March 21

 

An early drawing by 14-year-old ‘Chinmoy’ while a resident of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. 

 

March 21

 

Video by kedarvideo

 

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert in Palac Kultury, Warsaw, Poland.

 

Sri Chinmoy’s dedication of his Peace Concert in Poland to President Gorbachev:

 

Today’s Peace Concert I am most lovingly and most devotedly dedicating to President Gorbachev. He is the Himalayan Freedom-Peace-Seeker, Freedom-Peace-Lover and Freedom-Peace-Giver.

On July 11, 1988 he gave a most significant speech before the Polish Parliament. I wish to quote from his most encouraging, most illumining and most fulfilling utterance:

"To conclude, please allow me from this high platform to convey my best wishes to the workers of Poland and the whole Polish people. We wish you, dear friends, tremendous success in all your activities and initiatives which are aimed at the welfare of the people of Poland and the socialist renewal of your homeland."


Published in Sixty-one Gratitude-Blossoms from the World-Heart-Home-Garden

 

March 20

Photo by Adarini Inkei

 

Sri Chinmoy escorts Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the United Nations, along the Jharna-Kala-lined hallway of Public School 86 in New York, to a special function he has arranged in the ambassador’s honour.

 

March 20

Photo by Pulak Viscardi

 

After being lifted and receiving the ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ medallion, HRH Princess Jelisaveta of Yugoslavia holds the Peace Torch with Sri Chinmoy at Aspiration-Ground in New York.

 

March 20

The Human, the Divine and the Supreme

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Sir George Williams University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

 

Dear sisters and brothers, dear seekers of the highest Truth, I am in Canada on a lecture tour, and I hope to serve the soul of Canada with my devoted heart. I shall be giving sixteen talks during my trip. Each time I give a talk, I offer my soulful gratitude to the presiding deity of Canada, to the soul of Canada, and to her I shall offer my soulful gratitude this evening.

I am a seeker. That means I am a spiritual farmer. As a farmer cultivates the land and, in the course of time, collects a bumper crop, even so, the seeker in me is cultivating the spiritual soil of Canada. Geographically, Canada is a very vast country. And spiritually, she can become extremely fertile.

Fear is human. Courage is divine. Love is supreme. A thing human is short-lived. A thing divine is long-lived. A thing supreme lives forever.

Doubt is human. Faith is divine. Surrender is supreme. A life of doubt cannot start. A life of faith walks along the path. A life of surrender reaches the Goal.

The human in us says the Goal is far, very far. The divine in us says the Goal is here, right here, and nowhere else. The Supreme in us says we ourselves are the Goal.

The human in us is stark complexity within and without. The divine in us is pure simplicity. This simplicity houses the Infinite and the Eternal. The supreme in us is sheer luminosity. In this luminosity the seeker becomes the divine Lover, and the lover becomes one with the supreme Beloved.

The human in us thinks that it has conquered everything. The divine in us feels that it can conquer everything if such is the Will of God. The supreme in us has become what it eternally is: oneness, inseparable oneness.

I am one individual and God is another individual: this is my human discovery. God and I are sempiternally one: this is my divine discovery. God is my most illumined part and I am God’s most unillumined existence: this is my supreme discovery.

The human in me feels that it is all sacrifice, that it has sacrificed everything for the world at large. The divine in me feels that it makes all possible sacrifices because the Absolute has given it the capacity to sacrifice. The supreme in me knows that there is no such thing as sacrifice. When we are all one, the question of sacrifice does not arise at all.

My body has a mind, a heart, two legs. My legs take me to school, where my mind and heart receive knowledge and wisdom. Now, my legs do not feel that they are making a tremendous sacrifice in carrying my heart and head to school, for my legs have established their inseparable oneness with my heart and my head. Similarly, when my legs and feet want to run, my head and heart co-operate. They do not feel it is any sacrifice on their part to come along.

In the inner world, there is no such thing as sacrifice; there is only the song of oneness. The physical in us ponders and thinks, and it feels that it has made tremendous progress when it starts to reason. The human in us feels that the reasoning mind is the pinnacle of perfection. But when the divine in us comes to the fore, it makes us feel that the soulful heart is what is of paramount importance, for the inmost recesses of our heart house the Infinite and the Eternal.

