As part of a fifty-state lecture tour for the year 1974, Sri Chinmoy lectured in eleven states in the month of January. These talks were extremely well received, indicating the growing spiritual aspiration on university campuses.
The following is a list of talks given by Sri Chinmoy in chronological order:
Brown Univ.
Thought Waves
Jan. 9
Harvard Univ.
Realisation, Revelation and Perfection
Jan. 9
Dartmouth
The Inner World and the Outer World
Jan. 11
New York Univ.
God you want, God you need, God you have, God you are.
Jan. 12
Univ. of Conn. at Storrs
Self Examination
Jan. 14
Univ. of Maryland
Choice
Jan. 16
Univ. of Delaware
Meditation and Education
Jan. 16
Note:Anahata Nada is the longest-running newsletter of the Sri Chinmoy Centre. It was first published on January 1, 1974, and has chronicled Sri Chinmoy‘s life and activities for over three decades.
Jamaica, N.Y. – In one of the most unusual and remarkable publishing ventures ever attempted, Sri Chinmoy directed the preparation and publication of 51 of his books within a 15-day period last month.
When the Master first called about 40 disciples over to his house the morning of Nov. 1, the material for the books lay piled up in huge cartons. The cartons contained transcriptions from shorthand notes and tape recordings of the Master’s various talks and answers to questions during the past several years.
These thousands of pages of material had to be sorted and compiled into separate, self-contained books.
This required hundreds of hours of analysing, typing, proofing and organising. Where points were unclear, Sri Chinmoy would elaborate. Where ideas were repetitious, deletions would be made.
The disciples occupied virtually every room of the Master’s house, from basement to attic, each with his own particular job.
Amid the commotion and bustle, Sri Chinmoy calmly directed the whole operation and, as time permitted, dictated a number of additional books.
Many of the disciples took a week’s leave of absence from work. Others continued their regular jobs and came to the Master’s house straight from the office.
To carry out the task – which in the normal course might have required years to complete – the disciples worked virtually around the clock, usually getting home around 1 a.m. for a couple of hours sleep before returning at 4 a.m.
Twice daily, once before the work began and then just before everybody went home, Sri Chinmoy conducted a short meditation. “If you receive my light,” he told the disciples, “you will not need sleep.”
The Master himself normally sleeps only two hours a night, and often goes days at a time without any sleep at all. He says that through meditation one can conquer sleep, and his disciples that week proved the truth of his philosophy.
As each book was completed, a messenger brought it over to a group of photo-typesetters in Jamaica and nearby Manhattan, also disciples, who prepared the manuscripts for final printing.
After the various proofreading stages, the book then went to one of the three disciple-owned or run printing presses in the area.
The 51 books of poetry, short stories, lectures, essays and questions and answers bring the total number of books Sri Chinmoy has written since coming to the West to more than 200.
The current group of 51 books includes four books of poetry, which complete the 20-volume Golden Boat series: four books of short stories, several books of lectures and essays, and quite a few books of questions and answers.
Eight books consist of questions and answers on meditation. Other subjects include the nature of God, the cosmic silence and sound, the cosmic gods, aspiration, surrender, prayer and mantra, negative qualities and hostile forces, purity, the soul, music, and human time and eternal time.
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.
This section is dedicated to Ranjana Kumari Ghose, Sri Chinmoy’s personal secretary (1971–2007) and curator of Sri Chinmoy’s artworks (from 1974). Ranjana has been with Sri Chinmoy every step of the way of his Jharna-Kala art-life journey. She was there when Sri Chinmoy painted his first artwork in the West — the Jharna-Kala Rose; she oversaw the counting and cataloguing of the millions of artworks Sri Chinmoy produced; she directed major exhibitions in New York and worldwide; she was the editor of the art quarterly magazine ‘Jharna-Kala’ published in New York; she headed the many Jhana-Kala Parades in Manhattan and Queens; and she is the CEO of the Jhana-Kala Card Co. No one has done more to champion Sri Chinmoy’s Art than Ranjana.
The one who has encouraged me the most is the curator of all my art, Ranjana. She is my secretary as well. It was she who immediately rushed out in that downpour to buy the necessary art supplies. And it was at Ranjana's place, at a private gathering, where I offered the name Jharna-Kala, which means Fountain-Art, for my art collection.
What encouragement can do! Here is the radiant proof. Since that time, I have painted more than 200,000 paintings, and I have drawn more than 15 million birds.
Sri Chinmoy creates his first artwork in the West, marking the beginning of Jharna-Kala‘Fountain-Art’, in room 233 at the Sheraton El Mirador Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. For the first time, he signs his artwork with his initials C.K.G. (Chinmoy Kumar Ghose), the monogram he would use throughout his long artistic career.
November 19th
Note:
These early line drawings are actually done in coloured markers, though they are reproduced here in black and white. (The bird above, is royal blue and the branch is green.)
November 21st
Sri Chinmoy creates these enchanting line drawings of a dog and butterfly, two days after drawing his Jharna-Kala rose. (The original drawings of the dogs are orange and tan.)
November 21st
Photos by Sarama Minoli
As Sri Chinmoy leaves the auditorium at the University of Toronto where he has just held a public meditation, he stops by a blackboard and draws a small Jharna-Kala. It is his first drawing in chalk.
O Fountain-Art, Fountain-Art, Fountain-Art
Gold-bright is our journey’s voice;
Gold-bright is our journey’s goal.
You are our hope-heart’s
Eternally hallowed Consciousness-Light supreme.
You are the delight-swing of silence-height
Beyond the shore of earth-sorrows and Heaven-smiles.
Sri Chinmoy operates an adjustable overhead camera to take photographs of his Jharna-Kaladrawings. Afterwards, he examines the details of the prints with the keen eye of a master artist.
December 9th
December 10th
Painting no. 996, watercolour
Painting no. unknown
On this day, Sri Chinmoy completes his 1,000th Jharna-Kala painting in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
December 28th
Sri Chinmoy signs a set of pictures of himself creating his first Jharna-Kala artwork for a special Christmas Week celebration at the Unitarian Church in Hollis, New York, where, for the first time, an exhibition of his artworks is held.
The slideshow highlights some of Sri Chinmoy’s earliest artworks from November to December 1974.
Sri Chinmoy’s bird swooping through the air, done in watercolor.
February 4th
Photo by Pulak Viscardi
Sri Chinmoy observes some of his artworks that have been displayed for the public.
February 9th
Photo by Sarama Minoli
Sri Chinmoy’s students celebrate his most recent artist achievement of completing 4,000 Jharna-Kala paintings, held at the Bayside Church in New York.
February 14th
Sri Chinmoy completes 347 paintings in 24 hours in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
February 25th
February 26th
Sri Chinmoy completes 10,000 paintings in 100 days in Jamaica, Queens, New York. The final 1,000 paintings are completed in 21 hours.
March 8th
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
The first Jharna-Kala Parade is held on Madison Ave in New York.
Jharna-Kala Parade in New York City
Braving freezing winds and near 0˚C temperatures, a Jharna-Kala parade is held in New York City to celebrate and honour Sri Chinmoy’s completion of 10,000 paintings in 100 days.
One lane of Madison Avenue is blocked off to make way for balloon-decked police cars, horses, drill teams, flags, banners, clowns, flower-covered floats with large reproductions of paintings, and even a unicyclist. Along the way, spectators are offered balloons and flowers and lots of goodwill.
At 2:00 p.m., the parade proceeds up Madison Avenue from 59th Street and turns towards Central Park at 72nd for a free concert by Mahavishnu John McLaughlin and Devadip Carlos Santana. Over two thousand enthusiastic listeners attend, many of whom had thronged around the float on which the musicians had played throughout the parade.
At Central Park, Sri Chinmoy walks on stage to meditate with Mahavishnu and Devadip and bless them.
March 13th
One of the 100 large ‘finger paintings’ Sri Chinmoy completes in 12 hours, 45 minutes in Jamaica, New York.
March 31st
Photo by Sarama Minoli
A Jharna-Kala Gallery, displaying thousands of Sri Chinmoy’s artworks, opens at 154 Wooster Street in New York’s Soho art district.
Just before the gallery opening at 7:00 p.m., Sri Chinmoy meditates briefly and offers this soulful prayer:
“My Lord Supreme, to You I offer my eternal gratitude for having painted in and through me out of Your infinite Bounty over 10,000 paintings in 100 fleeting days. My Lord Supreme, You have played the role of aspiration in and through me; now You want to play the role of inspiration in and through all of my brothers and sisters of the world. As I have placed the aspiration-tree at Your Feet, even so my sisters and brothers are going to place the inspiration-seed at Your Feet.”
Sri Chinmoy at the Wooster Street Jharna-Kalagallery in Soho, New York.
April 6th
Photo by Sarama Minoli
A view from outside Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kalagallery at Wooster Street in Soho, New York.
April 12th
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy offers a public meditation and concert at 8:00 p.m.and throughout the evening exhibits eleven of his Jharna-Kala 4’ x 8’ canvases dedicated to the ‘Soul of America’ in the McMillan Theatre at Columbia University, New York.
April 27h
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy painting at the Jharna-Kala Gallery at Wooster Street, Soho in New York.
April 28th
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy paints ‘Supreme, I Bow To Thee’, a 9’ x 16’ canvas, in New York.
May 18th
June 27th
Sri Chinmoy completes his 27,000th Jharna-Kala painting at around 3:30 p.m. in the presence of 10 or 12 of his disciples.
* On 12 May 1992, while visiting a Jharna-Kalaexhibition in Manhattan, dedicated in her honour, Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva is presented with the 27,000th painting by Sri Chinmoy.
June 28th
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy creates his 27,001st Jharna-Kalaartwork at his gallery in New York. He titled the painting, ‘Supreme, I am thy glowing Grace. My world thy Feet of Light.’
July 7th
YOGI OPENS LARGEST ONE-MAN ART SHOW IN HISTORY
NEW YORK — What is probably the largest one-man art show in history opened July 7 at a block-long gallery in New York’s Soho art district.
On display were seven thousand paintings — some as large as 9x16 feet — by spiritual Master Sri Chinmoy.
They formed part of the 27,000 works the Yogi completed in an eight-month period.
The exhibit at The Jharna-Kala Gallery, 220 Mercer St. (near Broadway) is open seven days a week and will extend through August 29. On the evening of that day there will be a gala closing, to which art lovers and interested seekers are cordially invited.
Published in Anahata Nada, Vol. II, No. 7, August 1, 1975
July 7th
Photo by Sarama Minoli
Sri Chinmoy, on the opening day of the exhibition of his Jharna-Kala artworks at 220 Mercer Street, Greenwich Village, New York.
July 30th
Photo by Sarama Minoli
Sri Chinmoy holds up one of his newly created Jharna-Kala artworks at the Bayside Church Centre in New York.
August 24th
Another parade in Manhattan is held to honour Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks.
