Memories of Swami Chidananda

A picture painted by his devotees

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Hardcover: xii+275 pages
ISBN: NA
Book Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 700 grams

Table of Contents

About This Book (Back Cover)  
Inside Front Cover  
Inside Back Cover  
Dedication  
Publishers’ Note  
Devotees  
1. Ananda Ch. Puhana 1
2. Anjali Singh 2
3. Arati Lata Das 6
4. Arpana (Joan Engle) 7
5. Australia, Radhakrishan Sharma 8
6. Australia, Maitry 10
7. Australia, Amit 11
8. Australia, Ardent Devotee 12
9. B.Satyanarayana Achary 13
10. B.B. Choudhuri 14
11. Babaji Charan Dass 16
12. Balayogi Kirtikumar 17
13. Bhagirathi Mohapatra 19
14. Bijayini OM 22
15. Bishan Sarup Sharma 22
16. Bishnu Prasanna Mohapatra 24
17. Bob Zwicker 25
18. Bhudimanta Rout 28
19. C. Venkata Seshaiah 29
20. Carolyne K. Barkley 30
21. Chandrasekhar, Architect 31
22. Chidananda Charan Vandana 33
23. Chinchin Mataji 34
24. Chittaranjan Das 38
25. Col. A.C. Sharma 40
26. Craig Stehr 44
27. D.N. Naresh 45
28. Damayanti Patel 47
29. Debesh Kumar Patnaik 48
30. Debi Prasad Mohanti 49
31. Deepak Kumar Bisvas 51
32. Devendra S. Vyas 52
33. Deepak R. Bhatt 53
34. Dheeraja, Canada 57
35. Dinesh KantSoni 59
36. Dr. K. Janardan Prusty 60
37. Dr. Amit Sharma 60
38. Dr. Jayant B. Dave 62
39. Dr. M. N. Rastogi 65
40. Dr. Nilakanta Panigrahi 66
41. Dr. S. Sivasundaram 68
42. Dr. Krishna G. Moharir 70
43. Durga Chellaram 71
44. Eloise Divya Prakasha 73
45. G. Ranga Rao 75
46. G.L. Anand 76
47. Gita Ravi Kapur 77
48. Gopalji Nagarkar 78
49. H.D. & Usha Sharma 79
50. H. Sequeira 81
51. Harbanslal 82
52. Hareshchandra Thakur 83
53. Harihoro Korosudha Pattnaik 85
54. J.M. Sur 86
55. Jagadish Prasad Pati 87
56. Jaishree Mogi Naidoo 89
57. Jatindra Nath Das 91
58. Jayavarapu Ramakrishnaiah 91
59. K. Rajeswara Patra 93
60. K. Ramaswami 94
61. K.J.A. Gunasekar 95
62. K. Kandasamy 96
63. K. Laxman Rao 97
64. K. Subhadra Rao 98
65. Kalpabata Sahu 99
66. Kamal Kumari Kaul 100
67. Kanhu Charan Dash 101
68. Krishna 102
69. Kanta Baweja 104
70. Krishna Chandra Achary 105
71. Krushna Charan Pati 106
72. L.M. Peter Ram 107
73. L.S.P. Rai 110
74. Ladubaba Pradhan 112
75. Lopa Mishra 113
76. Loren Jones/C. Valentine 114
77. Lt. Gen. Shiv Ram Mehta 116
78. M. Manihar Singh 116
79. Mahant Ashok Prapannacharya 117
80. Mahendra Buch 119
81. Maithilee Sharanji 120
82. Mary Alice Dean 122
83. Meera Patil 124
84. Marianne Uhrendorf 124
85. Melissa Schnirring 125
86. Mohan Lal Agrawal 128
87. Giancarlo Gaudiuso 130
88. Isabella Gaudiuso 131
