14 Facts About Chinmayananda

Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati was born on Balakrishna Menon; 8 May 1916 – 3 August 1993 and was a Hindu spiritual leader and a teacher.

Chinmayananda gave his first jnana yajna, or lecture series about Hindu spirituality, in 1953, starting the work of the Mission.

Balakrishna Menon, who later became known as Swami Chinmayananda, was born in the city of Ernakulam in present-day Kerala, India, on 8 May 1916, as the eldest son of a prominent judge, Vadakke Kuruppathu Kuttan Menon.

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.

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

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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.

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.

In 1992, Chinmayananda 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 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.

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

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.

Forty years after his first jnana yajna, 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 in an age-old ritual called suvarna tulabharam.

Chinmayananda did not attend either of the latter two functions, as he died on 3 August 1993.