The Yoga Classics Input Project is a team of Yogis, philosophers, computer operators and technical engineers who believe that the wisdom of Yoga belongs to the world and should be available—for free—to everyone.

Unfortunately the wisdom of Yoga, as documented in hundreds of thousands of palm leaf manuscripts, is also rapidly disappearing. The texts that remain lay rotting and forgotten in India's humid libraries, subject to the irrevocable ravages of both insect and time.

In order to share these remarkable teachings with the global yoga community and beyond, YCIP is dedicated to finding these precious books, creating digital scans of each fragile page, typing their contents into our database, and freely distributing them around the world.

In ancient India, a highly realized yogini named Gonika was nearing the end of her life without a spiritual disciple, so she prayed for a child with whom she might share her sacred knowledge. Gathering holy water in her hands, she made an offering to the Highest that her wish be granted. A tiny child then fell from the heavens into her upturned palms.

Gonika named this miraculous being Patanjali: "The One Who Fell Into Holy Water." Born realized, Patanjali went on to compile the world's most authoritative text on the theory and practice of Yoga: the Yoga Sutra. Practitioners of every Yoga lineage trace their wisdom through this ancient text.

For hundreds of years, many of the world's greatest practitioners, scholars and mystics have followed in Master Patanjali's footsteps, composing on palm leaf pages their masterworks and commentaries.

These are the irreplaceable books that YCIP is determined to save.

Click the links below to explore selections from the database.

SANSKRIT TEXTS
* Browse by Title
* Browse by Author

ENGLISH TEXTS
* Browse by Title
* Browse by Author

* Essential Yoga Sutra
* Images of Mahasiddhas

Modern day practitioners have excelled at the ancient art of Yoga; millions of people revel on the mat every day. Breathing, sweating and stretching, the world is indeed discovering Yoga's remarkable powers of transformation.

As beautiful and beneficial as a Yoga practice can be however, without these precious, innermost teachings, passed down from teacher to student over thousands of years, Yoga's most powerful benefits remain unrealized.

The root teachings of Yoga insist that all actions, on and off the mat, align with a greater vision to serve the global needs of all beings. When Yoga is practiced for this purpose, untold powers unfold and yogis become beings of pure love and light, able to help more and more, in deeper and deeper ways.

Master Patanjali, his contemporaries, and his spiritual heirs describe in detail the aims and results of this holy practice. These inspirational and instructive accounts are the books that YCIP is determined to save: the ones that show you, step by step, how to become happier and healthier, evolve your capacity and realize the goals of the Yoga.

The success of this project will contribute to the longevity of the Yoga lineages and keep sacred knowledge intact, extraordinary and available for all.

Yoga Studies Institute Classics of Yoga Retreat 2011, Lake Tahoe, CA

The Classics of Yoga Retreat is an annual retreat held in Lake Tahoe, California with teachings by Lama Marut and the Staff of the Yoga Studies Institute. This nine-day intensive includes deep training on the classic scriptures from the yoga tradition with translation and commentary by modern masters. The retreat curriculum is designed to cultivate mastery in the arts of meditation and wisdom.

Friday, August 26, 2011 - Sunday, September 4, 2011

Camp Galilee
1776 US Highway 50
Glenbrook, NV 89413-9714 USA

Registration & More Info at yogastudiesinstitute.org

Watch the Video!

YCIP and Pure Yoga Hong Kong
Pure Yoga, with five studios throughout Hong Kong, has enthusiastically embraced YCIP, joining us a brand partner to promote our efforts among their membership and the greater Yoga community in Hong Kong. Beginning in early 2010, Pure will offer classes and workshops showcasing YCIP; all proceeds will go directly to support the centers in India.
http://www.pureyoga.com

YCIP and Easyoga
Easyoga, one of Asia's leading yoga clothing manufacturers, will begin producing limited-edition YCIP co-branded men's and women's yoga tops for distribution worldwide, with all proceeds directly supporting the YCIP centers in India. The launch of this line will be accompanied by a series of promotional events beginning in Taiwan in the Spring of 2010.
http://www.greenvogue.com

YCIP and MC Yogi
In August 2009, on the occasion of his 30th birthday, the rapper MC Yogi hosted a party at the Yogi Toes Studio in Point Reyes, CA celebrating the studio's 8th anniversary. Proceeds from the event were donated directly to YCIP in support of its centers throughout Asia.
http://www.mcyogi.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMETXdbeMHU

YCIP and Yoga Aid / Sun and Moon Yoga, Tokyo
In September 2009, Yoga Aid sponsored a Yoga Aid Challenge in Tokyo, Japan to raise funds for its charity partners. With the help of the Sun and Moon Yoga studio in Tokyo, YCIP was selected as one of three beneficiary charities. Sun and Moon has become the primary sponsor of YCIP in Japan, hosting fundraising events to support our centers in India.
http://yogaaid.jp/
http://sunandmoon.jp/past%20news/

Yoga Classics Input Project operates offices all over India to carry out its urgent mission of saving the great books of Yoga.

