On the morning of his championship fight with Earnie Shavers, Muhammad Ali spends an hour with Sri Chinmoy in prayer, meditation and spiritual discussion at the apartment of his manager, Herbert Muhammad, in Manhattan, New York. This is Sri Chinmoy’s second meeting with Muhammad Ali.
Sri Chinmoy offers a meditation-concert at the University of California in Davis, California.
Special guest, India’s Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Surjit Singh Barnala tells Sri Chinmoy:
“I felt you bringing down Peace and Grace from above.”
Sri Chinmoy meets with champion marathon runner Robert De Castella and his wife Gaylene Clews at Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, Queens, New York. Sri Chinmoy had personally invited Rob De Castella to be the guest speaker as part of a regular series of talks given by elite athletes.
Sri Chinmoy achieves a lift of 503-lb. for the first time, using only his right arm, in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
by Sri Chinmoy
How tired one can become coming back from Manhattan! While coming home from the city this afternoon, the car didn’t move; there was such traffic! I became so tired. But then when I got home, I lifted 503 pounds with my one-arm lift.
Usually when I lift, after my first and second attempts I do not sit down. Then, after my third attempt I sit down on my exercise chair for a few seconds and concentrate to get added blessing-strength. This time, when I was sitting down after my third, fourth, fifth and sixth attempts, Mother Kali came. She was blessing me and caressing my head.
Afterwards, when I called India, my sister said that in a dream she had seen Mother Kali blessing me. My sister said she had been worrying like anything since my 300-pound lift. On the one hand she is full of tremendous joy and pride because of my weightlifting achievements. On the other hand, she is dying of worries.
Before I started lifting this evening, my weightlifting prayer was very significant:
My Lord Supreme,
May Your absolute Victory supreme
Be proclaimed at every moment
In and through my aspiration-heart
And my dedication-life.
Published in My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 1
Sri Chinmoy carefully positions himself beneath a standing-calf-raise apparatus before proceeding to lift massive objects off the ground, outside Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
as Sri Chinmoy’s the special guest at the Jharna-Kala Gallery, in Grand Central Station, New York
Mayor Beame: How are you? [Shaking Sri Chinmoy's hand as Sri Chinmoy greets him outside the Gallery].
Sri Chinmoy: I am extremely grateful to you. It is so kind of you to come. I wish to offer you my deepest gratitude.
Mayor Beame: Thank you.
Sri Chinmoy: May I play for a couple of minutes on an Indian instrument, the esraj?
Mayor Beame: Yes.
Sri Chinmoy plays several of his own compositions on the esraj.
Sri Chinmoy [Presenting a plaque to the Mayor and reading out the inscription]: To Mayor Beame, the unparalleled champion pilot of New York. Mayor Beame, the soul of New York will eternally treasure your matchless contributions to change the face and fate of each and every New Yorker. With deepest appreciation and admiration, the United Nations Meditation Group and Fountain-Art.
Mayor Beame: Thank you. May I say something? I’m very deeply moved by this presentation and I want to say that I could have used a lot of these moments of meditation during these last months and years. And I certainly didn’t think, the first day I met you, that I’d ever have the pleasure of meeting you again tonight. I want to thank you very much for your kindness and your warmth and your expressions. I appreciate it and I want to thank everybody here as well. [Applause]
Sri Chinmoy: Now we have something else to offer you. Just two hours ago I composed a song in your honour and my students now are going to sing this song. I wish to offer this soulful song to your soul.
Mayor Beame: Thank you.
The singers sing "O Great Pilot, Mayor Beame."
Mayor Beame: What are you doing next week? [Laughter] Thank you very much. I really enjoyed it; I appreciate it. I wish Mrs Beame were here so she could hear it.
Sri Chinmoy: Now, with your kind permission, I wish to paint something. It will take only a few minutes. Right here, in front of you, I would like to paint one painting, and then I wish to offer it to you.
Mayor Beame: All right, fine.
Sri Chinmoy: This will be our third soulful offering to you.
In a matter of minutes, Sri Chinmoy paints a 16" x 20" original with acrylics.
Sri Chinmoy: This is my humble offering. [Presenting the painting]
Mayor Beame: Thank you. Thank you very much. If I knew I was going to get so much, I would have brought a valise or something. This is more than I've received in a long, long time, and I not only appreciate it for its material good, but more particularly for your sentiments. I very much appreciate it. Thank you. [Applause]
I wanted to thank the singers. Could I do that?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, please.
Mayor Beame: I just want to thank you. It was wonderful. Thank you. [Shaking hands with all the singers]
[To everyone] Thank you, you've made my evening wonderful.
A woman from the audience: You made New York great! [Applause]
Published in The Seeker’s Mind
Sri Chinmoy lifts and plays tennis with Jason McManus, Editor-in-Chief of Time Inc. — the publishers of over 100 magazine brands, including Time magazine and Sports Illustrated — at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
Sri Chinmoy with Yiannis Kouros, holding the winner’s trophy for his victory in the Sri Chinmoy 24 Hour Road Race held on a one-mile loop course in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, New York. Yiannis ran through the battering storms of Hurricane Gloria to record a new world record of 178 miles.
