Our Founder's Teacher, Swami Kailashananda

Swami Kailashananda, also known as Yogi Gupta, was one of the very first Yoga Masters to bring Hatha Yoga to America. In 1954, he was invited to speak at a Health Convention in Chicago, and thereafter he began teaching in the U.S.

Born in Kanpur in Northern India, he practiced law before renouncing all worldly ties and being ordained as a monk in Benares (in the Holy Order of Sanyasa) as Swami Kailashananda. He practiced yoga in the Himalaya Mountains until mastering 9 forms of Yoga; and he was an Acharya of the Yoga Vedanta Forest University.

In 1952, he established the Kailashananda Mission Trust (including the Kailashananda Nature Cure Centre), in Rishikesh, India, which has been serving humanity continuously since that time.