Sri Chinmoy Centre – News and Features

A collection of tributes and poems related to the mahasamadhi of Sri Chinmoy

A very beautiful recording of Sri Chinmoy singing the word ‘gratitude’ over and over again, spontaneously putting music to the words as he sang, was played during Sri Chinmoy’s memorial ceremony, and again when his body was finally laid to rest. The recording took place on 13 April 1986, 22 years to the day Sri Chinmoy first arrived in America. Prachar Stegemann recalls the occasion:

“Guru was seated at our then-meeting place ‘Progress-Promise,’ painting Jharna Kalas on a table in front of him. He spontaneously started humming, then singing the word ‘Gratitude’ over and over. After a short while, Dhanu brought a microphone and placed it in front of Guru while he continued to sing and paint. From time to time you can hear the rapid sounds of the sponges Guru was using to paint with striking the paper.”

“When the cassette was produced and ready for sale, Guru refused to charge any money for it. He simply gave it away to all…”

These recollections appeared on the Sri Chinmoy Inspiration Group, where students of Sri Chinmoy have recently penned many beautiful memories of their teacher and of the week-long vigil following his passing.

Listen to this recording on Radio Sri Chinmoy….

(Photo of gratitude-flower: Sharani Robins)

Sri Chinmoy – Peace activist and spiritual teacher, who advocated running. Obituary at Scotsman

“…Sri Chinmoy, the Indian spiritual guru who had been nominated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and seconded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, devoted his life to bringing different faiths together, and promoting the concept of a healthy body in a healthy mind… “

Sri Chinmoy Obituary at Independent

“…Popular mythology tends to imagine a guru – in the word’s original and proper Hindu sense of spiritual adviser or teacher – as a placid and mostly sedentary figure. Not so Sri Chinmoy, who wove vigorous exercise into a meditational system that preached peace and inner harmony and gained him thousands of disciples worldwide, as well as admirers ranging from the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to the Olympic champion Carl Lewis and the soul and jazz singer Roberta Flack…”

Related Links

• A Collection of Memorial Articles
• World Leaders mourn Sri Chinmoy’s death at Hindustan Times
• Aspects of an Eternal Journey – Photographic tribute at Sri Chinmoy TV

Photo of Sri Chinmoy, by Kedar, training with 50lb dumbell.

Sri Chinmoy embodied the spirit of peace which the world so badly needs. He did this through his poetry, his paintings, his teaching, but above all through his life and spiritual presence. Through the World Harmony Run he helped people make friends across the differences of religion, race, language, colour and culture. He enabled many of us to see these differences not as barriers but as enriching for us all. His dedicated service to the Oneness of humanity should be lifted up and remembered as an example to us all.

I treasure the inspiring memory of meeting him and share the sadness of so many people that he is no longer with us in body, although still present in spirit. I also express the sympathy and good wishes of members of the World Congress of Faiths.

Rev Dr Marcus Braybrooke,
President of the World Congress of Faiths

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“His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the Art of Living family are with you in this moment of grief. Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy of peace and his work of bringing people from all faiths together will continue to inspire the world.”

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The Art of Living

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How deeply moved are are to hear of our dear Sri Chinmoy’s departure to the Siva Loka, where he now reigns in his golden body of light, free from the limits and discomforts of the mortal sheath. In Guru’s poem, Nirvana, he wrote, “No mind, no form, I only exist; Now ceased all will and thought. The final end of Nature’s dance, I am It whom I have sought.”

For Bodhinatha and all of Gurudeva’s mathavasis at Kauai Aadheenam in Hawaii, he was a unique inspiration, living proof of the Divine possibilities within mankind. He was one of the few who spoke of God-Realization from his own experience in much the same profound manner as our Gurudeva. How he exuded love. How he showed the way of goodness and gentleness. How he lived so we might all live more perfectly, serve more selflessly. Our several encounters with him both in Kauai and New York were precious moments of joy. We are deeply appreciative to you for faciltiating these gifted moments.

Palaniswami
On Behalf of the Monks
of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii
founded in 1970 by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001)

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Guru Sri Chinmoy was the God man of All God men…He
lived and breathed for the Supreme every time All the
Time….He will be missed, His energy phenomenal. His
promise of love, devotion and Surrender the
best….Only we His Disciples will understand the
gravity of this loss, for we were with him on a daily
basis….We wish all God Lovers to pause and reflect
on the Heart love of the Good and Great Man Guru Sri
Chinmoy…There Will Be no More Like Him…We must
cherish his existence every day all day till the end
of time with a smile of love and heart of cries and a
life of Devotion to God…Eternally we will miss you
Guru, Love Your Narada Michael Walden

Narada Michael Walden

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Shocked by the news of Sri Chinmoy having left our world so unexpectedly, we feel proud to have known this great guru, loyal friend and enduring supporter of our common efforts. We trust his positive influence on world affairs will be continued in his remembrance. Our feelings of sorrow are with his followers, who will miss him dearly.

