February 6

Sri Chinmoy appears on the 12:00 noon news on the Dick Bertel Show, Channel 3, WTIC-TV, in Hartford, CT, USA.

Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘Spirituality’, at Pace Memorial United Methodist Church, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, USA.

Sri Chinmoy holds a public meditation at All Angels’ Church in New York City, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy runs the 4th Annual Inspiration Marathon in a time of 5:56:59, in Hampton, NH, USA. The marathon serves as a qualifying run for the Boston Marathon — resulting in 75 qualifiers from more than 300 finishers.

Sri Chinmoy offers a concert at Public School 86 in Jamaica, New York, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy joins President Ronald Reagan, various senators and congressmen, and spiritual and political leaders from around the world as a guest at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington Hilton Hotel’s International Ballroom, Washington, DC, USA. Mr. Douglas Coe — leader of the behind-the-scenes ‘Friendship House’, which did the major logistical and financial work for the event — invited Sri Chinmoy to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, after he attended a Sri Chinmoy Peace Meditation programme in the House of Representatives in the Fall of 1985.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the US Department of Commerce Auditorium in Washington, DC, USA. Sri Chinmoy dedicates the concert to President Reagan, in honour of the President’s birthday (b. February 6, 1911).

Sri Chinmoy lifts 200 lbs. using only his right arm in Jamaica, Queens, New York, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Public School 86 in Jamaica, New York, NY, USA.

A report appears in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Frankfurt General Newspaper) about Sri Chinmoy’s visit to Mayrhofen in Zillertal, Austria, in the summer of 1993 to inaugurate Zillertalbahn as a Sri Chinmoy Peace Railway.

Sri Chinmoy receives th Heart of Slovakia Award.

Sri Chinmoy lifts 33 Malaysian residents in Sabah, Malaysia.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert held in honour of Bali’s eight Hindu Kings, at the initiative of the Muslim King, His Majesty King Sinoehoen Pakoeboewono XII of Surakarta (Central Java, Indonesia), held at the Bali Convention Centre in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.

Sri Chinmoy lifts 14 notable Indonesian people, at the Bali Convention Centre in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. They include Indonesian Kings — the Muslim King of Surakarta Sinoehoen Pakoeboewono XII and members of his Royal family; and eight Hindu Balinese Kings — the King of Ubud, Tjokorda Gde Agung Suyasa; the King of Mengwi, Anak Agung De Agung; the King of Klungkung, Dr. Cokorda Gde Agung; King of Ubud Tjokorda Gde Putra Sukawati; the King of Karangasem, Prof. A.A. Gde Putra Agung; the King of Sukasada, Prof. Dr. Gusti Ndurah Gorda; the King of Pelitan, Cokorda Gede Agung Mas; and the King of Jimbaran, Anak Agung Gede Agung, held at the Bali Convention Centre in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.

 

February 5

Sri Chinmoy gives his Sunday afternoon talk on Yoga and answers spiritual questions at the AUM Centre in New York.

Sri Chinmoy holds a meditation for the students of ‘Yoga of Westchester’, a centre for hatha yoga run by Sarama Minoli in Westchester County, New York, USA.

Sri Chinmoy gave a talk, entitled ‘The Golden Boat’, at a celebration of his completion of 208 poems, in New York, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy composes 7 songs dedicated to the United Nations.

Sri Chinmoy presents his 300 published books to the Harvard Divinity School Library, Cambridge, MA, USA, which are accepted by Dean Krister Stendahl and the librarian, Peter Oliver. The ceremony takes place in the penthouse of Hilles Library at Radcliffe College, where a number of Sri Chinmoy’s paintings are also on display.

Sri Chinmoy and the meditation group at the United Nations host a special meditation for the diplomatic community, at which Sri Chinmoy delivers a talk, entitled ‘Meditation’, and answers questions.

The 5th Annual Sri Chinmoy Inspiration Marathon is held in Hampton, NH, USA.

Sri Chinmoy’s meeting with King Goodwill Zwelithini, leader of the Zulu people of South Africa, in Durban last month, is reported in Asia Online, a weekly publication from New York, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy gives a piano performance in honour of Franz Schubert’s 200th Birth Anniversary, in Jamaica, New York, USA.

Sri Chinmoy speaks about his eldest brother Hriday’s song ‘Tumi Je Hao Se Hao’ at the Nexus Resort Karambunai, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Hriday Ranjan Ghosh wrote the original Bengali poem in honour of Sri Aurobindo, circa 1933, and Sri Chinmoy, composed the melody, circa 1966/67.

Sri Chinmoy welcomes his Majesty King Sinoehoen Pakoeboewono XII of Surakarta and his family who travelled to Bali to visit him during his stay on the island. Four private meetings with the King follow on the 7th (with his family), 12th, 14th, and 15th of February, at the Westin Hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.

 

February 4

Sri Chinmoy delivers two lectures, entitled ‘Two God-Instruments’ at 3:30 p.m. followed by questions and answers, and ‘Consciousness and Immortality’ at 7:30 p.m. followed by questions and answers in Room 426 of the Marvin Center at George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers eleven short inspirational aphorisms during a meditation he holds at the United Nations in New York.

