Swami Sivananda Saraswati

Swami Sivananda, founder of the Divine Life Society and the diksha guru of Swami Chinmayananda, was born on September 8th, 1887 as Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, india.

He was an intelligent and mischievous boy who showed signs of renunciation and love for his fellow beings since his early childhood. After completing his medical studies in Tanjore, Swamiji started his practice in Tiruchi. In 1913 he left India to go to Malaysia where he was highly acclaimed as a kind and sympathetic doctor with a charming and majestic personality, who was always ready to serve those in need.

The dormant spirituality in Swamiji was ignited by a gift; a book by Sri Swami Satchidananda entitled Jiva Brahma Aikyam. He began to study the works of Swami Rama Tirtha, Swami Vivekananda, Sankara, Imitation of Christ, the Bible, and literature of the Theosophical Society. After much intense reflection, he left his lucrative practice, returned to India in 1924, where he was initiated into sannyasa by Swami Visvananda and given the name Swami Sivananda Saraswati.

Swamiji founded the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, in the year 1936 in a small, dilapidated kutir on the banks of the Ganga. This was the place where Swami Chinmyananda was initiated into sanyasa.

Swamiji attained mahasamadhi on the 14th of July 1963 in his kutir on the banks of the Ganga in Shivanandanagar.

Swami Tapovan Maharaj

Swami Tapovan Maharaj was the very embodiment of the ideals of sannyāsa, endowed with supreme renunciation, deep wisdom, saintliness, austerity, and compassion, a true virakta mahātma.

Swamiji was born in 1886, in the village of Mudappalur in Palghat district to Balamba and Achutan Nair. His parents named him Subramanyan, but they lovingly called him Chippu Kutty. After the untimely death of his father, Swamiji left his home at the age of 28 to heed the call of the divine, eventually taking up residence in a one-room thatched hut in Uttarkashi, which came to be known as Tapovan Kutir. It was here that Gurudev sat at the feet of the great master for a total of seven years absorbing Vedantic knowledge.

Swamiji attained mahāsamādhi on the 16th of January 1957 on the full moon day.

Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati

Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati was born on May 8, 1916 as Balakrishna Menon in Ernakulam, Kerala, India.

A major turning point of his life was his meeting with Swami Sivananda. On February 25th, 1949, along with five other students, Balakrishna was initiated into sannyāsa. Swami Sivananda gave him the name “Chinmayananda Saraswati,” Chinmayananda meaning “filled with the bliss of pure Consciousness.

Swami Sivananda then sent him to Uttarkashi to study under Swami Tapovan Maharaj. He devoted next few years of his life to an intensive study of Vedanta under his tutelage.In 1951, brimming with Vedantic knowledge and with the blessings of his guru, he decided to bring the teachings of Vedanta to the masses.

By the time he attained mahāsamādhi in August 1993, Gurudev as he is known affectionately by his followers, had conducted 576 jnana yajnas and scores of family oriented spiritual family camps, logging thousands of miles as he traveled across the globe. “If I rest, I rust,” he quipped when asked to slow down.

Gurudev is credited with the renaissance of spiritual and cultural values in India and with awakening the rest of the world to the ageless wisdom of Advaita Vedanta as expounded by Adi Shankaracharya. His legacy remains in the form of books, audio and video tapes, schools, and social service projects, Vedanta teachers whom he taught and inspired, and Chinmaya Mission centers around the world serving the spiritual and cultural needs of local communities. He has authored more than 250 books and written commentaries on various scriptural texts.

Swami Tejomayananda Saraswati

Swami Tejomayananda, was born on June 30th , 1950 as Sudhakar Kaitwade in Madhya Pradesh, India.

The spiritual call came to him in 1970 when he heard a Gita discourse given by Swami Chinmayananda. He was inspired to join the Vedanta Course at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya in Mumbai. Upon completion of the course in 1975, he was initiated as Brahmachari Vivek Chaitanya. Later, Swami Chinmayananda initiated him into sannyasa, bestowing upon him the name, Swami Tejomayananda.

Swamiji became the head of the Chinmaya Mission upon Swami Chinmayananda’s mahāsamādhi in August 1993 and served it till January 2017. If Swami Chinmayananda served the cause of Vedanta with his service, knowledge and pioneering qualities, Swami Tejomayananda – fondly addressed as Guruji – completed that with his natural attitude of devotion. This is richly and abundantly evident in his talks, his singing, and his demeanour.

He has written commentaries on many scriptural texts, translated Swami Chinmayananda’s commentaries into Hindi, and authored a number of original works in Sanskrit. Swamiji excels in expounding upon a wide spectrum of Hindu scriptures, from Ramayāna to the Shrīmad Bhagavad Gīta and the Upanishads.

Swami Swaroopananda

 Formerly the Regional Head of Chinmaya Mission Australia, United Kingdom, Middle East, Africa and Far East, and presently Chairman of the Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth Trust (University for Sanskrit and Indic Traditions) and Director of the Chinmaya International Residential School in Coimbatore, South India, Swami Swaroopananda has now been bestowed by Swami Tejomayananda the privilege to also serve as the Head of Chinmaya Mission Worldwide.

Born and brought up in the bustling commercial capital of India, Swamiji had always been convinced that beyond life’s superficial, everyday joys and sorrows, there was something more enduring and satisfying. As a child he heard from his grandmother many religious stories based on the great Indian epics and the history of saints. These stories suddenly came to life, acquiring new meaning and depth, when as an adolescent he encountered the preeminent Master of Vedanta, Swami Chinmayananda.

His heart completely moved and inspired, in 1984 Swami Swaroopananda gave up his family’s thriving business in Hong Kong to undergo intensive training under Swami Chinmayananda and Swami Tejomayananda at Sandeepany, Mumbai. He was initiated into the monastic order in 1992. Since then, he has touched thousands of lives across the world, and his tremendous work in bringing out the essential wisdom and underlying unity of all religions has garnered him a place among the vanguards of self-development philosophy.

Swamiji has authored several commentaries on such important spiritual classics as Ik Onkar, Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra and Sankat Mochan, besides numerous books on contemporary lifestyle subjects such as Simplicity and Meditation, Storm to Perform, Avatar, Managing the Manager and Journey into Health.

Swamiji is equally adept at conducting ‘wholistic management’ seminars for senior corporate executives. Among the well-known institutes he has been invited to speak at The Ford, London Business School and Harvard University, to name a few. In fact, a proprietary self-development course he conceived and initially conducted, Make It Happen™, has been adapted and integrated into the human resource training programs of various corporate organizations in India and beyond.