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The evening program included: a cappella women’s choir - Paree’s International Group, and meditative singing and mantras performed by Vedic Fire. Other groups performing in the concert included: Srivantu, Sri Chinmoy Centre Choir, Enthusiasm-Awakeners, Heart-Dawn, Earth-Bondage-Liberation-Dream. There was also a few short films with the music of Spiritual Master, Sri Chinmoy.

One of the music groups.

Introducing the performers.

Other events in the festival of meditation and spirituality included two videos on the theme of 'The Power Within'.

• Spirit of the Runner: a remarkable film story of Suprabha Beckjord, the only women ever to complete the world’s longest certified road race – the Self-Transcendence 3,100-mile foot race.
• Challenging Impossibility: a film about how Spiritual Master Sri Chinmoy captured the world’s imagination by demonstrating th the power of meditation through weightlifting.

For more information about meditation and workshops in New York, see: NYC Meditation.org

Credit: Ashish Zubaty and Photos Bhashwar.

"Peace is not merely the absence of war. Peace is the dynamic and energetic presence of love, harmony and oneness in the world family"

Salil Wilson, and Mayor of Cardiff and his wife making wish for peace by statue.

The maker of the statue - Kaivalya

The World Harmony Run team by statue. They had recently arrived from France and are now running towards Ireland as part of the European World Harmony Run, which started in Portugal recently.

• Report at World Harmony Run
• Making a wish for peace - blog by Sumangali

Sri Chinmoy aptly called these events a 'Joy-Day'. This Joy-Day took place in Weinheim, near Heidelberg. Most people arrived late Saturday afternoon; after an opening meditation and dinner there was a versatile spiritual evening program with music, meditation, video's, slideshows, a play and news about all the activities of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in various parts of the world, such as the recent concerts of the Gandharva Loka Orchestra in Bangladesh.

Sunday morning started with an early 6 a.m. meditation followed by a 2-mile running race. After a late morning program with more music, singing and video's the Joy-Day ended with a final silent meditation.

[1] Sri Chinmoy, The Wings of Joy

World-renowned marathon legend Tegla Loroupe was part of the international running team in Figueira da Foz. Over 900 local school children joined her in the opening run through the city. The mayor warmly welcomed the runners and wished them a good journey ahead.

Follow latest at World Harmony Run.org

An appreciative crowd in Dhaka.

Sri Chinmoy, the inspiration behind the group was originally born in Shakpura, Chittagong, East Bengal. Since coming to the West in 1964, Sri Chinmoy composed over 15,000 songs in Bengali - as well as several thousand English songs.

• Dhaka concert at Songs of the Soul
• Recent Recordings of Gandharava Loka published at Radio Sri Chinmoy

View: more photos of Kamakura Concert at Songs of the Soul.

Photos by Jaitra Gillespie.

Sri Chinmoy visited Kamakura on a number of occasions, including three peace concerts. He wrote a poem about this most significant statue.

• Moments of Silence - Kamakura Buddha by Kedar at Sri Chinmoy TV

"...Luminaries are those who spread light and knowledge — and since God the pre-eminent Illuminer is spreading His light through every human life — each of which is His own life — it follows that we are all luminaries. It is really only a question of to what extent... (From Jogyata's Travels in Iceland.)

• Read online - Inspiration Letters vol. 24 | Download PDF version

"India's strength is not in her arms, but in her heart. More so, it is in her seer-vision.

India tells the world that the realisation of unity is the only strength which can conquer the world."

...

"India has three world-conquering weapons: Non-violence, Peace and the Wisdom which tells that she is in All as All is in her."

- Sri Chinmoy [1. Sri Chinmoy, Yoga And The Spiritual Life. The Journey of India's Soul, Agni Press, 1971. ]

The run was joined by many local Indians who were happy to participate and join the run.

The runners visited the Bangla Sahib Sikh Temple (Gurudwara) in the heart of Dehli.

