September 12

Rededication to the United Nations’ Highest Goals

 

This article appears later in the official United Nations newsletter, Secretariat News, on October 16, 1975.

 

Meditation Group

To celebrate the opening of the General Assembly's 30th session, delegates and UN personnel joined leaders of the world's major faiths in a programme on 12 September at Headquarters. The Secretary-General wrote a message for the occasion, which stressed the immense potential of the UN and the requirement for a renewal of our common faith and determination that the advances of the past thirty years will be maintained.

The programme began with silent meditation led by Sri Chinmoy, Director of the UN Meditation Group, who then sang one of his own compositions. Prayers were offered by: Norma Levitt, Co-Chairperson, World Union for Progressive Judaism; the Reverend Dan Potter, Executive Director, Council of Churches, City of New York, Reverend Jih Tsang, Assistant Abbot, Temple of Enlightenment; and Muddassir Ali Shamsee, Leader, UN Muslim Prayer Group.

One of two guest speakers was Mr. David S. Burgess, Senior Officer, UNICEF, who noted the ever more apparent need for individuals and nations to "recognize our human interdependence". Mr. Donald Keys, UN Representative of the World Association of World Federalists, maintained that "mankind is on the verge of taking its next big step a step in awareness, a step in consciousness, a step in perspective, a step in relationships. … we are in the throes of a new Copernican revolution in which man will come to see, naturally and normally, that the planet is the basis of social organization and inter-relationship."

A highlight of the event was the premiere performance of "O United Nations", a song composed by Sri Chinmoy.

The programme, co-sponsored by the International Co-operation for Peace Committee and the UN Meditation Group, ended with choral readings from the writings of the UN's four Secretaries-General and a silent rededication to the UN's highest goals.

Published in AUM – Vol. 2, No.10, October 27, 1975

 

New Jersey Talking

Interview with Sri Chinmoy
on Cablevision 12, New Jersey
Interviewer: Ms. Page Hopkins

 

 

Interviewer: Tonight on our show we’ll meet one of Mother Teresa’s friends. He’ll talk to us about her life, her memory and his mission for peace.

Our guest is Sri Chinmoy. He was a friend of Mother Teresa’s for over 20 years, and he spoke with her just nine days before her death. He’s also the author of a book about the late nun, and he’s here now to share his memories of her with us. Welcome!

This was such a tremendous loss to the world. Were you surprised by her death?

Sri Chinmoy: I was shocked beyond my imagination. When I asked her about her health only nine days before her final departure, she said to me, “Sri Chinmoy, I am much better, much better. Pray for me as I pray for you every day.”

I met with her five times. The first time was in 1975 at the United Nations during an interfaith programme sponsored by the Temple of Understanding. They wanted me to offer a meditation at the beginning of the programme and then offer roses to all the religious leaders.

Interviewer: What was your impression when you met her? Did she just radiate?

Sri Chinmoy: Simplicity, purity, humility: these three virtues are of paramount importance, and these are what I noticed and felt the moment I prayerfully stood in front of her with my rose.

Interviewer: There’s been such a rush in the last week to canonise her, and there’s been a lot of talk of the Vatican waiving the preliminary five years. Do you think that was so important to her?

Sri Chinmoy: Nothing is important to her, but it is important for humanity. Sometimes it happens that when we honour someone, the person who is being honoured does not need it or care for it. But while we are honouring that person we increase our own inspiration and aspiration to become better citizens of the world. While appreciating, admiring and adoring the other person, we increase our own capacities and bring to the fore our own divine potential.

Interviewer: The timing of her death is also interesting — coming in the wake of the very public death of Princess Diana, which the world really has been so obsessed with. In terms of media coverage, maybe Mother Teresa’s death would have even been a bigger deal had it not been eclipsed by Princess Diana’s. Do you think that’s the way she would have wanted it?

