Greater than the Greatest
Lyrics:
Greater than the greatest,
Swifter than the swiftest,
Ali, Ali, Champion!
Owner of a new vision.
Supreme boxer’s jabbing thunders
Sport with art-beauty’s wonders.
Published in Blue Waves of the Ocean-Source
While creating Jharna-Kala artworks at Progress-Promise function hall in New York, Sri Chinmoy spontaneously begins to sing the word ‘Gratitude’ and continues for more than 20 minutes. A cassette tape of the recording is handed out by Sri Chinmoy at his April 13th celebration function later that year.
Listen to Sri Chinmoy singing ‘Gratitude’...
Notes:
It was the evening of 30 January 1986. When Sri Chinmoy arrived at the private hall where he held meditations and functions with his students, he immediately sat down at a table which had been prepared with painting papers and supplies, and he began to paint. While painting, he requested those students who were singers to sing some of his songs on ‘Gratitude’ — in either English or Bengali. They sang for a while, and then he began to spontaneously sing the word ‘Gratitude’ continuously as he kept on painting. The sounds of the brushes on the many paintings he created can be heard in the background of the recording.
When he stopped painting, he requested to hear the recording, and upon hearing it, he said he would like to have it reproduced as a tape which he would offer as a gift to his students in the future.
He said, “I am determined to offer soulful gratitude to your hearts of aspiration and your lives of dedication. Sweeter than the sweetest is gratitude, and this sweetest gratitude abides only inside the aspiring heart.”
He had requested someone to get a large ice cream cake, which was brought into the hall. On top of the cake were the words, ‘Gratitude, my children’. He took a spoon, and as everyone formed a line in front of him, he gave each person a piece of the cake directly into their hands.
He then said, “Every day if you do not take gratitude-exercises, your heart’s gratitude-muscle will never grow. We should be grateful not only to those who are kind to us and those who are good to us, but we should also be grateful to the good qualities we embody. These good qualities definitely embody gratitude to some extent, if not to the fullest extent. So, if we consciously try to bring to the fore our own good qualities, then we increase the purity of our gratitude, the intensity of our gratitude, and the power of our gratitude. Gratitude and obedience: if one has gratitude in his inner life and obedience in his outer life, then that particular seeker in the world of aspiration and dedication shall always remain, always remain unparalleled. A gratitude-heart and an obedience-life are at every moment treasured by God Himself.”
The ‘Gratitude’ song was made into a tape, which Sri Chinmoy offered to each student at the end of the evening function on 13 April 1986, the anniversary of his arrival in the West. After offering the tape to the hundreds of students who had travelled from all over the world for this anniversary celebration, he spoke to everyone.
“If God has given me a heart, I am sure along with it He has given me gratitude as well, and that gratitude-heart to each of you I am offering. I came from the East to the West, and entered into the heart of the West just because you have given me your heart to live in. I live inside your heart, and I shall forever live inside your heart to please and manifest the Lord of your heart — our Beloved Supreme. God does exist, and the proof is your heart. Your heart is the real proof, proof of God’s Existence here on earth, and there in Heaven. God does exist, and your heart is the proof.”
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert for Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and an assembled audience of dignitaries in Dili, Timor-Leste.