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 ‘Life and Death, Atman and Paramatman’, at Brown University in Providence, RI, USA.
Sri Chinmoy delivers a talk, entitled ‘The Divine Mission’, at the United Nations in New York.
Sri Chinmoy holds his first 7-hour meditation for his students at the Bayside Church in New York, NY, USA. There, he also celebrates his most recent artistic achievement of completing 4,000 Jharna-Kala paintings.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert and delivers a lecture, entitled ‘Willingness’, at Columbia University in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy holds a special function for King Sinoehoen Pakoeboewono XI and his family who perform on the gamelan, sing sacred music and perform sacred Javanese dance, at the Westin Hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 26 children and 4 teachers from Dorkgnern Municipal School, at the Imperial Mae Ping Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme,
My Lord Beloved Supreme,
Smile, smile, smile!
Do You not know, my Beloved Supreme,
That a fleeting Smile of Yours
Can win my crying and bleeding heart
A million times over?
My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme,
My Lord Beloved Supreme.
Published in My Supreme Songbook
by Sri Chinmoy
while in residence at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India
"How did you find my sports activity?"
"Excellent," I said.
Nolini-da said: "I thought you young people wouldn't like old stories about an old man." Then he changed the subject. "I believe Nirmala's operation took place this morning at eight o'clock. Now it is nine-thirty. Do you feel like going to the hospital? Try to bring me an accurate account of her condition."
I went to the hospital and came back with the message that the operation had been quite successful.
Amrita-da happened to be with Nolini-da. Amrita-da said: "That is what the doctors always say. Did you see her? What is your opinion?"
"I saw her sleeping."
Nolini-da said: "I feel now that the operation was quite successful."
The previous day, on 8 February, Nolini-da said: "Chinmoy, I have fulfilled your desire. I have written about the sportsman in me.”
Published in A Service-Flame and a Service-Sun
An anecdote by Sri Chinmoy
in Jamaica, New York
Yesterday the funniest thing happened. I went out for a walk at six o'clock in the morning. There was snow everywhere. At one point an old man opened up his gate. The gate was blocking the sidewalk. I approached the gate and then I started to cross into the street. The old man saw me and said, "No, no. The street is very dangerous. Please stay on the sidewalk. I am closing the gate." He begged me not to leave the sidewalk. Then he closed the gate. I was very happy.
I continued on my way. When I walk alone, I have very, very good meditation. I enter into the other world, my real world. Suddenly, I saw the soul of one disciple coming for blessings. Then I took three or four steps and raised my head. I saw that somebody was standing on my left side. I turned around and I saw that it was this same disciple. He was standing with folded hands. I said to him, "Your soul came to me just four seconds ago!"
Published in Walking-Challenging-Becoming, part 1
by Sri Chinmoy
My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!
Individuals may fail,
But not mankind’s promise to God
For the fulfilment of His Will.My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!
Published in My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 21
My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!
Today I am extremely happy
Because I have pleased my Lord Supreme
In His own Way.My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!
Published in My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 21
by Sri Chinmoy
True, my eyes are empty
Of God’s Face,
But my heart is all
God’s blossomed Face
Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer before a 2-mile Self-Transcendence Race in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Published in My Race-Prayers, part 3
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
The Upanishads come from the Vedas. They contain the records of eternal Truths. These Truths were discovered by various seers at different times, and handed down to humanity.
Life is a problem. Even so is death. The aspiring Aryans of the hoary past wanted to solve these two problems. Soon they came to realise that their senses could be of almost no help to them in solving these two major problems. They also came to realise that it is the knowledge of the ultimate Reality alone that can solve, once and for all, the problems of life and death.
All of a sudden two divine soldiers came in. Nobody knows where they came from. These two soldiers were Inspiration and Aspiration. The first soldier, Inspiration, commanded them: “Give up the study of the body.” They immediately did so. The second soldier, Aspiration, commanded them: “Take up the study of the soul.” They immediately did so. Lo, the King and the Queen from the Golden Shore of the Beyond garlanded them, the seekers, the seers, and the knowers of Light and Truth.
