An Eastern Yogi who was here to teach me
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
I was listening to a piano concert by a French composer, a concert for orchestra and piano. There is a high point in this concert where the orchestra dies down and leaves only the pianist playing with one finger, a melody, and it was a victorious melody. I heard it at the same time, at the very same moment when I was reading that the hero in this story was feeling vast and joyful, that life continues. The melody is going like this tut, tut, tut, tut, tut, tut, tut, tut, tut. Really, a victorious melody.
When I heard this and read this, I started to breathe heavily, I do not know what happened, but suddenly I was not anymore in the bed, but I was traveling through a tunnel and very, very far away. There was a dot of light, and we were traveling very fast through the tunnel towards this dot of light. Slowly, slowly as we approached, the dot became very big. We were just about to reach the light. At that moment, a thought came to me, very powerful: maybe you will die when you go out of this tunnel, and maybe you have to. You can still stop. Immediately, a very strong energy came to the fore from inside and said, “No, let's go!”
I was entering into this light out of the tunnel and the next moment, I was floating like a cloud in a vast white space. I felt at home, completely comfortable and well, and everything was only white light everywhere. I do not know how long I was there. But afterwards, I remembered this, of course, and I wanted to go there again.
It felt exactly like when (later) as a disciple, I had a very good meditation. But I was not used to it; I was only 15 and I had no idea about meditation. So, every evening when I came back from school, I was lying on my bed and trying to enter this world that I had experienced. Then I could observe something that was happening in my brain.
There was like a light going from one side to the other, and at some point, it met a string from the other side and then there was a little lightning. When that connection was done, I was able to think new thoughts. This happened quite a few times, and I was going to a whole new world inside. It seemed to me I could observe how my capacity to be aware and be conscious was expanding.
One evening, I saw the face of a person, of a man, and behind it, a group of people, but not clearly. One group was white and one group was colourful. But I could not see them precisely. Only the face was clear. This face was very beautiful and also quite young. It was clear to me this was a Yogi, and he was my teacher. I had never read about yogis; I had never heard about yogis. But it was clear to me. This was an Eastern Yogi who was here to teach me.
Later, when I became a disciple, it was clear that I had seen Guru and I had seen the disciples, the boys wearing white and the girls wearing colours. From that time on, when I was entering into this inner world, I could solve problems. So, if I had any kind of problem or I wanted to know something, I could just enter it and the next morning I knew the answer.
My brother was a very intelligent person; he was like a phenomenon. He was studying his books so hard that sweat was flowing down. It looked very, very rough and very tough. So, I told him, “Why do you torture yourself so much? It's so easy. The important thing is that you make a decision and then you can enter the problem, and the next morning, you know the answer.” But he never could do it.
It was 1962, and I was 15. This was the time when Guru was preparing for his journey to the West. It was Guru who gave me this blessing to make me conscious and who even revealed himself to me so I could see his face.
You can run faster than the speed of light
In your inner life
If you invite your illumination-soul
To teach you how to live
Inside your own heart-world.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 100, #9938, Agni Press, 1984
How sports and fitness became part of our spiritual life
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
This is the very beginning of when Guru started to incorporate sports and fitness into our Path.
As you know, Guru came to the West in 1964, and the very first Centre he opened was in Puerto Rico in 1966. I came in 1970, four years later after the Centre was opened there. But during those first years, it wasn't anything like it is today. We didn't run. We didn't do sports unless someone on their own happened to do it. But most of us weren't athletes. I happened to be a surfer because I was from Hawaii.
Our Centre life as disciples consisted basically of our daily practice, of course, our meditation and study and coming to the Centre meditations. The only other real activity we had was what Guru called karma yoga nights, selfless service nights, when we would come to the Centre and do arts and crafts. Whatever we made we would eventually sell. With these sales we would raise money for the Centre. And maybe sometimes on the weekends, just informally, the younger disciples mostly, we would go on a hike in nature, in the mountains and things like that, but there were never any organised sports at all. No one was running at that time.
I think it was maybe around 1970, on one of Guru’s trips to Puerto Rico. One night after meditation we were sitting around with him very informally talking and joking. Out of the blue Guru said, “Okay, everyone, I want all of you to be at the park tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. We're going to take exercises.”
