May 23

Sri Chinmoy spends a day out in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, NY, USA, where runners from America’s ‘Liberty Torch’ and Canada’s ‘Oneness-Heart’ compete in a 13-mile race.

An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens at the Town Hall, New York, NY, USA.

A two-month exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks, sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior in conjunction with the National Park Service, is attended by the Department of the Interior Under-Secretary James A. Joseph and members of the U.S. Congress, including the Honorable Geraldine Ferraro, at the National Visitors Center in Washington, DC, USA.

An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens at the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, in Washington, DC, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers a meditation at the Rayburn Office Building, U.S. House of Representatives, and meets with Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor, in Washington, DC, USA.

Sri Chinmoy lifts 300 lbs. using a seated calf-raise machine, in Jamaica, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (341), the third of 39 Peace Concerts dedicated to Swami Vivekananda’s 39 years on earth, in the David A. Stein Junior High School, Bronx, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy begins writing daily rhyming poems — meditations for each day of the year — subsequently published in My Silence Heart-Blossoms, part 1, in Jamaica, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (406), performing on 50 instruments from various nations around the world — the 6th of 50 concerts held in honour of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations — at the UN General Assembly Lobby in New York.

The University of Cincinnati becomes the world’s first Sri Chinmoy Peace University. The same day, Mayor Roxanne Qualls dedicates the city of Cincinnati, OH, USA, as a Sri Chinmoy Peace City.

Sri Chinmoy lifts Monsignor Thomas Hartman, Rabbi Marc Gellman and Tibetan monks, as part of his ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ programme, at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy lifts 41 white horses at the Tiara Resort in the Terelj National Park, Mongolia.

 

May 22

Sri Chinmoy delivers an invited talk to the School of Self-Defense, 280 Closter Dock Road. Closter, New Jersey. The school, under the direction of Mr. Michael Depasquale, a Police officer, teaches Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, and other forms of self-defence.

An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s artworks is hosted by the Bankers Trust Company at their offices, corner of Third Avenue and 52nd Street, Manhattan, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert and a piano performance at the Tiergarten Halle in Nuremberg, Germany.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert together with a piano performance and an organ performance; and delivers a lecture, entitled, ‘You Have Awakened Me’, at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, USA. The recital is later released on a music cassette entitled, Soul-Fragrance-Jubilee.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert — Peace: Divinity’s Dream on Earth — at Martin Luther King High School in New York, NY, USA. Listen to the CD...

Sri Chinmoy offers the opening meditation at the New York Games, held at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Columbia University in New York, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers the opening meditation at the New York Games and presented the first place award to Sudhahota Carl Lewis at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Columbia University in New York, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy performs 4,000 consecutive crunch sit-ups without stopping in 47 min. 28.53 sec. — a rate of over 84 stomach crunches per minute — in Jamaica, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert in honour of India’s 50th Anniversary of Independence — the 32nd in a series of 50 concerts during 1997 — at Christ Church, Oxford University, in Oxford, England, UK.

Sri Chinmoy offers a private concert, the start of ‘Prayerful Music by Maestro Sri Chinmoy’ series, in Jamaica, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy lifts tennis player Billie Jean King at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy lifts a total weight of 1,100 lbs. with two arms from a seated position, at his home in Jamaica, New York, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy lifts 20 people including 5 people over 100 years old and Ms. Pratibha Mehta, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, at the Ulaanbaatar Hotel in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Sri Chinmoy presents the U Thant Peace Award to Nambaryn Enkhbayar, President of Mongolia, and also gives him an original Jharna-Kala painting. The President also views the Jharna-Kala exhibit at the Union of Mongolian Artists Gallery in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Sri Chinmoy is interviewed by NTV for the first episode of a new programme called ‘No Beginning, No End’ at the Ulaanbaatar Hotel in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

 

Month Day
05-22

May 21

Sri Chinmoy answers forty-five questions on ‘America’s Bicentennial’, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Sri Chinmoy is interviewed by talk show host Joel Martin in New York, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert together with a piano performance at the Circus Krone in Munich, Germany.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert, the second of 39 Peace Concerts dedicated to Swami Vivekananda’s 39 years on earth, at Public School 86 in Jamaica, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers the opening meditation at the New York Games, held at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Columbia University in New York, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy meets with Princess Diana at Kensington Palace in London, England, UK.

Sri Chinmoy offers his 500th Peace Concert in honour of India’s 50th Anniversary of Independence — the 31st in a series of 50 concerts during 1997 — to an audience of 5,400 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. 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 is interviewed on ‘Q&A with Riz Khan’ and broadcast live around the world by CNN International. It is Sri Chinmoy’s first international live TV interview.

Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture entitled ‘Art: The Beauty of Earth and the Fragrance of Heaven’, and also receives an honorary degree from the Rector of the Mongolian University of Culture and Arts, at the State Academic Theatre of Drama in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

 

Month Day
05-21

May 12

* The meeting is held at the Waldorf Astoria, not the Hotel Pierre as printed.

 

GORBACHEV AND THE GURU

 

Caption:

Sri Chinmoy met privately with Mikhail Gorbachev, his wife and daughter at the Waldorf Astoria on May 12. Afterwards, the former Soviet President presented the Master with an autographed photo taken of him and his family. Left, the two leaders embrace. Above, Sri Chinmoy presents the Gorbachevs with a cake displaying pictures of their faces etched in icing.

