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beauty of the place are the gar- dens and green paddy fields that dot the entire complex. Apparently Swami Satyananda Saraswati had worked on the minute details of the architectural details and that included the precise placement of hundreds of thousands of plants at various locations.
Swamiji's real achievements, however, lay in initiating the training in the techniques of integral yoga, which is the hallmark of the institution that he founded. He, in fact, carried forward his mission by setting up the Yoga Research Foundation (YRF) in 1984 (also located at Ganga Darshan) which is sponsoring pioneering research to establish yoga as an essential science for the further develop ment and evolution of mankind.
The major research programmes sponsored by the Bihar School of Yoga are related to the effect of hatha yoga and meditation on the endocrine and nerv-
ous systems - on diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular problems and hypertension. Under the auspices of the YRF, the Bihar School of Yoga is assisting the internationally reputed health professionals to conduct systematic and documented research for furthering the 'knowledge of how yoga can correct and improve malfunctions in the human body and mind'.
The positive outcome of this research is borne out by hundreds of people undergoing specialized yoga practices within the country as well as outside. The fact that the Bihar School of Yoga is now represented by more than a thousand branches all over the country as well as 500 branches in countries as diverse as Australia, Greece, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, the USA and South Africa is an eloquent testimony to the success of Swami Satyananda's dream project.
The Sunday Times of India
7.11.93 LOTUS BLOOMS ONLY IN A CESSPOOL
PATNA, NOV.7 — Paramaham- sa Niranjanananda, the Presi- dent of Bihar School of Yoga, was initiated into the paramahamsa order, the highest honor for a sannyasin, at the age of 30. Swami Satyananda Saraswati, his guru, had a divine inspiration about his successor and had asked Niranjan- ananda's parents, his disciples, to
give up claim on their child as soon as he was ready for being admitted into the ashram.
Apparently, Niranjanananda stayed put at the ashram at the age of four, having firmly turned down his parents' plea to spend some more years with them. And thus began his life as a sannyasin under the personal supervision
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