about center

The SriMa International School of Transformational Yoga, founded by Swami Vidyanand, offers 100 level, 200 level and 500 level Transformational Yoga Teacher Training Courses (TY TTCs) in Pondicherry in India, as well as other locations around the world.

The Mother

Madame Mirra Alfassa – the Mother, or SriMa, as she was known – was born and educated in France. She began to have psychic and spiritual experiences at a very early age. She grew up to become an accomplished painter and musician. In 1906 and 1907 the Mother voyaged to Tlemcen, Algeria, where she studied occultism with Max Theon.

In 1914, she met Sri Aurobindo, the great Indian mystic and revolutionary, in Pondicherry, and her life was transformed. The next day, in her spiritual diary (published as Prayers and Meditations) she wrote: “It matters not if there are hundreds of beings plunged in densest ignorance. He whom we saw yesterday is on earth; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when dark- ness shall be transformed into light, when Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth.”

In April 1920, after spending nearly four years in Japan, the Mother returned to Pondicherry, where she lived for the rest of her life. On November 24, 1926, when Sri Aurobindo withdrew from outer activities in order to focus all his energies on his Sadhana, he entrusted to the Mother, or SriMa, as he called her, the guidance of the disciples who had gathered around him, marking the start of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. In 1968, SriMa founded Auroville, or the City of Dawn 10 kilometers outside of Pondicherry.

SriMa left her body on the 17th November,1973.

“Of one thing you can be sure — your future is in your hands.
You will become the man you want to be and the higher your
ideal and your aspiration, the higher will be your realization,
but you must never forget your true aim in life.”

— The Mother

Founder

Swami Vidyanand is a renowned yoga master and the founder of Transformational Yoga, an innovative yogic system that synthesizes techniques of Hatha, White Tantra, Raja, Mantra, Ashtanga and Kundalini Yoga to bring about rapid transformation. His signature system is inspired by the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and was developed when he taught yoga for more than a decade at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch

Today Swami Vidyanand operates as an urban master, using the yogic system he has developed to help individuals in big cities rid and heal themselves of stress. In Hong Kong, Swami Vidyanand has led Transformational Yoga courses at the Centre of Behavioral Health of the University of Hong Kong.  He founded SriMa International School of Transformational Yoga in New Delhi, India, of which he is now spiritual head. Swami Vidyanand is also the founder of Yoga Alliance International, Yoga Alliance India, Yoga Alliance Europe and the Grand Master Courses of Hatha Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Meditation, Transformational Yoga and Yoga Therapy.

Swami Vidyanand mastered yoga in the traditional Indian yogic way, through apprenticeships under enlightened yoga masters in India and anonymous ascetics in the Himalayas. Hailing from a long line of renowned bhakti yogis, he was born into the deeply spiritual environment of Datiya, an area in Madhya Pradesh, India, recognized as being one of the 17 sacred centers of tantra in India. His first guru was his father, Sri Harihar Goswami, a highly respected devotional yogi and founder of the Yoga Mandir of Datiya.

Swami Vidyanand’s techniques are well recognized in India, evident from the respect he has received from cultural bodies, such as the prestigious Bharat Nirman, an organisation that recognises individual efforts to promote ancient Indian wisdom, systems and practices; from which he has received their highest award, The Bhaskar Award.

YOGA ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL

Yoga Alliance International (YAI) is a world renowned organising body, recognised by and registered with the government of India. Sri Swami Vidyanand founded YAI in order to create minimum standard for yoga teachers and yoga schools, as well as support continuing yoga education. Since our formation, we have emphasised mutual respect, sensitivity and support of different yoga styles and traditions.

YAI certification provides worldwide recognition of your yoga training, education, and knowledge. Employers and students can be confident that they are receiving yoga instructions from a well qualified teacher who meets our high training standards.

We work in the public interest to improve the understanding of the value of yoga, to ensure that yoga teachers respect its history and traditions, and so that the public can be confident of the high quality and uniform standards of instruction. YAI provides a platform to connect with members located throughout the world.