Sri Chinmoy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Sri Chinmoy (Bengali: শ্রী চিন্ময়)(born August 27, 1931), originally Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, is an Indian philosopher, spiritual teacher (guru), musician, and author.

He was the youngest of seven children, born in Shakpura, Chittagong in East Bengal (now Bangladesh). In 1944, after both his parents had died, 12-year-old Chinmoy entered the Sri Aurobindo ashram, a spiritual community in Pondicherry in South India. He spent the next twenty years there in spiritual practice. In 1964 he moved to New York City to promote meditation and began there by working in the Indian consulate as an administrative assistant in the department of passports. In 1966 he opened his first meditation center. At this time, dozens of meditation centers in countries across the globe are run by followers under Chinmoy's supervision. He now lives in Queens, New York.

His teachings promote inner peace, purity of consciousness and inner joy by means of prayer, meditation, music, abstinence and physical fitness; it is common for his followers to run marathons, ultramarathons, or compete in triathlons. In his capacity as Spiritual Teacher and involvement with the United Nations Sri Chinmoy has met with many hundreds of world figures such as Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Pope Paul VI, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela and Princess Diana to recognise service to humanity. One distinctive feature of Sri Chinmoy's own practice is that he physically lifts people who have been an inspiration to the world in all fields of endeavour (literature, politics, sports and science) in an effort to encourage and inspire humanity. Among his prominent followers were Carlos Santana and jazz fusion musician John McLaughlin, who under Chinmoy's tutelage took the name "Mahavishnu" and founded the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Both later left the movement.

For many years Sri Chinmoy has led regular meditations for staff and delegates at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. In 2004 Sri Chinmoy opened the Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona.

Contents

[edit] Controversy

Some controversy surrounds the movement and multiple former followers have published claims about abusive practices within the group, including vilification of ex-disciples, excessive adoration of the guru, and profiteering. The movement was labeled a cult by the French National Assembly Commission for Cult Investigation. Some other anti-cult activists defy it as well. There are also controversies surrounding his weightlifting claims.[citation needed]. There is very little evidence to support these controversies, but even less video evidence to support the feats themselves. In the news, a former photographer for Sri Chinmoy came out to a local paper saying that his lifts were staged and while "no mean feat for a man his age" rarely amounted to more than raising a 100 pound dumbbell from the floor to overhead with both hands, or through using clever apapratus to support the weight and make it appear as if he was lifting it.[citation needed] He also said that the weights that the guru used were "fake" and made to appear at least 10 times heavier than they actually were.

[edit] Books

[edit] Bibliography

  • Larson, Bob Larson's Book of World Religions and Alternative Spirituality (2004), Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., ISBN 0-8423-6417-X
  • Alexander Kahr: Mein Wille geschehe! Ein Aussteigerbericht über den Spirituellen Weg Sri Chinmoys. Verlag Linonis, ISBN 3-902305-00-2 (German)

[edit] External links

Short Articles

†Discusses an event held on March 29, 2001. Publication date unclear.

Sites Published by Sri Chinmoy Centre

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/r/i/Sri_Chinmoy_2f0d.html"
In other languages