Swamini Radhikananda
Swamini Radhikananda (formerly known as Brahmacharini Arpita) was blessed with the life-changing experience of meeting and hearing Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda speak on the Bhagavad Gita for the first time in Washington, D.C. in 1978. Inspired by his powerful, divine presence and teachings she continued with a weekly Vedanta study-group in DC for several years while completing college degrees and then joined the two-year intensive Vedanta Course from 1987-’88 at Chinmaya Mission’s “Sandeepany Sadhanalaya” in Mumbai, India, under the guidance of Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda.
Since 1989 she has served at several CM centers in the U.S. teaching adult Vedanta, Gita and Bhagavatam classes, as well as helping with occasional children’s Bala Vihar camps and programs. She also feels a special calling to bring the life-transforming teachings of the Bhagavad Gita to the western community via local yoga studios and other venues. She has represented Hinduism at numerous Interfaith programs in D.C. and St. Augustine (FL) and spoken to college Comparative Religion classes on “Understanding Hinduism.” On the sacred Mahashivaratri day, February 17, 2015, she was blessed to receive initiation into the order of sannyasa from Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda.
Swamini Radhikananda recently returned to the St. Augustine, Florida area where she conducts regular classes. She also enjoys devotional singing and has made several recordings for children and youth of original songs and Sanskrit/Hindi bhajans adapted into English, including Come to Me, My Krishna, His Eternal Smile and Songs for the Light. She considers it her greatest joy and privilege to serve Pujya Gurudev’s divine Vision through the work of Chinmaya Mission.