Hyderabad:
Swami Kuvalayananda, Father of Scientific Yogic Research Studies Early Life: Swami Kuvalayananda was born in Jagannatha Ganesa Gune.
During his student days, he was influenced by political leaders like Sri Aurobindo, who was working as a young lecturer at the university, and Lokmanya Tilak’s Indian Home Rule Movement. His national idealism and patriotic fervor prompted him to devote his life to the service of humanity.
Coming into contact with the Indian masses, many of whom were illiterate and superstitious, he realized the value of education, and this influenced him to help organize the Khandesh Education Society at Amalner, where ultimately he became the Principal of the National College, in 1916.
Initiation into Yoga: Kuvalayananda’s first guru was Rajaratna Manikrao, a professor at the Jummadada Vyayamshala in Baroda. From 1907 to 1910, Manikrao trained Kuvalayananda in the Indian System of Physical Education.
In 1919, he met the Bengali yogin, Paramahamsa Madhavdasji, who blessed Kuvalayananda with insights into advanced yogic discipline.
Though Kuvalayananda was spiritually inclined and idealistic, he was, at the same time, a strict rationalist. So, he sought scientific explanations for the various psychophysical effects of Yoga he experienced. The idea of discovering the scientific basis behind these yogic processes became his life’s work.
Establishing Kaivalyadhama and Yoga Mimamsa; In 1924, Kuvalayananda founded the Kaivalyadhama Health and Yoga Research Center in Lonavla in order to provide a laboratory for his scientific study of Yoga. At the same time, he also started the first scientific journal devoted to a scientific investigation into yoga, Yoga Mimamsa.
Later Years; besides his yoga research, Swami Kuvalayananda spent much of his later years opening up new branches of Kaivalyadhama and enhancing the main Kaivalyadhama campus in Lonavla. Mumbai and Rajkot branches were formed and the College of Yoga and a Yogic hospital were started.