So, we all went to this particular park in the morning. When we got there, we were all kind of groggy because we were up late with Guru and we were not used to getting up that early. We were not that disciplined yet. We all came to do exercises, but none of us had exercise clothes. I mean, it's not like today, where you have all these fancy clothes. We just had regular clothes, jeans and shirts and regular shoes and stuff. And I still have the picture. We are all there lining up and then Guru starts leading us in all these different exercises that he used to do in the ashram.
Remember, Guru was 39 or 40 years old, but he was really fit. He was really in good shape and we were not. He started doing all of these jumps and twists and different stretching exercises. We were following him, but in about ten minutes, we were out of breath. He kept going and going and going. After about an hour, we were completely wasted. But it was such a magical moment, because that day was the very beginning of what grew into the importance of sports in our Path. And very soon, I think the next the next day or so, Guru started having us do sprints, races around the Centre, around the block. He would be there with the stopwatch. None of us ran, so we did not know what we were doing. We just ran until we were out of breath and had side pains. But that was the very beginning.
Guru was like our coach when we did those races for the first time. He was timing us, seeing who among us had the talent or the capacity or the willingness and who enjoyed it. Not everybody is a runner. A lot of us were not in shape. But the few of us that had showed some promise, he encouraged. Then he asked three or four of us to start training. Saraswati was one of them. He wanted us to train and to run in the New York City Marathon, which was about five months away.
We started, but we did not know how to train. We didn't know anything. We just got up every morning really early and went out and ran 10 miles. Of course, that didn't last too long. But that was the beginning. I remember the first year a lot of disciples ran in the New York Marathon. I think we were one hundred or so. We all had these nice shirts. And that was the very beginning of what has become today such an integral, significant and inseparable part of our Path.
This was before the whole running boom took over in America for sure. In the mid-70s when the running boom exploded, Guru was right there. He saw it coming. He told us that running and sports were necessary to help, especially the young disciples, to discipline and channel and transform our vital energies. If we come when we’re young, we have all these things going on, and if we don't steer it in the right direction, it can take you in the wrong direction. That is the gift that Guru gave us. And it has saved so many of us. Definitely it has saved me for all these years.
Run, run, daily run
On aspiration-road!
Your new life will discard
Your old life's ignorance-load.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Silence speaks, part 5, #47, Agni Press, 1994
Messages of hope from Portugal
Since the onset of the pandemic, the Sri Chinmoy Centres throughout the world have sought simple, humble ways to make the situation more tolerable. For example, at the beginning of the pandemic, we offered food from our restaurants in the USA and Europe to local hospital doctors and nurses. Sri Chinmoy founded the Oneness-Heart Tears and Smiles humanitarian organisation in 1991, where members of the Sri Chinmoy Centres could work together on humanitarian projects such as these.
One initiative that has brought a lot of joy: sharing large colourful banners with messages of hope, perseverance and encouragement from Sri Chinmoy's writings.
It was first started in Italy, and since then it has become an international project. The following stories are related by two members of our Sri Chinmoy Centres in Portugal:
Inspiring Messages of Hope for Children During A Global Pandemic
by Simone Tome, a professor at University of Porto, and graduate student Vera Marques
In Portugal, we were energized by the international Happiness-Banners initiative, and we contacted schools, hospitals and homes for the elderly to see if they would like to have a banner. Five pioneer Portuguese primary and secondary schools have chosen to participate in the project so far. Each institution made its own selection from a group of 27 aphorisms, and these aphorisms were printed on banners in different colors of the rainbow.
Even though it was already the end of the school year, after exams and while final meetings were still taking place, ceremonies were organized for the delivery of the banners in two of the participating schools. At one of the school ceremonies which took place on the last day of classes, there were students singing and playing Sri Chinmoy's song, Your Heart is as Beautiful as the Rainbow. They had prepared to perform in record time, as they had only one day to learn and rehearse the song.
As I listened to this melody, I felt as if I were rocked, enveloped in an inner peace, and felt so happy to see my students transmitting, in such a harmonious way, this message of hope that remains in our hearts. Many thanks to the humanitarian organization for these moments.
Margarida Figueiredo
Teacher
There were students at schools that received the banners who were inspired to show what they experienced inwardly from the messages of hope on the Banners.
Even after the school year ended, there were students who made drawings with their own encouraging messages to give to children who are patients at the Raisa Gorbacheva Memorial Institute of Oncology in St. Petersburg, Russia. (The Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles organization has offered much medical equipment and many medical supplies to the Institute over the past two decades, and maintains an ongoing relationship with staff there.)
