Sri Chinmoy
Our inspiration for offering these free meditation classes is Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) and his teachings. Sri Chinmoy dedicated his life to inner and outer peace for all humanity. He worked tirelessly to make meditation known to all as the way to peace. Sri Chinmoy says, “Peace is a power that transcends all our worldly knowledge. Yet it is not separate from our earthly existence. If we open the right avenues within, this peace can be felt here and now.”
Sri Chinmoy was born in 1931 in Shakpura, a village in the ancient port city of Chittagong on the east coast of the Bay of Bengal, now in Bangladesh. Chinmoy Kumar Ghose was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters, who all embraced the spiritual life and became lifelong residents of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in South India.
Young Chinmoy was only twelve when he joined the Ashram and began his life of profound meditation, soon leading to inner illumination. His realization grew and became deeper through the years. At the same time he was involved in many outer activities as he studied, worked, composed poetry and music, and excelled at athletics. In 1964 in response to a call from within, he traveled to New York to start his life of service to spiritual seekers all over the world.
Sri Chinmoy says, “Our heart’s inner mounting cry wants to climb high, higher, highest and reach the acme of perfection. This cry is constant inside each fleeting second and its climbing flame is birthless and deathless. When we become soulful seekers, we become consciously aware of the inner cry of aspiration.”
Aspiration, the inner cry, is our hunger for something higher. Our life of meditation, our outer achievements and anything we do to make this world better are all expressions of our aspiration. Aspiration, an ascending flame in our hearts, is the secret of transformation. It is the force of progress in all human activities: spirituality, religion, science, art, culture, public life and sports.
Sri Chinmoy left his physical body at the age of seventy-six on October 11, 2007, and entered his Mahasamadhi, total union with the Supreme Reality.