RAlSA MAXIMOVNA VISITS GURU’S ART GALLERY

 

NEW YORK – While visiting New York, Raisa Maximovna Gorbachev took a respite from her whirlwind schedule on May 12 to visit the art exhibit of her husband's good friend, Sri Chinmoy.

Accompanied by her daughter, Irina, Mrs. Gorbachev was personally escorted around the gallery by Sri Chinmoy. He later offered her the painting of her choice. She chose his 27,000th work.

For the Indian-born artist, it was one of his most spiritually significant paintings, since he was born on the 27th of August. There was a large celebration among his students, in fact, when that painting was completed in 1975.

“I see in this painting the colour of life and the colour of hope. The green stands for life and the blue stands for hope,” Raisa Maximovna said. “And that's what I treasure in life.”

As she was leaving the exhibit, Raisa Maximovna thanked Sri Chinmoy for the warm support and affection he had shown to her family, the Gorbachev cause and the Gorbachev Foundation.

“I was so happy to spend these few precious moments with you, Sri Chinmoy, to see everything with my own eyes,” she added.

The art exhibit, which the spiritual teacher had dedicated to Mrs. Gorbachev, ran for three weeks in a mid-Manhattan gallery located near Grand Central Station.

Caption:

Memories of Raisa Maximovna's visit to Sri Chinmoy's Jharna-Kala Art Gallery. Above and top right, Mrs. Gorbachev admires some of the Master's paintings. Right, Mrs. Gorbachev and her daughter, Irina, listen to one of Sri Chinmoy's songs. They are seated in front of the painting that Sri Chinmoy presented to Mrs. Gorbachev.

Published in Anahata Nada, Volume 21, April-July 1992

 

May 12

 

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations, at Le Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, France.

 

Peace Concert Dedication

by Sri Chinmoy
at Le Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, France

 

This year the United Nations is completing its fiftieth year of serving the world-community with its soul, heart, mind and body. I am extremely happy and fortunate that my students and I have been offering our prayers and meditations to the United Nations for the past twenty-five years. Today’s Peace Concert I am most prayerfully offering to the loving heart and illumining soul of the United Nations.

Published in My Prayerful Salutations to the United Nations

 

May 12

Sri Chinmoy runs the Champlain Valley Marathon in a time of 4:41:16 in Plattsburgh, New York.

 

Running stories

by Sri Chinmoy

 

Running mantra

Every day, as soon as I start running, I have the same mantra: “Today let me go slowly.”

But “today” becomes “every day,” and then relaxation starts. Never does the mantra come: “Today let me go fast!”

A sense of satisfaction

With tennis, I get such joy while playing, but then afterwards, nothing. But with running or walking, no matter how badly I do, afterwards I get such satisfaction. I am relaxed and I get such a sense of accomplishment.

Losing weight

Whenever I want to lose weight, I start walking. Walking is my salvation. When I run, I don’t lose as much weight. In seven or eight days I have lost thirteen and a half pounds from walking. My body doesn’t register it, but my scale does.

False alarm

I was walking in front of my house. Two dogs were barking like anything. One of them — a big dog — came running towards me. They came up ten or fifteen metres and then went away.

Mistaken identity

This morning when I was in front of my house walking, a funny thing happened with the neighbour who is on our right side. He is a young man whom I do not know very well. It is not like the neighbour across the street, whom I know so well.

I thought my right-side neighbour was in his car, so I said, “Good morning, good morning!” Then he said to me, “Good morning!”

Five minutes later the actual neighbour came out of his house and said “Good morning!” to me. Then he entered into the same car. So I said, “Good morning.” The first one was my neighbour’s brother perhaps, but I thought it was him.

His older daughter always looks at me with such respect. When little children are cycling on the street, bothering me like anything, she is always very nice to me.

Everything is contradictory!

Everything is contradictory! In the morning I decide to be a sprinter. Then in the afternoon I decide to be a marathon walker — even though I know that sprinters are never supposed to walk because they will develop certain muscles that are not good for sprinting.

Published in Run and Become, Become and Run, part 14

 

May 11

 

SPIRITUAL MUSICIANS EXCHANGE NOTES FROM THE HEART

JAMAICA, NY — Sri Chinmoy and Paul Horn offered concerts for one another on May 11 in a musical exchange from the heart.

Sri Chinmoy performed in the afternoon, and then lifted the flautist, who is known for his spiritual-musical odessys around the world.

Later, the musician said, “I have received a few honors and awards in my lifetime, but this is by far the most wonderful and most appreciated, coming from a man ... who is music itself and who wants a oneness-community in the world.”

That evening, the flautist gave a one-man concert of meditative music for Sri Chinmoy, his students and invited guests.

In introducing this concert, Sri Chinmoy said: “Your sublime flute music is born inside the silent depth of your meditation ... and transports your listeners far beyond this mortal world into the very heart of silence.”

Caption:

Flautist Paul Horn and Sri Chinmoy enter Aspiration-Ground together on May 11.

Published in Anahata Nada, Volume 34, April-July 2003

 

May 11

Photo by Pulak Viscardi

 

Sri Chinmoy at Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, New York.