Swami
Swami ( ; sometimes abbreviated sw.) in Hinduism is an honorific title given to a male or female ascetic who has chosen the path of renunciation (''sanyāsa''), or has been initiated into a religious monastic order of Vaishnavas. It is used eith ...
Chinmayananda Saraswati (born Balakrishna Menon; 8 May 1916 – 3 August 1993) was a Hindu spiritual leader and a teacher. In 1951, he founded
Chinmaya Mission
The Chinmaya Mission is a Hindu religious and spiritual organization engaged in the dissemination of Vedanta, the science of the self as expounded in the Vedas, particularly the Upanishads, and other Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita. ...
, a worldwide nonprofit organisation, in order to spread the knowledge of
Advaita Vedanta
''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वैत वेदान्त, ) is a Hinduism, Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the Āstika and nāstika, orthodox Hindu school Ved ...
, the
Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' (c ...
, the
Upanishads
The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...
, and other ancient
Hindu scriptures
Hindu texts are manuscripts and voluminous historical literature which are related to any of the diverse traditions within Hinduism. A few of these texts are shared across these traditions and they are broadly considered Hindu scriptures. These ...
. Through the Mission, Chinmayananda spearheaded a global Hindu spiritual and cultural renaissance that popularised these spiritual texts and values, teaching them in English all across India and abroad.
Chinmayananda was originally a journalist and participated in the Indian independence movement. Under the tutelage of
Swami Sivananda
Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He stu ...
and later
Tapovan Maharaj
Tapovan Maharaj (1889–1957) was a Hindu sage and Vedanta scholar.
Life
Swami Tapovan Maharaj is one of the most renowned saints of the 20th century. He was a contemporary of Swami Sivananda Maharaj who was the Guru of Swami Chinmayananda ...
, he began studying Vedanta and took the vow of
sannyasa
''Sannyasa'' (Sanskrit: संन्यास; IAST: ), sometimes spelled Sanyasa (सन्न्यास) or Sanyasi (for the person), is life of renunciation and the fourth stage within the Hindu system of four life stages known as '' As ...
. He gave his first ''jñāna yajña'', or lecture series about Hindu spirituality, in 1953, starting the work of the Mission. Today, Chinmaya Mission encompasses more than 300 centres in India and internationally and conducts educational, spiritual, and charitable activities.
Chinmayananda's approach was characterized by an appeal to the English-educated Indian middle class and Indian diaspora; he gave lectures and published books in English. Chinmayananda also helped found the
Vishva Hindu Parishad
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to ...
(VHP), an Indian
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
Hindu organization that is considered a member of the
Sangh Parivar
The Sangh Parivar (translation: "Family of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh" or the "RSS family") refers, as an umbrella term, to the collection of Hindu nationalist organisations spawned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which rema ...
. In 1964, he convened delegates to create the VHP at Sandeepany ashram and served as the organisation's first president. He aimed to "awake(n) the Hindus and to make them conscious of their proud place in the comity of nations," saying that, "Let us convert Hindus to Hinduism, then everything will be all right."
Chinmayananda authored 95 publications, including commentaries on the major Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita. He was a visiting professor of Indian philosophy at several American and Asian universities, and he conducted university lecture tours in many countries.
Biography
Early life and education
Balakrishna Menon, who later became known as Swami Chinmayananda, was born in the city of
Ernakulam
Ernakulam () is the Central Business District of the city of Kochi in Kerala, India and has lent its name to the Ernakulam district. Many major establishments, including the Kerala High Court, the office of the Kochi Municipal Corporation a ...
in present-day
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
, India, on 8 May 1916, as the eldest son of a prominent judge, Vadakke Kuruppathu Kuttan Menon. His mother, Parukutti Amma died while giving birth to her third child, and his father remarried.
He completed his formal schooling in Sree Rama Varma High School, Kochi (1921–1928) and Vivekodayam School, Thrissur (1928–1932). He completed his FA (Fellow of Arts) at the Maharaja's College, Ernakulam (1932–1934), and his BA (Bachelor of Arts) at the St. Thomas College, Trichur (1935–1937). He went on to
Lucknow University
The University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is a public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1920, the University of Lucknow is one of the oldest government owned institutions of higher edu ...