Dunya Verwey, Comprehensive Dialogue among Civilizations (Netherlands)

Jurn Buisman, Maecenas World Patrimony Foundation

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Representing Ananda Marga of UK, I wish to say that we send our deepest consolation to the devotees of Sri Chinmoy.

He was a man, as I understand, who gave his life to helping people to find a spiritual path and to encourage and help people to find not only inner peace, but to reach out to find their fullest potential and to work to make this world a better place to live for everyone.

I am sure that his good teachings and example will stay in people’s hearts for a long time.

Dada Jyotirupananda Anandamarg.org
Continue reading “Selected Tributes to Sri Chinmoy III”

Media Articles

• Spiritual Leader Sri Chinmoy passes away at India Post
• Sri Chinmoy – spiritual leader and activist at Independent(1)
• Indian Philosopher dead at 76

Tributes at Sri Chinmoy.org

• Tributes at Sri Chinmoy.org
• Tributes from spiritual and religious figures

Other Articles

• Sri Chinmoy – a Lover of God enters mahasamadhi at Mystic Saint
• So Long Sri Chinmoy -some reminisces on Sri Chinmoy
• Poetic Tributes to Sri Chinmoy -by Michael Howard
• Farewell Sri Chinmoy – by Sumangali
• Tribute to Sri Chinmoy – by Rathin Boulton
• A Tribute to Sri Chinmoy by Christopher Willis

See also Tributes to Sri Chinmoy – other media articles
Continue reading “Recent Tributes”

Tuesday 16th October, 2007.

Visitors continue to arrive at Aspiration Ground, the final resting place of guru, Sri Chinmoy.

Sitting on the court, there is a sense of timelessness, as 24 hours a day people come to sit and meditate in silent contemplation. The silence is only very gently broken by a continuous flow of meditative music; some from the recordings of Sri Chinmoy, and others live performances from his students.

There is great beauty in the simplicity of the events unfolding. There is no set procedure, no formal time of meditation; in fact it feels there is no beginning and no ending. There is just a continuous line of pilgrims, who wait very patiently for their opportunity to pass the current resting place of Sri Chinmoy’s body.

Continue reading “Reflections on a Unique experience”

We continue to receive an overwhelming number of kind words and tributes about Sri Chinmoy. This is a small selection from the past 2 days.

• See also : Selected Comments Part I
• Tributes at Sri Chinmoy.org
• Please feel free to Post Your own Tribute

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From: Prince Dipokusumo

Yogyakarta, Indonesia,
October 15, 2007

Dear Our Beloved Guru Sri Chinmoy,

We can’t believe when we heard about you but we believe that you are still there as always for the whole word with your big love.

Thank you so much for your love and joy to our family and many people in our country, Indonesia.

Having a beautiful experience with you in Jamaica, New York in June 2006 is an unforgettable memory. We remember that we went to court everyday for meditating, singing, and listening your beautiful music; we followed you meditating in UN; we gathered with the others to celebrate Father’s Day; we took a nice picture in front of your house; we visited your wonderful museum and celebrated Prince Dipokusumo and also Adhityo’s birthday.

Then several months after we came back to our home town, a beautiful, cute and adorable baby girl was born. We name her Saraswati. It has so much bless we have that we can’t write one by one.

A beautiful memory on the Christmas trip in Penang, February 2006 that we were there for the whole family and you lifted us up. It was a remarkable experience. Another memory that keep in mind when you and your brother, Sinuhun met for the first time in the real world in the Surakarta Palace in 2003. Hopefully, you will meet him in the beautiful and peace place.

Also we still remember when you lifted up Prince Dipokusumo and his big family from Surakarta Palace in 2003 with the witness of Sinuhun. It was a remarkable memory that we never forget.

Guru,
You are our inspiration and motivator to create many beautiful things in this life….

… Guru,
We won’t say good bye to you because we believe that you have a special duty from GOD. Your spirit, your love, your energy, and your soul will still leave in our heart, forever.

Many thanks for our beloved Guru, father, uncle, grandfather Sri Chinmoy. We love you.

