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This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
Notes from a gallery exhibition of Sri Chinmoy’s art
Our exhibition opening night was special, as is always the case when Sri Chinmoy’s soul-birds and paintings are unveiled to the world. There were the welcoming speeches, a performance of Guru’s music by two vocal/instrumental groups, a video presentation, hot chai and snacks, mingling and befriending, a visitor’s book brimming with thoughtful and appreciative words:
Sri Chinmoy draws birds in Guatemala
Sri Chinmoy – I salute you! Always you disappear over a far horizon where few will ever go, trailing like a comet this long blazing beauty of your achievements, your beautiful words, beautiful worlds, splashes of bright color, this feeling left in my heart. Thank you.
Audience comment
Not only the paintings but the many quotations by Sri Chinmoy touched the hearts of our audience so memorably. We had sprinkled them among the three walls of paintings in large, bold type and these commentaries and insights caused much reflection and thoughtfulness.
Art is the embodiment of the unfathomable dance of the soul.
Art, like love, is a force of oneness with the infinite. When we create a piece of art, we are really re-creating or reflecting some beauty of the Infinite.
The role of art in the spiritual life is first to awaken oneself and then to awaken the sincere seekers around one.
Sri Chinmoy
Beautiful profundities.
I like very much this juxtaposition of art and aphorisms, a complicity of two ‘beautiful worlds’, each medium reinforcing and enlivening the message of the other, inviting the audience into a world of spirit and charming them with an awakening sense of their own sacred life. These birds are the beauty of your own soul, the unremembered self – can you not feel it? The paintings are reflecting that ‘beauty of the Infinite’ which is inside each one of us.
The wall of Guru’s bird sketches was unstructured and free, capturing a sense of bird flight, playfulness, happiness. These were laminated, block-mounted prints uninhibited by framing and glass, flowing across the wall and interacting with the audience in their accessibility. Among their joyful scattering the aphorisms catch your eye, dissolve into the mind, explanatory:
My Lord, a tiny bird claims the vast sky.
Similarly, the finite in me longs to claim
Your Infinite Absolute.
We all want freedom and we all need freedom. The birds teach us to liberate ourselves from earth’s bondage. This teaching of the birds is indeed sublime.
Sri Chinmoy
The avian images tug at your heart: the soul as a bird, ever free; feelings of liberation, joy, Godward flight; stirrings of the unremembered Self.
With the luxury of much space, a second wall of acrylic prints was equally unconventional, two staggered rows, eye-pleasing in their defiance of orderliness and proclaiming their unique beauty. You ponder at the titles – ‘Hope’, ‘Harmony’, ‘Compassion’, ‘Love’, ‘Forgiveness’ – and slowly come to feel how these great abstractions are the banners of our humanity, the lodestars that will always point our way home. Here at the Te Karanga gallery, these lofty works of art have captured that ‘oneness with the Infinite’ that always inspires and awakens, scatters the stardust of the Heavens to a hungry world.
“Never see anything with your mind’s eye,” writes Sri Chinmoy the artist. “See everything with your heart’s eye. Then you will see that everything is beautiful.”
Outside in the sodden city, the perpetual rain falls, a winterscape, but in the warmth of the Jharna-Kala gallery, everything indeed is beautiful. Your heart is filled with flying birds, bright colours, images and words that lift and charm the spirit.
Art is humanity’s
Ascending,
Awakening aspiration-cry.
Art is Divinity’s
Descending,
Flowering manifestation-smile.
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
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Hello. I’m Niko and I’m in Puerto Rico at the moment, renovating the Centre with other disciples for about a month now. I’m going to tell a nice story. I call this story, “Three times Guru helped me snap out of it.”
Here’s the first time. It was on my very first Christmas Trip in Sicily. For whatever reason, I was having a bad evening. I said, “I’m not going to the evening function. I’m going to go to bed and sleep early.”
For whatever reason, I was just having a hard time. Then I remembered that I was going to be in a play that night. I thought, “I don’t want to just not show up for the boys, because we’ve practiced.”
Oh God, I was feeling that I wanted the earth to open and swallow me, but I have this play thing I had to go to. So I made a game plan. I will come when I think the play is starting, do the play, and then go right back to my hotel room.
