Swami Sharanananda

Swami Sharananandaji is the resident Swami at the Chinmaya Mission Chicago Badri center located in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Inspired by Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda, Swami Sharananandaji completed the highly selective and rigorous two-year Vedanta course at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya in Mumbai, India, studying under Pujya Swami Tejomayananda, who later initiated him into sannyasa.

After completing the course, he served in Chinmaya Mission's Odisha and Calcutta centers before being sent to Chinmaya Mission Chicago, Badri Center, in 1993. Over the past three decades, he has inspired the center's devotees and helped grow the mission into three thriving centers in the Chicago area, in addition to centers in Northwest Indiana, Milwaukee, and Columbus, Ohio. He often travels to many US cities to deliver discourses on Vedanta and teach in summer camps.

He is known for his loving connection to both adults and children and for making the profound knowledge of Advaita Vedanta applicable in daily life. He emphasizes simple, value-based living and serving the community as the best practices for leading a spiritual life.

Swami Aparajitananda

In his early years, Swami Aparajitananda earned his professional degrees in Electronics and Communication Engineering. He worked in Bangalore as a lecturer in an Engineering College for five years, before resigning from the job in order to study the Indian scriptures in depth. After undergoing intense training at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya in Mumbai for two years in the Residential Vedanta Course, Swamiji joined Chinmaya Mission as a full-time Brahmachari.

In the year 2018, on Maha Shivaratri day, Swamiji was given Sannyasa Deeksha. Over the years, Pujya Swamiji has served the Mission centers in Bangalore, Mysore, Shimoga, and most recently in Mangalore. Since May 2023, Swamiji has been serving in Chinmaya Mission Chicago - Yamunotri.

Swamiji has conducted several discourses in different parts of India and in reputed institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai. The depth of his understanding along with clarity in the subject is clearly visible in all his discourses. He relates well to youth and adults alike and has offered Jnana Yajnas on various Vedanta texts and topics. He is also a regular contributor to various magazines and his articles are widely appreciated by all.

Shri Dhiren Khatri

Shri Dhiren Khatri was born and raised in Mumbai, India. He came to the U.S. as a child with his family and completed his high school and university studies here. After working for three years, he experienced a sense of discontentment that led him to seek a higher, more fulfilling purpose than a routine life of labor.

With an intensified longing to know more about God, Hindu scriptures, and Vedantic philosophy, Dhirenji soon learned of an opportunity to fulfill all these needs. So he left to join the two-year course of study at ‘Sandeepany Sadhanalaya’ in Mumbai, India. There, under the guidance of Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda, under Swami Advayananda, he studied the resident course acharya, and Swami Sharanananda, the resident upacharya. On the successful completion of the Vedanta Course in 2013, he became spiritual leader at Chinmaya Mission Chicago centers. He currently conducts Vedanta classes at Chinmaya Gangotri.