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.
The ‘Aspiration-Plants and Gratitude-Leaves of New York’ 700-mile walk begins at the Sri Chinmoy Church in Bayside, NY, USA.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s artworks opens at 170 Thompson St., Greenwich Village, in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 3,070 lbs. with his left arm, in Jamaica, NY, USA. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th attempts are all good lifts.
Sri Chinmoy is interviewed by a journalist from Art Speaks magazine at his exhibition of 70,000 Dream-Freedom-Peace-Birds at 66 Crosby St, Soho, New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy sings and whistles 15 of his own Bhajan songs — ‘My Heart-Whistle-Birds’ — in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, IL, USA.
Sri Chinmoy lifts Tevin Campbell, American singer, songwriter and actor, and presents him with the ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ award, at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, NY, USA.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s 70,000 Dream-Freedom-Peace-Birds at 66 Crosby St, Soho, New York, NY, USA.
answered by Sri Chinmoy at the Jhatna-Kala exhibition
Question: How do you find the time to draw, to write, to do everything you do?
Sri Chinmoy: As you know, where there is a will, there is a way. I pray to God and meditate on God. Out of His infinite Compassion, He has given me the capacity to accomplish quite a few things. These creations of mine are not my personal belongings or my personal possessions. These are my dedicated offerings to my Inner Pilot. Out of His infinite Bounty He has given me the capacity, and it is He who receives the fruits.
Question: I notice the drawings are all birds. Why birds?
Sri Chinmoy: I am a man of prayer and meditation. For me, birds have a very special significance on a spiritual level. They fly in the sky, and the sky is all freedom. So when the birds fly in the sky, they remind me of the soul’s infinite freedom. The soul has come from Heaven. When we think of birds, we are also reminded of our Source, and this gives us enormous joy. I feel that if people come here to view these birds, their inner hunger to fly in the sky of infinite freedom will be fed.
Question: I come from Puerto Rico and I was wondering if you could say something about the Spanish culture.
Sri Chinmoy: The most significant event in my life during the years I have lived in the West took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I came to America in 1964, and at the end of 1966 we established our first Centre in San Juan. So my aspiration, my dedication and my vision started in Puerto Rico. I am eternally grateful to Spanish culture and Spanish spirituality, for it accepted me first.
Question: When you first went to Puerto Rico, was it difficult for the people to accept you or difficult for you to get accustomed to them?
Sri Chinmoy: No, because they used their hearts and I used my heart. My philosophy is founded upon the heart and not upon the mind. The Puerto Ricans have such a simple mind and pure heart, and my life also tries to be all simplicity, purity and oneness. So when I went to Puerto Rico at the end of 1966, immediately they accepted me and I also found it extremely, extremely easy to accept them as my own.
Question: What gives you the most satisfaction?
Sri Chinmoy: I get the most satisfaction when I am able to please my Beloved Lord Supreme in His own Way. Also, when I see that somebody else is really happy, it gives me the greatest joy; immediately I try to identify myself with that person. When children are moving around and not using their mind, there is no tension, no jealousy, no insecurity, no doubt, no impurity. When I look at the children, they give me immediate joy.
Question: Among your disciples are there people who not only share your beliefs but also whom you are very proud of?
Sri Chinmoy: I am proud of many, many of my spiritual children because not only do they have talent, but also inside their talent they have an inner hunger. If I see that they have an inner hunger, then I deeply appreciate them. Otherwise, there are many, many talented people on earth who are not practising the spiritual life. So, from the strict spiritual point of view, we cannot appreciate them. Our way is that God comes first. If someone puts God first in his life, and then if he is also endowed with capacities, well and good. Again, there are many simple-minded, pure-hearted human beings who do not have outer capacities, but at every moment they are thinking of God and praying to God to become good citizens of the world. So I appreciate them, admire them and love them deeply.
Question: In the span of a 24-hour day, how many hours do you meditate, how many hours do you paint, how many hours do you write and how many hours do you have left for leisure?