YCIP-trained input operators make individual scans of each original palm leaf. These scans are then typed into a unique computer program. Using custom technology, the sacred Sanskrit text is then transliterated into recognizable Roman characters. Finally, the Roman texts are uploaded to a searchable digital database, open to all, making this invaluable material available - for free - to scholars, translators, students, and institutions. Many of today's most popular and instructive books on Yoga exist as a result of YCIP's efforts.

KAIVALYADHAMA PROJECT

KERALA PROJECT

VARANASI PROJECT

KAIVALYADHAMA PROJECT

YCIP recently partnered with the Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute in Western India for a vast undertaking: to input over 25,000 ancient volumes on Yoga, Tantra and esoteric practices dating back to 200 AD and further.

Swami Kuvalayanda founded the Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute in 1924 to promote spiritual values within his cherished community. This remarkable research and wellness facility labored for nearly 100 years to collect and preserve authentic texts and commentaries of the Yoga tradition. The library's extensive collection contains rare original works on Yoga philosophy as well as many unique volumes on Tantra and Ayurveda.

The digital preservation and distribution technology that Yoga Classics Input Project provides will finally fulfill Swami Kuvalayanda's heartfelt mission to share this vast repository of esoteric wisdom with the world.

KERALA PROJECT

In Kerala, YCIP established and maintains a digital database center to preserve the great medical texts in the Ayurvedic tradition.

Ayurveda, translated as "science of life," is the oldest-known form of medicine in the world. Commonly considered a sister science to Yoga, the two disciplines share an understanding that the health of the body, mind and world are all mutually dependent and consistent.

With 5 employees under the direct supervision of Dr. N.V. Ramachandran, the Kerala center is dedicated to safeguarding these profound medical records for future generations, so that all may benefit from this powerful, effective and transformative science.

VARANASI PROJECT

YCIP recently partnered with the Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute in Western India for a vast undertaking: to input over 25,000 ancient volumes on Yoga, Tantra and esoteric practices dating back to 200 AD and further.

Swami Kuvalayanda founded the Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute in 1924 to promote spiritual values within his cherished community. This remarkable research and wellness facility labored for nearly 100 years to collect and preserve authentic texts and commentaries of the Yoga tradition. The library's extensive collection contains rare original works on Yoga philosophy as well as many unique volumes on Tantra and Ayurveda.

The digital preservation and distribution technology that Yoga Classics Input Project provides will finally fulfill Swami Kuvalayanda's heartfelt mission to share this vast repository of esoteric wisdom with the world.

Contact by email : info@yogaclassics.org

New York
Yoga Classics Input Project
P.O. Box 196
New York, NY 10276

Hong Kong
Yoga Classics Input Project
c/o Eric Stryson
P.O. Box 7161
General Post Office
Hong Kong

Over 95% of your donation goes to sustaining YCIP input operators and their families. Throughout India, our centers employ dozens of local Indian men and women, Tibetan refugees, and monks and nuns who work tirelessly to ensure that these precious texts are captured for future generations.

For over 20 years, their dedication, perseverance, and love for what they do is the primary reason we can claim to have digitized and distributed over 600,000 pages of ancient yoga manuscript.

There are decades of work left to do.

With your help we can create even greater resources and the ability to preserve even more of these priceless teachings.

Please click on the link below to make a donation, or contact YCIP directly to see how you can become an ongoing sponsor of these dedicated men and women.

DONATE SECURELY TO YOGA CLASSICS

The Yoga Classics Input Project has one singular, sacred goal: To identify, document, digitize—and freely distribute—the rapidly disappearing Sanskrit manuscripts of Yoga`s ancient Indian heritage. These rare palm-leaf texts have been subject to the ravages of insects, humidity and general disregard for hundreds of years.

The precious manuscripts that YCIP is determined to save contain the inspirational and instructive accounts that teach, step by step, how to become happier and healthier, evolve our capacity, and realize the goals of a true Yoga practice.

READ MORE >

* Yoga Studies Institute Classics of Yoga Retreat 2011, Lake Tahoe, CA
* New Partnership with Pure Yoga Hong Kong
* New Parntership with Easyoga company
* YCIP and MC Yogi
* YCIP and Yoga Aid / Sun and Moon Yoga Tokyo