About Us

History of the Yoga Farm

Since 1971

In 1971, Swami Vishnudevananda returned to California and founded the third ashram in the young Sivananda International organization: the Sivananda Yoga Farm on 40 acres of land located in the Gold Country of the beautiful Sierra Nevada Foothills in Northern California. The “Yoga Farm,” as Swami Vishnu-devananda nicknamed the ashram, remained his favorite place for personal retreat and is where he wrote “Meditation and Mantras.” For almost 20 years the ashram remained in its original state: a farmhouse and pond surrounded by rolling hills and majestic oaks, saturated with the songs of wildlife.

In 1974, the Yoga Farm hosted the first Sivananda Teachers’ Training Course on the West Coast. Yoga practitioners are increasingly aware of deeper and subtler aspects of classical yogic teachings, and seek a retreat where they can deepen their practice, renew their inspiration and further educate themselves. The Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm responds by maintaining a pure atmosphere where people rediscover their Divine Self. It is a spiritual, non-sectarian, non-profit organization run entirely by dedicated Yoga teachers who selflessly teach this ancient system. It is a spiritual, non-sectarian, non-profit organization run entirely by dedicated Yoga teachers who selflessly teach this. “Sivananda Yoga is qualified in Time Magazine article on Yoga as “moderately difficult” and is “One of the world’s largest schools of Yoga, Sivananda calls for the rigorous application of Yoga postures, breathing exercises, relaxation, vegetarian diet and study of scriptures. May require lifestyle changes” (p.63, Time april 23 2001)

Modern Day

The ashram has been renovated over the past 15 years to better accommodate demand for Yoga, meditation and immersion in Nature. The accommodations – cabins on the hills and new deluxe shanti cabins – are beautiful and comfortable, keeping to the spirit of “simple living and high thinking.” The programs are more and more diversified keeping to the powerful teachings of classical yoga and at the same time bringing in modern ideas and current well-known teachers. The ashram has become a flourishing spiritual institution whose presence is known locally, nationally, and internationally.

The Sivananda Yoga Farm is part of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, which Swami Vishnudevananda founded in 1963 in honor of his teacher, Swami Sivananda. Today, the organization is comprised of 11 ashrams and more then 30 centers in major cities across the world. More than 45,000 Yoga teachers have been trained by the organization to date. Swamiji’s mission in the West started upon his arrival in San Francisco in 1957. He was sent to America by Swami Sivananda with 10 rupees and the instructions that “People were waiting”. He founded the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm in Grass Valley in 1971. At that time, he came yearly to the Farm in Grass Valley for teaching and for seclusion.

Since 1995, the Yoga Farm has been directed by Swami Sitaramananda, a gifted speaker and teacher of yoga and meditation and direct disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda. She has been serving since 1981 worldwide in the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashrams & Centers (SYVC), especially in the west coast of the US and in Asia. She is resident at the Yoga Farm for several months per year, where she leads the daily satsang sessions (meditation, chanting, and lecture) and personally instructs and coaches resident students. Swami Sitaramananda was ordained in 1985 as a sannyasin in the lineage of Saraswati, one of the 10 classical monastic orders founded in India.