Late August
Jharna-Kala: Fountain-Art
Documentary Film
Premiered in New York in August 1975
A ‘Silver Journey to Infinity’s Soul’ production.
Directed and produced by Tarun and Prabhat.
Narration and production assistance by Uma Yvonne Hannemann.
This iconic film covers the highlights of Sri Chinmoy’s artistic achievements from 1974-1975.
October 3rd
Sri Chinmoy completes his 100,000th Jharna-Kala painting in Jamaica, NY, USA. From November 19, 1974, when he first began painting, it took just 10½ months for him to reach his goal. During the final 10 days of his painting marathon, he barely slept, completing as many as 5,000 works per day.
November 12th
Photo by Sarama Minoli
Sri Chinmoy’s original Jharna-Kala paintings are displayed at a reception hosted by Sri Chinmoy for Governor Rafael Hernández Colón of Puerto Rico, held in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
November 16th
Sri Chinmoy in the midst of his artistic challenge to create as many Jharna-Kala paintings as possible in 24 hours, at his home in Jamaica, Queens, New York. The final count is an astounding 16,031!
November 17th
Caption:
WOULD YOU BELIEVE? — Indian spiritual Master Sri Chinmoy of Jamaica set what is considered to be a world record at 12 a.m. this morning when he completed 16,031 paintings in 24 hours. The paintings, which ranged from two by three foot canvases to wallet-sized miniatures, were completed in his home “in order to inspire humanity.”
Published in LONG ISLAND PRESS, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1975
Jharna-Kala Celebrates its First Anniversary
Sri Chinmoy’s talk at the Blue Centre meeting
in All Angels Church, Manhattan, New York
November 19th
1st Anniversary
Today is a most significant day for my disciples and for me, for today we complete one full year of my art-life. It is the first anniversary of my art experience. I was a seeker, I am a seeker and I shall eternally remain a seeker. I shall eternally walk along the road of aspiration. The Supreme in me taught me at a very young age how to concentrate, meditate and contemplate. But even before that, when I was totally ignorant of aspiration and consciousness, when I was one year and two or three months old, my parents took me to a spiritual institution called an ashram. Then, when I was four years old, they took me again. When I was seven and when I was nine years old again I was taken to the ashram. Finally, when I was eleven years and a few months old I went there to become a permanent member. At that time the Supreme in me made me conscious of my aspiration. He taught me from then how to concentrate, meditate and contemplate. In a few months’ time I came to discover who I was in my previous incarnation and what would be my role in this incarnation.
But no matter what I realise, I feel that my realisation is nothing but a form of aspiration, ever-crying aspiration. Each realisation is nothing but a progressing rung in the ladder of evolution. While I was aspiring through concentration, meditation and contemplation, I was asked by the absolute Supreme within me to aspire also through athletics. Again, out of His infinite Bounty He made me in my youth a champion sportsman. Then, along with my physical discipline and spiritual discipline, He wanted me to aspire through poetry. I started writing poems before I was twelve years old — of course, in Bengali.
I am saying this not for the sake of boasting. What I wanted to tell you is how my aspiration took shape in various forms, in various fields — spirituality, sports, poetry and also music. I was a music-lover, and even now I am a music-lover. Music also played a considerable role in my aspiration. I came to the West, here to America, by the express inner command of the Supreme Pilot who wanted me to be of service to many here in the aspiring West. As you know, the Supreme, out of His infinite Bounty, has inspired me, according to my power of receptivity and capacity, to write over 250 books during the eleven years of my existence in America. These books are nothing but the revelation of my own aspiration which is crying, according to my inner receptivity and capacity, to go high, higher, highest, to the ever-transcending Height. It is always aspiration that is being manifested in all my activities, physical, vital, mental and psychic.
Here in the West I have come to act as a devoted server, unconditional server of the divine Love, Light and Truth. In the outer life, in the outer world, some people take me as a spiritual teacher, a Master. But I wish to say the real Master, the supreme Master, is God Himself. We are all representatives. He who knows a little more than we do in any field we are apt to call our teacher. But the real teacher, the absolute Teacher, who has infinite Knowledge and who is infinite Wisdom, Light and Love is God Himself and no human being.
Here in the West the Inner Pilot, my Supreme Pilot, expressed Himself in and through me according to the power of my receptivity when I gave hundreds of talks at various universities in America and in Europe. Hundreds of questions I have also answered. I have composed hundreds of songs both in Bengali and English and a few in Sanskrit. All these things are nothing but various ways of expressing my own inner cry.
Last but not least, I entered last year, exactly one year ago, into the field of art. This field was not my forte. In our family, as ill luck would have it, art-life was not cultivated. Of course, in the broad sense, poetry is an art, music is an art, undoubtedly, but painting as such was not appreciated. Our family was wanting in the capacity for appreciating this particular art. I was in no way an exception.
Eleven years ago when I arrived in New York, I happened to visit the Guggenheim Museum. I saw quite a few paintings. To my extreme sorrow I could not appreciate any of them. But my Fate-Maker one year ago wanted me to become an artist. I was in a hotel in Ottawa. Around 5:00 in the afternoon it was drizzling, but the command came from within to go out and buy a few crayons and drawing paper and so forth. I went out in the rain and bought a few drawing books and I started my journey. After I had drawn a few, I was totally disappointed and disgusted, but the Inspirer in me did not permit me to stop. He wanted me to continue, and I did.
Now some people call me an artist. Yes, I am an artist; this is true. But to be exactly true, one hundred percent true, I wish to say that I am a seeker. Here again, my aspiration is being expressed through art in the form of thousands of paintings in the short span of a year. The artist in my Beloved Supreme, according to my receptivity, according to my surrendering and surrendered existence, has painted and drawn in and through me. Then he wanted me to offer to these paintings an Indian name: Jharna-Kala. It means Fountain-Art. Like a fountain this art flows spontaneously. It has no birth, it has no death; a ceaseless, birthless and deathless flow.
I have quite a few admirers to appreciate my paintings. I am extremely grateful to them. Again, I have quite a few critics who feel they have legitimate reasons to find fault with me. They say, “Why deal with quantity and not with quality? Why not aim at perfection?”
I tell my critics that earthly perfection is a relative experience of and in the mind. A child’s perfection is to pinch someone. The satisfaction that he derives from pinching is perfection in his life. A child crawls and stumbles, he stands up, he walks, marches, he runs very fast. Each progressive stage that he masters is perfection in his life. When he was unable to crawl, he was having a particular experience in earth-life. But the day he started crawling he felt that that progress was perfection. Continuous progress is perfection. Constantly transcending one’s own existence-reality is perfection. Otherwise, perfection would be a finished product. If perfection is a finished product, then it is no perfection at all. Perfection is the song of ever-transcending reality that we embody and we eternally are in the cosmic Vision and transcendental Reality of the Absolute Supreme.
When I paint, I do not have in mind — I never use the mind — how many I am going to do. No, I only try to become a perfect instrument of the Supreme by surrendering to His Will. When it comes to thousands and not hundreds, I clearly see and feel that each painting of mine is a flame of aspiration. Now if I see thousands of aspiration-flames instead of one, then I see clearly that these thousands of aspiration-flames can more easily illumine ignorance-night than only a few could. Those who claim me as their very own, those who are my spiritual children, still need illumination. These thousands and thousands of paintings are for what? To be of service to them, to illumine them. If they see not one but thousands of flames, naturally they are bound to be carried far, very far, high, very high, deep, very deep. Instead of one if they have thousands of aspiration-flames to be of service to them, naturally their progress is bound to be much faster.
Again, each painting of mine is a spark of my own aspiration. One person will appreciate one painting of mine, a second person will appreciate another, a third person still another. This way each person gets the opportunity to identify himself with my aspiration-light. For my disciples, nothing can be as important as identification, identification with the Master’s life of aspiration and dedication.
As I said, I have written thousands and thousands of poems, I have given hundreds of lectures and composed hundreds of songs. Each poem, each talk, each song embodies my own aspiration. A disciple of mine may find his identification in one particular poem or song. The more he identifies himself with the consciousness-light of my creation, which is God’s own creation in and through me, the better for him, the sooner his illumination will take place on the strength of his identification with the Highest.
This is an opportunity for all art-lovers and all seekers of the transcendental Truth. Each painting, each poem, each thing that I undertake is at the express command of my Beloved Supreme. I have 900 disciples. I feel that each disciple can be given the golden opportunity to select whatever form of creativity inspires him most in his own way. There are also seekers who are not my disciples who feel something sublime in me. I wish to assure them that the inspiration and aspiration that my paintings and my writings embody is for them. He who sees something in me or in my creation is my soul’s friend, my heart’s friend. A friend of mine is he who gives me the best opportunity to be of dedicated service to his Inner Pilot. He who gives me this golden opportunity to serve him is my real friend. Here there are about fifty seekers who are not my disciples. But I wish to tell them that their very presence here has given me enormous joy and divine pride. Why? It is they who are giving me the golden opportunity to be of service to the Supreme in them. I say this with all the sincerity at my command. You may feel that I am sharing with you my inner wisdom, but I wish to say that what I feel in the inmost recesses of my heart is something else: the song of aspiration, the song of dedication. I sing in and through you my aspiration-song. I sing in and through you my dedication-song.
To my disciples, art-lovers and all those who are seekers of the transcendental Truth here, to you my fervent soulful request is that you try to identify even for a fleeting second with what I stand for, which is constant inner cry. What I am doing and what I shall be doing is aspiring, and you are all doing the same thing — aspiring, crying within to be conscious and constant instruments of God. The Goal is one; the roads are many. When the seekers see eye-to-eye with one another, then the road undoubtedly is shortened.
One of the large Jharna-Kalas on display at Annam Brahma
Sri Chinmoy paints two large Jharna-Kalaartworks in 13 minutes on the front porch of his home in Jamaica, Queens, New York. The paintings continue to be on permanent exhibit at Annam Brahma restaurant.
During his visit to Perth in Western Australia, Sri Chinmoy creates seven Jharna-Kala paintings.
April 2nd
Sri Chinmoy completes 27 Jharna-Kalapaintings in 27 minutes in Jamaica, NY, USA.
April 3rd
The Third Jharna-Kala Gallery
April saw the opening and closing of the third Jharna-Kala Gallery in Manhattan, this one next door to its immediate predecessor, at 224 Mercer Street in Greenwich Village. More than 10,000 paintings were displayed in the spacious gallery.
During the month it was open, the gallery was the scene of several evenings of entertainment for professional people and members of the United Nations staff. Senor Juan Albors, Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was received there by Sri Chinmoy on the afternoon of April 24th on his way to a conference in Europe. The gallery was also visited by Mr. Henry Geldzahler, curator of The 20th Century Collection of New York’s famous Metropolitan Museum of Art.
On April 29th, just days before the gallery closed, Sri Chinmoy painted his largest painting yet, a 12x27-foot canvas. Its harmonious beauty and majesty have inspired many disciples to write essays and articles about it, which will be collected and printed.
