Author: Tejvan Pettinger

Online Meditation Guide

Members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre frequently give free meditation classes in cities around the world, our online meditation guide can give a few insights into the practise of meditation.

meditation-speaks

An online meditation guide can be found here: Online Meditation Guide

….Begin by thinking of meditation as a journey – your own abiding happiness is the goal. If you are ready to begin this journey, then the guidelines in the following pages will greatly help you – and now is the best time to start….

What is Meditation?

Sri Chinmoy writes that meditation is the tool to try and reach a higher state of consciousness – A realm beyond the domain of thought.

” When we meditate, we do not think at all. The aim of meditation is to free ourselves from all thought. Thought is like a dot on a blackboard. Whether it is good or bad, it is there. Only if there is no thought whatsoever can we grow into the highest reality.”

– Sri Chinmoy 1

  1. Sri Chinmoy, Fifty Freedom-Boats To One Golden Shore, Part 2, Agni Press, 1974. ↩

An Experience of Swimming English Channel

 

On 11 July 2011,, Abhejali Bernardováb from the Czech Republic became the 27th  member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team  to successfully swim the English channel. ( making a total of 42 successful crossing). She completed the swim in a time of 14 hours and 37 minutes.

This video gives an insight into the experience of swimming the English channel, one of the toughest endurance tests in swimming. It is said fewer people have swum the channel than have climbed Mount Everest.

Intrinsic to a successful channel swim is a good support crew who need to help feed and guide the swimmer through the potentially dangerous lanes of the English channel. Abhejali was assisted by support crew Jayalata Dadkovicova, Ritadyumna Tobolkova, Lenka Svecova, Jana Bernardova (Abhejali’s sister) from Czech Republic and Dhavala Stott from Scotland, on the Seafarer II boat piloted by Chris Osmond.

[jwplayer file=”http://www.srichinmoy.tv/wp-content/uploads/media/abhejalis-channel-swim-2632/abhejali-channel-swim.m4v” image=”http://www.srichinmoy.tv/wp-content/uploads/media/abhejalis-channel-swim-2632/abhejali.jpg” width=”480″ height=”270″] Source: Sri Chinmoy TV

Songs of the Soul Concert

On September 2nd, Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov offered a concert of music in honour of Sri Chinmoy’s 80th birth anniversary. Purushottama was accompanied by tabla virtuoso Samir Chatterjee and a host of international musicians from the Sri Chinmoy Centre. The musicians played to an appreciative capacity crowd in the Skirball Center.

After concert. Backdrop, picture of Sri Chinmoy

International musicians from Sri Chinmoy Centre performing with Purushottama

Continue reading “Songs of the Soul Concert”

Iceland Singing Tour

 

In July 2011 twelve singers from around the world visited Iceland to perform Sri Chinmoy’s songs at a variety of churches throughout the country. The 12 male singers sang Sri Chinmoy’s songs acapella to audiences across Iceland. These performances capture the simplicity, soulfulness and purity of Sri Chinmoy’s music. In the video, the performers talk a little about the experience of singing in this concert tour.

[jwplayer file=”http://www.srichinmoy.tv/wp-content/uploads/media/iceland-song-tour-2889/Songs-Iceland-sctv.mp4″ image=”http://www.srichinmoy.tv/wp-content/uploads/featured-images/iceland-song-tour-2889.png” width=”450″] Source: Sri Chinmoy TV

Sri Chinmoy visited Iceland on a number of occasions.

iceland

In this photo, Sri Chinmoy participates in Iceland being declared a Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossom nation.

12 male singers from different Sri Chinmoy Centres sang at several concerts around Iceland.

Sri Chinmoy’s 80th Birthday

August 27th, 2011 was the 80th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s birthday.

New York Councilman and Park Director complete the world's longest garland in honour of Sri Chinmoy's 80th birthday. (photo Prashphutita)

To mark the occasion, Ashrita Furman and 170 members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team created a new Guinness World Record for the world’s largest garland of flowers.

