Sri Chinmoy
Born Chinmoy Kumar Ghose in the small village of Shakpura in East Bengal (now Bangladesh), 1931, Sri Chinmoy was the youngest of seven children. In 1944, after both his parents died, Chinmoy, aged 12, joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram together with the rest of his brothers and sisters, a spiritual community near Pondicherry in South India. He spent the next 20 years there in spiritual practice—including long hours of meditation, practising athletics, writing poetry, essays and composing spiritual songs.
In his early teens Chinmoy had many profound inner experiences, and in time achieved advanced states of meditation. In 1964 he moved to New York City to share the inner wealth of meditation with sincere seekers of the West.
Sri Chinmoy sees aspiration—the heart’s ceaseless yearning for ever higher and deeper realities—as the spiritual force behind all human endeavours: religion, culture, sports and science alike. By living in the heart and aspiring for continual self-improvement, or transcendence, men and women each can bring forward the best in themselves, and find pathways to true satisfaction.
In his words:
Our goal is to go from bright to brighter to brightest, from high to higher to highest. And even in the highest, there is no end to our progress, for God Himself is inside each of us and God at every moment is transcending His own Reality.
Today Sri Chinmoy serves as spiritual guide to students in some 60 countries around the world, and encourages a balanced lifestyle blending the inner disciplines of prayer and meditation with the dynamism of contemporary life.
Sri Chinmoy’s life is an expression of boundless creativity. His vast output spans the domains of music, poetry, painting, literature and sports, and his contributions in all have been prolific and far-reaching.
He regularly travels throughout the world to offer concerts, lectures and public meditations, and actively engages in a dialogue of spirituality with world and community leaders. Sri Chinmoy does not charge a fee for his spiritual guidance, concerts, lectures or public meditations.
