Works of Swami Chidananda Saraswati in the form of service to the needy are outstanding. Determined to become a guru from his early childhood, Swami Chidananda went much farther to achieve a higher platform in life. Swami Chidananda Saraswati undertook a number of social duties relentlessly. He passed away for the heavenly abode ob the 28th of August 2008. Swamiji served the lepers without any type of hatred. He used to make huts on the large lawns of his house and took care of them as though they were deities. Later, when he joined the Ashram his early desire to help the lepers found complete and free expression. Patients from nearby areas, suffering from the worst type of diseases came to him. He believed that the patients were none other than Lord Narayana and thus served the patients with tender love and compassion.
Despite his multifarious activities and Sadhana, Sridhar founded under the guidance of Gurudev, the Yoga Museum in the year 1947, in which the whole Vedanta philosophy and the entire process of Yoga Sadhana are portrayed in the form of pictures and illustrations. By the end of the year 1948, Gurudev made him The Divine Life Society`s General Secretary. The responsibility of the whole organization came over his shoulders and from then on he spiritualized each of his activities by his wise leadership, presence and counsel. He cheered all to heighten their consciousness up to the level of the Divine. He was made a Sanyasi by his guru, Swami Sivananda Saraswati, on the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, on the 10th of July, 1949. Henceforth he got his monastic name as Swami Chidananda, meaning a renunciate having the highest consciousness and bliss.
In the month of November 1959, Swami Chidananda undertook an extensive tour of America, sent by Gurudev as his personal representative to spread the message of Divine Life and he returned in the month of March 1962. Again in the month of August 1963, after the Mahasamadhi of his Guru, Swami Chidananda was elected the Divine Life Society`s President. He then strove to hold up the banner of renunciation, devoted service, spiritual idealism and love, not only inside the set-up of the vast organization of the Society, but in the hearts of numbers seekers all over the world, who were much eager to get his help, advice and guidance.
Swami Chidananda toured all over India, South Africa and Malaysia to serve the devotees of the Society and in the year 1968, he undertook the Global Tour because of the request from several devotees and disciples of his holy Master Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj and toured all countries of the world. He was greeted cordially and was listened with rapt attention wherever he went. Swamiji, right from the beginning, worked and served the Divine Cause of the Mission of Gurudev tirelessly and spread his Divine Life Message all over not only in India but in abroad.
Swami Chidananda Saraswati wrote a number of books which include An Instrument of thy Peace, Bhaja Govindam, Awake, Realise your Divinity, Bliss is Within, New Beginning, Message of Swami Chidananda to Mankind, Light on the Yoga Way of Life, Verses Addressed to the Mind, Practical Guide to Yoga, Ultimate Journey, Guide to Noble Living, Ponder These Truths, Lectures on Raja Yoga, Path Beyond Sorrow, Philosophy, Psychology and Practice of Yoga, Path to Blessedness, The Role of Celibacy in Spiritual Life, Liberation is Possible, The Truth That Liberates, Ultimate Journey, Twenty Important Spiritual Instructions, Twenty Important Spiritual Instructions, Guide Lines to Illumination, The Role of Celibacy in Spiritual Life, Verses Addressed to the Mind, The Truth That Liberates and a number of other books.
