Yogi Vishnu Panigrahi — Who Is He?
Yogi Vishnu did not learn yoga in a classroom. His path started much earlier, and in a much quieter place.
He was born in a small village in western Odisha. His grandfather had built a little temple there for Radha and Krishna. As a young boy, Yogi Vishnu's daily task was simple: he gave food and water to the sadhus who came walking through the village. He sat and listened to them for hours. His grandfather also taught him to meditate. At that age, he did not even know the word for what he was doing. He never thought of it as something special. It was just another part of growing up in that village.
Later, he moved to a city nearby for his studies. But college life did not hold his full attention. He would often skip lectures to sit in on talks given by visiting swamis and sadhus. One of the people he met during this time was Swami Avdheshanand Giri from Haridwar. That meeting stayed with him. Around this time, he and a friend started a habit, waking up before sunrise to chant the Mahamudgaram, a hymn written by Adi Shankaracharya. People say this hymn helps remove fear and build detachment from worldly things.
The years that followed were spent learning under teachers connected to the Himalayan tradition, Swami Veda Bharati, Swami Hari, and Swami Avdheshanand Giri among them. He studied meditation, pranayama, kriya, and yoga philosophy. For him, these were never separate subjects. They were all part of one teaching, learned as a whole.
That is the idea behind Vinyasa Yoga Academy, which he later started. His aim was to teach yoga in its complete form, the practice along with the thinking and understanding behind it. Over time, students and teachers from more than 100 countries have come to learn from him.
Disciple of the Himalayan tradition, close to Swami Veda Bharati, Swami Hari and Swami Avdheshanand Giri
Decades of personal practice in meditation, pranayama, kriya and yoga philosophy
Founder of Vinyasa Yoga Academy, teaching the full yogic path, not a fragment of it
Mentor to students and teachers from over 100 countries worldwide