A spiritual Master and at the same time an avid sportsman, Sri Chinmoy was a pioneer in demonstrating the power of meditation in the sporting world. In 1977, he founded the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, which has put on some of the most boundary-pushing races the running world has ever seen, including the current longest certified road race - the 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race.
This book brings together many of Sri Chinmoy's most powerful teachings from 30 years of service to the running community. It is aimed at both elite athletes searching for that extra edge, and ordinary people looking to get more satisfaction from their workouts. Sri Chinmoy answers questions both from a deep inner perspective and yet also rooted in the world of practical experience - what are the goals we should be aiming for, how we can strive for and yet be detached from disappointment at the same time, how we can keep our enthusiasm day after day and year after year, and how we can make our sporting activities a source of deep and lasting satisfaction.
In addition, legendary athletes such as 9-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis, Olympic long jump and triple jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva, marathon record-holders Tegla Laroupe and Paul Tergat, and 5-time Mr. Universe Bill Pearl contribute their own inner secrets and spiritual perspective on training and competition.
Celebrating Sri Chinmoy's 27,000 Aspiration-Plants poem series
This year marked the 20th anniversary of the completion of Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration Plants, the second of Sri Chinmoy’s three epic poetry series. Sri Chinmoy wrote the first poem on July 10, 1983 - just one week after completing the first series, Ten Thousand Flower-Flames - and completed the last poem in the series 15 years later. The series was published in 270 volumes containing 100 poems each.
The first 100 volumes in the series
Sri Chinmoy announced his vision of 27,000 poems even before he had completed his Flower-Flames series, during a trip with his students to Japan in December 1982. The first volume was published in time for Sri Chinmoy’s birthday in August 1983, and he gave the book out as a gift to all of his students attending his birthday celebrations, asking them to try to to feel the poems inside their hearts. Sri Chinmoy finished the final poem on 24 January 1998 while on his annual Christmas vacation with his students - at the time they were in Cancun, Mexico. To mark this achievement, he invited his students who were present to form groups to chant the mantra Supreme 27,000 times.
Volumes 101-200
Sri Chinmoy would always find ways to make his students part and parcel of whatever he was doing. and to claim his achievements as their own. At the time, many of his students around the world came up with fun and spontaneous celebrations to mark their teacher’s achievement. For example, in Canada, his students created a huge red and white Canadian flag made from 27,000 snowballs on a prominent hill near the Parliament Buildings. A Reuters cameraman happened to walk by and took a photo of the flag which ended up appearing in newspapers across Canada the next day. In New Zealand, Sri Chinmoy suggested to his students there that they shake 27,000 people’s hands, giving each of these people a card of poems and a sweet. In the words of Jogyata Dallas, one of the organisers: “This unique challenge quite consumed us for some time. We visited school assemblies, announcing a handshaking-record attempt to honour our Guru’s achievement; stood at escalators in shopping malls with a microphone to introduce ourselves, and armed with a hand-held manual counter to accurately record numbers; visited universities and busy streets; toured towns, distributed 27,000 sweets and gave away 27,000 large cards – each carrying an explanation and a sample sprinkling of 27 poems, like this one:”
If you want to remain always happy,
Always perfect and always fulfilled,
Then always keep inside your heart
A pocketful of sweet dreams.
“Everything about this unusual commemoration charmed people a lot, and left 27,000 spirit-awakening, heart-warming mementos with their 27 inspirational poems scattered throughout this peace-hungry world.”
Volumes 201-270
This year, Sri Chinmoy ’s students held various commemorations to mark the 20th anniversary of the poems’ completion in 1998. At the time, many of his students were very involved in proofreading and printing the books, and they vividly recalled what powerful meditative and transformative experiences they had working with such vast numbers of poems.
Recently, the Auckland Sri Chinmoy Centre organised a memorable evening of music as part of their contribution to the local interfaith community. At the event, there were ten local groups performing from various traditions. The concept was for different spiritual and religious groups to come together to share a free concert of peaceful and meditative music.
Mukti Giti - a group from Sri Chinmoy Centre
There were singers and instrumentalists from Sikh, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Tzu Chi and various other musical traditions. The evening showcased the diversity of Auckland’s cultures and their spirit of co-operation.
Group Finale
The concert – ‘Sounds of the Sacred’ – was held at the Fickling Centre in Mt Eden and was enthusiastically received by a capacity crowd.
Throughout his life, Sri Chinmoy often participated in interfaith events, as an active reminder we all come from the same Source. Sri Chinmoy also felt music was a powerful vehicle for bringing to the fore a sense of heartfelt oneness. He taught music can easily cut across social and religious divides by touching the heart of all who listen.