What do the Upanishads actually mean? If you ask a Western seeker, he will immediately say, “Very simple. Sit at the feet of the Master and learn.” If you ask an Eastern seeker the same question, he will quietly say, “Very difficult. Transform human darkness into divine Light.” Both the Western and the Eastern seeker are perfectly right. No Master, no discovery of the transcendental Reality. No transformation of darkness, no manifestation of Divinity on earth.
Who needs the Truth? A seeker. When does he achieve the Truth? He achieves the Truth when he becomes the surrendered and divine lover.
His first achievement is God the Creator.
His second achievement is God the Preserver.
His third achievement is God the Transformer.
His fourth achievement is: Thou art That.
His fifth achievement is: I am That.
His sixth achievement is: He and I are one.
His seventh achievement is: He am I.
In the Creator he sees.
In the Preserver he feels.
In the Transformer he becomes.
The heart of the Upanishads is the purusha. The life of the purusha is the message of the Upanishads. Who is the purusha? The purusha is the real dweller in the body of the universe. The purusha is three-fold: the outer atman, the inner atman, and the paramatman.
The outer atman is the gross physical body. The outer atman is that which grows in the body, with the body, and for the body. The outer atman is the identification of one’s body with the gross aspect of life. Here we live, we are hurt, we hurt others, we enjoy pleasure from others, we offer pleasure to others. This atman exists, changes, develops, and finally decays.
The inner atman is the discriminating Self. The inner atman identifies itself with the aspiring earth-consciousness. It identifies itself with air, ether, fire, water, and earth. The inner atman is the thinker, the doer, and the direct messenger of God. The inner atman manifests its inner realisation through outer experience.
The paramatman reveals itself through the process of Yoga. Neither is it born, nor does it die. It is beyond all qualities. It is all-pervading, unimaginable, and indescribable. It is Eternity’s Reality, and Reality’s Divinity.
Each Upanishad is a mighty drop from the fountain of eternal Life. This drop can easily cure the teeming ills of human life. The infinite Power of this drop can free us from the endless rotation of human birth and death.
The mind, assisted by the body, creates bondage. The heart, assisted by the soul, offers liberation. The unaspiring mind thinks useless thoughts and down it sinks. It thinks too much and sinks too fast. The blind body is constantly digging its own grave. The heart wants to love and be loved. God gives the heart the life of oneness. The soul wants to reveal God. God fulfils the soul, and by doing so, He brings down the Message of Perfection in the Divinity of manifested Reality.
Published in The Upanishads: the Crown of India's Soul
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
Conference Room 9 at the United Nations in New York
The Divine Mission is not a self-imposition or a world-proposition. The Divine Mission is at once a love-offering and a self-giving.
The world needs attention. The Divine Mission is always willing to offer its one-pointed attention to the world. The world needs concern. The Divine Mission is always ready to offer its soulful, meaningful and fruitful concern to the world. The world needs love. The Divine Mission is always ready to offer its love, inner and outer, to the world. The outer love is constant sacrifice. The inner love is inseparable oneness.
There are two types of seekers: the human seeker and the divine seeker. The human seeker wants to add to his glory, increase his possessions and gain supremacy over others. The divine seeker wants to enter into a spiritual process, a divine progress and a supreme success.
There are two types of nations: the unaspiring nation and the aspiring nation. The unaspiring nation enjoys sleep, ignorance and death. The aspiring nation enjoys self-protection, self-illumination and self-perfection. The unaspiring nation does not know what the Goal is or where the Goal is. The aspiring nation knows what the Goal is and where the Goal is. The Goal is perfect Perfection. The Goal can be found in self-discovery.
The mission of an unaspiring religion is arrogantly to exclude or find fault with all other religions. The mission of an aspiring religion is to proclaim once and for all that Truth is universal, Light is omnipresent and Love is omnipotent.
There are three significant roads that lead us to our destination and then make us aware of our Divine Mission. One road is the road of knowledge and wisdom. Another road is the road of love and devotion. The third road is the road of dedicated action.
