Who was Swami Chinmayananda?

Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual leader who inspired the formation of Chinmaya Mission, a worldwide non profit organisation, to spread the knowledge of Advaita Vedanta.

Swami Chinmayananda is known for teaching Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and other Hindu scriptures. From 1951, he spearheaded a global Hindu spiritual and cultural renaissance that popularised the religion’s scriptural texts, teaching them in English globally.

Swami Chinmayananda authored 95 publications, including commentaries on the Upanishad and Bhagavad Gita. He was a visiting professor of Indian philosophy at various American and Asian universities and conducted university lecture tours in several countries.

About Chinmaya Mission

Chinmaya Mission was established in 1953 by devotees of His Holiness Swami Chinmayananda.  Guided by his vision, devotees formed the nucleus of a spiritual renaissance movement that surpassed a wide range of spiritual, educational, and charitable activities, ennobling the lives of thousands in India and across its borders. Today, the mission is headed by His Holiness Swami Swaroopananda, and is administered by Central Chinmaya Mission Trust (CCMT) in Mumbai. Under his guidance, the Mission has reached over 300 centres worldwide.

Swami Chinmayananda – Manifestation of the Lord

Devotees viewed Swami Chinmayananda as a manifestation of the Lord himself; many saw him as a great World Teacher (Jagat-guru); and yet others saw him as nothing more than a charismatic, highly intelligent and entertaining personality. Read about A Life of Inspiration – Swami Chinmayananda, The Master

The truth is probably that he was all of those manifestations. Whatever the person in front of him evoked, that he was: He was a mirror with which to see ourselves more clearly. Yet his devotees never stopped marveling about one aspect of his being, he always remained totally unpredictable. And hide he did, sometimes behind his charisma, at times even literally, in clothes that tried to conceal his real identity.

During one of his early Yagna Tours of the United States, as we had gathered at the airport to receive him in California, we all suffered a shock. Instead of the familiar orange robes that our eyes were straining to see, we beheld Swamiji dressed in black pants and a Nehru jacket!

When we asked him later why he had changed his attire, he said, “When I’m in my orange robes, the passenger next to me invariably asks, ‘Excuse me, sir, are you a sw – a – a – a – mi? This way I can hide. Others leave me alone.”

Was Gurudev self-realised?

In many and different ways, people asked Gurudev if he was Self-Realised. His answer varied. In a radio interview in 1975 he said: “I honestly confess that I have not realized. I am on the verge of it. I will not realize until you, too, my listeners, come with me. I am waiting for the company. Alone I do not want to go.”

At another time he said in answer to the Question,

 “Are you realized?”
“That is for you to decide!”

His words remind us of the vow of a bodhisattva, a person in a highly evolved state who deliberately chooses to inhabit a body again so that he can continue to serve the world and lead others to God-Realisation. 

Gurudev himself was the most eloquent exponent of what it means to live merged with the Truth of the Self, as reflected in his response to someone’s question, “Why does a realized person work?” When one realizes the Truth, one becomes irresistibly vibrant with life. In divine spontaneity, activity gurgles through him.

The physical equipment is generally too frail a reed to stand the blazing gush of love and work; therefore, such prophetic masters generally fold up in a blinding flash of brilliant service to mankind, carried on for a short duration of perhaps twenty or thirty years.

Your question is, “Why should he work?” Can you tell me why the Sun is illumining everything around it? Why fire is hot? Sugar sweet? Oceanic waters salty? Why do birds fly? Flowers bloom? Mirrors reflect? Air moves? Earth revolves? Are they not expressing their essential nature? Can anyone of them remain without their essential property? The realized saint is not responsible for what he is doing. He is one with Life. And Life expresses itself in action.

Swami Chinmayananda is the Essence in All

Swamiji is no longer with us in body, but his presence remains. As he himself spoke of his guru Swami Tapovanam, so we now use Gurudev’s own words to describe him:

The particular form that the great Lord took in the name of [Swami Chinmayananda] has dissolved and has gone back to merge into his own Nature. He has now become the Essence in each one of us. Wherever we find the glow of divine compassion, love, purity and brilliance, there we see but Sri Gurudev with an ever-smiling face. He has left his sheaths. He has now become the Self in all of us.

Om Shri Chinmaya Sadgurave Namah!

Never go to a teacher expecting him to behave in a particular way. Let us accept him as he is. Everything he does is for our good – Swami Chinmayananda

Source: Chinmayam, September 2002