On 28th August, a variety of performers and guest musicians offered two consecutive Songs of the Soul concerts in honour of the musical legacy of Sri Chinmoy.
The music played was all composed by Sri Chinmoy, but had a range of interpretations, from the dynamic and energising Ghandava Loka Orchestra, to the beautiful singing of Mountain Silence
Gandharva Loka Orchestra
Karteek Clarke, a member of the Edinburgh Sri Chinmoy Centre, completed his 10th successful crossing of the English Channel this August 13th. After facing difficult weather conditions, which left him feeling seasick and tired, Karteek completed the epic crossing in a time of 16 hours 59 minutes.
Karteek completed his first successful channel swim in 1997. Since that year, despite the many challenges of channel swimming, he has been repeatedly drawn back to try another channel crossing. He joins an elite group of people who have managed more than one crossing. In total, only around 1,000 people have successfully swum the English Channel – compared to around 4,000 people who have climbed Mount Everest.
Interviewed by the Scotsman, Karteek said his practice of yoga and meditation, under the tutelage of his teacher Sri Chinmoy, helped give the inner strength necessary for such a difficult endeavour.
“…I keep going back to hone my meditation skills as our Sri Chinmoy teacher encourages us to undertake these tasks to promote self-discipline. Like most brands of yoga, the aim is to silence the restless mind and purge it of negative thoughts. After about six hours in the water, you’re cold, wet and miserable, but it starts to become quite exhilarating…”
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Every day, a new poem or quote by Sri Chinmoy is published at Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy was a prolific poet, writing many thousands of poems from short instructional aphorisms to longer devotional poems.
The divine Love
Does not speak-
It only acts.
– Sri Chinmoy
From: Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees vol 39
Yesterday, Suprabha Beckjord completed her 13th 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race finishing the distance in a time of 60 days+08:58:51.
She was the final finisher of this year’s event. Making 11 finishers out of the 13 starters. The race was won by Asprihanal Aalto.
Suprabha is the only female athlete to complete the race and the only runner to complete all 13 editions. Her total distance in the last 13 races is a staggering 40,302.226 miles/ 64,622.160 km. Which is close to running twice around the world. When not running the 3100 mile race, Suprabha owns a small gift shop in Washington D.C.
The New York Sri Chinmoy Centre offer free meditation classes throughout the year. Recently, a new course was offered in Manhattan. Over 200 people attended the course which taught beginners the basics of meditation.
My meditation
Is my soul’s
Soundless sound-conversation
With my Inner Pilot.
– Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy’s path of meditation shares many similarities with other types of meditation. In particular Sri Chinmoy teaches the benefit of meditating in the spiritual heart. Sri Chinmoy feels if people could leave the mind and enter into the heart, then it is much easier to quell the restless thoughts which usually disturb our mind.
“You must direct your full, intense concentration on the heart. You must feel that you are not the mind. You have to feel that you are growing into the heart. You are only the heart and nothing else.”
– Sri Chinmoy [The Mind and the Heart ]
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Ashrita Furman of Queens, New York continues to set more Guinness World records as he enters the Record books for holding 100 simultaneous Guinness World records. Since his first successful record back in 1979, Ashrita has broken 237 official Guiness World Records.
Recent records include, most M&Ms (40) eaten in one minute with chopsticks, record for poem translated into the most languages (111) and fastest skipping mile.
Ashrita credits his record breaking capacity to studying meditation under the tutelage of his spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy.
Related Articles
Record Breaker – article in Daily Telegraph
A Day in the Life – article at New York Times
A new version of the Sri Chinmoy Songs site has been developed. – www.srichinmoysongs.com
Sri Chinmoy composed over 20,000 songs during his lifetime. The website will be an online collection of the music scores, translations and audio recordings of the songs.
Sri Chinmoy’s songs reflect different aspects of the spiritual life and are devotional in nature. Sri Chinmoy also translated over 2,400 of his Bengali songs into devotional poetry. – Garden of Love – Light
The new site has been developed by Aparajita Fishman, who worked hard on creating the new website with its large database of songs and audio recordings.
Members of the British, French and Irish Sri Chinmoy Centres met up in an old stately house on the outskirts of Dublin for a weekend of meditation, fun and music.
Activities included a two mile race, advertised by our Irish hosts as ‘fast and downhill’. Well actually the first mile was fast and downhill, but the second mile led to a few slower times than usual….
Despite, heavy rain during this summer, seven runners have already completed the epic 3100 Mile Race Self Transcendence Race. The race was won for the sixth time by flying Finn, Asprihanal Aalto in a time of 43 days+16:28:06
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Recently, the World Harmony Run visited Iceland for a short run around the island. The World Harmony Run began on July 1st and finished on the 16th July in ReykjavÃk the capital of Iceland. The run passed through the great natural beauty of the island meeting many local people along the way.
World Service Plants is an international program encouraging the protection and improvement of the environment by restoring degraded ecosystems by planting native or indigenous tree species. The photo below is taken in France where members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre took part in a programme of planting trees.
Nature does not know
How to divide.
Nature only knows
How to unite
And multiply.
Excerpt from The Beginning And The Arriving by Sri Chinmoy (founder of World Service Plants)