Video by Utpal Marshall
On March 3rd 1979, Sri Chinmoy completed his first marathon in Chico California in a time of 4:31:34. Each year since then, his students in New York and around the world have honoured him by running the 26-mile distance.
Video by Utpal Marshall
On March 3rd 1979, Sri Chinmoy completed his first marathon in Chico California in a time of 4:31:34. Each year since then, his students in New York and around the world have honoured him by running the 26-mile distance.
Sri Chinmoy holds a meditation for a gathering of his disciples, held in the back gardens of the Connecticut Centre to celebrate the third anniversary of its foundation.
Sri Chinmoy delivers a talk, entitled ‘A True Seeker’, at St. Xavier Auditorium, St. Francis Xavier School, 122 West 17th Street, Manhattan, New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy gives four spiritual talks, part of 100 lectures in 20 days:
Gratitude, 5:30 a.m., Sri Chinmoy Centre, Jamaica, NY, USA
I Do Not Know, 8:30 a.m., Jamaica High School Track, Jamaica, NY, USA
Dream, 3:50 p.m., Bethpage State Park, Long Island, NY, USA
Security, 4:38 p.m., Bethpage State Park, Long Island, NY, USA
These talks (nos. 2-5) are later published in Everest-Aspiration, Part 1
Sri Chinmoy completes a series of 7,000 bird drawings — ‘Immortality’s Seven Thousand Sunrise-Birds’ — to achieve a total of 62,000 since he began sketching birds on December 29th, 1991. He also writes a Bengali song for ‘62,000 Birds’.
Sri Chinmoy hosts a dinner for Aleksandr Razvin, the Deputy Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations, at Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, Queens, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (514) in honour of India’s 50th Anniversary of Independence — the 45th in a series of 50 concerts during 1997 — at Public School 86 in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy is selected to perform the daily ‘Changing of the Rose’ ceremony, symbolising the constant renewal of the peace process, at the National Palace, Peace Monument in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Grand Tikal Futura Hotel in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Sri Chinmoy completes a series of 7,000 bird drawings — ‘Immortality’s Seven Thousand Sunrise-Birds’ — to achieve a total of 62,000 since he began sketching birds on December 29th, 1991.
Basatti hajar pakhi
Ekatar makhamakhi
Hasiya hasiya nachiya nachiya
Asiyachho dharatale
Atmatyager bale
Published in Jharna-Kala Songbook
GUATEMALA CITY — Sri Chinmoy was invited by the Guatemalan Government to participate in the Changing of the Rose ceremony commemorating the end of the country’s civil war.
He is only the third non-citizen to be afforded this honor.
The rose, resting in a statue of two linked hands in the courtyard of the National Palace, is changed daily, but the official Changing of the Rose ceremony takes place once a month.
The event with Sri Chinmoy took place on July 2.
In Guatemala City that evening, the spiritual teacher offered a World Harmony Concert. About 3,000 people attended the concert.
Published in Anahata Nada, Volume 38, April-Early August 2005
Sri Chinmoy greets Aleksandr Razvin outside Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, Queens, where he hosts a dinner for the Deputy Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations.
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at St. Xavier Auditorium, St. Francis Xavier School, 122 West 17th Street, Manhattan, New York,
A true seeker does not make complaints, for he knows that each complaint of his is a blight, a spot, in the Heart of his Beloved Supreme. A true seeker is he who does not criticise the world around him, for he knows that each criticism of his is a blight in the Heart of his Beloved Supreme. A true seeker wants a world of perfection. This world of perfection he will find only through his oneness, his ultimate oneness with the world within him, the world around him. Each time he complains, each time he criticises, he fails in his own purpose. It was his own promise, when he was in the soul’s world, to serve the aspiring mankind. This was the solemn promise he made to the Supreme, the Pilot Absolute. It is not through criticism, not through complaining that he can bring about world peace and world harmony. It is through acceptance of earth-reality as such. It is through constant self-giving, which eventually grows into God-becoming. Today’s self-giving is tomorrow’s God-becoming.
A true seeker does not try to influence the world, for he knows that to influence the world is to ask the world to see the reality the way he himself sees it or the way he wants to see it. A true seeker wants only to inspire the world. When he inspires the world, he feels that he is giving the world ample opportunity to see the reality in its own way. Here there is no imposition. Here there is no direct or indirect insistence that the reality be seen in a certain way.