Sri Chinmoy: In my case, I fill the time in different ways. And each time I change my activity, I get tremendous satisfaction. Each time I do something new, I feel that I am getting an extra supply of energy to give me joy. I meditate early in the morning — from two or two-thirty until five o’clock. That time is very peaceful. Again, when I enter into the hustle and bustle of life, when I am playing tennis or talking to people, at that time also I can inwardly pray and meditate. It is like being an expert. When someone is an expert, he can do more than one thing at the same time.
Question: What is the most important message that you want to offer to humanity?
Sri Chinmoy: I wish to offer only one message: Pray to the Supreme, meditate on the Supreme Lord, our Heavenly Father, to be of service to Him, most soulfully, most devotedly and most unconditionally. Each and every human being is praying to God in his own way, but there is usually some condition: “God, if You do this for me, then I shall pray to You.” Or someone is praying to God only to fulfil his personal goals — to make him the world’s best singer or the world’s best artist. So most of the time we are praying with conditions. But we have to pray to God unconditionally and meditate on God unconditionally to fulfil God in God’s own Way. Then it is up to God whether or not He wants to fulfil our prayers. We should not pray to God to make us great or unique. No, our goal must be only to please God in God’s own Way. This is my supreme message. It was the same yesterday, it is the same today and it will be the same tomorrow: to please and fulfil God in God’s own Way.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 3
Students of Sri Chinmoy embarked Aug. 3 on a 700-mile non-stop relay walk through scenic and historic sites in New York as an expression of gratitude to the state which has been their spiritual teacher's home since 1964.
A series of three-member teams walked day and night along a course that meandered through the Hudson Valley up to Lake George and Ticonderoga, and then back down through the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains. The route began and ended at the Sri Chinmoy Church in Bayside, Queens.
Local officials came out to greet walkers at more than 40 towns and historic sites, and several offered official letters of appreciation.
In connection with the walk, Sri Chinmoy wrote eight spiritual walking songs, which were sung at various locations, and gave a concert Aug. 5 in Albany.
Throughout the walk, which Sri Chinmoy named "Aspiration-Plants and Gratitude-Leaves of New York," the participants attempted to maintain a meditative consciousness, and at each mile marker they paused to meditate and leave a flower of gratitude. By the time the walkers returned home 10 days later, a "necklace" of gratitude-light had been traced around the Empire State.
Published in Anahata Nada, Volume 5, Numbers 6-7, July-August 1979
Sri Chinmoy is interviewed by a journalist from Art Speaks magazine at his exhibition of 70,000 Dream-Freedom-Peace-Birds at 66 Crosby St, Soho, New York.
Interviewer: Does the work of pop art have any relevance to your art — in other words, to very directly spiritual art?
Sri Chinmoy: You have to forgive me. It is not that I do not appreciate pop art. It is only that I have not been to a museum for a long, long time. In 1964, when I first came to New York, I went to the Asia Society, where they had the works of a few Eastern artists. Then I visited a few other museums, but I could not understand what I saw. Of course, art is not something to be understood; it is something to be felt. Only I am saying that it was so foreign to me that I could not appreciate it; I am in no way criticising or judging it.
I never thought that God would make me an artist. In my life I have done quite a few things through the Grace of God. I play a number of musical instruments, but there is nobody who teaches me. Again, although I did not complete high school, my philosophy is taught at some universities and many people read my books. I studied a little art in school, around 1944, but I never had real instruction.
Everything I do is entirely the result of God's Grace. Out of His infinite Compassion, He blesses me with inspiration. His inspiration is all the time helping and guiding me in my painting and in everything else. Therefore, it has not been necessary for me to see the work of other artists in order to paint. It is not because I do not appreciate them; far from it. The reason is that I get all my inspiration from God.
Interviewer: That is wonderful! I don't think you need it, obviously.