Sri Chinmoy: Princess Diana at times wanted media and at times she did not. When she was doing something for the betterment of the world, when she was doing charity work and meeting with the sick and poor, she wanted media attention in order to uplift the consciousness of the world. But sometimes the media exposed her frailties and weaknesses, which we all have, and at that time she did not welcome the media attention. She said that this kind of thing does not help humanity in any way. She wanted only to inspire the rest of the world, but unfortunately the media always tries to find the negative side of things. That is a very painful experience. Everything has its darker side and its brighter side. But if you weigh the pros and cons of her life, her good qualities and virtues will far surpass her so-called human weaknesses.

Interviewer: Unfortunately, the media tend to accentuate the more frivolous aspects of her life. What was your impression of Princess Diana as a person when you met her?

Sri Chinmoy: Very kind, very compassionate and, at the same time, very self-giving! I was the instrument in helping Princess Diana to meet with Mother Teresa in June this year in New York. I told her how she could be in touch with Mother Teresa. I am so happy and grateful that I was able to serve both luminaries at the same time.

Interviewer: Did these two women, as the press has said, have a lot in common?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes! When I told Princess Diana that she and Mother Teresa were sailing in the same boat, she immediately said, “I am a very, very small Mother Teresa.” That was Princess Diana’s immediate remark.

Interviewer: Very generous! Mother Teresa has left an amazing legacy with the Missionaries of Charity throughout the world. Do you think that without her at the helm they will continue to thrive and be as strong as they have been?

Sri Chinmoy: I strongly feel so, because from Heaven Mother Teresa will shower her choicest blessings upon her followers. I met Sister Nirmala, who is now the Superior General, when I visited Mother Teresa two months ago in the Bronx.

Interviewer: I don’t know if people at home can see this, but there is a photograph of Sister Nirmala watching while Sri Chinmoy is being blessed by Mother Teresa.

Sri Chinmoy: She came and introduced herself to me. With your kind permission I would like to read out this message today. It is my eulogy for Mother Teresa. All over India it will be read out:

Mother Teresa:
Calcutta’s Soaring Bird
India’s Sailing Moon
The World’s Weeping Sky
Earth’s Tearing Loss
Heaven’s Dancing Gain
The Christ’s Blossoming Promise
The Mother Mary’s Harvesting Pride.

Interviewer: Those were the powerful and beautiful words of Sri Chinmoy in a tribute to Mother Teresa.

It is almost impossible to articulate Mother Teresa’s affect on the world.

Sri Chinmoy: It is unfathomable.

Interviewer: It really is. You were talking a little bit before about Sister Nirmala, who is her successor. You have confidence that she will be able to continue on?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, because Mother Teresa will shower her choicest blessings upon her most devoted student-follower, Sister Nirmala. Sister Nirmala has implicit faith in Mother Teresa, and Mother will inundate Sister Nirmala with inspiration, aspiration and dedication.

Interviewer: You have dedicated your life to peace. You have really made that your mission. When were you inspired, or were you even as a child filled with this quest?

Sri Chinmoy: It was right from my childhood. At the age of four I started praying, and when I was seven years old I started praying and meditating consciously and seriously. At the age of 32 I was invited by some American seekers to come to the West and be of service to America. Since then, I have been offering prayers and meditations at the United Nations and I have offered over 500 prayerful Peace Concerts in various countries. I have also written many, many books.

I feel that world peace can come into being on the strength of our prayer and meditation. This is my way. Many roads lead to Rome, but I prefer this particular road. It is my personal opinion and inmost conviction that it is through prayer and meditation that we shall be able to bring about world peace.

Interviewer: Do you believe the world is becoming a more peaceful place?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, I feel so. There was a time when people did not believe in a peaceful existence. There was the First World War and the Second World War. A Third World War was threatening, but fortunately it did not take place. Then the politicians started talking about peace. For most of this century it was not so widely practised. Now talking has surrendered to acting. I feel that there are quite a few politicians in the world today who believe in peace, and who most sincerely try to bring about world peace. Peace is no longer just a dictionary word; it is becoming a living reality. It may take time, but we are walking along the right road.

Interviewer: Many people working in news feel powerless when they read stories about religious wars in Bosnia or Ireland. And peace is virtually hanging in the balance in the Middle East. It makes you wonder what you can possibly do to make a difference.