An exhibition of 12,000 of Sri Chinmoy’s artworks, all created in the previous sixteen months, opens at 224 Mercer Street in Greenwich Village, lower Manhattan, New York. In the evening, Sri Chinmoy offers an esraj concert.
Listen to Sri Chinmoy playing esraj in concert...
April 10th
Jharna-Kala Parade
A parade up Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York, honouring Sri Chinmoy’s 12th year in the West featuring his contributions to many fields such as music, literature, sports, and art, through his thousands of Jharna-Kala paintings.
April 12th
Sri Chinmoy sings 100 newly composed Bengali songs at his Mercer Street Jharna-Kala Gallery in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
April 25th
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy meditates at the Jharna-KalaGallery in Mercer Street, Greenwich Village, New York.
April 29th
Photos by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy paints ‘Larger than the Largest’, a 12-by-27-foot canvas, in two hours between 5:45 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.,
at the Jharna-Kala Gallery, 224 Mercer Street, Greenwich Village, New York City.
April 30th
United Nations staff members are guests of honour at a reception and banquet at the Jharna-Kala Gallery. Afterwards, Sri Chinmoy explores a new artistic medium: cake-icing. He decorates four large cakes with icing of several colours, dabbing with his fingers to create the classical C.K.G. birds and designs.
He signs his ‘larger-than-the-largest’:
“Supreme, my heart needs Your Reality-worlds.
Supreme, my soul loves Your Vision-worlds.”
And he offers the cake as prasad.
Jharna-Kala News
May 3rd
On 3 May 1976 Mr. Henry Geldzahler, Curator of the 20th Century Collection at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, visited the Jharna-Kala Gallery to see Sri Chinmoy's paintings and choose some of them for a possible travelling exhibition. Following are excerpts from Mr. Geldzahler's comments about the paintings.
Comments
Mr. Geldzahler: Did you know you were going to be a painter?
Sri Chinmoy: No, I call it God’s unconditional Grace or Compassion. In my family nobody was an artist. Everyone was in the literary line. They didn’t have the capacity even to appreciate painting.
Mr. Geldzahler: Did you have images in the back of your mind when you began?
Sri Chinmoy: No, I had no liking for any particular painting, or style of painting. I grew up in a spiritual community, and I had no opportunity to see much art work. I once visited an art museum, but my ignorance did not allow me to appreciate the paintings.
Mr. Geldzahler: It is like learning a language. It takes awhile to learn how.
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, you have to develop the capacity.
Sri Chinmoy:(Pointing to his pastel birds)It takes only a few seconds to do these, but I like them very much.
Mr. Geldzahler: I am nervous about choosing paintings in front of you. I don’t like this fluorescent lighting at all. First of all, it makes a reflection, and also I feel it brings a bad vibration down. It is unnatural. (Pointing to Sri Chinmoy’s second largest painting.) This one is very successful. (Speaking about painting No. 27,001) I like that one very much, but it doesn’t need the heavy gold frame. I would like it better without the frame.
Sri Chinmoy: After completing 27,000 I did it in front of my students. And that one (pointing to another painting) was number 100,000. This one (pointing to the rose)was the first painting I did on that rainy day in Ottawa when I started. I did this one (referring to his largest canvas)about four days ago. Would you kindly advise me in regard to it? How can we store it?
Mr. Geldzahler: Keep the surface unvarnished. If you go to move it around, cover it with clean cloth and roll it around a tube. Plastic, if it gets very hot, may stick.
Mr. Geldzahler:(Putting orange dots on paintings he was selecting as possibilities for the traveling exhibition.) Can we put two dots if we like a painting very much? This one is just perfect. … I think this one has real energy. (Commenting on a vertical painting in the series done for eleven years in the West) I like the landscaping in this one very much, but to me the horizontal ones are more successful than the vertical. How do you do them?
Sri Chinmoy: I stand on a chair so I can reach the top. As a matter of fact, sometimes we change the position after I have done them. We see how they will look better.
Mr. Geldzahler: As I’m choosing, I see one and I look down and see another. ... How strong that one is! … I was just at an exhibit of two thousand paintings, but of course by two thousand different artists. But here it is a different experience. Twelve thousand paintings by one artist! It is a much more unifying experience. … Again, I maintain that if I went through them again I would make a slightly different selection. (Speaking about the calendar paintings) You have the most consistent success in that format in which the works are divided by the month. But I don’t want to pick too many of these because I don’t want to make the selection unbalanced. You work on them in a very unified way. When they’re not in crayon, when they’re in paint, these are the most successful. They’re the most consistently good, and my tendency would be to pick a lot of them. But you’ve done so many other kinds that I want my selection to be balanced.
(Yvonne Hannemann pointed out Sri Chinmoy’s earliest drawings.)
Mr. Geldzahler: These have the charm of the work of a student thirteen or fourteen years old. It would be an interesting thing to exhibit them, but it would take a block of words to explain them. I don’t know if you would want that.
Sri Chinmoy: I’d like to know your opinion on one particular kind of painting. (Pointing to a yellow circular fan-brush painting) I am extremely fond of this kind of art.
Mr. Geldzahler: The references are the brain, the cabbage, the cauliflower, the flower, what you see when you look at the sun and then close your eyes. In art that kind of configuration has appeal.
Sri Chinmoy: When I do it I immediately feel that a flower is blossoming.
Mr. Geldzahler: I noticed that that circular form appears very often in your work. It is the moment when the flower opens.
(Harit asked Mr. Geldzahler to comment about the largest painting.)
Mr. Geldzahler: It is extremely hard to talk about this one. I don’t know what to say. It is much more unified than most of the others around it, which is unusual for such a large painting, and part of the reason is that the white is allowed to remain visible. It’s not clouded or dense or impenetrable. It sweeps one way and then the other. It is unified in that way. And all the way around it has not only an edge, but a way of referring or moving.
Harit: It has an infinite quality.
Mr. Geldzahler: But it’s also finite, and that’s important. There is something eternal going on, but it also has to law a shape about it, otherwise no one would be able to understand it.
Sri Chinmoy: Here it is quite dense, and here it is different.
Mr. Geldzahler: It’s fine; it folds in. In order to see this painting it would be much more interesting if it could be carried down there and seen from a distance. (After the painting was moved) One can see the unity better from a distance. You can see that the area that is light blends with the darker parts above it and around it. You can’t be sure of it when you stand too close.
I’ve explained to them how to store this big painting. Some of the big paintings at the Metropolitan have to be carried out the front door and up Fifth Avenue. It’s like a sail, and if there is a wind blowing…
Now it looks like a completely different painting. So you have made two paintings — one from close up and one from far away. I’d like to see how it looks in natural light. Can we have the fluorescent lights turned off?
(After the fluorescent lights were turned off.) I think this is much more subtle. Fluorescent light makes everything even, highlights everything evenly, whereas here the dark and the light all look different. This kind of light doesn't emphasise the white so much. It brings forward the colours. Now the colours are the unifying factor instead of the white spaces.
Sri Chinmoy: It has much more strength now. It is my own painting, so now I am bragging.
Mr. Geldzahler: Before, the point was that the white part was unifying it. Now the point is the contrast of the different colours and the brush strokes. It is stronger and more subtle.
Picasso said you have to know when to paint and you have to know when to stop painting. The trouble with many art students is that they keep working on a painting and working on it, and never know when to stop. This one is amazing. One universe; compact.
Sri Chinmoy draws ‘The Golden Boat’ (Sri Chinmoy Centre emblem) in Jamaica, New York.
November 19th
Sri Chinmoy visits Room 233 at the Sheraton El Mirador Hotel in Ottawa, Canada, where he painted his first Jharna-Kala. It is the second anniversary of this historic event. Sri Chinmoy is accompanied by Mukti and members of the Ottawa Sri Chinmoy Centre.
December 18th
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy offers a New Year’s meditation and a Jharna-Kala exhibition at Hunter College in New York. The backdrop for the occasion is the 12-by-27-foot canvas ‘Larger than the Largest, painted by Sri Chinmoy on April 29, 1976.
Sri Chinmoy paints ‘C.K.G. Transcends’, a 13x69-foot canvas, in the boiler room of John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, New York. Sri Chinmoy begins painting at 7:46 a.m. and just 2 hours and 29 minutes later, he completes the monumental artwork.
May 3rd
Sri Chinmoy paints a 6’ x 8’ canvas dedicated to the United Nations entitled, ‘United Nations: the Heart-Home of the World-Body’, which was later exhibited at the UN and galleries around the world – Jamaica, New York.
Grand Central Station Sees Jharna-Kala
September 10th
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 was later exhibited on a billboard in San Francisco, California, near Fisherman’s Wharf, sponsored by the Eyes and Ears Foundation.
September 12th
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy playing the esraj at the Jharna-Kalagallery in New York.
September 19th
Thousands of New Yorkers and visitors to the populous Grand Central Station were treated to a visual phenomenon during the month of September at the Jharna-Kala Exhibit in the Vanderbilt Arcade. There, busy commuters could retreat from the hubbub of the daily rush and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of the white gallery, which held an abundance of colourful and masterful C.K.G. originals — a true haven for a New Yorker's beauty-hungry eyes.
During a press conference at the exhibit on 16 September, C.K.G. told WPIX-TV Channel 11 News, “My paintings are my aspiration and my dedication. My paintings help me to aspire more devotedly and more soulfully. My paintings help me dedicate my body, vital, mind, heart and soul more devotedly to my Inner Pilot Supreme.”
Published in Jharnra-Kala magazine, Vol. 1 No. 2
November 14th
The San Franciso Chronicle reports on the open-air billboard exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s 13' x 25' Jharna-Kala painting ‘Journey’s Battle Victory’, at the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California. The billboard was installed on November 1st.
November 19th
3rd Anniversary
Photos by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy takes movies at the Jharna-Kalaparade as it moves up Madison Avenue in Manhattan by his students to celebrate the third anniversary of his Fountain-Art.
Later that evening, Sri Chinmoy said:
“Fountain-Art yesterday was the Golden Boat. Fountain-Art today is the Golden Boatman. Fountain-Art tomorrow will be the Golden Shore.”
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
After the colourful parade through the streets of Manhattan, the Jharna-Kala anniversary celebrations continue into the evening at Public School 86 in Jamaica, Queens, where, among other items on the programme, Sri Chinmoy gives a short piano performance.
Sri Chinmoy plays the esraj at his Jharna-KalaGallery at Grand Central Station in Manhattan, New York City. After his esraj performance, Sri Chinmoy recites some of his earliest poems and delivers a talk entitled, ‘Poetry and Spirituality’ at a ceremony of the Sri Chinmoy Poetry Awards, a contest of spiritual poetry. The gallery, which has exhibited Sri Chinmoy’s artworks for five months, will close in January 1978.
Listen to Sri Chinmoy reciting some of his earliest poems...
Listen to Sri Chinmoy’s talk on Poetry and Spirituality...