Sri Chinmoy: When I look at a painting, I try to feel its inner existence, which we call the soul. If a painting gives me an immediate inner thrill or a feeling of joy, if it touches my aspiring heart and makes me want to become a better person, then I feel that painting is meaningful for me. But if a particular work of art does not give my aspiring heart immediate inspiration, then I find it very difficult to appreciate. When I get a magnetic pull from a painting, then I become one with it. But if I see there is a yawning gulf between the painting and my own inspiration or aspiration, then I am unable to identify and become inseparably one with the artist and his painting. In no way am I judging these artists or their paintings; it is a question of my incapacity or my capacity. There are millions of people who do appreciate these paintings.
Interviewer: It makes absolute sense to me. You said what I was hoping you would say, because I perceive your work as very unique and apart from other artwork — and I like that.
Sri Chinmoy: Everything that I do comes from my life of prayer and meditation. I do not use the mind; I use the heart. I try to make my heart a receptive instrument so that God, the Supreme Artist, can paint in and through me. I am like a ballpoint pen. Somebody is using me to write something. Somebody is acting in and through me. Through my prayer and meditation, I try only to be receptive to God's Grace, which is descending from Above. If somebody gives us a gift, we receive it with tremendous gratitude. Similarly, God is supplying me with inspiration and aspiration, and I am extremely, extremely grateful to Him. I know that without Him I can do nothing and I am nothing.
Interviewer: I can't imagine any better reason to create art. I am very happy with that answer. I marvel at your work! Thank you very much.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 3
Sri Chinmoy sings and whistles 15 of his own Bhajan songs — ‘My Heart-Whistle-Birds’ — in Jamaica, New York.
Words and music*
by Sri Chinmoy
O Mount Everest, O Mount Everest
You are the cosmic deities’ treasure-nest.
You teach us how to climb and touch the sky,
And fly with God’s Self-Transcendence-Freedom-Will, fly!
Published in Peace-Blossom Songs
* Song score pending
by Sri Chinmoy
When it was my fifth attempt to lift 3,070 pounds with my left arm, I saw my physical mother standing behind R, combing and caressing her hair while she was taking pictures. My mother was so grateful to her that she was taking pictures. Some Cosmic Gods and Goddesses were also there, as well as some celestial beings, and Mother Kali was prominent. Then I was able to successfully lift the weight.
Previously, when I lifted with my right hand, I went from 700 to 1,000 to 1,300 to 2,000 and so forth. This time, with my left hand, I went from 700 to 1,000 and from 1,000 directly to 3,000. I skipped 2,000.
Since I depend one hundred per cent on God’s Grace, if the Grace works, I can lift. If it does not work, what can I do? Then, when my disciples do not believe it, what can I say? I feel we should not give it to any newspapers or magazines right now. We should hold it for a long time.
Published in My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 3
Sri Chinmoy lifts 3,070 lbs. with his left arm, in Jamaica, New York. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th attempts are all good lifts.
– Sri Chinmoy |
Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer at 12:49 a.m. before doing a clean and press lift from the ground — up to 45 lbs. — with both arms simultaneously. (25 reps). The prayer was later published in My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 8.
During the first three days of August 1978, Sri Chinmoy offers a number of prayers to his Pilot Beloved after meditations at various venues in New York. The prayers for 2 August are reproduced here.
8:00 a.m.
Jamaica High School Track, Jamaica, NY
O my Pilot Beloved, I know that in the desire-life determination is of paramount importance to bring about success. I know that in the inner life, in the life of aspiration, my implicit surrender to Your Will is of paramount importance. But my sweet Lord, how can I acquire this surrender? How can I make this surrender to You?
"My child, you know what you are right now; you are now ignorance incarnate. Also you know what your soul thinks of you, what it feels that eventually you will become. What you can become eventually, your soul knows. Although you are now ignorance incarnate, your soul knows that one day you can become a perfect instrument of Mine. But I wish to tell you that you will not only become a perfect instrument of Mine, but something more. You will become, like Me, another God. You know that this creation is Mine, the universal Vision is Mine, the transcendental Reality is Mine; but a day shall come when everything will be yours. Like Me, you will be the possessor of the universe, the indweller of the universe, the ruler of the universe. Since you know that you will eventually become another God, for the time being, you can make your surrender complete. For a few days, for a few months, for a few years or even for a few incarnations you can try to surrender your will to My Will.