From Surakarta Palace — Indonesia
Prince Dipokusumo
Princess Febri
Adhityo, Maharani, Gayatri, Saraswati
Hartono Brotoasmoro
Lia
Haryo
Ama
Jojo

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finding one’s way in life is difficult even in the best of times
the presence of inspiring human beings is the surest way of receiving help and guidance in these matters
5 years of my life were spent under the direct tutelege of sri chinmoy
there are but a few real and true human beings to whom i will never ever be able to repay my debt of gratitude.
the principle reason for this is that they have transcended the merely human and attained the all.
sri chinmoy is one of these human beings my gratitude to him will remain forever endless.

– Mahavishnu

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A big soul has left this world, a great spirit went on a journey, a unique personality has touched many hearts and will always be with us.

Brigitte McMahon – Olympic Champion Triathlon

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“We have lost a great spiritual leader. The world is a poorer place without Sri Chinmoy. I am grateful he has left such a legacy of work and teachings with us and I am sure his spirit will continue to work through many of us.”

– Alison Streeter

Swum the English Channel 43 times; holder of the record for the most crossings.

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Sri Chinmoy’s life has been dedicated to spread peace and harmony around the world. With his generosity and positive energy he has touched the hearts of millions. Like his soul his message will live forever.

Francois Gay – Mr. Olympia Natural Bodybuilding

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Sri Chinmoy’s name was introduced to us through World Harmony Run and we thought what a great man this was to initiate something so ’simple’ yet meaningful to pass the message of peace and harmony. We applaud his effort and may the Run continues on as an ongoing tribute to this great man. Our deepest condolence and sympathies to those close to him.

Harlinah Rahman

From Darussalam Mosque, Singapore

Continue reading “Selected Tributes to Sri Chinmoy II”

On Wednesday 3 October, Sri Chinmoy held a meditation function for his students at which many of the musical groups which usually play on Wednesdays performed. This was his first meditation function with his New York students since he returned from playing musical concerts in St. Petersburg, although he had been having walking meditations where students would arrive at his house and walk past in a loop whilst he meditated on them. During the function, Sri Chinmoy related many amusing incidents from his Russian trip.

On Friday, a meditation function was held where members of the general public were also invited to come along. Students that had been on Sri Chinmoy’s path for over 30 years were invited to come up and recite a short prayer or poem.

Another walking meditation took place on Saturday afternoon, and then a meditation function on Saturday night. Most of the Saturday night meditation function was taken up by improvised pieces of spiritual theatre. A heart-warmingly funny play was performed by the theatre troupe led by Databir Watters and Abakash Konopiaty – consisting of incidents in the life of Databir! Databir is well known in the centre for being dynamism, enthusiasm and sweetness incarnate – he is in his sixties now, but is still the driving force behind the daily games of frisbee that a group of New York students have every day after their morning meditation. (Read Ashrita Furman’s blog to find out what happened when someone tried to steal his wallet during a visit to Russia three years ago) Sri Chinmoy thought that this play was marvelous. Also that night, there was a play based on a story from the Mahabharata by Udar Robinson’s group – a year earlier, Sri Chinmoy had given them the name “Udar: the Unbounded Troupe”.

On Sunday, there was another walking meditation, and Sri Chinmoy also spoke at length on the importance of valuing the outer guidance of a meditation teacher.

On Tuesday 9 October, Sri Chinmoy hosted his last distinguished guest – Alan Nazareth, a retired Indian ambassador who had served his country in many different locations around the world, including the United States. Upon his arrival in the West in 1964, Sri Chinmoy worked in the Indian Consulate in New York for three years, before embarking full-time upon his life’s service to humanity. The Ambassador was Sri Chinmoy’s boss for a very short time in 1967 before he left, and in the ensuing years he came to quite a few of Sri Chinmoy’s concerts and other activities. Alan Nazareth is currently managing trustee of the Sarvodaya International Trust which works to uphold and spread the ideals espoused by Mahatma Gandhi, and he writes and lectures extensively on applying Gandhian ideals to the modern world. During his visit, he and Sri Chinmoy discussed the life’s work of Mahatma Gandhi, and Sri Chinmoy then presented his guest with an award honouring his years of service for his native country and for the world.

Sri Chinmoy’s creative output continued right up until the day before his passing – he composed several new songs on Wednesday.