I came a few minutes before the play started, and Savyasachi caught me. He had a big list, and it was close to departure day. He asked me, “Are you already signed up for a taxi or for a bus?” or something like that. He does this thing where when he talks with you, he gives you his attention uninterrupted. I talked with him for a while, and he said, “How are you?” I said, “I’m sick, I have a sore throat.” “Are you taking medication? Who are you rooming with?” Just chit-chatted. Such a nice guy. I thought to myself, “If a disciple of Guru’s has so much genuine concern, then Guru’s concern must be a thousand times more.”
Then the play started, and it was one of these plays that completely brought the house down. Every five seconds everyone was in stitches. It was a very small function room, completely packed. First time I was in a play on the Christmas Trip. I experienced that feeling where you make a huge amount of people laugh all at once. The play was a big success. So I came home, and my heart was open again. When I left, I wanted to disappear. And when I came back, my heart was open again.
The second time Guru helped me to snap out of it was on Guru’s birthday. It was my first Celebrations ever. It was the morning function. As I was sitting down, I was getting negative, and heavier and heavier. I was sure it would go away, but it didn’t. About 2 ½ hours must have passed. The girls were doing the flower-offering to the shrine. By the time I went in line to do the flower offering, I was at rock bottom and just like a zombie.
When it was my turn to be in front of the temple to pass by, this entire heaviness was just lifted away in an instant and replaced by peace and vastness and a very, very nice feeling. For the rest of the day for Guru’s Birthday, it was the exact opposite once again.
The third time Guru helped me to snap out of it was at another Celebrations. For whatever reason I was once again at rock bottom and walking around like a ghost. Bipin said, “Can you help me for 20 minutes?” I said, “Sure.” We got into his car and drove to Jamaica Avenue. He opened the gate of Perfection-Surprise and we went downstairs.
When I got there, I saw that Guru’s life was basically down there. When I saw his weights, his weight-lifting apparatus, his paintings, his books, it was just like falling into an ocean of Guru, his compassion and joy and concern. Just seeing these items of Guru’s completely made me snap out of it. Not just snap out, but open my heart.
That’s my story of three times Guru helped me snap out of it. Thank you.
There is not a single seeker
Who cannot inspire others.
There is not a single seeker
Who cannot be inspired by others.
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
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For me, music is pure magic; it is the most direct connection between the physical world and the spiritual world. I believe that's what drew me to music in the first place. It is a doorway into the unknown and the unknowable.
Guru speaks the language of music more perfectly than any human being has ever spoken this language on Earth. And Guru has expanded the universe, through the music. If you can imagine music itself as a universe, Guru has expanded the boundaries of that universe far, far beyond any previous conception of what music could be or could achieve in this world.
For me, Guru has so many ways of teaching. Music is such a direct and powerful way that Guru uses to teach us in ways that words can never express. I've always been very, very moved not only by Guru's songs and Guru's music, but also by everything that Guru said and wrote about music. The most beautiful thing I ever heard Guru say about music was a talk that Guru gave in Moscow. Guru’s talk on “Music and Song.” It was so moving because when Guru was speaking, he was embodying the truth of his words and they entered into the very core of my being. That particular lecture that Guru gave, to me, is the most profound utterance that has ever been spoken on the subject of music.
Each human being is a musician. He either plays on his mind-drum or he plays on his heart-flute or he plays on both. He himself plays, hears, appreciates and admires his own creations that come from an unknown Source.
Each human being is a singer. In his thoughts, in his ideas, in his actions, in his words and deeds, in his sound-life and silence-life, he carries sweetness, tenderness and soul-stirring or heart-rending melodies of the Unknown. He himself is a singer, listener and admirer of his own songs.
God is the Supreme Musician. God is the Supreme Singer. He created the Universe from His Vision-Music. He feeds and nourishes the Universe with His Revelation and Manifestation-Songs.
Sri Chinmoy Excerpt from a lecture at Russian Gnesins’ Academy of Music, Moscow, Russia, 31 May 2004
Sri Chinmoy preceded his lecture with a silent meditation and a concert on many instruments, including his favourite instrument, the esraj.
