THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Swami Chinmayananda’s story tops the chart of tales of rebels-turned-renunciates who inspired millions towards the journey of the self.
Rewind to 1947. He was then Balakrishna Menon, a young reporter from Kerala, full of atheistic logic and a fiery sense of rationalism. He embarked on a Himalayan expedition to “expose the bluff of Indian sadhus”.
Balakrishnan, trained in law and literature, began his travels through the mountain tracts, meeting many spiritual gurus, including Swami Sivananda and Swami Tapovanan. Rather than ‘exposing’, he started exploring the psyche behind the philosophy of renunciation and Vedantic thinking.
It eventually opened before him the world of the self. When he descended the mountains, he did not write the intended article in the national newspaper he worked for. Instead, he became Swami Chinmayananda.
“It’s an awe-inspiring story,” Brahmachari Sudheer Chaitanya, who is coordinating the Chinmaya Mission’s Diamond Jubilee celebration that began at Putharikandam Maithanam in the city on Friday.
“The ideals of Chinmayananda, however, was not to merely retire into renunciation with spirituality, but to percolate its essence down to the masses. The Chinmaya Mission was formed in 1951 based on this vision.”
The 75th year celebrations began in Pune, from where the Mission’s activities began following talks and sessions on Vedanta by Swami Chinmayananda in the late 1940s.
Titled ‘Anantham Swaroopam’, the three-day event will comprise study classes and talks on the Geeta, rituals based on Vedantic thought, academic seminars, and an all-Kerala Chinmaya Vidyalaya teachers’ meet.
The highlight of the event will be an interaction between leaders and influencers from diverse fields and Swami Swaroopananda, the global head Chinmaya Mission. Through the discussions, he will explore the scope of Vedantic ideals propagated by Swami Chinmayananda in shaping leadership of the era to a dynamism that is humanistic and evolutionary.
“Swami Chinmayananda looked for such a holistic evolution, and hence targeted all sections of society. His focus was on education and knowledge because that alone can usher in strength and positivity in life,” says Sudheer Chaitanya.
“There were specific packages prepared for each of the sections, something that was not done till then in spiritual outreach programmes in India.”
He believes the way Swami Chinmayananda functioned may have been influenced by his past, in which his socialist thought process helped him understand marginalised communities on whom he wrote articles.
“One such article was published in the ‘National Herald’ on the cobbler community and their artistic acumen. It earned him the moniker ‘Mochi’,” smiles Sudheer Chaitanya. “He saw education as a way forward, and hence even in his new role as a guru, he chose to work in the educational sphere more than any other.”
Chinmaya Mission’s activities, hence, have mostly been in the educational sphere, says its trustee, Dr Arun S. He highlights the Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth in Kochi, adding that it was “a dream that Swami Chinmayananda saw in the late 1980s”.
“Now, in its 10th year, the institution has a sprawling campus on the outskirts of Kochi, offering state-of-the-art facilities for all streams of professional study,” he says.
The resolve of the Mission, thus, has been to take the spiritual thoughts of Vedanta to all — devoid of any class and creed. The anniversary event will throw light on the Mission’s journey so far, and the firebrand spirit that envisioned it all.