1. The photo of these Mahatmas adorned the walls of Pujya Gurudev's office in Sandeepany, Mumbai.

Who are these Mahatmas?

Answer
Sri Swami Chinmayananda held Chattambi Swamigal in such high esteem that he had a picture of him hanging on the wall in his office room in the kutia in Powai, Mumbai. It is a rare picture of three Mahatmas, with Chattambi Swamigal in the middle, flanked by Sri Narayana Guru on one side and his own sishya Paramahamsa Theerthapada on the other. The sishyas of Chattambi Swamigal inherited the title ‘Theerthapada’ of the sannyäsa order.
Source: A Sage is Born

2. Match these Mahatmas with their childhood names.

1. Ayyappan   2. Chippukutty    3. Kuppuswamy

A. Swami Tapovanam 
B. Swami Sivananda
C. Chattambi Swamigal
D. Swami Chinmayananda

Answer
Ayyappan was the childhood name of Sri Chattambi Swamigal. Chattambi means Monitor. As a boy, Chattambi Swamigal he had no means of attending school; he learnt Malayalam, Tamil and Sanskrit through sheer diligence, taking the help of friends and neighbours. Seeing his eagerness to learn, one of his relatives sent him to a school run by Raman Pillai Asan. The teacher was so impressed by the student that he made him the Chattambi, meaning a monitor, who would preside over the class in the teacher’s absence. And the name stuck, till he became famous as Chattambi Swamigal. (Source: A Sage is Born)
Chippukutty was the childhood nickname of Swami Tapovanam. His birth name was Subramania.
Kuppuswami was the childhood name of Swami Sivananda.

3. After receiving sannyasa diksha in February 1949, Swami Chinmayananda was asked by Swami Sivananda to go on a pilgrimage. Which are the 2 places Pujya Gurudev visited?

Answer
Mathura and Vrindavan. 
After receiving sannyāsa dīkṣā in February 1949, Swami Chinmayananda went on a pilgrimage to Mathura and Vrindavan, as per the instructions of Swami Sivananda. He left on March 11, walked barefoot all the way in the scorching heat and had a severe heat stroke on his return journey. He recovered in a few days and returned to Rishikesh. (Source: A Sage is Born)

4. The young prodigy was highly talented. He enjoyed music, sang well, and was proficient with a variety of instruments including the Veena. He practised yoga and attained many siddhis. And yet, he had to labour hard to earn wages to serve his mother. He carried bricks and sand in construction jobs, before finding a job as a government clerk.

Who was this saint, whose early years are described above?

Answer
Sri Chattambi Swamigal
Source: A Sage is Born

5. From June 6th, 1949 Swami Chinmayananda started studies with Pujya Swami Tapovanji Maharaj and they were completed by August 20th, 1951.

Name five texts that Pujya Gurudev studied under Tapovanji Maharaj.

6. This is a famous sketch by Pujya Gurudev. He explained it with a caption below.

What was Gurudev's caption? 


Answer
7. Identify the birth place of these great Swamis:

1. Kuzhalmannam   2. Pattamadai   3. Kollur   4. Ernakulam

A. Swami Chinmayananda 
B. Chattambi Swami
C. Swami Sivananda
D. Swami Tapovanam

Answer
Swami Chinmayananda was born in Poothampally House in Eranakulam, Kerala.
Swami Sivananda was born in Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu.
Sri Chattambi Swamigal was born in Kollur, Kerala.
Swami Tapovanam was born in the region of Palakkad, Kerala.

8. When Pujya Gurudev was advised rest after his first heart attack, he would sit in the car with a few devotees and go on long drives each morning, to various outskirts of Bombay.

During those drives Gurudev did what?

Answer
Listen to editing of Vivekachudamani book.
Source: Bharati Sukhatankar, narrating her experiences with Pujya Gurudev, in an interview for Tapovan Prasad Magazine, March 2019. The interview was conducted by Swamini Kaivalyananda.

9. This Mahatma had this to say about his book “Some may doubt in all sincerity whether the life-story of a common sannyasin who has neither in the worldly nor in the real sense, anything of the lofty greatness of the sovereigns of sannyasa like Sri Buddha or Sri Sankara, serves any useful purpose. True: but is it logical to say that the poor flies and mosquitoes have no right to fly, because the great Garuda, King of birds does?

What was the legendary book he was referring to?

Answer
Swami Tapovanam wrote this in his book Iswara Darshan. 

10. Swami Chinmayananda wrote: “The great Victory - The Vijaya!! The realisation of 'what I am' and with this realisation comes the knowledge that I had been never the i-Mr.-so-and-so, but ever THAT, nothing short of the Lord Himself!! There was never any darkness! ... There never was a Bhaskar nor a Chinmaya!”

This snippet is from a narrative by Gurudev about the experience he had on this day. What day was it? 

Answer
This is a must-read article by Pujya Gurudev sharing his divine experience on Vijayadasami Day, 19th October 1950, starting at 1 AM. (Page 54, Yours Forever). The original booklet in Gurudev's writing is preserved in Chinmaya Archives, Bombay.

11. In order to train an army of Swamis systematically, Pujya Gurudev set up Sandeepany Sadhanalayas in Powai - Mumbai, Piercy - California, and Sidhbari - Himachal. When were these institutions setup?
Answer

In order to train an army of swamis systematically, he set up a Sandeepany Sadhanalaya in Powai, Mumbai, in 1963, then in Krishnalaya, Piercy, California, in 1979, and then in Sidhbari, Himachal, in 1981.  Source: A Sage is Born.

