June 27

Photo by Pulak Viscardi

 

Sri Chinmoy meditates in the grounds of King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. On the plinth beside him, is the bust of his revered spiritual master Sri Aurobindo, who once studied at this august college.

 

Visit to Sri Aurobindo’s room

by Sri Chinmoy

 

On June 27th, 2003 — nearly half a century later — I went to Cambridge to honour various professors with our ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart Award’. One of my students made arrangements with the Provost for me to go and see Sri Aurobindo’s room after our ceremony was over. Dr. John Barber, a senior lecturer in politics, was the one who most kindly escorted me there.

There are actually two rooms where Sri Aurobindo lived from 1890-1892. The smaller of the two rooms was used as a study by Sri Aurobindo and some other students. The rooms are now occupied by an elderly gentleman, Dr. John Avery, who is retired. Formerly, he was a lecturer in Persian studies. He showed me everything with such love and respect. He made repeated requests for me to sit down, but how could I dare to sit down in the room where my Master had studied? I was trembling with delight inside that room. My eyes were flooded with tears and my heart was swimming in the sea of delight. My heart was literally throbbing. Out of reverence, I remained standing and meditated.

Afterwards, Dr. Avery thanked me for paying a visit to his room. I replied, “It is I who should be grateful to you. I am a humble disciple of Sri Aurobindo.”

I will cherish this most precious memory of my visit to Sri Aurobindo’s room until the end of my days. Fortunately, we were able to take many, many photographs, so perhaps I have been able to add something to Purani-ji’s immortal book.

 

June 27

 

Reykjavik, Iceland's capital city, is dedicated as a Sri Chinmoy Peace Capital.

 

REYKJAVIK
A SRI CHINMOY PEACE CAPITAL

With their dedication to the inseparable goals of peace and freedom, the people of Reykjavik speedily and most effectively united two superpower heads of state in 1986. Smallest in size, this modern capital of an ancient and extraordinary, ever-changing land has proved to be broadest in vision: the vision of a world of peace and freedom for all. From its pinnacle-summit position near the cap of the globe, casting its wisdom-flooded gaze upon East and West through the pristine purity of nature’s crystalline atmosphere, Reykjavik, at once new and timeless, bravely voices forth the message of world oneness.

Thus, as a confident harbinger of a new and illumining era, Reykjavik proudly becomes today a SRI CHINMOY PEACE CAPITAL. In so doing, Reykjavik joins Ottawa, Canada, and Canberra, Australia, as Peace Capitals — three of the most distinguished of the 500 Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms throughout the world.

The Peace-Blossoms are cities, monuments and special locations consecrated to peace, cooperation and good will among all peoples, embodying the unique qualities of the many cultures and terrains of the globe. They take their name from Sri Chinmoy, an international ambassador of peace who has dedicated his multifaceted creative energies to activities inspiring oneness among all members of the human family. On this auspicious occasion, the people of Reykjavik affirm their wholehearted dedication to the quest for universal peace and their support for the world-uniting efforts of Sri Chinmoy toward the attainment of this loftiest of all goals. 

Reykjavik
Nature’s fragrance,
Minds flower
And Spirit’s tree

Peace is divinity’s blossoming Dream on Earth
Peace is humanity’s soaring Reality in Heaven

— Sri Chinmoy

CANBERRA
A SRI CHINMOY PEACE CAPITAL

 

 

Sri Chinmoy visits two of the five Canberra Sri Chinmoy Peace Capital signs that are placed at the road entrances to Australia’s capital city. The previous morning, Sri Chinmoy visited three of the signs.

Canberra was dedicated as Sri Chinmoy Peace Capital on 16 March 1995 by the Federal Minister for Sport Ros Kelly.

 

June 27

 

Sri Chinmoy runs the 100-metre race in a time of 16.62 seconds, at the Sri Chinmoy Masters Games held at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, Australia.

 

 

When
We talk to God,
We show our greatness.
When
God talks to us,
He gives us His Goodness.

Sri Chinmoy

Published in My Blessingful and Pride-Flooded Dedication to the Indomitable Runners of the 3100-Mile Self-Transcendence Race, 2006

Note:

From June 21st 2006 until the last runner finishes the 3100-Mile Self-Transcendence Race on August 10th 2006, Sri Chinmoy offers them a daily prayer, which is distributed to each runner and also posted on the bulletin board at the counting station.

 

June 27

 

Edited by Sri Chinmoy Videos

 

Sri Chinmoy performs Rabindranath Tagore’s 1939 song Samukhe Shanti Parabar — ‘The Ocean of Peace Lies Ahead of Me’ — after delivering a lecture, entitled ‘Death’, at Newcastle University in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) requested that the song be sung at his own funeral.

 

St. Louis Peace Concert

 


Listen to Sri Chinmoy playing piano in concert

 

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert with a piano performance at the Graham Memorial Chapel, Washington University, in St. Louis, Missouri.

