January 6

MUSIC VIEW

Some Nuggets From Last Year You May Have Missed

HAROLD C. SCHONBERG

Ernest Fleishmann, manager of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, tried to contain Leonard Bernstein’s well-known choreographic convolutions on the podium. He gave the conductor a lot of keys and loose change to put into his pockets. “The idea was that every time Lenny jumped, he would rattle. Well, for five minutes, he was a little more constrained and then, because he becomes so very involved in his music, he forgot about the coins and went back to jumping.” And rattling.

Talking about Leonard Bernstein: The Indian mystic Sri Chinmoy sent him the lyrics of a song he had composed.

It went, in part:
Leonard Bernstein, Leonard!
Eternity’s singing bird.
Beauty truth, Truth beauty, 
Nectar oneness your divinity.

Mr. Bernstein immediately composed a thank-you piece for sitar, flute, tabla, bass and drone. Mr. Bernstein’s poem:

Thank you, thank you, Sri Chinmoy —
You brought Leonard Bernstein joy.

Published in The New York Times, January 6, 1980

Television Interview with Sri Chinmoy

at the Ambarrukmo Palace Hotel in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Question: What brings you and your students to Indonesia, especially to Yogyakarta?

Sri Chinmoy: I have come here to see the beautiful scenery of Yogyakarta, and also I have a very special feeling for Borobudur. Lord Buddha comes from India, and I have a very special admiration and adoration for him. He is for all mankind. So I would like to go and pay my homage to the Lord Buddha at Borobudur.

Question: You visit so many countries of the world. I would like to ask you the purpose of your travels.

Sri Chinmoy: The purpose is very simple. We feel that this world is all one family. You and I are brothers. And there is only one God. That God you call Allah, and I call Him something else. But it is the same God. Similarly, Mohammed, Lord Krishna and the Saviour Christ all came from the Highest. When you pray to Allah and a Hindu or a Christian prays to God, we feel that it is the same God with different Names.

I go to so many countries to feel my oneness with God’s children, with Allah’s children, and to offer my love. Everybody cannot live in the same house. I have come to see your place. One day you may come to see my place. The human family is so big. That is why we live here, there and everywhere. But we are all brothers and sisters, so when we travel, we go to visit our relatives.

Question: Is it true that your philosophy is love and brotherhood?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, my philosophy is love, good wishes and brotherhood. As I said before, we are all children of God, and we all belong to one family, even though we come from different countries. I am Indian, you are Indonesian, and somebody else may be another nationality. And we all have different names — that is how we recognise one another and distinguish one from the other. But we are all members of the same family.

Question: What do you have to say about those who do not believe in God?

Sri Chinmoy: Some people say that they do not believe in God, but I wish to say that they do believe in something. We believe in God — that is the positive aspect. They believe that God does not exist — that is the negative side. But in the end, they will reach a particular place that is another extension of God. It is like electricity. There is a positive and a negative aspect. We need both positive and negative to get the light.

Right now we are caring only for the positive aspect of God, but if some people are caring for darkness, we shall not mind because we know that eventually they will come to the same light. A day will come, after a few years or a few centuries, when they will realise that something is missing in their lives. They will be miserable because they have no satisfaction. God is light. How long can one deny light? Those who do not believe in God feel that there is no light. But one day they will be sick of staying in a dark room. They will say, “How long can we remain in this place? Let us open the door and see the daylight. Then only will we be satisfied.”

Having known the absence of light, these non-believers will sincerely love and adore the light. Once upon a time, perhaps we too were non-believers. That is why I always say that those who believe in God should show the non-believers utmost concern. If we speak ill of them or criticise them, it will only delay their progress.

In your family, when your children do not listen to you, you know that if you insult them, then they may take much longer to listen to you. But if you show them your concern, compassion and affection, then they will develop goodwill towards you, and they will listen to you long before they would have done otherwise.

Question: Your philosophy is so high.

Sri Chinmoy: My philosophy is oneness. The life-tree has so many branches. I am a bird, seated on one branch of the life-tree, and you are another bird, seated on another branch. Like that, we are all seated on different branches, but we all claim the life-tree as our own. It is your tree, and it is also my tree. You and I are seated on different branches, but these branches cannot be separated from the tree.

Question: Are you sure that your philosophy of love and brotherhood can solve all the problems of the world?

Sri Chinmoy: My philosophy and your philosophy are the same: love, love, love. If you have love for somebody, then you are not going to quarrel and fight with him. And if he has love for you, who will fight? It is because people do not have peace inside their hearts that they fight. If somebody inwardly feels that he is weak, he tries to cover up his weakness by showing aggression. He tries to show how strong he is.

Now, if I feel inwardly strong, I am not going to fight with you. And if you feel inwardly strong, you are not going to fight with me. A little child goes and pinches his older brother or strikes him. Why? He wants to show that he is stronger than his older brother. The older brother already knows that he is much stronger than his little brother. So, out of compassion, he forgives his little brother. He says, “No, I do not want to fight with you.” If we have peace, then we have love. And if we have love, then we have peace. Then where is the question of quarrelling and fighting?