Fuente de Arte Exhibition In Venezuela
July 8th
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kalaartworks (Fuente de Arte) opens at the Centro De Bellas Artes in Maracaibo, Venezuela for the first time in Latin America. The 75 paintings fill the entire museum.
The exhibition runs until the end of July, offering beauty and peace to hundreds and hundreds of people who come to the museum every day, as is evidenced by some of the many positive comments recorded in the guestbook on 8 July:
"It inspired a deep inner feeling."
"It could not be better."
"Beautiful, inspiring peace and love."
"Beautiful art."
"The art, the ambience are a road to achieve peace."
"Infinitely beautiful."
"Fantastic movement."
In addition, every local newspaper covers the exhibition with an inspiring picture-review.
During the exhibition, Actress Lupita Ferrera, who had starred with Anthony Quinn in his films, comes to visit the exhibit and says that the paintings give her more peace than she had had in a very long time. John W. L. Russel, the United States Cultural Attache in Venezuela, also visits and says that he wished he could own all the paintings.
After participating in the parade up Madison Avenue in Manhattan, which was held in his honour, Sri Chinmoy and his students repair to the Jharna-Kala Gallery at Grand Central Station, where he meditates with them and gives a talk on ‘Aspiration, Vision, Speed and Strength’.
September 7th
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy meets with Puerto Rico’s Governor Rafael Hernández Colón at the Jharna-Kalagallery in Manhattan, New York.
September 11th
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.
November 30th
Photos by Bhashwar Hart
Before leaving the room at Wagner College in Staten Island, where he had just held a public concert and meditation, Sri Chinmoy draws a spontaneous Jharna-Kala in honour of two of his disciples — the ephemeral medium of chalk captured for posterity by the photographer.
December 2nd
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy at the awards ceremony of the Sri Chinmoy 3½ Mile Run for women in Prospect Park, New York.
December 5th
Sri Chinmoy receives the ‘Artist of the Year’ award from Sunstorm Galleries in Hicksville, New York.
A two-month exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks, sponsored by the US Department of the Interior in conjunction with the National Parks Service, is attended by the Department of the Interior Under-Secretary James A. Joseph and members of the U.S. Congress, including the Honorable Geraldine Ferraro, at the National Visitors Center in Washington, DC.
Sri Chinmoy visits the exhibition opening of his Jharna-Kala artworks at the Museum Alexander König in Bonn, Germany.
August 1st
Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks are exhibited throughout the month of August at 170 Thompson Street, Greenwich Village, New York.
August 23rd
The Sri Chinmoy Centre holds a Jharna-Kala Parade through Jamaica, Queens. Starting at 12 noon, the parade begins at 230th Street and Hillside Avenue.
August 28th
The August Celebrations have come to Queens. Two weeks of plays and art displays, track & field competitions, parades and music began on August 15 in locations around the Big Apple. Over 400 students of spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy are expected to attend, arriving from as far as Japan and Australia....
Throughout the festival exhibition of Fountain Art will be on public display at 170 Thompson Street, Greenwich Village. The paintings are representative of a body of 140,000 works ranging in size from postage stamp art to 8' murals.
To commemorate his achievements, Sri Chinmoy students led the noontime Jharna-Kala parade down Hillside Avenue on August 23. As an award winning author, painter and musician Sri Chinmoy encourages creative expression among the students....
Published in Queens Tribune, August 28, 1980
November 18th
Art Is
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon
Art is patience. Patience is the willingness of the artist to listen to his inner dictates. Patience is the willingness of the artist to speak lovingly, soulfully and calmly.
Art is open-mindedness. Open-mindedness is absolutely natural in the artist’s divine relationship with the world around him.
Art is vision. Vision is the pure quality of the seeker’s heart and the sure quantity of the seeker’s mind.
The human artist knows that his art is his inspiration-lamp, aspiration-flame and imagination-sun. The divine artist knows that his art is his concentration-power, meditation-peace and contemplation-bliss.
The human artist plays only with today’s existence-night and not with tomorrow’s existence-day. For him, the tomorrow-train never arrives. The divine artist plays with the purity-sea and the beauty-waves of the Eternal Beyond.
Yesterday’s art was the awareness of infinite possibility. Today’s art is the active devotedness to infinite practicality. Tomorrow’s art will be the soulful and fruitful oneness with infinite inevitability.
The artist who likes his art idealises his art. The artist who loves his art idolises his art. The artist who becomes inseparably one with the beauty and purity of his art multiplies the manifestation of his realisation-sun.
A new art will give you new pleasure. New pleasure is another name for self-transcendence.
2.
Because you are a sincere seeker-artist, God will give you the capacity to avoid frustrating and contradictory paths. He will lead you along a single path, the path of aspiration-trees with inspiration-flowers.
3.
For a God-manifesting artist, there will always be a world of inner sunshine.
4.
Do not be curious; do not be anxious. Lo, a new art world is dawning to glorify and satisfy you.
5.
If you are an earth-bound artist, then you have to turn toward the Truth-Beauty. If you are a Heaven-free artist, then the Truth. Beauty will turn towards you.
6.
A spiritual artist sees stark frustration as a signal to try harder than ever.
7.
A human artist wants to radiate his artwork through his imagination. A divine artist wishes to radiate his artwork with what he inwardly and really is.
8.
Do not listen to your mind. Do not tolerate your mind. Lo, you will overnight become the master-artist of your life.
9.
O artist, I tell you a supreme secret: Your outer success may temporarily be enjoyable, but your inner progress will everlastingly be profitable.
10.
O artist, because you live in the divided thought-world, your mind-power is useless and your heart-power is hopeless.
11.
The divine artist who, at every moment, offers the beauty and purity of his artwork to his Inner Pilot knows that his inner joy can never have any equal.
12.
Because you have not corrected and simplified your difficult life, you are finding that it is an extremely difficult task to become a good artist.
13.
The artist who sees through himself before and after completing each of his pieces of art is going to be the artist unparalleled.
14.
Do you want to cancel your past mistakes? Then ask your mind to learn the art of unlearning, and ask your heart to learn the art of crying.
15.
If you want to see yourself extremely beautiful, then sit down on your inner mountain peak and start painting your life.
16.
Truth-consciousness is a form of divine art. This art frightens the desiring mind and inspires the aspiring heart.
17.
Each unnecessary thought is a colossal failure in the mental art. Therefore, ask your mind to house only necessary thoughts.
18.
An iota of impurity is a damaging reality in the psychic art. Therefore, ask your heart not to give shelter to impure feelings.
19.
The human art is to see the world and possess the world. The divine art is to love God the creation and sing the song of inseparable oneness with God the Creator.
20.
Each act is a piece of art. The supreme Artist, my Beloved Supreme, has already completed the supreme Art. Right before me, He has placed His Eternity's Lamp. But alas, I have not yet started my own art work, and I do not know when I shall start. My art work is to illumine my inner life, placing the Lamp inside the depth of my heart. My art work is to guide my outer life, carrying that Lamp with me.
Published in Jharna-Kala Art Quarterly, pages 7-8, Vol. 3, No. 3
September 21st
A month-long Jharna-Kala exhibition opens at 133 West 24th Street in Manhattan, New York.
Sri Chinmoy, deep in concentration, paints Jharna-Kala at Progress-Promise function hall in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
August 6th
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks opens at the Exhibition Space, 112 Greene Street, Soho, New York. The exhibition runs until September 14.
Sri Chinmoy completes 13 large Jharna-Kalapaintings, including one finger painting, at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York.
The Finger Painting
A small section of Sri Chinmoy’s finger painting
Sri Chinmoy answers a question
the next day — 8 July 1990
Question: The last painting you painted the other night was very striking to me because it seemed that every time you touched the painting with your fingers, you blessed it. Is that painting any more special because there was no object, such as a paintbrush, between you and the painting?
Sri Chinmoy: There is a great difference. When I use my fingers directly, I have tremendous affection, not for the piece of paper or the canvas, but for my hand. At that time, it is not the paper that is responding; it is something else. My affection is entering into the painting itself and it is reciprocal. From the painting also I am getting tremendous affection. I press this finger, that finger and then each time, inside the fingers, I am seeing the souls. Each of us has one main soul, and again each part of us has a soul, each limb has a soul. So when I was painting, first I was seeing the soul of one finger, and then I was seeing the soul of another finger. Then I was seeing the soul of my little finger — cute, very, very cute and beautiful, most beautiful. I was using my hands to paint, but you cannot call them hands at that time. They were so beautiful. At night sometimes all of a sudden there is light because a firefly comes. My hands were like that. When I was painting with my fingers, I saw my hands spreading light everywhere. The fingers were so cute, all of them, especially my little finger. I was getting such joy and thrill from the little one.
So there is a great difference between when I use either a sponge or a brush and when I use my fingers. I personally get much more joy from using my fingers. But then to do one painting takes such a long time. How long can you continue?
Sri Chinmoy looks through his Jharna-Kalaexhibition at Hunter College in New York, where he also offers a Peace Concert.
May 1st–14th
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kalaartworks and 7,000 Blue-Gold Bird drawings opens at a gallery on 52 Vanderbilt Ave. in Manhattan, New York. The exhibition runs for two weeks (May 1-14), each day featuring musical performances, poetry readings, plays, videos or receptions for dignitaries.
May 5th
Photo by Prashphutita Greco
Sri Chinmoy meditates at a function held in honour of members of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan at the Jharna-Kala Gallery in New York.
May 7th
Photo by Adarini Inkei
Sri Chinmoy shows his guests around his Jharna-Kala Gallery at 52 Vanderbilt St. (between Lexington and Park Avenues) New York.
May 12th
Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva and her daughter Irina visit an exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s paintings at the Jharna-Kala Gallery, 52 Vanderbilt Ave. in Manhattan, New York. Sri Chinmoy dedicates the exhibition to the first lady of Russia and offers her a painting of her choice for her private collection. She chooses his 27,000th artwork.
“I see in this painting the colour of life and the colour of hope. The green stands for life and the blue stands for hope,” Raisa Maximovna said, “And that’s what I treasure in life.”
[The 27000th painting can be seen in the photo above, on a display stand.]
November 9th-13th
November 19th
18th Anniversary
Photo by Pulak Viscardi
To commemorate his 19th Jharna-Kala anniversary, Sri Chinmoy paints new artworks at PS 86 in Jamaica, New York. Special guests for the evening were Mr. Aleksandr Razvin, Ambassador of Russia to the United Nations, and his wife Valentina.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kalaartworks is held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
September 2nd
Photo by Pulak Viscardi
Sri Chinmoy signs his Jharna-Kala artworks at Aspiration-Ground in New York.
September 26th
Photos by Maral Siegel
Sri Chinmoy completes 13 large Jharna-Kalapaintings, commemorating his completion of 100,000 Soul-Bird drawings at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
October 7th
Sri Chinmoy begins drawing a series of human faces in Japan, completing 3,433.
