Pujya Param Guru

CHINMAYA MISSION AUSTIN

SWAMI TAPOVAN MAHARAJ (OUR PUJYA PARAM PARAM GURU)
Shri Swami Tapovan Maharaj Without a thread there is no garland of flowers; without God there is no universe. Without Swami Tapovan Maharaj, there would not have been Swami Chinmayananda. A rare jewel in the crown of the Himalayan peaks, Swami Tapovan was revered and exclaimed as the greatest of Jnanis and a man of total perfection. When Swami Chinmayananda was asked about his Guru, he became silent; what words could express the infinite? Even now, to mention his name in the solitude of the Himalayas is to awaken a deep reverence, so famous was this great Master.

	Swami Tapovan was born in an aristocratic family in the Palghat District and from a very tender age was not attracted to the materialistic life. He was drawn in temperament naturally to a life of renunciation, austerity, and study. When his worldly commitments were fulfilled, Swami Tapovan embraced the renunciates life and took to the secluded forest and higher elevations of the Himalayas, living in sacred Uttakasi. There he lived a life of extreme tapas (austerity, spending his time in study, reflection and meditation. During the summer months he would leave Uttakasi for Gangotri, and even today just above Gomuk where the sacred Ganges begins, there is a small place called Tapovan.
Swami Tapovan had complete mastery of the Scriptures. Sages and serious students came to study in his austere Kutir (house). He was also an eminent Sanskrit scholar and poet. He composed many hymns, commentaries and beautiful books such as, "Wandering in the Himalayas" and "Iswara Darshan". These books give a glimpse of how a man of Divine Vision beholds Truth everywhere, playing in and through every form. He had many seekers who came to study under him, but only a few could endure the rigorous life and completed their studies. One of these students was none other than Swami Chinmayananda. He taught Gurudev all the virtues enumerated in the Seventeenth Chapter of Geeta constituting the three forms of Tapas - physical, verbal and mental. On the 16th of January 1957, on the Full-Moon day, at 4:30 A.M., in the Brahmamuhurtha, Swamiji gained his Mahasamadhi.