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 delivers a lecture, entitled ‘The Meaning of Life’, at the Inter-American University in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘The Sunlit Path’, at the University of California in Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘The Outer Running and the Inner Running’, at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Odeon Theatre in Birmingham, UK.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (204) at Buchman Hall in Manhattan, New York, NY, USA. There, he sings his new peace song for 1990, ‘Supreme Supreme Shanti Shanti’, for the first time.
Sri Chinmoy lifts The Very Reverend Edward Carpenter, former Dean of Westminster; and Brother Daniel Faivre, Director of the Westminster Interfaith Programme, at Westminster Cathedral in London, UK.
Sri Chinmoy meets with Kuldip Nayar, Indian High Commissioner to the UK, at India House in London, UK.
Sri Chinmoy runs 100 metres with Sudhahota Carl Lewis in 14:33 at the dedication of the Sri Chinmoy Peace Track at Robertson Stadium, University of Houston, in Houston, TX, USA. Sri Chinmoy also meets with Leroy Burrell, 1992 Olympic gold medallist in the 4 x 100 metres relay; Floyd Heard, 1989 US Champion for 200 metres; and Mike Marsh, 1992 Olympic gold medallist in 200 metres, 4 x 100 metres relay.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert to an audience of 7,500 at the University of Houston in Houston, TX, USA.
Sri Chinmoy honours Ambalika Lewis, mother of Sudarhota Carl Lewis and Carol Lewis, on her 63rd birthday, in Houston, Texas. In her youth, Ambalika, known as Evelyn Lawler, held the American record for the 80-metre hurdles.
Sri Chinmoy lifts Jacob Zuma, Deputy President of the ANC, during a programme held in his honour in Jamaica, NY, USA.
São Tomé and Principe is declared a Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossom-Nation.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Royal Albert Hall in London, UK.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Prospect Point, Niagara Falls, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Inter-American University in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Sri Chinmoy visits The Oneness-Fountain-Heart restaurant in Flushing, New York, featuring Jharna-Kala artworks that decorate the walls.
After addressing the United Nations on world peace October 3, Foreign Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao ducked out of the General Assembly for a few minutes to find some real peace at a meditation session being held a few floors away by spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy.
“I feel transformed,” the Foreign Minister told Sri Chinmoy. “The difference between this and what is going on just a few floors away is so real that I feel overwhelmed.”
He said he “had not realized that somewhere tucked away in this very large building of the U.N. there is a small corner where real peace dwells.
Clasping the spiritual leader’s hand Rao called him the UN’s “cultural and spiritual ambassador.”
Sri Chinmoy, who has been conducting meditations at the UN for delegates and staff for more than a decade, presented Rao with a trophy.
Foreign Minister Rao with Sri Chinmoy: A peaceful break from international affairs.
Published in News India, Page 4, October 17, 1980
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Prospect Point, Niagara Falls, New York, USA. The concert is the first in a new series to be held at natural and man-made wonders around the world.
Sri Chinmoy sprints 100 metres with Sudhahota Carl Lewis in 14:33 at the dedication of the Sri Chinmoy Peace Track at Robertson Stadium, University of Houston, in Houston, Texas.
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the Inter-American University, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Life is God’s Transcendental Blessing to His Creation. What is more important than God’s Blessing? God’s Concern. What is more important than God’s Concern? The absolute Fulfilment of God’s Will.
Life is man’s experience of wisdom and faith. Wisdom without faith is the bondage of futility. Faith without wisdom is the smile of stupidity. Faith and wisdom can go together. Faith awakens us to see the Truth. Wisdom helps us to live the Truth.
The outer world is a play of conflict between the fleeting and destructive thoughts of man’s mind and the constructive and lasting will of man’s soul. The inner world is a play of harmony between the mind’s surrender and the soul’s acceptance.
Life is will. There is only one will that mediates between God and man. That will is at once the descending cry of concern and compassion and the ascending cry of love and helplessness.
Life is man’s conscious attempt to see God face to face.
First try. Then cry. If necessary.
First give. Then take. If necessary.
First run. Then stop. If necessary.
First be the doer. Then be the talker. If necessary.Thought, human thought, rules the world. But mere thinking is of no avail.
When I think, God is my frustration.
When I cry, God is my consolation.
When I try, God is my salvation.
When I will, God is my illumination.We must love God first if we really love life, for God is not only the Source but the very Breath of life. Love of God costs nothing, absolutely nothing, but is worth much. Our mind knows this truth. Our heart practises this truth. Our soul embodies this truth.
The ultimate aim of the human life is liberation. Liberation is the choice of man and the Grace of God. Liberation is man’s total freedom and God’s constant responsibility.
You cry because you have no plans to make your life meaningful and successful. He cries because all his plans have come to a lame conclusion. I cry because I do not want to have any plans. What I want is to be seated all the time at the Feet of the Supreme, who is at once the Vision and the Reality.
My life has three doctors: Dr Love, Dr Devotion and Dr Surrender. Dr Love cures my mind’s narrowness. Dr Devotion cures my heart’s impurity. Dr Surrender cures my life’s ignorance.
My life has three Gods: God the Existence, God the Consciousness and God the Bliss. God the Existence eternally lives in me. God the Consciousness constantly grows in me. God the Bliss immortally lives with me.
