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 meets with Robert Muller, Director and Deputy to the Under-Secretary-General for Inter-Agency Affairs and Co-ordination, at the United Nations in New York.
Sri Chinmoy dedicates his book of 401 rhyming poems ‘From the Source to the Source’ to his brother Chitta who inspired him in the poetry-world.
Sri Chinmoy writes 12 more Indian stories (6-17), which are later published in Great Indian Meals: Divinely Delicious and Supremely Nourishing, part 1.
Sri Chinmoy performs 2,230 pushups in 59 minutes, 40 seconds at a function hall in Kyoto, Japan.
Sri Chinmoy meditates at Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist Temple, near Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia.
Sri Chinmoy lifts the Sultan of Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Ja’afar Ibni Al Markham — a former Ambassador of Malaysia to Japan — at the Sultan’s Palace in Seremban, Malaysia. (The Sultan had read in the New Straits Times that Sri Chinmoy had lifted Malaysia’s Minister of Works Datuk S. Sarny Vellu and was himself, delighted to be lifted.) Sri Chinmoy also composed a song for the Sultan, entitled ‘Sultan, Sultan Tuanku Ja'afar, Sultan!’, which is performed for him by an international choir of Sri Chinmoy’s students.
Sri Chinmoy participates in a Peace Mile Relay, along with Sri Lanka’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sport Nanda Mathew, at the Ministry of Sports in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Chinmoy is awarded the Honorary Degree of Visva Sama Duta, meaning ‘Ambassador of Universal Peace’, by the Royal Asgiriya Order of Buddhist Monks in Kandy, Sri Lanka – the first time the award has been presented to a non-Buddhist.
Sri Chinmoy completes Seven Thousand Blue-Gold Birds drawings, at the Hotel Riu Bonanza in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
Sri Chinmoy attends the dedication ceremony of Mactan–Cebu International Airport becoming a Sri Chinmoy Peace Airport, in Cebu, the Philippines.
Sri Chinmoy and his students take an ocean boat ride off Suva, in Fiji.
An exhibition of 22,665 of Sri Chinmoy’s Soul-Bird drawings — 11,666 completed in Myanmar — is held at the Mya Yeik Nyo, Deluxe Hotel, in Yangon, Myanmar.
Sri Chinmoy meets with Raymond Mhlaba, Premier of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, at the Holiday Inn, Kings Beach, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Sri Chinmoy holds a 7-hour meditation at the Holiday Inn Centro in Cancún, Mexico; and composes his immortal song, ‘My Lord Beloved Supreme with Every Breath of My Heart’. He also composes his song for the New Millennium, entitled ‘Twenty First Century’. Read Sri Chinmoy’s commentaries...
Sri Chinmoy offers a silent meditation for the ‘Victory over Genocide’ celebration, attended by Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, Cabinet members, Ambassadors, Party leaders and President of the Senate, at the Cambodian People’s Party Headquarters in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Hotel Inter-Continental in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Sri Chinmoy visits ‘Wild World’, a native wildlife sanctuary in Palm Cove near Cairns, and holds one of Australia's iconic animals – the koala.
Sri Chinmoy gives a talk, entitled ‘Austerity versus Wisdom’, at the Novotel Palm Cove Resort, in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens in Cambridge Central Library, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Sri Chinmoy makes the first of three early-morning short videos of the setting moon and the rising sun near Varna in Bulgaria, during which he chants, prays and sings.
DATUK S. Sarny Vellu is, without doubt, a heavyweight in local politics, being president of the MIC.
But spiritual strongman Sri Chinmoy lifted all 87kg of the Works Minister in a feat which had onlookers gasping.
Performing a feat which others at his age would think twice about, Sri Chinmoy also lifted muscleman Malek Noor and 10 others in a demonstration in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday night.
Sri Chinmoy is a renowned Indian spiritualist and a man of peace.
Sri Chinmoy, aged 57 and weighing 70.9kg, has lifted 1,000 people overhead with one arm in the past six months using a specially built platform.
