Children were constantly in Swami Chinmayananda’s thoughts. The Chinmaya Mission Magazine, Balvihar was created in order to link Bala Vihars all over India and the world so that the children could, through its pages, share common bonds of love, learning and laughter. In his message for the inaugural issue of the Balvihar magazine, Swami Chinmayananda wrote, “We shall, through this journal, build bridges of love and understanding between children everywhere, and we shall learn to create a greater world out of what our parents have given us now.”

Since then, Balvihar has grown over the years to become a prominent and acclaimed children's international monthly magazine. With its full-colour presentation, appealing design and inspiring messages and stories, it is attempting to re-inculcate the reading habit in children all over the world.

The Balvihar magazine:
• • provides children with new, interesting and stimulating articles on Indian culture and sacred stories on a regular basis
• • is full of poems, riddles, jokes and quizzes;
• • motivates children to read, think and write originally and creatively
• • encourages and develops a life-long habit of reading
• • builds a foundation of strong ideals and moral values
• • has vibrant illustrations that captivate the reader’s imagination and makes reading and learning fun!

Writing for a children’s magazine is exciting. I realised that being a child has nothing to do with chronological age. Freshness of approach, a sense of wonder, a sense of fun - that’s what childhood is all about.
- Bharati Sukhatankar, Editorial Advisor of Balvihar

Balvihar has been serving children, parents, and grandparents for over 38 years. It's current worldwide circulation is over 40,000. June 2013 was a milestone in the magazine’s history as it won the ICE (In-house Communication Excellence) Award for the ‘best magazine among NGOs’.

Readers Write...

"We get only one magazine, my grandparents read it first, then my parents and then only do I get to read it last. It’s not fair...."
- Eleven-year-old Subodh

"Mummy you cannot give away this magazine to raddi-vala (man who collects old newspapers and magazines), I want to preserve them and read out to my children."
- Eight-year-old Tanvi, Mumbai

"I read the jokes first, the stories later. I enjoy the magazine."
- Ten-year-old Rohan, Chennai

An inspiring story, a powerful idea, a catchy poem or an enchanting picture remains etched as an abiding memory in growing minds. It is, therefore, important to provide children with a strong value system, right from the beginning, so that they grow up to be responsible, honest, courageous and forthright citizens of tomorrow. Balvihar gives youngsters a solid and durable foundation of ethics and right thinking in their receptive years by its excellent combination of reading and learning with fun, love and laughter.
Balvihar’s annual subscription and life subscription offers are ideal gifts for every child in every city, town, and village, in every country around the world!