89. Marino & Cristina Pinto 132
90. Stefano Roca 133
91. Moo Briddel 134
92. Mukesh Patel 137
93. N. Amuyaima Singh 139
94. Nagabushan A. 139
95. Muthu Raman 140
96. Nagesh Talgery 142
97. Narayana Kiekens 143
98. Neeru Mahajan 144
99. Neelam Dewan 145
100. P. Kunjo Singh 146
101. P. Lakshmaiah 148
102.P Prabhavathi 150
103. P.K. Sharma 151
104. Padma (Siva Jyoti) 153
105. Padma Charan Mohapatra 155
106. Paul Hume 156
107. Prakash Chandra Sahu 156
108. Pravanjan Tripathy 157
109. Prof. N.P. Shukla 159
110. Prof. Padma Charan Jena 160
111. Prof. V.D. Ramdev 162
112. Puneet Wahi 165
113. Purnima Zweers 166
114. R. Ramesh 168
115. R. Narayanan 169
116. R.B.S. Mani 170
117. Rabi Narayan Panigrahi 171
118. Rabindranath Acharya 172
119. Ramana Veerasingam 174
120. Ravi Kapur 177
121. S.B. Dash 178
122. S.B. Gosh 178
123. S. Baburao Achary 180
124. S. Kesava Rao 181
125. S.N. Nayyar 182
126. S.N. Rajyaguru 185
127. S.K. Chand 186
128. S. Prahallada 187
129. Sahadev Dash 188
130. Sanjna Malpani 190
131. Sarala Mishra 190
132. Sankarsan Mangaraj 191
133. Sri Sarat Chandra 192
134. Sarbeswar Mati 193
135. Sasidhara Padhy 193
136. Shakun Narain Kimatrai 195
137. Shanta Subba Rao 196
138. Shanti Ananda 199
139. Shivcharan (Charles Kangai) 201
140. Sivananda Matri Satsang 205
141. Birendra Satpathy 206
142. Somnanath Lenka 206
143. Sonu/Samta Malkani 208
144. Vidya Swaroopananda Giri 210
145. Srinivas Bhardwaj 211
146. Subhash Nanda 212
147. Subhadra Rao 214
148. Subhash Garg 215
149. Surendra Kumar Saini 216
150. Surendra Wahi 218
151. Swami Atmananda Udasin 219
152. Swami Bhagawatananda 221
153. Swami Durgaprasadananda 222
154. Swami Guhabhaktananda 223
155. Swami Jitamohanananda 226
156. Swami Jnanananda 228
157. Swami Nityananda 229
158. Paramahamsa Prajnananda 231
159. Sw. Kailas Vishwanantanandji 233
160. Swami Pavitrananda 234
161. Swami Sitaramananda 236
162. Swami Poornabodhananda 237
163. Swami Ramabhaktananda 239
164. Swami Satyavratananda 240
165. Swami Sivapremananda 242
166. Swami Sivashankarananda 243
167. Swami Sivanandadasananda 246
168. Sw.Sivananda Gurusevananda 248
169. Sw. Sivananda Nityarupananda 251
170. Sw. Smaranananda Giri 252
171. Swami Swarupananda 252
172. Swami Vivekarupananda 255
173. Swamini Chandrananda 257
174. Swayamprabha Mataji 257
175. T. Narayan Rao 258
176. T.R. Ramanathan 259
177. T.C. Patnaik 260
178. Tejpal Thakker 262
179. Trinath Pradhan 263
180. Tripathi Margi 264
181. “Tui” 265
182. U. Narayana Rao 269
183. M. D. Vaghela 270
184. Vidur Khanna 271
185. Flowers for All 272
186. Prayers for All 273

