Sri Chinmoy

Chinmoy Kumar Ghose (27 August 1931 – 11 October 2007), better known as Sri Chinmoy, was an Indian spiritual leader who taught meditation in the United States after moving to New York City in 1964.

Chinmoy established his first meditation center in Queens, New York, and eventually had 7,000 students in 60 countries.

He was an author, artist, poet, and musician, he also held public events such as concerts and meditations on the theme of inner peace.

Chinmoy advocated a spiritual path to God through prayer and meditation.

He advocated athleticism including distance running, swimming, and weightlifting.

He organized marathons and other races, and was an active runner and, following a knee injury, weightlifter.

Some ex-members have accused Chinmoy of running a cult.

Chinmoy was the youngest of seven children, born in Shakpura, Boalkhali Upazila, in the Chittagong District of East Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh).

He lost his father to illness in 1943, and his mother a few months later.

Chinmoy began his practice of meditation at the age of 11.

In 1944, the 12-year-old Chinmoy joined his brothers and sisters at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, where his elder brothers Hriday and Chitta had already established a presence.

It was Chitta that gave Chinmoy his name which means "full of divine consciousness".

In the ashram he spent the next 20 years in spiritual practice, including meditation, study in Bengali and English literature, athletics, and work in the ashram's cottage industries.

Chinmoy claimed that for about eight years, he was the personal secretary to the General Secretary of the ashram, Nolini Kanta Gupta.

Chinmoy translated his writings from Bengali into English.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Sri Chinmoy continued giving lectures and talks at universities around the U.S. on spiritual topics.

According to Sri Chinmoy, in 1964 he was prompted to move to the United States in response to a "message from within" to be of service to people in the West searching for spiritual fulfillment.

With the help of Sam Spanier, Eric Hughes, and other American sponsors connected with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, he emigrated to New York City.

He applied for a job as junior clerk at the Indian consulate, despite his lack of formal education.

He received support and encouragement from his colleagues and bosses and was invited to give talks on Hinduism.

He started to give talks at universities and later, at the United Nations.

In 1966 Chinmoy opened a Sri Chinmoy Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In the 1970s and 1980s he traveled around Europe, Asia, and Australia lecturing at universities, resulting in the publication of The Oneness of the Eastern Heart and the Western Mind.

Chinmoy has also published books, essays, spiritual poetry, plays, and commentaries on the Vedas.

Up until the late 1970s the main Sri Chinmoy study centers were in New York, Florida and the West Indies.

Over the next few decades Sri Chinmoy Centers were opened and established in multiple cities in the US, Europe, Australasia, South Africa and South America totaling 350 centers worldwide.

During the 1970s Chinmoy began playing and composing on the flute and esraj.

While in America in the 1970s, Sri Chinmoy attracted followers such as musicians Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, Narada Michael Walden, Roberta Flack, Clarence Clemons, and Boris Grebenshchikov.

Sri Chinmoy offered the musicians a disciplined spiritual path that forbade the use of drugs and alcohol and encouraged music and poetry as expressions of thankfulness to the Divine.

Santana and McLaughlin stayed with Sri Chinmoy for a number of years before leaving.

McLaughlin was a Sri Chinmoy follower from 1970 to 1975.

In 1971 he formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, named for the spiritual name Sri Chinmoy had given him.

McLaughlin introduced Santana to the guru, and Santana and his wife Deborah were subsequently Chinmoy followers from 1972 to 1981.

Santana said, "Without a guru I serve only my own vanity, but with him I can be of service to you and everybody. I am the strings, but he is the musician. Guru has graduated from the Harvards of consciousness and sits at the feet of God."

In 1973, the New York Times wrote that Sri Chinmoy was "revered in India as one of the few holy men to have reached Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the absolute highest level of consciousness".

In 1973 they released an album based on Sri Chinmoy's teachings, titled Love Devotion Surrender.

In 1974, he gave lectures in 50 states at 50 universities, and these lectures were published as a six-part book series entitled 50 Freedom-Boats to One Golden Shore (1974).

Santana released three albums under the spiritual name Devadip – meaning "Lamp of God", "Eye of God", and "Light of God" – that Chinmoy gave him: Illuminations (1974), Oneness (1979), and The Swing of Delight (1980).

In 1984, he started giving free 'Peace Concerts' around the world.

The concert was in Montreal, for 19,000 people.