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 gives a talk, entitled ‘The Role of Purity in the Spiritual Life’, at the home of Mrs. Mary Williams, in Manhattan, New York City, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘Desire and Aspiration’, at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, UK.
Sri Chinmoy’s achievement of writing 360 poems in one day – The Goal Is Won – is published in Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘Satisfaction’, at Friends Meeting House in London, England, UK.
Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘No More the Desire-Life’, at Cape Cod Community College in Hyannis, MA, USA.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens at Maritime Hall in Halifax, NA, Canada.
Sri Chinmoy first meets with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, Vatican City. Read more...
Sri Chinmoy delivers a noon lecture, entitled ‘The Inner Hunger’, at the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, Italy.
The first ‘Runners Are Smilers’ 2-mile race sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team is held in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a prayer session for American hostages held in Beirut at Rayburn House Office Building, House of Representatives in Washington, DC, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert — the 12th of 39 concerts held in honour of Swami Vivekananda — at Public School 86 in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert in honour of India’s 50th Anniversary of Independence — the 42nd in a series of 50 concerts during 1997 — at Public School 86 in Jamaica, NY, USA.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens at the Parliament Building in Kiev, Ukraine.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL, USA.
Sri Chinmoy celebrates Father’s Day with his spiritual children and composes a song, entitled ‘The Human Father ... The Divine Father’, at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy meditates at the start of the 11th annual Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race and recites his first daily prayer, which he continues to do during his visits to the event between June 18th and August 14th 2007, in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy
An Indian Spiritual Master employing yogic concentration during a period of 24 hours wrote 360 poems which were subsequently published in a book.
Submitted by Carl Brown, Jamaica NY.
Above: This item appeared in the syndicated feature Ripley’s Believe It or Not! in many US newspapers on June 18, 1974.
by Sri Chinmoy
held at Public School 86, Queens, New York
in honour of Swami Vivekananda
Today’s Peace Concert I am dedicating to Swami Vivekananda, who was at once Eternity’s Aspiration-Cry and Immortality’s Dedication-Smile.
Published in Vivekananda: Divinity’s Soul-Rainbow and Humanity’s Heart-Blossom
by Sri Chinmoy
after a performance at Public School 86 in Jamaica, New York
Tonight I have really, really enjoyed my performance on the synthesizer! [The audience offers a standing ovation.] Tonight I played to my greatest satisfaction. What more can I say?
Usually people speak about freedom of speech. Now I wish to speak about freedom of performance. I have enjoyed this performance far beyond my own imagination. I happen to be a poet, and poets have a free access to the imagination-world. But today my performance has far surpassed my imagination. I enjoyed it very, very much, very much!
I count this performance as my masterpiece. The joy that I felt while playing was unparalleled. Immensity’s joy I felt while playing, and now also, while I am listening.
I shall inform our Centres that whenever they have Joy Days, they should play this synthesizer performance of mine. They will have real joy! I will be happy if all the Centres can have a copy. Then they can play it once a month.
Joy, joy!
Published in Our Sweetest Oneness
Every day children strike their Farther’s
Victory-Gongs.
Every day children receive from their Father
gratitude-heart, gratitude-heart, gratitude-heart,
gratitude-heart-songs.
Published in Miscellaneous Songs 2005
The human father
Gives his children earth-affection.
The Divine Father
Gives His children Heaven-Delight.
Published in Enthusiasm, Part 11
On Father’s Day, Sri Chinmoy walks past the tennis scoreboard that also serves as a daily display of historical events in his life, at Aspiration-Ground in New York.
The first ‘Runners Are Smilers’ 2-mile race sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team is held in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, New York.
I offer
My outer run-results
To the Compassion-Eye
of my Lord SupremeI place
My inner run-results
At the Feet of my Lord
Beloved Supreme
June 18th 2007
Guru
Sri Chinmoy
This is the first prayer Sri Chinmoy composes during his daily visits to the 11th annual Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race between June 18th and August 14th 2007, in Jamaica, New York.
Published in My Blessingful and Pride-Flooded Dedication to the Indomitable Runners of the 3100-mile Self-Transcendence Race, 2007
Sri Chinmoy first meets with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, Vatican City. Read more...
