Death is not the end
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
For my first few years on the path I was very protective of my new-found spirituality, in particular deflecting questions from my intellectually agnostic, Harvard-educated parents. They were bewildered by my lifestyle choice, as they had never placed any importance on religion or spirituality, and they had expected me to enroll in medical school upon graduation from Harvard.
After several years, though, I saw an opportunity to share Guru’s philosophy with my mother. Visiting her in the hospital as she was recovering from surgery for a hiatal hernia, I brought along a copy of Sri Chinmoy's book Death and Reincarnation. In retrospect that seems kind of nervy of me, given that a hiatal hernia is hardly a life-threatening condition—it’s more of an inconvenience.
She seemed interested enough, though, so I spent over an hour reading to her about “death is not the end,” the immortality of the soul, and the soul’s progress through successive incarnations. The idea that each lifetime is like a grade in school with certain lessons to be learned (which makes death the equivalent of summer vacation!) appealed to her, as she was a grade school teacher.
And the idea that people carry over talents from one incarnation to the next, like Mozart who was a piano prodigy at a very young age, also appealed to my mother, who had been a concert pianist in college.
I was surprised at how long her interest kept up, until we were interrupted by the phone ringing next to her hospital bed. It was my grandmother calling to tell her that my grandfather, her father, had died suddenly and unexpectedly. What were the chances?
Unconsciously—or perhaps with some higher guidance—I had prepared her with Guru’s soul-soothing words to receive this traumatic news. It was better than anything I could have learned in medical school.
When death challenges life,
Life says to death:
“I belong to a Realm
Far, far beyond your realm.”Sri Chinmoy1
- 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 35
All I needed was the Supreme, and I would always win
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
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!
That weekend we held a preliminary time-trial on the actual course in Central Park, and I tried to keep the pace that I would need to finish 300 miles in 24 hours. It was grueling. After seven hours I dropped off the pace, and left the park very depressed. I was still depressed the night before the race, when Sri Chinmoy meditated with all the cyclists. As he was leaving the hall, he passed by me and smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye, as if to say, “You don’t know it, but you’re in for quite an experience!”
When we arrived in Central Park the next day, as soon as I saw the banner that said “Pepsi Bicycle Marathon,” a thrill passed through me. From the minute I got on my bike, I felt a subtle but powerful force propelling me around the course, like a hand actually pushing me, and I simply could not stop. I raced around the five-mile loop for hours on end, up and down the hills, as if I were electrified. At one point during the night, I remember hearing the turning of the pedals, the whirring of the wheels, the wind in my face, and being totally lost in the sound, in the experience. My sense of self disappeared and I became totally one with the bicycle, one with the force that was pushing me.
There were a few other good women cyclists in the race, but for one reason or another they all had to drop out or pull back. I wasn’t thinking much about who I was competing against; I was only focused on completing the 300 miles Sri Chinmoy had asked me to do for the team prize. By the end of 24 hours, I had reached 310 miles.
When I stopped and got off my bike, a TV reporter from Eyewitness News came up to me and said, “Congratulations!” I replied, “For what?” She said, “Oh, you won!” A wave of gratitude rose from my toes to my head. In silence I said, “Guru, if I never win anything else in my life ever again, this is enough.” I’m sure that other members of our team had similar experiences because that year we won all the team prizes and many individual awards. Our fellow team member Ashrita Furman took third place for men, cycling over 400 miles, and has also recounted the powerful experience he had, which inspired him to embark on setting world records. For myself, I was in the process of getting divorced, and I knew that this bicycle experience was Sri Chinmoy’s way of teaching me that I didn’t need anybody else. All I needed was the Supreme, and I would always win.
Dependence
Dependence
On one's own personal effort
Is a dance with futility.
Dependence
On God's Grace and Oneness
And the seeker's surrendered effort,
Is the assurance of God-Victory
In the seeker.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. God-Compassion and God-Justice, Agni Press, 1975
Self-Sufficient or God-Sufficient?
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
by Sarita Earp
Halifax, Canada
One winter I had seriously burnt my foot. After a few days I was to see my doctor, but it snowed heavily all day and the evening before the appointment. I knew that I would be unable to hop to my car through the snow, and that I needed to shovel the walk. I had always been an independent, self-sufficient person and was not used to asking for help.
As I was thinking of the options, I suddenly said, “Give it up, Sarita, ask for help.” It was a case of giving up my ego and my pride, and asking in the form of a prayer for heavenly assistance. Immediately there was a knock at the door. I opened it up to see a man with a snow shovel over his shoulder who said, “Lady, you need your walk shoveled!”
The difference between
The human in me
And the divine in me
Is this:
The human in me wants
To prove to the world
That it is self-sufficient.
The divine in me wants
To prove to the world
That it is sleeplessly
And breathlessly
God-dependent.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 15
Don't expect
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
One day I was having a really difficult time. It had something to do with some other disciples. When I was driving Guru somewhere, I told him about the problem. Guru just pointed to my dashboard, which had his New Year's Message taped on it:
Don't expect, don't expect.
Just give, give and give
If you want to really survive.Sri Chinmoy 1
That was Guru's answer to my problems that day.
- 1. Sri Chinmoy, New Year's Messages from Sri Chinmoy, 1966-1994, Agni Press, 1994
A private interview
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
In 2003, the Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt was invited by Sri Chinmoy to be honoured for her professional successes, by being lifted overhead as part of the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” programme.
On the day she was lifted in 2003, I had the privilege of driving her to and from her residence in Manhattan. On the way to the lifting ceremony, she had asked me if she might have a private interview with Sri Chinmoy. I was sure that he would consent, so I took the liberty of telling her that Sri Chinmoy would be happy to do so.
