Having prepared the audience to lift themselves to a higher vision of life, Pujya Gurudev guided them into the sublime, direct definition of Truth as “Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam.” Sharing the depth of the second section, “Brahmananda Valli,” He also challenged seekers to journey within and enquire intensely. Pujya Gurudev’s systematic, scientific analysis of the five sheaths (Panchakosa) within the human personality was gripping. The way He described the ascending scale of joy in the evolution toward the Absolute amazed the audience. The immortal discussion between Varuna, the Teacher, and Bhrigu, the Disciple outlining the steps to enquire and realize the Highest goal of life was embedded in the minds of the attentive audience. The thirst to realize that “The Source of all joy in the entire universe is but the Bliss of the Self ” was created in that momentous yajna. The earnest seekers who had already begun devoted study of the Upanishads after Pujya Gurudev’s second yajna in Chennai were further motivated to learn, analyze, and apply the scriptural teachings. The phenomenon called Chinmaya Study Groups would soon spread around the country and later the world.

In Admiration 

Smt. Meenambal of Chennai vividly captures the transformative voyage guided by Pujya Gurudev Swamiji Chinmayananda, steering her weather-beaten vessel through life’s stormy ocean. “At first it was his learned exposition couched in the finest poetry that drew me to him. The fatigue of the day’s work or the distance that had to be walked or the rains could not stop me. I was drawn by some irresistible force, as it were. I felt I has at last landed on a sequestered harbour. What the temples, the Bhajans and the discourses failed to give me, the lucid explanations of the Upanishad by Chinmaya gave me. The mysteries of the grand universe, of which this little “I” forms a part, were slowly unravelled by my Guru, who, by his inimitable examples, made easy the most un-understandable portions of our Hindu philosophy.”

It was during the 7th yajna that All India Radio recorded His talks on Religion & Life, Taming the Mind, and Mental Rehabilitation. Pujya Gurudev also taught Vivekachoodamani, Adi Shankara’s great text, during the morning 6:30 to 8:30 am discourses; the book manuscript of His famous commentary was close to being published. The Akanda Kirtan from October 26 to Nov.14, 1954, the Mrtyunjaya Havana from November 9 -14 with an hour’s chanting of the Tryambaka mantra from 8-9 am, and a six day Japa from November 15 – all these infused strength and enthusiasm in hundreds of people. On November 27th, after the Kathopanishad yajna concluded, Pujya Gurudev was invited to bhiksha at the President of India’s Rashtrapati Bhavan.  Completing an immersion ceremony of the sacred ashes from the Havana Kund in the waters of Ganga, Haridwar, Pujya Gurudev marched southward, promising Delhi that more would come!

In Admiration 

Mobasser, a Jew, while exploring Indian culture and Hinduism, found it initially confusing. He observed a Swami’s English discourses on Kathopanishad happening in Parliament Street, and soon found the jig-saw puzzle of Hinduism come together. He says “Swamiji gave me what I was seeking all round the globe. His universality charmed me; his scientific approach held me spell-bound; his grasp of details filled my hunger to know Hinduism. I discovered in Vedanta the Spirit of Persia. My own Persian Literature became a live-philosophy to me!”

Another devotee Susheela Sharma who considers herself fortunate to have attended the Kathopanishad discourses reminisces, “Gurudev was like the hawker, with utmost patience, brought out mysteries from the basket of KATHA that each evening was an event more thrilling than the movies! It did me good; I got what I wanted right at my doors.

If not for the “Door Delivery”, I would have been completely ignorant of my own Religion like thousands of others. Thank you Swamiji!

Those who, with an anglicized outlook, had thought that the scriptures were irrelevant and incomprehensible were fascinated with Pujya Gurudev’s mastery over both the language and the subject of Vedanta. The audience did not need to know Sanskrit. Every word in Sanskrit was transliterated, translated, and explained in clear English from his very first yajna in Pune. Often, Pujya Gurudev’s expressions were poetic and painted a graphic picture. While indicating how the Infinite Brahman is inexplicable, Pujya Gurudev said: “We cannot produce the war of rolling thunders through the frail melodies of a flute!! Similarly, words cannot represent or express fully the roaring silence of all-full-nothingness, Pure Consciousness. In their attempts at reaching the Absolute, words pant and fall back as it were!” Throughout the Kenopanishad discourses in Coimbatore, while the vast audience marveled at Pujya Gurudev’s proficiency in English, they also recognized how His teaching went beyond the realm of language.

