December 10
Sri Chinmoy at the inauguration of the new meditation meeting hall he named Perfection-Surprise in Queens, New York.
New Year’s Meditation: Invitation to Peace
“In 1974 the seekers of the transcendental Truth shall dive deep within and more within and become the perfection-smile of aspiration-power, realisation-love, revelation-oneness and manifestation-light.”
— Sri Chinmoy’s New Year Message
Sri Chinmoy offered his annual New Year’s Meditation Friday evening, December 21 at Hunter College, New York City. before than 1500 seekers attended this year’s meditation, receiving the Master’s inspiration while offering their own aspiration for the dawning year, 1974.
Sri Chinmoy offers the New Year’s Meditation annually to inspire all seekers to fulfil the possibilities that each new year embodies. The New Year’s Meditation has been held annually since 1970.
The evening was a mixture of music and meditation. “Music is next to spirituality,” Sri Chinmoy teaches.… Also performing were the Mahavishnu Choir and the Bengali Singers, an all-girl choir that sings Bengali songs written and set to music by the Master. “The whole evening flowed like music,” one young girl from Toronto said afterwards.
In addition to the seekers of various paths from around the New York area, Sri Chinmoy’s own disciples came from across the United States and Canada. For them it is one of the highlights of the year.
Sri Chinmoy says that each new year offers a unique and significant opportunity to make inner spiritual progress and to manifest the divine life in the outer world through aspiration and dedicated service.
Note: Anahata Nada was the longest-running newsletter of the Sri Chinmoy Centre. It was first published on January 1, 1974, and chronicled Sri Chinmoy’s life and activities for over three decades until 2007.
December 10
Sri Chinmoy offers a concert and a New Year’s meditation at Washington Irving High School in New York.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert for His Majesty King Sinoehoen Pakoeboewono XII of Solo at Surakarta Palace in Solo, Java, Indonesia.
December 31
Sri Chinmoy delivers his New Year’s message for 1968 in person to his disciples at the Aum Centre in Puerto Rico.
Sri Chinmoy holds a New Year’s meditation and offers his message for the year 1971 at his home in New York, NY, USA. At midnight, he meditates once more for three minutes.
Sri Chinmoy offers a 7-hour non-stop performance of 100 new Bengali songs, later published as Supreme, Teach Me How To Cry, at the United Methodist Church in Port Washington, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy runs the Sri Chinmoy Marathon in a time of 4:33:43, in Okinawa, Japan.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 37 people including Remang Ak Japar, an 86-year-old headhunter and renowned Iban jungle warrior from the Iban tribe in Sarawak, who was awarded the George Cross by Great Britain for his great valour and heroism during WWII, at the Holiday Inn in Kuching, Borneo, Malaysia. Sri Chinmoy also lifts the Chief of the Iban tribe, Bansing ak Usah, who then bestows the title of Honorary Chief upon Sri Chinmoy by presenting him with his most treasured possession, his grandfather’s ring.
Sri Chinmoy offers a special meditation at the Sacred Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi Tree at Mahamegha Vana Park in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. The tree was planted from a cutting of the Bodhi Tree under which Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment at Buddha Gaya in India. It was brought to Sri Lanka by Theri Sangamitta, daughter of Emperor Asoka, and planted in 249 BC by King Devanampiyatissa. It is the oldest surviving historical tree in the world.
A selection of Sri Chinmoy’s latest Soul-Bird drawings are displayed at Tokatoka Hotel in Nadi, Fiji. During the day, Sri Chinmoy completes another 15,706 birds, bring his overall total to 826,603.
Sri Chinmoy completes Sholo Hajar Gan Likhechhi, his 16,000th song, at Myanmar Lacquerware Institute in Bagan, Myanmar.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 54 students and teachers from Toul Kork Primary School at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Sri Chinmoy meditates with his students on New Year’s Eve in Christchurch, New Zealand. The same day, Sri Chinmoy composes an English song entitled, ‘New Year Comes’.
December 30
An article about Sri Chinmoy appears in The Miami Herald in Florida, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a public meditation at Admiralty House in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Sri Chinmoy race-walks a 5-mile race held at Ala Moana Beach Park, in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a concert at Teatro de la Cantv in Caracas, Venezuela.
Sri Chinmoy composes 50 songs on ‘Forgiveness’ (25 Bengali and English pairs) – later published as Khama Karo ‘Forgive Me’ — on a train ride from Santiago to Valdivia in Chile.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 15 people, including Saloman Ismanto, bodybuilder, 1969 Mr. Asia and 1973 Mr. Malaysia at the Holiday Inn in Kuching, Borneo, Malaysia.
Sri Chinmoy offers the U Thant Peace Award to His Majesty Ja’afar Ibni Al-Marhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman, King of Malaysia, at the Palace of the King, Istana Negara, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Royal Family join Sri Chinmoy in holding the Peace Torch.
