H. R. Nagendra

Key takeaways

H. R. Nagendra belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect H. R. Nagendra to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of H. R. Nagendra from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

H. R. Nagendra is an Indian mechanical engineer, Yoga therapist, academic, writer and the founder vice chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA), a deemed university located in Bengaluru. He is best known as the personal yoga consultant of Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India and is a recipient of Yoga Shri title from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. He has authored 35 books and over 100 research papers on Yoga. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2016, for his contributions to society.

Biography H. R. Nagendra, born on New Year's Day 1943 in the south Indian state of Karnataka, graduated in mechanical engineering and continued his studies to secure a doctoral degree (PhD) from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. He started his career by joining IISc as a member of faculty of mechanical engineering in 1968 and held the post till 1975. In between, he served as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia in 1970 followed by a stint at Marshall Space Flight Center of NASA during 1970–71. During his stay in the US, he was also associated with Harvard University as a consultant at their Engineering Sciences Laboratory from 1970 to 1972 after which he moved to London and worked as a visiting faculty at Imperial College of Science and Technology. Returning to India, he resumed his career at IISc which would stretch for two more years till he started his association in 1975 with Vivekananda Kendra, a spiritual organization founded in 1972 by Eknath Ranade, by taking up the post of the honorary director of the training centre at the organization's headquarters in Kanyakumari. For the next quarter of a century, Nagendra was involved with organizational and operational activities of Vivekananda Kendra. He became the national secretary of Yoga Shiksha Vibhag, the yoga education centre of the organization in 1975 and held the post till he was elected as the national vice president of the organization in 1993. In between, he also held the post of the Secretary of Vivekananda Kendra Yoga Therapy and Research Committee from 1979 to 1986 and the post of the Secretary of Vivekananda Kendra Yoga Research Foundation and the Director of Indian Yoga Institute from 1986 to 2000. In 2000, he became the president of Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, which was started as a society in 2000, and when the society started its academic programs in 2002, he became its founder vice chancellor. The university was subsequently recognized by the University Grants Commission as a deemed university. He served as the vice chancellor of the university till 2013 when Ramachandra G. Bhat took over the position but continues his association with the university as its chancellor. He has also served as a member of the working group on health of the erstwhile Planning Commission of India.

Awards and honours The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare awarded him the title of Yoga Shri in 1997. The Government of India included in the Republic Day honours list for the civilian award of the Padma Shri in 2016.

Legacy Nagendra is reported to be the pioneer of Cyclic meditation, a yoga technique where the practitioners perform slow conscious physical movements. He claims the technique is useful in treating certain psychiatric illnesses, asthma and cancer and helps the practitioner in stress management. It was during his tenure as the vice chancellor, Prashanti Kuteeram, the present headquarters of the university was constructed in Bengaluru. He chaired the organizing committee of the International Yoga Day functions held in New York on 21 June 2015 where two world records were set; a yoga class featuring 35,985 people, and the largest number of participating nationalities (84 nations). He has published 35 books and over 110 articles on Yoga, besides publishing 30 research papers in engineering and mentoring 20 doctoral students.

Selected bibliography

Books H. R. Nagendra; United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (1971). NASA TN D-6554. National Aeronautics and Space Administration For sale for Federal Scientific and Technical Information, Springfield, Virginia 22151. H. R. Nagendra (1986). A New Light for Asthmatics. Vivekananda Kendra Yoctas (Yoga Therapy & Research Committee). H. R. Nagendra; T. Mohan; A. Shriram (1988). Yoga in Education. Vivekananda Kendra Yoga Anusandhan Samsthan. H. R. Nagendra (2001). Yoga for Anxiety and Depression. Swami Vivekananda Yoga Prakashana. H. R. Nagendra (2001). Yoga for Back Pain. Swami Vivekananda Yoga Prakashana. H. R. Nagendra (2001). Yoga for Arthritis. Swami Vivekananda Yoga Prakashana. H. R. Nagendra (2002). Yoga for Digestive Disorders. Swami Vivekananda Yoga Prakashana. S. S. Srikanta; H. R. Nagendra (2003). Yoga for Diabetes (Diabetes Mellitus: Modern Medical & Yoga Perspectives). Swami Vivekananda Yoga Prakashana. ISBN 978-81-87313-13-7. H. R. Nagendra (2004). Yoga for Promotion of Positive Health. Swami Vivekananda Yoga Prakashana.

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with H. R. Nagendra

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what H. R. Nagendra claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to H. R. Nagendra before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about H. R. Nagendra ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of H. R. Nagendra

In research: H. R. Nagendra appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses H. R. Nagendra in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: H. R. Nagendra is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 births, 20th-century Indian engineers, 20th-century mechanical engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for H. R. Nagendra outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study H. R. Nagendra in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what H. R. Nagendra means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain H. R. Nagendra out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is H. R. Nagendra in simple terms?

H. R.

Why does H. R. Nagendra matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study H. R. Nagendra?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on H. R. Nagendra.