Swami Vishnudevananda (December 31, 1927, Kerala, South India—November 9, 1993, Uttarakhand, India) was a disciple of Swami Sivananda, and founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. Considered by followers to be an authority on Hatha and Raja Yoga, he is the author of The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga, among other books.

Swami Vishnudevananda entered the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh in 1947 at the age of twenty. He took sannyas and was appointed the first professor of hatha yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy, and eventually trained scores of Indian and western students. At the same time he continued his own practice, mastering advanced hatha yoga techniques. When asked how he perfected these ancient practices, some of which had become obscure in modern times, Swami Vishnudevananda answered, “My master touched me and opened my eye of intuition. All this knowledge returned to me from past lives”. For ten years, he lived and worked under the direct guidance of his master.

According to stories, in 1957, Swami Sivananda placed 10 rupees in Swami Vishnudevananda's palm, and urged him to take all he had learned and bring to the people of western culture, with the words “People are waiting”.

Swami Vishnudevananda travelled throughout North America, teaching yoga and observing the western life style. His mobility then and later in life would earn him the nickname "The Flying Guru". He would eventually decide to create several settlements, choosing to begin this process in Canada, with the first Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Montreal. The first Yoga camp, in 1961, was at the summer home of some students, who opted to surrender material comforts, to sleep on the floor and take cold showers.

In February 1962, Swami Vishnu-devananda saw the present site of the Yoga Camp in Val Morin, Quebec, and intuitively chose to settle in the dense forest area near the Laurentian Mountains. By summer the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp had opened. From the modest beginning of a few small cottages and tents,there has been considerable expansion. It consists of several temples, a yoga hall, guest lodges and offices, swimming pool and sauna.

In 1967, Swami Vishnudevananda went on to establish the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in Bahamas. Situated on four tropical acres on Paradise Island, a short boat ride away from Nassau.

In the mid-1970's a west coast Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre operated in Vancouver, B.C. Swami Vishnu visited the downtown Ashram in the Summer of 1976 for a talk and Satsang.

In the foothills of California’s Sierra Mountains, Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm was established on an 80-acre (320,000 m2) area.
A fourth ashram, located in Woodbourne, New York, a 77-acre (310,000 m2) plot near the Catskill Mountains. Swami Vishnu-devananda named it the Sivananda Yoga Ranch Colony, hoping it would grow into a colony of families in a yogic environment.

In February 1978, Swami Vishnudevananda inaugurated the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhawanthari Ashram in Neyyar Dam, near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. The ashram is set on 10 acres (40,000 m2) in the foothills of the Sahyadri Mountains.
A small Himalayan ashram, known as Sivananda Kutir, was established in Netala, just outside of Uttar Kashi. It is situated on the banks of the Ganges and was to become the site of Swami Vishnudevananda’s jala-samadhi (sacred drowning).