April 17

Heart of Gold Award

presentation to Sri Chinmoy
by the Society of Authors and Composers of Music of Mexico,
at the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, United Nations Headquarters, New York

 

Maestro Roberto Cantoral, President
[translated from Spanish]:

Today, in the name of the Society of Authors and Composers, over which I preside, I hereby present to Sri Chinmoy the "Heart of Gold" while we stand in the heart of the United Nations.

The "Heart of Gold" is a distinction that was conferred on Sri Chinmoy for his lifelong dedication to humanity. His untiring efforts for world peace, manifested through concerts and other events throughout the globe, have made him worthy of the recognition of the Heart of Gold on behalf of all Mexican authors and composers.

Personally speaking, I, Roberto Cantoral, have found in Sri Chinmoy a great man who transmits affection and deep inner peace, which is especially needed in these difficult days and enables us to perform our daily duties. At the same time, I am sure that those present here have found in Sri Chinmoy a constant hope in their daily striving to improve the condition of our world. His message of peace to humanity, and the humanitarian and selfless causes that he pursues, provided the necessary elements for the Society of Mexican Authors and Composers to confer on him the important "Heart of Gold Award" during his recent visit to Mexico.

Sri Chinmoy, it is an honour to present you today with this "Heart of Gold".


Published in A Peace-Collecting Pilgrim-Soul

 

Acceptance Speech

offered by Sri Chinmoy

 

Sri Chinmoy: My dear Brother-Friend Roberto, I wish to offer you my prayerful and soulful gratitude for this signal award that you have accorded to me. In all sincerity I wish to tell you that, unlike you, I am not a musician of Himalayan height. In the past you have given this award to most distinguished people who have contributed much to the music world and to the Society. Here you have made a most deplorable mistake by offering this award to me! I am a budding musician, still blooming. But as a student of peace, as a man of prayer, I try to include music in my prayers and meditations. Whatever I do, I do with prayerful and soulful melodies deep inside my heart.

So, in that capacity I wish to accept your blessingful award — as a student of peace, as a man of prayer, as a lover of God who tries in each and every activity of his to carry a peaceful melody. My prayerful and peaceful music I wish to offer to you, Brother-Friend Roberto, and also to my dear friend Rafael, and to all the others who are blessingfully offering this award to me. I shall cherish this award in the very depths of my gratitude-heart.

I feel that each and every human being in God’s creation needs a heart of gold. A heart of gold means purity, beauty, divinity and immortality. If each of us has a heart of gold, then this world of ours — which right now is full of conflicts, quarrels and fights — will, without fail, be inundated with peace, light and bliss. So today’s blessingful award of yours will always remind me, and I do hope all my students as well, of one thing — that we all desperately need a heart of gold to have a peaceful world. If we have a heart of gold, then automatically peace will blossom in each and every human being, and the whole of humanity will be flooded with love, joy and bliss. I wish this heart of gold to grow inside my prayerful heart so that my heart will be as beautiful, as pure and as divine as your blessingful offering to me today.


Published in Sri Chinmoy, A Peace-Collecting Pilgrim-Soul

 

Photo by Pulak Viscardi

 

Sri Chinmoy presents the U Thant Peace Award to Swami Satchidananda, founder of the worldwide Integral Yoga Institute, at the 87-year-old yoga teacher’s institute in New York.

 

April 17

Photo by Pulak Viscardi

 

Sri Chinmoy plays the esraj during his visit to Swami Satchidananda’s Integral Yoga Institute in New York.

 

April 17

Photo by Prashphutita Greco

 

Sri Chinmoy holds the race results of a running event in New York.

 

April 17

Photo by Prashphutita Greco

 

Sri Chinmoy offers a silent meditation at the opening ceremony of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run in Manhattan, New York.

 

April 17

 

Sri Chinmoy shows one of his newly created Soul-Bird drawings.

 

April 17

The Practical Reality

A talk by Sri Chinmoy at  2:00 p.m
in The Center for Religion and Life at University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada

 

Dear seekers, dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, I wish to give a short talk on the practical reality. Reality is at once a simple and a complicated word. For an ordinary, unaspiring human being, reality is a far cry. At every moment life offers him frustration. His life is the life of desire. When his desires are not fulfilled, he is frustrated, and when his desires are fulfilled, still he feels no abiding satisfaction; therefore, according to him everything is unreal. This is his realisation. But we here are all seekers. We feel that everything is real, for we see the soul in everything and the soul of everything, while an unaspiring person sees the body in everything and the body of everything. But the body is ephemeral, whereas the soul is eternal, and reality abides only in the heart of Eternity.

Practical reality is the conquest of our teeming earth-bound desires. This conquest has another name: Freedom-light. Freedom-light liberates the seeker from the hunger of the finite. Freedom-light liberates the seeker from the darkness of bondage-night. Freedom-light does not permit ignorance to lord it over the heart of the sincere, loving, devoted and surrendered seeker. Freedom-light is the inner necessity of one who seeks the highest transcendental Truth, which is the perennial Source. Freedom-light is the outer necessity of one who seeks the Ultimate Truth, which is the transcendental Goal.

When we approach reality with our earth-bound consciousness, we feel that reality is not at all practical. But when we approach reality with our Heaven-free consciousness, we realise that reality is always practical. Reality is the ideal in human life. Reality is the natural beauty of the life divine. The animal in us does not know or feel the existence of reality. The human in us at times knows and feels the value of reality, but it does not strive for reality's breath. The divine in us always wants to grow in the heart of reality. The Supreme in us is all-Reality in us, with us and for us.

What is practical reality? Practical reality is silence. Silence does not date from any particular point in time. Silence owes its origin to no particular being. Silence is eternal. Silence is universal. For its validity, silence does not depend on our world-wide proclamation or on our genuine and implicit acceptance. Silence transcendental has God; Silence transcendental is God. God's transcendental Silence wants total and perfect manifestation here on earth. Why do we need silence? We need silence precisely because we need abiding satisfaction. Why do we need satisfaction? We need satisfaction because of our inner divinity's Immortality. How do we achieve satisfaction? We achieve satisfaction by purifying our mind, illumining our heart and liberating our life.

Practical reality is also sound. Silence prepares the life of aspiration. Sound reveals the life of aspiration. Love fulfils the life of aspiration. Silence immortalises the life of aspiration. A life without silence is a goalless life. A life without sound is a meaningless life. A life without love is a helpless life.

The man who knows that God is within him feels his goal within and without. The man who knows that he is for God is bound to feel that his life is meaningful. He who has discovered the truth that he is of God is bound to feel that his life can never be hopeless. On the contrary, his is the life of adamantine will; his is the life of all-energising, all-fulfilling, all-pervading reality. When a seeker feels God's Presence within him, he smiles the smile of God-transcendence. When he feels that he is for God, he sings the song of God-compassion. When he feels that he is eternally of God, he dances the dance of God-perfection.

Practical reality is Delight. Delight is God's Eye of Compassion and Liberation. When God's flood of Delight enters the very breath of the seeker's aspiring life, God's Reality-dream looms large and God's inner Promise comes to the fore. The seeker feels that his life of imperfection will be transformed before long into a life of perfect Perfection. When the seeker's heart is liberated from the meshes of ignorance, God's unfulfilled Dream gets the opportunity to expedite its earth-bound journey and ultimately to fulfil its Dream-Reality in and through the loving and unconditionally surrendered divine warrior-seeker.

Practical reality is the seeker's attainment of perfection — perfection within, perfection without. The seeker achieves perfection in the outer life by disciplining his life, by acquiring mastery over his outgoing energy. The seeker achieves perfection in the inner life through constant and unconditional surrender to the Will of his Inner Pilot.

Practical reality is the attainment of supernal peace. The state motto of Nevada is "All for our country". The undivine critic may find this lofty message sentimental or emotional. But the sincere seeker of the Highest Truth, from the spiritual point of view, will observe this message in a divine way. From the spiritual point of view, “country” signifies the “abode of peace”. In the motto, "All for our country", “all” signifies simplicity, sincerity, purity and humility. These qualities are to be found in the abode of peace. When we live in the abode of peace, impossibility cannot knock at our heart's door. Nothing is impossible. Everything is not only possible, practical and practicable, but also inevitable.

Earth has glowing aspiration. Heaven has descending illumination. When earth's aspiration and Heaven's illumination meet together, the dream-boat of the seeker reaches the Reality-Shore of the Beyond. Earth aspires; Heaven inspires. Earth aspires for the Heaven-soul; Heaven inspires the heart, the reality of earth. Because earth aspires, earth is supremely great; because Heaven inspires, Heaven is divinely good. Each individual seeker has the golden opportunity to knock at his own heart's door at God's choice Hour, not only to see the face of Reality, but also to grow into the Reality itself, provided his life is a life of constant dedication to the Inner Pilot.


