Prior to her passing in 2010, late SRF President Sri Daya Mataji expressed her conviction to Mrinalini Mataji that Swami Chidanandaji should succeed Mrinalini Mataji as president and spiritual head of SRF/YSS. Sri Mrinalini Mataji confirmed this some months before her own passing, and affirmed to the Board of Directors her agreement with Sri Daya Mataji’s recommendation.
Swami Chidanandaji has been a monk in Guruji’s ashrams for forty years, and a member of the SRF and YSS Boards of Directors for the last eight years. Almost from the start of his monastic life, he worked closely with Sri Mrinalini Mataji, receiving her wisdom-permeated, Guru-attuned training as he assisted her in the editing and publishing of the works of Paramahansa Yogananda and other SRF publications.
In 1996, Swami Chidananda Giri was appointed by then President Sri Daya Mataji to the SRF/YSS International Publications Council, on which he served with Daya Mataji and Mrinalini Mataji until Daya Mataji’s passing in 2010. During this time he assisted these two senior direct disciples with the preparation and publication of many works, including Paramahansaji’s voluminous scriptural commentaries (God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita and The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You) as well as all other SRF/YSS publications released from 1980 to the present. After years of progressively deeper training from these direct disciples, he was designated by Mrinalini Mataji to succeed her as editor-in-chief of SRF/YSS publications after her passing.
Swami Chidanandaji last visited India in 2007 when the Dhyana Mandir in Ranchi was dedicated.
