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An Oasis for Inner Peace Finds a Temporary Home in Grand Central

A place for contemplation, tranquillity and inner peace in the heart of Grand Central Terminal.

Well, for the rest of this month, anyway, or at least that is what the Indian mystic and yogi Sri Chinmoy hopes to offer with an art gallery showing 200 of his paintings on a lower concourse of the hectic terminal.

The gallery is the result of a happy trade-off between the guru and his spiritual followers, on the one hand, and Conrail, the Government-assisted rail corporation, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the other.

The storefront in the Vanderbilt Arcade, running below Vanderbilt Avenue toward the Times Square-Grand Central subway shuttle terminus on the south-west side of the building, once housed a Savarin Restaurant, but for two and a half years it has stood empty, its whitewashed windows collecting grime.

Now a clear sweep of windows gives strollers a view of colorful abstract designs, in what is called the Jharna-Kala gallery. The words are Bangladeshi for “fountain art,” meaning that it “stems from the fount of creation,” according to the guru’s literature.

Sri Chinmoy’s disciples offered to clean up the eyesore in exchange for free use of the space to show his works. A spokesman for Conrail, on hand for a press reception yesterday, said the corporation was happy to be performing a public service. Its officials hope that the bright new looks of the place will help them attract a permanent, paying tenant. The agreement is good for the rest of this month.

“The Chinmoy people came looking for a place, and we thought it was better than having it just sitting here, collecting dust,” said Robert J, Tracy, real-estate manager for the rail corporation. A check of the group's references, including a letter from President Carter, proved quite impressive, he said.

After Sept. 30, Conrail will be looking for another tenant for the total  6,500 square feet of space — anybody who can pay the "negotiable" price, he said.

Sri Chinmoy, reposed in a blue reclining chair to receive the press, reflected, on request, on the contrast created by situating an intended oasis of spiritual reflection in a setting as bustling as Grand Central Terminal.

"I hope the daily travelers will have a moment of inspiration, to feel something new, illumining," he said, his hands folded in his lap.

"We embody two realities," he said." The outer and the inner. The outer reality is the hustle and bustle of life. The inner is poise, like the depths of the Pacific Ocean. The outer world must plunge, as a stone into the ocean, in order to bring to the fore the capacities of the inner world for peace, for serenity and tranquillity.”

The spiritual leader, who has reportedly written 300 books and who heads an organization with centers in 60 cities worldwide, serves as director of the United Nations Meditation Group.

A trickle of visitors and passers-by yesterday indicated that they thoroughly appreciated the temporary gallery, but they were mostly getting in out of the rain.

Published in The New York Times, Sunday, September 18, 1977

Translation:

by Premananda

Oslo — now also a Peace Capital

What does Oslo have in common with Ottawa, Edinburgh, Reykjavik, Canberra or Wellington? They have all been appointed Peace Capitals.

On Tuesday Oslo was ceremoniously inaugurated as a Peace Capital. The founder of the Peace Run and leader of the Peace Meditation Group at the UN in New York, Sri Chinmoy, deputy mayor Svenn Kristiansen, representatives from the parliament, ski-Norge, and 60 invited guests from inland and abroad gathered in the Ski Museum in Holmenkollen, where a plaque marking Oslo as a Peace Capital was unveiled.

Chinmoy, who is most well-known for the initiative of a global peace run, said that Oslo with its peace-work will inspire millions of people around the world.

– The movement is concerned with good relations – not just between countries – but also between peoples. Especially children are taught that peace and reconciliation between people is important, says Ole-Johnny Johnsen, initiator in Norway who was involved in launching the Peace Run in Oslo in 1987. The Peace Run has been organised every other year in Oslo, most recently this summer when children from 57 primary schools participated.

Published in Norway’s largest printed newspaper, Aftenposten, Thursday, 18 September 1997