Guru speaks about having inner beings, emanations. It seems to me that Guru's songs are his emanations. They are, they are Guru.
Every song that Guru has written, he puts part of himself into it, a part of his consciousness, part of his heart, part of his aspiration and part of his love and concern for humanity. He packs all of these qualities into each song, and he releases these songs into the world, like letting a dove go into the world. These songs bring Guru's light and Guru's wisdom and Guru's sweetness and Guru's power directly into our realm of consciousness. So, in a very real sense, Guru's songs are Guru.
The more we approach Guru's songs, the more we sing Guru's songs with utmost feeling and devotion, then the more the songs give to us, and every song has a limitless light and wisdom that it can teach us. You can sing one song, the same song every day, and each day the song will reveal a deeper truth and beauty and perfection.
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Sri Chinmoy sings some of the songs he composed about the Avatars, or great spiritual masters such as the Buddha and the Christ
Guru's songs are also his creations. They are also his children, and like any parent, any creator, Guru pours all of his love and all of his concern into every song. Now, if we are Guru's children and Guru's songs are also Guru’s children, that means the songs are our brothers and sisters.
We embody Guru’s light, and Guru's songs embody Guru's light in different colours, different shapes, different forms, but we are all from the same source—Guru's songs and Guru's disciples—we are all here together to manifest Guru as light.
So, I feel if we approach the songs as our brothers and sisters, then there is a very sweet, intimate sense that we are very, very—that we know each other very deeply. It is as though we have all come into the world together, Guru's songs and us, to sing and dance together in Guru's Heart-Garden. We love each other and we need each other—the songs and the disciples. We need Guru's songs because by singing Guru's songs, they show us deeper levels of ourselves, they reveal to us levels of light and sweetness and joy that we didn't know that we have. But Guru's songs also need us. Because the song is not a song unless it is sung. So, Guru's songs must be sung. Otherwise, they cannot express and manifest all the lights and all the truth and all the power that they embody for this world.
That is not to say that we have to all be singing Guru's songs on the radio or in the concert hall, but we do have to sing because every time anybody sings any of Guru's songs wholeheartedly and with love and with commitment, then that song has an opportunity to shine and to spread its particular light to the world.
I feel that Guru has brought forth the soul of music itself and is showing this to the world for the world's benefit. And music itself will be forever grateful to Guru because Guru has liberated music from its confinement in all the human musical traditions that we had created. Guru has liberated music so that it can express its true soul, its real spiritual self. Guru has done this using the simplest of means; Guru has returned music to its absolutely essential elements of melody.
My music embodies
The fragrance of my heart.
My songs embody
The glories of my life.
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
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One time in I think it was 1997, we had a Christmas trip in Mexico. On the Christmas trips, I worked very, very hard. I had to get up very early. I had to deal with some things in Guru's hotel room and I did a lot of media work and a lot of getting Guru on television. So, it was an exhausting time and a very busy time. I filmed for Guru to archive, but also, I did a lot of events which we would take to television. We used to get Guru on television a lot in all these countries.
After Guru held a concert one night, I was coming back to the hotel. I was not in a good space. I was very tired, but also mentally I was not in a good space, and you could say spiritually, I wasn't in a good space, since they often go together. I remember waiting in the lobby for Guru. I was some distance away because I knew I wasn't in a good consciousness, and I didn't want to bother Guru. There were a lot of disciples in the hotel lobby. I was tucked right away, almost out of sight.
When Guru came in, Guru just looked at me and waved me over. I thought, “Oh, no, I'm going to get a scolding.” But Guru was very sweet. He just told me, “Go and buy me some drinks.” Whenever Guru asked you to do something, you had to do it straightaway. So, I ran upstairs to where there was a small shop, and I bought a selection of drinks. I gave them to Guru and all my problems were gone.
Years later, I told Guru the story and asked him, “Did you specifically know that I was unhappy, or I was having problems? Did you specifically know what the problem was? Is that why you asked to me to get the drinks?”
Guru said, “I didn't specifically know what the problem was, but I could feel something wasn't right. So I used that outer action to heal you inwardly.”