If we want to discover our Mission while walking along the road of knowledge and wisdom, then we will come to learn who God is and what God is. We will learn that God is all Love and all Compassion.
If we want to discover our Mission while walking along the road of love and devotion, then we will feel where God is. God is in our living and flaming faith.
If we want to discover our Mission while walking along the path of dedicated action, then we will discover the truth that in revealing our selfless capacity, which is dedication, we are manifesting God’s Action on earth.
The spiritual Master comes into the world with a Mission. His Mission is to tell the world that he is of God’s illumination but always for man’s aspiration. Sri Krishna came into the world with a Mission, and his Mission was the manifestation of Universal Harmony. The Buddha came into the world with a Mission, and his Mission was the manifestation of Universal Peace. The Christ came into the world with a Mission, and his Mission was the manifestation of Universal Compassion.
Here at the United Nations there are many missions representing different countries. To me each mission is like a river flowing into the ocean, and the ocean is the United Nations. Each mission is a flowing river entering into the ocean with hope, with eagerness and with a willingness to become part and parcel of the ocean. At the United Nations the Divine Mission flows not only in the ocean but also through each of the rivers. The Divine Mission of Light exists not only in the infinite Vast, but also in the tiniest drop of consciousness. In the perfection and fulfilment of the Divine Mission in the Infinite, and in the perfection and fulfilment of the Divine Mission in the finite, the Supreme Satisfaction will dawn.
In each of the rivers the Supreme Satisfaction has to dawn, for it is the constant flow of the rivers entering into the ocean that makes the ocean a living reality. And when the ocean flows back into the rivers, it offers them its abundant inner wealth so they can fulfil themselves through it.
The Mission of God in each permanent mission to the United Nations is as important as it is in the United Nations itself. The United Nations is the entire body and each mission is like a limb. The body is perfect only when all the limbs are perfect. If one limb remains imperfect, the body remains imperfect.
When we are really great we care for the small, for the poor, for the invalid. The mission of the great is to become one with those who are less great than they, and to lift them up to a higher standard through self-giving. The mission of those who are not yet great is to feel that the great ones are only the more evolved extensions of their own aspiring consciousness.
Published in The Tears of Nation-Hearts
A story by Sri Chinmoy
There was once a good and kind spiritual Master. One day, when his disciples had gathered around him and he was about to start meditating, a young man came running up to him. "Master, Master," he cried, "I wish to become your disciple."
The Master said, "Now we are about to meditate. Sit down and meditate with us. Afterwards I shall speak to you."
"Oh Master, please tell me one thing," the young man said. "Please tell me, when you leave the body, can I become the spiritual head of this community? I wish to become your disciple only on the condition that you make me the leader of your spiritual community in your physical absence and when you leave the body."
Everybody was shocked. The Master said, "What about the person who has been the leader of my community for such a long time? And what about those who have helped me establish a strong spiritual community? Should they not be the leaders of my ashram in my physical absence?"
"Master, true, they have helped you immensely in founding the spiritual community. But I wish to tell you that since they are not God-realised souls as I am, they won't be able to run your spiritual community as well as I. You and I are both God-realised souls. You have to admit it." The Master gave him a meaningful smile, and the young man continued, "Master, since you are old, you will be leaving the body very soon. However, I am quite young, and I feel that in your absence I will be able to run your community much better than anyone else."
All the disciples laughed and laughed, but there were a few who would have been inwardly very happy if the Master had actually accepted this fellow as the head of his ashram, for they were jealous of the present leader of the community. Even though this young man seemed like such a silly fellow, they felt that anyone was preferable to their president. But outwardly everyone showed contempt and extreme disrespect for the young man.
The Master said, "Now don't waste our time any longer. Come and meditate with us. I will see what we can do for you after our meditation."
"Oh Master, there is another reason that I came here," the young man said. "For the last few months I have had a terrible stomach pain. Every day I have been suffering. So I came to ask you to kindly touch my stomach and cure my pain. First you must cure my stomach pain and then you can make me the leader of your centre. On this condition I will gladly become your disciple."
