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About Us

The Yoga Healing Foundation is a registered charity that runs Traditional Yoga courses for the benefit of the general public and the yoga community. This includes meditation courses, weekly classes, workshops, meditation teacher training courses, lectures and an annual ten day summer meditation retreat. Our courses are all run as a charitable not-for profit activity and cover theory and practice. Our purpose is to protect, revive and disseminate original and complete yogic knowledge by staying connected to the values and lineage of the Yoga tradition.

At the heart of Traditional Yoga is the energy and vision of Dr Kumar, an inspirational teacher, supported by a dedicated team of volunteers.

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Dr. Kumar at Cern

Dr. Kumar is an authority on the science of yoga and its diverse systems. Dr Kumar’s knowledge is informed not only from his distinguished career in science, but also from his personal experience of repairing and rehabilitating his own body through yoga, following a serious accident. His education from the age of 11, was in 37 schools of Hatha Yoga and 50 traditions of meditation, working with renowned teachers such as Krishnamacharya, B.K.S. Iyengar and Swami Vishnudevananda in addition to many highly accomplished yet unknown Himalayan yogis.

Dr. Kumar is a nuclear scientist and holds two PhDs in Chemistry and Yoga. His teaching is deeply rooted in the purity of authentic traditions and he emphasises the importance of upholding the pure science of yoga maintained by these ancient lineages and applying them in a balanced and holistic way. The depth and breadth of his knowledge offers a unique opportunity for those who wish to develop and deepen their understanding of yoga.

Dr. Kumar is widely recognised as an inspirational Yogi, trainer of yoga teachers and an award winning scientist. He began his yoga journey at the age of 11 years and attended more than 87 traditional ashrams, learning directly under the expert guidance of great teachers such as Krishnamacharya and all the seven students of Sivananda.

Dr. Kumar is a nuclear scientist and holds two PhDs in Chemistry and Yoga. He is also a trained Merck pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals formulation specialist. His teachings are not only limited to yoga and meditation but he has authority in science based functional and performance based nutraceuticals both macro and micro nutrition. He practices preventive and therapeutic nutrition dealing with phytoextracts to nutrigenomics and peptide based solutions for gene related problems. He is the founder of Vedic Nutraceuticals and The Yoga Healing Foundations of UK, U.S and India. He is a recipient of the prestigious Homi J. Bhabha award for innovations in nuclear science and technology.

In 1992, Dr. Kumar suffered multiple fractures in his lower spine, hip bones, and pelvic bones, and lost control over his lower torso when he had a road accident. His urethra was ruptured and he was told that he would not be able to have children and may not walk again. After a year of experiencing no progress, he began practicing yoga and started treating himself. After two years of practice, he could run, perform all asanas and also had his first child in 1994.

This was a turning point for him and he decided to devote his time besides his work to promote the correct understanding of the traditional methods of yoga for body and mind. This includes all physical yoga practices as taught by well-known teachers from whom he learned directly, including Krishnamacharya, Vishnudevananda, Satyananda Saraswati, B.K.S. Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois. Also, mind-fitness (meditation) programs in Hindu, Tibetan and Theravada traditions, taught at a deep level with a science based approach for rapid progress. His teachings include progressive practice starting with mantra, through to the highest level mindfulness culminating in self-realisation, actualisation or singularity. 

In essence, he teaches a scientific way of life for total health. He shows us how to live with absolute scientific standards from dawn to dusk. He strongly believes that subjective, perception-based living is the root cause of our problems at both a physical and mental level.

Dr. Kumar is also a practitioner and teacher of Kayachikitsa. Kayachikitsa is an ancient science focused on the treatment of physical and mental illness. He is one of only three people in the world to have been trained and currently practice in this particular system.