Sri Chinmoy holds a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He also has a telephone interview with Daibel Faye of Radio Kan Kan, WBAI 99.5 FM, New York, USA.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 7 people, including Jow Yu Ming, bodybuilding champion, at Hai Tian Hotel in Qingdao, China. He also gives a short esraj performance.
December 29
Sri Chinmoy visits the island of Caja de Muertos, an hour’s boat ride from Ponce in Puerto Rico.
Sri Chinmoy meets with Ellis Clark, President of Trinidad and Tobago, at the Presidential Palace in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Hotel Suisse in Casablanca, Morocco.
Sri Chinmoy visits Borneo for the first time and stays at the Holiday Inn in Kuching, Borneo.
Sri Chinmoy begins his ‘Dream-Freedom-Peace-Birds’ (Soul-Bird drawings) at the Mistra Village Hotel in St. Paul’s Bay, Malta. He will go on to complete over 16 million of these ‘Soul-Bird’ drawings in his lifetime.
Sri Chinmoy meets with the Honourable Tofilau Eti Alesana, Prime Minister of Western Samoa, at the Office of the Prime Minister in Apia, Western Samoa.
Sri Chinmoy meets with the ‘Chairman Monk’ — Venerable Sayadaw Baddanta Thawfita, Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the State Sangha Mahanayaka Committee of Myanmar — at the Kaba Aye Pagoda compound in Yangon, Myanmar.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert and a Jharna-Kala exhibit in honour of the Harare diplomatic community, at the Meikles Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Sri Chinmoy gives a talk, entitled ‘Computers, e-mail and Spirituality’, in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Sri Chinmoy gives a talk, entitled ‘Self-Assertion says, “I Know, I Know, I Know”,’ in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sri Chinmoy completes Aghater Par Aghat Karechhe Dharanir Anyai, his 10,000th Bengali song, at the Myanmar Lacquerware Institute in Bagan, Myanmar.
Sri Chinmoy offers a special musical performance at which he lifts 40 people, including 38 monks from Ounalom Pagoda, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
December 28
Sri Chinmoy receives the Key to the City of San Juan from Mayor Carlos Romero Barceló at City Hall in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Sri Chinmoy offers a public meditation at Ateneo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The first exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens during a special Christmas Week celebration at the Unitarian Church in Hollis, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy conducts a public meditation at the Museo de Arte in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Sri Chinmoy is interviewed with the Miami Herald after a public meditation at Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School in Florida, USA.
Sri Chinmoy is interviewed on ‘Hawaii Health Line’, Radio K108, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Club de Viña in Viña del Mar, Chile.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 22 people, including Nissim Ezekial, Father of Post-Independence Indian Verse in English, at the Regional Language Centre in Singapore.
Sri Chinmoy has a reunion with Lakhan Mehrotra, India’s High Commissioner to the UN and former Consul General of India to New York during Sri Chinmoy’s employment at the Indian Consulate in the mid-1960s, at the Hilton Colombo Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Chinmoy attends the inauguration of the Valletta Museum of Fine Arts as the world’s first Sri Chinmoy Peace Museum of Fine Arts, in Valletta, Malta.
Sri Chinmoy personally inaugurates a Sri Chinmoy Peace Plane at Luqa International Airport, Luqa, Malta. After the ceremony, he takes a 30-minute flight in the plane.
Sri Chinmoy attends the dedication ceremony of the Mekong Delta as a Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossom is held at the Mekong Delta in Tan An, Long An Province, Viet Nam.
Sri Chinmoy competes in the 100 metres (time, 15.10 seconds) and the 200 metres (time, 33.41 seconds) at the Sri Chinmoy Masters Games held on a 400-metre dirt track in Apia Park, Apia, Western Samoa. There, Sri Chinmoy also meets with the Hon. Pule Lameko, Minister of Youth, Sports and Cultural Affairs of Western Samoa.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the John Williams Building in Apia, Western Samoa.
Sri Chinmoy completes more than 800,000 (800,692) Soul-Birds at Hotel Kitano Tusitala in Apia, Western Samoa — just under two years since he began the series of drawings, in Malta.
Sri Chinmoy meditates at the grave of former UN Secretary-General U Thant, in Yangon, Myanmar.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 59 people at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
December 27
Sri Chinmoy gives a television interview on WKAQ, Channel 2, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Sri Chinmoy offers a New Year’s meditation and message for 1975, at Hunter College in New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy directs three disciple singing groups to learn and perform fifty short Bengali songs he had composed during the months of October or November 1977. The songs are later published in Journey's Goal, part 10a.
Sri Chinmoy composes ‘E Jibane Jadi’ at Utano Youth Hostel in Kyoto, Japan.
