Sri Chinmoy
(1931 – 2007)
Sri Chinmoy dedicated his life to the pursuit of world peace and to the fulfillment of the unlimited potential of the human spirit for the past 40 years. His simple message — that global harmony begins with each individual and that through our collective prayers, meditations and dedicated service we can create a fulfilling world of peace — is embodied in a wide range of initiatives that have included millions of people in grassroots, heart-to-heart programmes.
For over forty years Sri Chinmoy had dialogues on world peace and spiritual values with leaders and luminaries from diverse fields of endeavour, including heads of state and ambassadors from many countries, spiritual leaders from all faiths, university leaders, creative and performing artists and athletes.
In large volume of poetry, essays, plays and short stories, Sri Chinmoy’s words have conveyed the richness and diversity of the quest for peace and self-understanding. His poems number more than 100,000 total, and his publishers include Simon & Schuster, Harper & Row, Watkins, Hazelden, Health Communications and Herder & Herder. Sri Chinmoy has offered hundreds of lectures in every state of the United States and throughout the globe at such distinguished universities as Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and Tokyo.
Sri Chinmoy was an internationally renowned spiritual Master dedicated to inspiring and serving those seeking a deeper meaning in life. Through his teaching of meditation, his music, art and writings, his athletics and his own life of dedicated service to humanity, he tried to offer ways of finding inner peace, joy and fulfillment accessible to all.
Sri Chinmoy saw aspiration—the heart’s ceaseless yearning for ever higher and deeper realities—as the spiritual force behind all great advances in human life. By living in the heart and aspiring for continual self-transcendence, he feels we can all bring forward the best in ourselves and find our path to true satisfaction.
Sri Chinmoy was born in the small village of Shakpura, East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in 1931. At the age of twelve he entered the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a spiritual community in South India, where he spent the next 20 years in spiritual practice—including long hours of practicing athletics and writing poetry, essays and spiritual songs.
In his early teens, Sri Chinmoy had many profound inner experiences, and in subsequent years he achieved very advanced states of meditation. In 1964, he moved to the United States to share his inner wealth with sincere seekers in the West.
Sri Chinmoy serves as spiritual guide to students in some 60 countries around the world, encouraging a balanced lifestyle that incorporates the inner disciplines of prayer and meditation with the dynamism of contemporary life. He regularly traveled throughout the world to offer free concerts, lectures and public meditations, to spend time with his students, and to meet and discuss spirituality with world and community leaders.
From 1964 onwards, he lived in New York, USA, where he passed away in 2007.
“We are all seekers, and our goal is the same: to achieve inner peace, light, and joy, to become inseparably one with our Source, and to lead lives full of true satisfaction.”
—Sri Chinmoy
For more information visit www.srichinmoy.org
Photo credit: Adarini Inkei, Piyasi Morris