Swami Tejomayanandaji

Swami Tejomayananda is the former Head of Chinmaya Mission Worldwide, a position he held since 1993 after Swami Chinmayananda attained Mahasamadhi. If Swami Chinmayananda served the cause of Vedanta with his service, knowledge and pioneering qualities, Swami Tejomayananda – fondly addressed as Guruji – completed that with his natural attitude of devotion. This is richly and abundantly evident in his talks, his singing, and his demeanour.

Born, Sudhakar Kaitwade to a Maharashtrian family in Madhya Pradesh, the sincere student was on his journey to complete his Masters degree in Physics. A month before he received his postgraduate degree, he noticed a banner announcing Swami Chinmayananda’s talks on chapter three of the Bhagavad-gita. Attending the lectures, Sudhakar discovered his calling and sought his mother’s permission to join the Chinmaya Mission's residential Vedanta course at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya in Mumbai.

Course completed, Sudhakar adopted the monastic order at the holy hands of Swami Chinmayananda, in 1975, who blessed him with the identity Brahmachari Vivek Chaitanya. Vivekji served at the Chinmaya Mission Centres in Bhopal, Kanpur, and Sidhbari.

Eight years later, in October 1983, on the auspicious day of 21 October when the moon was full and bright in complete glory, Swami Chinmayananda initiated Vivek Chaitanya into sannyaasa, bestowing upon him the name, Swami Tejomayananda.

His gentle manner, his amiable, loving nature, his calmness of spirit and his ever-smiling face touched every heart for miles. His proficiency in teaching had to lead to more teaching, and he was then appointed as Acharya of the Sandeepany Sadhanalaya ashram in Mumbai, where he taught two consecutive residential Vedanta courses in English. His agility with phrases, idioms, and his renowned sense of humour kept student communities and audiences alert, attentive and completely mesmerised by his talks and lectures.

Swami Chinmayananda attained Mahasamadhi in 1993, in San Diego, California and shortly after that, Swami Tejomayananda was appointed Head of Chinmaya Mission Worldwide.

Almost three decades have gone by, and one can see how seamless the transition has been. Swami Chinmayananda’s vision, mission and drive have been passed on with the same organisational zeal. The number Chinmaya Mission centres have substantially increased. New projects have been envisioned, enabled, and executed effortlessly:
• Chinmaya International Residential School in Coimbatore,
• Chinmaya Centre of World Understanding in New Delhi,
• Chinmaya International Foundation near Cochin,
• Chinmaya Heritage Centre in Chennai,
• Expansion of the Chinmaya Mission Hospital in Bengaluru and
• Chinmaya Vibhooti Vision Centre near Pune
• Upanishad Ganga tele-serial