Chinmayananda
Encyclopedia
Swami Chinmayananda born Balakrishna Menon
(Balan), was a Hindu India
n spiritual leader, and teacher, who inspired the formation of Chinmaya Mission
in 1953 to spread the message of Vedanta
. The organization that was founded by his disciples and led by him: the Chinmaya Mission
has over 300 centers in India and the world over.
He was a disciple of Swami Sivananda
at Rishikesh, who founded the Divine Life Society
, and was then advised by Swami Sivananda to study under Swami Tapovan Maharaj
in Uttarkashi
in the Himalayas.
(Balan) was born in Ernakulam
, Kerala
in a devout Hindu
noble family called "Poothampalli" of Parukutti Amma and Vadakke Kurupath Kuttan Menon. Upon his birth, his father called for an astrologer, who stated that Balan's birth was an auspicious one, and that he was destined for greatness. He studied Science at Maharaja's College at Ernakulam
and Liberal Arts at St. Thomas College, Thrissur
. He graduated from Madras University in 1939 and went on to do graduate study in English literature from Lucknow University.
in 1942. He was deeply involved in the movement and used to write and distribute phamplets and write speeches. Within a week, hundreds were dead and thousands were imprisoned in jails. After sometime, news of his imminent arrest reached Balan. For a whole Year of 1943 he stayed in Kashmir
. He then left Kashmir
for Delhi
but, on the way in Abbottabad
he saw that the British Police were searching for him. He ran away from the bus and on the way he saw a British Military Intelligence Communication Centre. He pretended to be a young man looking for a job. He was hired immediately as a machine operator for relaying coded messages. After eight months of service, He left the job and again participated in the Freedom Movement, thinking that the British Police had forgotten him after two years. But unfortunately he was caught and put into a cold, dark cell with other Freedom Fighters, with little food and poor hygienic conditions. Disease was rampant, and many political prisoners died each day. The British
did not want to admit to or deal with the increasing number of deaths in the prison. Balan, too, fell ill with typhus
. The police thought that he was dead too. The next morning they laid him on the road. After a while, a woman came and stopped her car. She thought that Balan was her own son, who was with the British troops in Europe
. She took Balan to her home and after several weeks, he recovered. Once recovered, Balan caught a train to Baroda (Vadodra).
at Ananda Kutir, Swami Sivananda's ashram in Rishikesh as he planned to write an article critical of Hindu monks, but instead his life was changed forever and he became interested in the Hindu spiritual path. Balakrishna Menon took sanyas deeksha(monkhood) from Swami Sivananda on Mahashivratri day on February 25, 1949, and was thus given the name Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati - the one who is saturated in Bliss and pure Consciousness. He stayed at Sivanada Ashram, Rishikesh for several years, and subsequently Swami Sivananda saw further potential in Swami Chinmayananda and sent him to study under a guru
in the Himalayas - Swami Tapovan Maharaj
under whom he studied for the following years.
Swami Tapovan Maharaj was known for his rigid teaching style, to the point where he told Swami Chinmayananda that he would only say everything once, and at anytime he would ask questions to him. Even with these extreme terms, Swami Chinmayananda stayed with Tapovan maharaj until the very end of 8 years. Being a journalist at heart, Swami Chinmayananda wanted to make this pure knowledge available to all people of all backgrounds, even though Tapovan Maharaj had initially advised against it. Through gentle persuasion and a promise that he would, as the Ganga - River Ganges, take the knowledge to the plains for the benefit of all Indians, with Tapovan Maharaj's blessings, he left the Himalayas in 1952, to teach the world the knowledge of Vedanta
.
Yagnas, in an effort to spread the message of the Geeta and the Upanishads, thus the first such Geeta Gyana Yagna was held in Pune
between December 31, 1951 and April 1952. In his whole Lifetime he had done almost 690 Jnana
Yagna.