A local school who enthusiastically received the run.

• World Harmony Run.org - India

After the concert, the prestigious French newspaper Le Monde remarked the “extraordinary sociological fact” that “a single man, simply by standing with folded hands, is able to impose several minutes of silence upon thousands of people of varied origins.” The reporter went on to say,“Curiously, one had the feeling that the crowd had not come for the music but rather for what was in between the compositions, that is, the inner peace that the sound only served to prolong.”

Concert de Paix - at Radio Sri Chinmoy

First I hope they will pick it up at all! If they do, that they will see that spirituality is not abstraction. That it is based upon self-improvement and world-improvement and not merely mumbo-jumbo (or wearing copper triangles on one’s head!)

I do not really understand how anything actually works and the more I do understand the more miraculous it all seems. For instance, how do I survive. Of course, I have to be able and perhaps more importantly, prepared to work, to exploit every opportunity, but how those very opportunities come about still remains a supreme mystery.

A comedian will stand-up and say: “You know how when you go to the fridge and you’ve only got a couple of packs of Chinese duck sauce and two end slices of stale bread but you’re still thinking, “That would make a pretty good sandwich,” and the audience (hopefully) laughs, well what I think is happening is that our awareness is being expanded. Of course, we are also laughing at our own frailties or learning not to take ourselves so seriously or something, but in the macro sense, even unconsciously, I believe we are becoming aware that existence itself is fundamentally delightful.

  Book Available to Buy

• Eat My Dust Martin Luther – 95 essays on Modern Spirituality and New American Mysticism – at Amazon.com (kindle edition)
• Kalatit.com

“When the power of love replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God.” [1]

In an explanation of this, Sri Chinmoy elaborated by saying that here ‘God’ means universality.

He said that when we use the power of love, individuality immediately disappears and is replaced by universality or a positive feeling of oneness; however when we use the love of power, we feel separate and superior, feelings that very often lead to destruction.

Using this deeply insightful and meaningful ideal to build upon, the World Festival of the Heart, an event to be staged in Melbourne, Australia in November this year, was born. The Festival is a gathering of luminaries across the fields of spirituality, science and the arts, to celebrate their wisdom and life achievements, and to collectively explore how we can use “heart-power” to improve the fundamental wellbeing of all life on our planet.

Our world is standing on the brink of a new era and all around us we are witnessing a thrilling convergence of these three amazing fields of endeavour. Festival organisers are planning a three-day program that will explore this “convergence” and the possibilities it holds to change our lives in unimaginable ways.

Festival organisers are creating a program full of activities: workshops, music, dialogue, devotions, performance, concerts, an expo and a grand forum. The program is designed for anyone who has a passion for life, for the world and our future. Themes for Festival participants to explore will include:

• The Great Mystery: life, consciousness and the universe
• The Universal Heart: recognising the oneness in diversity of all life
• Creative Living: using heart-power for a healthy, happy and harmonious life.

Further information and contact details for the Festival can be found at www.festivaloftheheart.org.

[1] Sri Chinmoy, 1970, Meditations: Food For The Soul

We will be adding more streaming channels and also adding new content to Radio Sri Chinmoy, in the near future.

Sri Chinmoy was a prolific composer of songs. He often performed his own compositions at his 777 Peace Concerts which he offered around the world during his lifetime.

"Everybody on earth is a musician and a singer. A singer does not have to carry a note perfectly. Music is the language of God. God's language, music, is not like mathematics or geometry. It is a language of love. If we love music, that is enough."

- Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy Answers, Part 27, Agni Press, 2000.

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Some Comments from Concerts

"Very professional performance. I admire your art of playing the instruments. My feelings are very positive, full of harmony."

~

"It is difficult to express it in words. Peace, harmony. I touched my own inner self."

~

"Wonderful, thrilling, full of beauty, hope and love."

