Niranjanananda Saraswati

He was born to the Kayastha family in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India, Niranjanananda is considered by his followers to be a yogi from birth. He was named 'Niranjan' (the Untainted One) by his guru Satyananda. He began his training at Bihar School of Yoga in India at the age of four through the use of yoga-nidra and practice of other yoga techniques. At the age of ten, he was initiated as a sannyasi and thereafter for eleven years he lived overseas. From 1971, he extensively toured Europe and North and South America. This experience gave him an understanding of the Western mind and society. In 1983 he returned to India and was appointed the Head of Bihar School of Yoga. For the next eleven years, he spearheaded the research and development activities at Ganga Darshan, Shivananda Math and the Yoga Research Foundation.

In 1990, he was initiated in the tradition of Paramahamsa and in 1993 he was chosen as the spiritual successor of Satyananda. In 1993, he organised a World Yoga Convention on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the sannyasa of his guru. In 1994, he established Bihar Yoga Bharati as the centre for higher studies in the field of yoga. He founded Yoga Publication Trust in 2000.

In 2009, following the mandate of his Guru, Swami Satyananda Saraswati, he relinquished and renounced all administrative responsibilities and institutional posts. Swami Niranjanananda now lives as an independent sannyasin, following the lifestyle and sadhanas of a paramahansa sannyasin. From 2013, following in the tradition of his Guru, Swami Niranjanananda is performing the arduous panchagni tapasya or austerity, and other sadhanas and yajnas as elucidated in the Kathopanishad, Brihadaranyaka and Chhandogya Upanishads.

He was given the third-highest civilian award of the country, Padma Bhushan, in 2017 for distinguished service of high order in the category/field of prominence of Others (Yoga).