13 Facts About Chinmayananda Saraswati

Chinmayananda Saraswati gave his first jnana yajna, or lecture series about Hindu spirituality, in 1951, starting the work of the Mission.

In 1951, flying in the face of orthodox Hindu traditions but with the blessings of his guru, Chinmayananda Saraswati decided to bring the teachings of Vedanta to the masses.

Chinmayananda Saraswati held his first lecture series at a Ganesha temple in the city of Pune in December 1951.

On 6 March 1965, Chinmayananda Saraswati 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.

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 Saraswati announced in response that he would convert an even greater number of people to Hinduism.

Apte and Chinmayananda Saraswati jointly organised such a conference at the Sandeepany ashram in August 1964, which resulted in the founding of the Vishva Hindu Parishad.

In 1992, Chinmayananda Saraswati attended the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's 5th European Hindu Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, where the ongoing Ayodhya dispute was a major topic of discussion.

At the time of his death, Chinmayananda Saraswati was to have been a featured speaker at the World Vision 2000 Global Conference in Washington, DC, from 6 to 8 August, staged by the VHP to mark the centenary of Swami Vivekananda's 1893 address to the Parliament of World Religions.

Chinmayananda Saraswati had his first heart attack in 1969, when his treatment at the newly opened Chinmaya Mission Hospital in Bangalore made him its first patient.

Chinmayananda Saraswati died five days later at 5:45 pm on 3 August 1993, aged 77.

At the time of his death, Chinmayananda Saraswati was to have spoke at the VHP's World Vision 2000 Global Conference in Washington, DC, and led the Hindu delegation for the 1993 Parliament of World's Religions, both events which took place later that August.

Forty years after his first jnana yajna, on 24 December 1991, in the Leela Kempinski Hotel, in Bombay, Chinmayananda Saraswati's devotees gathered in Mumbai to offer him an amount of gold equal to his body weight, presented to him on a tula in an age-old ritual called suvarna tulabharam.

Chinmayananda Saraswati did not attend either of the latter two functions, as he attained Mahasamadhi, in San Diego, on 3 August 1993.