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While in America in the 1970s, Sri Chinmoy attracted followers such as musicians [[Carlos Santana]] and [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]]<!-- add note about naming of Mahavishnu Orch. -->, though both eventually turned away from him.<ref>Stump, Paul. ''Go Ahead John: The Music of John McLaughlin'' (p. 92). ISBN 0946719241, 9780946719242</ref> In 2000, Santana discussed Sri Chinmoy as being "vindictive" towards the end of their relationship/after the relationship ended.<ref>Heath, Chris. "The Epic Life of Carlos Santana" [http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938144/cover_story_the_epic_life_of_carlos_santana ''Rolling Stone'', March 2000]. Retrieved on [[2008-08-10]]</ref> Sri Chinmoy also had the Olympic athlete [[Carl Lewis]] [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P1-3985387.html], and singer [[Roberta Flack]] [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-8899997.html] as students.
While in America in the 1970s, Sri Chinmoy attracted followers such as musicians [[Carlos Santana]] and [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]]<!-- add note about naming of Mahavishnu Orch. -->, though both eventually turned away from him.<ref>Stump, Paul. ''Go Ahead John: The Music of John McLaughlin'' (p. 92). ISBN 0946719241, 9780946719242</ref> In 2000, Santana discussed Sri Chinmoy as being "vindictive" towards the end of their relationship/after the relationship ended.<ref>Heath, Chris. "The Epic Life of Carlos Santana" [http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938144/cover_story_the_epic_life_of_carlos_santana ''Rolling Stone'', March 2000]. Retrieved on [[2008-08-10]]</ref> Sri Chinmoy also had the Olympic athlete [[Carl Lewis]] [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P1-3985387.html], and singer [[Roberta Flack]] [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-8899997.html] as students.


He continued to travel, lecture, give concerts and arrange lifting events,{{Fact|date=August 2008}} until his death after a heart attack in his home in [[Jamaica, Queens]], New York on [[October 11]], [[2007]].<ref name="NYT_obit">{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/nyregion/13chinmoy.html|title=Sri Chinmoy, Athletic Spiritual Leader, Dies at 76 |last=Kilgannon|first=Corey|date=2007-10-13|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=2008-08-22}}</ref><!-- add note about living there for ?40 years -->
He continued to travel, lecture, give concerts and arrange lifting events,[http://martindoyle.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/martin-doyle-sri-chinmoy-royal-albert/]{{Fact|date=August 2008}} until his death after a heart attack in his home in [[Jamaica, Queens]], New York on [[October 11]], [[2007]].<ref name="NYT_obit">{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/nyregion/13chinmoy.html|title=Sri Chinmoy, Athletic Spiritual Leader, Dies at 76 |last=Kilgannon|first=Corey|date=2007-10-13|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=2008-08-22}}</ref><!-- add note about living there for ?40 years -->


==Artistic pursuits==
==Artistic pursuits==

Revision as of 22:47, 25 November 2008

Sri Chinmoy
File:Sri Chinmoy1.jpg
Sri Chinmoy, c. 1997.
Born(1931-08-27)August 27, 1931
Shakpura village, Chittagong District, East Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh)
DiedOctober 11, 2007(2007-10-11) (aged 76)
New York City
Resting placeQueens, New York
NationalityIndian

Chinmoy Kumar Ghose[1] (August 27, 1931 – October 11, 2007) was an Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher who emigrated to the U.S. in 1964.[2] An author, composer, artist and athlete, he was perhaps best known for holding public events on the theme of inner peace and world harmony (such as concerts, meditations, and races).[citation needed] His teachings emphasize love for God, daily meditation on the heart, service to the world, and religious tolerance. A view that "all faiths" are essentially divine.[citation needed]

Early years in India (1931-1964)

Ghose was the youngest of seven children, born in Shakpura village in the Chittagong District of East Bengal (now Bangladesh).[2] His parents were Shashi Kumar Ghosh, a railway inspector turned banker,[3] and Yogamaya Ghosh, an Indian homemaker of devout temperament.[4] He lost his father to illness in 1943, and his mother a few months later. Orphaned, in 1944 the 12-year-old Ghose joined his brothers and sisters at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, South India, where elder brothers Hriday and Chitta had already established a presence.[5] There he spent the next twenty years in spiritual practice, including meditation, study in Bengali and English literature,[6] and work in the ashram’s cottage industries.[7]

In his teens and twenties he was a sprinter and decathlete.[8] In 1955, he became secretary to Nolini Kanta Gupta[9] - the third in charge at the ashram - translating many of the latter’s articles from Bengali to English.[10] He also published articles of his own about India’s spiritual leaders,[11] and continued filling notebooks with poems, songs, and reflections on ashram life.[12]

In the West (1964-2007)

In 1964, he accepted the invitation of American sponsors,[13] and emigrated to New York City with the intention of teaching. Between 1968 and 1970, he gave talks at Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Brandeis, Dartmouth, and The New School for Social Research.[citation needed]

While in America in the 1970s, Sri Chinmoy attracted followers such as musicians Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin, though both eventually turned away from him.[14] In 2000, Santana discussed Sri Chinmoy as being "vindictive" towards the end of their relationship/after the relationship ended.[15] Sri Chinmoy also had the Olympic athlete Carl Lewis [1], and singer Roberta Flack [2] as students.

