Chinmoy, Sri Kumar Ghose [xix] (1931-). Leader of Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations. He was born in Bengal. At the age of 12 he entered the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, where, after practising intense spiritual disciplines, he became enlightened. In 1964 he went to the United States and started teaching meditation. He now has some 100 meditation centres around the world. World peace is a recurrent theme in his teachings. His disciples are expected to abstain from drugs, alcohol, tobacco or meat, and great stress is laid on healthy exercise, particularly athletics.

Sri Chinmoy is a prolific writer — he has published over 700 books (e.g. [9; 10]), and written more than 30,000 poems. (On one occasion he is said to have completed 843 poems within 24 hours.) He has also been responsible for a prodigious output of paintings (he reportedly created over 100,000 works of art within one year), as well as composing numerous devotional songs. [28] (E.B.)