Swami Satyananda Saraswati (24 December 1923 – 5 December 2009), was a sannyasin, yoga teacher and guru in both his native India and the West. He founded the International Yoga Fellowship in 1956 and the Bihar School of Yoga in 1963. He has authored over 80 books, including the well-known Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha, recognised internationally as one of the most systematic yoga manuals today. Since its first publication by the Bihar School of yoga in 1969 it has been reprinted seventeen times and translated into many languages.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati was born 1923 at Almora (Uttaranchal) in the foothills of the Himalayas, into a family of farmers and zamindars.

As a youth he was classically educated and studied Sanskrit, the Vedas and the Upanishads. Swami Satyananda began to have spiritual experiences at the age of six, when his awareness spontaneously left the body and he saw himself lying motionless on the floor. Many saints and sadhus blessed him and reassured his parents that he had a very developed awareness. This experience of disembodied awareness continued, which led him to many saints of that time such as Anandamayi Ma. Swami Satyanada also met a tantric bhairavi, Sukhman Giri, who gave him shaktipat and directed him to find a guru in order to stabilize his spiritual experiences.