Swami Sivananda, also known as Sivananda Saraswati, was a renowned yoga guru, Hindu spiritual teacher, and Vedanta proponent who was born as Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu. After studying medicine, he worked as a physician in British Malaya for several years before choosing to embrace monastic life.

In 1936, Swami Sivananda founded the Divine Life Society (DLS), and later, in 1948, the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy. He was also the author of over 200 books on yoga, Vedanta, and other subjects. He spent most of his life at the Sivananda Ashram, situated on the banks of the Ganges at Muni Ki Reti, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) away from Rishikesh.

Swami Sivananda's disciple Vishnudevananda propagated the Sivananda Yoga form, which is now popular in many parts of the world through the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres. It is worth noting that these centres are not affiliated with Swami Sivananda's ashrams, which are operated by the Divine Life Society.

Swami Sivananda was born on September 8th, 1887, in Pattamadai village, Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, India. He was born into a Brahmin family to Sri P.S. Vengu Iyer, who was a revenue officer and a great devotee of Lord Shiva, and his mother, Srimati Parvati Ammal, who was a religious person. He was the youngest of three children.

As a child, Swami Sivananda showed great promise in academics and gymnastics. He attended medical school in Tanjore and excelled there. During this period, he ran a medical journal called Ambrosia. After graduation, he worked as a doctor in British Malaya for ten years and gained a reputation for providing free treatment to poor patients. However, he felt that medicine was only healing on a superficial level and felt a void that urged him to look elsewhere. In 1923, he left Malaya and returned to India to pursue his spiritual quest.

After returning to India in 1924, Swami Sivananda went to Rishikesh, where he met his guru, Vishvananda Saraswati. Vishvananda initiated him into the Sannyasa order and gave him his monastic name. The full ceremony was conducted by Vishnudevananda, the abbot of Sri Kailas Ashram.

Swami Sivananda settled in Rishikesh and dedicated himself to intense spiritual practices. He performed austerities for many years while continuing to nurse the sick. In 1927, he used some of the money from an insurance policy to run a charitable dispensary at Lakshman Jhula.

Swami Sivananda founded the Divine Life Society in 1936 on the banks of the Ganges River, with the aim of distributing spiritual literature for free. He had early disciples including Satyananda Saraswati, the founder of Satyananda Yoga. In 1945, he established the Sivananda Ayurvedic Pharmacy and organized the All-world Religions Federation. The following year, he created the All-world Sadhus Federation, and in 1948, the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy.

Sivananda called his yoga the "Yoga of Synthesis," which combined the Four Yogas of Hinduism: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Rāja Yoga, for action, devotion, knowledge, and meditation, respectively. He travelled extensively on a major tour in 1950 and established branches of the Divine Life Society throughout India, vigorously promoting and disseminating his vision of yoga. His detractors nicknamed him "Swami Propagandananda" due to his modern methods of diffusion and propagation of yoga on a grand scale to the general public. However, his Belgian devotee André Van Lysebeth explained that Sivananda was advocating a practice that everybody could do, combining "some asanas, a little pranayama, a little meditation and bhakti; well, a little of everything."