"No, you are not dealing with possibility; you are dealing with inevitability. Your life of ignorance will disappear and a new Wisdom-Light will enter into your inner being. At that time, you will become like Me, My child, another God. Therefore, right now play your role. Make your surrender implicit, complete and continuous. What you will get in return as a reward is far, far beyond your imagination. Therefore, right now do the needful; just become a totally surrendered instrument of Mine. Yours will be My Infinity's life. Yours will be My Eternity's love. Yours will be My Immortality's success, fulfilment and perfection."
12:45 p.m.
144th St. Gym, Jamaica, NY
O my Pilot Beloved, I am Your disciple. Do tell me if I am Your first-class or second-class or third-class disciple. Do tell me.
"My child, I shall not tell you directly whether you are My first-class or second-class or third-class disciple. But I shall tell you who are the disciples in My first class, second class and third class. From My statement, you will know which category you belong to.
"My third-class disciples are those to whom I have given full freedom. They do anything they want to do. They say anything they want to say. They become what they want to become. I have given them full freedom. They live their independent lives. They just stay in My Boat and they feel that they are doing Me a big favour.
"My second-class disciples are those to whom I give an option. Always I keep two roads ready for them. I tell them: 'Either walk along this road or along that road. Do this or do that — whichever pleases you, in a sense. Either do this or do that, and please Me to some extent. It is up to you to make the choice. There is no compulsion. It is you who have to make the choice and thus please Me to some extent.' I do not expect them all the time to be inside My Consciousness. They, in return, do not expect all the time to receive My constant Concern, Love, Blessings and Gratitude.
"My first-class disciples are those to whom I have not given any earthbound or human freedom. For I know earthbound freedom — vital, mental and physical freedom — is infinitely worse than destruction itself. Therefore, I take full responsibility for their aspiration-life and dedication-life. I tell them what they must do; I do not ask them. If I say, 'Sit down!' they sit down. If I say, 'Stand up!' they stand up. I give them no choice. It is My Will. They have no option, no choice. They have to please Me and fulfil Me at every moment in My own Way. This is what my first-class disciples do.
"First-class disciples have no will of their own. They have no choice of their own. Their choice and their will have become inseparably one with My Choice and My Will. My Satisfaction, in My own Way, is their only satisfaction. They know that when they satisfy Me and please Me in My own Way, they will receive boundless joy, boundless peace, boundless love, boundless delight — everything, everything in boundless measure. Their sense of separativity, their individuality, their personality have totally disappeared. Only oneness-song, oneness-dance, oneness-march they enjoy divinely and supremely with Me here on earth, there in Heaven.
"You know, My child, indeed you are a disciple of Mine. Now you know where you stand: whether you are My first-class, second-class or third-class disciple.
"Third-class disciples I tolerate unconditionally. Second-class disciples I keep with the hope that one day they will try to become first-class disciples. One day in the near or distant future a new light will enter into them, and they will cry for total surrender to My Will. That is My expectation-world. That is My hope-world. With an iota of hope, an iota of expectation, I keep them in My Boat.
"First-class disciples are My veritable Pride. They carry Me the length and breadth of the entire world. They carry My Vision; they carry My Mission — eternally. It is in them I see My own Dream-Reality. It is for them I feel My Universal Existence. They are My instruments unparalleled. They are My happiness unparalleled. They are My Eternity's satisfaction as I am their Eternity's All.
"So, My child, if you feel that you are not My first-class disciple, try to become one and make Me feel that My Manifestation on earth is not an empty dream but fulfilling and fulfilled Reality."
7:40 p.m.
