A demonstration of the Master’s occult powers

We had a very memorable experience that happened on Guru’s birthday, August 27, 1972. He was turning 41 years old. And even though that may seem young to most of us these days, at that point I was only 20 myself, and Guru always seemed to me like an eternal, ageless type of Master.

This was the first large birthday celebration that Guru had ever had, and it took place near our Connecticut Centre. Everything was situated outside in this big field. We had a stage set up, and the entire function—all the music and plays and everything—took place outdoors.

In the middle of the function that afternoon, the clouds began to gather, and soon it started to rain lightly. So Guru went up on the stage, sat down in a chair, and meditated. And it stopped raining.

Cross-posted from arpan.srichinmoycentre.org

A sublime meditation with Sri Chinmoy

In recent years certain rules for new disciples have been established about when you can come to New York for a visit. You have to be disciple for a while so that you can understand what's going on. But we didn’t have these rules when I first joined the path, so the first time I went to New York for our August Celebrations, I didn't understand. I thought I was going to just sit down near Guru and have really high meditations all the time.

What actually happened was that on the day I arrived, they were having Games Day in Connecticut. I showed up to find Guru sitting on a basketball court watching the New York girls versus the San Francisco girls play a rather ferocious game of basketball.

Of course Guru was way ahead of everything and everyone else, and knew exactly what to do with all of us at all times. I was basically okay, but a little confused. Where was the meditation? I went a short distance away to sit on a nearby stone wall and tried to meditate. And suddenly I had this amazing experience.

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I was taken away from my physical body and felt like I was floating above myself. It was ecstatic! After a short time, I turned my head to look at Guru. He was maybe two hundred meters away, and as soon as I looked in his direction, he turned around to gaze at me most intensely.

Cross-posted from arpan.srichinmoycentre.org

A 'channel triathlon' from Dover to Prague

The route from Dover to Prague

Abhejali Bernadova from the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Zlin, Czech Republic completed a unique 'channel triathlon' - swimming the English Channel from Dover to Calais, then cycling through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, and finally a 182km run to Prague - a total of 1111km. It took her 7 days, 12 hours and 5 minutes.

Sri Chinmoy encouraged his students to practice sports as part of their spiritual life, and some of his students have been inspired to use their inner spiritual capacity to achieve remarkable feats of endurance. In 1985, members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre first crossed the English Channel, and since then members our group have completed almost 50 channel crossings.

When you climb a mountain or swim the English Channel, you may call it a silly adventure, but I take it as part of our manifestation. In the world of manifestation, there is an outer history and an inner history. One is in the mind and one is in the heart. The mind’s history we will forget the next day, but the history of the heart we will forever remember.

....In an adventure, if you do not meet with immediate success, you have to feel that eventually you will succeed. In the beginning, the idea of swimming the English Channel seemed impossible. Now a number of our girl disciples are doing it, and one older man is defying age and conquering the Channel. So if somebody else fails, you should not give up. Either you will do it, or there will be somebody else to come who will succeed.

Sri Chinmoy

Abhejali started on Monday September 13 at 3am from Dover. Contending with a force-5 gale, she completed the crossing in 15 hours and 33 minutes. The only other successful crossing on the same day was a 5-person relay team. It was her last chance to swim this year and the swim had already been postponed a few times.

Current restrictions did not allow her to stay in France, so she had to take a detour back to Dover and then take a ferry to France.

She then cycled from Calais to her hometown of Cheb, near the Czech/German border. The cycling leg, which took her 4 days, was approximately 900 kilometres through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

She arrived in Cheb on Saturday afternoon, then ran 182km to Prague, arriving on Monday afternoon. Her daily average was 220km cycling and 2 marathons running.

Abhejali completed her first English Channel swim in 2011. Seven years later she completed the Oceans Seven, a list of seven noted long-distance swims around the world. With her swimming she tries to inspire others to overcome their own limits and show that many of these limits exist only in the mind.

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An interview from 2017 where Abhejali talks about her English Channel swimming experience
Cross-posted from arpan.srichinmoycentre.org

Peace Week in Bulgaria

Inspired by Sri Chinmoy, our members not only organise meditation events, but also joyful and dynamic events for the public, to spread the feeling that the world is one human family. The most popular event is the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run, which is a global torch relay that has visited over 155 countries. It is founded on the simple idea of passing a peace torch from hand to hand, to millions of people around the globe.

In September 2021, a Peace Week was held in Sofia, Bulgaria with many peace-themed events. The highlight was a ceremony where we presented the Peace Run Torch-Bearer award to some of Bulgaria's most talented athletes.

I believe that this award is a bridge between the countries of the world and unites them in a unique way, because sport is a language that does not need translation wherever you go. Ivet Goranova Olympic karate champion

I am honored to receive this medal of kindness and peace. I want the world to be better and I think sport is the strongest weapon to live in a more peaceful world. It is no coincidence that all wars have stopped during the Olympic Games. I am a dreamer and I know that we can live in a beautiful fairy tale with a good ending. Stanimira Petrova. World and European boxing champion

Thank you for this invaluable award. We must appreciate the real things and stand firmly on the ground. Let's be more humble, better, to live in harmony and to help everyone around us. Ivaylo Ivanov European champion, No 1 Bulgarian athlete 2020

It is a great pleasure for me that you are awarding me with this title. We have come a long way in the last few years in preparation for the Olympics, a lot of pain and hardship. It is a great honor for us athletes that people respect what we do. Hristo Hristov European weightlifting silver medallist

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The honorees were congratulated in a video message by Bulgarian footballing legend Hristo Stoichkov:

Not just a prize or a medal in your glamorous collection, this award is a symbol of the pursuit of peace and understanding of all mankind and you are its most worthy bearer.

