About the Mission

Chinmaya Mission Toronto is part of a worldwide establishment founded by H.H. Swami Chinmayananda. The purpose of the Chinmaya Mission is to promote, foster, encourage, publish, teach, and disseminate eastern philosophy according to the Vedanta (compiled by the ancient rishis of India); it aims to help individuals of all ages and race to realize their full potential through the teachings of Vedanta.

Over the years, the Mission has completed and continues to pursue several community service projects in India, including village improvement projects, vocational schools, hospitals and clinics for the needy, nurses’ training centres, tree planting projects, and homes for the elderly

The Chinmaya Mission also has an active youth wing called Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (CHYK). CHYK West is the umbrella organization under CHYK for North American centers. Please visit www.chyk.net for details on the global movement and www.chykwest.com for more information on CHYK West. For specific information regarding CHYK activities in Toronto, please visit www.chyktoronto.org.

Additional information on other Chinmaya Mission centers in North America
may be found at the Chinmaya Mission West site located at www.chinmaya.org

Our Inspiration

Swami Tapovan Maharaj

Sree Swami Tapovan Maharaj of Uttarkasi is the master from whom Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda acquired the wealth of knowledge on vedanta. Swami Tapovan set before himself the ideal portrayed in the Geeta by the Lord. He taught Gurudev all the virtues enumerated in the Seventeenth Chapter of Geeta constituting the three forms of Tapas - physical, verbal and mental. He was a great embodiment of the ideal Sanyasa with all the supreme renunciation, rare saintliness, austerity, deep wisdom and divine dignity and compassion that is implied by such an ideal. He was a Virakta Mahatma, an embodiment of the sannyasa, with supreme renunciation, rare saintliness, austerity, deep wisdom, and divine dignity and compassion that is implied by such an ideal.
Swamiji, a poet, had mad passion for witnessing the canvas of Nature's beauty unrolling itself in the unfrequented peaks and valleys of the Himalayas. He had reported his travels in two splendid volumes, "Himagiri Viharam" and "Kailasa Yatra." Swamiji's masterpiece is the bulky sanskrit volume called "Iswara Darshan." This is an autobiographical sketch, a garland of spiritual thoughts in a Man-of-realization as he waded through the welter of life. He lived, for 68 years, as a monumental expression of an ideal Vedantic Teacher in the ancient Rishi tradition. On the 16th of January 1957, on the Full-Moon day, at 4:30 A.M., in the Brahmamuhurtha, Swamiji gained his Mahasamadhi.

Swami Chinmayananda

Swami Chinmayananda, founder of Chinmaya Mission, taught the logic of spirituality, while emphasizing the balance of head and heart. Selfless work, study, and meditation are the cornerstones of spiritual practice, he said. Not satisfied with degrees in literature and law or other worldly aspirations, he pursued the spiritual path in the Himalayas under the guidance of Swami Sivananda and Swami Tapovanam. He 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 Advaitic Vedanta as expounded by Adi Sankaracharya. He attained mahasamadhi in August 1993. His legacy remains in the form of books, audio and video tapes, schools, and social service projects, Vedanta teachers from whom he taught and inspired, and Chinmaya Mission centers around the world serving the spiritual and cultural needs of local communities. A brief biography is provided.

Swami Tejomayananda

Spiritual head of Chinmaya Mission centers worldwide, Swami Tejomayananda is fulfilling the vision that Swami Chinmayananda charted. As he puts it “I am not in Swamiji’s shoes, I am at his feet.” Swami Tejomayananda has served as acarya, or dean, of the Sandeepany Institutes of Vedanta both in India and California. He has written commentaries on scriptural texts, translated Swami Chinmayananda’s commentaries into Hindi, and authored a number of books. A key contribution is Hindu Culture: An Introduction, a text acclaimed for its clear description of the basics of Hinduism and adopted as a text in some American high schools. Swami Tejomayananda excels in expounding a wide spectrum of Hindu scriptures, from Ramayana to the Bhagvad Gita and the Upanishads, the source book of Vedanta. He conducts jnana yajnas, or lecture series, on Vedanta, as he moves around the world at a bewildering pace. His easy manner and devotional rendering of Vedantic texts has drawn many newcomers into the spiritual fold.