Sri Chinmoy lifts several Olympians, including Roger Kingdom, 1984 and 1988 Olympic gold medallist in 110 metres hurdles, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
This time there was a new Olympic record set in the 400-metre hurdles by Andre Phillips. On September 25th in Seoul, he came to be lifted by me at our hotel. He was very kind. How happy he was to be the new Olympic record-holder!
Then the winner of the 110-metre hurdles came: Roger Kingdom. He was so happy and honoured to be lifted. He could not believe that he could come and talk to me. I lifted him twice because in the last Olympics also he won the gold medal. He was telling me that he does not want to be satisfied with these achievements. He also wants to win a gold medal in Spain in four years’ time.
I also lifted his mother. She wanted my autograph and she is dying to have pictures. She wants to print them in magazines. His mother became very close to us. And his coach was from Jamaica, Queens, right near Annam Brahma.
Both the hurdlers were so nice — and both of them set new Olympic records. The picture of me lifting one of them has come out in a Korean newspaper.
Published in My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 3
Sri Chinmoy composes a song, entitled ‘O Great Pilot Mayor Beame’, for the Mayor of New York City Abraham Beame at a reception held in his honour at the Jharna-Kala Gallery, Grand Central Station, in New York.
Sri Chinmoy offers an organ performance at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Osaka, Japan. Listen on Radio Sri Chinmoy...
Sri Chinmoy performs 22 songs on the cello for his 22nd cello anniversary, at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy at the Jharna-Kala Gallery in Grand Central Station in Manhattan, New York.
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of California in Santa Cruz, California.
There was a time when we were assailed by teeming doubts. There was a time when we were tormented by undying fear. There was a time when we were tempted by undivine forces. But now those days are buried in oblivion. They are no more. The past has fast faded behind us.
There was a time when our mind was devoid of clarity. There was a time when our heart was empty of purity. There was a time when our life was a perfect stranger to security. But now it is all over. The past has fast faded behind us.
There was a time when the animal in us wanted to destroy the world. It felt that destruction was nothing short of satisfaction. There was a time when the human in us enjoyed the desire life, the earthbound life. Aspiration was a far cry then. There was a time when the divine in us was hesitant, to great extent, about manifesting the divine Truth, Light, Peace and Bliss on earth. But now it is all over. Those days are all buried in the deep hole of oblivion. The past has fast faded behind us.
Now our inner life and outer life are at once surcharged with confidence and assurance. Our inner life is inundated with assurance, our outer life is inundated with confidence. We belong to God, our Beloved Supreme: This is our conscious and constant confidence. Our Beloved Supreme is all for us: This is our inner assurance. The past has fast faded behind us.
Published in The Vision-Sky of California
A talk by Sri Chinmoy after a meditation at morning sports practice at Jamaica High School track, in Jamaica, New Yirk.
Superiority, my superiority, why are you so cruel to me? Why do you make me always sad and mad? Do you not realise that because of you, at every moment I am assailed by the fear that someone is going to dethrone me and take away my crown?
Why do I have to be always in the world of darkening, threatening and killing fear? I want joy at every moment, and this joy I can never get from you. The fleeting joy that I get from sitting an inch higher than the rest of the world disappears when I see the arrows of jealousy, meanness, anger and frustration that others hurl at me. The joy I get by becoming a little bit superior to others is insignificant in comparison to the suffering I then go through. I need abiding happiness, and this happiness I can never get from you, O superiority.
I do not need and I do not want inferiority, either. Inferiority always kills me with sorrow, despondency, fear, doubt and meanness. In the battlefield of life inferiority sometimes gives way and surrenders helplessly to superiority, thinking that it is a hopeless case to fight against it any more. Willingly or unwillingly inferiority serves superiority. Inferiority unconsciously wants to remain where it is, while superiority never, never wants to come down to the level of inferiority or allow inferiority to be on the same footing. Superiority fights until the last moment to maintain its supremacy. It never wants to give up its pedestal.
O superiority, I do not need you and I do not want you. O inferiority, I do not need you and I do not want you. O equality, I need you and I want you desperately and sleeplessly. I will need you until the divine Hour dawns when I know consciously what God's Will is. Once I know precisely what God's Will is and once I can cheerfully and unconditionally execute God's Will, then in my life of aspiration and dedication there can be no such thing as superiority or inferiority. When I am all oneness with the universal and transcendental Will of my Beloved Supreme, happiness will reign supreme in my heart of aspiration and in my life of dedication.
O superiority, O inferiority, if I stay with you, far will I have to go. And even at the end of my journey, I will see that I have not gone anywhere, for with superiority and inferiority I have no real goal. But if I start with equality, there shall come a time when God's Oneness-Reality will come and lead me, guide me and take me to my destined goal. It is from equality that I will enter into God's Oneness-Reality, and there I will have constant peace, constant satisfaction and constant love for the poor earth and the rich Heaven.
Published in Aurora-Flora
