As part of the Sri Chinmoy Poetry Festival, August 2010, an international team of individuals helped set a new Guinness World Record for translating a poem by Sri Chinmoy into the most number of languages (146).
Those reciting the poem included Olympic legend Carl Lewis, Guinness top record holder Ashrita Furman, UN Ambassadors and Consul Generals as well as people from a wide variety of different countries.
The poem was
Be like a child,
Act like a child.
Go from one flower to another
In your heart-garden
Until you find complete joy
And perfect satisfaction.
– Sri Chinmoy
The poem was from the new book “Jewels of Happiness†written by Sri Chinmoy. The 146 languages ranged from Bengali and Maori to Newari and Zulu, “Be Like a Child†was expressed with some of the most unusual and charming communication sounds in the globe.
Ashrita Furman has been setting Guinness World Records since 1979 and has broken 299 Guinness World Records on all seven continents.
A new collection of Sri Chinmoy’s writings called The Jewels of Happiness is to be published – the book touches on themes such as inspired living, inner peace and creating inner joy.
The Jewels of Happiness is published by Watkins and includes a collection of poems, aphorisms and writings with wisdom for living a more peaceful and joyful life.
“Try not to change the world. You will fail. Try to love the world. Lo, the world is changed. Changed forever.”
– Sri Chinmoy (1)
“Joy, spontaneity and self-giving always go together. If one has a joyful heart, that means that one possesses spontaneity or a spontaneous heart and also that one is self-giving. Or we can say that self-giving is the hyphen, the connecting link, between joy and spontaneity.”
– Sri Chinmoy, The Jewels of Happiness
The Jewels of Happiness will be on sale from September 7th. In the forward to the book, Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes:
“These sweet gems of wisdom by my dear friend Sri Chinmoy are timeless truths full of encouragement, love and goodness.â€
Recently, the 14th edition of the 3100 Mile Self-transcendence Race finished with six runners completing the full distance and another four runners completing over 2700 miles.
photo by Jowan
This year the race was run in gruelling temperatures and humidity which made the race even more testing. The race was founded in 1997 by Sri Chinmoy, a keen advocate of promoting the concept of self-transcendence.
Video Of Race From ABC News
The race was won in a time of 46 days, 07:37:24 by Asprihanal Aalto
A beautiful yellow rose variety named after Sri Chinmoy. It was grown at a nursery in Scotland. Sri Chinmoy described it as a ‘Scottish Blossom Fragrance’
Sri Chinmoy Rose
The Sri Chinmoy Rose was inaugurated in 2004. The first bush was planted at the Hidden Gardens in Glasgow, on mid-summer, June 2004. The above photo is from a bush growing outside the Edinburgh Sri Chinmoy Centre on Cannondale Street.
Sri Chinmoy has stated:
“The significance of the rose in the inner world is most important. The rose, like other flowers, has fragrance and beauty, but it also has something special, unique. There are very few flowers in God’s creation that please God to the greatest extent. The rose is one of those, along with the lotus. Rose and lotus: these are the two mystical flowers. These are the two flowers in God’s Heart-Garden that please Him most.”
The World Harmony Run recently passed through the mountainous country of Mongolia, the scenery providing a wonderful backdrop to this initiative to promote world peace.
Flags flying in the wind. Photo Pranlobha.
Sri Chinmoy, the founder of the World Harmony Run, visited Mongolia in 2007 where he was given an award by the President Nambaryn Enkhbayar See: Sri Chinmoy Mongolia visit
Pranlobha Kalagian from Seattle, writes about her experience participating in the World Harmony Run across Mongolia. Mongolia dreaming
“The majestic Mongolian landscape plays a feature role in this beautiful coverage of the World Harmony Run’s travels across the country, meeting school children, soldiers, track runners, city officials and large gatherings. “
Video and Edit: Erdenebaatar Gankhuu. Postediting and Coding: Kedar Misani
Sri Chinmoy moved to America from his native India in April 1964, during his time in the US, he wrote several books and articles about the spiritual qualities of America and those inspired souls who helped found and build up the nation.
“America’s special strength
Lies not in frightening the weak
And challenging the strong,
But in strengthening the weak
And illumining the strong.”
– Sri Chinmoy
In this new book – America the Beautiful, many of Sri Chinmoy’s writings on America and great Americans such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King and others, have been drawn together and published in this new book.
Sri Chinmoy took up weightlifting in 1985, aged 54, for the next 22 years, Sri Chinmoy achieved many significant lifts showing the power of self-transcendence even in the evening of his life.
Recently, an event was held to commemorate Sri Chinmoy’s 25th anniversary of his weightlifting. It was attended by many dignitaries and figures from the weightlifting world, such as Bill Pearl who often acted as Master of Ceremonies for Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting performances.
A statue of Sri Chinmoy holding the World Harmony Run Torch was dedicated in Finland on Sunday June 13, 2010. The statue is located in a park on the outskirts of the city of Vaasa on the west coast of Finland overlooking the Bothnian Bay. Vaasa is a bilingual city with street signs in Finnish and Swedish and about 1/4 of the city’s residents speak Swedish rather than Finnish. The Vaasa Sri Chinmoy Centre has a long affiliation with this park as there is a Sri Chinmoy Peace Mile with a plaque located in the park and the Centre’s Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team also holds 2 mile races in the park.
Sculpted by British artist Kaivalya Torpy, the life-size statue of World Harmony Run founder Sri Chinmoy is the second in the world to be dedicated in which the visionary is depicted holding a World Harmony Run Torch. The first such statue is located in Mazatlan Mexico.
The statue in the park in a photo at 11 pm. At this time of year truly the land of the Midnight Sun.
Local park officials, politicians and members of the Vaasa and Helsinki Sri Chinmoy Centres joined together for the dedication. Sri Chinmoy Centre members from other countries such as Norway, Sweden, Russia, Italy, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, Austria and the United States were also present at the statue unveiling in the park.
World Harmony Runners representing Russia ran into the park with the Torch and a musical group from the Czech republic sang a song composed by Sri Chinmoy about the country of Finland.
The large nature attraction, called Sand Bay Park in English, contains tall trees and winding paths through the woods for hiking and biking. A beach pavilion is nearby and there are benches interspersed throughout the park providing views out over the water. The statue is located close to a Villa and gazebo available for rental for group functions and meetings. Participants gathered after the ceremony to share a meal and cake in the Villa nearby the statue.
Later that evening, a Songs of the Soul Concert was held in a concert hall in dowtown Vaasa with performances by Sangit Desh and Agnikana’s Group.
The 3100 Mile self-transcendence race was founded by Sri Chinmoy, with the distance of 3100 miles first run in 1997. See: About 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race.
Recently, several European centres met up in Salzburg for a weekend of games, sport, music and meditation in the beautiful surroundings of the Swiss Alps
Report by Standa Zublaty, Czech
Over the weekend of 22-23 May, members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre met up for three days of sport, music, meditation, games and above all – the beautiful nature of Austrian Alps near Salzburg. Evening programs included a few musical performances, meditations and comic quiz games. During the day various activities such as running, hiking and boat trips were organised – giving people the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of nature.
