Chinmaya Yuva Kendra

History of CHYK – Chinmaya Yuva Kendra.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step….”

The story of the first step of the journey Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (CHYK) goes back to the year 1975, when Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda formed the Chinmaya Youth Forum with a small group of inspired teenagers in Bangalore. Chinmaya Youth Forum was formed under the guidance of Br. Haridas Chaitanya. Later, the name of the organisation was changed into Chinmaya Yuva Kendra, since Gurudev felt it should not be misunderstood as a political forum.

Soon, under the guidance of Br. Haridas Chaitanya, CHYK began to grow and spread its wings to various parts of India. In a span of merely a year or so, CHYK had centres in nearly 10 cities in India. And then, there was no looking back.

In 1977, Chennai hosted the 1 st All India CHYK Camp. It was a major success and yet another milestone on the path of “Harnessing Youth Potental Through Dynamic Spirituality”. We went on to organise our 2 nd All India CHYK Camp in Mumbai in 1979.

In 1980, Chennai CHYK brought to life Gurudev’s Sankalpa of organising a light and sound show on Kamban Ramayana (Ramayana as written by well-known Tamil devotional poet Kamban). Since then, it has been organised more than 40 times at various places in India and abroad.

Mumbai CHYK organised the first CHYK Soul Song Nites in 1981.

In 1983, Tirunelveli CHYK organised the 1st All India CHYK Conference. This also marked the formation of an apex body for CHYK called All India Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (AICHYK). In the same year, CHYKs efficiently organised a Grand Torch March from Pune to Mumbai to commemorate the 1 st International Spiritual CHYK Camp to be organised in Mumbai. At that time, there existed a total of 19 CHYK Centres.

AICHYK continued to stride forward on the path of achievement and success. In 2000, we celebrated 25 years of CHYK and re-dedicated ourselves to the vision of Pujya Gurudev.

In 2002, at the 19 th AICHYK Conference held at Chokkahalli ( India), an International CHYK Forum was created to co-ordinate the activities of CHYK in the international CHYK community.

In 2003, AICHYK published an inspiring book “Awakening Indians to India” and conducted a National Quiz based on this book. Nearly 3 lakh students from all over the country registered for the quiz, celebrities supported us and the quiz was also aired on Zee TV.

Today, just as ever, we continue to evolve.

Yes, we have come a long way…from a small group of about 60 inspired individuals to an international youth movement with more than 106 centres around the world! But, we believe that “this is only the first step, and we indeed have thousands of miles to go…”!

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