One of the Master's disciples said, "If you are a God-realised person, why do you need our Master's help? Why don't you use your own occult power to cure yourself?"
The young man said, "I am sorry, but I have come here to speak to my friend. I am a spiritual Master and he is a spiritual Master, so we are on the same level. It is beneath my dignity to speak to you people."
The Master said, "All right, since one God-realised soul needs the help of another God-realised soul, let me bless this young man," and he placed his hand on the young man's head.
"Why are you touching my head?" asked the young man. "My head is perfectly all right. It is only my stomach that is bothering me. So please touch my stomach if you want to cure my pain."
The Master said, "I don't have to touch your stomach. If I touch your head and bless you I will be able to cure you."
But the young man replied, "Is it beneath your dignity to touch my stomach? Is only my head divine, and not my stomach?"
The Master said, "Everything of yours is divine, but your head is your highest part. When you offer your highest part with humility to someone, then the Force acts most powerfully. I am bringing down Peace and Light from above to cure you. You have to be respectful and devoted to the higher Peace and higher Light that I am bringing down. That is why I want to bless your head. If you don't want me to touch your head, then you can leave this place."
The young man said, "All right, let me meditate with you and see if my stomach condition becomes better."
"And after we meditate," the Master said, "I will see if I can do anything about making you the head of my centre or of a newly formed centre, which I shall invite new seekers to join."
The disciples then said, "Master, you won't have to work hard for that. We shall go out and bring disciples according to his standard. He is a fool, and we will bring him all the fools of the world. He will have no trouble establishing a centre."
The young man became furious. "You are cutting jokes with a God-realised soul!" he shouted.
The disciples responded, "If you are a God-realised soul, then why do you have to come here and beg our Master to let you run his mission in his absence? Why don't you open your own ashram? And why do you have to cry to our Master about your stomach problem? Go to a doctor or cure yourself!"
The young man said, "I am going to meditate with you here, and at the end of the meditation your Master will say that I am going to take his place when he leaves the body."
The Master said, "All right, O great Yogi, God-realised soul, but please let us start to meditate."
Just as they began to meditate another young man rushed in. "Master, Master, I would like to be your disciple," he said. The Master asked him to sit and join the group, but the young man kept speaking. "Please tell me the exact day that I am going to realise God." The Master said he didn't know. "You do not know? Then what kind of Master are you? You claim to be a God-realised soul, and a God-realised soul certainly knows when another person is going to realise God."
The Master said, "You will realise God at God's choice Hour."
"But you don't know when God's choice Hour will dawn for me. So what kind of inseparable oneness do you have with God? I am not going to be your disciple."
The other disciples immediately cried out, "Who wants you to be our Master's disciple? Who needs you? Get out of here!"
"I won't get out," he said. "I am telling you the right thing. He who has realised God knows everything. So your Master must know when, sometime in the near future, I am going to realise God. He is refusing to tell out of mere jealousy."
Everybody laughed and laughed, and the Master, with a smile, said, "Well, since I am too jealous to tell you when you are going to realise God, then you had better go to some other Master. He will surely tell you." But the young man refused to leave. Finally the Master said, "All right, I shall tell you about your future, but first I shall tell you about your immediate past and your present. I will tell you only a few incidents about your past life. What you did a few years ago, what you did just yesterday." The man immediately jumped up and started to run away. The Master said, "No, no! Don't run away! Just come and meditate with me, and I will tell you about your God-realisation. Only first I will tell what you did yesterday and what kind of life you are leading now." But the man did not return, and the Master laughingly exclaimed, "Rascal, rascal, rascal!"
Again the Master and his disciples were about to meditate, when a third man came in. "I see you are about to meditate," he said. "Master, please forgive me, but I wish to ask you something. I wish to be your disciple."
The Master replied, "Then come and meditate with us. After the meditation, I will let you know whether I can accept you as my disciple."
