Swami Sivananda was born in 1887 in Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu, South India. His natural selfless spirit led him to a career in the medical field. In the early 1900s, he travelled to Malaya (now known as Malaysia) to work as a doctor, and eventually had the responsibility of running a hospital.

As a doctor, Swami Sivananda was saddened by the physical and mental distress he saw in his patients. He longed to help people on a more profound level. Through the study of yoga and Vedanta, it became his innermost desire to help people not only heal in their physical bodies but also in their minds.