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research data of the last 20 years which he conducted at Thane Central Prison, according to which even hardened criminals had turned into civilized human beings. He recommended intensive yoga teaching of prisoners if prisons were to be turned into
reformatory centers. Dr. Wasir opined that yoga practices had wonderful effects on blood pressure and heart diseases. He gave details of the mechanism of heart and brain and said that yoga greatly helped their functions to remain normal.
The Sunday Times of India
7.11.93
IN QUEST OF THE DIVINE
If the purpose of life is to find the divine, then the Bihar School of Yoga at Munger provides the right ambience. Lo- cated on a large hill overlooking the Ganga, it is a veritable seat for spiritual learning and practice.
Paramahamsa Satyananda, the founder of this school, was supposed to have attained his enlightenment at a God-forsaken place in Munger, supposedly the citadel of daanvira Karna of the epic Mahabharata. Having had his spiritual education under the tutelage of Swami Sivananda Saraswati of Rishikesh for over twelve years, Paramhamsa Satyananda, who had taken to a parivrajak life and travelled extensively in different parts of the Indian sub-continent, came to Munger in 1956, "not with the idea of founding an ashram, of creating a tradition or of teaching and preaching, but to live by myself and understand myself more. During this period from 1956 to 1963 I came to understand
the vibrations that seemed to have remained in the place even after five thousand years. On the desolate, deserted and barren hillock of Karna Chowra, I sat for days, weeks and months but did not know exactly what it was that I was assimilating.
All that I knew was that Maharaja Karna was a man who used to give gold in charity. I thought that this seat that I occupy is not really for me. If Karna gave gold, I cannot give even a morsel of food, because I have nothing but two dhotis which are all my wealth.”
In 1963, his mission seemed to unfold before him that he must be the instrument in heralding the dawn of the psychic age, that he could achieve it by spreading the message of yoga, i.e. the message of peace. "If Karna's age demanded gold, this age demands peace - shanti inside, shanti outside and shanti everywhere --- The one who can distribute shanti, the way of peace, is the Karna of today, and I think I should not be modest
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