Sri Chinmoy Centre Church, Bayside, NY
O my Pilot Beloved, today I have a volley of questions. Would You kindly answer them?
"Yes, I shall, My child."
Please tell me the shortest distance between two human beings.
"Peace."
Please tell me the shortest distance between You and me.
"A constant cry."
Please tell me the shortest distance between man and the cosmic gods.
"Understanding."
Please tell me the shortest distance between man's mind and man's heart.
"Concern."
Please tell me the shortest distance between Your transcendental Vision and the universal Reality.
"A oneness-smile."
Now, do tell me how the seeker in me can cover these distances.
"My child, for that you need concentration on the physical plane, meditation on the inner plane and contemplation in My all-illumining and all-fulfilling Plane. Without concentration, everything that you have and everything that you are will not be able to bring about success. Your life-tree will fall apart, your life-house will fall apart. Without meditation, your illumining and fulfilling hope-bridge that connects Heaven and earth will not last. It will fall apart. Without contemplation, the divine in you will never be able to manifest the Universal and Transcendental in you.
"Concentrate! You will achieve your goal. Meditate! You will be able to remain inside the very depth of your goal. Contemplate! You will become the goal itself. The all-illumining, all-fulfilling goal, it is you who will become."
Published in O My Pilot Beloved
A letter by Sri Chinmoy
to a dear friend upon the loss of his son in a car accident
Quite recently you have lost your dearest son. I, too, have lost my dearest sister two months ago, and last year I lost my dearest brother. So you and I are sailing in the same boat.
We have to know our capacity and God’s Capacity. As He is infinite in everything, His Love for us is also infinite. We love our dear ones according to our limited capacity, but God loves our dear ones with His infinite Love. God gave you a piece of candy in the form of a most promising son. You were very, very, very happy. As He gives the candy, even so, He has the right to take it away. If He takes something away from us after He has given it to us, it is not because He is displeased with us in any way, but because He wants to give us something more beautiful, more precious and more significant.
God is preparing us to widen our hearts to become one with others’ sufferings, the sufferings of the world. Otherwise, it is all theoretical. When we hear that someone has died, our mind is shocked. Our heart may suffer to some extent, or even to a great extent. But our heart does not swim in the sea of tears. Our heart does not bleed. But when we have personal experiences, when we become victim to heartbreaking experiences, our heart expands unimaginably, either consciously or unconsciously.
We have to know to whom our child actually belongs. We brought the child into this earth-planet. Naturally, we can claim the child. Then who is going to claim us? Who is going to claim our forefathers? Only one Person can rightly and justifiably claim our forefathers, our fathers and our children, and that Person is God Himself.
One who is actually the Owner can have his ownership back whenever He wants to. The Owner can hire me, and He has hired many other workers as well. Suppose the owner of a bank has made somebody the manager, and the manager sees that among the workers he has a very promising worker. If the owner of the bank wants that most promising worker at another branch of the bank, who can stop him? Nobody. The present bank manager may feel it is a tremendous loss, but it is not the loss of the owner. The owner needed that particular worker to work somewhere else. Now, the present manager feels extremely sad that he has lost a very important worker, but we have to surrender willingly or unwillingly to the Owner. And if we do surrender cheerfully, then the Owner will be highly pleased with us and He will make us into His choice instrument for His manifestation on earth.
The body of your son is no longer with us, but the spirit is here, there, everywhere. If we enter into the spiritual life, then we see that God loves each and every human being infinitely more than we can ever love them. What is more, He loves them infinitely more than we can ever imagine. Now, you, as the father of your son, and your wife, as the mother of her son, have tremendous love for your dearest son. But Who has given this love to you both to start with? We must feel that the real Possessor has taken His possession back, to use His possession in an infinitely better way.
We all know that whoever loves a person most, rightly deserves him. God definitely loves your dear son infinitely more than both of you can ever love him. But by taking our dearest ones from us, God in a way is helping us to become not only impersonal, but also universal.