Sri Chinmoy: Pray! There is no other way. We cannot change the minds of others by exercising our mental power or military power or any other kind of power. We can only change their minds through prayer. The greatest, most effective prayer is: “Let Thy Will be done.” This prayer we have received from the Saviour Christ. If we can consciously identify ourself with the Will of God, then there is bound to come a time when this world of ours will be inundated with peace. We have tried and will continue to try many other processes, but I feel it is by virtue of prayer that one day our world will have true, genuine peace.

Interviewer: And Thy Will be done — invoking God’s Will. Well, this has been very inspirational. Thank you so much for coming by and sharing your memories of Mother Teresa and Princess Diana with us — two women who really touched this world in a way that will reverberate for many centuries to come.

Sri Chinmoy: Definitely!

Published in Mother Teresa: Humanity’s Flower-Heart, Divinity’s Fragrance-Soul, part 3

 

September 11

Photo by Bhashwar Hart

 

Sri Chinmoy exercising at Progress-Promise in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

 

 

A Calf Story

by Sri Chinmoy

 

This afternoon Unmilan and others put a dumb-bell with 350 pounds on it in front of my house. Next to it they put a calf which also weighed about 350 pounds. They had rented the calf from the zoo. Then they took a picture of me standing next to the weight and the calf. In this way they wanted to show how much weight 350 pounds is.

Published in My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 1

 

September 11

Death

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Charles Justiz (Siva and Uma), 19141 South St. Andrews Drive, Hialeah, Florida

 

I have two rooms: a living room and a bedroom. In my living room I work and talk to people. Here people have to see me living and I have to show them that I am living. I call this room Life. In the other room, where I sleep, I need not work or talk to anybody, for there I go to rest, either for a long or a short period of time. Life, in the ordinary sense of the term, need not be displayed there. So I call that room Death. Needless to say, that room too is mine.

You are afraid of death because you feel that death is not yours, whereas life is. You think that life is home, certainty, whereas death is elsewhere, abroad, uncertainty. This is not true. Both life and death are in you.

In our inner or spiritual life, we call those souls "dead" who are not aspiring or making any progress. Now what is required of the one who wants to aspire and make progress? Consciousness. One has to be conscious, fully conscious, of the mind, the vital and the physical and turn them inward in order to feel and see and grow in the ever-energising and ever-transforming Delight of the Soul.

Death is inevitable because our present body is imperfect. It refuses to grow divinely and unendingly. It does not open to the Life Eternal. But we shall not suffer from this limitation through Eternity. The body will be more conscious, the body itself will aspire to bring down more and more Light, Bliss, Peace and Power into its inner and outer existence and eventually it will grow into perfection. At that time, death can never be inevitable. In fact, we shall not even see the face of death.

At present the body dies. The soul goes into rest. The soul is always wise. It does not forget to carry with it the essence of the experiences that it acquired while it was in the land of the living. The soul silently and steadily returns to its own region. While taking its rest, it assimilates the essence of its past. When the assimilation is over, it starts to prepare itself for a new journey. When the preparation is over, it begins to determine the new birth, the new environment, the new circumstances, the new personality and the new mission. When this set of decisions has been made, the soul goes to the Supreme for an interview. There, with the Divine Approval of the Supreme, the soul descends into the physical world.

We have been thinking of death. Let us now think of birth, for birth and death are inseparable. Birth precedes death; death succeeds birth. What we need to connect both birth and death is Life. Strangely enough, this Life existed before our birth, it exists between our birth and death and will exist after death, stretching its far-flung arms into Eternity, Infinity and Immortality.

An advanced seeker sees and feels that at every moment he is having a new birth and a new death. And his soul is moving from one momentary experience to another. When the body, the vital and the mind live in the soul and experience, nay, become the ever-lasting experience of the Supreme, then alone God's Eternal Life will permeate our human existence. Divinity will grow in the aspiring soil of humanity. Humanity will discover its Divinity. Divinity will discover the truth that humanity transformed is the common goal of both man and God.

