Stories by Sri Chinmoy's students and friends

Sweet moments with our Guru

A barrage of Candy Bullets

Sometime in the late 1990s I sat in a hotel room in Atitlan, Guatemala, feeling incredibly depressed. Every year around Christmas and the New Year, Guru would travel to different countries for all of us to share and learn from inspiring people all over the world. Several hundred of Sri Chinmoy’s students would stay at the same one or two hotels and we had many functions, plus a lot of time for sports.

Playing soccer earlier that morning, I had felt depressed. Eating breakfast—depressed. A mid-morning nap, avoiding everyone—depressed! In our hotel function room I sat at the back, avoiding Guru’s scrutiny and the banter of friends. Guru had a bag of sweets in his lap and was tossing them out, like a playful father.

Suddenly he stopped, glared at me with a fierce concentration, then began hurling wrapped sweets at me with incredible velocity. I felt a jolt inside and sat bolt upright. The sweets were whizzing by me, a barrage, bouncing off the seating and ricocheting away like hurtling bullets. I couldn’t believe it! Relentless, Guru threw one after another, firing away, a wild fusillade of candies.

Then I caught one and Guru stopped. I held it in my hand and started laughing—Guru started laughing too. Suddenly my depression went away. It was quite extraordinary. He had known how I felt and banished this force from my mind in such a remarkable way. After that I felt happy and grateful to be on the trip and didn’t allow depression back to rule my mind.

When my Lord’s Compassion-Eye
Appears,
My depression-vital
Disappears.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 4, Agni Press, 1998

Everyday Miracles on Sri Chinmoy's Path

'The Christ is the boss, but he is in heaven'

Many, many years ago I was visiting a restaurant owned by Sri Chinmoy's students in San Francisco along with Sri Chinmoy. When Sri Chinmoy was leaving the restaurant, I was standing next to a young woman. Guru walked past the both of us, suddenly stopped, and seemingly without any outer beckoning came back and faced the young woman with eyes closed. Because I was right there, I could not help but be privy to his words, which went something like this:

"You are having trouble reconciling my life and the life of the Christ. Think of it this way. Think that the Christ is the boss, but he is in heaven. You can think of me as his secretary. My job is to screen people in preparation for meeting the boss!" (Remember, this is my memory...but it's close.)

Then Sri Chinmoy went on. "But I tell you, if you cry in your heart for the Christ...when you find him in your heart, there also you will find me. Or if you cry for me in your heart, when you find me, there also you will find the Christ."

Now, as regards a personal experience...I was raised in the Jewish faith. I had no connection with the Christ as a child. But as soon as I became Sri Chinmoy's student, it awakened in me a powerful and intimate association with the Christ, for which I am grateful.

One of my dearest friends, Sunil, prayed to the Christ for a master in the physical. When he saw Guru for the first time, he immediately felt that the Christ had made this possible, and that it was an answer to his prayers.

Dynamic Spirituality

'Will I be able to lift it?'

Bishwas played an instrumental role in designing and building many of the apparatus that Sri Chinmoy used for his weightlifting feats.

Guru periodically performed weightlifting exhibitions in which he would perform one enormous and creative lifting feat after another. He announced in the fall of 2004 that he would like to have another such exhibition. He wanted ideas for new lifting machines. That was when we built his “shrugging” machine and one or two other new ones like the leg press machine.

I had the idea that Guru could lift his own cute little blue smart car, but from overhead rather than from underneath. I told Guru that this was definitely a more difficult way of lifting the car, but that as long as the car wasn’t over 2,000 pounds, I thought he would be able to lift it. Guru liked the idea, and immediately called Prataya to ask what the weight was because she had bought the car for him. It turned out that the weight was 1,971 pounds.

So Guru asked us to start building a machine to lift the car right away. But he also kept asking, “Will I be able to lift it?”

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Achieving the Impossible

All I needed was the Supreme, and I would always win

For three years, starting in 1977, some 200 New York area students of Sri Chinmoy trained as a group for the Pepsi 24-Hour Bicycle Marathon in Central Park, as he encouraged us to challenge our limitations and thus discover our deeper capacities.

Starting a month before the race, which was held on Memorial Day Weekend, Sri Chinmoy would lead us on daily training rides in Flushing Meadow Park. The Pepsi Bike Marathon drew thousands of amateur participants, but also a core group of professional riders who competed seriously for the prizes. None of our team members had experience in racing, though a few of us did cycle regularly and take road trips. The first year we entered as a team was a bit of an experiment, though I think we won a prize or two for the size of our team and for our uniforms. But the second year, 1978, we trained more seriously, and I felt that Sri Chinmoy was determined to show us the limits of what was possible.

