Recently the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Melbourne hosted a Joy-Day. Students of Sri Chinmoy from all over Australia and New Zealand came together to enjoy group meditations, singing spiritual songs together, acting out spiritual plays and participating in lots of fun and games.
In Prague, Czech Republic there is a public exhibition of some of Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting equipment.
Sri Chinmoy began weightlifting in the mid 1980s when he was already in his 50s. Sri Chinmoy said that weightlifting was an opportunity to show how the power of meditation could enable people to transcend their own limitations. In particular, he wished to inspire people in a positive way.
“If I can inspire anybody in this world, then I feel that my life is meaningful. With my weightlifting, I am offering my physical strength to inspire people.†[1]
Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting apparatus, included many unorthodox lifts. He wished to change the boundaries of weightlifting and introduce new challenges.
From the very beginning of my weightlifting career, I have tried to do new things. Why should I go on always with the old system as if that is the only way? I feel that people who come to break the traditional barriers are the ones who are the real heroes.â€Â - Sri Chinmoy [2]
The exhibition includes two free screenings of the film – Challenging Impossibility.
Related
[1] New Zealand Fitness, Feb/March 2006 issue (No.77). Full article reprinted here:
Last weekend 500 of Sri Chinmoy’s students from all over Europe attended a ‘Joy-Day’ in the small town of Mondsee in Austria. Surrounded by the breathtaking mountainous scenery they shared three days of joyful and spiritual activities.
The Joy-Days were created by Sri Chinmoy’s as a means to share the joys of the spiritual life and to be able to experience the power of group meditation.
Aside from the regular meditations there were many recreational activities, such as waterskiing, golfing, horseback riding and archery. The evenings were reserved for enlightening and entertaining program items, like music, theatre and inspirational video’s. In the morning a 5K race was organized around Lake Mondsee.
Samunnati Nataliya Lehonkova from the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Ternopilska, Ukraine, has won the Edinburgh marathon last Sunday May 27th. Under warm conditions and on a hilly marathon course Samunnati completed the race in 2:39:46. It was her second marathon win in her running career, after a win in Poland in 2010. Also it was her second marathon in 6 weeks, after she had placed second in the marathon of Utrecht (The Netherlands) last April in a personal best of 2:39:20. She commented that now she will take some well-deserved rest.
Samunnati says that Sri Chinmoy inspires her in her running career. His philosophy of self-transcendence and going beyond one’s own preconceived limitations is a source of constant satisfaction to her. Sri Chinmoy encouraged his students to stay physically fit by running. Samunnati feels that the spiritual energy she receives from her daily meditation helps her in her running life. As Sri Chinmoy writes, “Through prayer and meditation we can develop intense will-power, and this will-power can help us do extremely well in our outer running.”
During the race members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Edinburg cheered her on. In the evening they celebrated her victory at their Sunday night meditation.
Every Sunday morning the Sri Chinmoy Centre of Seoul in South-Korea offers free meditation classes for the public. The classes are given in a yoga studio and are attended by about 40 people.
The classes are given by Hemabha, who also initiated the Seoul Sri Chinmoy Centre. Hemabha was born in Korea, but then moved to London where she became a student of Sri Chinmoy. She recently moved back to her home country.
To celebrate Sri Chinmoy’s arrival in the West in April 1964 the Nepalese Sri Chinmoy Centre in Kathmandu organized a day of special celebrations. This ‘Joy-Day’ consisted of joyful and spiritual activities, such as meditation, singing, a spiritual play and a visit to Sri Chinmoy’s statue in Nagarkot, at the foot of the Himalaya’s.
At the Joy-Day there were also four disciples from Bangladesh, which is Sri Chinmoy’s land of birth. One of these students is doing her PhD thesis on Sri Chinmoy’s poetry.
Related
More photos of Sri Chinmoy statue in Nepal
Music from Nepal – report about Songs of the Soul concert in Kathmandu.
The British music group Ananda travelled to the Balkan countries recently for a series of seven meditative concerts dedicated to the music of Sri Chinmoy. They performed in Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria for audiences ranging from 100 to 300 people.
Ananda’s group members are male students of Sri Chinmoy living in the UK and Ireland. The group creates haunting and soul-stirring arrangements of Sri Chinmoy’s soulful and meditative songs and just released their fourth album.
Apart from their concerts, they also gave a series of lectures on meditation and spirituality in five of the cities they visited.
Recently, Jayasalini Abramovskikh from the Moscow Sri Chinmoy Centre, travelled to Brazil for a series of meditation classes focused on the subject of Self-Transcendence. One week earlier Jayasalini had completed the Self-Transcendence 6 Day Race in New York where she ran a total of 600K, averaging 100 kilometres per day.
According to Jayasalini the 6 Day Race is an opportunity to develop faith, willpower and the necessity of competing only with oneself.
Our philosophy
Is progress.
In our self-transcendence
Is our tremendous joy.
– Sri Chinmoy [1]
Jayaslini lectured in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. About 100 spiritual seekers attended her classes.
[1] Sri Chinmoy, Excerpt from Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 13
On April 27th the World Harmony Run/Peace Run celebrated its 25th anniversary. The World Harmony Run was founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1987 to foster good will and world peace by running with a Peace Torch all over the world. The Run has visited over 140 countries to date and annually reaches about one million people.
Sri Chinmoy Centres from all over the world celebrated the anniversary by organizing special World Harmony Run events in their respective cities.
In Ljubljana,Slovenia, (left) runners carried the Peace Torch to a site where they will plant a Sri Chinmoy Peace-Tree in October.
In Groningen, The Netherlands (right) 140 school children released balloons with wishes for peace attached to them.
Ten Thousand Flower-Flames is a series of poetry Sri Chinmoy wrote between the years of 1978 to 1983. At Radio Sri Chinmoy, there is a new recording of Sri Chinmoy reading out some selected poems from this series.
God’s Forgiveness finds me
No matter where I am.
God’s Compassion takes me
Where I ought to go.
– Sri Chinmoy
Oneness Dream is an international all-male a cappella choir, dedicated to performing the songs of Sri Chinmoy.
Sri Chinmoy saw music as a pure language of the heart, and a way to celebrate the underlying unity of humanity.
“Music is the language of God. God’s language, music, is not like mathematics or geometry. It is a language of love. If we love music, that is enough.”
– Sri Chinmoy 1
Oneness Dream have performed in churches and temples in different parts of the world.