Wednesday night was the last meditation function that Sri Chinmoy held with his students. He spoke quite a lot during the function, wondering aloud about the outcome of the Nobel Prize that was to be announced in a couple of days and casting some humorous observations on the relationship between the two words ‘peace’ and ‘harmony’. At that function, the poetry book My Christmas-New Year-Vacation-Aspiration-Prayers, part 52 was made available for sale, consisting of 91 prayer-poems Sri Chinmoy wrote during his stay in Langkawi, Malaysia in early 2006. The ninety-first poem in this book, and the last poem published during Sri Chinmoy’s lifetime, has now attained an immortal status:

“My physical death
Is not the end of my life –
I am an eternal journey.”

One person who was present at the meditation function recalls Sri Chinmoy holding this book of poetry and wondering aloud “Will it ever end?”. We know know that was indeed a rhetorical question, for with Sri Chinmoy’s passing from this earthly plane, something has been set in motion which will propagate onwards into Eternity.

Photo by: Jowan Gauthier, Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries – (of Sri Chinmoy in St Petersburg)

Sri Chinmoy’s memorial service took place yesterday, attended by thousands of his students and dozens of luminaries from all around the world.

The ceremony opened with some minutes of meditation, filling the space with a deep and profound silence. This was followed by two of Sri Chinmoy’s mantric songs peformed by his favourite musical group, an all female ensemble who have performed at venues all over the world.

Then Shivaram Trichur, a student of Sri Chinmoy’s since the very earliest days of his coming to America, read out some ancient Indian slokas, or scriptural verses, concerning the immortality of the soul. Among them was this one, invoking the eternal relationship between a meditation teacher and his student:

Saha nav avatu,
Saha nav bhuknatu,
Saha nav viryam haravavahai.

(May he protect us both.
May he nourish us both.
May we both work together with energy, indomitable and endless.)
– from Kali-Saṇṭāraṇa Upanishad, translation by Sri Chinmoy.

There were also performances by a group led by Satyajit Saha; this group performed arangements of Sri Chinmoy’s music and writings every week at Sri Chinmoy’s meditation functions. This was followed by another group which performed an arrangement of Smile, My Soul, Smile, also written by Sri Chinmoy.

Then luminaries from all around the world came up to pay their respects; many who could not attend sent heartfelt messages of appreciation and condolence which were read out. You can read many of those tributes on SriChinmoy.org.

Then a choir of Sri Chinmoy’s students sang the song ‘When I am Gone Away‘, that Sri Chinmoy asked be performed only upon his Mahasamadhi – the name given to the process by which spiritual Masters leave the body and enter into the soul’s world:

When I am gone away,
Remember me, O children sweet,

No, not because I failed,
No, not because I cried,
No, not because I tried,

No, not because I saw my Lord in you,
No, not because I served my Lord in you,
No, not because I fulfilled my Lord in you,

No, not because I was your Pilot true,
No, not because I was your ‘Infinite’ blue,

O but because my life was all gratitude, gratitude, gratitude
To you, to you, my children sweet, to you.

Then one by one, all those present, students and visitors alike, filed up to the casket where Sri Chinmoy’s body lies, and placed a beautiful rose at the foot of the casket in appreciation of Sri Chinmoy’s life work. In the background, a recording was played of Sri Chinmoy singing the mantra ‘Gratitude’ over and over again, spontaneously composing the music as he sang.

Today (October 15th), people are still arriving to pay their respects to the earthly body Sri Chinmoy has left behind. Many musical groups that used to play soulful music at Sri Chinmoy’s meditation functions are now performing in the background for the visitors, creating an unearthly spiritual atmosphere in this beautiful warm and sunny day.

Sri Chinmoy wrote this song for his students in 1974, and asked that it be sung only upon his entry into Mahasamadhi and departure from this earth. During the memorial service for Sri Chinmoy yesterday, the song was sung by a choir of Sri Chinmoy’s students in a way that brought heaven down to earth.

When I am gone away,
Remember me, O children sweet,

No, not because I failed,
No, not because I cried,
No, not because I tried,

No, not because I saw my Lord in you,
No, not because I served my Lord in you,
No, not because I fulfilled my Lord in you,

No, not because I was your Pilot true,
No, not because I was your ‘Infinite’ blue,

O but because my life was all gratitude, gratitude, gratitude
To you, to you, my children sweet, to you.

Thank you to Michael for inspiring this post; you can read more about this song on his comment on our tribute form, and also read an indescribably beautiful essay he wrote in tribute of Sri Chinmoy on the Sri Chinmoy Centre site.

Photo by: Kedar Misani, Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries.