MEET THE FORCE OF MOTIVATION BEHIND SUN-JEEVAN YOGA -
ACHARYA YOGANAND ( DR. SHRIKANT V. KARANDIKAR, M.B.B.S.)

Here is one medical doctor with a vision for the twenty- first century about what it is to be in perfect health, mentally and physically.

Dr. Karandikar is a medical graduate from the prestigious B .J.Medical College, Pune. After receiving the M.B.B.S. degree from Pune University, he offered his services to the nation in the form of enrolment into the Army Medical Corps, and served in the Indian Army from 1962-1966. He has been a very well- known family physician in Pune since 1966.

In 1978, he began taking primary lessons with Yogacharya Shri B.K.S. Iyengar. He learnt with Shri Iyengar for a good 12 years to master the art of yoga.

In 1988, Acharya Yoganand, i.e. Dr. Karandikar started a yoga therapy project at Kabir Baug Matha Sanstha, a public trust. He had the fervour to teach yoga to patients with intractable diseases for whom the conventional modalities of therapy did not have a satisfactory answer.

This small seed has now flourished into a mammoth organisation which has imparted treatment to more than 10,000 patients till date through the Sun-jeevan Yoga Darshan, the yoga therapy project.

With his unique insight into the causality of disease and his devoted commitment to research on newer methods, he has achieved remarkable success in treating disorders like heart disease, asthma, diabetes, spinal disorders which are assuming major proportion of each person's health concerns.He is also a ray of hope for the physically and mentally handicapped people who have a separate wing devoted to their treatment at Kabir Baug.

Realising the need for holistic treatment, he has traveled abroad to spread the word of yoga therapy, to nations like U.S.A.,Canada, U.K.,France, Switzerland, Japan and Russia. On the home front he has started similar centres at Mumbai, Satara, Sangli, Jabalpur and Thane.

He is the inspiration behind the yoga college established in Kabir Baug to make available a very promising career option to the bewildered youth of today. The college runs a post-graduate course called as Dip. TRY - Diploma in Therapeutic Restorative Yoga since June 2000. His vision for the future is a Yoga University which will give education in yoga based on scientific ground, with degree and post-graduate courses.