He continued to travel, lecture, give concerts and arrange lifting events,[3][citation needed] until his death after a heart attack in his home in Jamaica, Queens, New York on October 11, 2007.[16]

Artistic pursuits

According to his followers Sri Chinmoy wrote 1,500 books, 115,000 poems and 20,000 songs, created 200,000 paintings and gave almost 800 peace concerts.[16] His short songs were written in Bengali and English,[17] and he also performed on the flute, esraj, cello and synthesizer, as well as improvising on piano and pipe organ. He also played the dilruba, and had learned Indian Classical musical from Vasant Rai.[citation needed]. He has also released four albums in Jamaica on the Studio One-affiliated label Port-O-Jam. [18]

In 1984, he began a series of free concerts for world harmony, performing in such venues as London’s Royal Albert Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan, and the Sydney Opera House.[19] These concerts became his most numerous and popular productions.[citation needed]

Athletic and humanitarian programs

In 1977, he founded the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, which holds running, swimming, and cycling events worldwide, from fun runs to ultramarathons.[20] Its precursor was the 1976 Liberty Torch Run, a relay in which 33 runners marked America’s bicentennial by covering 8,800 miles in 7 weeks, mapped out over 50 states.[citation needed] This concept was expanded in 1987 to become the international Peace Run (later renamed World Harmony Run),[21] generally held every two years.

In 1985 Sri Chinmoy, with the then Mayor of Oxford, inaugurated the first "Sri Chinmoy Peace Mile", which is a measured mile in Cutteslowe Park, Oxford giving joggers something to measure their progress against.[citation needed] There are now several "Peace Miles" around the world.[22]

Many of Sri Chinmoy’s followers run daily for health and physical fitness. Sri Chinmoy himself continued to enter races until his sixties when a knee injury hampered his ability to run; afterwards he turned his attention to lifting people and things off the ground.[23]

Hinduism Today, a quarterly magazine distributed internationally, awarded Sri Chinmoy with the "Hindu Renaissance Award" in 1997. According to Hinduism Today, since 1990, the magazine has "honored one saint each year who has most impacted the faith and spread its vastness, compassion and profundity across the globe."[2]

In 2007, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.[24] According to the Sri Chinmoy Centre, the nomination was from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and supported by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.[25]

Teachings

Sri Chinmoy's teachings call his path the "path of the heart"[26] or the path of "love, devotion, and surrender"[27] to God, whom he calls "the Supreme". [28] His conception of the Supreme includes both form and the formless,[29] and both Father and Mother aspects.[30] His work does not view the Supreme as a fixed or static entity, but, rather, uses the term "ever-transcending Beyond". His teachings also describe God as inner Truth, and as one’s most illumined part. This is consistent with the Hindu doctrine of Tat Tvam Asi (Sanskrit: "That Thou Art") found in the Chandogya Upanishad.[31] His teachings are essentially monotheistic.

He asked his students to adopt a vegetarian diet, abstain from recreational drugs and alcohol,[32] and lead a pure, celibate life.[33][2] At weekly meetings, the men wear white clothing, while the women wear Indian saris.[34] Although strongly influenced by Hinduism, his path catered to an international community of seekers from diverse backgrounds.[35]

Controversy

Sri Chinmoy claims to have once lifted over 7,000 pounds with one arm.[36] In 1989, an official photographer indicated that he had been asked to airbrush photographs to exaggerate the weightlifting ability of Sri Chinmoy, such as manipulating a photo of an object being lifted to make it appear that it was lifted higher than originally shown.[37] In 1991, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas concluded that Chinmoy misrepresented the type of lift he claimed after watching a video of Chinmoy lifting.[38]

Sri Chinmoy has been accused by a number of former followers of sexual misconduct.[39] However, according to the Sri Chinmoy Centre, sexual misconduct allegations against Sri Chinmoy are false and defamatory.[40]

