NEAR A TABLE at Annam Brahma, a vegetarian restaurant in Jamaica, a large painting some of the patrons call a ‘birdscape’ rests on an easel.
The painting resembles a landscape, its thousands of tiny, brightly colored blue, green, red and purple birds forming hills and valleys for the two larger birds near the center. It is one of Jamaica-based peace leader Sri Chinmoy’s many variations for a series in which he drew seven million ‘dream-freedom-peace-birds’.
“He never said he was going to do seven million,” R. Ghose, the curator of Chinmoy’s art, said of the series Chinmoy started Dec. 29, 1991. “But when he finished each million, he kept saying he wanted to make the project larger. He was kind of on a roll.”
The native of Bangladesh has been on a creative roll for a while. According to a release sent out after Chinmoy finished his last bird on March 28, he has written more than 1,200 books and 22,000 songs in either English or Bengali. And he performed on 150 instruments in a single 14-hour concert.
Chinmoy also keeps busy as spiritual leader to followers in Queens and around the world. He teaches that enlightenment and self-transcendence come through meditation and exercise, and has eight centers in other countries as well as a large following in the United States. But Ghose emphasizes that Chinmoy is a teacher, not a religious leader.
“It’s a philosophy, not a religion,” she said while sitting at one of the red-clothed tables at Annam Brahma, which is run by some of Chinmoy’s students.
The restaurant’s back wall is crowded with books by Chinmoy and greeting cards and gift bags covered with the guru’s art. The ‘birdscape’ is displayed nearby.
The painting’s vivid colors have a high ‘joy factor’, as do many of the other paintings in the series, according to Ghose.
Alan Spence, a journalist for The Scotsman who saw an exhibit of Chinmoy’s in Edinburgh in 1994, wrote that Chinmoy’s bird art was “unusual and delightful” and that each bird was “executed with tremendous speed and confidence, like Zen calligraphy.”
Renee Phillips, editor in chief of Manhattan Arts International Magazine, said Chinmoy’s drawings were full of “spontaneity and purity.”
“It gives a very positive message to anyone who views it,” said Phillips, also the author of the book ‘New York Contemporary Art Galleries’. “Just the idea of being in front of so many birds is powerful.”
And, she added, each one of the birds is unique.
“If you stand there long enough, the birds become personified. They have their own personalities,” said Phillips, who last saw Chinmoy’s bird drawings at a 1992 exhibit in Soho titled ‘My 70,000 Soul-Bird-Flights’.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them, but I still remember the birds,” she said. “I think it’s because their message was so universal.”
“Ghose said Chinmoy, who counts Raisa Gorbachev among the fans of his art, chose to draw birds because they are symbols of the soul and illustrate how humans can “elevate themselves.”
“The metaphor that Sri Chinmoy uses for the soul is very often the bird, because the bird takes flight from the earthly firmament to the sky,” said Ghose, a Chinmoy student for 27 years. “There’s something special about the bird that inspires mankind.”
Caption: The 7-million-drawing man, Sri Chinmoy, has a soft spot in his hearts for birds. He completed his 7-millionth bird drawing last month.