Published in Eastern Light for the Western Mind
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of California, Santa Cruz, California
In the spiritual life, the name of the sunlit path is Devotion. This path is definitely the short-cut to God-Realisation. It is true that God and His Mysteries are beyond the comprehension of speech and intellect. But it is equally true that God is easily accessible through devotion.
A true devotee gets great joy when he feels, “All this am I.”
He gets greater joy when he feels, “All this art Thou.”
He gets the greatest joy when he feels, “Thou art the Master; I am only the instrument.”He who follows the Path of Knowledge says to God, “Father, I want You.”
He who follows the Path of Devotion says to God, “Father, I need You.”
The former says to God, “Father, I own You.”
The latter says to God, “Father, You own me.”A real devotee is a true lover of God. Impossibility has no meaning and can never have any meaning in his life.
As in other paths, in the sunlit path the devotee learns that it does not matter how long he prays and meditates, but how he prays and meditates. If he prays and meditates upon the Divine sincerely and unreservedly, then he prays and meditates ten times at once.
When an aspirant starts his journey along the sunlit path, he says to God, “Father, give me.”
At his journey’s close he says, “Father, receive me.”
We all know that the abode of gratitude is the heart. Strangely enough, gratitude often manages to hide from its abode. But in the sunlit path soulful gratitude is always visible, looming large in the aspirant’s heart.
Self-love mars the fertile soil of aspiration and renders it sterile. But devotion toward God kindles the mounting flame of aspiration, creating a new world for the aspirant in God, and a new world for God in the aspirant.
Devotion is blessedness itself. This blessedness is the self-dedicating love turned toward God, seeking to serve Him constantly and unconditionally so that He can be fulfilled both in heaven and on earth.
There are countless people on earth who not only claim to pray, but actually do pray. How is it that they get practically no result from their prayers? The answer is simple and clear. Their prayer is not snow-white. A snow-white prayer is the fount of a self-generating energy, a self-transforming light and a self-fulfilling delight.
Like everyone else, a devoted aspirant has needs. But his needs and God’s Love and Compassion are always seen together. A real devotee has come to realise that he loves God not to fulfil his human desires but to fulfil God in God’s own Way. For an unaspiring person, life is punishment, pure torture. For an aspiring soul, each moment in life is an opportunity for self-illumination and God-fulfilment. In the sunlit path of devotion, the aspirant knows that just as he is hungry for God’s Infinite Compassion, even so is God hungry for his constant feeling of conscious oneness with Him.
When the body is dirty, soap is necessary to clean it. When the mind is impure, tears of repentance are necessary to purify it. When the heart is impure, the need for devotion is paramount. The heart’s impurity is the most dangerous disease in the spiritual life. Devotion is the only medicine. Devotion is the only cure.
The Brahman is by nature indivisible, a complete whole. But through maya, its self-limiting force, it has broken itself into infinite pieces. The aspirant’s all-surrendering devotion can easily make him whole again, divinely complete and supremely One.
Published in Eastern Light for the Western Mind
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
I am a seeker-runner. Here we are all seekers, and I wish to offer this short talk, which is my way of serving the souls of the seeker-runners here, on the outer running and the inner running of a seeker-runner.
The outer running is a powerful struggle for a great independence.
The inner running is a soulful cry for a good interdependence.
Independence brings to the fore what we have unmistakably deep within: a freedom-smile.
Interdependence makes us conscious of what we eternally are: a oneness-satisfaction.
The outer running is a burning desire to achieve everything that we see here on earth.
The inner running is a climbing aspiration to receive from above a vast compassion-sky, and to give from below a tiny gratitude-flame.
The outer running is an extraordinary success on the mountain-summit.
The inner running is an exemplary progress along Eternity’s sunlit road.
Success is the ready and immediate acceptance of the challenges of difficulties untold.
Progress is the soulful and grateful acceptance of the blessingful joy from prosperities unfathomed.
The outer runner and the inner runner: the seeker-runner in two aspects. The outer runner does; therefore, he succeeds. The inner runner becomes; therefore, he proceeds. When he succeeds, the seeker-runner gets a new name: glorification. When he proceeds, the seeker-runner gets a new name: illumination. His glorification is a beautiful flower that charms and inspires his own entire life. His illumination is a fruitful tree that shelters and nourishes his own entire earthly existence.
The outer running is a colossal satisfaction, although at times it may be quite oblivious to the existence-reality of a quiet perfection. The inner running is a perpetual satisfaction in and through a blossoming perfection.
The seeker-runner has a shadowless dream of his full realisation-day in his outer running. The seeker-runner has a sleepless vision of his God’s full manifestation-hour in his inner running.
The outer runner challenges the Himalayan pride of impossibility. The inner runner smilingly arranges a feast not only with impossibility, but also with Immortality. The outer runner runs through the golden gate and arrives at the sound-kingdom. The inner runner enters into the unique palace, runs up to its highest floor and places himself at the very Feet of the Silence-King.
Finally, the seeker-runner’s outer running says to his inner running, “Look, I am giving you what I now have: my majesty’s crown.” The seeker-runner’s inner running says to his outer running, “Look, I am giving you what I now am: my beauty’s throne.”
Published in AUM — Vol. 6, No.10, October 1980