Athletics inspiration…
Tatyana Lebedeva, winner of the triple jump in the Athens Olympics and two time silver medalist in Beijing, first met Sri Chinmoy in 2004. Recently, upon returning from the Beijing Olympics she gave a very nice interview with the International Athletics Federation where she talks about how Sri Chinmoy has encouraged her. “His philosophy of constant Self-Transcendence left a deep trace in my life, and I always try to improve myself, no matter how tired I may feel.†she reflected in the interview. “It is impossible to live only in sport. I need to learn a lot, so that when I finish my sports career, I would have a chance to bring real benefits to the sport of athletics. This is my internal task and I formulated it thanks to the philosophy of Sri Chinmoy.†Tatyana has no intention of ending her athletics career just yet, and already has her sights fixed on Olympic gold in London in 2012. Read interview here…
Karteek swims channel for 9th time
Karteek Clarke from the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Edinburgh cmpleted the gruelling swim from Dover to Calais, making it his 9th time! Quite a few of Sri Chinmoy’s students have swum the channel, and in fact the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team (the sporting organisation founded by Sri Chinmoy as a service to the sporting community) holds the record for the team with the most Channel crossings.
Gandharva Loka Orchestra
In April 2008 and again in August 2008, two beautiful concerts were performed in tribute to Sri Chinmoy and his music. These concerts, called ‘Songs of the Soul’ featured well known musicians such as Philip Glass, Roberta Flack, Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov and Kristin Hoffman. One highlight of both concerts was the Gandharva Loka Orchestra, a 75 member instrumental and choral ensemble of Sri Chinmoy’s students, performing dazzling orchestral arrangements of Sri Chinmoy’s songs which brought the audience to their feet. The orchestra are now scheduled for a European tour in November, taking in the cities of Berlin, Prague, Munich, Milan, Zurich and Heidelberg and a North American and Canadian tour next spring.