 

Cambridge Peace Concert

 

Video by kedarvideo

 

Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert with a piano and organ performance; and delivers a lecture at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.

 

June 27

 

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, Sri Chinmoy offers Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva, wife of President Gorbachev and the first lady of Russia, 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.”

 

 

June 27

O Senior Olympics, O Senior Olympians

A talk by Sri Chinmoy
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri

 

O Senior Olympics, I bow to the indomitable courage of your body and I bow to the unhorizoned dream of your soul. You are the perfect embodiment of yesterday’s blossoming inspiration, today’s mounting aspiration and tomorrow’s fulfilling satisfaction.

O Senior Olympians, your hearts’ wisdom-light is telling the entire world that you belong to Time eternal, running along Eternity’s Road, challenging the giant pride of self-doubt on the battlefield of life. You are the supreme hero-athletes who look forward, upward and inward. Forward you look to declare you can. Upward you look to declare you will. Inward you look to declare you are, eternally are.

You can conquer the limitations of the body. You will transform the teeming imperfections of the body into perfection. You are the Olympian pilgrims who smilingly and proudly shake hands with impossibility. Already you are in the galaxy of immortals. You are creating a oneness-world-home with the physical fitness of your body-fort and with the universal fulness of your heart-victory.

O Senior Olympics, O Senior Olympians, O self-giving sponsors and organisers of this unprecedented Senior Olympics, to you I bow, to you I bow. With my mind’s prayerful admiration and with my heart’s soulful gratitude, to you I bow.

Published in The Oneness of the Eastern Heart and the Western Mind, part 3

 

Oneness-Education

A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at West Road Concert Hall, Faculty of Music,
University of Cambridge, England

 

Video by kedarvideo

 

Peace is not
In my mind's world-rejection.
Peace is
In my heart's world-acceptance.

You are a Truth-seeker. I am a Truth-seeker. You are a God-lover and I am a God-lover.

You and I have the same God, yet we quarrel and fight. God asks you to trust me; you fail to obey God. God asks me the same thing, He asks me to trust you; but I certainly fail.

You and I have the same God. God asks you to see Him inside me, and He asks me to see Him inside you. Both of us fail our Lord Beloved Supreme. You see in me countless imperfections when you look at me. I do the same when I look at you. You do not see in me the Presence of God. I do not see in you the Presence of God. You do not see anything divine, inspiring, aspiring, illumining and fulfilling in me. Alas, I also fail to see in you anything divine, inspiring, illumining and fulfilling. Both of us fail our Lord Beloved Supreme.

You and I have the same God. You think and you know and you feel that your God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. I, too, see and feel the same. But when you look at me, you think I am imperfection incarnate, you feel I am past correction. You forget that your God is omnipotent. If so is His Will, He can perfect my life in the twinkling of an eye. Similarly, when I see your countless imperfections, I fail to see the Presence — the loving and benevolent Presence — of my Lord Beloved Supreme. I, too, forget the fact that my God, whom I claim to be my God, is omnipotent. If your God is omnipotent and if my God is omnipotent, how is it that we cannot have faith in God's Power Supreme? You can pray to God for my perfection; I can pray to God for your perfection. This is one way for us to make God happy, although it may take a long time for you to see my perfection and, vice versa, for me also to see perfection in you. But the very fact that you and I are praying mutually for our mutual perfection will make our Lord Beloved Supreme happy far beyond our imagination.

You and I have the same God, yet we disagree most of the time and we quarrel and fight. You and I pray to God for happiness. We pray to God and we speak to God. You say to God, "O God, please make me happy first and then I shall make You happy. You please fulfil all my teeming desires. Once I am happy, then I shall make You happy, O Lord Supreme." This is your prayer. I, too, have the exact same prayer. I say to my Lord Supreme, "My Lord, please fulfil my desires first, all my desires please fulfil, then I shall definitely make You happy. First make me happy, then I shall unfailingly and undoubtedly make You happy."

Here, in this case, you and I are sailing in the same boat. We want our happiness first, and then God's Happiness. But God says to us, "Since you are begging Me for happiness, pleading with Me, it is you who have to make Me happy first, not the other way around." And, again, God says to us, "My children, if I make you happy first, it will be the fulfilment of your desire-life. No matter how many times I fulfil your desires in order to make you happy, I will not be able to make you happy, never! But if you make Me happy first, on the strength of your aspiration-life, then you will feel that in My Happiness alone your happiness can be discovered, for I am the Source of all happiness. So please, My children, be wise. Make Me happy first. Then you are bound to be happy, and this happiness will last forever."

You and I have the same God. You want to see perfection in me. I want to see perfection in you. By speaking to God day in and day out against me, do you not think you are displeasing God and irritating God? For He is all Compassion for both of us. Again, I do the same. I speak ill of you to God at every moment. I think that by speaking ill of you, I am making my point clear to God, I am making God feel I am far better than you. "Oh no, that is not the way," my Lord Supreme tells me. We have to see all the divine qualities in each other to make our Lord Supreme happy. Our imperfect nature can only be transformed by His Compassion-Eye and Forgiveness-Heart.