In 1953, his closest disciples founded the Chinmaya Mission
, named so to indicate that the goal of its followers was infinite bliss. During his forty years of travelling and teaching, Swami Chinmayananda opened numerous centres and ashrams worldwide, he also built many schools, hospitals, nursing homes and clinics. He played a major role in the renovation of many temples. His interest in helping the villagers with basic necessities lead to the eventual creation of a rural development project, known as the Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development or CORD. Its National Director, Dr. Kshama Metre was recently awarded the Padma Shree National award in Social Work.
on 19 August 1993, at the Sidhbari
Ashram in the Himalayas.
. This mission serves Swami Chinmayananda's vision of reinvigorating India's rich cultural heritage, and making Vedanta accessible to everybody regardless of age, nationality, or religious background. Over 10,000 members of the Chinmaya Mission from over the world gathered in Mumbai in December 2001 to commemorate 50 years of the first Gyana Yagna at Pune. Two years later in 2003, the Chinmaya Movement celebrated its golden jubilee.
Menon
Menon is a clan of the Nair community of Kerala and was an honorific hereditary title to be used as an affix to the name and investituted by the Sāmudiri Rāja on certain members of Kiryathil and Akattu Charna classes of Nairs. Menons who belonged to the Kiriyathil were Vassals to the Kings. The...
(Balan), was a Hindu India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n spiritual leader, and teacher, who inspired the formation of Chinmaya Mission
Chinmaya Mission
Chinmaya Mission was founded in 1953 by the devotees of Swami Chinmayananda to 'give organizational structure and cohesiveness to the work and activities initiated by Swami Chinmayananda' . It is administered from Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Mumbai...
in 1953 to spread the message of Vedanta
Vedanta
Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
. The organization that was founded by his disciples and led by him: the Chinmaya Mission
Chinmaya Mission
Chinmaya Mission was founded in 1953 by the devotees of Swami Chinmayananda to 'give organizational structure and cohesiveness to the work and activities initiated by Swami Chinmayananda' . It is administered from Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Mumbai...
has over 300 centers in India and the world over.
He was a disciple of Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a proponent of Yoga and Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He studied medicine and served in Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism...
at Rishikesh, who founded the Divine Life Society
Divine Life Society
The Divine Life Society is a religious organization and an ashram, founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in 1936, at Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh, India...
, and was then advised by Swami Sivananda to study under Swami Tapovan Maharaj
Tapovan Maharaj
Swami Tapovan Maharaj was a Hindu Sannyasi and Vedanta scholar who taught both Swami Chinmayananda, the founder of the Chinmaya Mission Movement and Swami Sundaranand....
in Uttarkashi
Uttarkashi
Uttarkashi, meaning Kashi of the north, is a holy town in Uttarakhand, India. It is the district headquarter of Uttarkashi district. Uttarkashi is situated on the banks of river Bhagirathi at an altitude of 1352 m above sea level. Uttarkashi is home to a number of ashrams and temples and also to...
in the Himalayas.
Early life and education
Balakrishna MenonMenon
Menon is a clan of the Nair community of Kerala and was an honorific hereditary title to be used as an affix to the name and investituted by the Sāmudiri Rāja on certain members of Kiryathil and Akattu Charna classes of Nairs. Menons who belonged to the Kiriyathil were Vassals to the Kings. The...
(Balan) was born in Ernakulam
Ernakulam
Ernakulam refers to the downtown area or the western part of the mainland of Kochi city in Kerala, India. The city is the most urban part of Kochi and has lent its name to the Ernakulam district. Ernakulam is called the commercial capital of the state of Kerala and is a main nerve of business in...
, Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
in a devout Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
noble family called "Poothampalli" of Parukutti Amma and Vadakke Kurupath Kuttan Menon. Upon his birth, his father called for an astrologer, who stated that Balan's birth was an auspicious one, and that he was destined for greatness. He studied Science at Maharaja's College at Ernakulam
Ernakulam
Ernakulam refers to the downtown area or the western part of the mainland of Kochi city in Kerala, India. The city is the most urban part of Kochi and has lent its name to the Ernakulam district. Ernakulam is called the commercial capital of the state of Kerala and is a main nerve of business in...
and Liberal Arts at St. Thomas College, Thrissur
St. Thomas College, Thrissur
St. Thomas College, Thrissur is located in Thrissur city, the cultural capital of Kerala State, India. Founded by Mar Adolph Medlycott in 1889, this college played a very important role in the development of Kerala. It gave birth to the thoughts of the communist leader and Kerala's first chief...
