50th volume of 77,000 Service-Trees published

“Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees” was the latest major poetry project, realized by spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007). More than one year after his Mahasamadhi the 50th volume was published and presented together with the whole book series at “Aspiration-Ground” in Queens, New York, where more than 1000 of his students met for a week long celebration of his coming to the West 45 years ago. The poems in this final volume were mostly written by Sri Chinmoy while he was visiting Malaysia in January and February 2007. The author embarked upon this marathon poetic odyssey on 24 January 1998 at 4:30 am, just three hours after completing his first big poetry series “Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspration-Plants”, which had taken him some 14 years to write. By contrast, he wrote the 50,000 poems of the “Service-Trees” series in just over 9 years – a truly remarkable achievement. Sri Chinmoy began his “Service-Treees” project while he was visiting Cancun, Mexico. He got an inner command to start this ambitious poetry although he knew from the first moment that he might not finish it. The 50th and last published volume opens with the poem: “My life is full of God-hopes and God-dreams” and closes with these words: “My heart’s gratitude-tears every day I place at the feet of my Lord Supreme”.

Sri Chinmoy – Early photos of the 1980s

I recently was inspired to browse through my old slide and b/w picture archive of Sri Chinmoy and daily I am discovering new visual treasures that you can find on my blog “Photos of Sri Chinmoy”. So if you want to see how Sri Chinmoy looked in the 1980s, that’s the blog to visit!

“Wings of Joy” now published in Korean

Sri Chinmoy’s book “Wings of Joy” is certainly one of the most popular ones, published in the US by Simon & Schuster, NY. In the meantime the Korean Publisher Solkwahak was inspired to make their own edition, and they did a beautiful job. The book is hardbound and each chapter is on a different colour paper with many illustrations. And what is most surprising for me, they took all photographs from my portfolio on the Sri Chinmoy Gallery page and even some black and white photos of me as a child on the opening page of the content. Thanks to Govinda, one of Sri Chinmoy’s early students, who is currently learning Korean, I got access to a copy of the book. Watch the shots I did from the 264-page book (ISBN-89-87794-86-5). As it is also the case with Japanese books we Westerners cannot read one word but the whole lay-out and presentation is beautiful in itself. -Kedar Misani

Click on the pictures to view them larger

1st Anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s Mahasamadhi

This Saturday, October 11, it is one year since a great spiritual master left us, at least on the physical plane. On the subtle plane Sri Chinmoy is more present than ever. Through his many thousand students world-wide he continues to nourish us and all aspiring souls of the world with his infinite peace and poise. Many things changed since his passing and our life is not the same anymore. We changed and all our activities seem to be different. We cannot contact the master outwardly anymore and ask him questions that occupy us. We have to find our own solutions. But we are also riper, grown-up. We manifest his light as good as we can and are loking forward to reach our soul’s goals in this lifetime. We play a divine play and the better we do it, the more rewarded we will be in our next incarnations. So with these thoughts I will approach October 11, which by the way is also my birthday at the same time. So joy and sorrow are tied together and hopefully divine happiness will result as the final goal. This picture is part of a series of Sri Chinmoy in his early years in the West when he started to establish his spiritual centres in the U.S. The  photos are currently being published regularly on the photoblog “srichinmoyphotos“. Photographer is Sundari, a long-time and one of the first students of Sri Chinmoy. There is also a slideshow online on srichinmoy.tv. You are welcome to watch or download it.

Early pictures of Sri Chinmoy now online

If you are inspired to see early pictures of Sri Chinmoy from the 1970s, you are welcome to visit regularly the photoblog “srichinmoyphotos”, where in the next few weeks I will publish photos made by one of the first students of Sri Chinmoy, Sundari from San Francisco. On “srichinmoyphotos” there is one new picture every day!

Oneness-Education now online on sctv

On srichinmoy.tv you can watch a talk that Sri Chinmoy gave on June 27, 1989 at the West Road Concert Hall at the University of Cambridge, and here is the full text: “You are a Truth-seeker. I am a Truth-seeker. You are a God-lover and I am a God-lover. You and I have the same God, yet we quarrel and fight. God asks you to trust me; you fail to obey God. God asks me the same thing, He asks me to trust you; but I certainly fail. You and I have the same God. God asks you to see Him in me, and He asks me to see Him inside you. Both of us fail our Lord Beloved Supreme. You see in me countless imperfections when you look at me. I do the same when I look at you. You do not see in me the presence of God. I do not see in you the presence of God. You do not see anything divine, inspiring, aspiring, illumining and fulfilling in me. Alas, I also fail to see in you anything divine, inspiring, illumining and fulfilling. Both of us fail our Lord Beloved Supreme.

