Author: Tejvan Pettinger

Meditation Month, 2012

In Auckland, New Zealand, an October-long program of meditation courses, concerts, and other events attracted over 500 people to the Sri Chinmoy Centre’s annual Meditation Month activities. A highlight was the Music of the Heart concert– 350 people filled a central city hall on a rainless Tuesday night. Guest performers – seven musicians from Europe, Ireland and the U.S. and all members of the international Sri Chinmoy Centres –  joined with local  Centre members in various instrumental and vocal combinations, drawing from Sri Chinmoy’s vast legacy of 22,000 compositions.

festival-heart

 

Music has the power to positively change and enrich our world and Sri Chinmoy’s songs  are all unified by the recurring spiritual themes of inner peace, self-mastery, the quest for God-discovery –  he saw music as a powerful way of uplifting and inspiring humanity, a universal language uniting people together as a oneness-world family.  In the concert program Sri Chinmoy’s own words describe this:

 “When we listen to soulful music, or when we ourselves play soulful music, immediately our inner existence climbs up high, higher, highest………A river is flowing through us, a river of consciousness, and this consciousness is all the time illumined.”

 

A well received feature of the ‘Music of the Heart’ concert was its audience involvement – it invited concert-goers to bring their own meditative peacefulness to the evening, and to feel that both musicians and audience together could co-create an atmosphere of tranquility and joy.

“Put aside the thoughts of the day” the concert program encouraged, “ and let the mind be wide and empty like a summer sky; concentrate for a few minutes on the calm rhythm of the breath, breathing deeply into the heart. Feel the music in your spiritual heart like a river of consciousness flowing in and through you.”

 

The Music of the Heart tour party then went on to Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and very successful concerts there. Commented one audience member: “ Some of the music, especially the women singing a cappella style, really touched my heart. It was a doorway into a forgotten part of myself, an unremembered inner space, and I found myself hoping the music would never end.”

Free Meditation Workshops for Business

In Auckland, New Zealand, members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre have been offering free meditation workshops for a variety of local businesses.

meditation
You don’t need to go to the mountains to learn how to meditate.

Jogyata Dallas from Auckland writes about this new project:

An interesting and very encouraging development in the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, has been our growing involvement in offering free meditation workshops to large businesses and institutions – hospitals, banks, television studios, insurance companies, manufacturing warehouses, even beauty salons! An offer in our usual ‘Learn Meditation’ flier to provide an instructor who will introduce the ABCs of meditation and stress management ‘at your place of work’, and in any suitable lunchtime or morning session, is attracting a growing response.

In one Auckland medical centre I was asked by the director how they could maintain this new skill and incorporate meditation into the very stressful lives of their employees. I suggested, without much hope that this would happen, that they set aside a dedicated meditation room or ‘peace’ room and meet several times weekly. The suggestion was enthusiastically welcomed and I have since learnt that this program is now very much alive. I gave them some of Sri Chinmoy’s music, his main book on meditation and a clutch of my favorite incense – new friendships forged!

 

At an international beauty clinic where we gave a one hour lunchtime workshop, the fifteen women were so pleased with their feeling of an uncharacteristic inner peace that they presented me with a large box of beauty products! – hair restoratives (the only item of real interest!), expensive skin tonics,  a slew of shampoos and revitalizers. My popularity among the women members of our Centre shot up overnight when I distributed these the following day.

beauty products

 

Last week I was invited to introduce meditation to a group of lawyers on the 35th floor of a corporate tower. We all enjoyed ourselves, we were all inspired!  Human beings have their fundamental spirituality in common, even where our choice of lifestyle or profession takes us into such divergent worlds of experience.

 

I like to remind people how special they are to even have an interest or curiosity in meditation – a very significant time in our evolution, as though the soul is stirring after a long time of forgetfulness.

 

I do like this outreach program very much – the consequences are immeasurable but profound, the ripples of positive change spreading out into time and space and  touching countless, multiplying lives with the perennial message of awakening.

By: Jogyata Dallas

Find out more at:

photo top: Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries. Photo middle, Flickr CC licence

Sport and Meditation – New Book

Recently, a new book was published entitled – Sport and Meditation  – the inner dimension of sport by Sri Chinmoy.

Sri Chinmoy taught that sport and meditation can easily complement each other. For example, Sri Chinmoy wrote that the poise we gain from meditation can increase our outer strength.

“In sports we need energy, strength and dynamism. When we meditate, we make our mind calm and quiet. If inside us there is peace, then we will derive tremendous strength from our inner life. That is to say, if I have a peaceful moment, even for one second, that peace will come to me as solid strength in my sports, whether I am running or jumping or throwing. That strength is almost indomitable strength, whereas if we are restless, we do not have strength like that.” [1]

Sri Chinmoy himself was an active sportsman. In his early life, he was the decathlon champion of the ashram where he grew up. Later in life, he took up weightlifting – demonstrating that the power of meditation can help us to transcend our capacities.

