Param Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda
[1916-1993]

My Hero - essay from Bala Vihar Magazine

by Gautam, Ganga group, Chinmaya Bala Vihar, Portland (wrote in October 2003, age 12 published May 2004)

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H.H. Swami Chinmayananda is a world renowned authority of the powerful scriptures of India, especially of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. He was born in 1916 and attained mahasamadhi (passed away) in 1993. He worked relentlessly for about 40 years to bring about spiritual revival in India and abroad. His unique style and logical approach is appealing to all young and old.

His was the life of selfless service to others. He is the author of more than thirty, sublime books, each one a masterpiece, dealing with the philosophical principles behind the religion. He made the mysterious and elusive vedantic principles easily understandable for common people. He is the founder of Chinmaya Mission, through which the work that he initiated and was so dear to him, is carried out in the form of spreading the message of vedanta, overseeing numerous cultural, educational and social service activities. A biography of this great spiritual master, entitled Journey of a Master: Swami Chinmayananda, is available through Chinmaya Publications.

Swami Chinmayananda was selected by the Hindu Host Committee to be the President of Hindu Religion, representing Hinduism worldwide at the Meeting of the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago (during August 28 - September 4, 1993), an honor bestowed on the great Swami Vivekananda a century ago. The Parliament had selected fourteen eminent religious leaders around the world to form a council to guide the world into the next century. At "World Vision 2000," a conference of religious leaders sponsored by Hindu Vishwa Parishad during August 6-8, 1993, H.H. Swami Chinmayanandji was to be honored for his lifetime of selfless service to humanity and his extraordinary achievements in creating a renaissance of spiritual and cultural values in India and abroad. However, on August 3, 1993, Swami Chinmayanandji left his body in SanDiego, California, after suffering a massive heart attack. The equipment with which he accomplished these noble tasks, his body, became too worn out due to the ceaseless Seva of Our Gurudev to humanity for over 42 years. Though he has left his body, his soul lives on through every Chinmaya Mission attendee and his all-pervasive knowledge has, to his great happiness, been passed on to us all.