Video of tribute by U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman

Today, 13 October 2007, the Honorable Gary Ackerman, Member of Congress from New York’s 5th District, offered a soul-stirring tribute to Sri Chinmoy’s life. Congressman Ackerman represents the district where Sri
Chinmoy lived. They were close, personal friends for many years.

Gary Ackerman pays tribute to Sri Chinmoy here…

Moving tributes to Sri Chinmoy from all over the world

Tributes have begun arriving from world leaders and inspirational figures from all around the globe; they are being posted on Sri Chinmoy’s official site as they become available to us. among them include moving and heartfelt messages from President Mikhail Gorbachev, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and 9-time Olympic gold medal winner Carl Lewis. View the tributes here…

In addition, Gary Ackerman, the Congressman for the district in which Sri Chinmoy lived, arrived today to pay his respects to his dear friend of many years, and spontaneously gave an incredibly moving speech:

“..Death in itself is confusing. It is even more confusing when somebody who has exhibited such unbelievable dynamism, such strength, such humility, such power, somehow seems gone from our lives. But that is not the truth. It may be the reality, but it is not the truth. Because what is a visionary, but for his vision? The visionary may be gone, but the vision is here...each and every one of us has been privileged, because we have been touched by a great master-teacher, a great inspirer, who has given us a message, a message to live by...”

Read the entire text of that speech…

There is also a very nice article on Sri Chinmoy’s passing in the New York Times…

Sri Chinmoy 1931-2007: A collection of memorial articles

Sri Chinmoy

It has only been a day since Sri Chinmoy left his mortal frame, and yet there have been many articles written on the web eloquently paying tribute to his life and work:

Newspaper Articles

Tributes

If you have written a tribute to Sri Chinmoy, please leave a comment so we can link to it.

Is Death The End?

BUDDHA: Ananda, stay here. Don’t go away. My life can now be measured in minutes. Ananda, do not cry for me. I tell all of you not to cry for me. Ananda, I have told you repeatedly that everything is transient on earth. There is nothing everlasting here. Anything that comes into life will have to give up life. You have served me, O Ananda, most devotedly, most soulfully, and for that I offer you my last blessings. Proceed on your inner strength, and you will receive liberation. You will have your liberation in due course. My spiritual journey began with renunciation and compassion, and today, at the end of my journey’s close, I offer to the world the same message: renunciation and compassion. O Ananda, do not grieve.

Extract from Play about the Lord Buddha by Sri Chinmoy. Available at Sri Chinmoy Library . Also published this morning at Sri Chinmoy Inspiration Group.

Quote on Death

“What is death? Death is the immortal pilgrim’s short rest along the road of Eternity. Death is a necessary experience for human beings at the present state of their evolving consciousness.”

– Sri Chinmoy
See also:

Sri Chinmoy’s final prayer-poem

On the Wednesday night before his passing away the following morning, Sri Chinmoy held a meditation function for his students at which copies of his latest book of poetry were made available for sale. The book was the 52nd instalment of a series entitled My Christmas-New Year-Vacation-Aspiration-Prayers, consisting of prayer-poems Sri Chinmoy wrote on his visits to other countries between November and February each year.

The final prayer-poem in this series reads as follows:

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

This poem is the last poem published during Sri Chinmoy’s lifetime.

 

Sri Chinmoy 1931-2007: thousands gather in tribute to a humble soul

Thousands of Sri Chinmoy’s students, friends, admirers and well-wishers from all around the globe are gathering in Sri Chinmoy’s home district of Jamaica Hills, New York to remember this soul whose life was one long outpouring of service to humanity. Sri Chinmoy’s body has been made available available for viewing by his students and wellwishers 24 hours a day, and a growing stream of visitors have begun to fly in from all corners of the globe.

There is a tremendous sense of peace and stillness emanating from the place where the casket is currently lying, with incense wafting through the air and recordings of Sri Chinmoy’s soul-stirring singing being played in the background. Despite their sadness at his passing, Sri Chinmoy’s students have not forgotten that his main mission was to train them to be of service to humanity, and many of his New-York based students have gone to great lengths to make sure all the visiting students are looked after at very short notice.

In these difficult times, the large international family that is Sri Chinmoy’s students have been a great source of mutual support and strength to each other. In mourning the passing of Sri Chinmoy’s mortal body, we will never forget that the love, inspiration and inner peace he showed to all is a gift that will last for eternity.