Dr. Kumar leads intensive training in meditation (raja yoga) theory and practice leading to profound insight and liberation. This is taught as per the Yoga Shastras and Yoga Sanhitha given by Yajnavalkya and later by Patanjali in the form of Yoga Darshana. Besides his regular yoga training courses that take place throughout the year, he teaches three immersive residential courses annually, a 10 day course in the UK, a 10 day course in India in the summer and a 15 day course in India for international students in the winter.

Dr. Kumar is a consultant trainer at Yogacampus in London. Having trained yoga teachers for the last four decades, drawing on his experiential wisdom and knowledge developed from living and learning in many different ashrams, ancient traditions and teachers, he teaches yoga for mind and body with authority.  He was invited by the United Nations, International Labour Organization in Geneva, to lead celebrations for International Yoga in 2017 and 2018. Outside of reputed Indian institutions, he has also given lectures at Oxfords Brooks University, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, Imperial College London and Kyungpook National University School of Medicine in Daegu-Korea.

Education

Rather than belonging to any one school, Dr. Kumar’s teaching adheres to the genesis of yoga and its many components.

Dr. Kumar’s first teacher cautioned him to avoid being limited to the methodology of only one school, realising that each ashram preserves only a few limbs of yoga. This is something Dr. Kumar has followed throughout his life, allowing him to keep an open mind, and continuously learn and expand his knowledge, respecting all traditions.

As a child he began his formal studies at the Sivananda Ashram under Swamy Vishnudevananda. He was initiated by Swami Chinmayananda, Sachidananda & Omkarananda and later under Swami Rama and Satyananda Saraswathi. He also learned asana practice with BKS Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Desikachar among other renowned teachers as well as unknown but equally accomplished Himalayan masters and monks. He learned powerful health rejuvenating pranayamas in Shakthi traditions of Tantra such as Prakrithika (external respiratory techniques), Vaikrithika (internal respiratory techniques) and Kevala (natural respiration). Other schools include Kaivalyadhama-Lonovala, Ananda Ashram-Himachal and Kriya Yoga traditions such as Babaji Kriya Yoga, Yogoda, Mangeshda. His theoretical studies of Hatha Yoga have explored Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Hatha Ratnavali, Gheranda Samhita, Siva Samhita, Hatha Yoga Rahasyam, Kurantaka Yoga and Kapala Kurantaka Yoga and he has translated many of these original texts for his training program.

Dr. Kumar has studied meditation in Hindu, Yoga, Mahayana and Theravada Buddhist schools including monastic traditions in Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka and Tibet. His mastery of meditation, honouring the lineage of Patanjali is central to his teaching. He reads Sanskrit and Pali and has sourced and translated rare texts, exploring in particular the relationship between Yoga, Buddhism and Vedanta.

Yoga used to recover from an accident

Dr. Kumar’s personal experience of the therapeutic benefits of yoga inspired him to teach. In 1992 Kumar was involved in a road accident. He suf­fered multiple fractures in the lower spine, hip and pelvic bones. He also lost control over his lower torso and his ure­thra was ruptured. Having just got engaged, he was told that he would not be able to have children and may not walk again. He was airlifted to his wedding. After being bed-rid­den for two years and being told that doctors had little hope for his recov­ery, finally he used his deep knowledge of yoga to design a systematic program of treatment for himself with asana and pranayama practice. By the following year, he was mobile and in two years he could run. He resumed practicing around 300 asanas and had his first daughter in 1994. In gratitude for the benefit he has received he has volunteered his time to teaching yoga and meditation for free to thousands of people in India and reviving the ancient system of yoga therapy, Kayachikitsa.

“Yoga is many limbed, and is not to be confused with any form of religion. My aim is to restore the understanding of the relationship of different branches of traditional yoga so as to enable each person to make swift and effective progress”

Yoga is a complete system for living. It teaches us how to live in harmony with ourselves, each other and with nature. Physical fitness is just the beginning of the journey. Meditation is fundamental to the ancient science of Yoga and we focus on this aspect of the teaching on many of our courses.

Our Values

The work of the Yoga Healing Foundation is guided by two yogic principles, seva and dana.