. He graduated from Madras University in 1939 and went on to do graduate study in English literature from Lucknow University.
Participation in Freedom Movement
Balakrishna Menon took part in the Quit India MovementQuit India Movement
The Quit India Movement , or the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...
in 1942. He was deeply involved in the movement and used to write and distribute phamplets and write speeches. Within a week, hundreds were dead and thousands were imprisoned in jails. After sometime, news of his imminent arrest reached Balan. For a whole Year of 1943 he stayed in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
. He then left Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
for Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
but, on the way in Abbottabad
Abbottabad
Abbottabad is a city located in the Hazara region of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Pakistan. The city is situated in the Orash Valley, northeast of the capital Islamabad and east of Peshawar at an altitude of and is the capital of the Abbottabad District...
he saw that the British Police were searching for him. He ran away from the bus and on the way he saw a British Military Intelligence Communication Centre. He pretended to be a young man looking for a job. He was hired immediately as a machine operator for relaying coded messages. After eight months of service, He left the job and again participated in the Freedom Movement, thinking that the British Police had forgotten him after two years. But unfortunately he was caught and put into a cold, dark cell with other Freedom Fighters, with little food and poor hygienic conditions. Disease was rampant, and many political prisoners died each day. The British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
did not want to admit to or deal with the increasing number of deaths in the prison. Balan, too, fell ill with typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
. The police thought that he was dead too. The next morning they laid him on the road. After a while, a woman came and stopped her car. She thought that Balan was her own son, who was with the British troops in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. She took Balan to her home and after several weeks, he recovered. Once recovered, Balan caught a train to Baroda (Vadodra).
Initiation and disciple hood
Balan entered the field of journalism, and worked for The National Herald, where he felt he could influence political, economic and social reform in India. While working at the Herald, he went to meet Swami SivanandaSwami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a proponent of Yoga and Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He studied medicine and served in Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism...
at Ananda Kutir, Swami Sivananda's ashram in Rishikesh as he planned to write an article critical of Hindu monks, but instead his life was changed forever and he became interested in the Hindu spiritual path. Balakrishna Menon took sanyas deeksha(monkhood) from Swami Sivananda on Mahashivratri day on February 25, 1949, and was thus given the name Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati - the one who is saturated in Bliss and pure Consciousness. He stayed at Sivanada Ashram, Rishikesh for several years, and subsequently Swami Sivananda saw further potential in Swami Chinmayananda and sent him to study under a guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
in the Himalayas - Swami Tapovan Maharaj
Tapovan Maharaj
Swami Tapovan Maharaj was a Hindu Sannyasi and Vedanta scholar who taught both Swami Chinmayananda, the founder of the Chinmaya Mission Movement and Swami Sundaranand....
under whom he studied for the following years.
Swami Tapovan Maharaj was known for his rigid teaching style, to the point where he told Swami Chinmayananda that he would only say everything once, and at anytime he would ask questions to him. Even with these extreme terms, Swami Chinmayananda stayed with Tapovan maharaj until the very end of 8 years. Being a journalist at heart, Swami Chinmayananda wanted to make this pure knowledge available to all people of all backgrounds, even though Tapovan Maharaj had initially advised against it. Through gentle persuasion and a promise that he would, as the Ganga - River Ganges, take the knowledge to the plains for the benefit of all Indians, with Tapovan Maharaj's blessings, he left the Himalayas in 1952, to teach the world the knowledge of Vedanta
Vedanta
Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
.