Sri Chinmoy offers a concert at Teatro De La Cantv in Caracas, Venezuela.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Oita Ken Seishonen Kaikan in Beppu, Japan.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Hotel Indonesia in Jakarta, Java, Indonesia.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 17 people at the Royal Garden Village in Hua Hin, Thailand.
The world’s fastest passenger ferryboat — the San Frangisk, which can travel up to 40 knots an hour, and normally plies between Malta and Sicily — is dedicated as a Sri Chinmoy Peace Ship.
Sri Chinmoy receives a message on behalf of all members of the Maltese Parliament, declaring Sri Chinmoy as an ‘International Emissary of Peace’ and ‘Ambassador of Peace for Malta’, presented by the Speaker of the House, Dr. Lawrence Gonzi, at the Peace Run Opening Ceremony in Valletta, Malta.
Sri Chinmoy launches a Peace Run at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City's Thong Nhat Stadium. Thirty local Vietnamese runners join the core team of Peace Runners in two laps around the stadium carrying the flaming Peace Torch just before the start of a major soccer match.
Sri Chinmoy completes 20,025 Soul-Bird drawings in one day — bringing his all-time total to 789,754 — at Kitano Tusitala Hotel in Apia, Western Samoa. Meanwhile, a ‘Sri Chinmoy Peace Strait’, between Samoa and another island, is dedicated.
Sri Chinmoy and his students attend ‘The Magic Circus of Samoa’ — the first all-Samoan circus — in Apia, Samoa.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Hearton Hotel in Kyoto, Japan.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Christchurch Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 46 people including 126-year-old great-great-grandmother Somo Santono, believed to be the world’s oldest living woman, as part of a ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ programme at the Sheraton Mustika Hotel in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia.
December 26
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Ateneo de Madrid, Salon de Actos, in Madrid, Spain.
Sri Chinmoy gives interviews on Sri Lanka National TV and meets with Bradman Weerakoon, President’s Advisor on International Relations, at the Hilton Colombo Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Chinmoy completes 21,466 Soul-Bird drawings in one day — bringing his all-time total to 769,729 — at Kitano Tusitala Hotel in Apia, Western Samoa. His previous highest total was 21,220, which he had achieved just six days earlier (20 December).
Sri Chinmoy visits Robben Island in South Africa, where he meditates and offers a soulful prayer in the prison cell President Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years.
Sri Chinmoy makes a soulful pilgrimage to Renko-ji Temple in Suginami-ku Ward, Tokyo, Japan, where the ashes of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, India’s freedom fighter, are kept.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens at the Hearton Hotel in Kyoto, Japan.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Catedral Metropolitana in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 26 people, including Sopheap, Chief Monk of Ponna-Kkettaram Pagoda at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Sri Chinmoy lifts The Most Venerable Tep Vong, Supreme Patriarch of Maha Nikaya Order of Buddhist Monks. As well, he receives the Light of Lord Buddha Award from the Supreme Patriarch Udnalorm Pagoda in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Sri Chinmoy offers an organ recital at Christ’s College Chapel in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Sri Chinmoy offers a private organ recital at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 29 people, including Jon Hellerman, world-renowned triathlete coach; and Dr. Roddy Kirkwood, climber of Mt. Everest, at the Grand Chancellor Hotel in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 52 people from the Gadja Mada University Marching Band at the Sheraton Mustika Hotel in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia.
Sri Chinmoy lifts HRH Daulat Tuanku, Sultan of Pahang State, King of Malaysia, 1979-1984, and Sultanah Hajjah Kalsom at the VIP State House in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia.
December 25
Sri Chinmoy spends his first Christmas Day in America at the apartment of his friends Sam Spanier and Eric Hughes in Greenwich Village, New York, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy holds a Christmas celebration at the United Methodist Church of Port Washington in Port Washington, NY, USA, where 200 of his published books are displayed.
Sri Chinmoy holds a special meditation on Christmas night at the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Caguas, Puerto Rico, about twenty miles inland from the capital San Juan.
Sri Chinmoy offers a meditation at Nagasaki Peace Memorial Park in Nagasaki, Japan.
Sri Chinmoy composes 13 songs dedicated to the Christ at Hotel Melia in Torremolinos, Spain.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 19 people, including Luang Por Eed, Abbot of Wat Khao Takiab, in Wat Khao Takiab, Hua Hin, Thailand.
Sri Chinmoy meets with Farouk Hosni, Minister of Culture, at the Ministry of Culture in Cairo, Egypt.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the French Cultural Exchange Institute in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 45 people at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Sri Chinmoy holds a special meditation on Christmas Day and gives a talk, entitled ‘Preserve Silence, Silence, Silence’, in Christchurch, New Zealand. He also reads stories about the Christ and Confucius related to the theme of ‘silence’.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert, attended by Regional Governor Hasyim Afandi, at Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist Temple, in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia.