130 Song Celebration

July 12th, 2009, Jamaica Queens. In honour of Sri Chinmoy's completion of 13,000 songs on July 13th, 2006, New York area students held a marathon singing session performing 1% of his total works, or 130 songs.

Paree's International Group led the singing and were joined by nearly 200 others in a seamless peformance that lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes. The weather was thankfully a glorious Sunday in July after what has felt like months of uncharacteristic monsoonal downpours.

The serene atmosphere generated by the singing uplifted the many hearts and souls in attendance, while the amplified peformance wafted gently through the air permeating the immediate suroundings for everyone's  benefit.

The songs, too long to be listed here, featured many of Sri Chinmoy's classics, or 'golden oldies', from the 1970s and 1980s, not only elicited fond memories but also proved their timeless freshness and lasting inspirational impact. Other Sri Chinmoy Centres in Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand and Russia organized singing marathons of the same 130 set in their own time zones.

The rousing finale was the 13,000th Bengali song Shakpura Shakpura Purba Shakpura Gram that Sri Chinmoy composed on July 13th while in Kamakura, Japan in 2006. During his lifetime, Sri Chinmoy composed over 13,600 Bengali and 7,400 English songs for an overall total of 21,000 songs.

On September 1st, 2007, Sri Chinmoy dedicated his 13,000th Bengali song to the legendary Russian singer and composer Purushottama Boris Grebenshikov and his wife Bhuvaneshwari.

 Shakpura Shakpura purba Shakpura gram
Amar janma dham dham dham
Chatrala Chatrala Chatrala Chatragram
Preranar eshanar nayanabhiram
Amar mata Bangadesh Bangadesh Bangadesh
Sneher banyar nai je shesh nai je shesh shesh
Bharat matar paye thami
Sethai mama antarajyami

–Sri Chinmoy