On 13 September 1985, an exhibition of Sri Chinmoy's Jharna-Kala art was held at the Jharna-Kala Gallery in Soho Gallery, New York. United Nations representatives from over 40 countries attended the exhibition, which included songs dedicated to peace and the UN, art, and a short meditation with Sri Chinmoy.

The special programme was hosted by Mr Natarajan Krishnan, the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the United Nations (24 October 1985).

“I support wholeheartedly Sri Chinmoy’s efforts at the United Nations to establish world peace. I was so happy to be able to host the reception tonight at a gallery exhibiting Sri Chinmoy’s paintings, to welcome diplomats of the Fortieth Session of the General Assembly. It was an unforgettable experience!”

— H.E. Mr Natarajan Krishnan
Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations
13 September 1985

Photos: Ramaniya, Bhashwar

World Gratitude Day is celebrated annually on 21 September with the vision of uniting humanity through the quality and uplifting power of gratitude. The first World Gratitude Day was observed in 1965. In 1977, along with Mrs Edna Lemle,  Sri Chinmoy and the Peace Meditations at the United Nations marked the occasson of World Gratitude Day at the United Nations for the first time. 

The holiday was officially recognised by the UN General Assembly in 1977.

On 12 September 1977, Sri Chinmoy and The Peace Meditations at the United Nations group celebrated World Gratitude Day with a special programme at the United Nations in New York.

Sri Chinmoy composed a song for World Gratitude Day

O World Gratitude Day!
I pray for you, I pray.
Man’s feeble climbing ray
Is one with God’s Vision-Play.
Compassion: highest gift.
Gratitude: fastest lift.
Only satisfaction-seed
Can feed man and God’s need.

— Sri Chinmoy (song score)

Song written and performed for a World Gratitude Day celebration at the United Nations sponsored by the Peace Meditation Group on 12 September 1977. The song was also performed several times for programmes at the World Gratitude Day's New York Headquarters.

21 September 1977

Nine days later on 21st September, Sri Chinmoy took part in the main World Gratitude Day Ceremony, the first time it was officially recognised by the United Nations.

World Gratitude Day Award

On 21 September 1977 Sri Chinmoy received the World Gratitude Day plaque at a ceremony in World Gratitude Day’s New York headquarters. The plaque was presented to him by Mrs Edna Lemle, president and founder of the organisation dedicated to promoting the cause of worldwide gratitude.

On receiving the award, Sri Chinmoy replied:

World Gratitude Day - 21 September 1977 - mini booklet marking World Gratitude Day. Includes; World Gratitude Day Award, Sri Chinmoy's talk. Gratitude Day honourees 1966-77 (including Japan, the first country to recognise World Gratitude Day. Also a proclamation by Jimmy Carter in August 1972 (at the time Governor of Georgia).

External Links

• World Gratitude Day - East West Center
• World Gratitude Day at Sri Chinmoy.org
• World Gratitude Day Award at Sri Chinmoy Library

Photos: Bhashwar Hart

On 27 September 1983, Sri Chinmoy began playing the cello in Puerto Rico.

The cello became one of Sri Chinmoy's favourite instruments and he would often play it in Peace Concerts, both as an instrumental and accompanied with voice. These two recordings are from the Paris Peace Concert in 1984.

Pablo Casals

It was also in Puerto Rico, in the early 1970s, that Sri Chinmoy met the renowned cellist Pablo Casals — more than a decade before he took up the instrument himself. See: Meeting at Sri Chinmoy Library

Sri Chinmoy recounts the meeting:

I met Maestro Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico. He was on the wrong side of ninety, and I had perhaps scarcely crossed the barrier of forty. I was quite young. I still had a considerable amount of hair!…

At that time I had never thought of playing the cello. He said, “Do you want to hear a piece? I will play a piece by Bach.”

He was an expert, a real expert — a maestro of the highest order. He started playing, and I was listening most devotedly, with deep feeling. He wanted to play another piece, so he played and I appreciated him…

One or two years after his departure from the earth-scene, Pablo Casals started coming from the soul’s world when I gave Peace Concerts. He would sit always facing me, about a metre away, when I was playing. He would meditate very deeply.

Cello in Peace Concerts

Sri Chinmoy playing the cello at the foot of the Kamakura Buddha, 24 September 1987.

Sri Chinmoy playing the cello, 26 May 2005.

Sri Chinmoy playing the cello, Milan, 28 May 2005.

Sri Chinmoy plays the cello at Borobudur, 25 December 2005.

Listen to the cello performance from Borobudur:

Early experiments

Although he did not take up the cello as a serious instrument until 1983, Sri Chinmoy had recorded an album on the cello as early as 1975: Sri Chinmoy Plays the Cello: 1.

