His Holiness Swami Tejomayananda
Swami Tejomayananda, the spiritual head of Chinmaya Mission worldwide until January 2017, is fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit. 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 Ramayana to the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. As Gurudev did before him, Guruji, as he is known affectionately, moves around the world at a bewildering pace conducting jnana yajnas.
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Sudhakar Kaitwade (as he was previously called) was born in Madhya Pradesh on 30th June 1950. As a student he took a keen interest in music and drama. 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. After graduation in 1975, he served in the field for a few years as Brahmachari Vivek Chaitanya and was initiated into sannyasa by Pujya Gurudev in 1983.
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Swamiji became the head of the Chinmaya Mission upon Swami Chinmayananda's mahasamadhi in August 1993. He assumed his new role with ease and humility, and is working tirelessly to fulfill the vision of his guru. As he puts it, "I am not in Swamiji's shoes, I am at his feet."
As I Saw Him
Many people at different places have asked and still keep asking me as to how did I look upon Pujya Gurudev, besides His being my Guru.
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I saw Him as a perfect Jeevan Mukta Purusha - a person liberated while living. Many a time I have felt that it is easier to describe Brahman rather than a Jeevan Mukta. We find very many verses in our scriptures in praise of such an enlightened soul. One such characteristic defined that comes to my mind is that the enlightened person is one who is free from worrying over the past, the anxiety of the future and is totally detached and objective in dealing with the present. Pujya Gurudev himself used to speak about such a person as someone like a mirror. A mirror accepts everything, rejects nothing, reflects everything but keeps nothing! Pujya Gurudev indeed was that Jeevan Mukta Purusha.
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I consider myself extremely blessed to have had come in His contact and served Him. The most striking quality in Him I saw was His unconditional love for me that made Him forgive me many a times. I know this is true in the case of anyone who had reached His feet. May His blessing be ever upon us all to serve Him.
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Article by Swami Tejomayananda