Chinmaya Academy Faculty

Her family emigrated to London in her childhood and she continued to attend youth classes with the organisation.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Politics from the University of York, she took part in a one-year community service-oriented program for youth offered by Chinmaya Mission in India and spent time volunteering at educational institutions in Chennai.

Inspired by this experience and previous exposure to scriptural study, she joined a two-year residential Vedanta course at the Sandeepany Sadhanalaya ashram in Mumbai and was initiated into the monastic order in September 2016.

She is the resident teacher of Chinmaya Mission in the UK and shares the message of Advaita Vedanta through discourses and study groups, workshops and retreats.

Dr Ramesh Pattni has been appointed as the Adjunct Assistant Professor and lectures at the School of Philosophy, Psychology & Scientific Heritage, Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth. He is a graduate of King’s College London, holds three master’s degrees. He completed a doctorate in Yoga Psychology from the University of Oxford in 2015. He tutors at the University of Oxford at both the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and the Faculty of Theology and Religion and gives public talks on Hinduism. He holds regular weekly classes on Hindu scriptures including and the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads and the texts and commentaries by Swami Chinmayananda. He has extensively lectured and conducted workshops and retreats on diverse subjects over the past two decades in Yoga and the Non-Dual (Advaita Vedanta) traditions.

Dr Pattni holds/has held many public positions, including, Vice President of Chinmaya Mission UK, Vice President of Hindu Forum of Britain, Trustee of DAWN Counselling Services, Trustee of Hindu Education Board UK, Founder and former Co-Chair of the Hindu Christian Forum, former Trustee of Interfaith Network and continues to serve the wider community in the UK and abroad.

For his voluntary work in interfaith relations and community services in the UK, he was bestowed an OBE in the New Year’s Honours 2020 by Her Majesty the Queen.

Since then, Dr Samani has immersed herself in an in-depth study of Vedanta through all the on-line courses by Chinmaya International Foundation on introductory & advanced Vedanta, Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, as well countless other Vedantic texts & the Sanskrit language at Chinmaya Mission UK & international global camps. She conducts some of the longest running Chinmaya Mission UK study classes.

She has served on the committee of Chinmaya Mission UK for over 20 years and currently serves as the overall Study Class coordinator. She previously coordinated some of the UK’s most well-attended Jnana Yagnas (spiritual lectures) for 15 years for Pujya Swami Tejomayananda, Pujya Swami Swaroopananda and many other Acharyas of Chinmaya Mission.  

Dr Samani was a partner in an 8 partner GP practice in Brent & amongst her many roles within the practice, she was a GP Trainer & part Examiner with a specialist interest in community gynaecology. She retired in 2012 to dedicate her life to the service, study & dissemination of Vedanta through Chinmaya Mission UK.  

Uma was born in India and migrated with her parents to the UK in 1981. Uma lives in London with her husband and two children. She has been a member of Chinmaya Mission since 2005, when she first registered her children in the Bal Vihar Classes in Hendon. She has since been a regular attendee at many adult study classes in the Mission. She also facilitates a Sunday morning Adult Study Class for BV Parents. The text being studied currently is Vivekachudamani.

Uma is a Professor of Economics at the University of Reading in the UK. She is also currently the Head of the School of Politics Economics and International Relations. She graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA Economics (1987), MPhil in Economics (1988) and a PhD in Economics in 1992.

He has assisted Swamiji in writing up the teaching materials for Make It Happen and converted the transcriptions of Swamiji’s Storm 2 Perform talks into the published book.

Milan’s professional and personal life have been directed and guided by the teachings of Swami Swaroopananda. He is a founding partner at TIL Ventures, a consulting firm that works with the likes of Barclays, Mars, and BMW to develop new lines of business and has annual teaching engagements at Said Business School’s MBA programme & CASS Business School’s Masters of Management programme. His articles have been published in Harvard Business Review and the Telegraph and he delivers keynotes at conferences across the world. His lives with his wife and 2 young sons in London.

He become an active member of Chinmaya Mission UK during the past 5 years. After attending classes in Bhagavad Gita and Upanishad, for several years he completed the 6 week residential “Dharma Sevak Course” (Basic Vedanta) in July-August 2016 and “Vedanta Darshan” (Advanced Vedanta) in February 2017, both in Coimbatore. 

Kishor Tanna retired from British Telecommunications Plc after 43 years of service fulfilling numerous senior management roles. 

His passion for education never stopped (apart from his graduation, he completed his MBA) which lead him to pursue Masters in Telecommunication with UCL completing it in 2011.