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 talk, entitled ‘God and Truth’, in the Peace Room of the Church Centre at the United Nations in New York, NY.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks, featuring ‘United Nations: the Heart-Home of the World-Body’, is opened at the United Nations in Geneva.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (4) at the Sheraton-Washington Hotel in Washington, DC, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (105) together with a piano performance (11) at the Kongresshalle in Augsburg, Germany.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (339) — the first of 39 Peace Concerts dedicated to Swami Vivekananda’s 39 years on earth — in Jamaica, NY, USA. Read Sri Chinmoy’s remarks following the concert.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens at the Lutece Art Exhibition at the Town Hall in Paris, France.
An article about Sri Chinmoy’s participation in a special ceremony for world peace on 23 March 1996, prior to the Rome Marathon, is published in the Italian-language daily newspaper America Oggi (America Today) in Westwood, NJ, USA.
Malta is the first country in the world to be declared a Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossom Nation.
Sri Chinmoy lifts guitarist and singer Richie Havens and santoor master Shivkumar Sharma at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy lifts a total weight of 1,000 lbs. with two arms from a seated position, at his home in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 17 white horses and 15 Mongolian children at Hotel Mongolia in the Gachuurt Area, Mongolia.
SPORT & SOCIETY
Sri Chinmoy Awarded a Prize For His Campaign for World Peace
Sports, peace among people and the ‘psychophysical’ health of the individual can be joined together well. Sri Chinmoy, who has resided in New York for more than 30 years, is the witness. At the end of March, on the invitation of Francesco Rutelli (Mayor of Rome), Umberto Silvestri (President of the Rome Marathon), and Allan Steinfeld (Director of the New York City Marathon), he participated, on the occasion of the Rome Marathon, which traverses the historic centre of the ‘City of the Caesars’, in a ceremony dedicated precisely to peace.
Sri Chinmoy received the ‘Fred Lebow Award’ in recognition of his constant efforts for world peace and his constant activities for the benefit of the inner and outer health of millions of people. The award, bears the name of the founder of the New York City Marathon [Fred Lebow] and was given to him by Rutelli himself.
Last year, Pope John Paul II received, at the Vatican, Sri Chinmoy and thousands of people who were participating in the ‘Peace Run’. The Pope was given a torch, and the Holy Father, using the torch to make the sign of the Cross in the air, solemnly blessed the athletes, who were carrying "through the streets of the world" a message eminently Christian.
The ‘Sri Chinmoy Peace Run’, the longest relay run in history, was founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1987. Today the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team sponsors more than 500 athletic competitions annually in about 50 countries, all inspired by the ancient Roman principle of “a sound mind in a sound body.”
In the photo — Sri Chinmoy receives the ‘Fred Lebow Award’, on the occasion of the Rome Marathon. From left to right: Mico Licastro, NYC Marathon Director Allan Steinfeld, Sri Chinmoy, and Rome Marathon President Umberto Silvestri. Pulak Viscardi photo.
Published in the Italian-language daily newspaper America Oggi (AmericaToday) in Westwood, New Jersey on Sunday, May 19, 1996
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert, the first of 39 Peace Concerts dedicated to Swami Vivekananda’s 39 years on earth, at Public School 86 in Jamaica, New York.
Today’s Peace Concert I am most devotedly dedicating to Swami Vivekananda, who conquered the heart of the World's Parliament of Religions precisely one hundred years ago. The centenary of his address will take place in August in Chicago, and I am extremely, extremely grateful to the authorities who are organising this world conference in Chicago to commemorate the memory of Swami Vivekananda, for they have invited me to open the first session with a few minutes of silent prayer and meditation.
In silence, in deep silence, in breathless silence, I am offering my gratitude to the mighty lion-soul of Swami Vivekananda, to his Master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, and also to his Mother, his Divine Mother Absolute, Mother Kali.
Uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata
Ksurasya dhara nisita duratyaya
Durgam pathas tat kavayo vadanti*"Arise! Awake!" — this was Vivekananda's choice motto.
"Arise! Awake!" — Uttisthata jagrata. Each human being must needs have this message supreme imprinted on the tablet of his aspiring heart.
"Arise! Awake!" If you want to follow the path of spirituality, then you must realise that this is a difficult path to walk along. "It is as sharp as the edge of a razor." Hard, extremely hard it is to walk along this path, but again, we have learned from the sages of the hoary past that the Knowledge supreme that we are going to attain is not for the weakling; it is for the inner hero supreme. Even the soul that is our God-representative on earth cannot be won by the weakling.