You and I have the same God. You think and you know and you feel that your God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. I, too, see and feel the same. But when you look at me, you think I am imperfection incarnate, you feel I am past correction. You forget that your God is omnipotent. If so is His Will, He can perfect my life in the twinkling of an eye. Similarly, when I see your countless imperfections, I fail to see the presence—the loving and benevolent presence—of my Lord Beloved Supreme. I, too, forget the fact that my God, whom I claim to be my God, is omnipotent. If your God is omnipotent and if my God is omnipotent, how is it that we cannot have faith in God’s Power Supreme? You can pray to God for my perfection; I can pray to God for your perfection. This is one way for us to make God happy, although it may take a long time for you to see my perfection and, vice versa, for me also to see perfection in you. But the very fact that you and I are praying mutually for our mutual perfection will make our Lord Beloved Supreme happy far beyond our imagination.

You and I have the same God, yet we disagree most of the time and we quarrel and fight. You and I pray to God for happiness. We pray to God and we speak to God. You say to God, ‘O God, please make me happy first and then I shall make You happy. You please fulfill all my teeming desires. Once I am happy, then I shall make You happy, O Lord Supreme.’ This is your prayer. I, too, have the exact same prayer. I say to my Lord Supreme, ‘My Lord, please fulfill my desires first, all my desires please fulfill, then I shall definitely make you happy. First make me happy, then I shall unfailingly and undoubtedly make You happy.’ Here, in this case, you and I are sailing in the same boat. We want our happiness first, and then God’s Happiness. But God says to us, ‘Since you are begging Me for happiness, pleading with Me, it is you who have to make Me happy first, not the other way around.’ And, again, God says to us, ‘My children, if I make you happy first, it will be the fulfillment of your desire-life. No matter how many times I fulfill your desires in order to make you happy, I will not be able to make you happy, never! But if you make Me happy first, on the strength of your aspiration-life, then you will feel that in My Happiness alone your happiness can be discovered, for I am the Source of all happiness. So please, My children, be wise. Make Me happy first. Then you are bound to be happy, and this happiness will last forever.”

You and I have the same God. You want to see perfection in me. I want to see perfection in you. By speaking to God day in and day out against me, do you not think you are displeasing God and irritating God? For He is all Compassion for both of us. Again, I do the same. I speak ill of you to God at every moment. I think that by speaking ill of you, I am making my point clear to God, I am making God feel I am far better than you. ‘Oh no, that is not the way,’ my Lord Supreme tells me. We have to see all the divine qualities in each other to make our Lord Supreme happy. Our imperfect nature can only be transformed by His Compassion-Eye and Forgiveness-Heart.

You and I have the same God. You are God-thirsty and God-hungry; this is absolutely true. I, too, am God-thirsty and God-hungry. But if our hunger is genuine and if, at every moment, we want to be fed and nourished by God’s Nectar-Delight, by His infinite Compassion, infinite Love and Light and Delight, then can we have even a fraction of a moment to think of each other? When I think of you, I think of your imperfections, your weaknesses. You do the same. Such being the case, who is actually our Lord? We pray to God for five minutes a day, but we think of each other for ten or twelve hours a day. When we accept the spiritual life, we make a fervent promise to our soul, to our heart, to our inner life, to our Inner Pilot, that we shall always think of God, our Lord Beloved Supreme. And yet, instead of thinking of our Lord Beloved Supreme at every moment, you think of me daily for hours and I also do the same with regard to you. You think of God for just ten minutes a day. I do exactly the same, not a minute more than you. So we have made each other our God, and poor God, the real God, is buried in oblivion in our ignorance-mind and ignorance-life. No, my friend, since we wish to sail in the same boat, the boat of aspiration, the boat that will lead us to our Destined Goal, the Golden Shore, let us believe in our oneness-education; let us start today with our oneness-education. This oneness-education is founded upon our mutual aspiration and reciprocal dedication. Together we must aspire, in spite of our weaknesses, difficulties and imperfections. Together we must raise our consciousness to high, higher, highest heights. Together let us sail in the same boat, the boat that will take us to our Destination, the Golden Shore. Our Beloved Supreme is eagerly waiting for our arrival. Let us make Him happy in His own Way, and His own Way means our oneness-education, oneness-perfection, oneness-satisfaction.”