Comments by Teachers at Participating Schools
When the clouds shake our certainties, a breeze of strength and hope brought by Sri Chinmoy's inner peace comes to heal our hearts and souls
Professor Helena Fonseca
I felt an inner strength that made me feel that everything in life is worth it. Every day is born to present us with so many opportunities! Let us allow ourselves to be carried away by the breeze of peace and love and by the current of harmony, hope and goodness and, in this way, we build, day after day, a more fraternal and colorful world. This initiative is a hymn to solidarity and a call to do well.
Professor Júlia Miranda
“It was with great pleasure that I attended the session to hand over the banner presented by the organization Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles. This banner will be an instrument for changing the school climate, by stimulating positive feelings such as joy, kindness, happiness and hope”.Professor Conceição Vasconcelos
(the messages on the banners) provided students, in class assembly, with true moments of community. They were able to analyze and reflect on various subjects, such as: children's rights; the importance of play to our ability to grow and be happy; the Importance of interaction with others; our need to dream and strive to achieve our goals; the impact that a simple smile can have on another; and the acceptance of the others, with all their differences.
Fátima Neiva
school coordinator
Conclusion
In your meditation you see beyond the superficial distinctions of race, sex, language or religion, as the Charter encourages us to do. You concentrate on the truths and the ideals which unite all mankind: the longing for peace, the need for compassion, the search for tolerance and understanding among men and women of all nations.
United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar 1
after meditating in his private office with Sri Chinmoy on January 13, 1983
In your meditation you see beyond the superficial distinctions of race, sex, language or religion, as the Charter encourages us to do. You concentrate on the truths and the ideals which unite all mankind: the longing for peace, the need for compassion, the search for tolerance and understanding among men and women of all nations.It is very beautiful to see how these initiatives are making children feel part of a global family, fulfilling the principles of the UN in such a natural and simple way. Inspired by the phrases of hope on the banners that their schools received, they took action, drawing pictures with messages to make another human being happy.
This is a golden opportunity, also, for the children who offer these drawings, as they offer their good will and encouragement to human beings who are like them but who find themselves on the other side of the world, in totally different circumstances.
This is a story of UN principles in action, as is Sri Chinmoy's legacy. His life and work are an exceptional testimony to the ideals of the United Nations and are also the source of inspiration behind this initiative of Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles.
- 1. Sri Chinmoy (1995). The Garland of Nation-Souls: Complete Talks at the United Nations. Florida: Health Communications, Inc.
Tears of Joy
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
Driving to Eugene, Oregon, on a crisp sunny fall Saturday, I was suffused with an inexplicable happy anticipation. It felt like such a gift of a special day. Only ten days earlier, I’d been accepted as a student of meditation Master Sri Chinmoy, who had flown in from New York City to give a Peace Concert that evening. Many of his students were there. Before the concert, we all met for a function. This would be my first time seeing Sri Chinmoy in person.
However, my joy soon drowned in copious tears that poured forth uncontrollably. Why, I wondered, was my happiness drenched in tears? Yet, it was strange⎯I didn’t feel any sadness. My tears quietly continued flowing. I sat to the side, assuring concerned friends I was okay. I just didn’t know why I was crying.
That evening, while Sri Chinmoy stood against the wall prior to ascending the stage to offer his concert, I caught his sweet glance—and my heart stopped. It was as if we’d known each other before. I fell to my knees inwardly, not knowing why, but ever so grateful for his unexpected glance.
Later, I learned that this is the soul’s way of expressing gratitude and love—with tears of joy.
Before I accepted
The life of aspiration,
My tears were the tears
Of real sorrow.
Now that I have accepted
The life of aspiration,
My tears are not tears of sorrow
But tears of real joy.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 52, Agni Press, 1983
A Migraine Miracle
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
As a teenager and college student, I occasionally got extremely bad migraine headaches. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to their occurrence. They could last anywhere from several hours to a couple of days.
One very hot day in New York, all the disciples went to a local track and field for our annual Sports Day. At that time we held this event every August in honour of Guru’s birthday, his youthful athletic prowess, and the importance he placed on his own disciples’ physical fitness.
It was my first Sports Day, and I was excited, but I also became dehydrated. Between that, the bright sunshine, and the vicious heat, I started developing a migraine. And I had no painkillers with me, or any way of getting some.
