About — Swami Charanashrit Giri and Swara Yoga Peeth

Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Swami Charanashrit Giri

Swami Charanashrit Giri is the founder of Swara Yoga Peeth, Rishikesh, and a Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara of the Daśanāmī saṃnyāsa order. His life's work is the recovery of Swara Yoga — the Vedic science of the breath, the Sun and the Moon as they move through the two nostrils — and its return to ordinary people in a form they can practise every day.

His teaching begins from a simple observation: the breath is not ours to command but it answers the Sun, and a person who lives against the Sun lives against their own body. Agnihotra is the practice he places first, because it asks the practitioner to be present at the two moments when the Sun touches the horizon, and because its fire, its ash and its mantra act on the house and the land as the breath acts on the body.

He has taught in India and abroad for many years, written on Swara Yoga, Nāḍī Tattva and Jyotiṣa, and built the Peeth's programmes — the courses, the retreats, the daily Agnihotra at the āśrama, the astrology and panchang tools of swarayoga.org, and now this dedicated Agnihotra site — so that the knowledge reaches people where they are.

For peace and prosperity in the world

The Veda does not separate the welfare of the person from the welfare of the world. The same fire that steadies one mind at dawn purifies the air of one house; the same ash that heals one garden can heal a field; the same offering made in a thousand homes at the same sunrise is a yajña for the Earth. Swara Yoga Peeth teaches Agnihotra with this scale in view: one fire for one family, and through the families, peace and prosperity for all.

Prosperity here is the Vedic word — ratnadhātama, the bestowing of treasures — and it means fertile land, healthy bodies, calm households and work that bears fruit, not accumulation. Peace is the state in which the breath, the day and the seasons move together. Agnihotra serves both because it is small enough for anyone and exact enough to join the person to the Sun.

Cosmic and individual harmony

Swara Yoga teaches that the body is a small cosmos: the breath moves in the left nostril under the Moon and in the right under the Sun, the five elements rise and fall in it through the day, and health is the agreement between this inner movement and the sky outside. Agnihotra is the hinge between the two. At the instant half of the Sun's disc stands on the horizon, the practitioner's attention, breath, hand and voice are all given to one act; the inner and the outer Sun meet.

Kept twice a day for years, this meeting becomes a way of living. The day is organised around the two zero times; the mind learns to be quiet before the fire; the family gathers; the garden and the air respond. This is what the Peeth means by harmony — not an idea but a daily fact, built from rice, ghee, copper and the exact time.

Swara Yoga Peeth

Swara Yoga Peeth is a spiritual and educational institution at Rishikesh on the Ganga, founded by Swami Charanashrit Giri to teach Swara Yoga, Agnihotra, Nāḍī Tattva, Vedic astrology and the allied sciences. Its work is open to people of every background. Agnihotra is taught without fee; the materials shop on this site supplies the kuṇḍa and the offerings at the Peeth's cost of preparation so that the practice is within everyone's reach.

For guidance, retreats, courses or questions about Agnihotra, write to [email protected] or visit swarayoga.org.