Sri Chinmoy 1931-2007: a life lived in service

Sri Chinmoy

NEW YORK, NEW YORK–(Marketwire – Oct. 12, 2007) – Internationally renowned peace leader and spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy passed away yesterday morning in his home in Queens, New York. The cause of death was a heart attack.

Respected and loved worldwide, Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy for world peace was manifested through a wide array of activities, ranging from literature to art to sports to music. The universal nature of his philosophy embraced and encouraged people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities to work together for peace.

Hailed as a modern day renaissance man, Sri Chinmoy wrote over 1600 books of prose and poetry, composed over 20,000 pieces of music, played over 800 Peace Concerts in venues like Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and was an avid runner, tennis player and champion weightlifter.

President Mikhail Gorbachev wrote,

“Your enormous and significant activities are helping people to live better lives in peace, friendship and love. Whatever you dedicate yourself to – art, poetry, drawing – all this is connected with peace, peace amongst people and peace amongst nations.”

Sri Chinmoy was born on August 27, 1931 in a small village in east India. Orphaned at the age of 11, Sri Chinmoy traveled with his six brothers and sisters to a spiritual community in south India, where he spent the next 20 years in intense prayer and meditation. Heeding an inner call, he traveled to the United States in 1964 and made New York City his home.

In the 43 years since his arrival in the West, Sri Chinmoy became a model of the potential of humankind. Opening centers throughout the world for peace and harmony he tirelessly traveled the globe to share his inspiration and goodwill.

Of his contributions to peace, President Nelson Mandela wrote,

“It is a very rare gift indeed for humankind to be blessed with such a selfless individual who has dedicated his entire life to the service of world peace. Your work has inspired spiritual growth, resilience and well-being, especially in view of the present and unprecedented onslaughts against humankind. Yours is a voice of reason we all must heed.”

A champion of interfaith harmony, Sri Chinmoy was beloved by religious leaders of all denominations. From Mother Teresa to Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II to the Dalai Lama, Sri Chinmoy was celebrated as a true servant of God.

“I am so pleased with all the good work you are doing for world peace and for people in so many countries,” wrote Mother Teresa. “May we continue to work together and share together, all for the glory of God and for the good of man.”

Sri Chinmoy was an ardent supporter of the United Nations. Since 1970 he had served as the leader of the Peace Meditation at the United Nations, an association of delegates and staff he founded under the aegis of the third UN Secretary-General U Thant.

“The outer message of the United Nations is peace. The inner message of the United Nations is love. The inmost message of the United Nations is oneness,” said Sri Chinmoy.

Javier Perez de Cuellar, the fifth UN Secretary-General said,

“Sri Chinmoy, you are the heart of the United Nations. In all the years I was Secretary-General and even before, you were always with us. Your message was always with us, and we were being inspired by you.”

Sri Chinmoy’s love of sports spanned a lifetime and resulted in a number of landmark programs for peace and self-transcendence. In 1987, Sri Chinmoy founded the World Harmony Run, the world’s largest relay for peace involving tens of thousands of participants in over 70 nations.

Sri Chinmoy also founded the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team which is a leading promoter of ultra distance races, sponsoring events ranging from marathons to the world’s longest footrace, a 3100 mile run.

“The physical and the spiritual must go together,” taught Sri Chinmoy. “They cannot be separated.”

In this light, Sri Chinmoy astounded sports heroes and luminaries through a weightlifting career which he began in 1986, at the age of 55. Weight being anything but insurmountable, Sri Chinmoy credited his inner peace for the ability to lift thousands, sometimes even tens of thousands of pounds. From cars to animals to small planes, Sri Chinmoy lifted almost every object imaginable in various styles of strongman lifts.

“I have learned from Sri Chinmoy that the size of the arm does not make the man; the size of the heart makes the man,” said five-time Mr. Universe and Best Built Man of the 20th Century, Bill Pearl. “Nobody on earth has done what Sri Chinmoy has done.”

A musician since his youth, Sri Chinmoy made dozens of recordings, composed over 20,000 songs, and offered more than 800 Peace Concerts – all free of charge.

“Sri Chinmoy has a tremendous, a fantastic creative urge!” exclaimed Indian maestro Ravi Shankar.

A humanitarian, Sri Chinmoy’s service organization, the Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles collected and distributed millions of dollars of medical supplies throughout Asia and Africa. Dedicated to easing pain and alleviating suffering, Sri Chinmoy once wrote, “My Lord, do give me the capacity to wipe every tear from every heart.”

