On reading Dean, Prof. Gauri Mahulikar’s opening post in this यच्छ्रेयः (yacchreyaḥ) blog series, I thought I would share the vision of the founder of Chinmaya Mission and renowned Vedantic Teacher, Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda when he launched the Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, a school for training spiritual teachers*. What stands out for me, is His emphasis on creating a generation of teachers rooted in dharma, to build a new nation. Today, the same vision stands true for Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth (CVV), 57 years later when, we, the faculty and the management, are committed to transforming higher education in India while being rooted in the bedrock of dharma.
On Tapovan day January 9, 1963, the Sandeepany Sadhanalaya shall come to light. Yes, it comes to light under the gloomy shadow of an impending total war. One may ask, “when the entire nation is to engage in the war effort, when all our resources and energies are to be directed to face the Himalayan danger, is this the occasion to launch a program for cultural revival? Can’t this wait for a happier climate?” Certainly, I would wait, keeping my fingers crossed, for a more conducive national climate if I were to launch the program. But then I’m only an instrument in His hands and He has chosen me to click-in the event just now.
When I was all anxiety to start the Sadhanalaya as early as in the year 1957, all I got was nothing save a few knocks of disappointment. And then sheer despair, I shed my anxiety, letting Lord Narayana shape things in His own inscrutable ways. In the years that followed, men volunteered, money poured in, the Sadhanalaya sprang up, and He was working out His will all right. If He has chosen the present veil of sadness to serve as a fit background for the inauguration of this institution, dedicated to living and spread His own glories, there lies indeed meaning in His move.
I for one think that the sacred event is coming off not one day too soon. Our nation is in danger, much more our national dharma. A breakup of national dharma shall reduce a ‘people’ into a mere ‘population’ of teeming millions. And a population can be conquered and stamped out of recognition by sheer brute force and engines of destruction; but not so, people who have common dharma to hold them together to guide them, to inspire them.
Mahaṛṣi Sāndīpani as one such son of mother Bhārata of who in those days of yore, in his own unique way conducted and spread a holy university to impart and thus spread the divine Knowledge and culture that he himself learned an invite from his Gurus. The same Ṛṣi spirit has been flowing down the ages of our history achieving glorious results through Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Madhvā and other Acārya’s.
This Sadhanalaya stands for the revival of our glorious culture, a culture that will run as a golden chord, binding us all as one people of divine nobility and spiritual brotherhood.
The Himalayas are weaker than the Himalayan culture that is ours. When the entire nation is plunged into the holy Yajña of “war-effort” Lord Nārāyaṇa hastens to launch this program of training his messengers, that will release, in time, the potential divine force of our Motherland. The far-sighted will not, in impatience, send out an untrained crowd to help the soldiers in the front line. We, too, shall train our spiritual soldiers for full six years before marching them out to fight the forces of inner disintegration.
Sandeepany Sadhanalaya is, therefore, one of the projects of national emergency and its success depends upon the grace of Lord Nārāyaṇa showering through every one of you. This is our belief, our faith.
Sourced from “Vedanta: Swami Chinmayananda His Words, His Legacy” page 155-156. Book published by Chinmaya Mission West, First Edition, November 2011.
*As a matter of interest, Chancellor of CVV, Swami Swaroopananda and the Founding Chancellor of CVV, Swami Tejomayananda, are among the spiritual teachers trained at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, in Mumbai. Since the founding of Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, in Mumbai, which trains in English, Sandeepany schools were later established to reach local populations, such as in Sidhabari (for training in Hindi), Coimbatore (in Tamil), in Chokkahalli (in Kannada) and most recently at Chinmaya International Foundation (in Malayalam).
N. M. Sundar, Executive Secretary, CVV Trust