Published in AUM – Vol. 3, No. 9,10, Apr. – May 27, 1968

 

Eulogy for Mother Teresa

by Sri Chinmoy

 

 

Calcutta’s Soaring Bird
India’s Sailing Moon
The World’s Weeping Sky
Earth’s Tearing Loss
Heaven’s Dancing Gain
The Christ’s Blossoming Promise
The Mother Mary’s Harvesting Pride.

Published in Sri Chinmoy, Mother Teresa: Humanity’s Flower-Heart, Divinity’s Fragrance-Soul, part 3

 

September 11

 

Sri Chinmoy meets with Elliot Richardson, US Spokesman at the UN Conference on Law of the Sea, former Cabinet Member under Presidents Nixon and Ford, and presents him with an original Jharna-Kala painting at the Sri Chinmoy Gallery, Grand Central Station, in New York.

 

September 10

A Special Blessing and Power

 

During a question and answer session, Sri Chinmoy gives this short talk to the first few disciples of the AUM Centre who are meeting at his home at 3817 Fort Hamilton Parkway in Brooklyn, New York.

Sri Chinmoy asks each of the ten disciples present to place their hand on their heart. He concentrates intently on each person, then says:

“Today at about a quarter to three (one half-hour previously) the Supreme came to me and gave me a Special Blessing and Power. I was commanded to share it with all of you. The most effective way, I find, is when you place your hand on your heart. It becomes very easy to part with the inner Wealth, the Wealth that I received. So it is in order to give you something most valuable, invaluable, most precious, that I requested you to do this. That invaluable thing, the Blessing, the Power that the Supreme gives, I offered to all of you here now. And it is now working. All of you will make great progress by the very touch of the Supreme within your heart. You may not feel it right now, but within an hour, in the early evening or at night, you will feel that something most special has entered into you.

“And now I wish all of you to place your hand on your heart individually when I look at you. That is to say, I wish to concentrate on that particular person most intensely, spiritually and divinely. And that concentration and meditation will be meant only for him or for her. After that we will have a general meditation. In that meditation, all of us will aspire and invoke the Supreme and all of us will be benefited.

“Just one thing more I wish to say to Kalipada. It takes many, many years for a spiritual seeker to identify himself spiritually with what he was before, to get back his old realisation in his present incarnation. I know people in India who were once realised souls. They had achieved realisation. Now, although they have become aware of it, they have not been able to bring down their realisation into their mental and physical consciousness. In their deep meditation, they feel a kind of revelation, but they have not been able to bring their realisation, their highest realisation, back into their outer existence. In some cases, it takes forty or fifty years. In some cases, at the end of their lives or on their deathbed, they get back their realisation. In my case also, it took years.”

Published in Earth’s Cry meets Heaven’s Smile, part 3

 

Aspiration defeats Realisation

Remarks by Sri Chinmoy on his arrival in Melbourne Australia prior to his Peace Concert on 12 September 1984

 

Flying to Australia is really an arduous journey! I don’t know how my Australian disciples come to New York every year, sometimes twice a year! Had I been their disciple, I would have told God I could wait for a few more incarnations before coming to Australia to see my guru. The plane journey sincerely kills me — perhaps because I am an old man. Twenty-four hours — no, twenty-seven hours — we were on the plane.

I really admire my Australian children. Is this not a sign of their aspiration? Their aspiration has defeated my realisation! Of course the heart is very close. My children have a heart to know how much joy they can give me, and I do hope I give them a little joy as well. In the heart there is no distance, no distance, no distance.

Published in The world-experience-tree-climber, part 3

 

Here and Now

Prayers by Sri Chinmoy
at the Peace Concert at Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts

 

56.

HERE and NOW
I must worship my Lord’s Feet
With my streaming heart-tears.

 

57.

HERE and NOW
I must claim my Lord Supreme
As my own, very own.

 

58.

HERE and NOW
I must realise that
There is no such thing
As a part-time God-seeker,
God-dreamer and God-lover.

 

59.

HERE and NOW
I must realise that my God-love
Without my God-faith
Is no love at all.

 

60.

HERE and NOW
I have realised that everything else
Will fail me in the end,
Save and except
My God-devotion-heart.

 

61.

HERE and NOW
God tells me that my relationship
With Him
Has to be always personal,
Private and confidential.