(1940–1943) to earn postgraduate degrees in literature and law, while completing courses in journalism.
Although he would go on to become a celebrated spiritual teacher, in his student years, Balan, as he was known, had yet to formally accept religion. In the summer of 1936, he visited the eminent sage, Sri
Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi (; 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was an Indian Hindu sage and ''jivanmukta'' (liberated being). He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.
He was born in Tiruchuli, Ta ...
. By Chinmayananda's later personal accounts, when Ramana Maharshi looked at him, he experienced a thrill of spiritual enlightenment which, at the time, he promptly rationalised away as being mere "hypnotism." He has also studied extensively under
Tapovan Maharaj
Tapovan Maharaj (1889–1957) was a Hindu sage and Vedanta scholar.
Life
Swami Tapovan Maharaj is one of the most renowned saints of the 20th century. He was a contemporary of Swami Sivananda Maharaj who was the Guru of Swami Chinmayananda ...
of
Uttarkashi
Uttarkashi, meaning Kashi of the north, is a town located in Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand, India. Uttarkashi town is headquarters of the district. Uttarkashi is also known as Somya Kashi. Uttarkashi is a religious place for spiritual and ...
.
Indian independence movement and imprisonment
Approaching August 1942, in the midst of a wide-scale attempt by Indian activists to make the British "
Quit India
The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule i ...
," Balan was one of the students to join in writing and distributing leaflets to stir up national pride. A warrant was issued for his arrest. When word of this reached him, he went undercover spending the next year moving around in the state of
Abbottabad
Abbottabad (; Urdu, Punjabi language(HINDKO dialect) آباد, translit=aibṭabād, ) is the capital city of Abbottabad District in the Hazara region of eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in Pakistan and fourth ...
, out of range of British officials, and then moved to
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
.
In 1944, almost two years after the British had issued his arrest warrant, believing his case was long forgotten, Balan arrived in
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
. This caused him to be among those who were carried out into the night and tossed beside a road on the outskirts of the city, where he was found by a passing Indian Christian. Reminded of her son serving in the army, she took him to her home and called for a doctor, who insisted that he be taken to a hospital.
Career in journalism
Balan slowly recovered his health.
K. Rama Rao
Kotamaraju Rama Rao (9 November 1896 – 24 May 1953) was an Indian editor, freedom fighter, and also served as a member of Rajya Sabha.
He was the first editor of The National Herald (India)
The ''National Herald'' is an Indian newspa ...
gave Balan his first job, as a
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
at ''
The National Herald
''The National Herald'' is an English-language weekly newspaper, based in New York City, focusing on the Greek-American community. It was founded in 1997 and added a website in 2004. Its headquarters are in the Long Island City
Long Island Cit ...
'', a young newspaper that had been founded a few years back by
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
. He wrote a series of articles on the imperative of socialism in a society where the vast majority of people were poor. He covered subjects ranging from history and culture to social and political issues. Articles such as "In Praise of the Postman," and "The Mochi—Symbol of Craftsmanship," gained him a reputation as a controversial character. In 1947, he began a new series of articles for ''The Commonweal''.
Study of Vedanta
It was while working as a journalist that he travelled to
Sivananda
Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He stu ...
's ashram in
Rishikesh
Rishikesh, also spelt as Hrishikesh, is a city near Dehradun in Dehradun district of the Indian state Uttarakhand. It is situated on the right bank of the Ganges River and is a pilgrimage town for Hindus, with ancient sages and saints meditati ...
for this purpose of writing an exposé of the sadhus. He later said, "I went not to gain knowledge, but to find out how the swamis were keeping up the bluff among the masses."
In the summer of 1947, Balan arrived in Rishikesh, by the banks of the
Ganges
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
and made the one-mile hike to the
Divine Life Society
The Divine Life Society (DLS) is a Hindu spiritual organisation and an ashram, founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in 1936, at Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh, India. Today it has branches around the world, the headquarters being situated in Rishikes ...