Published in Fifty Freedom-Boats to one Golden Shore, part 4

 

Who is My Friend on Earth?

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at SUNY at Old Westbury, New York

 

My Lord Supreme, who is my friend on earth? Who is my enemy on earth?

“My son, I am your friend, and I am your enemy.”

How can it be, my Lord Supreme? How can You be my friend and my enemy at the same time?

“My son, when I fulfil your aspiration heart, I am your friend. When I fulfil your desire-life, I am your enemy.”

My Lord Supreme, why do you then fulfil my desire-life?

“I fulfil your desire-life because you insist on being fulfilled in your desire-life. Helpless, I fulfil your desire-life. Again, with My inner Vision I know that your desire-life will cause tremendous frustration in you and for you, and that there shall come a time when you will dive deep within to accept the aspiration-life. Aspiration life is the life of satisfaction; desire-life is the life of frustration. It is in aspiration-life that you will discover Me as your friend. It is in your aspiration-heart that you will discover Me as your friend, your only friend here on earth and there in Heaven.”

My Lord Supreme, is there any way I can increase my friendship with You? Is there any way I can feel deep within my heart my most intimate and inseparable connection with You?

“Yes, My son, there is. From now on, try to control your thought-world. At every moment you are assailed by thoughts. Each time a thought enters into your mind, if it is a good thought or a progressive thought, then enlarge it, and inside the vastness of the thought try to see and feel Me. Without fail, I shall be inside the vastness of your thought. As soon as a wrong thought, an uncomely, undivine or impure thought, enters into your mind, try either to annihilate it or transform it into a pure, divine and progressive thought. Each thought acts like atomic energy; it has boundless power. With this thought either you can build a new world or you can destroy the real in yourself. The real in you is your cry for truth, for light and for perfection.

“You can enter into the imagination-world in order to increase our friendship and feel that constantly I love you; and not only that I love you but also that I need you. Imagination is not and cannot be a mental hallucination. It is the precursor of a reality here on earth. Imagination is a reality which abides in its own world. Imagination descends from this imagination-world proper into the reality-world which we see, feel and grow into. Imagine that I am kind. Imagine that you are pure. Imagine that you are an instrument, a choice instrument of My Reality. Imagine that at every moment I am doing everything for you unconditionally. It is on the strength of your imagination that you can feel Me most intimately. And finally, enter into the gratitude-world. It is in the gratitude-world that you can see My total satisfaction in you. Inside My satisfaction what looms large is your own satisfaction, which is founded upon your nature’s transformation, your nature’s liberation from ignorance-night.

“My son, I am your only Friend. A friend is he who constantly fulfils the oneness-world. The oneness-world is the world of self-giving, and inside self-giving is the truth becoming, satisfaction-blossoming, perfection-dawning Reality.”


Published in Wisdom-Waves in New York, part 2

 

April 16

Photo by Adarini Inkei

 

Video by kedarvideo

 

Visitors and staff at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York are treated to a display of 32,000 of Sri Chinmoy’s Soul-Bird drawings along the thoroughfare connecting the East and West wings of the airport. The exhibition (April 13 – early May) is sponsored by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

 

April 16

My Night-time TV Appearance

by Sri Chinmoy
Video of Sri Chinmoy lifting 200 pounds with one arm is broadcast onTV Channel 5 in New York.

 

I am sure you do not watch television at four o’clock in the morning, but had you been watching Channel 5 last night at four o’clock, you would have seen me lifting 200 pounds with one arm! Dhanu went to the store of the man who sold us the video camera that takes the weightlifting pictures and he said that he saw me on television. His little child was crying, so he had to get up at four in the morning. Then he turned on the television and saw me lifting. He was so happy and proud because he sold us the video camera which takes pictures of my weightlifting.


Published in My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 3

 

 

FILM AND SPORT WORLDS CONVERGE IN QUEENS

 

JAMAICA, NY — Actors and civil rights activists Ossie Davis and his wife, Ruby Dee, were lifted by Sri Chinmoy at Aspiration-Ground April 16 as part of the ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ program. Also lifted that day was New York Knicks superstar Walt Frazier.

“Part of my heart will always be in this garden where we find what the world hungers for ... so beautifully illustrated in the life and person of Sri Chinmoy,” Davis said, after being lifted. 

Ruby Dee declared: “It is with deepest gratitude and a sense of truly being lifted up in spirit that we stand here now.” 

Walt Frazier said: “I thought I’ve been to the pinnacle ... in basketball with championships, but this was a different feeling, a very galvanizing experience.”


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