Offer all your problems to God
As you would offer Him flowers.
He will be more than happy
To accept them,
And to make your problems
His problems.
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This was the first time that we were going to meet Alo Devi, one of Sri Chinmoy’s very special assistants. So Guru was making all kinds of arrangements. He was composing a song and making sure that the Centre was spotlessly clean, and everything was in order.
Previously I had told Guru I did not need to know anything more about who Guru was or what Guru could do. I told him that I just loved him as my true Guru.
The following day Guru contacted me and asked me to come to the Centre after work. The moment I got to the Centre, Guru was already waiting for me. He started literally shouting, “Alo, Alo, come, come, come! Alo come!”
She came running. She was like, “What is happening?”
“Alo, this is the boy, this is him! This is the one who doesn’t care if I am God or the devil. He doesn’t care if I am realised or not realised. He is only mine and I am his.”
When my devotion-heart approaches God,
God jumps up from His Golden Throne
To welcome and embrace my devotion.
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Guru is compassion incarnate, and I have some experience. I had the opportunity to really physically feel this compassion. Once he was coming to Paris to give a concert and there was also a Jharna-Kala exhibition in the Louvre.
At UNESCO he wanted to meet some officials. I worked for that with another girl who was very involved in public relations. She asked me to make the invitations for the different ambassadors of UNESCO and I agreed to work with her. Finally, there was this meeting with the ambassadors. I was sitting beside one of them. I was speaking French and I tried to introduce Guru to him because he didn't really understand who Guru was. I was trying to introduce Guru to him in the best way.
After the ceremony, Guru called for me in another hall. I was worried because I didn't know why he was calling me. I went down to the hall, and he was sitting in an armchair. I waited there standing for perhaps five or 10 minutes. I was a little bit afraid and said to myself, “Perhaps he wants to scold me.” Finally, he called me. He was thanking me because I was in charge of buying him some special paper, very thick paper for drawing and also some pencils. He was thanking me for that and out of the blue he just took a drawing from a box, an amazing bird drawing he had done. He gave it to me. I was so surprised! That showed how much compassion Guru has.
'I could find out myself, but it was so much easier asking your soul'
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There was another time, maybe in 2003, probably 2004, where, again, I used to do an enormous amount of work video for Guru. Guru had everything filmed and there was a lot of the equipment. I would carry cameras, tripods, lights, cabling—most of it by myself. So, after a while, my physical started breaking down. I was a lot younger then, but still, wrist problems, back problems… everything was torturing me. I was also not in a good spiritual space because the two can be related. Also, I hadn't slept much for many days. Whatever excuses, I wasn't in a good space.
All the same, I was very lucky because I used to go to Guru's house all the time. Most mornings I would be there for several hours during Guru’s lifting. And in the evenings, I would come too, and sometimes in the afternoon. I was very lucky to have that outer physical connection.
So, I told Guru, “I'm not in a good space. I'm having all these problems.”
Guru said, “I'm concentrating on your soul right now.”
It was amazing! Within a few moments I felt this incredible light pouring into me—and I'm not someone who really goes on feelings too much. But I felt this light pouring, pouring…. It was almost like whenever I moved, I felt I would float in the air. I felt such intense joy, and it lasted for probably two to three days. I actually just felt, “Wow, I really could get realised any moment now.” I had that sort of intense joy.
I was very lucky. I asked Guru about it several years later. Why did Guru go and ask my soul? How come Guru didn't himself know about it?
Guru said, “Well, of course, I could find out myself, but it was so much easier asking your soul. Your soul knows everything about you. So that was the quickest and easiest way to do it.”
Your soul knows
What the Supreme in your Master
Is doing for you.
Your mind does not know,
And does not even want to know.
Here’s the first time. It was on my very first Christmas Trip in Sicily. For whatever reason, I was having a bad evening. I said, “I’m not going to the evening function. I’m going to go to bed and sleep early.”
When I got there, I saw that Guru’s life was basically down there. When I saw his weights, his weight-lifting apparatus, his paintings, his books, it was just like falling into an ocean of Guru, his compassion and joy and concern. Just seeing these items of Guru’s completely made me snap out of it. Not just snap out, but open my heart.