Seva, translated as selfless service is an important principle in the yoga tradition. It is based on the value of working for others without expectation of personal reward. Karma Yoga, which means the ‘path of action’, helps us to develop the qualities of acceptance, gratitude, helpfulness and generosity. Karma Yoga is described in the Bhagavad Gita as “wisdom in work.” Our teachers, including Dr. Kumar are all volunteers.

Dana is the virtue of unconditional generosity and unattached giving through donation to a good cause. Dana is one of the ten ‘perfected virtues’ taught by Buddha. The act of giving a donation in gratitude for the teaching is an opportunity for participants in our courses to develop this quality. We run our courses on a donation basis, supported by a course fee that covers overheads. Donations are used to sustain the charity, offer bursary places for UK students and support our charitable projects in India and the U.K.

teaching community

1. There are five ethical principles which are fundamental to Yoga called Yama. All Traditional Yoga volunteers and teachers are committed to scrupulously living by these principles and the charity is run on this basis. Yama is the resolution to give up any action which causes harm to yourself or others by body, mind or speech, is the foundation of yoga. Similarly, Jesus said, ‘Do unto others as you would have done unto you, this is the essence’. The five principles of Yama are: Ahimsa- non-harming; Satya- honesty; Asteya- non-stealing; Brahmacharya- non-sexual misconduct; Apaarhigraha- non-intoxication/addiction and restraint of the senses.

2. Traditional Yoga weekend courses, retreats and workshops are run as a charitable not-for profit activity. They cover both theory and practice of Hatha and Raja Yoga, for the purpose of promoting the study and practice of traditional yoga, advancing the education of the public in its healing, preventative and therapeutic effects, and promoting the mental, physical and spiritual health and happiness of the public.

3. Traditional Yoga aims to restore an understanding of the relationship between the different limbs of yoga and present this knowledge in its original, whole and undiluted practical form for the benefit of all yoga practitioners and teachers.

4. Yoga teaches that the world is one family. Traditional Yoga welcomes all and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, age, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status or nationality. We are committed to providing equal opportunities to all and actively encourage wide participation.

5. ‘Guru Shisha Padam Para’, we always respect the lineage of teachers and aim to represent traditional teachings in their purity and authenticity without adding to or changing what has been handed down. Our teachers guide the student on the path of yoga with the utmost care, integrity and responsibility.

6. The sanctity of the teacher and student relationship is clearly defined in Yoga and guides the conduct of Traditional Yoga teachers. 

7. Traditional Yoga teachers provide guidance only within the reasonable boundaries of our competence.

8. Traditional Yoga upholds the yogic principle of Seva, translated as selfless service. It is based on the value of working for others without expectation of personal reward. Karma yoga, which means the ‘path of action’, helps us to develop the qualities of acceptance, gratitude, helpfulness and generosity. Karma yoga is described in the Bhagavad Gita as “wisdom in work.”

9. Traditional Yoga upholds the yogic principle of Dana, the virtue of unconditional generosity and unattached giving through donation to a good cause, monetarily, physically and mentally. Dana is one of the ten ‘perfected virtues’ taught by Buddha. The act of giving a donation in gratitude for the teaching is an opportunity for participants in our courses to develop the quality of selfless generosity.

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Our Collaboration

Yoga is a tradition that has been passed down through generations of teachers in India.  Many practices and techniques are not widely known and some are in danger of dying out. The charity’s aim is to protect the completeness of the yoga tradition, with sensitivity to it’s context and ensure that knowledge is not lost, changed or diluted, but rather respectfully revived for the benefit of practitioners and teachers. In addition to our U.K. programs and bursaries, we help to support the work of Yoga Healing Foundation India, with whom we have an established collaborative relationship. This collaboration aims to safeguard the continuation of high quality traditional knowledge. We do this by supporting Yoga training programs, public health programs and by funding the sourcing and translation of rare Yoga texts.

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