October 13th
Photo by Maral Siegel
Japanese television reporters interview Sri Chinmoy at his Jharna-Kala exhibition in Miyazaki, Japan.
November 17th
Sri Chinmoy hosts a Jharna-Kala exhibit reception for diplomats and VIPs of the 100,000 Soul-Bird drawings dedicated to Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva at the Heritage Building in Ottawa, Canada.
Our Life Itself is Art
A talk by Sri Chinmoy
in Bratislava, Slovakia
November 23rd
Dear ones, the body is not permanent, the vital is not permanent, the mind is not permanent, the heart is not permanent. There is only one thing permanent, eternal and immortal in us. That is our soul, and the soul is the direct representative of God, our Lord Beloved Supreme.
Again, the highest transcendental Message of our Lord Supreme we are trying to establish on earth. His Dream we are trying to manifest and fulfil on earth through our aspiring heart, searching mind, dynamic vital and awakened body, the body that is active.
Here on earth the body, the vital, the mind and the heart have to listen to the soul, the way the soul is listening to the Supreme. It is through the finite that the Infinite will play its role. The body is finite, but inside the body is the soul, the direct representative of God.
Here on earth, the birds signify the soul. Each bird flies in the sky and gives us the message of freedom, infinite freedom. Our soul is also flying here, there and everywhere carrying the Message of our Lord Beloved Supreme.
I am trying to be of service to all of you. I am trying to lovingly, devotedly and gratefully bring your own soul to the fore so that you can be perfect instruments of our Lord Beloved Supreme. Your soul is at every moment pleasing the Supreme, but your body, vital, mind and heart have to do the same. When I draw a bird, I think of the soul — new creation, new hope, new promise, new peace, new bliss and new perfection on earth. In exactly the same way, I wish you to feel that your immortal Reality is your soul. Until you see your soul and get a free access to your soul, the way the soul has established its free access to the Supreme, during your prayers and meditations try to imagine a most beautiful child inside your heart playing in ecstasy with the Supreme Himself.
Perhaps you have by this time come to learn that the Supreme in me has decided to draw one million birds. One million birds means two million wings. When you pray and meditate, try to feel, in the inmost recesses of your heart, two million wings to carry you in the sky of the ever-transcending Beyond. These wings will help you fly high, higher, highest and fast, faster, fastest towards your destined Goal. There is no end to our progress; therefore, there cannot be any fixed goal in our lives. We are always in the process of an ever-transcending Dream and an ever-transcending Reality.
Our life itself is art. God is manifesting Himself in and through our life at every moment. As we breathe in and out, so we create, reveal and manifest new art every day. You know that the name I have given for my art is Fountain-Art. A fountain is spontaneous. At each and every moment, from this Fountain-Art, we are receiving hope, promise, love, light, delight and the message of perfection and satisfaction.
So my sweet children, think of yourself as the most beautiful bird flying in the sky of freedom. This freedom is nothing other than constant oneness with our Lord Supreme. This freedom comes not by destroying something or showing our supremacy — no, no! This freedom is the freedom of oneness, oneness, oneness — universal oneness. This oneness we get only when we love God to please Him and to fulfil Him in His own Way. It is in our inseparable oneness, sleepless oneness, with the Will of the Supreme that we get the message of infinite freedom.
We are like tiny drops. When a tiny drop enters into the ocean, it becomes part and parcel of the infinite ocean. Similarly, although we are all finite beings, when we lovingly, devotedly and unconditionally offer our limited existence to our Lord Supreme, out of His infinite Bounty, He makes us one, inseparably one, with His infinite Existence.
To each soul I am offering my boundless joy, divine pride and gratitude. All of you have made tremendous progress, but this progress is not enough, for our Lord Supreme wants us to be more aspiring, more self-giving, more pleasing to the Supreme in us.
There are many, many ways to run fast in the spiritual life, but one special way I would like you to try is to identify with the ones that you feel are inferior and with the ones that you feel are superior. In my heart, there is no superiority, no inferiority. It is all one. But if you see and feel that somebody is inferior, please take that person as your own little brother, your own little sister. Feel that it is your bounden duty to help your little brothers and sisters. Give him, give her, your concern, your affection, your own light. And if you see that somebody is superior to you, if you feel that that person has more wisdom, more capacity than you have, then feel that you have every right to mix with that person and increase your own divinity because that person is your older brother or older sister. This is how, in one family, we can please our Lord Beloved Supreme in His own Way.
Some of you do like Joy Days, especially in the Soviet Union. I deeply appreciate this. Joy Days are of paramount importance in my life. When my spiritual children meet together, pray together and play together, they enjoy the company of one family. So to all the disciples I am saying, please pay special attention to your Joy Days. You will play, you will pray, you will run, you will read my books or sing my songs. There are so many things that you can do. It is a family gathering. I am your spiritual father, I am your Eternity’s friend, only friend.
When my children are together, I feel tremendous joy and a sense of true accomplishment. Whenever it is possible, different countries should come together, the way England, France and Scotland are doing and the many, many countries that I call German countries. So whenever you can, join the other countries to observe Joy Days. At least once a month my divine children should meet together to give me boundless joy.
Also, please establish friendships with the disciples from Centres in other countries. Exchange your thoughts, your ideas, your achievements. For us there is only one country, and that is our heart-country. Historically, geographically and politically countries have been separated. But in our heart there is only one country — our oneness-heart-home — and our only goal is to love God, our Lord Beloved Supreme, in His own Way.
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kalapaintings opens at LaGuardia Airport in Flushing, New York.
October 30th
Photo by Pulak Viscardi
Sri Chinmoy painting his Jharna-Kala artworks on stage during an evening function at Public School 86 in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
November 27
Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala Exhibit is held in conjunction with a Peace Concert and his ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart: The Body’s Fitness-Gong and The Soul’s Fulness-Song’ programme at York College in Jamaica, New York.
Sri Chinmoy holds a print of one of his artworks at a display for the Jharna-Kala Card Co. at the annual National Stationery Show, held at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, New York.
June 24th
Photo by Adarini Inkei
November 15th
Sri Chinmoy’s paintings are displayed at the ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ programme held at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, London.
November 19th
29th Anniversary
Photo by Bhashwar Hart
Sri Chinmoy creates Jharna-Kala paintings at Public School 86 in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
Sri Chinmoy views a small exhibition of his Soul-Bird drawings with United Nations Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor at New York’s Millennium Hotel.
May 29th
Photo by Adarini Inkei
An exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kalapaintings opens at the Museum of Russian Contemporary History in Moscow, Russia.
June 20th
Photo by Adarini Inkei
At the Father’s Day celebration, Sri Chinmoy signs Jharna-Kala prints fro his disciples at Aspiration-Ground in New York.
Sri Chinmoy meditates at the Great Buddha Temple, Daibutsu, Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, Japan, where he offers a Peace Concert and a Jharna-Kala exhibit.
October 15th
Photo by Pulak Viscardi
President Mikhail Gorbachev and his daughter Irina Virganskaya admire Sri Chinmoy’s Jharna-Kala artworks on their visit to the ‘Pilgrim-Museum’ at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York.
“Long live Ranjana, my curator. All my artwork is her contribution. Many, many years ago in a tiny hotel room in Ottawa, Canada, I started my artwork, with her encouragement. Many times she used to come to my place in the morning when I would draw. Some boys made me a machine. I would put my paintings on the belt, and the machine would take them to the other side. Then Ranjana would come and collect all the paintings.
What encouragement can do! In my art-life, Ranjana is the proof. In many important places we have shown my artwork, and I am extremely, extremely grateful to all those who have helped me.”— Sri Chinmoy (Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York, 13 April 2007)
Sri Chinmoy meets with world-famous sitar player Ravi Shankar for the first time at the home of Mahavishnu John McLaughlin ‘Mahanir’ in Jamaica, Queens, New York. The two discuss music and spirituality in their native Bengali.
This is an extremely important video and deserves to be viewed by as many people as possible. It is a well designed and a moving tribute the Guru and President Gorbachev.
With a few corrections it can be even better.
Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on it.
Slide 1
From time immemorial,
History has been dealing
with tyrants and liberators.
No Change
From time immemorial,
History has been dealing
with tyrants and liberators.
Slide 2
Before long, it will have to deal
seriously with peacemakers.
- Sri Chinmoy
Change:
hyphen to en-dash –
Before long, it will have to deal
seriously with peacemakers.
– Sri Chinmoy
Slide 3
The first meeting took place
on 29 May 1990 at the
Canadian Governor-General's
Residence in Ottawa.
Change:
smart apostrophe ’ not ' in Governor-General’s
The first meeting took place
on 29 May 1990 at the
Canadian Governor-General's
Residence in Ottawa.
Slide 4
"I have heard so much
about you and your work.
We must work together
for world peace."
- Mikhail Gorbachev
Change:
quotation marks “...” hyphen to en-dash – add the word, President
“I have heard so much
about you and your work.
We must work together
for world peace.”
– President Mikhail Gorbachev
Slide 5
July 17, 1991
Sri Chinmoy met for the second
time with President Mikhail Gorbachev,
at The Ritz in London, UK.
Change:
keep date format 17 July 1991
17 July 1991
Sri Chinmoy met for the second
time with President Mikhail Gorbachev,
at The Ritz in London, UK.
Slide 6
May 12, 1992
Sri Chinmoy and President Gorbachev
meet for the third time
Change:
keep date format 12 May 1992
present tense to past tense, meet to met
add period at end of sentence.
12 May 1992
Sri Chinmoy and President Gorbachev
met for the third time.
Slide 7
Their meeting is held
at the Waldorf Astoria
in New York, NY, USA.
Change:
delete , NY, USA
Their meeting is held
at the Waldorf Astoria
in New York.
Slide 8
President Gorbachev is accompanied
by his wife Raisa Maximovna
and their daughter Irina Virganskaya.
No Change
President Gorbachev is accompanied
by his wife Raisa Maximovna
and their daughter Irina Virganskaya.
Slide 9
Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva
and her daughter Irina visit
an exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s paintings
at the Jharna-Kala Gallery, in Manhattan
Change:
period at the end of the sentence.
Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva
and her daughter Irina visit
an exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s paintings
at the Jharna-Kala Gallery, in Manhattan.
Slide 10
Sri Chinmoy dedicates the
exhibition to the first lady of Russia
Change:
Capitalise First Lady
Sri Chinmoy dedicates the
exhibition to the First Lady of Russia
Slide 11
and offers her one
of his works of art
for her private collection.
No Change
and offers her one
of his works of art
for her private collection.
Slide 12
Raisa Maximovna chose
100,000 painting
Change: from 100,000 to the 27,000th painting
Raisa Maximovna chose
the 27,000th painting
> Picture of the 100,000th painting.
