Swami Sivananda, a 125-year-old yoga master from Kashi, was honoured with the Padma Shri award by President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday for his contributions to the field of yoga. Swami Sivananda, also known as Yog Sevak received the award while walking barefoot in the stately Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan and drew a standing ovation.
The yoga practitioner prostrated in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the President before receiving the honour, garnering another wave of applause from the guests at the formal investiture event. Prime Minister Modi quickly bent and touched the ground in response to the greeting.
Swami Sivananda has devoted his life to the advancement of humanity. His modest techniques of living a disciplined and well-regulated life, including early morning Yoga, an oil-free boiled food, and selfless devotion to mankind in his own way, have given him the longest life free of sickness and strain. Rather than lecturing, he showed his life to serve as an example.
Swami Sivananda has been servicing 400-600 leprosy-affected beggars in Puri with dignity for the past 50 years by personally visiting them in their hutments. ‘He perceives them as living God and serves them with the best available items. He arranges different materials like food items, fruits, clothes, winter garments, blankets, mosquito nets, cooking utensils based on their expressed need’, said the Rashtrapati Bhavan document on Padma awardees.
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Swami Sivananda had received several accolades, including the Yoga Ratna Award in Bengaluru in 2019. On November 30, 2019, Respect Age International also presented him with the Basundhara Ratan Award for his contributions to society.
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