The new compilation of writings by Sri Chinmoy includes a foreward by 3-time duathlon World Champion, Olivier Bernhard. He begins

“For me, sport is meditation. Athletes in many sports speak about experiencing a state of energy flow when being in perfect balance with their mind and body. It is a state where pain and fatigue do not exist.”

The book is published by Goldenshore.de. It contains inspiring anecdotes with great athletes such as Carl Lewis (a long time friend of Sri Chinmoy) It also includes practical tips how you can improve your own sporting practise through incorporating techniques of concentration and meditation. There is also a section on self-transcendence for older people. With his weightlifting, Sri Chinmoy wished to show that age need not be a barrier.

“There is no age limit. When we pray and meditate, we go far beyond the domain of the mind, the physical mind that doubts our capacities.” (p.174, Sport and Meditation)

 

Footnotes

[1] Sri Chinmoy, Run And Smile, Smile And Run, Agni Press, 2000.

Play about Sri Ramakrishna

Recently, members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Prague, Czech Republic performed a play about the lives of Spiritual Master, Sri Ramakrishna and his disciple Swami Vivekananda.

The play was based on passages from the original book “Drink, Drink My Mother’s Nectar” by Sri Chinmoy. This short play captured some key moments from the life of Sri Ramakrishna, and his disciple, Swami Vivekananda.

ramakrishna

Sri Ramakrishna (Thakur) is one of the greatest spiritual figures of modern times. He taught the essential unity of all religions – illustrating, though his own sadhana, that each religion could take you to God.

Swami Vivekananda (Naren) become the living embodiment of Sri Ramakrishna’s vision. In 1893, he travelled to America and captivated the audience at his address of the World Parliament of Religions, in Chicago.

THAKUR (to himself) : The synthesis of all religions, the union of East and West, self-dedication, self-sacrifice: these are all big, big words, big theories, big ideas, big ideals. But where are they, Mother? Mother, you are talking to me about all these things. These are such high ideals. But where are your dedicated soldiers? Mother, you never tell me lies. Where are they? Where are your chosen children? O chosen children of my Mother Kali, my heart is crying for you. Come. Come. Do Mother’s work. You have to fulfil the Mother. You have to manifest the Mother on earth.

Excerpt from Play

THAKUR (Sri Ramakrishna) (with all affection and love) : Ah, Naren, you have come. You have come to me after such a long time. I have been talking to worldly people for so long. I have become practically deaf from hearing the complaints and unaspiring chatter of ordinary people. People are throwing all their worldly desires into me. Now I have nobody I can speak to about my inner life. I have nobody to tell what is going on in my heart. Naren, tell me, when are you going to come again?

NAREN (Swami Vivekananda): The moment I get an opportunity I will be back again. Why do you think of me so much? Why do you speak to others all the time about Naren, Naren, Naren? Don’t you know the story in the Puranas about King Bharata who always thought of his deer? Then, in the following incarnation, he became a deer.

THAKUR: You are right. But what can I do? I can’t keep my mind away from you. All the time I think of you. When I don’t see you I feel miserable. (Closes his eyes and speaks to Mother Kali.) Mother, listen to what Naren is telling me. (After a few moments he opens his eyes and speaks to Naren.) I will not listen to you. You are not saying the right thing. Mother says that I see you as Narayan, I see you as the incarnation of God. The day I don t see you as the incarnation of God, I will not even look at your face.

NAREN: If that is true, then why have you ignored me for such a long time? I have come to you and you have avoided me, ignored me mercilessly. You have shown me such contempt the past few times.

THAKUR: Mother, Mother, listen to this fellow! (To Naren.) Can I avoid you? Can I ignore you? Can I show contempt to you? Impossible! You do not know; you cannot fathom my inner workings Naren, tell me one thing. Granted, I have not been nice to you. I have been very unkind, very rude to you. So why do you keep coming to me?

NAREN: I come here to listen to you. I adore you. I worship you. I want to see you, Thakur, even if you are unkind to me. I love your presence. I love your meditative mood. I love your trance. I love everything you do because I love you.

THAKUR: My son, I have been testing you. I wanted to see what would happen if I didn’t show you affection and love—whether you would stay with me or not. It is only you who can bear such indifference and contempt from me. Had it been somebody else, he would not have come to my place anymore. Nobody else would have stayed with me. Whoever got that kind of treatment from me would have hated me to the end of his life.

NAREN: It is all due to your compassion, to your love, that I stayed. You know that my anger is of the quickest. But you gave me shelter in your heart. You brought me into your soul and made me your true son.

Members of the cast from the play about Sri Ramakrishna

Related

Songs of the Soul NY

Recently, members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre offered a concert of Sri Chinmoy’s music at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan.

songs-soul

The concert featured music from Ghandarva Loka and also contributions from the Russian music legend, Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov. The music was composed by Sri Chinmoy in English or his native Bengali.

songs soul

The concert, which was free for members of the public, was part of the 81st birthday celebrations for Sri Chinmoy. Over 1,000 people visited New York from all other the world to take part in events of meditation, music and sport.

photos: Jaitra

Recording of Bengali Songs

A new recording of 13 significant compositions by Sri Chinmoy, sung by various members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre.