Sri Chinmoy’s account of the meeting
My first audience with Pope John Paul II took place at the Vatican less than two years after his election. The Pope showed me so much affection and love. I presented him with a pamphlet showing our work at the United Nations. The Holy Father was beaming with joy and enthusiasm. He powerfully grasped my right elbow and said, “Special blessings to you. Special greetings to your members. We shall continue together.”
Published in Pope John Paul II: God’s Heart-Prize winner
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the home of Mrs. Mary Williams
41 Fifth Avenue, New York CitY
Purity! Purity! Purity! We love you. We want you. We need you. Stay in our thoughts. Stay in our actions. Stay in the breath of our life.
How to be pure? We can be pure by self-control; we can control our senses. It is unbelievably difficult. But it is not impossible.
"I shall control my senses. I shall conquer my passions." This approach cannot bring you what you actually want. The hungry lion that lives in your senses and the hungry tiger that lives in your passions will not leave you by the mere repetition of the thought, "I shall control my senses and conquer my passions." This approach will be of no avail.
What you must do is to fix your mind on God. To your utter amazement, your lion and tiger, tamed, will leave you of their own accord when they see that you have become too poor to feed them. As a matter of fact, you don't become poor in the least. On the contrary, you become infinitely stronger and richer, for God's Will energises your body, mind and heart. To fix your body, mind and heart on the Divine is the right approach. The closer you are to the Light, the farther you are from the Darkness.
Purity does not come all at once. It takes time. Dive deep. Lose yourself with implicit faith in God's contemplation. You need not go to Purity. Purity has to come to you and it will. Purity does not come alone. It brings an everlasting Joy with it. This Divine Joy is the sole purpose of our life. God reveals Himself fully and manifests Himself unreservedly only when we have this inner Joy.
The world gives you desires. God gives you prayers. The world gives you bondage. God gives you freedom. Freedom from limitations, freedom from ignorance.
You are the player. You can play either football or cricket. You have a free choice. Similarly, it is you who can have either purity or impurity to play with. The player is the master of the game and not vice-versa.
The easiest and most effective way to have purity is to repeat a mantra. A mantra is a seed-sound. A mantra is a dynamic power in the form of a vibrant sound.
Now let us know what Japa is. Japa is the repetition of a mantra. You want purity, don't you? Today is Saturday. Right now, repeat the name of God five hundred times. This is our mantra. Let us all do it.
Thank you. We are all successful. Now every day please increase the number by one hundred. That is to say, tomorrow you will repeat the name of God six hundred times, and the day after seven hundred. On the coming Saturday, my calculation says that you will repeat the name of God twelve hundred times. From that Saturday to the following Saturday, please start decreasing the number daily by a hundred until you again reach five hundred. Please continue this exercise, week by week, just for a month. Whether you want to change your name or not, the world will change your name. It will give you a new name. It will call you by the name Purity. Your inner ear will make you hear it. It will surpass your fondest imagination.
Let nothing perturb you. Let your body's impurity remind you of your heart's spontaneous purity. Let your outer finite thoughts remind you of your inner Infinite Will. Let your mind's teeming imperfections remind you of your soul's limitless perfection.
The present-day world is full of impurity. It seems that purity is a currency from another world. It is hard to obtain this purity, but once you get it, peace is yours, success is yours.
Let us face the world. Let us take life as it comes. Our inner Pilot is constantly vigilant. The undercurrents of our inner and spiritual life will always flow on unnoticed, unobstructed, unafraid.
God may be Unknown but He is not Unknowable. Our prayers and meditations lead us to that Unknown. Freedom we cry for. But strangely enough, we are not aware of the fact that we already have within us immense freedom. Look! Without any difficulty, we can forget God. We can ignore Him and we can even deny Him. But the compassionate God says, "My children, no matter what you do or say, My heart shall never abandon you. I want you. I need you."
The mother holds the hand of the child. It is the child who has to walk and he does it. Neither the one who is dragged nor the one who drags can be happy. Likewise God says, "My divine children, in your inner life, I give you inspiration. It is you who have to aspire with the purest heart to reach the Golden Beyond."
Published in AUM – Vol. 2, No. 7, 8, Feb.–27 Mar. 1967
“I shall not fail you if you can dare to think that I care for you.” — Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy’s comment:
This is my Father’s Day message to each and every disciple of mine.