A true seeker is always ready to serve the Supreme Beloved in each individual. First he tries to serve the Supreme according to the world’s receptivity. Then, after he himself makes considerable progress, he tries to serve the world the way the Supreme wants him to serve the world. While he is a beginner, while he himself is making progress, he feels that it is his bounden duty to help the world accelerate its own progress and success the way the world wants to achieve progress and success. But there comes a time when he feels that he has to see the success and progress of the world the way his Inner Pilot wants him to see it.
A true seeker is nothing short of a lamp-post. This lamp-post offers its glow not only to the fellow travellers who walk along his path, but also to those who walk along other paths. He offers light and travellers walking along other paths are able to receive and achieve the light that he offers. His life is for all; but again, for those who want to be in the same boat he is in, he feels that he has extra responsibility. They are his fellow travellers, journeying to Infinity’s Shore.
A true seeker knows what divine authority is and he knows what divine responsibility is. To him, authority is not the power that lords it over the world; authority is the recognition of the illumining and liberating, transforming and immortalising reality as world-power. To him, responsibility is not an unwanted burden. Each responsibility is an added opportunity to serve the Inner Pilot in an inimitable way, in God’s own Way. He feels that each responsibility is an opportunity to add to his soul’s reality and he knows that he can increase this opportunity. How does he increase it? He increases his opportunity by creating happiness. Happiness increases opportunity. And what is happiness? Happiness is a quality of the soul. This quality of the soul we notice and grow into only when we see that the Vision-world and the reality-world can become one.
The Vision-world is God’s Silence-world; the reality-world is God’s sound-world. The seeker comes to realise that either he has to climb up from the body-consciousness to the soul’s loftiest height or he has to bring the soul’s loftiest height down into the gross physical world. When he climbs up, he lifts up humanity’s consciousness and places humanity’s consciousness in the lap of Divinity. And when he brings down Peace, Light and Bliss from above, he feeds humanity’s age-long hunger. But whether he carries humanity up the tree or brings down the fruits, he offers Divinity the golden opportunity to transform, to shape and to mould humanity’s life-breath the way the Eternal Pilot wants humanity transformed, illumined, perfected and fulfilled.
A true seeker has discovered the truth that his Pilot Supreme is not only the Highest but also the lowest. The magnitude and the infinitude of his Beloved Supreme is the reality precisely because the Supreme’s Love-power has become the Universal Consciousness, the Transcendental Consciousness, the Infinite Consciousness, which is expanding at every moment; and also because He is smaller than the smallest, tinier than the tiniest. The Beloved Supreme is the reality just because He can become Infinity and just because He can become the finite, the infinitesimal drop. The true seeker feels a one-pointed inner urge to see the Infinite in the finite and to see the finite in the Infinite.
When a true seeker aspires, he sees that it is the real in him that aspires. The unreal in him just waits for the opportunity to be transformed at God’s choice Hour. The unreal in him cannot aspire; only the real in him can aspire. What is the real in him? The real in him is happiness, delight. What is the unreal in him? The unreal in him is the suffering that he creates for himself. How does he create suffering? He creates suffering by mixing with the unreal in himself. The unreal is his desire-world; the unreal is his thought-world. Each desire is a world of its own; each thought is a world of its own. The unreal in him is sorrow. When he mixes with sorrow, with desire, with suspicion and doubt, when world-suffering assails him and he identifies himself with world-suffering and with his own suffering, at that time he sees darkness within, without, below, above. But when he identifies himself with inner happiness and outer happiness, at every moment he transcends his own reality. At every moment he dances with the reality of self-transcendence.
Instead of staying in the unreal — in the desire-world, in the thought-world — a true seeker wants to live in the aspiration-world and the will-power-world. His aspiration-world tells him, “Not this, not that, but something beyond this, something beyond that.” And what is it that is beyond this, beyond that? It is his constant inner flame, the flame that at every moment achieves satisfaction. Again, at each level of satisfaction he feels an eternal hunger to achieve higher satisfaction. This hunger is not simply a cry for the world of truth and reality which has given him his present satisfaction; it is a ceaseless cry for Light, abundant Light, infinite Light. A true seeker cries for satisfaction and when satisfaction dawns, he cries for higher satisfaction. He is not like an ordinary human being in the desire-world who can never be satisfied. The seeker is satisfied, but at the same time he still wants to go higher. The true seeker’s satisfaction in crying for a higher world, a higher reality, is his spontaneous inner growth. An iota of satisfaction can please him; but he feels that the greater his satisfaction, the greater the opportunity he will have to manifest the Divinity within him. It is not that from dissatisfaction he is going to satisfaction; but from satisfaction he is growing to higher satisfaction. From God’s aspiration-world he is climbing to God’s realisation-world. And inside the realisation-world he tries to see God’s manifestation-world, God’s Perfection-world.