Sri Chinmoy accepts 25 seekers from New Jersey to join his spiritual path and forms the Green Centre. At the inauguration, Sri Chinmoy speaks about the spiritual significance of the colour green.

Sri Chinmoy holds a morning meditation at Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, New York. In the evening, he offers a public esraj concert at Public School 86, where, he also plays the harpsichord and paints a number of artworks.

The Meditation Group Choir performs Sri Chinmoy’s song for Nelson Rockefeller, as well as the Parting song, for his widow, Happy Rockefeller, at the Rockefeller family church, Union Church of Pocantico Hills, Mount Pleasant, New York.

An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s artworks opens at Scotia Square in Halifax, NS, Canada.

The Meditation Group at the United Nations presents a programme in honour of Sri Lanka, which is attended by the Ambassador of Sri Lanka, Nadarajah Balasubramaniam.

Sri Chinmoy reads a letter from Mikhail Gorbachev, which was hand-delivered on 4 February by Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, at Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

Sri Chinmoy honours Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, with the ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ Award by lifting him in the garden tent behind Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, New York, USA.

Sri Chinmoy lifts 1992 Olympic decathlon gold medalist Robert Zmelik from the Czech Republic, in the garden tent at Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, New York, USA.

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Ramada Inn, in East Elmhurst, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy receives the Heart of Bangladesh, the Heart of Czech Republic, and the Heart of Zimbabwe Awards.

An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s artworks opens at Hotel Equatorial in Penang, Malaysia.

 

February 2

Photos by Pulak Viscardi

 

Sri Chinmoy lifts Xiao Wu Nan (Woolf Shaw) in Nanjing, China. He is the Vice-Chairman of China’s Social, Economic and Cultural Exchange Association, a position that is ranked as a Deputy Minister in the Chinese Government.

Mr. Shaw presents Sri Chinmoy with two scrolls by a famous Chinese calligrapher. He compares the words on one scroll — “The saint comes like rain, which falls to earth just in time” — to Sri Chinmoy’s arrival in China.

 

 

February 2

 

Sri Chinmoy relaxing at home with his dog Kanu.

 

 

February 2

Diary Entry

by Sri Chinmoy
while in residence at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India

2 February

I said to Nolini-da: "Yesterday at the playground you told us that you were sharing with us your last life experience. I was so sorry to hear that."

"Tell me, what else do I have to write? Have I not completed my life-story?"

"I don't think so. You have not told us about your sports life in your younger days. I have heard so many stories about you as a great football player."

"I see, I see. But you know that in those days there was neither Mohan Bagan nor East Bengal to inspire us. Anyway, I shall try to write about my football and sports capacity."

Published in A Service-Flame and a Service-Sun

 

The Green Light Vanishes

by Sri Chinmoy

 

Am I too slow or is it true that the green light does not last as long as the red light? This morning I was on Main Street. I was waiting and waiting for the red light to turn green. As soon as the green light came, I started walking. But before I had crossed half of the road, it started blinking.

Published in Run and Become, Become and Run, part 20

 

 

Sri Chinmoy trains indoors at a movie theatre in New York.

 

 

February 2

Freedom

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
Conference Room 9, United Nations, New York

 

Freedom. Freedom is the creative force within us. Freedom is the sustaining life within us. Human freedom is an experience of the body, in the vital and for the mind. Divine freedom is an experience of the soul, in the heart and for the mind, the vital and the body. There is practically no difference between animal freedom and human slavery. In the domain of the destructive vital, our animal freedom roars. In the abyss of our sleeping inconscient body, our human slavery snores.

God’s Freedom lies in His constant Service to mankind, in His unconditional Self-giving. Man’s freedom lies in his God-achievement, life-perfection and life-fulfilment.

The freedom of the doubting mind is undoubtedly a reality. But this reality is fleeting, flimsy. The freedom of the loving and aspiring heart is an everlasting reality and an ultimate sublimity.

Freedom of earthly thought is good, but quite often it opens itself to false freedom. Freedom that comes from following the heavenly Will invokes God’s Presence in us. It invokes His divine Promise in and through us and His supreme Self-assertion and Self-manifestation in and through us.

What is false freedom? False freedom is our constant and deliberate acceptance of ignorance and our conscious existence in ignorance. What is real freedom? Real freedom is our conscious awareness of our inner divinity, and our constant inseparable oneness with the Inner Pilot.

What can false freedom do? False freedom can do much. It can totally destroy us. It can destroy our inner possibilities and potentialities. It can destroy our inner wealth. What can real freedom do? Real freedom also can do much. Real freedom can make us grow into the very image of our Supreme Pilot.

We have two types of freedom: outer freedom and inner freedom. Outer freedom constantly wants to prove its capacity. It wants to prove its sovereignty. Inner freedom wants to prove that it belongs to God and God alone.