In Admiration 

Recalling the profound influence of the discourses in Coimbatore, Shri R Venkataswamy Naidu of Coimbatore expresses how they served as nourishment for the intellect of all. “For me it was love at first sight. There was a void before and the lectures filled up the void. The scientific nature of our religion was pointed out and Chinmaya showed how the other religions cannot stand the test of modern scientific research. Hinduism, the revered old channel, sans eyes and sans teeth and sans everything, was presented to us as a young maiden of sixteen, smiling, dancing and full of life.”

As much as the audience was captivated by His incredibly rational, scientific explanations, they were enthralled by the way Pujya Gurudev would carry the thousands in the crowd as one to the heights of silence. Being a Master Teacher, He was aware that the modern minds were too hurried and fragmented to latch onto the evolved thought patterns in any Upanishad. So, the aspect of meditation that He had mindfully incorporated from His first yajna provided the perfect base; it encouraged seekers and showed how the abstract spirit of Vedantic learning could be imbibed practically. In the silence of meditation, the potent teachings of the Upanishad became greatly amplified. The ardent seekers of Madurai who had tasted the sweet silence strived to practice meditation regularly after that fifth yajna.

In Admiration 

Mrs. Kamala from Madurai beautifully encapsulates the core of her experience attending Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda’s Yajnas: Swamiji’s Yajnas can be otherwise termed as “Vedanta Made Easy.” It is not only easily understandable, but also convincing. The practice of meditation at the end of the daily discourses is the practical experiment, after the exposition of the theory earlier, which goes a very long way to help the seekers in their endeavour to realize what life in reality is. It is impossible to discontinue the practice of sitting up for a few minutes of meditation, after undergoing the rigourous training every evening under Swamiji’s direction. It certainly helps one to develop the proper attitude towards life as such, and greet its apparent miseries with a smile. 

If one attends Swamiji’s Yajna with utmost sincerity, understands the discourses properly and practises regularly, one will, without the least hesitation, admit that “The Yajna Acts.”

To the many who looked upon Hinduism as an orthodox bundle of rituals and superstitions, His approach of uncompromising and scientific logic enhanced by familiar life examples was first intriguing and then became deeply interesting.

In the vibrant 21-day yajna at Palghat, Pujya Gurudev carried the audience of Palghat on an exciting voyage as He described and explained the five ‘waves of thought’ in Isavasyopanishad.  The first  tall wave of the ‘Route to Renunciation’ that the rishis extolled was followed by the second sincere wave of the ‘Path of Action.’ The vivid portrayal of the highest goal of life was the third, transcendental wave. Knowledge reinforced by devoted action would yield maximum dividend, emphasized the fourth wave. The fifth, final wave of thought was the triumphant transition from mortal manhood to immortal Godhood!

The different elements of His Jnana Yajna left an unforgettable impression in the minds of the Palghat people who dived into Self-Awareness, worshiped together in the concluding Havan (Homa), and were inspired to seek and recognize the Omnipresent Divine in everything around!

In Admiration 

Shri A S Menon from Palakkad remembers his first memories of Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda, “The striking feature in Swami Chinmayananda that has charmed me is the scintillating expression of joy in his face – a face which is impervious, to an astonishing degree, to attacks of despondency and gloom. Not that situations which would give rise such feelings were lacking in Swamiji’s life.”

The third Jnana Yajna revealed not only the direct path to the Supreme Essence but also empowered seekers with practices of Sadhana. The features which Pujya Gurudev had included in His Jnana Yajna from the very beginning were becoming an unforgettable part of a collective spiritual journey. The Akanda Kirtan and chanting of the Mahamantra, “Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare; Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,” kept echoing across Delhi. When even children participated in a 11-day Kirtan, when all the audience did an Akanda Japa of “ Hari Om,” and when everyone completed a Likhita Japa (a written Japa) during the end of the third Upanishad Yajna, the power of constant remembrance in the path of purity was understood. When Swamiji revealed the meaning behind Deepavali and Navaratri during the celebrations during this Jnana Yajna, devotion added a special glow. When the devotees’ sacred immersion in the holy waters of Yamuna was complete, it was beautifully clear that the core of Hinduism was being revitalized in that milestone Yajna.