Nayam atma bala hinena labhya — "The soul cannot be won by the weakling.'' What do we mean by this? To win the soul means to listen to the dictates of the soul. Only he who is brave can abide by the dictates of his soul. The soul is the only reality that we have and that we are. Each time we ignore the dictates of our soul either consciously or unconsciously, we indefinitely delay our spiritual progress.
You may ask, "How can we know the dictates of our soul?" You can! There is a very simple way, an easier than the easiest way: It is by virtue of your heart's cry. If you cry and pray to your Inner Pilot, the Lord Supreme, to illumine you, to liberate you from your ignorance-cherishing mind, then the heart can easily convey the message of your soul to you.
There are many truth-seekers and God-lovers who believe in God, but who find it difficult to believe in their souls. But if you believe in the ocean, which is God, then how can you fail to believe in the countless drops, waves and surges of the ocean, which are our souls?
Unfortunately, there are some seekers who do not want to believe in the existence of their souls because they are afraid of their soul's operation in and through them. They feel so often they are committing Himalayan blunders. If the soul does exist, then perhaps the soul is extremely displeased with them and the soul, like the human mother, the physical mother, can reprimand the naughty children. But little do the children care to know that it is the supreme task of the mother to make the children perfect.
It is the bounden duty of the soul to make our body, vital, mind and heart perfect. The soul is our inner tutor. This tutor is all eagerness to help us learn the inner language, study the inner subject and grow into the infinite effulgence of Light and Delight. We must not only believe in the existence of the soul, but we must and must abide by the dictates of the soul and most ardently aspire to please the soul.
The soul is the guide. We definitely need the guide to lead us, guide us and take us to our Goal supreme.
I am making a fervent request to all of you to dive deep within every day in order to feel the presence of your soul. To please your soul is infinitely more difficult than to please the Absolute Supreme. The Absolute Supreme has His infinite Compassion and He can wait throughout Eternity for you if you are delaying your progress. But your soul, the real reality within you, knows that the sooner you reach your Goal the better, for a new beginning, a new, illumining, more illumining and most illumining beginning is awaiting your arrival.
As I always say, today's goal is tomorrow's starting point. We are all seekers — God-seekers and God-lovers. Let us have implicit faith in our soul, the God-representative within us. Let us try to abide by the dictates of our soul, for if we cannot please our primary school teacher, then we will never be able to proceed to high school, college and university.
*Uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata... A Sanskrit mantra from the Upanishads. The translation is: "Arise, awake, realise and achieve the Highest with the help of the illumining, guiding and fulfilling Masters. The path is as sharp as the edge of a razor, difficult to cross, hard to tread — so declare the wise sages.
Published in Vivekananda: Divinity's Soul-Rainbow and Humanity's Heart-Blossom
Sri Chinmoy plays a traditional two-string Mongolian instrument — made from different parts of the horse — called the Morin (Horse) Khuur, after he lifted 17 white horses at Hotel Mongolia in the Gachuurt Area, Mongolia. The Khuur is presented to Sri Chinmoy by one of his Mongolian disciples Gankhuu (right) and his father Sairiisuren (left).
Listen to a Mongolian musician imitating the sound of a horse on the Khuur.
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
in the Peace Room of the United Nations Church Centre
God expresses Himself through Silence. God expands Himself through Light. God unites Himself with His Creation through Delight.
Man's outer life needs God's Silence. Man's inner life needs God's Light. Man's higher life needs God's Delight.
Again, man is God's Hope. Man is God's Smile. Man is God's Pride. Man is God's Hope in his inner life, man is God's Smile in his higher life and man is God's Pride in his outer life.
God's Hope is man's possibility. God's Smile is man's ability. God's Pride is man's necessity.
Truth, the ultimate Truth, plays its role in three different stages of evolution: objective, subjective and absolute. In the objective, Truth is man's searching consciousness; in the subjective, Truth is man's awakening Divinity; and in the absolute, Truth is man's fulfilling Reality.
In Reality man sees the Truth in its universal form. In Divinity man sees the Truth in its theoretical form. In consciousness man sees the Truth in its practical form.
Published in The Garland of Nation-Souls
at his home in Jamaica, New York
I went to the hospital to visit my Chinese doctor. An Indian lady doctor was in the room. I said to her, “He is alive. Can you try again to revive him?”
She did not want to do anything. Then a disciple who was with me contacted another doctor who was the disciple's friend, and he said something to the lady doctor. Finally she condescended to look at the patient. She did not take even a second. She said, "Oh, he is dead."
I went home, knowing perfectly well that my Chinese doctor was still alive. If there had been a sympathetic doctor available who really trusted me, he or she would have examined the patient and tried to do something. But this lady did not care. What a sad experience that doctor gave me! This was the worst possible experience.