Published in AUM – Vol. 8, No. 1, August 27, 1972
by Sri Chinmoy
at The Debater, Marischal College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland
Yoga is a Sanskrit word. It means union, conscious union with the Highest, conscious union with the Absolute.
Spirituality is a vast subject. Yoga teaches us how to study this subject. Yoga also teaches us how to have a free access to God, the Absolute.
We are all one, inseparably one with God. But our oneness is an unconscious oneness. But if we follow yoga, if we practise spirituality, then our oneness with God becomes conscious. More than that, it becomes constantly and inseparably conscious.
Two things govern the world, only two things: desire and aspiration. Desire is for those who want to live an ordinary life, practically the life of an animal; and aspiration is for those who would like to live the life of the cosmic gods. The life of desire is immediately followed by destruction. The life of aspiration is followed by revelation, and revelation is followed by manifestation — manifestation of our Divinity, manifestation of the Inner Pilot and manifestation of the Absolute, fully and completely here on earth.
Some people are satisfied with what they have and what they are. What they have is material wealth and what they are is desire. They have desire, but their desires are fulfilled to a great extent and they are satisfied. For these people aspiration is nowhere to be found. They are lifeless, static beings. Those who suffer from frustration and dissatisfaction in the life of desire at least feel that desire is not giving them abiding satisfaction. They want to have something more, to achieve something or grow into something that will give them real satisfaction. In time, these people will feel that the life of desire and material prosperity is not the answer.
There are various reasons why people enter into the spiritual path or want to practise yoga. Some people enter into the spiritual life because the world has disappointed them or deserted them and they are filled with bitter disgust for the world. They feel that spirituality is the only answer.
Some people enter into the spiritual life because they see that suffering is omnipresent. Suffering is within, suffering is without, suffering is in their families, suffering is in themselves, suffering is in the world at large. They know that suffering is not the answer. Something else — Peace, Light and inner Delight — is the answer. And they feel that they can get these only from the spiritual life.
Some people have come to know that the root of suffering is desire. Because people consciously or unconsciously cherish teeming desires, they are compelled to suffer. When their desires are not fulfilled, they suffer from frustration; when their desires are fulfilled still they suffer, for they thought that the fulfilment of their desires would have been infinitely more meaningful and satisfying.
Some people have gone a step further and have come to realise that desire is not the real culprit. It is ignorance that is the real culprit. We wallow in the pleasures of ignorance, and ignorance compels us to desire at every moment. Our inner sky is overcast with clouds, and these clouds are ignorance. We can illumine this inner sky through our constant inner cry, the cry that we hear ceaselessly inside the very depths of our heart, in the inmost recesses of our being. When we cry inwardly, in our inner being we feel that there is a climbing flame. This flame goes high, higher, highest and touches the acme of perfection. This conscious inner cry has a special name, and that name is aspiration.
This inner cry will carry us into the world of infinite Beauty, infinite Delight, infinite Perfection. These worlds are for the people who enter into the spiritual life. They are blessed. They know the Truth. They know that material prosperity cannot give them immortal Life, immortal Light and Delight. It is impossible. Only the inner life, the life of aspiration and dedication, can give them this immortal Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure.
Of course, it does not matter why you enter into the spiritual life — whether suffering or frustration or any other factors have compelled you. Once you have accepted the spiritual life soulfully and devotedly, that is enough. Your readiness and eagerness in the spiritual path is the only important thing.
In the spiritual life there should not be any kind of calculation or intellectual approach, but only self-giving to the Inner Pilot. The approach has to stem from the inner being directly, and should not go through the mind or the intellect. This does not mean that you will totally discard and disregard the mind. But the mind that you are using right now is the physical, earthbound mind. Its capacity is very limited; but in spite of that it constantly judges you and others. The mind is always eager to suspect others. It feels that suspicion is the greatest wisdom. It feels that its doubting capacity is the greatest achievement. If the mind suspects or doubts, then it feels that it is doing something very great and significant. Naturally, you very often see that its judgements are totally wrong, because the mind’s judgements are based on its preconceived ideas and prejudices. But the heart is all love, all oneness, all spontaneity.