Recorded in 1975, re-released in 1993 and 2006. See: Radio Sri Chinmoy

Cello albums

Sri Chinmoy Plays the Cello (1975; re-released 1993, 2006)

Cello — Victory's Dance-Smile. Improvisations on the cello (1985)

Maestro Sri Chinmoy — cello and Sanskrit chants (2005)

Writings on the cello

The cellist

On 5th September 1992, Queens Botanical Garden was dedicated to world peace, as part of the Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms programme, which began in 1986.

The Queens Botanical Garden is just three miles from Sri Chinmoy's home in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

Sri Chinmoy meditated and offered the words. "I am bowing to the beauty, fragrance, splendour, purity and divinity of the Queens Botanical Garden." 

After a loud plane flew over from nearby LaGuardia airport causing a pause, Sri Chinmoy continued:

"This is the strength of outer noise, but there shall come a time when we shall hear, feel and grow into the power of our inner peace. The power of inner peace is infinitely, infinitely, infinitely stronger and infinitely more fruitful than the strength of outer noise."

The plaque which was mounted on a 5-ton rock reads:

Queens Botanical Garden joins a growing number of international sites dedicated to world peace in the name of Sri Chinmoy, the twentieth century's first global man and a universal ambassador of peace. These "peace blossoms" reflect the magnificence, beauty and power of Nature as does the grandeur of the Matterhorn, Switzerland, the cascading power of Niagara Falls, Canada, and now the profuse color, tranquillity, and quiet beauty of this Botanical Garden. Sri Chinmoy has devoted his life to the pursuit of world harmony and the fulfillment of the human spirit which this garden inspires us to contemplate. May our moments of peace and communion with nature's magic remind us of the universal peace which is our birthright.

"From time immemorial man has been striving to become better than he is, to enter into new worlds of achievement and glory. Yet no matter what man achieves he aspires for something higher. The distant goal that we reach for today becomes but a starting point for tomorrow's even more glorious journey. This urge to go beyond ourselves is the source of all human progress, the reason we compose music, climb mountains, search for truth. It is our assurance that one day we will change the face of reality from bright to brighter, to brightest; from high to higher, to highest. And even then we will not and cannot stop, for there is no end to the progress we can achieve."

"Peace-seed must be sown
In the heart,
Only then will it grow
In the body of human life."

— Sri Chinmoy

By entrance sign.

Related

• Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms at Sri Chinmoy.org

Photographs: Ramaniya, Maral.

On 19 August 2005, Sri Chinmoy lifted Sri Shibendu Lahiri, Great Grandson of Sri Lahiri Mahashoy, Great Bengali Yogi of The 19th Century - Jamaica, NY, USA.

Sri Chinmoy meets Sri Shibendu Lahiri with a photo of Lahiri Mahashoy in the background.

Lifting Up The World

Sri Chinmoy lifts Sri Shibendu Lahiri as part of his "Lifting Up The World With a Oneness-Heart" award - a programme to honour individuals of distinction.

Lahiri Mahashoy: A Revelation Of The Beyond

Sri Chinmoy wrote a book (2005) about the great yogi Lahiri Mahashoy and offered a dedication to Sri Shibendu Lahiri.

"I am dedicating this humble book to Sri Shibendu Lahiri, the great grandson of Lahiri Mahashoy, on the occasion of his blessingful visit to our Aspiration-Ground, Queens, New York, 19 August 2005."

Sri Chinmoy, Lahiri Mahashoy: A Revelation Of The Beyond, Agni Press, New York, 2005

One of the many stories from the book

High time to wake up

Lahiri Mahashoy's wife was named Kashimani. Once she woke up in the middle of the night and was so surprised to see that her husband was not at his usual meditation spot. He was seated in a lotus position high up in the air, quite a few metres above the ground.

Lahiri Mahashoy said to her, "Kashimani, it is high time for you to wake up from your sleep. This time when you wake up, remain in that condition forever. Do not go back to ignorance-sleep. Get up and look for wisdom-light within."

Then Lahiri Mahashoy initiated his wife as his disciple.

Spiritual commentary

Human life is unconscious sleep. Divine life is conscious awareness. Unconscious sleep makes us feel that there are millions of things which we cannot do on earth. Conscious awareness shows us clearly that there is nothing here on earth or there in Heaven which we cannot do. As a matter of fact, conscious awareness makes us feel unmistakably that everything has already been done. What we are doing now is only observing and appreciating it.

Sri Chinmoy, Lahiri Mahashoy: A Revelation Of The Beyond, Agni Press, New York, 2005

Vivekananda used to say, "If you have to value anything, you have to pay for it. Otherwise you do not value it." If any book comes free, you do not touch even one page. But if you buy the book, you read it. If you give anything for free, nobody pays any attention. Anything free, nobody values. So, I said, "If you want to value your spiritual life, the day you entered into the spiritual life, you have to remember. To value your spiritual life, which is the most important thing in your life, you should give ten dollars in an envelope, saying, 'On this day, I joined the Path.'"

