India in the eyes of the Western world is the land of spirituality. Indian Yogis or the spiritual leaders from the remote past have made various contributions in reshaping the Indian civilization. For thousand years they have been around and even today there are about four to five million sadhus in India. Usually they live by themselves, on the fringes of society and spend their days in devotion to their chosen deity.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a notable Indian yogi of the 15th century and belonged to the Vaishnava school of Bhakti yoga. He was also a social reformer. Sri Ramkrishna was another well-known Indian yogi and an influential figure in the Bengal Renaissance of the nineteenth century. Paramhansa Yogananda born in the late 19th century was another Indian yogi who is also internationally famous for introducing the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga to the West. A famous Indian Yogi of the 21st century is Swami Ramdev who not only plays the traditional role of a social reformer but also offers holistic traditional medical treatments in his ashram in Haridwar. He is respected worldwide and his treatments have been able to cure many ailments.