A 14-HOUR FATHER’S DAY MEDITATION
Jamaica, N.Y. – Sri Chinmoy and about a hundred of his disciples celebrated Father's Day last month with a 14-hour meditation.
For the final seven hours, the Master gave darshan, blessing each one of his disciples individually.
The disciples filed one by one into a small room where Sri Chinmoy waited, closing the door behind them.
Earlier, he had asked each of them to write on a piece of paper seven spiritual accomplishments or achievements. As each disciple entered the room, the Guru read the list in silence, and then blessed the seeker.
Some of the blessings lasted for a couple of minutes, and often the disciples would come out of the chamber deeply moved, sometimes in tears.
The meditation was originally meant to last only 13 hours, but the extra hour was needed to complete the darshan.
The day was broken up into two four-hour sessions, one three-hour session, and a final two-hour session which stretched into three hours. Between the sessions were rest breaks.
The disciples were asked to eat very little, or fast, in order to meditate better. But at two sessions the Master handed out prasad, or blessed food. Once it was an orange and a nectarine, and once it was an ice cream sandwich and an apple.
The evening ended with a 13-course meal.
Only those who had been disciples for at least four years were invited to participate in the meditation, and some came all the way from Canada and Florida for the single-day session.
The previous day Sri Chinmoy held a seven-hour meditation for his other disciples who had been with him for less than four years.
Published in Anahata Nada, Vol. II, No. 6, July 1, 1975
Father’s Day Meditation
Norwalk Meditation for Sri Chinmoy
A special Father’s Day Meditation was held Saturday, June 14 in the garden of the Norwalk Sri Chinmoy Centre, 80 Perry avenue. The program consisted of *seven hours of silent meditation led by Sri Chinmoy, director of the United Nations Meditation Group. Present were 200 people, mostly members of the Norwalk Sri Chinmoy Centre. Also attending were members of Sri Chinmoy Centres of Chicago, San Francisco, Miami and Canada who came specifically for this event.
The meditation began at 6 A.M. and ended at 5 P.M. with several intervening breaks. After the meditation a 13-course vegetarian meal topped the festivities.
Several members of the Norwalk group also attended a similar meditation at the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Queens, N.Y. held the next day, which lasted for 14 hours.
Sri Chinmoy conducts regular meditations at the Norwalk centre every Saturday at 1 P.M.
Editor's note:*14 hours in total
Originally published in The Norwalk Hour, Wednesday, 18 June 1975
Reprinted in AUM – Vol. 2, No. 6, 27 June 1975
ARLO GUTHRIE VISITS GURU LAND
JAMAICA, NY — Singer Arlo Guthrie came to Annam Brahma restaurant on June 14 to meet and meditate with Sri Chinmoy.
“I am a great, sincere, genuine admirer of your father,” the Master told him. “He was a supremely genuine seeker and also an unparalleled self-giver through his heart-illumining and life-fulfilling songs.”
During the course of the meeting, the disciple singers sang Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” and Sri Chinmoy’s adaptation, “This Heart is Your Heart,” using words their teacher had put to Guthrie’s music.
Published in Anahata Nada, Volume 20, April–July 1991