The occasion, called Lifting up the World with a Oneness-Heart, honours individuals for their dedication and inspiration or recognises specific cultural or national groups.
Among those already honoured are sprinter Carl Lewis, singer Roberta Flack and director of the United Nations Children’s Fund James Grant.
Published in the Straits Times, Saturday, January 7, 1989, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Lyrics:
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Published in Paradise is Where I Bend My Knees
Sri Chinmoy sets music to this prayer while on a Christmas trip in Cancún, Mexico. The prayer was written on December 18, 1997, while he was staying at Lake Atitlán in the highlands of Guatemala.
“This prayer embodies the meaning of our Path. We did not create this prayer, but God created it so that He could teach us how to pray to Him.” — Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy asks his disciples to recite the prayer or sing the song during morning meditations, saying that this would help them “immensely” in their spiritual lives.
Listen to Sri Chinmoy singing
Recorded during the 1998/99 Christmas trip
Twenty First Century, the New Millennium!
No more the old sorrows and joys-compendium
God’s Heart, God’s Eye, a new hope and a new promise!
O run and dive and fly — Bliss, Infinity’s Bliss!
The world shall cheer the road with a God-surrender-song.
Creator’s Silence-Hearts, creation’s sound-lives throng.
Published in The New Millennium
Comments by Sri Chinmoy
14 January 1998, during a bus trip from Cancun to Merida, Mexico
One second before you sing the “New Millennium” song, if you see and feel what you are singing, then it will be much better. First you have to see, and then feel. Look at a tree: you will immediately feel that the tree is inside you. Then you can express the beauty of the tree. See and feel, and then express it. Then your singing will be completely different. Sing each and every song like that!
Published in Only Gratitude-Tears
by Sri Chinmoy
14 January 1998, in Merida, Mexico
Life’s dynamic spirit I need in this song, from the beginning to the end! People who were in my bus sang and sang and sang this song to my satisfaction. It has to be full of spirit and vigour, right from the beginning to the end.
With this song we shall end our Peace Concerts from now on. Everywhere that will be our anthem, and it will be full of dynamic spirit.
It is an English song. First, try to envision the meaning of the words. As soon as you think of the Twenty-First Century, the New Millennium, try to imagine it. Your vision and realisation have to precede your revelation and expression. When you are singing each line, try to see each word first, then feel it and finally express it.
Published in Only Gratitude-Tears
Sri Chinmoy visits ‘Wild World’, a native wildlife sanctuary in Palm Cove near Cairns, and holds one of Australia's iconic animals – the koala.
* With the increasing loss of habitat, koalas are now considered vulnerable to extinction.
by Sri Chinmoy
at 5:31 a.m. in Qingdao, China, Seated double-dumbbell lift: 1,006 lbs
My Supreme,
My Supreme!Every morning
A new divinity-sun rises
In my aspiration-heart-sky.My Supreme,
My Supreme!
Published in My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 18
by Sri Chinmoy
at the morning 2-mile race in Kijal, Malaysia
Today’s runners:
Brave you are,
Daring you are,
Weather-defying you are,
God-loving you are,
God-fulfilling you are.
Spirituality braves all obstacles
And then it receives
The Victory-Garland from God.
Published in My Race-Prayers, part 2
of Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Ja’afar Ibni Al Markhum, at the Sultan’s Palace in Seremban, Malaysia
Stories by Sri Chinmoy
When I met the Sultan in Kuala Lumpur, immediately I got a very good vibration from him. In a previous incarnation I had known his soul quite well. At that time the Sultan had a very, very close connection with me, but our relationship was totally different.
The Sultan also felt something in me. He was so kind and affectionate from beginning to end. He showed me the same kind of affection that Dan Lurie, the physical fitness proponent, shows me.
In the newspaper he had seen the picture of my lifting Samy Vellu. So when he saw me, he immediately said, “Do you want to lift me?” Of course I did! The whole time I was lifting him, he was in a trance; he was so happy.
When the singers were singing, the Sultan’s soul was deeply moved — especially when they were singing the song I had composed about him — “Number One.” His soul was getting such joy from “Number One”!
