Prime Minister releases commemorative coin on Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a commemorative coin to mark the birth centenary of Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati in New Delhi.
Swami Chinmayananda was a renowned Hindu spiritual leader and teacher who had inspired the formation of a global nonprofit organisation called Chinmaya Mission to spread the knowledge of Advaita Vedanta.
Advaita Vedanta is the nondual system of thought found in the Upanishads, which epitomise the philosophical teachings of the Vedas.

About Swami Chinmayananda

• He was born as Balakrishna Menon on 8 May 1916. He was known for teaching Bhagavad gita, the Upanishads, and other ancient Hindu scriptures.
• Since 1951, he had spearheaded a global Hindu spiritual and cultural renaissance that popularised the religion’s esoteric scriptural texts and also taught them in English all across India and abroad.
• He had authored around 95 publications that mostly include commentaries on the major Upanishads and Bhagavad gita.
• He was also a visiting professor of Indian philosophy at several American and Asian universities. He also had conducted university lecture tours in many countries.
• He died on 3 August 1993 at age 77 in San Diego, California of United States.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2015