Outer freedom has a new goal every day. It wants to discover this goal only in pleasure. But inner freedom has only one eternal Goal, and that Goal is to achieve the conscious awareness of God and the conscious manifestation of God in and through itself.

Outer freedom is satisfied only when it is in a position to say, “I have no superiors. I am my only master.” Inner freedom is satisfied only when it can soulfully say, “I don’t want to be superior to anyone, but I want God to be my superior, my only superior.”

Forgetfulness takes away our freedom, but God’s Forgiveness brings it back. Teeming desires take away our freedom, but God’s Compassion brings it back. Self-importance and self-assertion take away our freedom, but God’s Light brings it back.

It is our self-awareness that retains our freedom and God’s divine Pride in us that perfects our freedom. In the perfection of our earthly freedom we grow, and we sow the Heaven-seed within us. And in the fulfilment of our inner freedom we see Heaven and earth as complementary souls. For earth offers its wealth and capacity, which is receptivity, and Heaven offers its wealth and capacity, which is Divinity and Immortality.

Published in The Tears of Nation-Hearts

 

The Golden Boat

by Sri Chinmoy

 

 

Sri Chinmoy completes 200 poems in 22 hours — from 12:01 a.m. to 10:01 p.m. — (published in parts 2, 3, 4 and 5) and then in the next few minutes spontaneously dictates a further 8 poems (published in part 6) as part of his series The Golden Boat, in Jamaica, New York. The 200 poems are printed in four volumes by noon the following day. (Part 1, also containing 50 poems, was written a few days earlier on 29 January.)

 

1. Don’t Think, Don’t Sleep

When he was a child,
One day
His father said to him:
“Don’t think, my child.
God never thinks.”
Since then, he never cared
To learn the art of thinking.

When he was a child,
One day
His mother said to him:
“Don’t sleep, my child.
God never sleeps.”
Since then, he never cared
To learn the art of sleeping.

200. Perfect Strangers

Lord, Lord,
Save me, save me.
I am in terrible danger.
I am fighting against time
To prove to my spiritual children
That I am a poet of high magnitude.
Father, do save me, save me.

“Son, don’t insult Me.
You and I are perfect strangers
To the birth and life of defeat.”

208. Trophies and Smiles

I love the trophies
Of a world-conqueror.
They show me
What God the Beggar
Needs and gets.

I love the smiles
Of a world-lover.
They show me
What God the Emperor
Gives and is.

Published in The Golden Boat, parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

 

The Message of Peace

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island

 

Peace is my mind’s newness. Peace is my heart’s soulfulness. Peace is my life’s fulness.

My newness-mind will not have an iota of doubt. It will have implicit faith — faith in itself and faith in God. My soulfulness-heart will have no insecurity. It will have only confidence-light. My fulness-life will have no sense of separativity. It will have only unity and oneness — a oneness-home.

Peace is not an attainment. Peace is an enlightenment. Peace will not come from possession of this world. Peace will come from perfection of this world through perfection of oneself.

Peace is the beauty of the outer discipline. Peace is the purity of the inner obedience. The outer discipline perfects the human in us. The inner obedience fulfils the divine in us.

Life is a self-transcendence-flight. Peace is a God-discovery-crown. Life is Eternity’s hunger-cry. Peace is Infinity’s satisfaction-smile.

In the ordinary world, ignorance-night reigns supreme and the ignorant mind cherishes war. War wants to show the world what it can do: in the twinkling of an eye it can destroy everything.

In soundless silence, peace tells the world who its owner is. Its only real Owner is God the transcendental Delight and God the universal Light. A true seeker of peace, a genuine lover and server of Truth, who is a true God-lover in the inmost recesses of his heart, receives this soundless, undeniable message of peace.

The message of peace is that God the Creator and God the Creation, God the Possessor and God the possession, are inseparably one. This is why no mind-power can ever destroy the world, and this is why heart-power will one day unify the length and breadth of the world and establish a oneness-home in the seeker’s heart-garden — his heart-garden of peace.

Published in The Oneness of the Eastern Heart and the Western Mind, part 3

 

Great Indian poets

by Sri Chinmoy
at Nexus Resort Karambunai, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

 

Rabindranath Tagore, Kaji Najrul and Ramprasad all received some touch from the soul or from the psychic being, from their inner existence. That is why their poems and songs are so soulful, so melodious.

Najrul wrote songs about Indian Gods and Goddesses, about Mother Kali or Lord Krishna. He also wrote He Partha Sarathi and a few other songs of the highest order. He was not God-realised, but he wrote such wonderful songs. In Ramprasad’s case, he got a glimpse of God.

Published in Only Gratitude-Tears

 

February 2

Sunshine State Joy Ride

Lyrics:

Sunshine State Joy Ride,
Oneness-light, our pride.
Sunshine State Joy Ride,
With us, God the Peace-spreading Guide.
Florida, we love your teeming glories;
Our heart and lives in your God-stories.

Published in Namo Namo Namo Shakti Pujari

 

 

Sri Chinmoy plays the sitar at a function in Nanjing, China.