After visiting the Sultan, we had to go to the airport to catch a plane. Unfortunately, our bus driver was nowhere to be found.
The Sultan immediately began ordering his people, “Get their driver!”
Then the police went into the town and found the driver having a cup of coffee with his friends.
The World-Experience-Tree-Climber, part 7
Sri Chinmoy attends the dedication ceremony of Mactan–Cebu International Airport becoming a Sri Chinmoy Peace Airport, in Cebu, the Philippines.
a Sri Chinmoy Peace Airport
I bow and bow and bow and bow to the soul, the heart, the mind, the vital and the body of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. My esteemed brother-friend Captain Oppus, my esteemed brother-friend Mayor Weigel, and my dear sister Mrs. Erediano, to each of you I offer my heart of love, oneness and gratitude.
To start with, in all sincerity I wish to tell you all that I am not a teacher of peace and I am not an ambassador of peace. What I am is a student of peace. A student of peace has the opportunity to learn and unlearn. A student of peace learns how to receive divine qualities from his Inner Pilot and he learns how to listen in the inmost recesses of his heart to the blessingful Messages of his Inner Pilot. Again, he unlearns the experiences of division and supremacy that the mind has given him over the years. The mind has taught us the song of supremacy as well as many other undivine lessons. The mind has given us many unfortunate experiences. As a student of peace, these lessons and experiences I try to unlearn.
The experiences of the heart strengthen us, expand our horizons, make us feel that we are all one family and we have only one home. Our life-tree has countless branches, flowers and fruits. Each individual is a beautiful, beautiful flower with fragrance. Each individual is a sweet, delicious fruit of that life-tree.
Here we are at the International Airport. An airport is the home of aspiring, evolving humanity. From this home we start our journey. Again, we come back here to this home at the end of our journey’s close. This home teaches us the importance of speed. Faster than the fastest its child, the aeroplane, takes us to another part of the world. This home gives us the message of adventure. From here we go to another part of the world with enthusiasm and love to experience the beauty, divinity and fragrance of people from other countries and to become inseparably one with their joys and sorrows.
Aspiration and dedication are the two wings of our soul-bird, the inner reality. We aspire to fly higher and highest and we dedicate ourselves to become one, inseparably one, with the rest of the world. Each individual is a pilgrim. With his ever-new dream he is flying in the sky of hope, in the sky of promise. So this International Airport is our soul’s promise and our heart’s love. With our love we shall see the world and feel the world as our own, very own. With our promise we shall increase the beauty and divinity of each and every human being and each and every nation.
My esteemed brother-friend, the Mayor, spoke about the League of Nations and the United Nations. I am extremely fortunate to be a servitor of the United Nations. I have been serving the United Nations for about a quarter of a century. These last 23 years I have been serving the United Nations with my prayers and meditations. Twice a week I go to the United Nations. About 60 students of mine work at the United Nations, and also there are many seekers, right from the highest officials — ambassadors, delegates and diplomats — down to the general staff, who come to pray and meditate with us. The League of Nations was a tiny plant. Now the plant has grown into a huge banyan tree, the United Nations. The United Nations is the hope of mankind. There the representatives of various countries come and offer their goodwill and exchange their lofty ideas on how all the people of the world can become inseparably one.
Unfortunately, peace is still a far cry. This world of ours has not yet seen the face or felt the heart of peace. Why, why, why? Precisely because we are trying to bring about world peace with our mind’s brilliance, splendour and scientific capacities. As long as we try to establish world peace on the strength of our mind’s capacities, we shall sadly fail. We shall succeed only when we exercise our heart’s capacities.
The very nature of the human mind is division. The mind gets pleasure only in lording it over others, in exercising its supremacy. When I live in the mind, I always want to be at least one step ahead of you, or I want to be a few inches above your head. But as long as I am ahead of you or higher than you are, I will never be able to give you the real happiness, and inside this happiness is peace. We have to walk side by side, or we have to carry the other individuals inside our heart-garden. At every moment we must see the aspiration and dedication of all world-citizens. Each citizen is a flower and his heart is its fragrance.
I am a student of peace; I am a student of the heart. I pray to God to expand my heart at every moment. This heart alone will be able to make me feel that each individual on earth is not only mine but also an ever-climbing oneness-breath.
Peace does not have to remain a far cry. Now we are like patients in a mental hospital, but we have to come out. We can only come out of the mental hospital if we use the proper medicine, and this medicine is the feeling of oneness. This oneness we can feel only when we claim the entire world as our own, very own. By dividing the world, we are only taking ourselves away, far, farther, farthest, from our Source, which is Immortality.
The way of the heart has no U-turn. Once we start our journey, we only walk, march, run and sprint along Eternity’s Road. Here each step reminds us of what we eternally are: happiness, happiness and happiness. Happiness and peace are inseparable. They are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Happiness is the beauty of our soul, and peace is the fragrance of our soul. Our soul is the direct representative of our Absolute Lord Supreme, who is at once omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.
Let us pray and meditate to be the beauty of our heart-flower and fragrance of our heart-flower. It is in the beauty and fragrance of our heart-flower that we shall have peace, abiding peace, infinite peace, that will inundate the length and breadth of the entire world.
I wish to offer my heart’s very special gratitude to all those who serve this august airport. Each server plays a most significant role in welcoming, in helping and in giving joy to thousands of pilgrims who come to this home to be blessed with hope, promise and fulfilment.
Published in Peace-Blossoms on the Philippine Life-Tree
Sri Chinmoy dedicates his book of 401 rhyming poems ‘From the Source to the Source’ to his brother Chitta who inspired him in the poetry-world.
Right from my infancy my brother Chitta has inspired me, encouraged me and taught me lovingly and unreservedly how to devotedly and successfully enter into the poetry-world. Therefore today with my heart's boundless gratitude I am offering my seeker-poet's flower-gathering to him, the Source of my poetry-world.
Chinmoy
7 January 1978
Published in From the Source to the Source
In the morning, Sri Chinmoy gives the following prayer:
My ever-increasingly
Compassionate Lord Supreme,
I am praying to You
With my heart’s silence-tears.
Do accept the cheerful surrender
Of my mind’s freedom.
In the evening, Sri Chinmoy hands his disciples a card with this prayer and his soulful request printed on it:
As old as you are, in silence most soulfully, most soulfully, recite this prayer and, I assure you, you are going to get results in terms of happiness, achievement and fulfilment. And it is my wish that every year on the 7th, no matter where you are, do this prayer. Every year, as long as you are on earth.*
Listen to Sri Chinmoy reciting this prayer
Recorded during the 1998/99 Christmas trip
* The number of times to recite this prayer is equal to your age in years.
Remarks by Sri Chinmoy
in Cancún, Mexico
On January 7th, we had our first seven-hour meditation for this year. I do hope that we can have a seven-hour meditation on the 7th of every month.
During the meditation, when the disciples were singing “Nimne dharanir,” the great spiritual Master Gorakshanath came to me in the inner world and said, “When I was on earth I performed so many miracles.”
Gorakshanath had tremendous occult and spiritual power. Because of him, for months there would be no rain. If I say there should be no rain, immediately there will be a downpour!
The higher you go, the less you perform miracles outwardly and the more you perform miracles inwardly. Again, sometimes a hero-warrior has to examine whether his swords are sharp or not, if they are blunt or if they are still working. He has to see if they are in good condition. Otherwise, they can be rusty and dusty. But, in the case of most spiritual Masters, all this takes place inwardly. — 9 January 1998
Published in The World-Experience-Tree-Climber, part 8
story told by Sri Chinmoy
at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
While talking with the wife of an Indian family, Sri Chinmoy asked her the names of all the family members, commenting:
I had a friend, a very, very, very close friend whose name was Mavinehandra. He was from Gujarat. In your case, you are not from Gujarat.
Mavinehandra is a Gujarati name, and you are from Bombay. In Bombay they do not usually give that name. Only in Gujarat they give it. In 1950, this Mavinehandra was a very, very, very close friend and a great admirer of mine.