Hristo Stoichkov

The event also featured a concert for peace by Mandu and Visuddhi Trummer from Austria.

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The week featured a lot of school visits! Visiting schools and youth groups are a huge focus of the Peace Run when we travel around the world. The children always love holding and running with our Peace Torch, and from the children our runners get a huge amount of inspiration and hope for the future of the world.

During the Peace Week, we planted many Peace Trees with the help of the children.

We also had a lecture on Peace, the UN and personal responsibility, given by Angikar Djorjevic from Serbia. Angikar has swum the English Channel, and also was able to speak about the importance of the UN from a personal perspective, having worked for many years at UNICEF in New York and Geneva.

Cross-posted from arpan.srichinmoycentre.org

A Twenty-First Century seeker

Pradhan Balter has been a student of Sri Chinmoy since 1973, and has given countless talks and workshops on meditation and the spiritual life in over 30 countries. He is a gifted storyteller, and loves to talk about his spiritual journey. He also spent many hours with Sri Chinmoy, and has a lot of stories to tell about that too.

A Twenty-First Century Seeker is compiled from recordings of many of Pradhan's talks, so the book has a very spontaneous, conversational feel to it. The book is really like a practical manual, covering all areas from starting meditation, to growing your spiritual practice and keeping it fresh after months and years have passed.

3100 Mile Race starts again in New York

Sri Chinmoy founded the 3100 Mile Race in 1997, and this year for the first time, it will be starting in Queens in September instead of its usual summer timeslot. The race started on September 5; runners have 52 days to complete the distance before the race ends on October 26.

Seven runners are participating, including two new runners: Lo Wei Ming from Taiwan, and Takasumi Senoo from Japan.

Cross-posted from arpan.srichinmoycentre.org

Celebrating Sri Chinmoy's 90th birth anniversary

Sri Chinmoy would have been 90 years old on 27 August this year. When he was with us, he would often use occasions like these as a launching point for inspiring and joyful projects for himself and his students. (To give one example: he played on 74 pianos in one sitting to celebrate his 74th birthday.)

Similarly his students around the world are using the occasion to come up with inspiring ideas both for their own personal spiritual practise, and for the world.

Cross-posted from arpan.srichinmoycentre.org

I am your highest consciousness

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Sri Chinmoy invokes the Supreme during a high meditation, 1973

The second time, the second day I met Guru, Guru was talking about drugs and the importance of taking a shower and being clean.

About drugs, he said something that to me was not only significant but epic. The words that he said stay etched inside me, scripted forever inside me: “The reason why you are taking drugs is because you are looking for an experience outside of yourself and higher than yourself.”

Cross-posted from arpan.srichinmoycentre.org

I see infinitely more than I say

On another occasion, Sri Chinmoy gives football advice to his students in Brazil, 2000

One time Guru said to me, “I see infinitely more than I say, and I say infinitely less than I see.”

As an example of that, one time in South Africa and another time in Venezuela, the disciples were playing soccer with the local boys. Guru was there for about 20 minutes at the end of the game. He seemed very informal and casual. After the game, the local boys went away and just the disciples came around Guru. I also came close because I was there.

I was astounded because Guru proceeded to talk for about 15 or 20 minutes about how the disciples should play. He spoke about every single boy on the team. To one boy he said, “You need to go more quickly. Don’t hesitate!”

In great detail, Guru was describing what had happened in the game. To each disciple on the team, he gave specific advice on how they could improve. In general, he said that we need to play from our hearts, dynamically, but not aggressively. At the end I was so amazed because he seemed so casual as if he wasn’t watching so carefully, but he had seen every single move. He was so conscious of everything. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

Cross-posted from arpan.srichinmoycentre.org

Introducing a Peace Concert for 19,000 people

Sri Chinmoy meditates at the beginning of the 2000 Peace Concert in Montreal , in front of 19,000 people.

Guru asked me to be Master of Ceremonies (MC) for the concert in Montreal, which turned out to be the largest Peace Concert in the world. By that time in my years on the Path, I knew that at least I should bring a necktie and a suit because you never know what Guru might ask you to do.

On the morning of the concert, someone calls me and says, “Guru wants you to be MC tonight.” Oh, wow! MC for a concert of 19,000 people in Montreal! And so, during the morning I try to prepare. What I want to say is: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Concert of a Lifetime!”

All I need to say is Sri Chinmoy will now offer the Concert of a Lifetime. That is what our ads said, and that was one of the things that have made it successful. But I want to deliver my welcome in my best consciousness, so I try to prepare a little speech with the proper intonation and smile and everything else. And then some of my friends are saying, “Oh, you should do this, Utsahi; you should do that. Oh, it's too long; it should be shorter.”

Anyway, so I have all these tensions, but basically I just want to be calm and happy while presenting my Guru to this huge crowd of people. So I am showered and dressed in white and just about ready to go when Prabhakar says, “Utsahi, Guru wants to see you.”

Cross-posted from arpan.srichinmoycentre.org

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