When Ashrita was young, he admits he was not good at sport, in fact he mentions he was 'a bit of nerd'. But, after practising meditation for several years, Sri Chinmoy saw Ashrita had the potential to aim for a big mileage in a 24 hour cycle race. To Ashrita's surprise he was able to ride 405 miles in 24 hours, with little training - displaying to himself how techniques of meditation and mantra can help us to transcend our previous limitations.

Ashrita setting record for biggest Hula Hoop

View this video at Sri Chinmoy TV for more inspirational words from the man with the most Guinness world records.

Video produced by Parimal Repka, Hungary Sri Chinmoy Centre.

• Meditation works - article by Ashrita

Sri Chinmoy Heart Garden

The Sri Chinmoy Heart-Garden was dedicated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to Sri Chinmoy, on October 11, 2006. Exactly one year later Sri Chinmoy passed away, leaving a vibrant legacy of world service and creativity in many fields.

The Heart-Garden Two-Mile Race, first held in October 2009, is an annual event organised by Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team to celebrate the legacy and vision for world peace offered by Sri Chinmoy.

Everything that is beautiful,

Inspiring and aspiring

Can easily be found

Inside our heart-garden.

• Heart Garden Race at Sri Chinmoy Races
• Photos and report at World Harmony Run

• How to Begin Meditation at www.srichinmoy.org
• Meditation Music
• Getting started with Meditation - Jogyata Dallas
• Introduction to Meditation - article by Tejvan Pettinger

Aged 31, Vajin works as a manager of a Gandharva Loka music store. But, in his spare time he is able to train for marathons and ultra distance races. Previously Vajin won his first 47 mile ultra race in a time of 5 hours 27 minutes. In 2010 he finished 1st in New Zealand's Kepler Challenge (60km trail race) .

Vajin wrote of his experience racing in the Commonwealth ultra races.

"It has been a inspiring and uplifting experience, and a true demonstration of the power of sport to bring people together in a spirit of oneness and understanding. Spending time surrounded by fellow athletes who all share your love of the mountains and are all aspiring to transcend themselves was a wonderful experience."

• Sri Chinmoy Races
• Members of Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team

....Begin by thinking of meditation as a journey – your own abiding happiness is the goal. If you are ready to begin this journey, then the guidelines in the following pages will greatly help you – and now is the best time to start....

What is Meditation?

Sri Chinmoy writes that meditation is the tool to try and reach a higher state of consciousness - A realm beyond the domain of thought.

" When we meditate, we do not think at all. The aim of meditation is to free ourselves from all thought. Thought is like a dot on a blackboard. Whether it is good or bad, it is there. Only if there is no thought whatsoever can we grow into the highest reality."

- Sri Chinmoy [1. Sri Chinmoy, Fifty Freedom-Boats To One Golden Shore, Part 2, Agni Press, 1974. ]

Intrinsic to a successful channel swim is a good support crew who need to help feed and guide the swimmer through the potentially dangerous lanes of the English channel. Abhejali was assisted by support crew Jayalata Dadkovicova, Ritadyumna Tobolkova, Lenka Svecova, Jana Bernardova (Abhejali’s sister) from Czech Republic and Dhavala Stott from Scotland, on the Seafarer II boat piloted by Chris Osmond.

[jwplayer file="http://www.srichinmoy.tv/wp-content/uploads/media/abhejalis-channel-swim..." image="http://www.srichinmoy.tv/wp-content/uploads/media/abhejalis-channel-swim..." width="480" height="270"] Source: Sri Chinmoy TV

• List of Channel Swims by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team
• Two New channel swims from 2010
• Other experience of swimming the channel

Purushottama with Samir Chatterjee

Purushottama with Premik Russell Tabbs.

Photos by Jowan and Prabhakar.

earlier in August, another Songs of the Soul concert had been offered at the Riverside Church NY.

Related

• Concert at Songs of the Soul
• Concert at Royal Albert Hall 2008
• Interview with Purushottama at Sri Chinmoy TV