Regarding the name Dilip:
In ancient days there was a king whose name was Dilip. There is no actual meaning to the word Dilip. Only because he was a very, very, very great king, many, many people have the name Dilip. But the name itself has no actual meaning. The meaning is only that he was a very mighty, powerful king. From his time, people started giving the name Dilip. The meaning is only that he was very powerful and very kind-hearted.
I am very happy that your whole family has come here on our Christmas Trip. Some day we may see you in New York, if possible.
To the wife, while addressing the whole family:
You are from Bombay.
To the husband:
You are from Maharashtra. I am very happy that you have read my book on Shivaji. When I was a schoolboy, our teacher asked us to write an article on Shivaji. I am a great admirer of Shivaji and Ramdas, his Guru. Our school teacher used to give marks out of four, not out of one hundred. My teacher was so pleased with my article on Shivaji that he gave me eight out of four! I have great admiration for Shivaji. He was a great king.
Bengalis are very proud. They do not like to follow others! But our India’s greatest poet, Rabindranath Tagore, asked the Bengalis to join together with the Marathis and say, “Victory to Shivaji!”
Sri Chinmoy recites a poem in Bengali:
Tagore wrote that immortal poem. It is such an excellent poem.
Bengalis have the greatest admiration for Shivaji, and also for his Guru, Ramdas. Shivaji had a spiritual guide, a spiritual Master, and he obeyed his Master. Once Shivaji said, “I do not want this kingdom any more. I want to give it up.”
Ramdas said, “No, you have to be king.” Then he gave Shivaji a piece of his ochre cloth and said, “This will be your flag, this colour.” Shivaji kept that flag. He always took advice from his Guru, Ramdas.
To the husband:
Your father-in-law’s name is Ghanashyama. Very sweetly you say the word Ghanashyama! “Shyama” means Lord Krishna and “Ghana” is dark or very dense. “Ghana” is something very thick, very deep, intense and dark. Ghanashyama is another name, an epithet, for Lord Krishna, because his skin was not as fair as that of Rama and others.
Published in Only One Power
by Sri Chinmoy
at the Novotel Palm Cove Resort, Cairns, North Queensland, Australia
Once I was walking in the gully at Aspiration-Ground, and I saw myself as a skeleton in a past life. I was practising such austerity at that time! I was absolutely all bones. I looked so ugly! My appearance was what you would call ugliness incarnate. I saw only my bones — I was thinner than the thinnest. I passed the austerity-examination in that incarnation.
What good does austerity do? If I want to go to God, shall I cut off my legs and say, “See how much I love You, God! See, I have cut off my legs! Without legs I am coming to You.” God will say, “Why did I give you legs?”
God has given us air. Some people meditate while practising severe breath control. God will say, “Why did I give them air? Why did I create things that are not going to be used?”
In every aspect of life God says, “Be normal, be natural. Be normal and natural. Then go forward, go forward, go forward and enter into the divine life.”
Not by cutting off our legs, not by practising austerity shall we go forward. Those days in the Himalayan caves belong to the past. Those austerities do not apply now.
Sri Ramakrishna said, “You have to cross the water. The boat is in the water, but the boat is not affected by the water.” The boat is carrying people across the water. The boat will not sink. Do we need to go under the water in order to prove that we care so much for our destination? No! Wisdom saves us by telling us to enter into the boat.
Again, wisdom may tell us, “Recite this prayer fifty times or seventy times once a year.” * But it may happen that even that we cannot do! Then God says, “I need a special kind of yoga for these people.” He is simplifying, simplifying and simplifying the course to the extreme, but we want more simplification. God is so kind to us. He has already simplified the game for us to such an extent. Even so, He says, “All right, all right, you people are not serious enough in your spiritual life, but at least do this much.” Even that if we do not do, God says, “I shall have to create another course for you that is easier than the easiest!”
* Here, Sri Chinmoy refers to his special prayer for January 7th (above), which he composed in 1992.
Published in Our Sweetest Oneness