But the man said, "Master, first of all, you have to know whether I accept you or not. I will accept you only if you make me your dearest disciple. I can serve you in so many ways. I have thousands and thousands of rupees. I also have a big family and all the members of my family will be at your service. My wife is a very good cook and she will cook most delicious meals for you. My father is a great lawyer, and he will be able to help you if you have any legal problems. My mother is a famous singer, so she will sing for you and bring other famous people to you. Furthermore, I have three sons and three daughters who are all grown up. They, too, will serve you in every way. So I will help your mission in hundreds of ways if you make me your dearest disciple."
The Master said, "I tell you, hundreds of ways I do not want. All ways are good, but for me the most important way is to give me your heart. If you can give me your heart, I do not need money, I do not need all kinds of material capacities. I need only the disciples' hearts. If I receive your heart I will be able to manifest all other qualities in and through it."
The man said, "Impossible! Just from the heart you will be able to make everybody a good disciple?"
"Yes. And my best disciple need not be one who will be well-organised or have earthly capacities and material possessions. No! A person who has won the admiration of the world need not be my greatest disciple. My greatest disciple will be the one who is devoted to me wholeheartedly, the one who makes unconditional surrender to me. That person can have earthly name and fame also, but what really matters to me is his heart, his love, his humility, his devotion, his surrender."
The man said, "Well, I have all of those good qualities. Just give me a chance. Just tell me that you will make me your dearest disciple, and I will give you money, devoted service, love, everything."
"First do the things that you have said and then I will make you my dearest disciple," the Master declared.
"Oh, you want me to give you all my money, and then you will kick me out. You won't recognise me at all."
The Master replied, "Do you think that I am a fool? If I don't get your service, your spiritual wealth, then why should I make you my dearest disciple? Again and again I keep telling you, it is not the material wealth that can make someone my dearest disciple. My dearest disciple will be the person whose life is dedicated at every moment only to serving me, pleasing me, fulfilling me, manifesting me unconditionally."
"I can take up the challenge," the man said. "The only thing is, I am afraid that you will not keep your promise. When I do everything for you, you will still be partial and still keep closest to you the person whom you have already accepted as your dearest disciple."
The Master said, "If you don't believe me, then how am I going to believe you? The world depends on the strength of mutual belief. You don't believe me and I don't believe you. So let us remain in the world of unbelief and disbelief. But please allow me to meditate. I have already been interrupted three times today so now I wish to tell you either to sit down and meditate with us or to go home."
The young man said, "I have come here to examine you and to examine your disciples. I tell you, the world is not going to accept you because you are not accepting me, the right person, to be your dearest disciple."
The Master said, "If I accept you as my dearest disciple, what will happen to the one who is already my dearest disciple?"
"Oh, that is no problem. If I become your dearest disciple, I can make that person my dearest disciple."
This was too much. The person who was the Master's dearest disciple came up and said, "For God's sake, shut up or get out of here! I am the Master's dearest disciple and I tell you, if you want to be the dearest disciple of someone, then be my dearest disciple. I won't ask anything of you. Just let us meditate, and I will make you my dearest disciple without fail."
The intruder got furious and said, "Is this what your Master has taught you — this kind of callousness and stupidity? I have so many good qualities to give to the world, but what do you have? Nothing! The only thing that you have is the fact that the Master has made you his dearest disciple."
"Yes," the Master said. "I made him my dearest and I will keep him my dearest. My dearest disciple is whomever I make the dearest, not whoever thinks he deserves to be dearest. Everybody may feel that he is dearest to the Master. If a disciple feels that he is the nearest and dearest in the inner world, then naturally that person will make the greatest progress. But if someone claims that he should be the leader or that he should be the closest to the Master because he has many more good qualities than the ones who now hold these positions, he is sadly mistaken. In all cases it is the Master who makes the choice for his own reasons. Finally, why does the Master make someone his dearest disciple? He makes him his dearest disciple either because he has made unconditional surrender to the Master or because his surrender far surpasses the surrender made by others."
All the three intruders received a real lesson from the spiritual Master that day.