12. Swami Venkatesananda remembers: “I have heard Gurudev say, that after disciples had worshipped him with flowers and delivered lectures glorifying him, Gurudev would retire into his kutir and beat himself with his own shoes and ask himself if the shoe-beating had the same effect on the body and the mind as the garlanding and worshipping ."

Who was this Mahatma?

Answer
Swami Sivananda
A Sage is Born
Courtesy: Gurudev Sivananda, published by the Divine Life Society.

13. "My teacher Sri _____________________, had a great reverence for Sri _____________________ and it is in fact from Sri Gurudev that I heard so often of the spiritual and mystical glory of this rare Sage of Kerala."

Fill in the blanks above with the names of these two Mahatmas.

Answer
My teacher Sri Swami Tapovanam, had a great reverence for Sri Chattambi Swamigal and it is in fact from Sri Gurudev that I heard so often of the spiritual and mystical glory of this rare Sage of Kerala.

These are Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda's words. In the biography of Sri Chattambi Swamgal by K.P.K Menon, Pujya Gurudev wrote a chapter titled SECRET INITIATION. This article is available on this website here.

14. Who did these glasses belong to?

Answer

Both of these pairs were used by Swami Tapovanam. The bottom pair is preserved at Chinmaya Archives and is profiled in this website here. He used to walk extensively on the snowy peaks of the Himalayas and so he used to wear dark glasses at times, to protect his eyes from the blinding glare of the sunlight. The top pair also belonged to Swami Tapovanam at one point. This pair is in the possession of a devotee of Swami Tapovanam.

15. This is a famous quote of Pujya Gurudev. "Children are __________ to be __________, and not ___________ to be _________."

Select the words below that complete his quote. 

Answer
Children are lamps to be lit, not vessels to be filled.

16. A devotee had sent Swami Chinmayananda a blank cheque as a donation!

What did Gurudev do with it?

Answer
When Sheela Sharma sent a blank cheque to Pujya Gurudev, he sent it back filled with love.
Yours Forever, Page 282

17. The Chinmaya Mission Pledge is a direct message to us from Swami Chinmayananda. In September 1962, during the Chinmaya Mission Workers Conference - Karya Alochana Sabha held in Madras (Chennai), Pujya Gurudev dictated the Mission Pledge.

Which of these words are part of that pledge?

Answer

We stand as one family, bound to each other with love and respect.
We serve as an army, courageous and disciplined, ever ready to fight against all low tendencies and false values, within and without us.
We live honestly the noble life of sacrifice and service, producing more than what we consume and giving more than what we take.
We seek the Lord’s grace to keep us on the path of virtue, courage, and wisdom.
May thy grace and blessings flow through us to the world around us.
We believe that the service of our country is the service of the Lord of Lords, and devotion to the people is devotion to the supreme Self.
We know our responsibilities. Give us the ability and courage to fulfill them.
Om Tat Sat

18. Here is a snippet from a famous letter: “I was really surprised at the knowledge you have been kind enough to impart to him in such a short span of time. His solving the various doubts was so clear and convincing that the audience had no further questions to ask him after his explanation.”

Who wrote this letter?
To whom was it addressed to?

Answer
Kuttan Menon, father of Balakrishnan Menon (who became Swami Chinmayananda) wrote these words in a letter addressed to Swami Sivananda. This was after Pujya Gurudev visited his childhood home as a Swami.

19. In 1952 when a young Swami Chinmayananda was in the middle of his first 100-day Jnana Yajna, Swami Sivananda showered his blessings on him in a now famous letter.

What are the missing words from the above letter?

Answer
Truth, Honesty, Desirelessness, Dispassion, Discrimination

20. Pujya Gurudev's vision was expansive. For one organization, he was the first sadhu to donate funds. He writes in a letter: "Rs 10,000 - So impressive! And the majority have paid but less than a rupee! We have roughly contacted 32,000 houses; each house roughly five persons; 1,60,000 people..."

For which organization did Gurudev collect funds?

Answer
Vivekananda Rock Memorial

21. Below is Pujya Gurudev's message during the very first Jnana Yagna in 1951-52. It was printed in the first Yagna Prasad.

What are the missing words from the above message?

Answer

22. What is the relevance of this specific drawing of Sri Hanuman by Pujya Gurudev?

Answer
At every stage during the construction of the Sidhabari Ashram, Pujya Gurudev gave detailed instructions to Sri Jagdeesh Prasad. The gentle hillock set in the midst of a fertile valley watered by rivulets was initially windswept and bald. The force of the winds would not allow anything to grow. So Pujya Gurudev envisioned a huge statue of Hanuman, son of the Wind God, presiding over the ashram, open to the sky. He sent a small sketch with a note to indicate what he wanted...
Yours Forever, Page 187.

23. Another witty gem from Pujya Gurudev. See if you can complete it.

Which of these words complete his quote?

Answer

24. "I cannot explain what happened in that one split moment. I felt opened, cleaned, healed, and emptied! A whirl of confusions: my atheism dropping away, but scepticism flooding into question, wonder, and search. My reason gave me strength and I said to myself, ‘It is all mesmerism, my own foolishness.’ Thus assuring myself, I got up and walked away. But the boy who left the hall was not the boy who had gone in some ten minutes before."

Whose words are these?
Who did he walk away from?

Answer
Balan, Ramana Maharshi
In page 225 of the book Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, is recorded this narrative by Pujya Gurudev. That book in PDF form is available here.

25. A doctor had asked Swami Chinmayananda to autograph his copy of the Holy Geeta. Gurudev's note was a classic!

Two ____________,
Three ________ a _____
For three_______________.
To be repeated if ___________________.
Complete his note using the words below.

Answer

Two Stanzas
Three times  a day
For three months.
To be repeated if symptoms persist.

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