Paramahamsa Madhavdas
Paramahamsa Madhavdasji or Paramahamsa Madhavdas was an Indian yogi, yoga guru and Hindu monk in the 19th century. He was born in 1798 in Bengal. He was initiated as a sadhu and entered the order of Vaishnavism. He traveled across India on foot for nearly 35 years for knowledge of the practice of yoga. His notable disciple includes Swami Kuvalayananda and Shri Yogendra.
Biography
He was born in 1798 to a Mukhopadhyaya family in the village of Phulia, near Shantipur, in the Nadia District of present-day West Bengal. He was a descendant of Krittiwas Ojha . He worked as a clerk in the judicial department but later quit the job. After travelling through Assam, Tibet, the Himalayas and various other places in India, he had an opportunity to have first-hand knowledge of yoga techniques. He was originally a follower of Bhakti order of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but later followed the Vaishnavism order influenced by Gauranga.In 1869, Madhavdas joined a large Sadhu community, who elected him as their leader at Vrindavan in 1881. But Madhavdas was not satisfied with these activities among the sadhus. He was eager to reduce the sufferings of the commoner. Later, he came to Gujarat and started teaching yoga vedanta. He eventually settled in the village of Malsar near Baroda on the banks of the Narmada River in Gujarat, where he taught the secrets of practicing yoga to a few selected and deserving disciples. Madhavadas died in 1921, at the age of 123.