Introduction

In Nov. 1994, with Guruji’s blessings, Chinmaya Mission Ann Arbor was officially incorporated. In Oct. 1996, CMAA purchased a 5.77-acre property and Swami Purushottamananda conducted bhumi puja in Aug. 1998. Guruji officiated site construction with the brick-laying ceremony in Jul. 1999 and inaugurated the new “Chinmaya Avantika” building of 21, 400 sq. ft. in Jul. 2000. He returned in Aug. 2002 to preside over the murti installation ceremonies.

Sharada Kumar, a devotee of Pujya Gurudev since 1963 in Mumbai, had begun chanting Bhagavad Gita verses during his talks in 1969, in Bhopal. In the early 1970s, Sharadaji and her husband, Viswa Kumar, joined the CM Study Group in Bronx, New York. In 1974, Pujya Gurudev instructed her to start Bala Vihar classes in Long Island, New York, and sent her to India to get trained from various sevikas in Mumbai. Thereafter began the first Bala Vihar on the East Coast.