, the ashram of
Swami Sivananda
Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He stu ...
. There, at the age of 31, he went from being a sceptic to an enthusiast, finally becoming a renunciate monk. He began reading more about Hindu scriptures and reviewing spiritual books. Sivananda recognised Balan's latent talents and entrusted him to organise a Gita Committee. Having returned to the Divine Life Society ashram, on 25 February 1949, the holy day of ''
Mahashivratri
Maha Shivaratri ( IAST: Mahāśivarātri) is a Hindu festival celebrated annually in honour of the god Shiva. The name also refers to the night when Shiva performs the heavenly dance called Tandava.
In every month of the luni-solar Hindu ...
'', Balan was initiated into ''
sannyasa
''Sannyasa'' (Sanskrit: संन्यास; IAST: ), sometimes spelled Sanyasa (सन्न्यास) or Sanyasi (for the person), is life of renunciation and the fourth stage within the Hindu system of four life stages known as '' As ...
'' (Hindu vow of renunciation) by Sivananda, who gave him the name ''Swami Chinmayananda'', or "bliss of pure Consciousness."
With Sivananda's blessing, Chinmayananda sought out one of the greatest Vedantic masters of his time,
Tapovan Maharaj
Tapovan Maharaj (1889–1957) was a Hindu sage and Vedanta scholar.
Life
Swami Tapovan Maharaj is one of the most renowned saints of the 20th century. He was a contemporary of Swami Sivananda Maharaj who was the Guru of Swami Chinmayananda ...
of
Uttarkashi
Uttarkashi, meaning Kashi of the north, is a town located in Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand, India. Uttarkashi town is headquarters of the district. Uttarkashi is also known as Somya Kashi. Uttarkashi is a religious place for spiritual and ...
, and devoted the next few years of his life to an intensive study of Vedanta under his tutelage. As his disciple, from 1949, Chinmayananda led an extremely austere lifestyle and underwent a rigorous study of the scriptures.
Launch of spiritual movement
In 1951, flying in the face of orthodox Hindu traditions but with the blessings of his guru, Chinmayananda decided to bring the teachings of Vedanta to the masses. In May of that year, he left the
Himalaya
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
s with a plan to set out on an all-India tour and to visit places of worship to see how Hindu religious heritage was being handed down. He said of that time: “I was miserably disillusioned and disappointed about ... the stuff doled out as the best in Hinduism. ... My experiences during those five months of roaming only strengthened my conviction that I must execute ... Upanishad ''
Jñāna
In Indian philosophy and religions, ' ( sa, ज्ञान}, ) is "knowledge".
The idea of ''jñāna'' centers on a cognitive event which is recognized when experienced. It is knowledge inseparable from the total experience of reality, especial ...
Yajña'' sessions (lecture series) all over India, in all the great cities."
Chinmayananda held his first lecture series at a Ganesha temple in the city of
Pune
Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...
in December 1951. His audiences soon swelled from a handful into thousands. Army officers from the Southern Command attended and the audience overflowed into the lanes near the temple. Everyone in the audience, man and woman, across all social strata, was asked to participate in the rituals.
Chinmaya Mission
At the end of the second ''jñāna yajña'' in Madras in 1953, a handful of people expressed the desire to create a forum for the study and discussion of Vedanta. Chinmayananda agreed in principle, but he said, "Don't start any organization in my name. I have not come here to be institutionalized. I have come here to give the message of our ancient sages, which has benefited me. If it has benefited you, pass it on."
The Madras group insisted that the best way to "pass it on" was through the support of a forum. They wrote back pointing out that the word "Chinmaya" did not have to indicate Chinmayananda's name, since, in Sanskrit, the word itself means "pure Knowledge," which they were seeking. He conceded. On 8 August 1953, the Chinmaya Mission was formed.