The human in us desires constantly and demands constantly. The divine in us aspires devotedly and inspires unreservedly. The supreme in us only loves, consciously, constantly and unconditionally.

The human in us prays, “Asato ma sad gamaya... — Lead me from the unreal to the Real. Lead me from darkness to Light. Lead me from death to Immortality.”

The divine in us prays, “Hiranmayena patrena... — The Face of Truth is covered with a brilliant golden orb. Remove it, O Sun, so that I who am devoted to the Truth may behold the Truth.”

The supreme in us knows what its Source is and where its journey will lead. It says, “Anandadd hy eva khalv imani bhutani jayante... — From Delight we came into existence. In Delight we grow. At the end of our journey’s close, into Delight we retire.”

The human in us has to be transcended on the strength of our inner cry. The divine in us has to be manifested, and for that we need God’s infinite Bounty along with our own aspiration-cry. The supreme in us is perfect Perfection, and this perfect Perfection must be established here on earth, through our conscious prayer to reach the Transcendental Consciousness. Only when we meditate do we bring down the Transcendental Consciousness, the supreme Perfection, into our lives of self-dedication, our lives of self-transcendence.

Each seeker once lived in the world of pleasure. Now he lives in the world of aspiration. Tomorrow the same seeker will live in the world of illumination. Yesterday we were human. Today we are divine. Tomorrow we will be supreme. It is our intense inner cry that will make us again what we were once upon a time. Our Source was God the Delight, and now we are trying to establish here on earth the Peace, Light and Delight of the Source through our conscious prayer, our soulful meditation and our devoted surrender to the Will of God.

As seekers we know that the human in us has to be transcended so that the divine in us can play its role most effectively. We also know that the divine in us must have an immortal existence here on earth. For that the divine in us needs the life supreme, and this life supreme we get only when our human existence is all love, all devotion and all surrender to the Inner Pilot.


Published in The Oneness of the Eastern Heart and the Western Mind, part 1

 

Let us Try to Empty the Mind

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at SUNY at Stony Brook, New York

 

We shall now try to empty the mind. Indeed, this is the most difficult task, but we shall do it. Our mind has made friends with teeming thoughts. These thoughts are unhealthy, uncomely, unaspiring and undivine. The moment our aspiration-heart eliminates one thought, to its wide surprise another thought immediately crops up. It seems that we are forced to play an endless game.

But there is also another game, and that game is the will-power-game. We have inherited that game from our Father, the Lord Supreme. When we play that game we transform our thought-world into the will-power-world.

Where do we get this will-power? We get this will-power from our heart’s calmness-sea. From where do we acquire this calmness-sea? We acquire it from our soul’s freedom-sun and oneness-sky.

A man of will-power braves all the storms and tempests of life. He knows that he is not the earth-bound body but the Heaven-free soul. His body is not earth-bound; his life is not earth-bound. He also knows that he is not his nature’s slave, but a supremely chosen instrument of his Inner Pilot, his Beloved Supreme. What he truly has and what he truly is, is aspiration-flame, and this aspiration-flame makes him feel that he is always Heaven-free. He is in the world, true; but he is not of the world. At the same time, he knows that he is for the world, for the world’s transformation and for God’s manifestation in and through the world. He is always for this world.

Let us try to empty the mind. In our mind’s emptiness will loom large Infinity’s Peace, Eternity’s Light and Immortality’s Delight. Let us try to empty the mind.


Published in AUM – Vol. 5, No. 7, 8, July-August 1978

 

Occultism: Love-Aspect and Compassion-Aspect

by Sri Chinmoy
Aspiration-Ground, Jamaica, New York

 

I started practising occultism not in India, but in some other country. As far as I can recollect, it was not in India. Before I studied occultism in India, I studied in another country. That country does not exist any more; it is extinct. That country was Atlantis.

In my previous incarnations, my occultism had a tremendous power-aspect. Now fire has become water. My occultism has become love-aspect and compassion-aspect. It has changed its form: love, compassion, forgiveness. Before, my occultism had a tremendously frightening aspect. Now, in this incarnation, my occultism has taken a different form.

Occultism does not mean only to threaten and frighten. It can also be used to raise the consciousness of someone who has perhaps descended lower than the lowest. As soon as I approach someone, I may lift him higher than the highest. That is also occult power. Occult power does not mean only to show fire!


