Sivananda
A Varanasi yoga practitioner who served leprosy-affected people in Puri for five decades, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2022. He died in 2025.
Swami Sivananda was a yoga practitioner known for his simple, disciplined way of life and his service to the poor. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022, from Uttar Pradesh [1].
An orphan raised in an ashram
According to his citation, Sivananda was born on 8 August 1896 in Sylhet district of undivided India, to parents so poor that they fed him mostly on rice water [2]. He lost both parents at six and was taken to the ashram of his guru, Omkarananda Goswami, at Nabadwip in West Bengal, who raised him and taught him yoga and spiritual practice without formal schooling [2]. After losing his parents, he came to see the world as his home and its people as his family, to be served with love [2].
Service at Puri
For about 50 years he served 400 to 600 people affected by leprosy at Puri, meeting them at their huts and giving them food, clothes, blankets, mosquito nets and utensils according to their needs [2]. He encouraged others present to hand over the gifts, so that they too would feel the joy of giving [2]. He also worked among poor people in the Northeast, Varanasi, Haridwar and Nabadwip [2].
He followed a strict routine of early-morning yoga and simple boiled food, and his long life drew attention from media around the world [2]. He was the oldest participant in the yoga demonstration on International Yoga Day in 2019 [2].
He died in Varanasi in May 2025 [3].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2022: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 24 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2022: citation for Sivananda — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 24 October 2026.
- [3] Padma Shri awardee Baba Sivanand dies in Varanasi — The Tribune. Accessed 24 October 2026.
Last updated . First draft prepared with AI assistance; reviewed and fact-checked by a person before publishing. Report a correction