Stand in front of the ocean of spirituality and use the mind. It will say that the ocean is very cold and its waves are dangerous and ferocious. Doubt will tell you that the waves will drown you. But the heart will see the ocean, not as an ocean of destruction, but as an ocean of Illumination, an ocean of Perfection and Fulfilment. It will feel that if you jump into this ocean, you will be jumping into the sea of Reality, and that sooner or later you will become the Reality itself.
Some people are badly frightened by the ocean of spirituality. They feel that there will be no escape for them and that the ocean of spirituality will drown them. Just because they do not care for the ocean of reality, they are now swimming in the ocean of ignorance. We can be in only one place: either in ignorance-night or in Wisdom-Light. Ignorance-night is right in front of us and, at the same time, Wisdom-Light is deep within us. It is we who have to make the choice. If we accept the Wisdom-Light, then our life is bound to be transformed, illumined and perfected. But if we accept ignorance-night, then our life will be devoured and destroyed by ignorance. If we really want to walk along the path of spirituality, then constantly we will be inspired from deep within to follow the path of Light, and to grow into the Light slowly, steadily and unerringly. Then, at the end of our journey’s close, we will see the Inner Pilot, the Supreme Beloved, garlanding us with His transcendental Joy and divine Pride.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 2
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at Friends' Meeting House, London, England
Dear seekers, dear spiritual brothers and sisters, I wish to give a talk on satisfaction from the spiritual point of view. It is only human beings that need satisfaction from God. God Himself is all Satisfaction. At the same time, He wants to see and achieve satisfaction inside each and every individual. Here we are all seekers. Inside us is the animal existence to some extent, the human life as such, and the divine life that we are longing for. Finally, Light Supreme abides within us, in the inmost recesses of our hearts.
The animal in us wants satisfaction through destruction. The animal in us is jealousy, doubt and anger.
The human in us wants to aspire, but then it drowns in the pleasures of ignorance. At times it does want to aspire, and when it aspires it feels the supreme necessity of realisation: realisation of its inseparable oneness with the world of Love, God’s Love.
The divine in us consciously and constantly longs for satisfaction, satisfaction within and satisfaction without.
The Supreme within us wants the supreme Satisfaction. God is granting us His unconditional Satisfaction. He is showering His infinite Compassion on us. And we receive according to our inner receptivity and capacity. Our capacity is our devoted head and our receptivity is our surrendered heart.
We want satisfaction; therefore, we make a personal effort. From our personal effort we gain satisfaction. Again, from our inner surrender to God’s Will we gain higher satisfaction. When we combine soulful personal effort with surrender, at that time we get supreme satisfaction.
Being a seeker myself, I wish to say that there are three principal ways to achieve satisfaction in life. First is the way of concentration, second is the way of meditation and third is the way of contemplation. Through concentration, meditation and contemplation we achieve satisfaction. Dear, dearer, dearest satisfaction; sweet, sweeter, sweetest satisfaction. Satisfaction that is dearer than the dearest, sweeter than the sweetest.
Concentration is speed; it wants to grant us satisfaction sooner than at once. When we concentrate, we can achieve and receive considerable satisfaction on earth. It is like a man reaching his goal; deep in our destination is satisfaction.
Meditation is slightly different. Meditation will give us peace, which is another kind of satisfaction.
Contemplation gives us satisfaction through delight. It helps us to discover the delight within us. Contemplation tells us that delight is our Source, that in delight we actually grow and that at the end of our earthly journey, into delight we shall retire.
Concentration is speed-satisfaction, meditation is peace-satisfaction and contemplation is delight-satisfaction. Concentration, meditation and contemplation are the three members of the divine self. Each member plays a distinctive role in bringing satisfaction. Concentration plays the role of the hero-warrior. Meditation plays the role of the wisest instrument of the Supreme. Contemplation plays the role of the divine Lover and the Beloved Supreme.
Concentration joyously declares, “God is for me.” Meditation soulfully declares, “I am for God.” Contemplation unconditionally declares, “God and I are eternal. I am for God and God is for me. I am unconditionally for God and God is unconditionally for me.” This is the blessing and wisdom-light that contemplation offers to us.
Concentration has the capacity to discover the tiniest drop inside the vast ocean and to concentrate on it. It can separate the tiniest drop from the infinite Vast and then it can do anything it wants to do with the tiniest drop.
