Competitors came from five countries came for the latest edition of Impossibility-Challenger event, which was founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1983 to help record breakers transcend their limits. The records included 11 World Record attempts, 10 of which were successful.
Here is a sample of some of the records:
Earlier editions of the event have been held in Switzerland, Germany and New Zealand.
In the past couple of weeks, there have been some exciting new releases at Radio Sri Chinmoy, including music and recordings by Sri Chinmoy.
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.
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.â€
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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.â€
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.â€
Sri Chinmoy’s students gathered in New York and various places around the world to mark the fifth anniversary of his Mahasamadhi on October 11 – the day he left this earthly stage. Continue reading “October Memorial in New York”
The World Harmony Run ended its 7 month, 2400 km journey connecting people through 48 countries with a vibrant ceremony in Vienna’s central square.
The World Harmony Run seeks to unite people in a celebration of what we all have in common. The closing ceremony took place amidst a vibrant display in the main square by many community groups including dance, martial arts, and cultural groups. One of the most interesting displays was a giant rocking horse, where to make it rock you have to work in unison.
The ceremony ended with a release of balloons, symbolising everyone’s hopes and dreams for a better world.
The Sri Chinmoy Cycling Challenge is an opportunity for people to get involved in a global cycling challenge and log their efforts to target a specific cycle distance. In July/August 2012 members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Europe organized four cycling events to inspire people to cycle more. The first event was the 27-Hour Cycling Relay on 21/22 July in Serbia, organized by Nikhad. Cycling started at 7:00 on Saturday and went on over the night and until 10:00 am next day. There were 13 participants, nine of them were cycling in Nish, two in Belgrade and two in Leskovac. Total distance covered was 1246 km and the longest distance was done by Nikhad Pavlovic with 288km.
The next event, a 12-Hour Cycling Relay, happened on August 5, 2012, in Sofia, Bulgaria, and was organized by Hrishikesh. Four participants totalled 366 km. The most successful participant was Radko Popinski who cycled 140km. On the same day there was another cycling event, The Self-Transcendence Triathlon on Divljan lake in Serbia, organized by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Nish. Besides Serbian sportsmen, the event attracted quite a few participants from Bulgaria. A total of 19 athletes competed in two disciplines: the Olympian (1.5km/40km/10km) and sprint triathlon (0.7km/20km/5km). The winner in the Olympic category was Igor Jovanovic from Nish, Serbia; in the sprint category the winner was Branimir Djuricic from Jagodina, Serbia.
The fourth event was the 27-Hour Cycling Relay on 11/12 August, 2012. The main cycling took place in Zurich, Switzerland, from 7:00 am on 11th August until 10:00 am on 12th August. During the same 27 hours cyclists joined in Geneva, Basel, Winterthur, Baden, as well as in Subotica, Serbia. 42 participants achieved all together 1986.5 km, with the longest distance being absolved by Nikhad Pavlovic
(263.98km).
And finally a Cycling Week in October 2012 was dedicated to the 5th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s mahasamadhi. Cyclists could join any day and anywhere starting on October 5th and finishing at midnight, October 11th. Thirty-five cycling-lovers took part in seven different countries: Switzerland, Italy, USA, Germany, Bosnia & Hercegovina, Serbia and Bulgaria with a total distance of 1515 km.
Sri Chinmoy Completed in two 24 hour cycle races in the 1970s.
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In Auckland, New Zealand, members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre have been offering free meditation workshops for a variety of local businesses.
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.
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
Musicians and artists from all over the world played four concerts all over Mongolia as part of the Songs of the Soul series of concerts, which aim to share Sri Chinmoy’s musical legacy.
The concerts took place in Ulanbataar (2 concerts), Erdenet and Darkhan, drawing approximately 2,500 people between them.
Among the performers were Agnikana’s Group from Czech Republic, Mandu and Visuddhi Trummer from Austria, Pavaka Ritchot from Canada and a final performance conducted by Sahadeva Torpy from London.
Related links
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.
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.
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.
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The World Harmony Run was invited to the European Parliament in Brussels today. During a special program the runners shared Sri Chinmoy’s vision of world-peace and harmony with European politicians from different countries.
Ten MEPs (Members of European Parliament) from Ireland, Finland, Estonia, Slovenia, Luxemburg, Austria and Denmark participated in the program which took place inside the Parliament building. The MEPs held the Peace Torch and gave glowing speeches praising the initiative of running for peace. The ceremony was hosted by Angelika Werthmann, MEP from Austria.
One MEP told the runners, “You are the living embodiment of the motto of the European Parliament, ‘unity in diversity’.” It was the sixth visit of the World Harmony Run to the European Parliament since 2006.
A photo exhibition with photographs from the Run in Europe was presented together with the ceremony. The photo’s will be displayed in the European Parliament for the rest of the year.