About This Book

H.H. Swami Chidananda was born in South India in 1916 and surrendered to his Guru Sri Swami Sivananda in 1943. From then on he dedicated his whole life to the service of his Guru and the dissemination of his teachings till his Mahasamadhi in 2008. He experienced God in everything and everyone, and therefore his love and care was for everything and everyone—from the most insignificant to the most important, from the poorest to the most glorious. He had thousands of devotees and disciples all over India and the world. To be in his presence was a unique and indescribable experience and to listen to his words of wisdom and his singing stirred an awakening in one’s heart.

Some of his devotees have written down their memories which are collected in this book. They are written in simple language, full of love and devotion and will take the reader again into the sublime divine atmosphere which was around Swami Chidananda, one of the greatest saints of India.


Publishers’ Note

A few months after H.H. Swami Chidanandaji’s Mahasamadhi there appeared in the Divine Life Magazine a short message inviting the devotees to put their experiences and memories in writing and send them to the Headquarters. This message had a big response and we received almost 200 write-ups. They were far too many to be included in either the Pictorial Biography‘Worshipful Homage’ or the Souvenir ‘Swami Chidananda – The Joy of Knowing Him’. These two books were published for the first Aradhana Punya Tithi of Swamiji in August 2009.

Now we have collected and edited all these Memories and present them in this book. They give a wonderful impression of the personality of our beloved Swami Chidanandaji—who actually had no personality at all, or a personality that was far beyond human comprehension.

May this book bring joy and wonder to all who read it.

The Divine Life Society


Inside Front Cover

May you ever be in constant and continuous remembrance of God, each second and each moment of your life! Live in God! – Swami Chidananda


Inside Back Cover

In and through His disciples the Guru lives and continues to inspire others. – Swami Chidananda


Dedication

Dedicated with love and gratitude to
our divine Masters

Sri Swami Sivananda and

Sri Swami Chidananda


The real Chidananda is within you

By Swami Jitamohananda, Orissa

I was fervently praying to the Lord to send me my Guruwho must be a self realized saint. My devout prayerand intense aspiration got fulfilled very soon as Iwas initiated by Pujya Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj in1978 at Sunabeda.

I was a beginner in the spiritual path; my devotionand faith were not so strong. I did not have theconviction that the Guru is antaryami. But oneincident changed my life. In 1981, I went to SivanandaAshram, Rishikesh, to attend Sadhana Saptaha withSankarshan Mangaraj of Puri. One day, while returningto the ashram after visiting Geeta Bhawan andParamartha Niketan, we found a beggar asking for acoin. As a beginner in divine life, I was religiouslypractising Gurudev’s instruction of “GIVE”. I searchedmy pockets for a coin. There was no coin and I foundonly one two rupee note. I was reluctant to part withtwo rupees for one beggar only as I could satisfyeight beggars with those two rupees, converting itinto small coins. I was indecisive and did not giveanything to that beggar. I was unhappy with myself. Wereached Samadhi Mandir for attending the afternoonprogramme. Param Pujya Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj wasaddressing the sadhaks. We took our seats in the back.To my utter surprise, Pujya Swamiji Maharaj wasexplaining the teachings of Swami Sivananda on thetopic “GIVE”. Swamiji said, “Giving is a sadhana. Ithas to be performed with large heart and properunderstanding. Suppose you have gone to the other sideof the Ganges. A beggar approaches you for a coin; yousearch your pockets and can bring out only one tworupee note. Coins are not available to you. You arethen indecisive and go on thinking that instead ofsatisfying eight beggars, why should I give it to one?This is not proper. Who is that beggar? He is LordNarayana. If you are hungry, can you appease yourhunger with a morsel of rice? How pitiable it is!While giving, it is proper only to fulfill one’s needto the best of our capacity. See always the Lord inthe receiver. Then ‘GIVING’ will be converted intodirect worship of God who dwells in you and in him andwho is both antarayami and sarvavyapak”.

I was stupefied and confounded as to what washappening. It was beyond my intellect to understand.How the master knew everything–tit-bit of my actions–on the other side of the Ganges? My thought process,in no time, touched the yogic mind of Sri Gurudev.Again, I was caught. In reply to the question in mymind, the compassionate master went on telling, “I amonly dummy Chidananda sitting here and talking to you.You are seeing my physical form. But the realChidananda is within you. I dwell in you as antaryami.I see everything, whatever you think and talk andwherever you are, I look after you.”

This unforgettable incident was a turning point in myspiritual life. From that moment, I was determined topractise “GIVING” as instructed by Sri Gurudev. Howcan I express the inexpressible blissful feelings ofmine! My experience is not a new experience. The worldknows that Swami Chidananda is antaryami andsarvavyapak.

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