Swami Rama (; 1925 – 13 November 1996) was an Indian yoga guru. He moved to America in 1969, initially teaching yoga at the YMCA, and founding the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Illinois in 1971; its headquarters moved to its current location in Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1977. He became famous for his ability to control his body in yoga nidra, writing many books including the autobiographical Living with Himalayan Masters. From the 1970s onwards, there were persistent allegations of sexual abuse of his followers; in 1997 a woman won a lawsuit against him for multiple sexual assaults. Early life Swami Rama was born Brij Kiśore Dhasmana or Brij Kiśore Kumar, to a northern Indian Brahmin family in the village of Toli in the Garhwal Himalayas. He claimed that he was raised somewhere in the monasteries and holy caves of the Himalayas by his personal guru or master Sri Madhavananda Bharati. He further claimed to have gained degree-level qualifications from an Indian school of homeopathic medicine, the University of Hamburg, Utrecht University, and finally the University of Oxford. The official biography states that when he was 28 he became the Shankaracharya or spiritual leader at Karvirpitham, part of Sringeri Sharada Peetham in Karnataka, South India, demonstrating extensive knowledge of ancient texts to qualify, and holding the position from 1949 to 1952. However, in 1987 two of his closest followers left his Himalayan Institute when they learnt that part of his official biography had been "fabricated"; further, Vanessa Webber of the Cult Awareness Network has stated that his academic background could not be verified. In 1969 he went to the United States, where he gave lectures in temples and churches, and taught Hatha yoga in YMCAs and in private homes. Concerned that the YMCA had presented yoga as one of its physical fitness programs, he included some philosophy and meditation in his classes. Himalayan Institute In 1966, he founded the original Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Kanpur, India; this was followed by an institute in Glenview, Illinois in 1971; it is now headquartered in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, purchased in 1977. The institute has branches in the United States, Europe, and India. Swami Rama founded other teaching and service organizations, including a large medical facility, in Dehradun in Uttarakhand in the north of India, to serve millions of poor people in the nearby mountains who had little