The Founder
Yogi Vishnu Panigrahi — Founder, Vinyasa Yoga Academy
Specialisation- Himalayan Yoga, Meditation, Karma Yoga, Yoga Philosophy
Experience- 25+ Years
Qualifications- E-RYT 500, Yoga Alliance USA | M.A. Sanskrit and M.A. Yoga | Himalayan Tradition lineage
Long before he ever taught a class, Vishnu Ji was growing up beside a Radha-Krishna temple his grandfather had built in western Odisha. Born into a Brahmin family, he spent his early years around that temple, serving the sadhus who passed through it, and it was there that his relationship with spiritual life began, long before he had a name for it.
He started practising yoga when he was just 12 years old. At that age, he made a decision most people never make in their whole life — he left his home, his family, and his friends to follow the yogic path. His first teacher was Narayan Muni, whom he met soon after leaving home. From there, his search kept growing. Years later, he met Swami Niranjan Ji and began studying Jnana Yoga, the path of knowledge and self-inquiry.
His journey then brought him face to face with Karma Yoga, the path of selfless service. During this time, he went through a heart surgery, and that experience changed how he looked at life completely. It wasn’t long after that he decided to become a monk. This decision, made in 2001, eventually brought him to Rishikesh.
Rishikesh is where everything came together. He entered the Himalayan Yoga Tradition once again, but this time, he stayed. He trained for years under his most important teacher, Swami Veda Bharati, himself a disciple of Swami Rama of the Himalayas — the lineage Vishnu Ji carries and teaches from today. Alongside that practice he completed an M.A. in Sanskrit and an M.A. in Yoga. It was this training that gave him the foundation to start his own school. In 2010, he founded Vinyasa Yoga Academy, so he could pass on everything he had learned to students from around the world.
Since then, he has taught over 10K students from more than 100 countries, all directly, without stepping back from the mat. He now splits his year between the Rishikesh and Bali campuses, teaching in both places personally. Whether a student joins in India or Indonesia, they learn straight from him, not from someone standing in for him.
His own words capture the approach better than any description could: “A yoga teacher is a teacher of love and compassion. They share not only information, but experience — and that experience is what opens the eyes of the student.”
He leads: 100, 200, 300 and 500 Hour Yoga Teacher Training — Rishikesh and Bali.
