Sivananda Ashram, Rikhikesh, Uttarakhand India

In the year 1932, Swami Sivananda was founded this Ashram.This Ashram is located quite close to the Swarg Ashram. Sivananda Ashram has now developed into a huge complex with a number of halls, a temple and Gurudev's Kutir. Main aim of this ashram is promoting spiritualism and of providing the spiritual practice for devotees.

Born in 1887 to an educated Brahmin family in Tamil Nadu, Swami Shivananda trained as a medical doctor and spent ten years working as a physician in Malaysia. Looking for spiritiual answers to the suffering and death he stopped his medical career, and returned to India. He then settled in the sacred valley of Rishikesh and initiated into sannyas. In 1932 he established the Sivananda Ashram in an abandoned cowshed on the banks of the river Ganges and he guided thousands of spiritual seekers, disciples and aspirants all over the world.

Today, his society boasts about ten thousand members with 300 branches in India and abroad. The ashram itself has grown to a community of several hundred monks, lay residents and short term guests, with a large library, Sivananda Eye Hospital and Sivananda Ayurvedic Pharmacy.