Before long, hundreds of study groups were set up all over the country for people to get together in small batches to study religion and philosophy in a systematic manner. Devi groups were organised for women to take up regular spiritual study and social work.
In 1956, the 23rd ''jñāna yajña'' in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
was inaugurated by the President of India,
Rajendra Prasad
Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...
. He spoke highly of the work Chinmayananda was doing to restore India's cultural glory. In a span of five years, Chinmayananda had instructed over 50,000 of his countrymen through 25 ''jñāna yajña''s across the country.
On 6 March 1965, Chinmayananda set out on his first global teaching tour, covering 39 cities in 18 countries: Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, United States, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Lebanon. Over the next 28 years, he continued these international discourses, staying only a week or so in each place, delivering a minimum of two lectures a day, and handling numerous meetings, interviews, discussions, and programs. He wrote scores of letters a day.
It soon became necessary to co-ordinate the growing spiritual movement in the United States. Chinmaya Mission West was formed in 1975 for this purpose.
Chinmayananda's message resonated with heads of other faiths. One of his ''yajña''s in Bombay was inaugurated by Cardinal
Valerian Gracias
Valerian Gracias (23 October 1900 – 11 September 1978) was an Indian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Bombay from 1950 until his death and was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1953 by Pope Pius XII.
Biogr ...
, a prominent Catholic archbishop of the time. The
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...
, head of the Tibetan Buddhist order, visited with him at the Chinmaya Mission ashram in
Sidhbari
Sidhbari is a suburb of Dharamshala town, situated in the foothills of Dhauladhar mountains, in Kangra district of the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. The ''Samadhi'' (final resting place) of Sri Chinmayananda is located here.
Overview
S ...
in 1981. Chinmayananda was a supporter of interfaith dialogue and participated in many interfaith events.
In 1992, he undertook a lecture tour of twelve US universities to establish an international library and research center, the Chinmaya International Foundation, in Kerala, India.
Vishva Hindu Parishad
In 1963, Swami Chinmayananda wrote an article airing the idea of calling for a World Hindu Council, inviting delegates from throughout the world to discuss the difficulties and needs concerning the "survival and development of Hindu culture." This attracted the attention of
RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
''pracharak''
S. S. Apte
Shivram Shankar Apte, also known as Dadasaheb Apte (1907 – 10 October 1985), was a founder and first General Secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based o ...
, who was airing similar ideas at that time.
In the same year, Chinmaya Mission collected Rs. 10,000 to fund the construction of the
Vivekananda Rock Memorial
Vivekananda Rock Memorial is a monument and popular tourist attraction in Kanyakumari, India's southernmost tip. The memorial stands on one of the two rocks located about 500 meters off mainland of Vavathurai. It was built in 1970 in honour of ...
, which the RSS was building at the time in
Kanyakumari
Kanniyakumari (; , referring to Devi Kanya Kumari), also known as Cape Comorin, is a city in Kanniyakumari district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent and the southernmost city in mainland Ind ...
. Additionally, in August 1964, the Pope announced that the International Eucharistic Conference would be held in November in Bombay, and stated that a specific number of Hindus would be converted to Christianity; Chinmayananda announced in response that he would convert an even greater number of people to Hinduism.
Apte and Chinmayananda jointly organised such a conference at the Sandeepany ashram in August 1964, which resulted in the founding of the
Vishva Hindu Parishad
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to ...
. Swami Chinmayananda was elected as president and Apte as general secretary of the new organisation.
According to Chinmayananda, the VHP was founded in order to
awake(n) the Hindus and to make them conscious of their proud place in the comity of nations. Once we have made every Hindu conscious of his own identity, the Parishad has done its job and we shall feel fully rewarded... ...
Let us convert Hindus to Hinduism, then everything will be all right.
He also believed that the VHP should be focused on educating members of the
Hindu diaspora
Hinduism has approximately 1.2 billion adherents worldwide (15-16% of the world's population). Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world behind Christianity (31.5%) and Islam (23.3%). In the 1980s, Chinmayananda also supported the VHP's Ekatmata Yatras, stating that those who oppose the yatras "have no respect for national unity and suffer from alienation from the country."