Change:
a hi-res file of the 27,000th can be provided
to replace the 100,000th painting
Slide 13
“Meeting with your paintings
is a meeting with the nobility
of the human soul”
- Raisa Maksimovna
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period at the and of the sentence. correct spelling of Maksimovna to Maximovna
hyphen to en-dash –
“Meeting with your paintings
is a meeting with the nobility
of the human soul.”
– Raisa Maximovna
Slide 14
October 10, 1994
Sri Chinmoy met with
President Mikhail Gorbachev
for the sixth time.
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keep date format and
correct date 16 October 1994
16 October 1994
Sri Chinmoy met with
President Mikhail Gorbachev
for the sixth time.
Slide 15
The President and
Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva
together held the Peace Torch,
at the New York Palace Hotel
in New York, NY, USA.
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delete words and add Manhattan
The President and
Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva
together held the Peace Torch,
at the New York Palace Hotel
in Manhattan, New York.
Slide 16
"Your deeds are invaluable,
No Change:
possibly combine this
text with the next slide.
"Your deeds are invaluable,
Slide 17
for they cannot be measured
by any economic
or political parameters;
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possibly combine this
text with the next slide.
for they cannot be measured
by any economic
or political parameters;
Slide 18
they are noble
and cure the human soul.”
- Mikhail Gorbachev
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they are noble
and cure the human soul.”
– Mikhail Gorbachev
Slide 19
On March 4th, 1998
Sri Chinmoy welcomes
President Gorbachev
and Raisa Maximovna
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keep date format 4 March 1996
On 4 March 1998
Sri Chinmoy welcomes
President Gorbachev
and Raisa Maximovna
Slide 20
to a celebration
of the Presiden ’s 67th Birthday
at the Waldorf-Astoria Towers
in New York.
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fix apostrophe add t to the word President
to a celebration
of the President’s 67th Birthday
at the Waldorf-Astoria Towers
in New York.
Slide 21
March 1, 2001
Sri Chinmoy has a private meeting
with President Gorbachev,
Change:
keep date format 1 March 1996
1 March 2001
Sri Chinmoy has a private meeting
with President Gorbachev,
Slide 22
presenting him with a special award
"President Gorbachev:
The Home of Oneness-Peace-Dream-World"
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double quotation marks “...” to single ‘...’ Add period at the end of sentence.
presenting him with a special award
‘President Gorbachev:
The Home of Oneness-Peace-Dream-World’.
Slide 23
On the morning of March 2nd
- President Gorbachev's
70th birthday
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add – at the end of the line
make mart apostrophe ’ for Gorbachev’s
On the morning of March 2nd
– President Gorbachev’s
70th birthday –
Slide 24
Sri Chinmoy prayerfully offers
seventy red roses at the
Long Home of Raisa Maximovna.
No Change
Sri Chinmoy prayerfully offers
seventy red roses at the
Long Home of Raisa Maximovna.
Slide 25
President Gorbachev and his daughter,
Irina, welcome Sri Chinmoy
to the President's birthday celebration
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smart apostrophe
period at the end of the sentence.
President Gorbachev and his daughter,
Irina, welcome Sri Chinmoy
to the President’s birthday celebration.
Slide 26
September 16, 2006
Sri Chinmoy solemnly
greets President Gorbachev
on Aspiration-Ground
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keep date format 16 September 2006
Modify wording, at Aspiration-Ground in New York
Add period at end of sentence
16 September 2006
Sri Chinmoy solemnly greets
President Gorbachev
at Aspiration-Ground in New York.
Slide 27
Before you became
The pilot of the world-peace-boat,
No Change
Before you became
The pilot of the world-peace-boat,
Slide 28
This world of ours
Was sinking deeper
and deeper into despair.
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to see if Was is capitalised
“I have heard so much about you and your work. We must work together for world peace.”
Sri Chinmoy offers his utmost gratitude to President Gorbachev, stating:
“You are the master-key of the global heart. You have liberated the world from bondage-night, and you have brought to the fore the inner freedom which we need so desperately. Before, people were in darkness, and now you have brought light to them.”
Sri Chinmoy reads the words to the song he has composed for President Gorbachev. Visible on the back of the pamphlet is a photograph of the President with Mrs. Gorbachev, which the President later noticed with great joy.
O Master-Key of the Global Heart
The following are introductory words on a tape recording of songs dedicated to President Gorbachev, that Sri Chinmoy sent to the President that evening, after their daytime meeting.
Dear President Gorbachev,
O master-key of the global heart, this evening you bestowed upon me and my two Canadian student friends your blessingful affection, compassion and oneness. For that, our hearts are all gratitude to you.
With my soulful gratitude-heart I am offering these songs to you. The first one is written by me, and the subsequent ones are from your own momentous utterances.
Dear President, your heart of compassion and affection I shall most devotedly treasure. Indeed, as I wrote in my song, “Gorbachev, Gorbachev, all-where the peace-blossom-tree,” you have brought to the fore the inner freedom of humanity. You have liberated much of the world from bondage-division-night. Therefore, both the ascending cries of humanity and the descending smiles of divinity you embody.
May the Soviet Union and Canada, in your oneness-heart, divinely grow and supremely glow.
Sri Chinmoy meeting with President Mikhail Gorbachev for the second time, at The Ritz in London, UK.
May 12th
3rd Meeting
* The meeting is held at the Waldorf Astoria, not the Hotel Pierre as printed.
GORBACHEV AND THE GURU
Caption:
Sri Chinmoy met privately with Mikhail Gorbachev, his wife and daughter at the Waldorf Astoria on May 12. Afterwards, the former Soviet President presented the Master with an autographed photo taken of him and his family. Left, the two leaders embrace. Above, Sri Chinmoy presents the Gorbachevs with a cake displaying pictures of their faces etched in icing.
Published in Anahata Nada, Volume 21, April-July 1992
Sri Chinmoy and President Gorbachev meet for the third time. Their meeting is held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, NY, USA. President Gorbachev is accompanied by his wife Raisa Maximovna and their daughter Irina Virganskaya.
April 15th
4th Meeting
Sri Chinmoy meets for the fourth time with President Mikhail Gorbachev and Raisa Maximovna Gorbachev at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
November 10th
5th Meeting
Photo by Pulak Viscardi
Sri Chinmoy has his fifth meeting with President Mikhail Gorbachev at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. He offers the President a gift of his new book, ‘Two Universal Souls’.
October 16th
6th Meeting
Sri Chinmoy meets President Mikhail Gorbachev for the sixth time and offers him the U Thant Peace Award. The President and Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva together hold the Peace Torch, at the New York Palace Hotel in Manhattan, New York.
April 13th 1997
7th Meeting
Photo by Pulak Viscardi
Sri Chinmoy meets with President Gorbachev and Raisa Maximovna Gorbachev at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, New York.
October 19th 1997
8th Meeting
Sri Chinmoy has his 8th meeting with President Mikhail Gorbachev at JFK International Airport, Jamaica Bay, Queens, New York, NY, USA.
March 4th 1998
9th Meeting
All smiles, the Gorbachevs are warmly greeted by Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy offers the President a 67-flower bouquet in honour of his 67th borthday (2 March)
All photos by Sagar Levin
Sri Chinmoy offers a private Peace Concert and an exhibition of his artworks for President Gorbachev and Raisa Maximovna in honour of the President’s 67th Birthday (2 March) at the Waldorf Towers in New York City.
This historical 45-minute video of Sri Chinmoy’s1998 meeting with President Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife Raisa depicts the deep friendship, warmth and respect they have for each other. The video concludes with the President singing ‘Moscow Nights’ accompanied by Sri Chinmoy playing the harmonium. (Sagar Levin translates throughout the meeting.)
June 23rd 1998
10th Meeting
President Gorbachev and Raisa Maximovna meet with Sri Chinmoy for 1½ hours at the Waldorf Astoria Towers, New York, NY, USA.
August 7th 1999
11th Meeting
Sri Chinmoy meets with President Gorbachev, daughter Irina Virganskaya and granddaughters Ksenia and Anastasia at the Mövenpick Hotel, Müenster, Germany.
December 2nd 1999
12th Meeting
Sri Chinmoy meets with President Mikhail Gorbachev and his daughter Irina Virganskaya for 55 minutes at the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Dear Sri Chinmoy, I will be pleased to see you at my birthday celebration on March 2, 2001, 7 pm, at Grand Hotel “Marriott", Moscow, Tverskaya 26. — signed, Mikhail Gorbachev
Sri Chinmoy is welcomed to President Gorbachev’s 70th Birthday Celebration by the President and his daughter Irina Virganskaya. He meets with the President’s granddaughters Ksenia and Anastasia, along with President Gorbachev’s brother Sasha and Raisa Maximovna’s sister Lyudmila, at the Grand Hotel “Marriott” Moscow, Russia.
Sri Chinmoy is seated at table number 3. “This table was right in front of the stage where people were going to perform. To our left was table number one with President Gorbachev, his daughter, Germany’s former Foreign Minister, family members and a few important dignitaries. Sitting at my table were Irina Malikova, two Japanese ladies and two Russian gentlemen.”
As soon as I entered the room, President Gorbachev came and greeted me. He said, “Please do not mind. Tonight there will be a party atmosphere.” This is a translation, of course.
I laughed and said, “We have all come here to enjoy ourselves on your birthday. Your joy is our joy.”
The President was laughing. Then I asked him, “Did you see the flowers?”
The President said, “As soon as I saw the flowers, I knew that they were from you. Nobody else would bring such beautiful flowers. I knew it was all your doing even before I saw your handwriting.”
Then we talked a little. The President was very, very, very kind. At one point he confided in me, “I have worked today for six hours nonstop.”
I said to him, “Only six hours? You can easily work non-stop for twenty hours out of twenty-four hours!” He was surprised and happy to hear that.
Then I asked the President, “May I speak for a few minutes during the course of the evening?”
President Gorbachev said, “Definitely you will speak as long as you want to. Pavel Palazhchenko will tell you when.”
The President's daughter came and joined us, and his two granddaughters also came.
Before I went to Russia, I spoke to the older granddaughter, Ksenia, on the telephone. Irina’s secretary had given me the private number of their house because she knew how eagerly they were expecting me. The secretary said, “If anything happens because you are calling their house, you just say that I gave you the phone number.”
Ksenia answered and I spoke to her. When I told her that I was coming, she was very happy.
At the party, the granddaughters were very gorgeously dressed. I asked Ksenia where she had learned such good English. She said, “At the university.”
The younger granddaughter, Anastasia, felt very shy or timid. She said hello to me and then the two sisters went to greet some other guests.
President Gorbachev had assured me that Pavel Palazhchenko would inform me when it was my turn to speak. I saw that Pavel was going this side and that side. Finally Irina Malikova caught his attention.
Pavel made an announcement that there was a very unusual person who would speak. Pavel said a few nice things about me by way of introduction, and I went to the stage. Then the President left his seat and came to the stage to join me. The President stood on the stage only for four or five individuals during the course of the evening. I was very fortunate to be one of those.