A true seeker is he whose name is always synonymous with devotion. A true seeker has discovered the truth that it is his devotion that can fulfil the Divine in him, the Supreme in him. In his devotion, God’s perfect Perfection and God’s continuous Satisfaction loom large. His devotion is not the devotion of a man touching somebody else’s feet. His devotion is speed, the fastest speed of his own aspiration-reality and God’s Compassion-Reality. When his aspiration-reality and God’s Compassion-Reality are bridged by his own inner cry, which is nothing else but his devotion, at that time he sees the world of the Eternal Now as his own, very own. He sees that there is no past, no future; there is only one Eternal Now, only one Eternal Life, only one Eternal Love. What he has and what he is, and what God has and what God is, are nothing but the Eternal Now. Here he sows, here he grows. Here he is God the seed; again, here he is God the fruit. In the Eternal Now, God’s Self-Transcendence-Reality and his own life-liberating, life-immortalising reality abide.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Speaks, part 4
by Sri Chinmoy
5:30 a.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre,
Jamaica, New York
Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.
Gratitude is a miracle-action in us. This miracle-action strengthens our physical body, purifies our vital energy, widens our mental vision and intensifies our psychic delight.
The seeker in us tries to be simple, pure, humble, sincere. Every spiritual seeker tries to cultivate these qualities in abundant measure. The easiest and most effective way to cultivate these qualities is to open the gratitude-flower and let it blossom inside our heart petal by petal. How can we do this? Not only do we have to give more importance to what we have, but we also must give all importance to what we do not have.
What we have is wishful thinking, wishful seeking, wishful becoming. Wishful thinking: We think that we shall be great or successful in some way. Wishful seeking: We seek the truth and light in our own way, in the place where we think truth and light must abide. Wishful becoming: This is the most deplorable mistake we make. We want to become something that pleases us. If we want to please ourselves in our own way, then consciously or unconsciously we bring the vital-wolf to the fore.
What we do not have is the breathless inner cry and the measureless outer smile. If we can develop the breathless inner cry, then automatically we develop the measureless outer smile.
Either from within we come without, or from without we dive deep within. We can start our journey either from the soul's capacity or from the body's capacity. Ultimately these two capacities have to be united. Needless to say, the soul's capacity is infinitely greater than the body's capacity. But the little capacity that the body has, has to be united with the soul's capacity. The body's greatest capacity is the acceptance of the soul's leadership. If the soul is accepted as the supreme leader, if the soul gets the opportunity to guide, mould and shape our destiny, then we get what we do not have right now: the sweet, pure, breathless, intense inner cry and the sure, measureless outer smile.
8:30 a.m.
Jamaica High School Track
Jamaica, New York
“I do not know.” This is indeed an answer. This answer satisfies the sincere seeker in us, for the sincere seeker does not stoop to insincerity. But we have to know how far this answer can lead us. Can it lead us to our destined Goal? No, never! We have to be able to say, “I know.”
In order to find the answer, first we look around us. But the outside world laughs at us, ridicules us and sometimes looks down upon us. It considers us to be the worst possible fools. Then we dive deep within in order to get the answer. At that time something deep within tells us that what we think of ourselves is what we truly are. What we feel ourselves to be is what we truly are. What we shall ultimately become consciously is what we truly are.
What do we think we are? We think that we are devoted instruments and thoughtful seekers. What do we feel ourselves to be? We feel ourselves to be soulful lovers. And what shall we ultimately become? We shall become fruitful servers. Devoted instruments, thoughtful seekers, soulful lovers and fruitful servers of the Supreme: If we can think of ourselves in this way, if we can feel that we are all these things, then there can be no other answer for us either here on earth or there in Heaven.
This is the answer: we are the devoted instruments, the thoughtful seekers, the soulful lovers and the fruitful servers of the Supreme. “I do not know” is now transformed into “I do know.” What do I know? I know that I have all along been seeking for the birthless Vision and the ever-transcending Reality of my experience-realisation, my realisation-revelation and my revelation-manifestation.
3:50 p.m.
Bethpage State Park,
Long Island, New York
What is dream? Dream is creation. Creation is either division or union. “Division” is a complicated word. When we use division to divide the existence-reality, we enter into the world of ego and “I”-ness. But again, when we use it to divide work, labour, capacities, at that time it is a veritable blessing. If we divide and, through our division, get the result in a solid, concrete way to form one truth and one reality, then that division is good. But when we divide the reality into pieces and give supremacy to one piece and do not appreciate or value the other pieces, then we sing the song of separativity. This kind of division ends in destruction, the destruction of the little world that we claim to be ours.
“Union” is also a complicated word. When we work together, it is a great blessing. When we mix together, it is a great blessing. But when it is the union of darkness and light, when it is the union of desire and aspiration, then it is a deplorable mistake. The aspiration-life must not mix with the desire-life. If it is to mix, always it must mix with the renunciation-life — the renunciation of unnecessary possessions, of the things that are not divine, illumining and perfect.
With the aspiration-life we have to start our journey. But then there comes a time when we feel that our aspiration-life has blossomed considerably, and is ready to enter into the desire-life to transform it. The aspiration-life has to play the role of the bridge between the desire-life and the realisation-life. The seeker’s aspiration-life will enter into the desire-life for the immediate and total transformation of the desire-life. The seeker’s realisation-life will enter into the aspiration-life for the perfection of the aspiration-life and for the manifestation of the Absolute Supreme.
Each dream is a creation. Each creation is either conscious aspiration or unconscious aspiration. Our aspiration enters into the desire-life, the little brother, and helps him clean his body, purify his mind and illumine his earthly existence. Each iota of aspiration also expedites the arrival of realisation. Our aspiration enters into the realisation-life or brings the realisation-life into the aspiration-life in order to make the aspiration-life completely perfect for the awakening of our physical reality, and for the blossoming of the soul-reality, which is within us and for us.
A dream is God’s creation in the inner world. From the inner world we enter into the realisation-world. Creation and dream, aspiration and realisation — they are all members of the same family. If we can become aware of one, then automatically we can have the other three; for our dream is, after all, a disguised reality, and a disguised reality does not remain always in disguise. It purifies our mind. It offers dynamism to our vital and it offers an inner awakening in our physical reality.
I bow to dream because it is sweet and pure. I bow to reality because it not only has possibility and potentiality but it also has inevitability in boundless measure. I bow to aspiration, for it has love for us inside its boundless existence. But I love realisation, for realisation is the only thing that I need to make my Inner Pilot constantly and supremely happy.
4:38 p.m.
Bethpage State Park
Long Island, New York
Security is life. Insecurity is death. When one is secure in one’s life, one sees an hour inside a second. When one is insecure in one’s life, one does not see even a second inside an hour.
Secure people smile, not because they have something but because they are something. Secure people belong to an ever-transcending creative force. Insecure people unconsciously and deplorably have made friends with self-doubt, which is the worst possible poison. Once they have made friends with self-doubt, they are forced to make friends with somebody else, and that somebody else is self-destruction.
When one is secure, one guards what one has and what one is. What one has is simplicity, sincerity, serenity, purity and many more divine qualities. These divine qualities have to be guarded. When one is secure, only then is one in a position to guard them. When they are well protected, they can play their respective roles most satisfactorily inside the physical consciousness, vital consciousness and mental consciousness.
Security is an honour that one gives and one gets. When one becomes a security guard, one serves a superior.
The superior is being honoured because he is being guarded by others. The security guard shows the utmost respect, love and adoration to the superior; therefore, the world may think that only the superior is being honoured. But I wish to say that it is a mutual honour.
This is a public park, and undivine people are all around. I am sitting here, and you are around me with folded hands. With your aspiration and devotion you are guarding me from the wrong forces. You are guarding me; therefore, you are honouring me. You are honouring me, true, but I am also honouring you. Out of 140 people I have requested you to come here.
It is the same thing when we pray to God. We think that we are honouring Him. We are honouring Him, true, but God has already honoured us by choosing us to be His Instruments. We are honouring Him with our aspiration and devotion. But by His acceptance of us, God is also honouring us. When we serve Him, love Him and cry to Him, at that time we honour Him. But it is He who has given us the opportunity to serve Him and aspire for Him. So the security guard, when he helps or protects the superior in any way, is not at all inferior. He is only honouring and being honoured.
God has given us the capacity, the aspiration, to pray to Him and meditate on Him. By praying and meditating we are honouring Him. Again, using us as His chosen instruments, He is honouring us. When we give our security to Him, we get back His Security. By honouring God through prayer and meditation, we also honour ourselves.
God is secure in us because He dreams in and through us. He is the eternal Life-Tree; we are His projecting branches. We are not aware of our own reality; we are not aware that we are part and parcel of the Life-Tree which is God; therefore, we are insecure. But by praying and meditating we come to realise that the branches, leaves and flowers are part and parcel of the Tree itself. When we realise this, we become secure in the Source and secure in the flow. When the flow realises its absolute Source, it becomes secure. The Source is always secure in the flow, for the Source knows that its own capacity is always boundless.
Published in Everest-Aspiration, part 1