And the day you were 'baptised', the day you got your spiritual name, on that day I am bringing it down to five dollars. So, I make fifteen dollars.

Then Pulak started arguing with me. First, he said it was too much money. That was not enough. Then he said, "How will people know which day?"

I told him, "The day they hear from Centre leaders, or from someone who has given me the pictures. That day I will take it as the day, the day the person hears."

He started, "But you did not concentrate on that day. You concentrated on another day."

I said, "My force will remain for a few days. If Ashrita or the Centre leaders or anybody has to give the message, my force will hold."

But no, again he started saying, "But you did not concentrate and accept them on that day."

I told him we have to start with him! But I enjoyed his arguments, idiot!

Then the culprit became Anjali. The day before yesterday was her name-day, so she gave five dollars. Then again, Pulak started saying things. I said, "It is not compulsory, for God's sake! It is only for those who value their spiritual life. At least on that day, when you give ten dollars, you will say, 'O my God, I entered into the spiritual life. What am I doing? Now I have so many problems.' That will pinch you, when you give ten dollars. It will awaken you, and on the day you will do well."

People always say, in India also, that birthdays are the most miserable days. People are only thinking of gifts, this and that. Once, in the Ashram, on his birthday, somebody thought, "How could Mother refuse something? Mother will be so happy to give it to me." He went on his birthday with a list to have a little butter, to have it sanctioned. Mother threw away the list. She said, "Birthdays are for butter?"

If you remember that on such-and-such date you came to the Path, then how you prepared yourself, how much sacrifice you made to leave your parents and dear ones, if those good ideas come to your mind, you will value it. Otherwise, when it is a matter of birthdays, for five or six days beforehand, your mind will be all the time thinking this and that, about parties and so on. I said, "The best thing is to think of your birthday as the day you joined the Path. If you remember that day, twenty or twenty-five or thirty years ago, the ancient sincerity, intensity and depth will come to the fore."

There was another condition. Nobody should deprive Kanan of his business. Here, on their birthday, they send me flowers or on their soul's day they send flowers. That has to continue. I do not want his business to suffer. You rogues, you will give me ten dollars then you will forget to give flowers!

If you put your money in an envelope to give as a love-offering, on that day you will remember how much sacrifice you have made to come to this Path, how much sincerity, simplicity and purity, how much eagerness you felt when you joined the Path. Otherwise, you are observing the day but you are not going back to the source. I am giving you an opportunity to go back to when you started your journey

You can spread it; I am not going to make announcement. But if it does not work, if you people feel it is the same thing — when you give the flowers you do not mean it, but you just observe mechanically. So, by giving five or ten dollars, it will be the same thing. If that is the case, then what can I do?

22 March 1998

Published: Sri Chinmoy, "The Golden Mystic Sun", Madal Bal Studio, 2021.

Sri Chinmoy offered the following talk at Aspiration-Ground on 8 August 1988. It was the 55th anniversary of the very first time his parents first brought him to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the spiritual life.

It is a most significant day in my life. On August 8th, 1933, when I was two years old, I came to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from Chittagong. My parents and my elder sisters and brothers brought me to the Ashram and the spiritual life — the place of my heart's awakening and my life's oneness-realisation with the highest Absolute Supreme. Nothing can be more important, more significant, more meaningful and more fruitful than to go and sit at the feet of one's Master in the life of a seeker.

The Supreme in me is your Master, everybody's Master, but try to remember the day, the very first day, you saw me physically in your heart of aspiration and life of dedication. That was the day your soul consciously, cheerfully, lovingly and unconditionally made its eternal connection, birthless and deathless connection, with my soul. If you want to remain a seeker throughout Eternity and if you want to remain in my Boat forever and forever, then the very first day you saw me on the physical plane is the most supreme significant day in your life.

On that day, your heart, aspiration-heart, listened to the dictates of your illumination-soul, and your illumination-soul made a solemn promise to the Absolute Lord Beloved Supreme that you would manifest the Highest Absolute Lord Supreme’s Light and Delight in and through your heart, mind, vital and body here on this earth planet.

This day can never be forgotten. This day can ever be treasured with one's heart's ceaseless love and deathless devotion and oneness-surrender-delight.

On that day, the Master offers the most significant message to the disciple: "My child, you are of me and me alone."

And the disciple tells the Master, "My Lord, I am for you and for you alone."

I am an Indian, so two Indian sweets I am offering because I was two years old when I came to see my Master.
 

Published: Sri Chinmoy, "The Golden Mystic Sun", Madal Bal Studio, 2021.