“Music will play a most important role in bringing about world oneness, for music embodies the Universal Heart, the Oneness-Heart. Music transcends the barriers of nations, nationalities and religions.”
Inspiration-Letters is a periodical collection of writings by members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre, each on a different topic. For the most recent edition, the topic was Experiences with Guru, featuring writings from Canada, Brazil, New Zealand and the USA. 'Guru' - a Sanskrit word for a spiritual Master - is the name by which Sri Chinmoy's students usually refer to their teacher, and each of these essays offers a glimpse through the student's eyes of what having a spiritual teacher of Sri Chinmoy's calibre is like.
Sri Chinmoy offers prasad after a public meditation. Prasad is an Indian tradition where a spiritual master offers food that has been specially blessed.
Essays in this edition
From the many incidents detailed in these seven essays, two themes stand out - how spiritual Masters such as Sri Chinmoy can infuse the smallest interactions and everyday occurences with spiritual power and meaning, and also how much he valued dedicated service and self-giving as a means of spiritual progress.
The Universal Guruby Mahiruha Klein, USA
Mahiruha recalls arranging a ceremony for Sri Chinmoy with the professors of the university where he was studying. more »
Being with Guruby Purnakama Rajna, Canada
"...I was never a disciple who had any kind of outer relationship with Guru. He never called me out of a prasad line to speak to me or ask me a question, and that’s the way it was for many of us. There were just too many of us for that to be a reality, but that didn’t mean that we couldn’t feel his inner blessings...in the blink of an eye Guru could send you a silent blessing that would leave you in bliss, almost unaware of the outer world..." more »
One summer afternoonby Jogyata Dallas, New Zealand more »
"...We were running up and down the ladder of consciousness, from mind to soul to mind to soul, being shown that inner peace, stillness, soulfulness are quickly accessible through practice and intent, that meditation can be found and practised anywhere..." more »
Angels and Elevators, and China Memoriesby Sharani Robins, USA
"...While the Christmas Trip with Guru included many highlights, what I remember most is an experience that might be classified as a morality tale...." more »
A few stories with Guru Sri Chinmoy by Suchana Cao, Argentina
Three short and cute stories from visits to see Sri Chinmoy in New York and from our yearly Christmas trip. more »
One touchby Patanga Cordeiro, Brazil
Patanga describes an experience showing how even the touch of a spiritual Master can bestow an experience that still remains with him to this day. more »
Three (well-documented) recollectionsby Dhiraja McBryde, New Zealand
"Fungible is the human memory – fungible and frangible and fragile. There are fungi in there – dry rot, and mildew and a few lurid mushrooms. We think that we remember, we think the old synapses are recording it all like dutiful stenographers, like scribes in the Akashic records department – but we are mistaken...." more »
Nandita Pollisar has been a student of Sri Chinmoy since the early 1970s. In this video, Nandita talks about the importance of getting joy from the spiritual life, and how the simple act of speaking with friends helps can help get away from the negative thoughts of the mind.With her husband, Nayak, Nandita has helped to run the Seattle Sri Chinmoy Centre since 1974.
Meditation functions with Sri Chinmoy
Kokila Chamberlain
Kokila Chamberlain talks meditating with Sri Chinmoy in New York, and of what it is like to be in the presence of a genuine spiritual Master. She describes a ‘typical’ meditation function and the spontaneous nature of Sri Chinmoy’s approach. Kokila also explains what drew her to Sri Chinmoy’s Path.
'Everyone is feeling nothing but love'
Suren Leosson
Suren serves as one of the assistants at Aspiration Ground, the meditation garden in New York where we meditated with Sri Chinmoy, and still gather there today. In this video, he recalls the powerful atmosphere during meditations and singing performances.
My road from meditation to the Olympics
Samunnati Lehonkova
In 2016, Samunnati Nataliya Lehonkova represented the Ukraine in the marathon at the Olympics; she also has won the Dublin, Edinburgh and Los Angeles marathons. Here she is interviewed by her friend and fellow runner Jayasalini Abramovskikh, and talks about how she came to Sri Chinmoy's path as a child, her training schedule and what inspires her to run.
My well-scheduled day
Jayasalini Abramovskikh
Jayasalini shares with us a typical day in her life, including her spiritual disciplines - early morning meditation, spiritual singing and reading, and exercise. She also talks about how meditation helps her in her regular job as an economist in Moscow.
2 things that surprised me about the spiritual life
Jayasalini Abramovskikh
Jayasalini talks about how Sri Chinmoy's philosophy strongly resonated with her, but two things she found very surprising - the fact that she did not need to change your outer circumstances in order to be happy, and the discovery that she had a very strong soul's affinity and talent for ultra-distance running.
