At the age of 12, Dr A L V Kumar began his journey of Yoga with formal studies at Kailash Ashram and then with Swamy Vishnudevananda at Sivananda Ashram. He was initiated by Swami Chinmayananda, Sachidananda & Omkarananda and later under Swami Rama and Satyananda Saraswathi at Bihar School of Yoga. Dr Kumar had the privilege of learning asana practice directly under Krishnamacharya, BKS Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois and Desikachar among other renowned teachers as well as unknown but equally accomplished Himalayan masters and monks. His other schools of learning include Kaivalyadhama, (Lonavala); Ananda Ashram, (Himachal) and Kriya Yoga traditions such as Babaji Kriya Yoga; Yogoda Mangeshda; Nyingma School Of Tantra, (Sikkim, Tibet); Bon School of Tantra, (Kailash, Burang County); Nyingma School, (Nanda Devi Peak, Uttarakhand).
In 1992, Dr Kumar met with a road accident and suffered multiple fractures in his lower spine, hip bones, and pelvic bones, and lost control over his lower torso. His urethra was ruptured, and he was told that he would not be able to have children and may not walk again. After a year of experiencing no progress, Dr Kumar began practicing yoga and started treating himself with the techniques of Nauli and Vajroli. After two years of practice he could run, perform all asanas, and in 1994 had his first child.
The accident was a turning point, after which he decided to devote his time outside of work to promoting the correct understanding of the traditional methods of yoga for body and mind under the banner of Traditional Yoga. This teaching included all physical yoga practices that he had been taught by his masters. In addition, Dr Kumar conducts intensive training in meditation (Raja yoga), theory and practice, delivering mind-fitness/meditation programs from Hindu, Tibetan and Theravada traditions at a deep level adopting a science-based approach for rapid progress and leading to profound insight and liberation. He teaches as per the Yoga Shastras and Yoga Sanhitha as given by Yajnavalkya and later by Patanjali in the form of Yoga Darshana. The teachings include progressive practice starting with mantra, through to the highest level of mindfulness, culminating in self-realisation, actualisation or singularity.
Adapting to the pandemic Dr Kumar took his course teaching online, making the traditional teachings of yoga accessible to a global audience of seekers of authentic yoga. Online delivery has proven hugely successful and already these recorded classes have accumulated a vast library of practice videos spanning all limbs of yoga from asana, meditation, dharana, kriya, pranayama and chanting, available to support Traditional Yoga students. Complementing the practice library, Dr Kumar has built one of the most extensive digital libraries of ancient yoga texts and scriptures. The work of Traditional Yoga includes the publication of ancient seminal yoga texts in order to preserve them for future generations; an example being the publication of the complete Kapala Kurantaka, thought to have been lost to history, but recently rediscovered by Dr Kumar’s research team.
Besides the regular online yoga training courses which run throughout the year, Dr Kumar teaches three immersive annual residential retreats in person: a 10 day retreat in the Himalayas within the grounds of a Tibetan monastery; a 10 day retreat in Karnataka, South-central India and a 10 day retreat in the UK. These retreats offer devoted students the unique opportunity to undergo intense meditation in some of the most powerful geographical sites, bringing great benefits to each student’s personal development.
Dr Kumar is now recognized as a fully enlightened Himalayan yogi whose yoga practice, theoretical knowledge and wisdom has been developed through his direct experience of living and learning in many different ashrams, ancient traditions and with many masters. His practice, rooted in the vedas, is steeped in the traditional yogic traditions of the high Himalayas where yoga originated.
Having trained hundreds of yoga teachers over the last four decades, Dr Kumar is a consultant trainer at Yoga Campus in London, and in 2017 and 2018 was invited by the United Nations, International Labour Organization in Geneva to lead celebrations for International Yoga Day. Outside of reputed Indian institutions, he has also given lectures at Oxford Brooks University, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, Imperial College London, The School of Oceanic & Asian Studies (SOAS), and at Kyungpook National University School of Medicine in Daegu, Korea.
Holding a doctorate in chemistry, in addition to two other PhD’s, and being a trained Merck pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals formulation specialist, Dr Kumar has practiced preventive and therapeutic nutrition dealing with phytoextracts to nutrigenomics and peptide-based solutions for gene related problems. In the last ten years Dr Kumar has founded Vedic Nutraceuticals, a company run by, and for, the students, and The Yoga Healing Foundations of U.K., U.S. and India through which he has offered his services, and through intensive research and development has developed an extensive range of nutritional, and other products, to address the physical and mind-related problems of mankind, and to help lead them to the highest level of meditation practice culminating in self-realisation, actualisation or singularity.