I immediately got more water and lay down on a hillside with my hat over my face, but the migraine had gone past the point of no return and it kept getting worse. I just endured, feeling guilty for wanting the day with Guru to end, but I was in such pain that all I could do was hang on and wait.
At long last the competitions ended. I agonizingly got up and went to join all the disciples who were gathering around Guru in a big semi-circle on the grass for the awards ceremony. My head was pounding like a hammer on an anvil with every heartbeat, and I was utterly nauseous. I just wanted it all to be over.
Finally it was, and prasad (a food offering, blessed by Guru) was brought out. At that point even the idea of food made me sick to my stomach, but I thought, “I can’t not take prasad from Guru.” So I took the smallest thing that I could—a cookie—and took the tiniest possible bite, then waited a minute and did it again. And again. A minute or two later I was still fine, so I risked a larger bite. No problem.
Very slowly I ate the whole cookie, and I started feeling better. My nausea was abating, and the headache itself actually started disappearing! Never had one of my migraines gone away without running its full course, but this one was breaking up rapidly like a wisp of cloud dissipating in a clear blue sky. Within about fifteen to twenty minutes, as we were all leaving the field, the headache was completely gone. By the time I got a ride back to the place I was staying, not only had the migraine disappeared, but I was flooded from head to toe with an almost indescribable sensation of absolute physical well-being.
The Master’s invisible miracles
Far outrun
His visible miracles.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 49, Agni Press, 2008
The most beautiful place
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
Until two days before my father’s passing, I held out the hope that he would recover from his illness. And so I kept his accounting business afloat for the last two months. One evening, about two weeks before his passing, I had made arrangements to meet two clients in the office. I was completely exhausted—caring for my father, working full-time, squeezing in several hours a week for the accounting clients, all while working on my doctoral studies.
When I arrived at the office, one lady, a successful taxi driver, talked non-stop. All I wanted was silence, and I kept wishing I had cancelled. Having spent one month by my father’s side in the hospital, the last thing I wanted to hear about was hospital stories, so I only half-listened to the taxi driver’s hospital story.
Then I heard her say, “I was in a coma for two months.” My empathy and curiosity came to the fore and I began paying closer attention.
She went on to say, “I had a brain tumor and required a sixteen-hour operation. I remember going into the operating room. At a certain point, I was rising up and I looked down and could see myself on the surgical table. I then went to the most beautiful place. It was all light, and there was beautiful music. Then I reached a certain place and they told me I had to go back. Next, I remember waking up and the doctor began explaining that I had been in a coma for two months.”
I could barely believe my ears! The story was a classic near-death experience. At that point, I felt a tremendous peace. My mind quieted, my heart opened. All was calm. Guru had begun preparing me through the taxi driver’s words—reassuring me that my father’s soul would go to this beautiful place as well!
What is death after all?
Death is a sleeping child.
And what is life?
Life is a child that is playing, singing and dancing at every moment before the Father.
Death is the sleeping child inside the heart of the Inner Pilot.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Beyond Within — A collection of writings 1964-1974, Agni Press, 1975
Why I Started Long-Distance Running
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
I was in my early 40s and new to Sri Chinmoy’s path. It was Father’s Day weekend in New York. I was out jogging and came across our Father’s Day Marathon being run around a high school track nearby, so I stopped to watch. I saw Guru at the far corner of the track.
As I watched, he started walking in my direction, but he was within the fenced-in field so I continued watching from outside the fence. He slowly came closer and closer, and then to my surprise stepped through a large hole in the fence I hadn’t noticed.
He continued to walk straight towards me! My heart started thumping. What should I do? I folded my hands and tried to be in my best consciousness, I had never been so close to a realised Master before. Guru walked right up to me, stopped, and looked at me in silence for a few moments. Those few moments felt like eternity.
Then he said, “What? Not running?” Since I had already been running, I understood he was asking me why I wasn’t running the marathon. Without thinking I found myself saying, “Next year.” Guru smiled and nodded, then continued on his way. I was left with an inner confidence that I would run a marathon.
I began researching how to run a marathon and I started training. It took me more than two years, but as a result of Guru’s words I did run not just one but many marathons and ultramarathons, and discovered both a love of running and a big help to my spiritual life through it.
Run, run, daily run
On aspiration-road!
Your new life will discard
Your old life's ignorance-load.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Silence speaks, part 5, #47, Agni Press, 1994
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