Helen was a long-time meditator and understood the significance of meeting a spiritual Master. After lifting her, Sri Chinmoy invited her for a private interview in the large garden where he had outdoor meditations with his students.
After about thirty minutes, Helen came away looking very serious. She got into my car and drove back to Manhattan in complete silence. Later, when I mentioned that Helen had been totally silent, Sri Chinmoy replied, “Perhaps she took my advice seriously.”
Sri Chinmoy did not say what he and Helen had spoken about, but he said that he had given her encouragement and told her he would pray for her.
On February 15th, 2013, nearly 10 years later, Helen Hunt appeared on The David Letterman Show on the occasion of her Oscar nomination for the drama film The Sessions. During the show, Dave asked if she would share an unusual experience she had had after winning her first Oscar in 1998.
Helen mentioned that in 2003, she was invited by Sri Chinmoy to be honoured for her professional successes. She spoke about coming to Sri Chinmoy’s meditation garden in Queens, New York City, and being lifted. She described the significance of the meeting with Sri Chinmoy, and mentioned that she had told Sri Chinmoy she was having difficulty conceiving a child. Sri Chinmoy had assured her she would soon do so.
Dave asked her if she still felt that Sri Chinmoy had been of assistance. With great conviction, she answered that her daughter was then nearly 10 years old and she was certain that Sri Chinmoy had most definitely been of great service to her.
As made very clear by her conversation on The David Letterman Show, Helen did take Sri Chinmoy’s advice very seriously and had great faith in his prayers and concern.
10 years of Madal Bal in Guatemala
Quite a few of Sri Chinmoy's students in Guatemala work in a divine enterprise called Madal Bal. Madal was Sri Chinmoy's nickname as a child - it means 'kettledrum', and he was affectionately called this name by his family due to his boisterous (and sometimes mischievous) nature.
Sri Chinmoy originally asked the owner, Purnahuti, to open an icecream store, but now Madal Bal has grown to be a wide-ranging enterprise that, among other things, distributes Sri Chinmoy's books in Spanish all over Central and South America.
Madal Bal is now 10 years old, and naturally had a big anniversary party!
Sri Chinmoy meets an old friend
Our Divine Enterprise, Victory’s Banner Restaurant opened in Chicago on Father’s Day of 1999. When we opened, our Chicago Centre made a collective commitment to give our Guru good news every week, and gratefully, we had lots of good news to report! In general, each week our business grew and grew, and I was happy to share that with Guru.
After the tragic events of 9-11, Guru cancelled all our activities for the public. No classes, no concerts, no manifestation at all. It was perhaps in May of 2002 when Guru said to me that he thought the time had come that he could again do a concert and requested me to plan a concert for 7000 in Chicago.
We quickly reserved the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. Apparently that window of opportunity closed because a little while later, Guru reduced the number to 4000. As Guru has said many times, “Man proposes, God disposes”. Then again later to 1500, and his last message was “Make it small. Just invite friends and family.” By then we had a healthy amount of reservations which yielded a concert at the Palmer House for about 1500-1700.
At that time, we also moved into our new Centre where we reside today. So out Guru came to visit our new Centre and restaurant, with a concert in between. He visited the restaurant in the afternoon of Aug 3 2002. As Guru walked into the restaurant, the disciples sang the Morning Prayer song to welcome him. Sitting in direct line of Guru’s vision was Ida Patterson.
Thirty-four years ago, in 1962, Ida Patterson was absolutely the first human being or truth-seeker or God-lover to see something in my eyes. She told my boss Nolini-da. One afternoon I entered into Nolini-da’s room where I used to work and Nolini-da said to me, “Look what this American lady, Ida Patterson, saw in you. This morning when she came here to speak to me, you told her that I was not available, and she saw such things in your eyes. Your eyes mesmerised her.”
I said to Nolini-da, “Ida Patterson? I do not know who she is.”
Then I became friends with her. So thirty-four years ago she saw something inside your Guru’s eyes. Thirty-four years ago she told Nolini-da her experience, and still I cherish it.
Sri Chinmoy
Guru gave his first talk in Minneapolis, where Ida lived. Famously (I believe), nobody came.
Ida Patterson had such tremendous affection for me. She knew me in the Ashram, and in December 1965 she invited me to Minneapolis to give talks. I went there to spend a week. She lived on Dupont Avenue.
My first talk in Minneapolis was a fiasco! I was supposed to give a talk on reincarnation. Ida had promised me that many, many people would come. But nobody came. She was the only listener. I gave my talk to the walls.
I remembered that one of Sri Ramakrishna’s dearest disciples, Swami Brahmananda, once gave a talk and nobody came. He said that he was so happy because he got such receptivity. He said, “The walls did not argue with me. At other times when I give talks, people ask such rubbish questions.”
In my case also, I gave my talk. Ida sat by the door the entire time with the hope that somebody would come. But nobody came.
Sri Chinmoy
Back to Guru’s visit to the restaurant. As Guru entered, hearing the Morning Prayer song being sung, Guru paused with folded hands, but immediately after it was finished, He rushed over to Ida sitting on one of our bright yellow benches.
Privately, on a piece of paper Guru drew Ida’s spiritual name, “Sukhukee—The very darling of the Divine Mother.” He called Sukantika over and told her she had 10 minutes to get it framed. Sukantika ran over to the Centre a block away, unframed another picture and inserted what Guru had given her. She succeeded in her task.
Ida was then and always very motherly towards Guru, comfortably touching his hand or shoulder. Guru was equally comfortable with Ida.
That night, Guru had a beautiful, and intimate concert at the Palmer House auditorium. This was the same location where he opened the Parliament of Religions in 1993, and the same Palmer House which served as home to Swami Vivekananda’s famous speech to the Parliament 100 years earlier.
It was a glorious weekend for all of us here in Chicago!
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