Sri Chinmoy Biography
Born August 27, 1931(1931-08-27)
Shakpura village, Chittagong District, East Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh)
Died October 11, 2007 (aged 76)
New York City
Resting place Queens, New York
Nationality Indian
Religious beliefs Hindu
"There comes a time in the seeker's life when he discovers that he is at once the lover and the beloved. The aspiring soul which he embodies is the lover in him. And the transcendental Self which he reveals from within is his Beloved." -Sri Chinmoy
"True religion has a universal quality. It does not find fault with other religions. Forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, brotherhood and the feeling of oneness are the signs of a true religion." - Sri Chinmoy
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). His parents were Shashi Kumar Ghosh, a railway inspector turned banker, and Yogamaya Ghosh, an Indian homemaker of devout temperament. 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. There he spent the next twenty years in spiritual practice, including meditation, study in Bengali and English literature, and work in the ashram’s cottage industries. Ghose claimed that within only a few months of arriving at the ashram he had achieved the spiritual state of God-realisation.
In his teens and twenties he was a sprinter and decathlete. According to Ghose, in 1955 he became secretary to Sri Aurobindo's most senior disciple Nolini Kanta Gupta. However, the accuracy of this particular claim is not supported by the ashram's Archives and Research Library. Ghose translated many of Gupta's articles from Bengali to English. He also published articles of his own about India’s spiritual leaders, and continued filling notebooks with poems, songs, and reflections on ashram life.
In the West (1964-2007)
In 1964, with the help of American sponsors, he 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.
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. In 1976, Chinmoy released a meditative album on Folkways Records entitled Music for Meditation. In 2000, Santana discussed Sri Chinmoy as being "vindictive" towards the end of their relationship/after the relationship ended. Other musicians who were spiritually inspired by Chinmoy are Narada Michael Walden, Roberta Flack and Boris Grebenshikov. Sri Chinmoy also had the Olympic athlete Carl Lewis as a student. Frederick Lenz (Atmananda) became a follower around 1972, but he left and became a guru on his own around 1981.
Chinmoy continued to travel, lecture, give concerts and arrange lifting events,[citation needed] until his death from a heart attack while at his home in Jamaica, Queens, New York on October 11, 2007.
In the West (1964-2007)
In 1964, with the help of American sponsors,[18] he 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.
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. In 1976, Chinmoy released a meditative album on Folkways Records entitled Music for Meditation. In 2000, Santana discussed Sri Chinmoy as being "vindictive" towards the end of their relationship/after the relationship ended. Other musicians who were spiritually inspired by Chinmoy are Narada Michael Walden, Roberta Flack and Boris Grebenshikov. Sri Chinmoy also had the Olympic athlete Carl Lewis as a student. Frederick Lenz (Atmananda) became a follower around 1972, but he left and became a guru on his own around 1981.
Chinmoy continued to travel, lecture, give concerts and arrange lifting events, until his death from a heart attack while at his home in Jamaica, Queens, New York on October 11, 2007.
Ghose, Chinmoy (gōs gōsh) , 1931–, Indian mystic and poet. Orphaned at the age of 12, he went to live at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in S India, where he stayed for the next 20 years, practicing spiritual disciplines. In 1964 he went to the United States, where he lectured and established meditation centers. In 1970 he was appointed director of the United Nations Meditation Group. His numerous writings describe his Yoga of “love, devotion, and surrender” as a swift and safe path to union with God or the Supreme. He stresses the development of the spiritual heart as a human faculty higher than mind and emphasizes the necessity for manifesting God in one's daily life rather than withdrawing from the world.
Sri Chinmoy's basic teaching was the pathway of love, devotion, and surrender to God. He also emphasized the value of sports, particularly running, and was himself a dedicated runner. The Sri Chinmoy Center in New York sponsors over 100 public races each year, including marathons and ultramarathons, which are an example of what Chinmoy referred to as the meditation of action.
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.[24] His short songs were written in Bengali and English,[25] During a concert he would usually play 10-15 different instruments, such as a variety of flutes, esraj, cello, dilruba and synthesizer, as well as improvising on piano and pipe organ. He had learned Indian Classical music from Vasant Rai.