Published in His Compassion is Everything to Us

 

March 20

 

Sri Chinmoy lifts a 101-pound weight from the ground and presses it overhead with one arm, in Jamaica, New York. It is the first time he has ever achieved this type of lift with a weight of more than 100 pounds. He completes three repetitions. 

 

My 100-pound Dream

 

Today I have fulfilled my long-cherished dream of lifting up 100 pounds from Mother Earth. The video is the proof. I must say, I didn’t find it too difficult. Again, everything — starting with even one pound — is difficult. It has taken many months for me to do it and so I am very happy.

Since I started lifting 170 pounds, I have practised it on 25 or 26 different days. Out of these, only on the second day did I fail on the first attempt. But today, O my God, on the first attempt I had some difficulty, so I had to make a second attempt. I felt miserable.

Then I said, “I have to be happy. The only way to make myself happy is to lift 100 pounds from the ground.” Then, when I did it, I was happy.


Published in My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 1

 

March 20

 

Sri Chinmoy offers his second recital for the Asia Society, held at the Indian Cultural Centre in New York. His first musical performance is in June 1965, at New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

 

A Performance at the Indian Cultural Centre

 

One of my colleagues, N. C. Acharya, knew of my love for music and he asked me to give a concert. That is how my concert at the Indian Cultural Centre came about. The person in charge of the Cultural Centre donated a hall for free and the date was fixed for 20 March 1966.

Quite a few hundred people came to the concert. For me to get over one hundred people in those days was really something. But they came and they appreciated my singing.

I sang ten devotional songs in Sanskrit and Bengali, and I gave a short commentary on each one.


Published in My Consulate Years

 

Soulfulness and Prayerful Feelings

by Sri Chinmoy
at P.S. 86, Jamaica, New York

 

Very prayerfully and soulfully I sing fifty-nine songs every day. Sometimes I may make mistakes, but my soulfulness is there. It takes me exactly an hour. I sing each song twice, but three or four songs I sing three times. I sing these fifty-nine songs every day at three-thirty, four o’clock or four-thirty in the morning — not after four-thirty. I do cycling in my meditative consciousness while singing. Before that I meditate for about two hours. Then, at six o’clock, I disappear. I go with Vinaya to the airport to meditate while I walk inside the terminal.

I never miss even a single day singing these fifty-nine songs! I like them; I enjoy them. I may make mistakes, as you are seeing, but my soulfulness does not worry about the melody. Most of the songs I know well and I sing correctly, but there are a few that I sing incorrectly. I know I am making mistakes, but I remain very prayerful and soulful, so at that time God forgives me.

If you cannot carry a tune, or if you forget the melody, think of your soulfulness and your prayerful feelings. Then there will be no problem.


Published in Only One Power

 

The Chinmoy Beena

by Sri Chinmoy
Aspiration-Ground, Jamaica, New York

 

I like the Chinmoy Beena more than any other instrument! That has become my most favourite. What I need — sweetness — it has. What I need — splendour — it has. I get such a sonorous feeling from that instrument.

Ravi Shankar liked that instrument very much, so I played it for him. He immediately said that it had to be named “Chinmoy Beena.”

Every morning, the very first thing I do is meditate, meditate. Then I play our Invocation. After “The Invocation” I play “My Lord Beloved Supreme.” Then I practise five or six instruments. First is the sitar, which I play for such a long time. Then I play the Chinese erhu. It melts my heart! Then I play a big, round, white Chinese instrument. After that I play the Chinmoy Beena, and some days the Western flute. How nicely I play the Western flute at home! Then, after a few hours, I play the cello.

Like that, daily I play seven to eight instruments at different hours. Three or four I play one after another, consecutively. I start with the sitar, and then, other instruments I play.

When I do cycling for half an hour, either I listen to my songs or to Tagore’s songs, or to other great performers. Half an hour passes by almost in the twinkling of an eye when I hear the music of superlative Indian singers. They literally melt my heart.

Note: Pandit Ravi Shankar asked Sri Chinmoy to call this instrument Chinmoy Beena on 10 October 2002, following the Master’s soulful performance for Ravi Shankar at P.S. 86 in Jamaica, New York.


Published in His Compassion is Everything to Us