Dhirendra Brahmachari

Who was Dhirendra Brahmachari?

Dhirendra Brahmachari, born Dhirendra Choudhary in village Basaith chanpura, Madhubani, Bihar, was the yoga mentor of Indira Gandhi - a former Prime Minister of India. He ran Ashrams in Delhi, Jammu, Katra and Mantalai and wrote books on Yoga.

Inspired by reading the Bhagavad Gita, he left home at the age of thirteen and went to Varanasi. His guru was Maharshi Kartikeya whose ashram was at Gopal-Khera, about twelve miles from Lucknow. Dhirendra Brahmachari studied yoga and associated subjects there. In the 1960s he was invited to travel to the U.S.S.R. as a Hatha Yoga expert to train Soviet cosmonauts. Jawaharial Nehru later invited him to teach yoga to his daughter, Indira Gandhi, to improve her health. He became influential politically in 1975-77 when Mrs Gandhi dissolved Parliament, declared a state of emergency and suspended civil liberties. The nature of his relationship with Indira Gandhi was the subject of speculation and he was known in some circles as 'the Indian Rasputin'. He was in those times a controversial figure because of his sexual relationship with Indira Gandhi.

In the late 1970s, Dhirendra Brahmachari promoted the benefits of yoga in a weekly broadcast on Doordarshan, the state-owned television network. He introduced yoga as a subject of study in Delhi administered schools, a considerable innovation. In 1981 he also introduced yoga in the Kendriya Vidyalayas, or central government schools under the Ministry of Human Resource Development.