Works
Swami Chinmayananda started the tradition of JnanaJnana
Jñāna or gñāna is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means knowledge. It has various nuances of meaning depending on the context. The idea of jnana centers around a cognitive event which is recognized when experienced...
Yagnas, in an effort to spread the message of the Geeta and the Upanishads, thus the first such Geeta Gyana Yagna was held in Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
between December 31, 1951 and April 1952. In his whole Lifetime he had done almost 690 Jnana
Jnana
Jñāna or gñāna is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means knowledge. It has various nuances of meaning depending on the context. The idea of jnana centers around a cognitive event which is recognized when experienced...
Yagna.
In 1953, his closest disciples founded the Chinmaya Mission
Chinmaya Mission
Chinmaya Mission was founded in 1953 by the devotees of Swami Chinmayananda to 'give organizational structure and cohesiveness to the work and activities initiated by Swami Chinmayananda' . It is administered from Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Mumbai...
, named so to indicate that the goal of its followers was infinite bliss. During his forty years of travelling and teaching, Swami Chinmayananda opened numerous centres and ashrams worldwide, he also built many schools, hospitals, nursing homes and clinics. He played a major role in the renovation of many temples. His interest in helping the villagers with basic necessities lead to the eventual creation of a rural development project, known as the Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development or CORD. Its National Director, Dr. Kshama Metre was recently awarded the Padma Shree National award in Social Work.
Death
Swami Chinmayananda died on 3 August 1993 in San Diego, California after being suffered from his fourth heart attack and his mortal remains were placed in a SamadhiSamadhi
Samadhi in Hinduism, Buddhism,Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools is a higher level of concentrated meditation, or dhyāna. In the yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali....
on 19 August 1993, at the Sidhbari
Sidhbari
Sidhbari is a small town, situated in the foothills of Dhauladhar mountains, in Kangra district of the state of Himachal Pradesh, India.-Overview:...
Ashram in the Himalayas.
Legacy
Today, his legacy remains in the form of the vibrant international organization called the Chinmaya MissionChinmaya Mission
Chinmaya Mission was founded in 1953 by the devotees of Swami Chinmayananda to 'give organizational structure and cohesiveness to the work and activities initiated by Swami Chinmayananda' . It is administered from Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Mumbai...
. This mission serves Swami Chinmayananda's vision of reinvigorating India's rich cultural heritage, and making Vedanta accessible to everybody regardless of age, nationality, or religious background. Over 10,000 members of the Chinmaya Mission from over the world gathered in Mumbai in December 2001 to commemorate 50 years of the first Gyana Yagna at Pune. Two years later in 2003, the Chinmaya Movement celebrated its golden jubilee.
Further reading
- Journey of a Master: Swami Chinmayananda, the Man, the Path, the Teaching, by Nancy Patchen. Asian Humanities Press, 1991. ISBN 0-89581-922-8, 9780895819222.
- Ageless Guru: The Inspirational Life of Swami Chinmayananda, by Radhika Krishnakumar. Eeshwar, 1998. ISBN 81-86982-56-6. 9788186982563.
- At Every Breath, A Teaching: Stories About the Life and Teachings of Swami Chinmayananda, by Rudite J Emir. Chinmaya Publications, 1999. ISBN 1-880687-31-3.
- The Role of Swami Chinmayananda in Revitalization of Hinduism and Reinterpretation of Christianity, by Jagdhari Maish. Punthi Pustak, 2000. ISBN 81-86791-20-5, 9788186791202.
- The Penguin Swami Chinmayananda Reader, by Anita Raina Thapan. Viking (India), 2004. ISBN 0-670-05811-4.http://www.amazon.com/s?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Swami+Chinmayananda+&x=22&y=19
See also
- Swami sukhabodhanandaSwami sukhabodhanandaSwami Sukhabodhananda is a well known guru from the Bangalore area of India who is nicknamed "the Corporate Guru." His talks and workshops combine Vedic tradition with Western management and psychological development perspectives. He is known internationally for representing Hinduism at the 2005...
, student of Swami Chinmayananda, known as the "Corporate Guru"