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Swami Chinmayananda Dies After Heart Surgery
Vedanta exponent Swami Chinmayananda passed away in a San Diego hospital on Aug. 3.
The swami, who had had two heart attacks previously, developed acute heart failure on July 26, one day before his scheduled seven-day spiritual camp in Los Angeles.
He was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla and later transferred to Sharp Memorial Hospital, where a quintuple bypass surgery was performed on him on July 29. After the operation, he was placed on life support machines.
The guru remained in stable but very critical condition for five days. The end came at 5.45 p.m. on Aug. 3.
On hearing of his death, Swami Chidananda, president of Divine Life Society, who had visited the swami in hospital the previous day, remarked: "Swamiji is Brahman. He is beyond the body. He has dived into and merged with the Self." Swami Chidananda also noted that Swami Chinmayananda's work has equalled that of ten masters. SPEAKER
Swami Chinmayananda was to have been a featured speaker at the World Vision 2000 Global Conference in Washington, D.C., which ran from Aug. 6 through 8. Conference organizers had planned to honor him for his lifetime of selfless service to humanity and his extraordinary achievements in creating a renaissance of spiritual and cultural values in his native India and abroad.
On Aug. 8, the 1,500 or so conference delegates observed a moment of silence as a mark of respect to him, after VHP president Mahesh Mehta observed that Swami Chinmayananda had continued the work started by Swami Vivekananda in the 19th...