History

His Holiness Swami Chinmayanandaji (1916-93), the founder of Chinmaya Mission and the world-renowned authority on the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, has been a leading torchbearer of the spiritual and cultural renaissance of contemporary times. Widely extolled as the greatest exponent of Vedanta since Adi Shankaracharya (of 8th century AD), Swami Chinmayananda worked relentlessly for more than four decades to spread the spirit and message of Vedanta throughout the world.

Known as Balakrishna Menon prior to his monastic life, Swami Chinmayananda was born on May 8, 1916, at Ernakulam, Kerala, India, to an aristocratic family. Saints and sages, who often visited the house, were invariably drawn to young Bala and would predict a great future in store for him. Bala grew up to be a charming and mischievous boy adored by all. He continued to display the same brilliance and native intelligence, first noticed by the wise sages, throughout his student life.

The Menons had a family tradition of gathering together for daily satsang and puja at sunset. During these prayer sessions, Balakrishna's creative mind would be occupied in memorizing the form of Lord Shiva from a picture hanging on the wall of the satsang hall. He would eagerly await the end of the session to start playing his memory game. Swamiji later said: "I used to look forward to the satsang for I enjoyed my game." This game turned out to be so sweet and pleasant that later it would become a habit to call upon the Lord's serene form. "At the time thousands of questions used to come to my mind as to—'why' and 'whereof' of the whole 'show'—and I had no answers till years later".

In 1939, he graduated in science from Madras University, then he proceeded to Lucknow to pursue his post-graduation degree in literature. There, he chose journalism as his career by joining Jawaharlal Nehru's newspaper, The National Herald, as a feature writer. Simultaneously, he also joined India's independence movement. Menon's rare leadership qualities made him stand out in the country's freedom struggle but before long a warrant was issued in his name and he was imprisoned.

In prison, he discovered that he had the rare luxury of having unlimited time on his hands. This Menon was to utilize in reflecting upon his own life as well as on life in general. Questions such as: "What is the meaning of this life? Is there something more permanent and if so what is it?" plagued him no end. It was at this crucial moment of his life that he came across books and articles by great thinkers like, Swami Shivananda, Swami Vivekananda, Shree Ram Tirtha, Shree Aurobindo and Bhagwan Shree Ramana Maharshi and others saints.

Inspired by what he had absorbed, he went on to meet Swami Shivananda in the Himalayas after his release. Thus in the summer of 1947 the radical young journalist arrived at Swami Shivananda's ashram with the intention to find out the truth behind of life and spirituality.

But the skeptic young mind was entirely metamorphosed into that of a true seeker after merely a month's stay at the ashram. Balakrishna Menon resorted to Monkhood. he got initiated into Sannyasa by His Holiness Swami Shivanandaji at Rishikesha. He then went to Uttarkashi and mastered the Vedic Scriptures under the masterful guidance of His Holiness Swami Tapovanam.

After nine years of an austere life of a true renunciate at the Holy feet of his Guru, Swami Tapovanam, he took his Guru's blessings and came down from the heights of the Himalayas to the plains of the country to spread the Divine knowledge of the Vedic texts amongst the magnitude of mankind.

Swami Chinmayananda went on to author more than 50 books on Vedanta, founded and headed the famed worldwide organization called Chinmaya Mission in 1953. The Mission has since been carrying out his numerous cultural, spiritual, educational and social activities across the world. His lectures and discourses on the secular philosophy of the Vedanta has been critically acclaimed and followed throughout the US, Canada, Europe, West Asia, East Asia, Australia, and Africa.

During the Parliament of World Religion held in Chicago in 1993 (August 28 - September 4), H. H. Swami Chinmayananda was selected by the Hindu Host Committee to be the president of the Hindu Religion for representing Hinduism throughout the world. Interestingly, this was an honor, which had been bestowed upon the great Swami Vivekananda exactly a century ago.

Swami Chinmayananda had been, in his own words, 'quietly effective' in spreading the Advaita Philosophy of Vedanta—the principle of Truth encompassing all other religions. He used to say: "The spirit of Advaita is not to keep away from everything but to keep in tune with everything", and "to be in consistent passion to give and not in a meek persistent hope to receive."

Whenever asked about the causes of turmoil and anomalies in modern life, Swamiji would say: "All disturbances and challenges come not only from our relationship with others, but in our attitude to all other things and beings."

Here is a sample of Swami Chinmayanandaji's analysis of present day maladies affecting humanity as a whole:

David Snow (an American scribe): "As the world becomes more complicated, are people becoming more interested or less interested in your message?"

Swamiji: "The world is not complicated. It is man who is complicated. The world and the sun and the moon and the stars are not complicated. The plant kingdom and the animal kingdom are not complicated. All the sorrows that you are seeing in the world, including the disturbances in ecology, are not because the world is bad, but because our minds are impure. Too much lawlessness, covetousness, hatred, jealousy, greed, passion, and lust are in our minds. And therefore we disturb the equilibrium and balance of nature around us."

DS: "What popular philosophies do you find most damaging to humans?"

Swamiji: "The practice of whipping up your desires. Each individual is trying to fulfill all his desires—his selfish desires. And there is no society. Each individual is separate from all the others...The father wants his satisfaction; the mother equally wants it as well as the child. Selfless love is the remedy.

According to Swami Chinmayanandaji, "The only demand of life is to love all," and this, he believed, can be achieved through the knowledge of spirituality, which is "neither the privilege of the poor, nor the luxury of the rich. It is the choice of the wise man".

At World Vision 2000, a conference of religious leaders sponsored by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which was held during August 6-8 in 1993, H.H. Swami Chinmayanandji was honored for his lifetime of selfless service to humanity and for his extraordinary achievements in creating a renaissance of spiritual and cultural values in India and abroad.

His Holiness Swami Chinmayanandaji attained Mahasamadhi on 3rd August 1993.