We are all Yogis now

There was a time when God
Was neither in Heaven nor on earth.
We beat our breasts and wreaked havoc.
We enjoyed ignorance dance.
And suffered with every breath
But
We are all Yogis now.

There was a time when God was in Heaven.
We courted Him and sang His Praises.
Then wept in frustration when He
Was indifferent to our constant demands.
But
We are all Yogis now.

There was a time when God was on Earth.
We played, we danced, we sang.
And suffered only the pangs of Transformation
God smilingly watched as we
took our first steps towards the Goal.
We were faltering and unsure then
But
We are all Yogis now.

Now God is both in Heaven and on Earth.
We find Him born anew in the very
depths of our Hearts.
We find Him sporting freely when
we meditate in His Holy Resting Place.
We feel Him with certainty
reflected in the smiling faces
our brothers and sisters.
He is with us, He is in us and He is for us
Because
We are all Yogis now.

- Ahuta

(Ahuta is a student of Sri Chinmoy since many years)

Every day a new photo of Sri Chinmoy

To commemorate Sri Chinmoy’s life and activities and over all his loving expressions I am publishing one photo every day on my blog Photos of Sri Chinmoy. You are welcome to visit it to get some inspration.

Sri Chinmoy on Transcendence

Transendence is certainly one of the key themes in Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy. He always inspired us to go beyond, to never give up and to transcend ourselves. Even he himself said that he has to transcend himself constantly despite the fact the he has already reached a very high state of consciousness and oneness with the Supreme. Let me quote from a talk that Sri Chinmoy gave on transcendence in 1981:

“Transcendence is the revelation of a seeker’s inner urge. Transcendence is the manifestation of a seeker’s inner beauty. Transcendence is the perfection of a seeker’s inner duty. Transcendence is the Satisfaction of a seeker’s Inner Pilot. Transcendence determines at once a stupendous success in the outer domain of our knowledge-light and a momentous progress in the inner domain of our wisdom-delight. Transcendence surprises an ordinary man. Transcendence awakens a great man. Transcendence encourages a good man. Transcendence energises a truth-seeker. Transcendence enlightens a God-lover.

A seeker’s soul lives with the vision-reality of transcendence. A seeker’s heart listens to the vision-reality of transcendence. A seeker’s mind gets inspiration from the vision-reality of transcendence. A seeker’s vital obeys the vision-reality of transcendence. A seeker s body receives purity from the vision-reality of transcendence. A transcendence-cry speedily improves our inner nature’s faith and devotion. A transcendence-smile easily and lovingly transforms our outer nature’s insecurity and impurity into security and purity. There is nothing as frightening as ignorance-night in action. There is nothing as illumining as knowledge-day in action. There is nothing as fulfilling as wisdom-sky in action. There is nothing as satisfying as transcendence-sun in action.

There are many people who are satisfied with what they have and what they are. There are only a very few seekers who sincerely want to transcend themselves and divinely enjoy transcendence-delight. These seekers have developed a ceaseless inner cry. If their aspiration-cry is sleeplessly soulful and breathlessly unconditional, then their transcendence-flight towards the ever-transcending Beyond can easily, unmistakably and unimaginably be shortened. These few seekers, at God’s choice Hour, will be blessed with transcendence-delight and will breathe deep of transcendence-delight.

Needless to say, transcendence-delight is extremely difficult to find in ourselves and surely impossible to discover in others. I cannot feel transcendence-delight in others unless and until I have felt it in the inmost recesses of my own inner being. If I want to transcend myself, then I must only sit devotedly at the Feet of my Beloved Supreme. If I want to transcend others, then I must see only their good qualities and make these my very own.

If I cannot transcend myself, it is no disgrace. But if I do not want to transcend myself, it is not only a disgrace, but also a fatal failure. I must transcend myself in the outer world so that I can perform divinely my God-ordained earthly duty. I must transcend myself in the inner world so that slowly, steadily and unerringly I can grow into a supremely beautiful Vision-Reality of my Inner Pilot.”

***

From a talk by Sri Chinmoy at the Stanford University, March 3,  1981, published in the book “Sound And Silence, Part 1, first published by Agni Press in 1982.

Opening of the parliament of World’s Religions

On the day 4 years ago Sri Chinmoy opened the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona, Spain, with a silent meditation (picture) and a performance on the esraj. As already in 1993 in Chicago, Sri Chinmoy was invited to open this important worldwide spiritual event. Watch also the video on srichinmoy.tv.