Swami Kuvalayananda | |
|---|---|
 c. 1960 | |
| Born | Jagannatha Ganesa Gune (1883-08-30)30 August 1883 |
| Died | 18 April 1966(1966-04-18) (aged 82) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation(s) | Scientific Researcher, Teacher, Yogi |
Swami Kuvalayananda (bornJagannatha Ganesa Gune, 30 August 1883 – 18 April 1966) was ayoga guru,[1] researcher, and educator primarily known for his pioneering research into the scientific foundations of yoga. He started research on yoga in 1920, and published the first journal specifically devoted to studying yoga,Yoga Mimamsa, in 1924. Most of his research took place at theKaivalyadhama Health and Yoga Research Center atLonavla which he founded in 1924. He has had a profound influence on the development ofyoga as exercise.[2]
Swami Kuvalayananda was born Jagannatha Ganesa Gune in a traditional Karhade Brahmin family in the village Dhaboi inGujarat state,India. Kuvalayananda’s father, Sri Ganesa Gune, was a teacher and his mother, Srimati Saraswati, a housewife. The family was not rich and had to depend for some time on public and private charity. Being from a poor family, Kuvalayananda had to struggle hard for his education. Nevertheless, at hismatriculation in 1903, he was awarded theJagannath Shankarsheth Sanskrit Scholarship to study atBaroda College where he graduated in 1910.[3]
During his student days, he was influenced by political leaders likeSri Aurobindo, who was working as a young lecturer at the university, andLokmanya Tilak'sIndian Home Rule Movement. His national idealism and patriotic fervour prompted him to devote his life to the service of humanity. During this time, he took up a vow of lifelongcelibacy.[4]
Coming into contact with the Indian masses, many of whom wereilliterate andsuperstitious, he realized the value of education, and this influenced him to help organize theKhandesh Education Society atAmalner, where ultimately he became the Principal of the National College, in 1916. The National College was closed down by the British Government in 1920 due to the spirit ofIndian nationalism prevalent at the institution. From 1916 to 1923, he taught Indian culture studies to high school and college students.
Kuvalayananda's firstguru was Rajaratna Manikrao, a professor at the Jummadada Vyayamshala inBaroda. From 1907 to 1910, Manikrao trained Kuvalayananda in the Indian System ofPhysical Education which Kuvalayananda advocated throughout his life.[5]
In 1919, he met theBengaliyogin, Paramahamsa Madhavdas, who had settled at Malsar, nearBaroda, on the banks of theNarmada river. The insight intoYogic discipline, under Madhavdasji's guidance, greatly affected Kuvalayananda's career.[6] He became a pioneer ofa new style of yoga influenced byphysical culture.[7]
Though Kuvalayananda was spiritually inclined and idealistic, he was, at the same time, a strictrationalist. So, he sought scientific explanations for the variouspsychophysical effects of Yoga he experienced. In 1920–21, he investigated the effects of the Yogic practices ofuddiyana bandha andnauli on the human body with the help of some of his students in a laboratory at the State Hospital,Baroda.[8] His subjective experience, coupled with the results of these scientific experiments, convinced him that the ancient system of Yoga, if understood through the modern scientificexperimental system, could help society. The idea of discovering the scientific basis behind these yogic processes became his life's work.[8]
As early as the 1930s, Kuvalayananda trained large groups of yoga teachers as a way to spread physical education in India.[5]
In 1924, Kuvalayananda founded theKaivalyadhama Health and Yoga Research Center inLonavla,Maharashtra, to provide a laboratory for his scientific study of Yoga.[9] In the anthropologistJoseph Alter's words, "what he himself had to prove was that this truth [of classical yoga] was based onnatural laws and universal principles. In some sense, pure, objective science was to be deployed as the handmaiden of spirituality and orthodox philosophy so as to establish what came to be the theme of his life's work".[8] His research agenda, although covering a variety of yogic practices (which he divided intoasana (postures),pranayama (breathing exercises), and other practices, namelykriyas,mudras, andbandhas), resulted in a detailed study of thephysiology involved during each such practice.[10] So, for example, Kaivalyadhama measured the consumption of oxygen of yogins seated cross-legged and practising pranayama; Kuvalayananda explained that while "the westerner" saw deep breathing as useful for providing oxygen, "With us the oxygen value of pranayama is subordinate. We prize it more for its usefulness innerve culture."[11]
Alter notes that although these experiments ranged over a wide variety of types of measurement—includingoxygen consumption,systolic pressure,heart rate,adrenocortical activity,cardiovascular endurance,fibrinolytic activity of the blood, psycho-motor performance, dexterity,serum cholesterol,asthma,obesity,cancer,diabetes,sinusitis,anxiety, urinarypH,lymphocytes andstomach acidity—all of these were "regarded as epiphenomenal in their relationship to the real object of study—the phenomenal meta-material power inherent in Yoga."[12]
These experiments impressed some Western researchers who came to theKaivalyadhama Health and Yoga Research Center to learn more. Dr. Josephine Rathbone, a professor of health and physical education, visited fromColumbia University in 1937 to 1938.K. T. Behanan, a doctoral candidate fromYale University, wrote his dissertation on yoga after visiting in late 1931, and staying for a year. Behanan went on to publishYoga: A Scientific Evaluation in 1937.[13][14]} In 1957, the physicians Wenger, from theUniversity of California, and Bagchi, from theUniversity of Michigan, spent a month and a half working there.[15] Research and collaboration continues to this day.
At the same time as founding his research institute at Lonavla, Kuvalayananda started the first journal devoted to scientific investigation into yoga,Yoga Mimamsa.[16] The journal has been published quarterly every year since its founding and was scheduled to be indexed byEBSCO in 2012. It has covered experiments on the effects of asanas, kriyas, bandhas, and pranayama on humans.[17]
Besides his yoga research, Swami Kuvalayananda was a tireless promoter of his causes, and he spent much of his later years opening up new branches ofKaivalyadhama and enhancing the mainKaivalyadhama campus inLonavla.[15]
In 1932, he opened the Mumbai branch of Kaivalyadhama atSantacruz. It was relocated toMarine Drive (Chowpatty) in 1936, and named the Ishvardas Chunnilal Yogic Health Center. Its mandate is the prevention and cure of various diseases through Yoga. In this same period, at Kanakesvara nearAlibaug, a Kaivalyadhama Spiritual Center inColaba was opened.
In 1943, he opened another branch of Kaivalyadhama inRajkot,Saurashtra, with spiritual practices as its main focus.
The Gordhandas Seksaria College of Yoga and Cultural Synthesis was established in 1951 at Lonavla to prepare young people spiritually and intellectually for selfless service to humanity.
In 1961, he opened the Srimati Amolak Devi Tirathram Gupta Yogic Hospital for the treatment of chronic functional disorders with the help of Yogic techniques.
Some of his pupils, like thePadma Shri awardee,S. P. Nimbalkar, became known yoga teachers in their own rights.[18]
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