Again, I also had the best possible experience. Many, many years ago my dearest Brother-Friend Alexandr Razvin* was in the hospital, and I went to see him. He said to me, “Sri Chinmoy, do not worry! I have an excellent doctor, an excellent doctor! She will cure me.”
This doctor, who was also an Indian lady, immediately said, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Swamiji is the one to cure you, Swamiji is the one to cure you!”
Then the doctor asked me if I would be staying there for a few minutes. I said, “Definitely I will stay.” What did she do? She went downstairs and brought her husband. The husband fell at my feet. The doctor said, “He has been longing, longing to meet with you.” She was so happy! That was an excellent experience.
That Indian lady doctor gave me the experience of Heaven. How devotedly she spoke to me! She went downstairs and brought her husband because she knew that her husband had tremendous admiration for me.
Heaven and hell go together. They are side by side.
* Alexandr Razvin, who served for many years in the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became Russia’s Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 1994, was a dear friend of Sri Chinmoy’s. He departed this world on 10 March 1998.
Published in The Temple and the Shrine
I beg all the disciples, never retire, never retire! Retirement stands against enlightenment. If you retire, then your life-energy, your mental strength, everything disappears, unless you can be very, very active. Retirement is just the opposite of enlightenment. Never retire! Work as long as you can! By your own choice I never, never advise you to retire. But if the organisation has a fixed retirement age, you are helpless.
Those of you who are serving the United Nations, I will be very, very happy if you can continue as long as possible. True, the United Nations is not perfect. Is there any place that is perfect? Is anybody perfect in God’s Creation? In comparison to other places, the United Nations, as it is, is Heaven. Some individual bosses or colleagues may be undivine, but the soul and heart of the United Nations will always remain the goal of goals for humanity. Life is complicated; the mind is complicated. To transform the mind and the life of the United Nations, spirituality is needed.
Again, I am so grateful to my spiritual children who come to meditate at the UN in my absence. Those who come to meditate when I am not present deserve my boundless love, affection and admiration. Those who come to pray and meditate for fifteen minutes in my physical absence I can say are my true, true disciples. They value my inner existence; they value my God-realisation; they value me.
Published in The Temple and the Shrine
At our Aspiration-Ground, some disciples are very good. They stay to the very, very end of our functions. And again, to my greatest joy, there are some disciples who would be gladly willing to stay indefinitely. If I were to stay there for three hours or four hours, they would stay.
Some may say that those are fanatic disciples, or that they have nothing else to do. I do not see eye-to-eye with those critics. Only because of their love for me, because of their oneness with my soul, my heart and my life, those disciples are more than ready, more than willing, more than eager to stay at the Aspiration-Ground as long as I stay. Like that there are some super-super-disciples.
Those who stay with me, even when I cut jokes, know the meaning of satsang: meeting with spiritual people. Sri Aurobindo’s story, ‘The Ideal of Forgiveness’, perhaps you have read. Vishwamitra came to kill the sage Vashishtha. He was in Vashishtha’s presence for only a few minutes. When he saw Vashishtha’s forgiveness-capacity, he bowed and touched Vashishtha’s feet.
Then, when Vishwamitra wanted to be initiated, Vashishtha sent him to another place. There Ananta Dev told him that he had to hold the world. Then only Ananta Dev would initiate him. Alas, the whole world was collapsing on Vishwamitra.
Vishwamitra was praying to Ananta Dev to save him. Ananta Dev said to Vishwamitra, "Just tell me, were you ever in the company of a spiritual person?"
Vishwamitra said, “Oh, I was with Vashishtha for a few minutes.”
"Then think of him, and think of the incident."
Vishwamitra thought of Vashishtha, and then the whole world became calm and quiet.
In India, seekers give utmost importance to the company of religious and spiritual people. I am your spiritual Master. Perhaps I am one step ahead of the ordinary spiritual people.
There are many, many seekers and disciples who do not feel that familiarity breeds contempt. That idea is not in their philosophy. They feel that, the longer they can stay with the Master, the more they receive. Even when he cuts jokes, when he is absolutely one with them and enjoying hilarious laughter, they feel that their souls are being fed, their hearts are being fed, their lives are being fed. I do have quite a few disciples like that. Again, there are those seekers who value their comfort more than their Master’s company. One hour of meditation is enough for them.
Everything is being recorded, recorded in the inner history: who cares for me, who loves me. Some disciples stay on the spiritual path for other reasons. But those who stay out of their heart’s love and their soul’s love are my true disciples.
Needless to say, here I end. I cannot say anything more.
Published in The Temple and the Shrine