How do we get this inner peace? If we do good things, we become good citizens of the world. We can read some spiritual books or pray and meditate or serve the world in some way. If we become truly good citizens of the world, then are we going to fight? The question of fighting does not arise at all.

He who loves God, he who loves Allah, is not going to fight. We pray to God four or five times a day to make us good human beings, to give us joy, to give us love, to give us peace. Who is going to pray to God, “God, give me the strength to destroy this person or that person”?

All those who want to become good people share the same philosophy: love, love, love.

Published in Sri Chinmoy answers, part 32

Heave ho!
And up Malek goes

WHEN the Indian spiritual and meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy told Malaysian ‘Samson’ Malek Noor that he can lift Malek with one hand, Malek did not believe him.

Last night, 103kg Malek took up the challenge and walked onto a special platform at the lobby of Grand ContinentalHotel in Kuala Lumpur.
The 57-year-old Sri Chinmoy, weighing half Malek’s weight, concentrated deeply and after meditating, lifted Malek. “I am amazed with his inner strength with which he used to lift me,” said Malek later.

Among those who were lifted by Sri Chinmoy last night were Works Minister Datuk S. Samy Velu, Bishop of the Anglican Church of West Malaysia Tan Sri John G. Savarimuthu and president of Malaysia Hindu Sangam Datuk S. Govindaraj.

Sri Chinmoy and his 186 students are on a short visit to Kuala Lumpur and will leave for Thailand tomorrow.They are here to promote peace among individuals.

Sri Chinmoy, who has led meditation sessions for peace at the United Nations headquarters as well as the US Congress, has lifted 1,000 people with one hand in the last six months through a programme called Lifting up the World with a Oneness-Heart.

The programme is to honour and congratulate individuals for their dedication and inspiration.

Caption:

Indian guru Sri Chinmoy lifting body-builder Malek Noor up with ease

Published in The Malay Mail, Friday / January 6 1989

Live Radio Interview

with Sri Chinmoy in Suva, Fiji, by telephone from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada

Interviewer: Sri Chinmoy is not your ordinary, everyday Guru. He and his disciples are known for completing tasks of amazing magnitude. Record-setting feats of endurance are among the ways Sri Chinmoy and his followers pursue inner calm. The latest feat was just finished: one million sketches, and every one a bird — a million birds of peace. Sri Chinmoy himself has completed the sketches to celebrate the birthday today of Raisa Gorbachev. We have reached international artist and peace ambassador, Sri Chinmoy, in Suva, Fiji. Sri Chinmoy, you must be very pleased that you successfully drew one million birds. You must be glad that it is over.

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, I am extremely glad that it is all over. Each bird reminds me of freedom, and I feel that freedom lives in peace and nowhere else.

Interviewer: Can you tell me how you came up with the idea for this project? How long ago was it, and why did you decide to do this?

Sri Chinmoy: Two years ago, while I was in Malta, all of a sudden I was inspired to draw birds. Since then I have been drawing birds. I used to get and even now I still get tremendous joy each time I draw a bird. Each time I feel a kind of inner freedom.

I wish to tell you that Canada has a very special place in my art-life. About 19 years ago I started my art-life in the West by doing some paintings and drawings at the Sheraton Hotel in Ottawa. Also, last year 100,000 bird drawings of mine were exhibited in Ottawa. Our philosophy is the philosophy of progress, so from 100,000 I have come up to one million.

Interviewer: Are you sure that it is a million birds? How did you keep track?

Sri Chinmoy: Seven or eight students of mine have faithfully and devotedly counted them all, twice. It came to 1,001,919.

Interviewer: I imagine they were all doves. Is that correct?

Sri Chinmoy: No, they are birds of my imagination — in all different shapes and sizes. I have drawn them with ballpoint pens, felt tip markers, crayons, paint brushes and many other things.

Interviewer: Did you dedicate all the birds to Raisa Gorbachev?

Sri Chinmoy: I dedicated the Ottawa exhibit of 100,000 birds to Mrs. Gorbachev and I completed my one million birds yesterday, on her birthday. These one million birds will also be exhibited in Ottawa, around the end of March. I shall dedicate this new exhibit to my mother, who is now in Heaven. I would like to observe the centenary of her birth by dedicating this exhibit to her.

Interviewer: Why did you dedicate the first 100,000 to Mrs. Gorbachev?

Sri Chinmoy: She and President Gorbachev are very close friends of mine. I do not understand politics at all; I am just a truth-seeker and God-lover. But I feel that President Gorbachev is also a genuine truth-seeker and a true man of peace. That is why I have utmost admiration and love for him. I have met with him five or six times. My first meeting with him, strangely enough, took place in Ottawa four years ago.

Interviewer: What is your next project? Do you have anything else in mind now?

Sri Chinmoy: Right now, I have nothing in mind. Only I will do my regular prayers and meditations and, if it is the Will of God, I will embark on something else.

Interviewer: Sri Chinmoy, thank you very much. Sri Chinmoy is a New York-based spiritual leader and international peace ambassador. He spoke to us from Suva, Fiji.

Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 3