 

62.

HERE and NOW
I am telling God that His Commands
Are my only satisfaction-fulfilments.

 

63.

HERE and NOW
I must disappear
From the world’s view
To remain only in the Heart
Of my Absolute Supreme.

 

64.

HERE and NOW
I must make friends
With the flower-beauty
Of my blossoming heart.

 

65.

HERE and NOW
God wants His Heart to be
The Home
Of my aspiration-cries.

 

66.

HERE and NOW
May my aspiration-dreams
Make my life a faith-citadel.

 

67.

HERE and NOW
I must make my aspiration-heart
My life’s most prized possession.

 

68.

HERE and NOW
My soul wants to spotlight
All my
Surrender-life-stage-performances.

 

69.

HERE and NOW
God wants me to approach Him
With the sweetness-innocence
Of a child.

 

70.

HERE and NOW
I must never allow my mind
To be plagued
By countless doubts.

 

71.

HERE and NOW
God wants me to forget
All my faults.
He wants me to remember only
My God-gratitude-heart.

 

72.

God tells me,
“HERE and NOW!”
I tell God,
“Please, please give me
A little more time.”

 

73.

HERE and NOW
I want my life to be
In between
My aspiration-ascent
And
God’s Satisfaction-Descent.

 

74.

HERE and NOW
May God’s Compassion-Nectar-Eye
Engulf my aspiration-heart-tears.

 

75.

HERE and NOW
I clearly see
That God’s Compassion-Heart
Accomplishes everything
For me.

 

76.

HERE and NOW
My gratitude-heart-tears
And smiles
Are the most exciting things
For God.

 

77.

HERE and NOW
I clearly see that God
Does not want anybody to guard
The aspiration-flames
Of my heart-shrine.
He Himself wants to do it.

 

78.

HERE and NOW
May the beauty and divinity
Of faith
Surround my life all the time.

 

79.

Who will write God’s Biography
HERE and NOW?
Not my aspiration-heart,
Not my service-life,
But my gratitude-breath-tears.

 

80.

HERE and NOW
I have come to realise
That my surrender to God’s Will
Has no problem left to solve.

 

81.

HERE and NOW
I must see that God’s Love
Reverberates
In my God-oneness-heart.

 

82.

HERE and NOW
I must make a solemn promise
To myself
To listen to God’s daily Broadcast.

 

83.

HERE and NOW
I must not only enjoy
But become
The nectar-dust of God’s Feet.

 

84.

HERE and NOW
I must start marching
Towards my own heart-home.

 

85.

HERE and NOW
I realise that Eternity
Is too short
For me to please God
In His own Way.

 

86.

HERE and NOW
I unmistakably see
That each new peace nation
Is a new
God-satisfaction-blossom.

 

87.

HERE and NOW
God embraces my surrender-heart
And commands me
To go forward, to fly upward
And to dive inward.

 

88.

HERE and NOW
God and I are saying
The same thing to each other:
“Do not forget me.”

Published in Here and Now

 

September 10

Photo by Sarama Minoli

 

Sri Chinmoy, set to play tennis at the courts at Jamaica High School Track in Queens, New York.

 

September 10

Photo by Sarama Minoli

 

Long-time Puerto Rican disciple Nadeshwar (Frank Del Rio) massages his spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy at a gymnasium in New York. Nadeshwar, a former boxer, used to delight Sri Chinmoy with his skilful shadowboxing demonstrations at Madal Circus.

 

September 10

 

Sri Chinmoy lifts 21 people at Schützenhaus Albisguetli in Zurich, Switzerland.

 

September 10

 

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert, (594) and also receives a Citation of Honour from the Pluralism Project at Harvard University Science Center in Boston Massachusetts. The concert is dedicated to Raisa Maximovna Gorbachev.

 

September 10

 

Photos by Bhashwar Hart

 

Sri Chinmoy paints ‘Journey’s Battle-Victory’, a 13’ x 25’ canvas, in 47 minutes, in New York, NY, USA. The painting is later exhibited on a billboard in San Francisco, California, near Fisherman’s Wharf, sponsored by the Eyes and Ears Foundation.