From my book about the President, I had learned by heart twelve very significant poems. For each poem, I held the microphone and recited the lines in English. Then Pavel took the microphone from me and translated them into Russian. This was how we shared one microphone.
When my speech was over, President Gorbachev bowed to me three times, and I bowed to him five times. Then he so affectionately accompanied me back to my chair. I was number fifteen on the programme, and after me there were many, many more. I believe there were about forty items altogether.
At 6:30 I entered the banquet room, and at 11:30 I left. President Gorbachev came at 6:15 and left around 12:30.
When I saw that the number of guests was dwindling, I approached the President. He immediately grabbed my hand. I said, “I have come to take leave of you and to ask for your blessings.” President Gorbachev said, “We must maintain this friendship forever, and I mean it. You know what is inside my heart. We must maintain our friendship forever.”
He was looking at me so soulfully, powerfully, intently and affectionately as he said these words.
This was the nineteenth time I had met with my most Beloved President Gorbachev since our first meeting in 1990. Our private meeting the day before at his Foundation was the eighteenth time.
President Gorbachev’s 70th birthday and my 70th birthday both fall this year. For some secret and sacred reason, we both took birth in 1931. Inwardly and outwardly, we were, we are and we shall always remain extremely close. President Gorbachev’s immortal words echo and re-echo in the very depths of my heart: “We must maintain our friendship forever.”
Sri Chinmoy meets with President Gorbachev for half an hour in the President’s office at the Gorbachev Foundation, in Moscow, Russia.
Gorbachev Foundation, Moscow
President Gorbachev greeted Sri Chinmoy near his office at the Foundation, requesting Sri Chinmoy to go ahead of him as they proceeded down the hallway. As soon as they entered his office, the President gave Sri Chinmoy a warm embrace and invited him to sit down.
President Gorbachev: Sit down, please!
The President requested Sri Chinmoy to sit facing him. Mrs. Irina Malikova sat on Sri Chinmoy’s left side and Mr. Pavel Palazhchenko sat on his right side. Mr. Palazhchenko asked the guards to bring one extra chair for Ms. Lotika Kosaya.
President Gorbachev (apologising for being late): I apologise…
Sri Chinmoy: No, you do not have to apologise! Whenever you come is the right time. I see you with my own eyes, and I feel you with my own heart. For me, this is not the office of a president. This is the heart-home of the whole world.
I watched the documentary where you spoke about power. You said that you do not have power. But I wish to say that the power you have is love, and love is the strongest power. Power that strikes cannot succeed, but the power of love, which is omnipotent, you have, and you have been using this power unreservedly since you left office. With your heart’s infinite love-power, you are illumining the four corners of the globe.
President Gorbachev: Thank you! I am very glad to see you. You have not visited us here before. This is the first time.
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, this is my first time, and I have come because I do not want to miss this opportunity of a lifetime to be in your blessingful presence on this most auspicious occasion.
President Gorbachev: I am very happy and very moved by your visit. I really thank you very much. You and I share a great deal. We are living in a difficult time. We are facing various challenges. And it is so important to feel that somewhere there is a friend, Gorbachev's dear friend, Sri Chinmoy. This is very important. I am thankful to you for everything, for your valuable support and understanding — I emphasise the great understanding.
I feel that you are tired and jet-lagged. The night and day — everything changes so quickly.
Sri Chinmoy: I am not tired. My love for you, my admiration for you, my gratitude to you: these are my prayerful capacities. I wish to tell you that we are always at your service. Wherever you go, my students are there to be of service to you. They are always at your service. You are always in our morning prayers, in our mid-day prayers and in our evening prayers. We pray for you because you are illumining the whole world.
President Gorbachev: And I would like to congratulate you because you hold so many activities dedicated to peace in different places. Both Pavel and Irina are now telling me about your trips, about your meetings.
Sri Chinmoy: I have done nothing in comparison to your work and your achievements! You are an ocean; I am just a drop. The drop would love to be always inside the ocean.
Sri Chinmoy presented to the President a copy of a new song that he had written in the President's honour, and Mr. Palazhchenko read out the translation.
Sri Chinmoy: Now I would like to sing this song. May I sing? It will just take a few minutes.
President Gorbachev: Of course!
Sri Chinmoy stood up and sang the song dedicated to President Gorbachev. The President listened attentively, deeply moved by Sri Chinmoy’s offering. He was watching Sri Chinmoy intently and from time to time looking at the translation.
President Gorbachev (shaking his head, astounded): Yes! You keep on amazing me!
Sri Chinmoy: Now I wish to offer you a special award. This is the award that I would like to offer.
Sri Chinmoy presented the award, entitled “President Gorbachev: The Home of Oneness-Peace-Dream-World.” On top of the box containing the award were some of Sri Chinmoy’s peace-birds.
President Gorbachev: Such birds! Everywhere birds! How many birds have you drawn?
Sri Chinmoy: Twelve million birds and 200,000 paintings.
President Gorbachev: Really!
Sri Chinmoy, the President and Mr. Palazhchenko all tried to open the box. The President and Mr. Palazhchenko finally succeeded in opening it and unwrapped the award. The President was deeply moved by the award, which consisted of one round sparkling glass plaque etched with his picture surrounded by seventy small pictures of Raisa Maximovna and another glass plaque etched with Raisa Maximovna’s picture surrounded by seventy small pictures of the President. The President was very, very thrilled, admiring the glass plaques as he set them on their stands.
Mrs. Malikova: One hundred and twenty-five countries have become Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms-Nations.
Mr. Palazhchenko (referring to the design that was on the award and also on the cover of the latest book that Sri Chinmoy had written about the President): Here he has your portrait with Raisa Maximovna’s portraits around it, and on the back is Raisa Maximovna’s portrait framed with 70 of your portraits.
Sri Chinmoy (showing the President the glass pieces): Here are 70 portraits. It is written here, “President Gorbachev: The Home of Oneness-Peace-Dream-World.” So, this is the award I wish to offer to you for your 70th birthday.
President Gorbachev: I am very grateful.
Sri Chinmoy: This award I shall not give to anyone else.
President Gorbachev: I am simply very, very moved. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Sri Chinmoy (holding up a copy of his latest book about the President, which the President had received two days earlier): I also have a copy of the book.
Mr. Palazhchenko commented that the Russian translation appeared in the book, and the President started reading through it.
Mr. Palazhchenko: Mikhail Sergeyevich, this is simply wonderful!
Mrs. Malikova: Sri Chinmoy has already given the book to all the Foundation workers.
Mr. Palazhchenko looked through the book and showed the President his favourite passage.
President Gorbachev: I would just like to say that I really like the book very, very much. A thousand thanks, a million thanks, a trillion thanks! (Referring to the award) And this portrait is dearer to me than the others I have. (To Mr. Palazhchenko) Look, how wonderfully done!
Sri Chinmoy (showing the President an album with photographs of his visit to Raisa Maximovna’s Long Home): Just yesterday I went there.
President Gorbachev (very moved as he looked through the album): Oh, here are some pictures!
Mrs. Malikova: These are from the cemetery.
Mr. Palazhchenko: Yesterday Sri Chinmoy was at the cemetery.
Sri Chinmoy: Raisa Maximovna is always in my prayers.
President Gorbachev: There is so much snow!
Mr. Palazhchenko (to the President): Snow, red flowers and the man from India or America, from somewhere far, with an incredible soul.
President Gorbachev: Tomorrow morning my daughter, my granddaughters and my whole family will go to the cemetery. This is how my birthday celebration shall start.
Sri Chinmoy: Tomorrow morning I will be bringing seventy roses.
Mrs. Malikova: To the cemetery?
Sri Chinmoy: It will be in honour of your birthday.
President Gorbachev: How do you like Russia? (Again turning to the album) Have you made it for yourself or for us?
Sri Chinmoy (offering the album to the President): It is for you, my Beloved President!
Sri Chinmoy (presenting a cheque to the President): This humble offering is from my students all around the world in honour of your birthday. Disciples from the former Soviet Union have given $5,000. This gift is from the heart of all my students.
President Gorbachev: You have done so much for me. You have given me so many honours. You must know that what has happened between you and me shall last forever. I am very grateful, but unfortunately my time is stressed right now. I have been thinking that perhaps there are not many active years left for me.
Sri Chinmoy: I do not want to hear that! According to our Indian system, one has to live for a hundred years.
President Gorbachev (smiling): But I do not practise meditation!
Sri Chinmoy: I shall meditate for you! I shall pray for you. You do your world-transformation-work, and I shall be praying and meditating for you while you are transforming the world. You do your job, and I will do my job. Every day, early in the morning, I get news about you. This moment you are in Italy; the next moment you are in Germany. Now you will be coming to Atlanta.
President Gorbachev was deeply moved to hear that Sri Chinmoy had been following his activities.
The President then took the award into his private room, adjacent to his main office, and asked Mr. Palazhchenko to put the box under his desk.
Mr. Palazhchenko offered to take photographs of everyone together, and Mr. Kailash Beyer and Ms. Lotika Kosaya joined the President, Sri Chinmoy and Mrs. Malikova for group photographs.
President Gorbachev (referring to a party specially for those who would not be invited to the President's birthday dinner): Did Irina tell you that now we are going to have a party downstairs? Would you like to join us?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, I am at your service.
President Gorbachev: Then I will see you downstairs.
Sri Chinmoy: I would be grateful if Irina would be able to come and see the award.
President Gorbachev: She is downstairs with the guests. But you will see her there and we shall be in a picture all together.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev warmly greets Sri Chinmoy during a meeting at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel in New York. The President’s daughter Irina Virganskaya is also present at the meeting.
May 27th 2004
16th Meeting
Sri Chinmoy meets with President Mikhail Gorbachev at the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow, Russia.
Varied Program Held In Russian Capital
MOSCOW – Sri Chinmoy's visit to Moscow also included appearances at a number of universities and concert halls.
The spiritual teacher spoke and performed his music at the International University (in Moscow) on the morning of May 28 and gave a concert of prayerful music at Moscow's renowned Concert Hall "Russia" that evening.
Highlights of his visit included his lecture the morning of May 31 at the nation’s most prestigious university, Lomonosov Moscow State University, which he dedicated to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and the lecture and concert of prayerful music he gave that evening at the Great Concert Hall of the Russian Gnesins' Academy of Music.
Sri Chinmoy's final lecture here took place at the Russian Paediatric Clinical Hospital on June 1.
He also met privately with President Gorbachev on May 27.
Reported in Anahata Nada, Volume 35, April – July 2004
October 10th 2004
17th Meeting
Sri Chinmoy has a private meeting with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in Manhattan, New York.
October 14th 2006
18th Meeting
Sri Chinmoy meets with President Mikhail Gorbachev and Billie Jean King at the presentation of the Women’s World Awards at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Manhattan Centre, New York, NY, USA. The legendary tennis player chose Sri Chinmoy to introduce her to the President when she accepted the award from him.
