga research.
He worked as Medical Officer in the Village Health Programme and the Child to Child Health Education Programme at the Auroville Health Centre from 1999 to 2008.
Yoga Inside Medicine
He worked from 2000 to 2004 as a Senior Research Fellow on Yoga projects at the Department of Physiology, JIPMER, sponsored by the CCRYN of the Union Health Ministry and by DIPAS of the Union Defence Ministry.
As Programme Coordinator of the Advanced Centre for Yoga Therapy, Education and Research at JIPMER from March 2009 to July 2013, 36,000 patients benefited from Yoga therapy consultations and practical sessions, and three national workshops were conducted on Yoga in medical education, Yoga and hypertension, and Yoga and diabetes.
He joined the Centre for Yoga Therapy Education and Research at Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth as Deputy Director in 2013 and became its Director in 2017. More than 100,000 patients have benefited from Yoga therapy at the centre, with more than 200 papers and abstracts published. In 2022 it was upgraded into the Institute of Salutogenesis and Complementary Medicine, with Schools of Yoga Therapy and Music Therapy, inaugurated on 22 August 2022. He serves as its Director and Professor of Yoga Therapy.
Thirteen copyrights arising from this work are registered in the name of Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, among them Silver Yoga for the elderly, Divyanga Yoga for the differently abled, Making Yoga Fun for Special Children, a salutogenic approach to Yoga for the third gender, and a standard operating procedure for taking Yoga into primary health care.
Teaching
He has taught theory and practical classes at Yoganjali Natyalayam for thirty-two years, training thousands in Yoga theory, practice, Shat Kriyas, Yoga psychology, Yoga therapy, anatomy and physiology, and Yoga research.
At the International Centre for Yoga Education and Research he has trained nearly 250 teacher trainees over twenty-five years, adding Mantra Yoga, Laya Yoga and Yantra to that curriculum.
He taught Yoga to more than 250 BA students each year for nine years at Tagore Arts College, Department of Philosophy, and has been Adjunct Professor at Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla, since June 2015 and Visiting Faculty for Integrative Yoga Therapy at the Kripalu Centre for Yoga and Health, Massachusetts, since 2016.
He is recognised as a PhD Guide in Yoga Therapy and Interdisciplinary Research by Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, and has examined doctoral theses at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and at SVYASA, Bengaluru.
Brief
Born
16 April 1972, Pondicherry, South India
PARENTS
Yogamaharishi Dr. Swami Gitananda Giri Guru Maharaj and Kalaimamani Yogacharini Smt. Meenakshi Devi Bhavanani
CHAIRMAN
ICYER, Yoganjali Natyalayam and Vishwa Yoga Samaj
DIRECTOR
Institute of Salutogenesis and Complementary Medicine, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, since 2022
MADATHIPATHI
Sri Kambliswamy Madam, nominated on his fourth birthday
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR
Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla, since 2015
“Gratitude is an attitude of choice”
Guruji Yogacharya Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani
Writing and Research
He wrote his first book, Yoga for Children, at the age of twelve, and has since written and edited thirty-five others, including A Yogic Approach to Stress, A Primer of Yoga Theory — a standard textbook for Yoga Sport events — and Yoga: 1 to 10, translated into Italian in 2009.
He has also edited and revised new editions of Dr Swami Gitananda Giri's Correction of Breathing Disorders through Rishiculture Ashtanga Yoga, and Swamiji's books on Mudras, Surya Namaskar and Pranayama in the Gitananda tradition.
He has had 325 scientific and Yoga papers and 90 scientific abstracts published, along with 37 compilations on Yogic education and therapy, and has scripted and presented 19 DVDs on Yoga marketed worldwide in several languages.
Dance and Choreography
He performed Bharatanatyam across India, notably at the ABHAI National Dance Festival in 1992. Following his father's Mahasamadhi on 29 December 1993 he stopped performing and turned instead to choreography, especially in its rhythmic aspect, for Yoganjali Natyalayam.
He has helped to choreograph sixteen major dance dramas and fifteen mini dance dramas, co-directing productions from Ramavathara in 2003 through Karna Charitram, Panchali Sabadam, Shakuntala and Trishakti to Jai Shri Hanuman in 2024. He has composed the music and choreographed four complete Bharatanatyam Margams, with more than four dozen compositions, which could be called Ananda Nartana Margam.
He has been a pioneer in reviving the acrobatic Natya Karanas into the modern dance repertoire, and in developing the Yoga Tableau as a performing art and a tool for teaching team spirit and mutual cooperation to young people.
Recognition
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Yogacharya, conferred by Yogamaharishi Dr. Swami Gitananda Giri on behalf of ICYER in March 1992.
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Elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Yoga at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, in March 2005.
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Recognised as an IAYT Certified Yoga Therapist by the International Association of Yoga Therapists, USA, in September 2016 — the first Indian to receive this honour.
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Invited Expert at the WHO Working Group Meeting on Benchmarks in Yoga Training, New Delhi, February 2019.
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Puduvai Kalaimamani, awarded by the Government of Puducherry for his contribution to Bharatanatyam. Param Pujya Ammaji was bestowed the same award for 1998.
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Special Citation from Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth for Lifetime Contributions to Indian Knowledge Systems, October 2024.
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Yoga Chikitsa Ratna, conferred by the Indian Yoga Association in January 2025 — its highest recognition in the field of Yoga therapy.
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Lifetime Achiever Awards from the National Yogasana Sports Federation, the Tamil Nadu Sports Yogasana Association, and the Tamil Nadu Chapter of the Indian Yoga Association.
HIS WORK
BOOKS
Thirty-six, the first written at the age of twelve
PAPERS
Three hundred and twenty-five, with ninety abstracts
COMPILATIONS
Thirty-seven on Yogic education and therapy
DVDs
Nineteen, marketed worldwide in several languages
DANCE DRAMAS
Sixteen major and fifteen mini productions
Yoga is not just the performance of a few Asanas or Pranayamas but a means for the evolution of the human mind into further states of consciousness and awareness.
Guruji - My life has been a dance between tradition and science, between reverence and inquiry, between the wisdom of the heart and the clarity of the mind.