Chinmayanand Bapu

Shri Chinmayanand Bapu, renowned as Rashtriya Sant Shri Chinmayanand Bapu, is an ardent devotee of Lord Shri Ram and Shri Hanuman ji. His Ram Kathas are narrations from Ram Charit Manas, authored by the great saint poet Shri Tulsidas.

About Bapuji
Bapuji was born as Udayprakash on 4th December, 1980 in a Brahmin family of a small village called Kalna located on the banks of holy river Ganga in district Mirzapur, UP. It is said that upon noticing the dazzling glow on his face, a brahmin had predicted that this child would shine like a star and astound the world with his knowledge.

Adopting the spiritual path
At a very young age, Shri Chinmayanand Bapu developed detachment for this world. While listening to the Shrimad Bhagwad as a young child of 9 years, little Udayprakash decided to pursue the path of spiritual evolvement. Realizing that it would not possible to move forward on this path without the guidance of a knowledgeable guru, the young devotee took diksha (spiritual initiation) from Shri Shri 1008 Mahamandaleshwar Shri Ram Kumar ji Maharaj. Along this path, he came to be known as Chinmayanand Bapu. Soon, he began reciting Ram Katha as a young boy, and amazed everybody around him including his guru.

Learning under his Sadguru
Under the directions and supervision of his guru, Chinmayanand Bapu acquired the knowledge of shastras (Hindu scriptures), Vedas, Upanishads and Sankrit in Ayodhya. He has an excellent command and indepth understanding of the ancient epics and philosophies as expressed and discussed in Mahabharata, Shrimad Bhagwad and Ram Charit Manas 'Ramayan'.

Following this phase of knowledge acquisition, he decided to seek silence as part of his spiritual evolvement. During this period, Shri Chinmayanand Bapu moved to Chitrakoot and meditated for long months on the banks of Mandakini river. While surviving only on fruit and vegetables, Bapuji carried on swadhyay (pursued self - learning) in the forests of Chitrakoot.

Following this period of lone introspection and self learning, Shri Chinmayanand Bapu's life for the past 20 years has revolved around swadhyay, meditation, discourses, katha vachan, religious education and welfare of people. Today, with a following of lakhs of devotees, he is fondly referred to as a philanthropist, national saint with a mission to propagate the universal ideals of humanitarianism and work for the welfare of people.