In 1992, Chinmayananda attended the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's 5th European Hindu Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, where the ongoing
Ayodhya dispute
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical, and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around the control of a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the ...
was a major topic of discussion. During the conference, he stated that the 14 pillars of the
Babri Masjid
Babri Masjid (IAST: Bābarī Masjid; meaning ''Mosque of Babur'') was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at a site believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communi ...
that were identifiable as Hindu temple pillars should be turned over to the Hindus. The mosque was illegally destroyed by VHP activists later that year in an escalation of the
Ayodhya dispute
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical, and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around the control of a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the ...
.
In January 1993, he gave an interview to
Ram Madhav
Varanasi Ram Madhav (born 22 August 1964) is an Indian politician who served as the National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was a member of the National Executive of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and has authored a few bo ...
in which he discussed the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Comparing it to the
fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...
, he asserted that "pulling down that structure is nothing wrong" because it was not really used as a mosque. " rst let us have this Rama Temple," he said, after which there were "two more monuments which are built upon our Krishna’s birth place and Kashi Viswanath." He stated that enthusiasm for the Ram Temple today was not enough, asking Hindus, "Are we ready to live Rama’s life?"
At the time of his death, Chinmayananda was to have been a featured speaker at the World Vision 2000 Global Conference in Washington, D.C., from Aug. 6 through 8, staged by the VHP to mark the centenary of Swami Vivekananda's 1893 address to the Parliament of World Religions. On August 8, five days after Chinmayananda died, conference delegates observed a moment of silence in tribute to him.
Death
Chinmayananda had chronic heart problems. He had his first heart attack in 1969, when his treatment at the newly opened Chinmaya Mission Hospital in Bangalore made him its first patient. In the summer of 1980, when he was in the United States for a series of ''jnana yajna''s, he had to undergo multiple heart bypass surgeries in Texas.
On 26 July 1993, he suffered breathing problems in
San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
. Taken to
Scripps Memorial Hospital
Scripps Health is a nonprofit health care system based in San Diego, California. The system includes five hospitals and 19 outpatient facilities, and treats a half-million patients annually through 2,600 affiliated physicians.
The system also inc ...
in La Jolla, he was later transferred to
Sharp Memorial Hospital
Sharp Memorial Hospital is a hospital in San Diego, California, in the United States. Opened in 1955, Sharp Memorial is Sharp HealthCare's largest hospital and the system's only designated Level II trauma center. Located in Serra Mesa, the hosp ...
, where he had a quintuple bypass surgery on 29 July. But his condition continued to be critical and he was put on a life-support system. He died five days later at 5:45 PM on 3 August 1993, aged 77. His followers mark the date as the occasion when he attained ''mahasamadhi''.
On 7 August 1993, thousands of people were at
Indira Gandhi International Airport
Indira Gandhi International Airport is the primary international airport serving Delhi, the capital of India, and the National Capital Region (NCR). The airport, spread over an area of , is situated in Palam, Delhi, southwest of the New De ...
in New Delhi when his body returned to India. It was transported to Sidhbari,
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
, where it was finally laid to rest in accordance with
Vedic ritual
The historical Vedic religion (also known as Vedicism, Vedism or ancient Hinduism and subsequently Brahmanism (also spelled as Brahminism)), constituted the religious ideas and practices among some Indo-Aryan peoples of northwest Indian Subco ...
. A ''
mahasamadhi
''Samadhi'' (Pali and sa, समाधि), in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ashtanga Yoga ...
'' shrine has been built there.
At the time of his death, Chinmayananda was to have spoke at the VHP's World Vision 2000 Global Conference in Washington, D.C. and led the Hindu delegation for the 1993 Parliament of World's Religions, both events which took place later that August.
Tribute
Forty years after his first ''jñāna yajña'', on 24 December 1991, Chinmayananda's devotees gathered in Mumbai to offer him an amount of gold equal to his body weight, presented to him on a ''tula'' (ceremonial balance scale) in an age-old ritual called ''suvarņa tulābhāram''. The funds generated were used to support the myriad service projects and programs of Chinmaya Mission.