October 15th 2006
19th Meeting
Sri Chinmoy welcomes President Mikhail Gorbachev and his daughter Irina Virganskaya to a gala programme in the President’s honour, including a memorial planting of a tree dedicated to the late Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva; numerous performances; and a visit to the ‘Pilgrim-Museum’ dedicated to the President, displaying the entire history of the extraordinary friendship between Sri Chinmoy and President Gorbachev, at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
September 20th 2007
20th and Final Meeting
Photo by Lotika
Sri Chinmoy meets with Mikhail Gorbachev before the inauguration of the Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva Institute of Paediatric Haematology in St. Petersburg, Russia. The former Soviet President had personally invited Sri Chinmoy to the event, calling him both a personal friend and a long-time friend of the Gorbachev Foundation.
When I take shelter
In my Master’s eye
I see star-twinkling sky.
When I take shelter
In my Master’s heart,
I devour death-dart.
When I take shelter
At my Master’s feet
Ignorance-dream I quit.
To celebrate America’s 200th birthday, Sri Chinmoy holds a 13-hour public meditation for the Soul of America at the 72nd Street Bandshell in New York City’s Central Park. The meditation begins at midnight on July 4th and ends late in the afternoon. It is the first overnight event the Police Department had ever permitted in Central Park.
Photo by Sarama Minoli
Sri Chinmoy plays the esraj during his 13-hour meditation in honour of America’s Bicentennial, held at New York’s Central Park.
A few days later, a question is asked at the New York Centre about the inner events, at that meditation. Following is the question and Sri Chinmoy’s answer.
Question: Can you tell anything about what happened to the soul of America during the Fourth of July public meditation?
Sri Chinmoy: Oh, you want to hear a cock and bull story. All right, I’ll tell you a cock and bull story. When we started meditating at midnight, only a second or two after I started meditating, I saw the worst possible hostile force — so horrible that it could frighten anybody, even the strongest man. It appeared before me because I have taken the side of America wholeheartedly, unreservedly and unconditionally. My full inner and outer support is for America, for America’s soul. I can’t describe that force to you; you have to identify with my inner vision to see it. But it was most frightening. That hostile force wanted to devour America’s achievements, her glory and joy, her pride and her future possibilities.
America’s achievements of the past two hundred years, although they are on the physical plane, the vital plane and the mental plane, were founded on her inner cry. Otherwise, no nation, in two hundred years, could surpass all the nations of the world put together. America’s sincere inner cry and the response from above made those achievements possible. The inner cry is spiritual and the response from above is spiritual, so two spiritual things were combined to shape America’s history.
A few minutes later I saw another hostile force which was not as powerful as the first one, and later I saw three or four. They all wanted to devour America’s glory. They wanted to see America bow down; they wanted to humiliate America. And this they want to do not only through America’s outer life, but also through America’s internal life. They wanted to create some serious internal disagreements so that some states would fight with other states. Some severe internal conflict like the Civil War would again have taken place to destroy America’s achievements, America’s joy, America’s glory and America’s pride.
Fortunately, the Supreme and I are on the side of America, so there is no hope for these hostile forces. But I wish to say that the greater America becomes, the more she will be challenged by the outer world and the inner world. The hostile forces don’t want anybody or any nation to remain at peace or to increase peace. The greater one becomes, the stronger the opposition. The more we try to reveal divinity, the more we suffer from humanity or from wrong forces. When one is on the verge of achieving something inwardly great, he gets tremendous opposition from the inner world. I did realise God without tremendous inner opposition, but now the Supreme wants to reveal and manifest Himself in and through me, and I am getting opposition at every second not only from those who are unaspiring and from undivine forces in the earth atmosphere, but also from those to whom I am trying to give everything that I have and everything that I am.
The Supreme wants me to give at least an iota of Light, Peace and Bliss to the world, and every day my power is increasing, but the opposition is also increasing like anything. Ten years ago, when we started our mission, we had very few disciples — ten or fifteen disciples. Manifestation did not start at that time, and we had little inner opposition. At that time I used to hold the highest meditations, absolutely the highest. Since then I have not descended from my spiritual height, but no matter how sincerely, how powerfully I meditate, no matter how high I go, the receptivity is next to nothing. If I meditate for five minutes, in five minutes I bring down an absolute sea of Peace, Light and Bliss. But when I see how much has been received, it is only twenty drops or thirty drops or fifty drops. This lack of receptivity is nothing but opposition. You may say, “I am not receiving, but how am I opposing?” But the very fact that you don’t want to make yourself receptive to what I have to give you is opposition. What more opposition do I need? When I am bringing down something and giving it to you, if you say you don’t need it, then you are opposing my purpose, the purpose of the Supreme, who wants to operate in and through me.
America’s achievement is extraordinary. What America has done in two hundred years, no other nation has been able to do, nor will other nations be able to do it. They don’t have the necessary inner cry. Because of America’s inner cry, America got the Compassion-Smile from above. But once you receive something, you have the capacity to receive more. America can receive much more. In two hundred years America has done so much on the physical plane, vital plane and mental plane. The next hundred years can easily be years of spiritual achievement. In a hundred years, if America accepts the spiritual life and gives all value to the spiritual life, if America makes outer achievements of secondary value and gives spirituality utmost importance, again America’s inner cry and the Compassion of the Supreme can make America run the fastest. During the next hundred years America can achieve what no other nation can achieve. It is entirely possible. The only question is whether Americans will do it or not. God alone knows.
Sri Chinmoy answers questions
from his disciples after a special meditation for American Independence Day
Question: How can spiritual people with leadership qualities come to the fore in American politics?
Sri Chinmoy: First we have to ask if spiritual people with leadership qualities really want to enter into politics, where there is no mother, no father and everybody is an orphan. In a dark forest you do not find beautiful flowers. Spiritual people with leadership qualities should enter into politics only if they have inner light in abundant, if not boundless, measure and if they are confident of this inner light and feel that they will not be corrupted. So it all depends on the inner development of the spiritual people who have the capacity to become leaders of their countries.
Before they enter into politics, spiritual people have to be fully convinced inwardly that they will be able to transform the minds of other politicians. Right now, this is practically impossible since most politicians are unbearably cynical. They do not care for the spiritual life. Spirituality is something very foreign to them. Not only outwardly but also inwardly they belittle spirituality. At every moment they say they are most sincere, whereas their opponents are only telling lies. What is worse, they do not even trust themselves. If I do not trust you, no harm. But when I do not trust myself, I cannot go even one step forward.
Before spiritual people enter into politics, they have to be absolutely sure that they have enough light. They cannot just do their best and place the results at the Feet of God. This is for people who are primarily involved in the inner life. But spiritual people who want to help mankind have to know their capacity; they have to know how much light they have. Otherwise, the darkness of the world is such that they will only cause problems, leaving the ordinary masses more confused than they were to start with.
Right now, spiritual people have to pray and meditate more and acquire more light. Then the time will come for them to enter into the political arena to transform politics into a divinely inspired experience that will allow society to make progress in a very tangible way.
Question: What do African-American and African people need most in order to overcome the obstacles that they're facing today? And in terms of bringing African-American disciples to the path and keeping them, what do we African-Americans need more of?
Sri Chinmoy: As an African-American, you have to generate more love inside your own heart for other African-Americans who have not yet accepted the spiritual life. Previously, I used to say, "Think of other African-Americans as your little brothers. It is your bounden duty to bring them to the spiritual life, for that is the only life that will help them. No human being can ever find satisfaction unless and until he finds it in a spiritual way. Everything else will fail — in your case today, in his case tomorrow, in somebody else's case the day after tomorrow."
But now I am seeing that it is not enough to think of them as your little brothers, just a little inferior to you. No, now I am saying that you have to feel that they are part and parcel of your own body, only you have a little more light than they do. It is like this. You have two limbs. One limb is illumined and one is not illumined. In one part of your body you have illumination and in another part of your body you do not have it. Because of their proximity, the illumined part of your body can easily bring light to the unillumined part. So if you take it this way, definitely you will get better results.
If you see other African-Americans as separate individuals with a different consciousness, then it becomes far more difficult, for then you feel that they are so far away from you. If you feel that they are somewhere else — five thousand miles or even five metres away, then it becomes a very difficult task. But if you feel that they are right here inside your body, a part of your living existence, then it becomes much easier. Every day you are using parts of your own existence. With your eyes you are seeing; with your nose you are breathing. You have to feel that your brother and sister African-Americans are like that: part and parcel of your being that you are using every day in your multifarious activities. That is the only way you will be able to inspire them.
Question: Is Thomas Jefferson appreciated in the proper way today?
Sri Chinmoy: Thomas Jefferson never was and perhaps never will be appreciated in the way God wanted him to be appreciated because gratitude was not, is not and never will be born in this world. No other President, no other American, has done or perhaps will ever do so much for the progress of the American consciousness as Thomas Jefferson has done. Countries other than America that have developed inner vision will appreciate Jefferson much more than America.
People who bring new light into the world never, never get the appreciation, admiration, adoration and love that they deserve — never! I am speaking not only of Jefferson but also of Krishna, Buddha and the Christ. Did the world appreciate them, admire them and love them — not to the extent that they needed, since they did not need anybody's appreciation or admiration, but to the extent that they deserved? No, and this will never happen, because the kind of gratitude that is worthy of their light and their vision has not been born and never will be born on earth.
Jefferson’s vision elevated the consciousness of the world in the twinkling of an eye. The light that he wanted to show his country and the light that he wanted his country to bring forward was so badly misunderstood! He never got the appreciation that he so rightly deserved and he will never get it, because humanity does not have that kind of gratitude.
Sri Chinmoy observes a display produced by his students for the Fourth of July at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York. It features a garlanded painting of Thomas Jefferson and, on the scoreboard, the inspiring words he penned for the Declaration of Independence in 1776. (Thomas Jefferson went on to become the Third President of the USA.)
The opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson:
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Read more...
2000
Photo by Maral Siegel
Sri Chinmoy opens the July 4th celebration in lower Manhattan with a short meditation and his students perform several of his songs about America.
2002
The Fourth of July
Remarks by Sri Chinmoy
on July 3rd, at Aspiration-Ground Jamaica, New York
Tomorrow is a very significant day for the American soul, American heart, American consciousness and American life. Let us all try to be in a very, very high consciousness the entire day.
Those who sing very, very well “America the Beautiful” will sing the song tomorrow. That is my most favourite American song. That song is very, very significant.
Sri Chinmoy wearing his own ‘O My America’ T-shirt at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York.
O My America
May America the Beautiful forever
shine bright-brighter-brightest in the Heart of
God the Creator and God the creation.
— Sri Chinmoy
Pictured on the T-shirt (left to right) are, Sri Chinmoy and three of the Founding Fathers — Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin.
During a 2006-2007 Christmas trip, Sri Chinmoy created this special series of drawings by scratching the surface of colour-coated black art paper to reveal beautifully coloured images of ‘Soul-Birds’.
