Passing The Baton

Dr. Jayadeva had a huge pair of shoes to fill - his father’s. Shri Yogendraji had laid the foundations of the work to be done and informed his son, Jayadeva, now coming of age, that the responsibility of spreading the word of yoga now lay on his young shoulders.

- Mahesh Ramchandani

Jayadeva was hoping he would become a doctor, but brought up in a family that put discipline and Dharma first, he reasoned that it was a task worth pursuing and decided to rise to the challenge.

A bright student with a doctorate in ‘Moksha Parvah’, Dr. Jayadeva taught Sanskrit at Mumbai’s Khalsa College for a while. Later, he gave it up and put his shoulder to the wheel of yoga. His commitment was obvious. He had put aside his personal wishes of becoming a doctor, he had given up his job as a lecturer, and decided to commit himself to spreading the knowledge of yoga.

In the early days yoga was associated with emaciated men with long beards sleeping on beds of nails, and it was assumed that pursuing the Yogic lifestyle automatically meant that one would have to head for the mountains and shun their household duties. Shri Yogendraji, his wife Sita Devi, the young Jayadeva found it an uphill task to talk to people about yoga. They were more than happy to have that rare visitor to their young new yoga school and the visitor would receive their exclusive attention, unlike the present day when the Institute has more than 1500 footfalls a day.