In 1964, the swami created the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Organization. This was in recognition of the historical fact that Hindus are poor at organizing themselves and suffer as a consequence. The organization has gone down a path slightly different from what he had envisaged but it was never his business to fret about such things. Having created the organization he wanted others to take responsibility. He also instituted the Chinmaya mission to carry on his Vedantic platform. Chinmaya means the light of consciousness and it is NOT named after him. This was one of the questions he was constantly asked. The other was why he became a swami. Usually he would say something funny and deflect this sort of idle curiosity but once he lost his cool and snapped, " What would you have me do? Marry, breed, fight and talk shop until wrecked by age and sorrow this body drops down dead. I left the tomb of so-called normal life to breathe, to bask, to work and to live." The Swami was a forceful speaker and he had a peculiar style that has been imitated by too many obsequious devotees. On him it was perfect. On them it looks ridiculous. Constant travelling had made him extremely malleable to outside influence and his accent mutated according to the place where he had just come from or was going to. He would drawl in the best deep south accent you ever heard until you realized that it was the American deep south, not Indian. He never lost his native Malayalee cadences, and it was disconcerting to hear it alternate with pure Northern style Hindi. His voice was perhaps the deepest I have ever heard, and it could boom like an exploding artillery shell. He made jokes all the time, a relentless barrage of merriment that was a serious culture shock to people who felt that swamis should be sourpusses. His vocabulary had a hyperbolic tinge that comes to almost all those who have spent many years in the study of Sanskrit texts. His tantrums were high drama, but nobody took them seriously, as he could never really say anything that hurtful. And then there was the LOOK. Chinmayananda could quell any impertinence that arose with those eyes. It was like looking into the eyes of a tiger that has just spotted potential lunch, but decides it is not too hungry at the moment. In spite of his great learning the swami remained a perpetual student all his life. He was always questing, always reading and I happened to see him use the 'Yes Prime Minister' episode he was reading in the morning as the pivot of his evening lecture. In the midst of attending to constant streams of devotees and lectures and travelling, he also wrote a series of workmanlike and briskly communicative commentaries on the major texts of the Vedanta. The Gita of course remained his perpetual favorite. He was too successful. Everybody wanted him, and only him and he poured out his life in a perpetual expenditure of energy to satisfy the need that people had to listen to him. This meant he did not have enough time to take care of the second generation, and there were some messy splits, with disciples squaring off into rival camps and the potential successor and boy wonder of many years standing finally walking out to form his own organization. There was too much dependence upon him, and not enough initiative. Fortunately the situation seems to have stabilized now, though it is still early days. Of all the things that the swami will be remembered for however none is as strong as his love for his country. He was easily the most patriotic human being I have ever seen. It wasn't the conditioned-reflex display-patriotism that all Indians trot on any occasion. It was just a vital part of his being, taken for granted; though he said that it was his religion that taught him to love his country so much. Nor was he a blind advocate of all things Hindu. If anything he was a severe critic. He lambasted the upper castes for historically "putrefying themselves in the leprous warmth of luxury and power" and ignoring the plight of the nation. He also categorically stated that he had no patience with those who advocated patience in bringing about changes in a rapidly decaying social structure. " If Hinduism can breed for us only heartless shopkeepers, corrupt babus, cowardly men, loveless masters and faithless servants; if Hinduism can only give us starvation, nakedness and destitution; if Hinduism can encourage us only to plunder, loot and steal: and preach to us only intolerance, fanaticism, hard-heartedness and cruelty then I too will cry - 'Down with Hinduism'." Given the events of the month, March 2001, in Delhi, this may not be a true picture of the Hindus but it is one ongoing reality. Chinmayananda's entire life was dedicated to another, nobler version of Hinduism and he was determined to convert Hindus to it. He died, as he would have wanted to, on August 3, 1993 at San Diego - still in harness. His major ideals are given below. Swami Chinmayananda's Aims & Ideals To disseminate among all nations a knowledge of service as a means of attaining personal experience of oneness with the Universe To teach that the purpose of life is the evolution of mankind, through self effort into a collective awareness of individual and Universal Consciousness To reveal the complete harmony and oneness of all mankind through the observation of Truth To liberate man from the threefold sufferings: physical disease, mental inharmonies and spiritual ignorance To encourage plain living and high thinking To overcome evil by good, sorrow by joy, cruelty by kindness, ignorance by wisdom To advocate cultural understanding among nations and exchange their finest distinctive features to serve mankind as one's own larger Self - Rohit Arya <<back Archive