A week before the race, Sri Chinmoy chose who would be on the two small teams that would compete for the team prizes. I felt honoured that I was the only woman on the first-string team of ten, but I was quite alarmed when Sri Chinmoy solemnly called us up in front of the whole group and told us he envisioned each of us doing 300 miles in 24 hours!

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Inner communication

Why did it take you so long?

Vijaya, a student of Sri Chinmoy who passed away in 2009, originally came to New York to pursue a career in acting. During that period, an ethereal, mystical figure often appeared to her, offering her guidance and advice in her times of need.

In the summer of 1973, Vijaya attended one of Sri Chinmoy’s public meditations in Manhattan, and was thrilled and amazed when she realised that the guiding figure in her life had been the Guru himself. She loved the deeply contemplative atmosphere, and rushed up to the stage when the audience was invited to meditate with the Master at the end of the evening.

This was the first time time Sri Chinmoy spoke to Vijaya. She asked to become his disciple, and the Master asked, “Why did it take you so long?“

— this story about Vijaya was told by her friend Nilima from New York.

Constant Growth and Progress

The white bird and the lake

In my early years of exploring meditation and the little-known subject of reincarnation, I came across a rather discouraging description of the long passage of time the soul supposedly takes from its very earliest entry into the earth arena until its full blossoming in God-realisation. Imagine, said the words of an old Indian text, a beautiful white bird flying to a large lake once every several thousand years and taking away a single drop of water in its beak. The length of time it takes for the bird to empty the lake is a description – metaphorical of course – of how long it takes for this journey to be concluded, for realisation or self-blossoming to be won.

A rather bleak thought! But encouragingly, it did add the further comment that for those who have a curiosity or an awakening interest in spirituality, the lake is almost empty and the long journey of the soul is not in front of us but already behind us.

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the life-saving Divine Force

'See, sometimes the Supreme speaks to me'

After a wonderful meditation session on Australia’s Gold Coast, Sri Chinmoy was heading towards the elevator. He saw a bunch of us boys, looked at us pointedly and said, “What, no frisbee?” This is a fairly rare comment for Sri Chinmoy to make, and it seemed somewhat incongruous. However, it was also extremely welcome. What better thing to do after a beautiful meditation than to run around on the beach with your friends playing the great game of Ultimate Frisbee.

Fifteen minutes later about twelve of us were fully immersed in an intense battle of Frisbee down on the beach. As we were about to begin the next point, I saw two boys from the other team running into the surf. The next thing I saw was them carrying Kritartha, a Czech student of Sri Chinmoy, out of the ocean with quite a deep and nasty gash in his calf muscle. I ran back to the hotel and borrowed a van to take him to hospital.

I went into the function room to explain the situation to Guru. That was the first time I had ever given news like this to Guru, and it was fascinating to watch his reaction. He was very focused, and with each nuance of the situation he would take it in and meditate for a second or two. The gist of the news was that the injury happened while Kritartha was surfing and is a fairly common occurrence in these waters. The cut was quite deep and there may have been muscle damage. If so, they would then need to cut the leg further to stitch the inner muscle. Fortunately, this turned out not to be the case, and I am convinced it was due to the force that Guru put on the situation.

After I told Guru all the news, he inquired, “Why were you on the beach? Were you surfing?”  “No,” I replied, “We were playing Frisbee like you said we should.”  Guru looked at me fixedly and with a twinkle in his eye said, “See, sometimes the Supreme speaks to me. It would have been much harder for him if you all had not been there.”

I mumbled something in agreement, while wondering if there was ever a time when the Supreme actually did not speak to Guru. I personally do not think Sri Chinmoy uttered a single word or even thought a single thought without it coming from the Supreme.

God’s watchful Eye
Is protecting my life
Every day.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 28, 27894, Agni Press, 2002

Treasured friendships

Guru's first meeting with Mother Teresa

We were told Mother Teresa was staying at a church in Rome, very close to the Coliseum. It was near a church but it was a convent. It was so simple. There was no running water or heat, and the nuns lived with such simplicity. Guru was so excited and so delighted.

When Guru got there, Kailash was driving, and I got to be in the car with Guru. There were about 50 disciples who were already there waiting. They wanted us all to gather at the back entrance of the convent. It was quite beautiful. There were beautiful trees and a view of Rome.

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