Thirty years ago, I went to my dentist. He was telling me, “Ghose, I have a client whom I like very much. Yesterday he lost his brother. He and his brother were extremely, extremely close to each other. They could not stay separated even for a fleeting hour. Therefore, I wanted to console him. To my greatest surprise, he illumined me. He said to me, ‘True, my brother and I were almost inseparable, but I know there is Someone who loves my brother infinitely more than I do. And I also know that He has taken my brother to Him, and nobody else can dare to do it. He who loves my brother infinitely more than I do, will He not keep my brother happy, happier, happiest and safe, safer, safest? He definitely will. My brother definitely will be happy because Someone loves my brother infinitely more than I do. Therefore, he has gone to Him. So I am now not heartbroken. My life also will end at God’s choice Hour. Let me be happy in God’s Happiness.’” So the dentist was illumined and I, too, was illumined then and there.
You are a Reverend. You have lost one son, but you have many, many followers and admirers. God wants you to have all of them as your sons. As a matter of fact, God is telling you, “I am taking from you only one, but in return I am giving you many, many, many more children. Please take responsibility for all the children of Mine that you encounter on earth who come for your sermons.”
Now I wish to tell you, Reverend, how you and your wife can console yourselves and even get inner joy from your outer loss. Please keep around yourselves as many pictures as possible of your beloved son at different times of his life. Please write down your sweetest memories of your beloved son. Then, from time to time, read those memories and become the sweetness, beauty, reality and divinity of your son’s life. While you are trying to grow into the memories, feel that your son is not only with you and in you, but for you.
There are two ways for you to commune with your son in the inner world: with your heart’s cries and soul’s smiles. Through prayers, we develop our heart’s cries. Through meditations, we develop our soul’s smiles. Either of these two can be applicable to commune with your beloved son or to derive joy from merely thinking of him. One way is to cry and bind your beloved son. The other way is to smile and feel that he is simply having a new journey. It is like a son going to a university. He was brought up in a village. Now he has gone to a distant town to take a higher course. The mother can cry because she will not see her son as before. Again, the father can be happy that his son is going far away. He will be a great scholar, and the family will be glorified by him.
So we should feel that our dearest one has outwardly left us to perform a special mission at another place. Then, if we are wise, if we are in our soul, we will tell him, “Go forward! You are paving the way. From Heaven, when we brought you down to this earth-planet, we paved the way for you. Now you are paving the way for us from earth to enter into Heaven.”
When we bring dear ones into the world, we pave the way for them. When the dear ones leave, we should feel that they are going ahead of us to pave the way and show us that we can become true members of the universal family, instead of remaining a member of one single family.
First the parents show the way to the child. Then the children can show the way to the parents. The parents do not feel miserable at that time. They say to themselves, “We gave him what we had and what we are. Now he is giving us what he has and what he is.”
Life and death are like two rooms. Going from life to death is like going from one room to the other. Life is our living-room and death is our bedroom. In our living-room, we have to work and be active and show ourselves. In our bedroom, we take rest, we sleep. There we do not have to show our existence to anybody; we are only for ourselves.
Life is Eternity’s Road. Each human being is a traveller on Eternity’s Road. Death is a series of stopovers before the traveller reaches his Immortality’s Shore.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 36
by Sri Chinmoy
at Aspiration-Ground, Jamaica, New York
I am so proud, so proud of those who have completed our 3100-mile race. I am also proud of those who are still running. Bill Rodgers once said that he had tremendous admiration for people who take a very long time to complete the marathon — even seven or eight hours — because to stay on the ground for so many hours is so difficult. Those who stand first, second and third naturally deserve our tremendous, tremendous admiration, gratitude and pride. And also those who are still going on, going on, going on relentlessly, deserve our tremendous, tremendous, tremendous appreciation and admiration.
Even if there is only one divine soldier who continues to run, I will definitely go to the race in the morning and in the evening to give prasad, and some evenings I will play music.
Published in My Golden Children