In Admiration 

Rahila Ansari, a Muslim introduced to the luminous wisdom of Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda through a dear friend, eloquently reveals the profound impact these discourses had on her. In her own words, she gracefully confesses, “I went to the lectures partly out of curiosity, but mainly to please and humour my friend. But imagine my bafflement, it did not take me long to feel that I had a right to me there. There was hardly any talk of God, but Godliness prevailed. Hinduism as expounded by Swamiji was not a religion based on old wives tales, but on a practical and highly developed code of morality. Swamiji’s lectures have certainly enlarged my views, destroyed my prejudices and brought me to a pinnacle from which I can see all human beings equally blessed! I am grateful to Him for this!”

On the evening of April 25, 1953, the first few listeners who sat in the spacious courtyard before Arni Palace in Egmore, inside the pandal (tent)  with its flickering petromax lanterns, were entranced by the stately Swami Chinmayananda. They recall being overcome “by an awe-inspiring Presence of the Supreme.” By the end of that 41-day yajna, the pandal couldn’t contain the increasing crowds that stood captivated by Pujya Gurudev’s matchless discourses on Mundakopanishad.

The skeptical listeners in Chennai who were transformed into spirited seekers appealed to Swami Chinmayananda that summer of 1953. They wanted to form “Chinmaya Mission” as an organization to enable them to reflect and absorb the teachings after every Jnana Yajna. At first, Pujya Gurudev refused to be institutionalized. However when the group of devotees in Madras(Chennai) insisted that the word ‘Chinmaya’ referred to the Supreme, Pure Knowledge that they aspired to gain, He agreed to the name “Chinmaya Mission.” Thus, on August 8, 1953, was born Chinmaya Mission whose branches would soon encircle the world.

In Admiration 

“Offering of all our negativities and animalism into the fire of Knowledge is what I meant by Jnana Yajna,” is how Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda described as he emphasized on deep Hindu ideas such as self-restraint and self-training through relentless sadhana during his 2nd Jnana Yajna. Shri R Gopalakrishnan, a devotee who attended his early Yajnas in Chennai recounts, “Sitting on His mattress of easy camaraderie, Swami Chinmayananda used to dissect our day-to-day life and religion with his double-edged sword of Reason and Logic. The “Lion of Vedanta”  expounded the esoteric science of Advaitic Philosophy in a language at once mellifluous, sonorous and roaring. The highlight of his lectures is undoubtedly the telling effect of his homely smiles deftly employed to exhibit the same thought from several points of view. The congregational meditation at the conclusion of the daily lectures has captivated many!”

From an audience of only 18 on the first day of His Jnana Yajna on Dec.31, 1951, at the small Ganesha Temple in Rasta Peth, Pune, the crowds swelled to over a thousand to hear the glory of Hindu Scriptures explained in English and experience the power of Vedanta Shravanam. For a hundred days, the Yajna evoked the Highest; the unique format of the Jnana Yajna with daily Upanishadic discourses, Akanda Kirtan, bhajans, and clearly-explained homas conducted by priests uplifted an audience that had been motivated to also practice brahmacharya to absorb the essence of the Supreme Knowledge.

A tireless, fearless Sage had taken up the divine sankalpa of a Vedantic Renaissance.

There was no turning back – the Goal was glorious, and the Way was lit with Grace and great blessings of Mother Shruti and His Gurus.

In Admiration 

Shri Madhukar Veeraswami Naidu of Chinchwad, Pune recalls how he was compelled to attend the discourses of the first Jnana Yajna. He had been a regular visitor to the Ganesha temple, solely interested in taking the prasad, which was distributed in the evening. He was much drawn towards this young swami there holding forth so eloquently on the scriptures.  “My mission is to convert Hindus to Hinduism,” said Gurudev. These words still ring in Naidu’s ears.  Here was a swami, a stranger to Pune, lived in Madras Dharamshala, dyeing ochre the cloth given to him by some devotees, speaking impeccable English, wearing a unique head-dress, and working with missionary zeal. All these traits appealed to the residents of Poona at that time.

Pujya Gurudev thus sounded the auspicious conch of the Chinmaya Movement on 31 December 1951 at Pune. A saffron flag with the mystic syllable ॐ inscribed on it was first hoisted there.

For the complete story of the first Jnana Yajna: Story Behind First Jnana Yajna; Jnana Yajna Part 1; Jnana Yajna Part 2