Meditation has the power, on the strength of its inner spiritual capacity, to transform the tiny drop into the vast ocean. The power of meditation has the capacity to transform the finite into the infinite Vast.
Contemplation has the capacity to see unification between the tiny drop and the vast ocean. In contemplation, they combine their capacity in order to achieve satisfaction.
Creation is satisfaction and the Creator is satisfaction. If we see creation with the eye of our Inner Pilot, it is nothing short of satisfaction, supreme satisfaction. But if we see creation with our own human eyes, with our limited vision, then we see and feel nothing like satisfaction. If we use our limited vision, we see all around us confusion and frustration. But if we invoke God-Vision, we see God’s creation in us, through us and around us. Then, we notice continuous preparation and ever-transcending perfection in His creation. Confusion and frustration offer dissatisfaction: continuous preparation and ever-transcending perfection grant us divine satisfaction.
Expectation is satisfaction when we want something from others. We expect something from others; others expect something from us. Each of us gives and we both derive satisfaction. Then we go one step ahead and feel that there is no satisfaction in expectation. If we expect, we act like a beggar. A beggar is one who does not have the things that he wants. If we have expectation, I tell you that we act like beggars; but we are like an emperor if we don’t expect. Instead of expectation, we have to have surrender, constant surrender to God’s Will. We shall evoke God’s Presence and then it is up to Him if He will grant us satisfaction. If we seek only to be His perfect instruments, and if He allows us to be His perfect instruments, at that time we shall derive true satisfaction.
Each individual seeker can pray and meditate and in this way grow into satisfaction supreme. When he wants his satisfaction to be high beyond the skies, he climbs up high, higher, highest in order to see His Heavenly Father and thus grow into divine, supreme satisfaction. And the same seeker, when he meditates, realises that God’s Heavenly satisfaction is not only in Heaven but also on earth. Therefore, when he wants to feel his Father’s Heaven in the highest realm of consciousness, he climbs up on the strength of his prayer; and when he wants to see His Father’s Universal Form as well as His Transcendental Form, at that time he prays.
We pray, meditate, concentrate and contemplate only for one thing: the satisfaction of our Lord Supreme. If we fulfil ourselves in our own way, out of His boundless Compassion, God without fail will grant us satisfaction in our own way. But just because we are spiritual seekers, our sincerity will not allow us to derive supreme satisfaction unless and until we can please God in His own Way.
How will we please God in His own Way? There is only one way and that is through self-giving. Self-giving is founded upon our constant inner cry. This inner cry we see, we feel and we grow into only when we put God first in our life.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 6
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at Cape Cod Community College, Hyannis, Massachusetts
No more the desire-life, no more. The lure of yesterday’s desire-life has sunk into meaningless insignificance today. Aspiration, the real reality of the seeker in me, begins to triumph today. Aspiration, my heart’s inner cry, is hastening the arrival of my Beloved Supreme. From now on I shall always remain devoted to my life within. No difficulty, no sorrow, no worry, no anxiety will be able to assail me. I shall not fall. I shall not stumble. Onward I shall march. Mine will be the life of an eternal journey, the journey that has neither beginning nor end. It is an ever-transcending journey, the journey that beckons humanity’s cry and divinity’s Smile. From now on my body shall sing and sing, my vital shall smile and smile, my mind shall fly and fly, my heart shall dive and dive, my soul shall spread and spread.
The teeming troubles and tribulations of the past are no more. Now at every moment unceasing opportunities are looming large. I am in front of an unhorizoned reality. I shall avail myself of all these opportunities. From now on my life of surrender to God’s Will will be my infallible guide. My life of devotion to my Beloved Supreme will be the supreme feast to satisfy my hunger of millennia.
My selfless love of God shall transform the dwarf-seeker in me into a giant spiritual figure. I shall become a devoted, faithful, soulful, unreserved and unconditional instrument of my Beloved Supreme. To manifest Him in His own way my soul-bird flew down into the earth-arena. I have become one with my soul’s promise. My soul’s promise and my life of love, devotion and surrender will fulfil our Beloved Supreme throughout the length and breadth of the world.
Published in AUM – Vol. 4, No. 6, 27 June 1977