In 1996, a plaque associated with Sri Chinmoy at the Statue of Liberty was removed by the National Park Service after several weeks of protests due to a call by American Atheists, who viewed this as a violation of the separation of Church and State.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Sands 2001, According to legal papers signed in November 2006, his name is Chinmoy Kumar Ghose aka Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy is the name under which the guru has taught, published, composed and performed since approximately 1972. (See front and back matter of referenced works.) He was previously known as Chinmoy Kumar Ghose (e.g. “Many at U.N.” New York Times 8 Nov. 1971: 42). He signed most of his paintings and drawings C.K.G. (“C.K.G.” Jharna-Kala Magazine 1.1 (Apr.–June 1977): 1).
  2. ^ a b c d "Hindu of the Year". Hinduism Today. December 1997. pp. 34–35. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  3. ^ Chinmoy, My Father 1992, pp. 1, 3.
  4. ^ Dua 2005, p. 10 and Chinmoy, To the Streaming Tears 1994, pp. 6, 14.
  5. ^ Dua 2005, pp. 18, 22 and Chinmoy, My Brother Chitta 1998, p. 58.
  6. ^ Chinmoy, My Brother 1998, pp. 60, 65.
  7. ^ Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy Answers, Part 23 2000, p. 28 and Chinmoy, How Nolini-da 2004, pp. 6–7.
  8. ^ Dua 2005 pp. 33–35 and Sands 2001, p. 32.
  9. ^ Chinmoy, How Nolini-da 2004; Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy Answers, Part 23 2000, p. 28; Chinmoy, A Service-Flame 1974.
  10. ^ Chinmoy, How Nolini-da 2004, pp. 3–4; Gupta, Lotus-Petals, Part 1 1971 and Part 2 1973; Gupta, An Exquisite Petal 1984.
  11. ^ Chinmoy, Mother India's Lighthouse 1973.
  12. ^ Chinmoy, My Brother 1998, p. 65 and Sands 2001, pp. 32–34.
  13. ^ Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy Answers, Part 23 2000, p. 28.
  14. ^ Stump, Paul. Go Ahead John: The Music of John McLaughlin (p. 92). ISBN 0946719241, 9780946719242
  15. ^ Heath, Chris. "The Epic Life of Carlos Santana" Rolling Stone, March 2000. Retrieved on 2008-08-10
  16. ^ a b Kilgannon, Corey (2007-10-13). "Sri Chinmoy, Athletic Spiritual Leader, Dies at 76". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
  17. ^ Dua 2005, p. 68 claims that as of 5 May 2005, Chinmoy had composed 18,897 devotional songs, comprising 12,000 in Bengali - his mother tongue - 6,684 in English, 180 in Sanskrit and 33 in French.
  18. ^ http://www.downbeat-special.co.uk/mypilotsupreme.html
  19. ^ Dua 2005, p. 66; “Sri Chinmoy Composes” India Post 2 Aug. 2006.
  20. ^ Bennett, Ultrarunning Apr. 1987: 23–25.
  21. ^ Greene, "Runners Span Globe" Salisbury Post 2005.
  22. ^ See, for example: "Sri Chinmoy peace mile". Auckland City Council. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  23. ^ "Sri Chinmoy (obituary)". TimesOnline. 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  24. ^ "Nobel Peace Prize 2007: Nominations & Speculations". PRIO. 2007-02-21. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  25. ^ Chopra, Parveen (2007-10-14). "World Leaders Mourn Spiritual Guru Sri Chinmoy's Death". Boloji.com. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  26. ^ Chinmoy, Mind-Confusion, Part 2 1974.
  27. ^ Chinmoy, The Oneness, Part 2 2004, pp. 254–56.
  28. ^ Chinmoy, The Vision 1974, p. 39.
  29. ^ Chinmoy, The Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy 2000, p. 131.
  30. ^ Chinmoy, My Flute 1972, p. 55 and Chinmoy, The Wisdom 2000, pp. 126–27.
  31. ^ Chandogyopanisad VI.8.7–VI. 16 passim. Commentary by Chinmoy in The Oneness, Part 2 2004, pp. 135–36, p. 168.
  32. ^ Kubacki, “An 868-kilometre ‘Spiritual Journey’” Ottawa Citizen 2006.
  33. ^ "Peace Institute Honors Chinmoy". Hinduism Today. February 1994. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  34. ^ “Sri Chinmoy Writes” People Weekly 1976: 50; Knox (ed.), Religion and Public Policy Religion Counts 2002, p. 30.
  35. ^ Hinnells 1991, p. 80.
  36. ^ Johnson, Richard. "Guru's Dark Side Eludes News". New York Post, October 13, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-08-10
  37. ^ Wynar, Roahn. "Chinmoy's heavy claims weightless" Daily Texan, University Wire, July 1, 1998 Retrieved on 2008-08-10
  38. ^ Galloway, Paul. “Gonzo Guru,” in Chicago Tribune, September 20, 1991.
  39. ^ Ginsberg, Alex. "Ex-Followers Rip 'Sleazy' Sri". New York Post, May 23, 2004.
  40. ^ "WIPO Domain Name Decision". WIPO. May 22, 2003. Retrieved 2008-08-23. {{cite web}}: Text "Case No. D2003-0248" ignored (help)

References

  • Bennett, Vidagdha. "What is the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team?" Ultrarunning Magazine Apr. 1987: 23–25.
  • Dua, Shyam, ed. The Luminous Life of Sri Chinmoy. Delhi, India: Tiny Tot, 2005.
  • Hinnells, John R., ed. Who's Who of World Religions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1991. ISBN 0139529462
  • Sands, Nancy Elizabeth (Madhuri). The Life of Sri Chinmoy. 5 vols. New York: Agni, 2001.
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