Legacy
Chinmaya Mission
Chinmayananda established ashrams around the world as places for spiritual retreat, study, and practice.
There are numerous and diverse devotional, spiritual, cultural, and social projects that the Chinmaya Mission continues to administer and conduct in Chinmayananda's memory, including the Bala Vihar, the Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (CHYK, the global youth wing of Chinmaya Mission), and Chinmaya Study Groups for adults, which are also known as Devi Groups. The Mission has also constructed over 58 temples in India and abroad and it operates the Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development (CORD), which was founded by Chinmayananda to facilitate integrated sustainable development for the poor through self-empowerment.
Chinmaya International Foundation
He established the Chinmaya International Foundation at the Tharavad house of Adi Shankara which the foundation bought - in the village Veliyanad in Eranakulam District in Kerala.
Nursery school
From its beginnings in 1965 at a nursery school inaugurated by Chinmayananda in Kollengode, Kerala (India), today there are over 76 Chinmaya Vidyalayas (schools), seven Chinmaya colleges, and the Chinmaya International Residential School in India, and the first Chinmaya Vidyalaya outside India's borders, in Trinidad, West Indies.
Medical facilities
Chinmayananda inaugurated the Chinmaya Mission Hospital in 1970. The facility has grown into a modern, fully equipped 200-bed hospital in
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
in Karnataka, India.
In the late 1970s, Chinmayananda established rural health care services in
Sidhbari
Sidhbari is a suburb of Dharamshala town, situated in the foothills of Dhauladhar mountains, in Kangra district of the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. The ''Samadhi'' (final resting place) of Sri Chinmayananda is located here.
Overview
S ...
, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Publications
Chinmayananda authored 95 publications in his lifetime, including forty commentaries on classical scriptural texts, eight compilations, 13 co-authored works and 34 original works. Over the years, luxury hotels in India started keeping a copy of his commentary on the ''Bhagavad-gita'' in all their guest rooms. His books, written in English, have been translated into numerous regional Indian languages, including
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
,
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
,
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
,
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
,
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
,
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
,
Odia
Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to:
* Odia people in Odisha, India
* Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family
* Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
,
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
alphabets.
Honours and recognition
On 2 December 1992, Chinmayananda addressed the United Nations and the talk was titled "Planet in Crisis."
The US magazine, ''
Hinduism Today
''Hinduism Today'' is a quarterly magazine published by the Himalayan Academy, a nonprofit educational institution, in Kapaʻa, Hawaiʻi, USA. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally, currently in 60 nations. Founded by ...
'', conferred him with its Hindu Renaissance Award and the title of "Hindu of the Year" in 1992.
In 1993, he was selected as "President of Hindu Religion" for the Centennial Conference of the
Parliament of the World's Religions
There have been several meetings referred to as a Parliament of the World's Religions, the first being the World's Parliament of Religions of 1893, which was an attempt to create a global dialogue of faiths. The event was celebrated by another c ...
in Chicago, where
Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intro ...
had given his address one hundred years previously. He was also to be honoured for his selfless service to humanity in Washington, DC at "World Vision 2000," a conference of religious leaders organised by
Vishva Hindu Parishad
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to ...
on 6–8 August 1993. He did not attend either of the latter two functions, as he died on 3 August 1993.
On 8 May 2015, Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
released a commemorative coin to mark his birth centenary.
Biopic
In 2014, ''On a Quest'', an English-language biopic featuring the life and works of Chinmayananda, was released. In June 2022, the movie was released to the public on YouTube in English, Hindi and Sanskrit languages. In August 2022, the movie was released in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam languages.
See also
*
Dayananda Saraswati (Arsha Vidya)
Swami Dayananda Saraswati (15 August 1930 – 23 September 2015) was a renunciate of the Hindu order of sannyasa, a renowned traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta, and founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam and AIM For Seva.
Biography
Early ...