Dayananda Saraswati (Chinmaya Mission)
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- This page is about the founder of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam. For others known by this name, see Swami Dayananda (disambiguation) Swamini Dayananda Saraswati , president of International Yoga Federation and Purna Yoga Integral International http://www.internationalyogafederation.net
Swami Dayananda Saraswati (दयानन्द सरस्वती) was born in Tamil Nadu. He became a swami as a young man and was the assistant to Swami Chinmayananda when he took the initiative to establish Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati is a distinguished, traditional teacher of Vedanta. His depth of understanding and nuanced appreciation of Western culture makes him that rare teacher who can communicate the vision of non-duality to modern listeners. He is able to make one see, with immediacy, the truth of oneself as the whole.
Swami Dayananda has been teaching Vedanta in India for more than four decades, and around the world since 1976. In his public talks abroad, Swamiji has spoken at many of the most prestigious American universities, and has addressed international conventions, UNESCO and the United Nations, where he participated in the Millennium Peace Summit.
A teacher of teachers, Swami Dayananda designed and taught six resident in-depth Vedanta courses, each spanning 30 to 36 months. Four were conducted in India, and two in the United States. Each course graduated about 60 qualified acharyas, teachers, who are now teaching around the world. More than one hundred are now swamis and are highly respected as scholars and teachers throughout India and abroad.
Under Swami Dayananda’s guidance, numerous centers for Vedic teaching have been founded around the world. The two main centers in India are the Arsha Vidya Ashram in Rishikesh and the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Coimbatore. In the U.S., the main center is the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam at Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. At present there are at least sixty centers in India and abroad that carry on the same tradition of Vedantic teaching.
In addition to teaching, Swami Dayananda has initiated and supported various philanthropic efforts. The All India Movement (AIM) for Seva, inaugurated in November, 2000, brings medical, educational, nutritional and infrastructure assistance to villagers in the remote areas of India. This movement enjoys the blessing of all traditional Hindu spiritual leaders who have united as a single body, the Acarya Sabha, through the coordinating efforts of Swami Dayananda. In November 2001, Swami Dayananda convened the first World Congress for the Preservation of Religious Diversity in Delhi, inaugurated by the Dalai Lama and the then Prime Minister Mr.A.B.Vajpayee. An important outcome of the Congress is the formation of a Global Commission for the Preservation of Religious Diversity, spearheaded by Swami Dayananda. The Commission had its inaugural meeting in Bangkok in June, 2002. Swami Dayananda was also active in forming and participating in the Women’s Global Peace Initiative, which convened at the United Nations in Geneva in October 2002.
In 1986, Swami Dayananda Saraswati founded the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, a Gurukula that has branches in India and the United States. Arsha Vidya Gurukulam is an institute for the traditional study of Advaita Vedanta, Yoga, Ayurveda, Jyotish, Sanskrit and other classical Hindu studies. The word Arsha means that which is from the Rishis - the great seers of ancient India. The word Vidya means knowledge. Thus, Arsha Vidya means the knowledge flowing from the Rishis. The word Gurukulam, means "family of the teacher", referring to a residential center for learning with the Teacher. Arsha Vidya Gurukulam offers Indians and non-Indians, Hindus and non-Hindus alike an opportunity to study the profound spiritual knowledge of the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Brahma-sutras, and other classical Vedanta texts. Swami Dayananda also founded AIM for Seva for social work in India.
