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Exercising to My Indian Tapes

A short anecdote by Sri Chinmoy

When I take exercise in my main room, I put the tape recorder in another room so that I do not become totally absorbed in the music. Usually I take exercise for about 40 minutes. Every day I take a new tape and listen to it. I specially like the tapes of some famous Bengali singers singing songs by Rabindranath Tagore. Indian tapes are so unique! Sometimes there is talking during the singing, sometimes they cough. Everything is there, and then they sell these tapes!

Published in My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 3

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert, the third of 39 Peace Concerts dedicated to Swami Vivekananda’s 39 years on earth, in David A. Stein Junior High School, Bronx, New York.

Sri Chinmoy’s Peace Concert dedication:

Today's Peace Concert I am devotedly dedicating to the indomitable lion-hearted soul, Swami Vivekananda, who challenged the pride of ignorance-night for the manifestation of divine Light here on earth.

Published in Vivekananda: Divinity's Soul-Rainbow and Humanity’s Heart-Blossom

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert, performing on 50 instruments from various nations around the world, for the United Nation’s 50th Anniversary, at the UN General Assembly Lobby in New York.

Peace Concert Dedication

by Sri Chinmoy
at the UN General Assembly Lobby in New York

Prayerfully and soulfully I am offering today's Peace Concert to the world-illumining soul of the United Nations.

Sri Chinmoy offering his Peace Concert dedication...

Excerpt from a special message sent on 23 May 1995 by His Excellency Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union and 1990 Nobel Peace Laureate:

It is not by chance that the United Nations has been giving increasing attention in its activities to the spiritual improvement of the human being, and Sri Chinmoy plays an enormous role in that noble work.

I wish to express the hope that the music you are going to hear today will strengthen your confidence that life and the world in which we are living are still beautiful, and that we are duty-bound to do all we can to make them even better.

Excerpt from welcoming remarks given at the Peace Concert by His Excellency Mr. Karel Kovanda, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations:

In this hectic life that we are all living here, and for some of us even more hectic than for others — those of us who have little babies and those of us who serve on the Security Council — Sri Chinmoy manages to bring a little slowness into life, manages to help us appreciate the minutes rather than just the days, and for this we are very grateful.

Excerpt from a statement on the occasion of the Peace Concert at the United Nations by His Excellency Dr. Jorge E. Illueca, Permanent Representative of Panama to the United Nations:

Sri Chinmoy has been a cherished friend for almost twenty years. During this time I have been privileged to participate in a number of activities of the Peace Meditation at the United Nations, and I have observed with growing satisfaction the growing impact of his message of universal harmony and understanding…. Sri Chinmoy has a pure vision of what the United Nations means inwardly and what it can become outwardly. The efforts of the United Nations for peace, justice and development need a solid spiritual foundation, and Sri Chinmoy has been working tirelessly for twenty-five years to strengthen that foundation.

Published in My Prayerful Salutations to the United Nations

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert, the second of 39 Peace Concerts dedicated to Swami Vivekananda’s 39 years on earth, in Jamaica, New York.

Sri Chinmoy’s Peace Concert dedication:

As you know, we have started observing Swami Vivekananda's centenary — not his birth centenary, but the centenary of the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. It was one hundred years ago that Vivekananda became the supreme hero of the Parliament. It is my wish to offer thirty-nine Peace Concerts and dedicate them to him. He lived for thirty-nine years, and I wish to observe each year of his earthly existence by offering him, his immortal soul, a Peace Concert.

Published in Vivekananda: Divinity's Soul-Rainbow and Humanity’s Heart-Blossom

Sri Chinmoy offers his 500th Peace Concert to an audience of 5,400 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It is introduced by Dr. L.M. Singhvi, India’s High Commissioner to the UK; Countess Mountbatten, daughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy of India, addresses the audience; and messages from outgoing Prime Minister John Major and incoming Prime Minister Tony Blair are read out.

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.

Peace Concert dedication

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.

Remarks after the concert

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.