The Chinmaya Mission

The Chinmaya Mission, a brainchild of the world renowned Vedantic philosopher and spiritual Guru Swami Chinmayananda, was established in 1953, with the purpose of providing mankind with the wisdom of Vedanta. It aims at practically guiding men in their spiritual growth and preparing them to contribute positively to the all round development of society. The Mission visualizes the world as one family bonded with love and respect.

Social Sector
The Chinmaya Mission undertakes a wide range of cultural, educational, spiritual and humanitarian activities throughout the world. Under their Seva project, the Mission concentrates on medical care for the under privileged sections of society by establishing quality hospitals and facilities for research in the field, setting up homes for senior citizens, providing education and rehabilitation for women and children and by developing the rural sector. The Mission takes a village as a unit for social and medicare services and reforms.

Educational Sector
Internationally, the Chinmaya Mission is a forerunner in the sphere of education. It has more than 70 regular schools worldwide, which are regularly fed with value-based vision programs. The famed Chinmaya International Residential School is in Coimbatore, India, and it has several colleges including an Institute of Management to its credit. The mission has also established several vocational training centers for the economically and socially disadvantaged sections of society.

Cultural, Spiritual And Personality Development
The Mission carries out a number of programs to develop the characters of individuals with qualities for community living, leadership and personality development programs which are meant for the young and old alike. Regular activities are conducted every week in India and abroad through Bal Vihar (for children), Yuva Kendras (for adolecents and youths), Study Groups (for adults)and Vanaprastha Sansthanas (for senior citizens) with a view to achieve this purpose.

The Mission has two kala-mandirs (cultural centers) for the promotion of cultural activities and for the exchange of cultural ideas between countries.

It has also set up the Center for World Understanding to foster mutual understanding and brotherhood among nations through spiritual and cultural means.

Another interface of the Mission helps carry out extensive research on Indian Scriptures. The Sandeepany Sadhanalayas impart knowledge of the Indian Scriptures both in English and regional Indian languages. Through six of its Sadhanalaya branches in the world, it provides a two-years residential course on the subject, free of cost.

The Chinmaya Mission has 31 temples (24 in India, seven abroad) for the purpose of bringing about positive transformation in mankind, through spiritual knowledge and Vedic practice.

Publications
The Mission has excellent facilities for the publication of books and periodicals and for the production of audio-video software at its different centers worldwide. Swami Chinmayananda has authored more than 50 books on Vedanta, most of which were published in India and translated into various other languages, Internationally.

In 1991, the Swamji had completed a video-taped commentary on the whole of the Bhagvad Gita, which spans more than one hundred hours of lectures held at the Chinmaya Mission center of study and work called Krishnalaya, in Piercy, California.