Published in One lives, One dies
A talk by Sti Chinmoy
at Columbia University in New York
My sleepless willingness is my heart's soulful conversation with God's Compassion-Eye. My heart's unwillingness is the very beginning of my mind's frustration-destruction-dance. My heart's hallowed willingness-strength can easily cover my mind's farthest unwillingness-length.
My despotic unwillingness is a self-styled server always unemployed. My inner life and my outer life simply do not need it or even want it. Nevertheless, alas, at times my unwillingness-mind-baggage is shockingly heavy and far overweight. To please my Lord at every moment in His own Way, what I need is a soulful willingness empty of expectation and full of sterling faith. Therefore, every morning I pray to my Lord Supreme to bless my aspiration-heart with willingness-gratitude-tears and my dedication-life with willingness-plenitude-smiles.
My Lord Supreme, the world desperately needs peace-contributions in infinite measure. Do grant me soulful willingness so that I, along with all the other self-giving hearts of the world, can offer my own heart's peace-contribution spontaneously and generously to fulfil humanity's age-old cry for world peace, world harmony and a oneness-world-home.
To my extreme joy, my Beloved Supreme has listened to my heartfelt prayer. The indomitable eagerness of my God-nourished and God-cherished heart's willingness has once and for all smashed the pride of my mind's self-doubting and God-doubting unwillingness. Now my unreserved and unconditional willingness to love God the Creator and serve God the creation unconditionally has placed me on the highest rung of my consciousness-ladder, and God is offering me His own transcendental Crown and universal Throne.
Published in My Heart's Peace-Offering
by Sri Chinmoy
at the Nexus Resort, Karambunai, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Let me tell about the positive side of one of my disciples. When he is in the heart, he is a first-class, super-class soldier of the Supreme. When he is in the negative mind, two or three of his spiritual sisters discipline his mind and throw him back into his heart. Again, most of the time he is in the heart, and he is indeed a first-class, super-class disciple. He has shown his heart through aspiration and through dedication in various fields. He is a super-super-excellent disciple. But alas, on rare occasions he is attacked by the mind. Perhaps there are some insects in his mind. Some of his spiritual sisters take away those mosquitoes or ants by scolding him. Then he is again all in the heart.
Some people remain in the negative mind for years and years. In his case it takes half a day, a day or two days, and then he is cured. But for some people it takes days, weeks or months to come out of the mind — even years. He is lucky to have some spiritual sisters who help him immediately to recover from that disease. Most of the time he is in the heart, in the heart.
Published in Only One Power
Frustration is such a bad disease. When we suffer from other diseases, we cannot thrust them upon others. But when we suffer from frustration, when we are frustrated about something, we take it out on others. Then our frustration becomes the cause of destruction.
Frustration can be so dangerous! It gets malicious pleasure by harming others, causing trouble for others. Frustration is nothing but self-torture — that is to say, it starts as self-torture. Then it goes to other human beings as well. It is simply torture, torture, torture.
Published in Our Sweetest Oneness
My favourite fruit is mango. My second-best fruit is guava. There is a fruit I never get here in New York. It is jujube. My childhood favourites were mango, guava, jujube — first, second, third. The worst, according to me, because I ate it countless times in my youth, is banana. Every day at the Ashram I had to eat four or five bananas.
One of my mentors, the one who taught me English considerably, wrote a book on mangoes. He wanted to prove that Indian mangoes are the best! Fortunately, he also wrote some serious books. One very good book he wrote on Blake’s poem “The Tyger.”
Published in Only Gratitude-Tears
Today one disciple was in a very high consciousness. That is why he missed the step when leaving the stage. This is the trouble! When you go very high, it takes time to come down and be one with the Mother Earth.
All spiritual Masters suffer from this difficulty. Sri Ramakrishna used to touch his dearest disciple, Rakhal, to bring himself down to the earth plane. He touched his disciple’s leg or some other limb.
Once, in Canada, I had that problem. After a concert I could not come down. I walked at least thirty or forty metres, but still I was unable to find identification with the earth. Then Kanan happened to be near me. I placed my hand on his shoulder and immediately I became one with the Mother Earth.
Published in I Wanted to be a Seeker of the Infinite