Sri Chinmoy practised a life of spiritual discipline and never married. Over 7,000 people continue to follow his philosophy through the over 100 Sri Chinmoy Centres worldwide.

Links

Please feel free to leave comments on the tribute form in the post immediately below this one.

Tributes to Sri Chinmoy – please feel free to contribute

View: Selected Tributes to Sri Chinmoy from our readers (a small selection from an ever growing number)

We are very grateful for the many kind words which have been flowing in from all corners of the world, and which illustrate how many lives Sri Chinmoy has touched, inspired and illumined in his 76 years on earth. Those of you wishing to leave a tribute please feel free to add it via the comment form below.

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To Russia with Love – a flying visit from Sri Chinmoy

Recently, Sri Chinmoy was in the beautiful city of St Petersburg, and as ever he managed to fit a whirlwind of activities into one short trip. Among the highlights of the trip was a concert of meditative music he gave for the general public, in which he invited his friend Purushottama Boris Grebenshikov, the Russian music legend to play a couple of songs. Purushottama combines music inspired by cultures all around the globe with exquisitely poetical lyrics reflecting on life and its true meaning, and was recently seen in New York playing a concert at the United Nations to honour the work and ideals of the global body.

Sri Chinmoy also gave a concert in a children’s hospital that specialized in treating leukemia. The Oneness-Heart Tears and Smiles humanitarian organisation founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1990 has been a leading supplier of leukemia equipment and medicines to Russia, and has been credited with being a factor in the marked improvement of the way leukemia is treated in that country. Incidentally, the first mission of the Oneness Heart Tears and Smiles was to respond with aid to the Russian winter food crisis of 1990; it has now gone on to deliver valuable humanitarian aid in over 24 countries. You can read more about the organisation’s work in Russia here…

It was also a chance for Sri Chinmoy to meet and meditate with his students from the former Soviet Union. More than a third of Sri Chinmoy’s students come from these countries, and Sri Chinmoy has long admired the one-pointed aspiration and determination of spiritual seekers and of the Russian soul in general, a view fondly reflected in the name he was inspired to give this group of countries – the Oneness Dream-Boat Shore. “Russia is like a flower, a beautiful flower full of fragrance.”, reflects Sri Chinmoy. “For a number of years, the flower was unable to offer its beauty and fragrance because of man’s mind-made rules. Some Russians made rules which came from the mind, not from the heart….Now the heart-power has again come forward, and the mind-power, which is full of doubt and other negative forces, has surrendered. Russia the flower, Russia the soul, is coming to the fore. Now that Russia is fully awakened spiritually, the entire world will derive tremendous blessings and be able to make very, very fast progress.”

Related links:

Ashrita Furman was in St.Petersburg with Sri Chinmoy, and also found time to break another Guinness record, and plenty more incidents besides: read more on Ashrita’s blog…

Musical performances during meditations with Sri Chinmoy – now on radiosrichinmoy.org

Music plays an indispensable role in the spiritual quest of Sri Chinmoy’s students. “When we listen to soulful music, or when we ourselves play soulful music, immediately our inner existence climbs up high, higher, highest”, explains Sri Chinmoy in his book ‘God the Supreme Musician’. “It climbs up and enters into something beyond. This Beyond is constantly trying to help us, guide us, mould us and shape us into our true transcendental image, our true divinity. When we hear soulful music, or when we play a soulful piece of music, we feel a kind of inner thrill in our entire existence, from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. A river is flowing through us, a river of consciousness, and this consciousness is all the time illumined.”

Meditation functions with Sri Chinmoy will often have a diverse range of musical performances: there are some groups and singers which will perform every week. In addition, when Sri Chinmoy’s students from all around the world visit him in New York in April and August, there will be performances from every country as well as instrumental performances from Sri Chinmoy’s outstanding musician-students from all corners of the globe.

On Radio Sri Chinmoy, 44 tracks have just been posted which nicely capture the flavour and diverse nature of these performances. The tracks were recorded between June and September 2007, with the majority of the tracks recorded in August when many international groups performed. The performances are mostly arrangements of Sri Chinmoy’s songs, but there is also performances of songs by the immortal Rabindranath Tagore sung by Rintu Chakravarty and some traditional baoul singing by brothers Ranjit and Unmesh Swanson. For these tracks we are very grateful to Kamalakanta Nieves, who edits radiosrichinmoy.org and is responsible for the recording of many of the tracks, and Sumangali Morhall, the webmaster of Radio Sri Chinmoy. You can listen to the music tracks here…