December 1
Sri Chinmoy offered a tribute programme for Eleanor Roosevelt, with guest speaker the grandson Curtis Roosevelt, at the United Nations in New York.
December 1
Attachment and Detachment
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at Trinity College, Dublin
Attachment and detachment. Detachment and attachment.
From the body we get the message of attachment.
From the soul we get the message of detachment.
The body is limited, hence the body wants to bind us and limit us. It wants to bind and limit our outer capacity and our inner potentiality.
The soul in its potentiality and capacity, is limitless and endless. Therefore the soul wants to free us from the meshes of ignorance and liberate us from the bondage-night.
What is attachment? Attachment is the dance of our outer pleasure.
What is detachment? Detachment is the song of our inner joy.
Attachment ends in the prison-cell of frustration and destruction.
Detachment fulfils itself in the palace of Divinity and Immortality.
I am a fool if I consciously live in the physical. I am a greater fool if I constantly admire and adore my physical body. I am the greatest fool if I live only to satisfy the needs of my physical existence.
I am a wise person if I know that there is something called the soul. I am a wiser person if I care to see and feel my soul. I will be the wisest person if I live in my soul and for my soul constantly and soulfully, unreservedly and unconditionally.
When we are attached to the body, we become in no time, impulsive. When we are attached to the vital, we become, very soon, explosive. When we are attached to the physical mind, we ultimately become destructive.
But when we are in the body, detached, we consciously feel our aspiring consciousness. When we are in the vital, detached, we expand and widen our aspiring consciousness. When we are in the mind, detached, we fulfil supremely our unlimited consciousness here on earth.
Many people are unfortunately under the wrong impression that attachment and devotedness are one and the same thing. Attachment is when we are in the finite, when we are attached to the finite. Devotedness is when we devote ourselves to the Infinite and are liberated by the Infinite.
Here in Ireland, nearly a hundred years ago, a young aspirant named Margaret Noble went to India to become the famous disciple of Swami Vivekenanda. This great Yogi had come to the West in 1889 to participate in the ‘Parliament of Religions’ at the great World's Fair in Chicago. His spiritual stature was immediately recognised, and he became famous overnight.
When he went to England from the United States, Margaret Noble attended his talks and became his dearest disciple. He called her “Nivedita, one who is totally dedicated to the Supreme Cause.”
Indian people are all admiration for what Nivedita did for India. She helped Indian women in infinite measure. She helped to awaken their slumbering consciousness so that they could envision themselves as divine instruments and grow into the perfect embodiments of aspiration, dedication and illumination for their Mother India. We Indians are bloated with divine pride when we utter the name of Nivedita.
Her father was a clergyman, a lover of God, a great seeker. Before he breathed his last, on his deathbed, he said to his wife, “Don't stand in Margaret’s way. If she wants to go to India, let her go.” Margaret’s mother had been very upset by her daughter’s desire to leave Ireland for distant India, but at her husband's last wish, she did help Margaret and inspired her. Nivedita went to India and became India’s veritable pride. Hers was the heart that knew no despair. Just before she passed behind the curtain of eternity, she uttered under her breath, “The boat is sinking, but I shall see the sunrise.”
I wish to offer my humble talk to the hallowed memory of Sister Nivedita, Margaret Noble of Ireland.
Detachment is misunderstood. We feel that if someone is detached, he is indifferent. Spiritual seekers also make the same mistake in thinking that when we want to show detachment to someone, we must show him utter indifference, to the point of total neglect. This is not true. When we are indifferent to someone, we do nothing for him. We have nothing to do with his joy or sorrow, his achievement or failure. But when we are truly detached, we work for him devotedly and selflessly. The results of our actions we offer at the Feet of the Lord Supreme, our Inner Pilot.
It does not matter if the result is success or failure. If we are not at all attached to the results, we get an immediate expansion of consciousness. If we do not care for the fruit of our action, the Supreme rewards us in the Supreme's own Way.
Lord Krishna said, "Thou has the right to act, but not to the fruits of action." The Upanishads declare, “Action cleaves not to a man.”
If we work devotedly and selflessly, action does not bind us. There will be no difficulty in working for God's sake if we work without caring about the result. This is true detachment, this is spiritual detachment. When we can renounce the unlit, unaspiring action, we can enter into the divine action which is our real life; and in this real life, there is always perfection and fulfilment.
When we pay all attention to the material world and neglect the inner world, we starve the soul in us. The soul has to be brought to the fore. If we think we can get infinite wealth from the material world, then we are totally mistaken.
Yagnavalka, the great Indian sage, had a wife whose name was Maitreyi. Yagnavalka wanted to spend the evening of his life in meditation and contemplation, so he wanted to give away his earthly possessions. He asked Maitreyi if she wanted his riches. She asked, “Will your riches give me immortal life? Of what use to me are the things that cannot make me immortal?”
We need the material world, undoubtedly, but we cannot give all our energy to it. We feed our body three times a day. Unfortunately we do not have time to feed our soul even once a day. We, the seekers of the infinite Truth, feed the body so that we can become the perfect instrument of the soul.
The soul has divinity, eternity, immortality. The soul wants to offer its world to the body. If the body becomes receptive, it will receive all that the soul wants to offer. The body itself will echo and re-echo in the life of aspiration and dedication. It will march along as the most humble servitor of the soul. Its existence will be the existence of glory and divinity, divine service and supreme fulfilment.
We fulfil the Supreme on earth. He treasures us in His Heart’s Heaven.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 1
Happiness in Every Sphere
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
on Pangkor Island, Malaysia
I wish to give a one-minute speech on happiness.
Happiness, happiness, happiness, happiness, happiness I expect from each and every disciple. Happiness, happiness, happiness! If you are unhappy, if you are miserable, if you are depressed, you must feel that you are hurling arrows.
I am fortunate, sincerely fortunate, to have you as my disciples, and I wish to say that you can also feel the same, since you have an Avatar as your spiritual Master. I make bold to say that I am an Avatar. An Avatar is the direct descent of the Absolute Supreme. Believe it or not; believe that I am an Avatar or not; but believe in your own happiness.
If you are happy, then you are giving me a world of bliss. If you are unhappy, I feel miserable. Unhappiness does not have any solid foundation. Even if you are sick, very sick, your sadness will not cure your disease — never! Your happiness is the cure, the only cure — a happy, cheerful mind and heart. In every sphere of your earthly activities, keep happiness, happiness.
There are some disciples who were attacked by the most serious diseases. Their faith in me, and their happiness, was most praiseworthy. Even here there are some disciples in this category. A disciple’s faith in me enters into the Heart of the Absolute Supreme. If one has implicit faith in our Lord Supreme, He is bound to help the suffering patient. Faith is needed — absolute faith.
Not only one, but hundreds of disciples of mine have been cured of serious ailments because of their faith in the spiritual life, and that means their faith in our Lord Supreme. Again and again I say, He is my Guru, He is your Guru, He is everybody’s Guru. He chose me to be His representative to be of service to Him and to be of service to you as well.
Published in God-Made, God-Moulded, God-Shaped
December 1
Canada blossoms into ‘peace nation’
Sri Chinmoy may not have weightlifted MP Mac Harb as promised, but those who were on hand for the ceremony to mark Canada becoming the first North American 'peace-blossom nation' found it all uplifting anyway. Charles Enman reports.
It’s official now — Canada is a “Sri Chinmoy peace-blossom nation.”Yesterday afternoon at the Château Laurier, international peace crusader Sri Chinmoy unveiled a plaque that announces Canada as the first North American nation to be so consecrated.
The 300-odd souls in attendance had been promised a demonstration of weightlifting prowess by Sri Chinmoy but were disappointed. Sri Chinmoy had accumulatively lifted several thousand kilograms in New York City only days ago and had strained himself in the process. Alas, sometimes the magic doesn’t work.
But from his first, quiet entry into the Adam room at the Chateau, all eyes and ears were on this quiet man of 67 who seemed so attentive to everything going on, yet somehow removed at the same time.
Standing on a small square of carpet beside the stage, he presented a rose and a wrapped gift to each of several dozen invited guests — parliamentarians, ambassadors, athletes.
Make no mistake, on a good day Sri Chinmoy could have lifted MP Mac Harb as promised. In fact, a video showed him lifting six firefighters at once, then an elephant, and finally a small plane.
But the truly impressive feat he pulls off, speakers asserted yesterday, is getting a fractious world to listen to his appeals for world peace.
“You know, the parties in Parliament rarely come together in one unit to celebrate anything,” Mr. Harb told the audience. “We have been able to do this because of Sri Chinmoy’s leadership for peace around the world.”
Designating Canada as a peace-blossom nation follows the signing of a statement by the five House Leaders in Parliament dedicating Canada to the cause of world peace.
Other designated nations include New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe we, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Finland, Nepal and Malta.
David Kilgour, Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa, said Canada’s peacekeeping efforts “have truly reflected the principle of the peace blossom.” Those efforts will continue, he assured the crowd.
Local politicians, members of Parliament and ambassadors from seven countries paid tribute to the peace- blossom program and to Sri Chinmoy himself.
Indian High Commissioner Rajanikanta Verma was effusive: “I am proud you come from India,” he said, “but people of such greatness really belong to the world.”
And Sri Chinmoy himself? He was listening attentively but seemed immune to sudden increases in hat-band size. He took off the white suit-jacket that seems to be a signature item in his wardrobe, then mounted the stage slowly, limping a bit from his recent exertions and from chronic back and knee problems.
Eyes shut, brow knitted in concentration, he chanted to the crowd:
“Greatness-mind you are, goodness-heart you are, oneness-life you are.” No doubt moving, but you had to be there. The text on the peace-blossom plaque ends with these words: “As Canada opens its doors and its hearts to people of every nation, may this dedication inspire other nations to join us in heralding the message that we are all brothers and sisters of one world family and that world peace begins within the heart of each individual.”
Mr. Chinmoy was born a Hindu in India, moving to New York in 1964.
He has been holding peace meditations at the United Nations for 32 years. His free concerts and lectures for peace have been given around the world.
Leading religious leaders have welcomed his work, including Pope John Paul II and the late Mother Teresa.
Several sites are being considered for the peace-blossom plaque.
Brothers and sisters should eat together, so the ceremony ended with the serving of chocolate cake, a cake in the form of the flag of Canada, the peace-blossom nation.
Caption:
Sri Chinmoy’s truly impressive feat, speakers asserted yesterday, is getting a fractious world to listen to his appeals for world peace. Photo, Chris Mikula. The Ottawa Citizen
Published in THE OTTAWA CITIZEN, Tuesday, December 1, 1998
December 1
A pre-recorded segment filmed in the TV studios of Network Ten on 29 November, of Sri Chinmoy lifting a 73.5-kg-dumbbell using only his right arm, is broadcast on The Today Show in Melbourne, Australia. It is the first time anywhere in the world that Sri Chinmoy has ever lifted more than his own bodyweight on television — at the time he weighed 70.5 kg.
December 1
Sri Chinmoy offers Peace Concert (440) at the Sports and Entertainment Centre in Melbourne, Australia.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (398) and New Year’s Concert at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York.
December 10
Sri Chinmoy is interviewed for one hour – 9:30-10:30 a.m. – by Mr. Jim Knight and Mr. George Riddell on radio station WHOA in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘The Gayatri Mantra’, at Columbia University in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy completes 1,000 Jharna-Kala paintings in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy requests that his disciples ask him amusing questions, during an informal gathering in his Jharna-Kala Gallery, in New York, NY, USA. The questions and answers are subsequently published in his book Smile of the Beyond.
Sri Chinmoy runs a personal best time of 5:26:42 in the West for 30 miles in the Jamaica environs, NY, USA. Beginning at 12 midnight, his marathon split time was 4:32:41.
Sri Chinmoy presents Salim A. Salim, President of the 34th UN General Assembly, with the Human Rights Award at the United Nations in New York.
Sri Chinmoy offers a concert and delivers his New Year’s Message for the year 1984 at his annual New Year’s Meditation, at Washington Irving High School in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy completes his first 10,000 poems published in his poetry series, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (210) and delivers his New Year’s Message for the year 1990 at his annual New Year’s Meditation, at Washington Irving High School in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy inaugurates the new meditation meeting hall he named ‘Perfection-Surprise’ in Queens, New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy meets with H.E. Gupta, Indian Ambassador to Thailand, at the Ambassador Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.
Sri Chinmoy meets with Sir Orville Turnquest, Governor-General of the Bahamas, at the Governor’s House in Nassau, Bahamas.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens at Nassau Beach Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas.
Sri Chinmoy composes his 14,000th song overall (Bengali and English total) Thambona Go at the Nassau Beach Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 25 cows, a total of 24,516 lb. at Packwood Jersey Farm in Taupo, New Zealand.
Sri Chinmoy watches the morning 2-mile Self-Transcendence Race in Solo, Indonesia. Before the race, Sri Chinmoy offers a special race prayer.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert for His Majesty King Sinoehoen Pakoeboewono XII of Solo at Surakarta Palace in Solo, Java, Indonesia. There, Sri Chinmoy lifts the King as part of the ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ award. His Majesty also honours Sri Chinmoy, by bestowing upon him the title of ‘Prince of the Royal Family’.
December 9
Sri Chinmoy composes three songs about Australia: ‘A Fountain-Heart, a Mountain-Soul’, ‘Australia, Your Heart for God’ and ‘O Fauna, O Flora of Australia’.
Sri Chinmoy offers a concert at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI, USA.
Sri Chinmoy writes, publishes and recites from memory a handwritten aphorism book My Heart’s Thirty-One Sacred Secrets in Jamaica, New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy’s 600th book — a handwritten book of 47 poems, entitled I Pray So That — is published in Jamaica, Queens, New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy delivers his New Year’s Message for the year 1985 at his annual New Year’s meditation, during which he meditates with Sudhahota Carl Lewis and Narada Michael Walden on stage, at Washington Irving High School in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (286) and a New Year’s meditation, along with a Jharna-Kala exhibit, at Hunter College in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (319) and delivers his New Year’s Message for the year 1993 at his annual New Year’s Meditation, at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (385) and delivers his New Year’s Message for the year 1994 at his annual New Year’s Meditation, at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy runs and walks through snowy, sub-zero conditions in the Runners are Smilers two-mile race at Goose Pond Park in Jamaica New York, USA. His finishing time is 24 minutes, 25.57 seconds.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Akdeniz University in Antalya, Turkey.
December 8
Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘The Brahman of the Upanishads’, at Yale University in New Haven, CT, USA.
Sri Chinmoy takes photographs of his early Jharna-Kala drawings with an adjustable overhead camera, in Jamaica, New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (50) at the United Nations General Assembly Lobby in New York.
Sri Chinmoy lifs 12 people at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy visits Albany’s Mayor the Hon. Thomas M. Whalen III, for the dedication of the Sri Chinmoy Peace Mile on the occasion of the state capital’s Tricentennial, in Albany, New York, NY, USA
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (165) and an organ recital (43) at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (450) — the final in a series of 50 concerts held in honour of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations — with welcoming remarks by Ms. Alina Bloomgarden, Director of Visitor Services at Lincoln Center, and introduction by Mr. James Irsay, announcer for WQXR Classical Radio Station of the New York Times — in the Kaplan Penthouse at the Lincoln Center, New York, NY, USA.
December 7
Sri Chinmoy hosts a special luncheon for nineteen of his male students and their mothers at Annam Brahma Restaurant in Jamaica, NY, USA. During the reception, he gives a short talk to the mothers and invites them to ask questions.
Sri Chinmoy offers a meditation for lawyers and judges at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (209) at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre to an audience of 5,000 at Canada Place, in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Sri Chinmoy meets with Guido De Marco, President of the UN General Assembly, at the United Nations in New York.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (448) — the 48th of 50 concerts held in honour of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations — at Pilgrim-Dream-Blossoms (morning) in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (449) — the 49th of 50 concerts held in honour of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations — and New Year’s Message for the year 1996, at St. Paul the Apostle Church (evening) in New York, NY, USA. Read more...
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (475) and delivers his New Year’s Message for the year 1997, at Hunter College in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy and his students take a boat ride in Nassau, The Bahamas.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Nassau Beach Hotel in Nassau, The Bahamas, at which he has a reunion with a special friend, H.E. Davidson Hepburn, former Ambassador of The Bahamas to the UN.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert and delivers a lecture at the University of Hawaii (afternoon) in Honolulu, HI, USA. He also receives the Dreamer of a Peace-Filled World Award on Pearl Harbor Day.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (552) at the Ala Wai Golf Course Club House (evening) in Honolulu, HI, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (605) at the Traders Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 21 people, including Colin ‘Pine Tree’ Meads, NZRFU’s ‘Player of the Century’ and widely regarded as the greatest rugby union player ever, at the Great Lakes Centre in Taupo, New Zealand. His wife, Verna Meads, is also lifted.
Sri Chinmoy receives a visit from His Majesty King Sinoehoen Pakoeboewono XII of Surakarta at the Lor-in Hotel in Solo, Java, Indonesia. The eighty-one-year-old monarch meets with Sri Chinmoy for the first time. Read more...
December 6
Sri Chinmoy is invited for the first time to participate in an interfaith forum, the Fall Semester Lecture Program, held at the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Center, Long Island, N.Y. The program features guest speakers from various faiths and traditions. Sri Chinmoy is extremely honoured to be the representative of Hinduism, as his name had been put forward by India’s Consul General in New York, S. K. Roy. The lecture Sri Chinmoy delivers is entitled, ‘Hinduism: The Journey of India’s Soul’.
Sri Chinmoy performs an esraj concert at the Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Sr Chinmoy runs ten miles of the Jersey Shore Marathon.
Sri Chinmoy offers a New Year’s concert and delivers his New Year’s message for the year 1986, at Washington Irving High School in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy meditates with U.N. Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar following a UNESCO meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (255) in the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium at the United Nations in New York.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (285) in the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium at the United Nations in New York.
Sri Chinmoy offers a special programme entitled ‘Performances Unprecedented and Unhorizoned’ in which he paints 7 large Jharna-Kala paintings, and then performs on seven instruments, in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (384) in the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium at the United Nations in New York. The address is given by C.V. Narasimhan, Chef de Cabinet for UN Secretaries-General Dag Hammarskjöld, U Thant and Kurt Waldheim.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (447) — the 47th of 50 concerts held in honour of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations — at Public School 86 in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy composes his 9,000th Bengali song Tomare Tushite Tomar Lagiya in Honolulu, HI, USA.
Sri Chinmoy completes his project to lift 1,000 lambs by lifting 146 three-month-old pure Romney lambs (855-1,000) on his sixth day of lifting at Kiwitahi Land Co. Farm, Taupo, New Zealand — for a total weight of 12,072 lb. The grand total weight for 1,000 lambs was 81,259 lb. (36,936 kg).
An exhibition of 78 of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks in honour of Sri Aurobindo’s 78 years on earth — begun on 26 November and completed on 5 December (the anniversary of Sri Aurobindo’s Mahasamadhi) — is displayed at Pangkor Island Beach Resort on Pangkor Island, Malaysia.