History
Founding
Swami Chinmayananda was on his first global tour. The queen of Vengunad, Radha Devi, was the president of Chinmaya Mission, Kollengode in Kerala. There was a request to start a school.
A part of the palace was offered and so the Chinmaya Education Movement (CEM) was started with the inauguration of a nursery school on 20 May 1965, with royal patronage by Shri KPS Menon (ex-ambassador to Russia). The Chinmaya nursery school grew and Swami Chinmayananda inaugurated the primary school on 17 June 1969, in a separate building near the palace. It has over time become a higher secondary school, with 555 students, a staff of 37, and structure and infrastructure.
Growth over the years
In 1966, Swami Chinmayananda first mentioned in a casual conversation that Chennai should have a Chinmaya Vidyalaya; the first of the seven Chinmaya Vidyalayas was inaugurated in October 1968 by the famous Bharatanatyam dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale. These Vidyalayas are considered amongst the best in this metropolitan city and are headed by Swami Tejomayananda who succeeded Swami Chinmayananda as the chancellor for all the Vidyalayas across Chennai and later India.
In the next 25 years (between mid-60 to 1980), 24 more Vidyalayas were established all over India, with 11 in Kerala, five Tamil Nadu, two each in Karnataka, Jharkhand and Odisha, one in Andhra Pradesh, and one in the metropolitan city of New Delhi.
Constructed in 1979, CV Delhi educated its first students in a small building, shifting later to its present site of nearly four acres in the sophisticated South Delhi suburb of Vasant Vihar. Swami Jyotirmayananda of Chinmaya Mission Delhi brought together man and material and forded through the political corridors of Delhi to give concrete shape to this Chinmaya Vidyalaya.
Between the years 1980 to 2013, more than 50 Vidyalayas were set up all over India. A notable one is the Chinmaya Hari Har Vidyalaya, Ellayapalle, in Andhra Pradesh. Started by Swamini Sharadapriyananda (a dynamic lawyer, Gandhian, and freedom-fighter turned sannyaasini and one of the senior-most disciples of Swami Chinmayananda) her passion was to serve the poorest of poor, giving them material succor and spiritual solace. As of 2012 there were over 80 Chinmaya Vidyalayas with over 75,000 students all over India.
In Trinidad
Swami Chinmayananda first visited Trinidad in May 1965. A Chinmaya Mission centre was established by Swami Prakashananda (a native of Trinidad) in 1997. The first Chinmaya Vidyalaya outside India was inaugurated in 2003.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati was a renunciate of the Hindu order of sannyasa, a renowned traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta, and founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam and AIM For Seva.
Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual leader and a teacher. In 1951, he founded Chinmaya Mission, a worldwide nonprofit organisation, in order to spread the knowledge of Advaita Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and other ancient Hindu scriptures. Through the Mission, Chinmayananda spearheaded a global Hindu spiritual and cultural renaissance that popularised these spiritual texts and values, teaching them in English all across India and abroad.
Tapovan Maharaj (1889–1957) was a Hindu sage and Vedanta scholar.
The Chinmaya Mission is a Hindu religious and spiritual organization engaged in the dissemination of Vedanta, the science of the self as expounded in the Vedas, particularly the Upanishads, and other Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita. It was formed in 1951. The devotees of the renowned Vedanta teacher Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati from present-day Kerala, India established the Chinmaya Mission in India in 1953.
Swami Tejomayananda Saraswati, also known as Guruji and born Sudhakar Kaitwade, is an Indian spiritual leader. He was head of Chinmaya Mission from 1994 to 2017, until he was succeeded by Swami Swaroopananda in 2017.
Vidya Bharati is the educational wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It runs one of the largest private network of schools in India, operating 12,000 schools with over 3.2 Million students, as of 2016 and has its registered headquarters in Lucknow with a functional headquarters in Delhi and a sub-office in Kurukshetra. In the year 2020, the million lives club selected Vidya Bharati as an official member of Vanguard cohort for its contribution to school education.
Sidhbari is a suburb of Dharamshala town, situated in the foothills of Dhauladhar mountains, in Kangra district of the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. The Samadhi of Sri Chinmayananda is located here.
Chinmaya International Residential School is a private school located near Coimbatore in Siruvani, India, in the foothills of the Western Ghats, and encompasses a 100-acre campus.
Chinmaya Mission College is an institution under Chinmaya Mission Education & Cultural Trust, situated in Kolazhy, Thrissur district, Kerala state.
Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Kannur is a senior secondary school in Kannur, Kerala, India. The school has two campuses in Kannur.
The Great Mind Challenge (TGMC) is an annual nationwide software development competition, created by the Academic Initiative of IBM. The competition currently takes place in India, Israel, China, Ireland and Switzerland; outside of India, the effort is known as the IBM Great Minds Program.
Sree Rama Varma High School, officially Sree Rama Varma Govt Model Higher Secondary School and popularly known as SRV High School) is the largest government-owned school in Kochi, Kerala, India. It was founded by the Kochi Royal family as the English Elementary School in 1845. The school was later named after King Rama Varma of the founding Kochi Royal family. After the independence of India from British rule in 1947, and the reorganization of the states of India in 1956, the school was handed over to the Government of Kerala, which now owns and operates it.
Swami Prakashananda is the founder and Acharya of Chinmaya Mission of Trinidad and Tobago.
In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a very long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a sacred area or shrine of importance to innate faith. Members of every major religion participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim.
Samādhāna or samādhānam is a Sanskrit noun derived from the word, samādhā (समाधा), and variously means – putting together, uniting, fixing the mind in abstract contemplation on the true nature of the soul, contemplate oneness, concentrated or formless meditation, commitment, intentness, steadiness, composure, peace of mind, complete concentration, clearing up of doubt or replying to the pūrvapakṣa, agreeing or promising, a leading incident, justification of a statement, proof, reconciliation or eagerness.
Vivekodayam Boys Higher Secondary School (V.B.H.S.S) is an aided school in Naikkanal, near Thrissur Town, Kerala, India. The school was established by Vivekodayam Samajom under the leadership of Rama Varma Appan Thampuran in 1917. Now, Adv. Therambil Ramakrishnan is the manager of the school.
Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth is a deemed to be University, in the 'de novo' category approved by University Grants Commission. Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth started in 2016 with a purview of promoting Indian Knowledge System, Sanskrit and Indic Traditions, 2016 was chosen as it is the centenary year of founder of Chinmaya Mission, Swami Chinmayananda. The headquarters of the university are situated at the maternal home of Adi Shankara at Veliyanad, Ernakulam District, Kerala, India.