You and I have the same God. You are God-thirsty and God-hungry; this is absolutely true. I, too, am God-thirsty and God-hungry. But if our hunger is genuine and if, at every moment, we want to be fed and nourished by God's Nectar-Delight, by His infinite Compassion, infinite Love and Light and Delight, then can we have even a fraction of a moment to think of each other? When I think of you, I think of your imperfections, your weaknesses. You do the same. Such being the case, who is actually our Lord? We pray to God for five minutes a day, but we think of each other for ten or twelve hours a day.

When we accept the spiritual life, we make a fervent promise to our soul, to our heart, to our inner life, to our Inner Pilot, that we shall always think of God, our Lord Beloved Supreme. And yet, instead of thinking of our Lord Beloved Supreme at every moment, you think of me daily for hours and I also do the same with regard to you. You think of God for just ten minutes a day. I do exactly the same, not a minute more than you. So we have made each other our God, and poor God, the real God, is buried in oblivion in our ignorance-mind and ignorance-life.

No, my friend, since we wish to sail in the same boat, the boat of aspiration, the boat that will lead us to our destined Goal, the Golden Shore, let us believe in our oneness-education; let us start today with our oneness-education. This oneness-education is founded upon our mutual aspiration and reciprocal dedication. Together we must aspire, in spite of our weaknesses, difficulties and imperfections. Together we must raise our consciousness to high, higher, highest heights. Together let us sail in the same boat, the boat that will take us to our Destination, the Golden Shore. Our Beloved Supreme is eagerly waiting for our arrival. Let us make Him happy in His own Way, and His own Way means our oneness-education, oneness-perfection, oneness-satisfaction.

Published in The Mind Loves the Heart, the Mind Becomes the Heart, part 2

 

June 26

 

MINISTERS FETED BY PEACE LEADER

JAMAICA, NY — The top Environmental Ministers of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Ghana took a break from their Earth Summit + 5 meetings at the United Nations on June 26 to visit peace advocate Sri Chinmoy and accept awards on behalf of their countries.

Sri Chinmoy honored the Ministers at a special banquet and presented their countries with an environmental and peace award on behalf of ‘Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations’, which he leads.

“I cannot find the right words to ... acknowledge the honor done to my country,” declared J. E. Afful, Ghana’s Minister of Environment, Science and Technology. “I am deeply touched by this wonderful gesture and I accept the award in all humility ...”

The Bangladesh Minister for Environment and Forests, Mrs. Sajeda Chowdhury, voiced a similar sentiment. Speaking through a translator, she said, “I find peace when I come here,” and said she hoped Sri Chinmoy and the Meditation Group “will continue with your message of peace and love for all the people of the world.”

Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment and Tourism, Chen Chimutengwende, also was “very touched,” he said. The Minister had met Sri Chinmoy a year and a half ago in Harare, when the peace advocate had visited President Mugabe.

“We in Zimbabwe recognize the good work you are doing in the United Nations and internationally in promoting love and peace,” he declared.

Representatives from Sweden, the Bahamas and Moldova also attended the banquet and received awards from Sri Chinmoy.

Published in Anahata Nada, Volume 26, April-August 1997

 

June 26

 

Sri Chinmoy observes a display of his ‘Soul-Bird’ artworks in the Senate Foyer of Parliament House in Canberra, Australia.

 

June 26

 

Sri Chinmoy inaugurates his ‘Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ Award during his third weightlifting anniversary by lifting Mahasamrat Bill Pearl, 5-time Mr. Universe, at Julia Richman High School in Manhattan, New York. The total weight lifted, including the apparatus, is 229 lbs. 

 

 

CANBERRA
A SRI CHINMOY PEACE CAPITAL

 

 

Sri Chinmoy visits three of the five Canberra Sri Chinmoy Peace Capital signs that are placed at the road entrances to Australia’s capital city. The next afternoon, Sri Chinmoy visits the other two signs.

Canberra was dedicated as Sri Chinmoy Peace Capital on 16 March 1995 by the Federal Minister for Sport Ros Kelly.

 

 

Photo by Adarini Inkei

 

Sri Chinmoy lifts Jim Smith, Registrar of the British Amateur Weight Lifters Association, in Oxford, England.

 

June 26

lmh

Sri Chinmoy lifts 26 people, including numerous professors, at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University in Oxford, UK.

maral
Photos: Maral Siegel

 Professor Martin Kemp, a global expert on Leonardo da Vinci, greeting Sri Chinmoy.

Photo by Prashphutita Greco

 

Sri Chinmoy meditates at his Peace Concert in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. The backdrop for the concert was designed by Sulman-Prize-winning Australian artist Pranavanta John Montefiore.