NY-Councilman and Park Director complete the world's longest garland (photo-Jowan-Gauthier)

Using 80,000 carnations, the team created a 2.15 mile garland of flowers around a lake in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Ashrita Furman spoke of the event:

“My friends and I have a tradition to express our gratitude to Sri Chinmoy as he inspires us to discover inner peace, joy and strength through meditation. On the occasion of Sri Chinmoy’s 80th birthday anniversary we wanted to do something special. The huge garland expresses the deep gratitude we feel. There was an great feeling of oneness and harmony because people from 35 countries were connected by the garland in a circle symbolising planet earth.”

Continue reading “Sri Chinmoy’s 80th Birthday”

Epic Feats of Self Transcendence

The 2011 edition of the Self-Transcendence 3100 race recently finished, with the ten runners completing a total of 29,517 miles.

There were eight runners who finished the 3100 mile race in the allotted time frame of 54 days. The total mileage of the 10 runners (29,517) is equivalent to running around the world + another 4,500 miles.

Sarvagata (photo Alakananda)

Sarvagata finishes his first race in first place, with a very impressive time of 44 days, 13:38:52

The race continues whatever the weather. (Photo Alakananda)

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World Harmony Run – John O’Groats to Lands End

In the UK, the World Harmony Run is travelling the entire length of the country from John O’Groats in Scotland, to Lands End in the tip of Cornwall in South England.

Lake District

Members of the World Harmony Run team running through the Lake District.

 

 

Edinburgh

Members of the World Harmony run team in Edinburgh

The World Harmony Run was founded by Sri Chinmoy to promote the ideal of peace, harmony and friendship.

Harmony shall echo
And re-echo
Throughout the length
And breadth of the world
When each human being
Values the beauty
And divinity
Of self-offering.

– Sri Chinmoy 1

temple

On route, the World Harmony Run team visited the largest Tibetan monastery in Europe.

  1.  Sri Chinmoy, My God-Commitments, Agni Press, 1992. ↩

Tribute To Pranavanta

Pranavanta John Montefiore, a student of Sri Chinmoy, was an exceptional artist who developed a strong reputation for his innovative and marathon artworks.

Pranavanta became a meditation student of Sri Chinmoy in 1985. Studying under the tutelage of Sri Chinmoy (who himself was an artist) gave Pranavanta artwork a renewed spiritual energy. A tribute to his life was recently published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

…Montefiore was an aficionado, someone who could wax lyrical on many aspects of the world: not just the beauty that he strived to portray in his artwork but also the sweet sounds of music, the aroma of a flower, even the joy of a terrible pun. Montefiore’s altarpiece in Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle.

When people say ”Words can’t express it”, they obviously never accompanied their words with the enthusiasm of Montefiore. His marathon artworks were best accompanied by his own commentary, as he guided you through the story he was telling with his work. Every dot of paint, its position and shape, had profound significance…

Read more at  Sydney Morning Herald

3100 Mile Race 2011

The 15th Annual Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race begins today, June 12th in Jamaica, Queens, NY.

3100 Mile race

Ten runners will attempt, what the NY Times describes as the “The Mount Everest of ultramarathons” Runners will need to complete  5649 laps of a .5488 of a mile course (883 meters) in the timespan of 52 days. The course also includes a small hill. Runners will need to average 60 miles a day to complete in time. The current record for the 3100 mile race is Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk of Germany who finished the course in 2006 in a time of 41 days 8 hours, averaging 75 miles per day.

The race was founded by Sri Chinmoy, a Spiritual Teacher keen to promote the benefits of sport and individual self-transcendence.

“Self-transcendence gives us joy in boundless measure. When we transcend ourselves, we do not compete with others. We do not compete with the rest of the world, but at every moment we compete with ourselves.”

3100 Mile Race Links

Blog

photo top: Utpal

Human Chain of Peace and Harmony

In Budapest, 10,000 children participated in a human chain of peace and harmony around the Hungarian Parliament; the unique ceremony was part of the global World Harmony Run.

Human Chain for peace and harmony

School children came from up to 300Km away to take part in this special event at Hungary’s Parliament. The event was co-ordinated by organisers of the World Harmony Run – founded by Sri Chinmoy to promote peace and understanding around the world.


Continue reading “Human Chain of Peace and Harmony”