About

Param Pujya Brahmaleen Swami Chinmayanandaji, the world renowned authority on the scriptures of India, and the “Missionary of the Age – Yuga Purusha” has, with over 42 years of ceaseless service, created a renaissance of spiritual and cultural values in India and awakened the rest of the world to the ageless wisdom of Vedanta. Swamiji was an eminent scholar, a brilliant speaker, and an efficient organizer who reveled in bringing the wisdom of the Rishis to the level of the listeners.

Since 1951, after lecturing throughout the length and breadth of India, Swamiji, in his global pursuit, came to the United States, Canada, etc. Since 1965, he had been covering all cross sections of the various states, especially the university campuses through his annual tours of these countries. Swamiji is the inspiration behind the worldwide organization called Chinmaya Mission, the vehicle for spreading the message of Vedanta, and for overseeing numerous cultural, educational, and social service activities. Thus, the “Man” became the “Movement.” To meet the consistent demand of the ever increasing devotees in the West, and to coordinate and strengthen the missionary work, the Chinmaya Mission West came into being in Piercy, California, as the headquarters of the West.

Year after year, the Vedantic discourses of Swamiji were organized by devotees. These discourses attracted and benefited serious seekers of Vedantic knowledge.The spark kindled in one such discourse by Pujya Swamiji on “Cause and Effect” at Oak Brook Church, Oak Brook, Illinois in 1979 planted the seed for the first Gita Jnana Yagna held in Chicago. (August 10-19, 1980). This resulted in the establishment of the Regional Center of Chinmaya Mission West at Chicago. Due to the inspiration kindled through several Yagnas, hundreds of children participated in the Chinmaya Youth Camps with activities to orient them with our rich spiritual heritage. Weekly Bala Vihar and Yuva Kendra sessions held in the living rooms and basements were very effective in continuously educating and inculcating the universal value system based on our Sanatana Dharma.

The beneficiaries of the Chinmaya Mission Services, with the blessings of Pujya Gurudev, established in 1979 the Chinmaya Mission Chicago to serve as a major center for religious education, culture and tradition in this historic Chicago land. Pujya Gurudev named the center as “Badri – A School of Vedantic Studies.”Spiritual camps and retreats were conducted by renting prohibitively expensive facilities available only at certain times of the year. Hence the Mission was on the look out for a suitable place for the establishment of an Ashram in Chicago.