The property, despite the passage of time, continues to exude the same old-world charm and grandeur of the era to which it belongs. Time has not diminished the architecture or the stone work. What makes Adi Sankara Nilayam grand and heart-warming are the temples from the era of Sri Sankara (where he likely worshipped with his mother, the noble Aryamba), built in that unmistakable style, typical of the ancient era of yore. To have and to hold a little mansion of that era, and to know and behold the great seer's childhood home, makes CIF's work in Sanskrit and Indology, that much more precious and charming.

To dedicate a part of the Chinmaya Mission to Sanskrit Research and Indic Studies was Gurudev’s dream. It must have been buzzing in his heart for a long time, for he often talked about research and the need for the country to keep alive its traditional knowledge and not let it crumble into the annals of time. Maybe to exemplify this, he himself picked up Vedanta and taught it in English, a move that was considered taboo and so raised many an eyebrow. But he knew that language and idioms change with time, and that was no reason for tradition to die. So he revived the Vedic tradition in the English language and thence, drove his followers to study Sanskrit!

There was no stopping him or his efforts as he ran from power to power, whipping up such enthusiasm, such purity, such drive that he also went and visited 26 US Universities to share with them why he thought they should come to India and study Indian culture in India, at CIF and not in a foreign university! He had his agenda clearly in place: Indic Studies, Sanskrit language study, propagation and enhancement of Sanskrit and Vedanta, and then dissemination of Indian Knowledge Traditions all over the world. Sri AdiSankara was the fountainhead; Gurudev's CIF became the gushing waters that burst forth, taking India's knowledge tradition, once again around the globe, shimmering with its robust glory!

Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF) is the platform for both study and research, naturally, interdependent as they are. This was the primary intention or guiding vision that went into its inception. Swami Chinmayananda had painted a four-fold vision where Sanskrit goes beyond language to the very culture that is the bedrock on which stands India; for Sanskrit is both the spoken language and the lived lifestyle. Capturing this in a four-pronged statement, Gurudev placed the vision for CIF to be the bridge between the East and the West, the Past and Present, Science and Spirituality, and lastly, the Pundit and Public.