From the publishing of his first songbook (The Garden of Love-Light) in 1972 to his passing in 2007, Sri Chinmoy composed over 22,000 songs — an average of 640 songs per year for 35 years! Of these 22,000 songs, over 13,500 are in his native Bengali and over 8,300 are in English, ranging in length from one-line mantric songs to a 208-line epic.

This recording includes every 1,000th song from the first song (Tamasa Rate Nayan Pate)  to the 13,000th  song  (Shakpura Shakpura).

Sri Chinmoy writes that soulful singing can significantly help a seeker to go deep within.

But when we want to get something very, very deep, something that will help us to climb up high, higher, highest, soulful singing is the right thing.

Many, many times I have seen that when people sing very prayerfully and soulfully—not the songs that are fast and lively and give joy to our vital—but songs like Jiban debata or Bhulite diyona, Mother-Earth or the soul of that particular place receives light. Afterwards, that light spreads like a fountain from any part of the world where people are singing soulfully.

My Heart – Melody

Grahak Wins 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race

Grahak Cunningham of Perth, Australia, finished first in the 2012 edition of the 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race. Despite four heat waves and other difficulties, Grahak ran the fourth fastest performance in the sixteen year history of the race today, covering the 3100 mile distance in 43 days,10 hours, 36 minutes and 39 seconds.

Grahak finish

photo: Utpal

For the 3100 mile race, Grahak averaged 71.363 miles /114.848 kilometers per day. He becomes the third man in history to average over 70 miles for the duration of the race. The 35 year old has run the race four times now, with each one faster than his previous effort.


Grahak at 2000 miles

grahak

photo Jowan

Grahak with Sri Chinmoy, the founder of the race, in the 2007 edition.

Related

A Moment’s Peace

A Moment’s Peace is an inspirational project linking the peace dreamers of today with those of future generations.

A Moment's Peace
Unveiling of the ‘World Peace Dreamer Statue’

At a ceremony on Saturday 28 July, the “World Peace Dreamer Statue” was unveiled as part of the ‘Art of Olympians’ – a cultural and artistic contribution to the 2012 London Olympics.

opening
Trumpets mark the opening of the Ceremony

The World Peace Dreamer Statue depicts the founder of the World Harmony Run, Sri Chinmoy, holding aloft the Peace Torch that runners have been carrying for the past 25 years on a mission of peace and harmony.

“Peace does not mean the absence of war, peace means the presence of harmony, love, satisfaction and oneness. Peace means a flood of love in the world family.”

– Sri Chinmoy 1

A close up of the statue

  1.   ↩

Spiritual Inspiration

A new blog at Writespirit offers a collection of inspiration spiritual quotes and poetry from a range of poets, luminaries and Spiritual Teachers. The blog is a celebration of the diversity of paths that can lead to the same goal. – Write Spirit Blog

If you have inner peace, nobody can force you to be a slave to the outer reality.

Sri Chinmoy, Peace, Agni Press, 1995.

Continue reading “Spiritual Inspiration”

Everest Aspiration 35th Anniversary

During July 1-2oth 1977, Sri Chinmoy gave a series of spontaneous talks on different aspects of the spiritual life, these were later compiled into a book called ‘Everest-Aspiration’.

Everest Aspiration – Spiritual Talks from the Heart of Silence

At Radio Sri Chinmoy, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Everest-Aspiration, there is a new published recording of some of these talks spoken by Sri Chinmoy.

These talks touch on the mysteries of the spiritual life and present a clear and inspiring goal for seekers to follow.

Excerpt from Talk on ‘Satistfaction’

Like us, the soul also deals with life. In the case of the soul, there is the universal life and the transcendental Life. When the soul-bird comes down into the world-arena, it spreads its wings and becomes inseparably one with the universal life. At the end of its earthly sojourn, when the soul returns to its own region, it enters into the transcendental Life. Life is nothing short of God’s Dream, and this Dream is birthless and deathless. This birthless and deathless Dream God fulfils in and through His all-embracing and all-fulfilling reality: man.

– Satisfaction, from Everest-Aspiration, Part 1

Mantras for Meditation

At Radio Sri Chinmoy we have published a popular CD of mantras useful for incorporating into meditation exercises.

mantras

These short mantric songs were composed by Sri Chinmoy and are fairly easy to learn by heart. Sri Chinmoy teaches that music can offer us a real meditation experience. Singing these mantras can help us to leave the mind and enter into the heart.

Sri Chinmoy writes of meditation and music:

“Meditation and music cannot be separated. When we cry from the inmost recesses of our heart for Peace, Light and Bliss, that is the best type of meditation. We cannot meditate twenty-four hours a day, but we can meditate, say, for two hours a day. Then we can play music or we can listen to music for a couple of hours a day. Next to meditation is music. But it has to be soulful music, the music that stirs and elevates our aspiring consciousness. When we play soulful music, psychic music, then immediately we are transported to the highest realm of consciousness. When we play music soulfully, we go high, higher, highest.”

Sri Chinmoy, God The Supreme Musician, Agni Press, 1976.

The mantras were recorded by British music group Ananda