The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres is a non-profit organisation founded in 1957 by Swami Vishnudevananda and named in honour of his teacher H.H. Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj, one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. The Organisation propagates the authentic teaching of yoga and vedanta, continuing the lineage of the two great yoga masters, preserving its purity and tradition dating back several thousand years.