Function with Sri Chinmoy

Report by: Morris Klein

Tonight the meditation started a little earlier, at six-thirty, rather
than at eight. The reason was that Sri Chinmoy was given an honorary
degree from a distinguished Bangladeshi University. The Chancellor of
the University flew all the way from Bangladesh to confer this honor
upon Sri Chinmoy.

Sri Chinmoy performed on the esraj for a few minutes; and then he
meditated in silence with the guests from the school. After that, the
Chancellor spoke about the history of the University and presented Sri
Chinmoy with the honorary degree. The gentleman spoke at length about
Sri Chinmoy's tireless efforts towards world peace, and in particular
his Oneness-Heart-Tears-And-Smiles programme which offers humanitarian
aid to the needy all over the world.

Sri Chinmoy, on accepting the award, spoke about how he lives in
America, but his heart remains in Bangladesh. And he reminisced about
his native village, Shakpura, and the nearby city, Chittagong, and he
said that he treasures his happy memories of his childhood there. He
also said that he is offering his heart's gratitude-tears to his
mother and father and also to his brothers and sisters, who are now in
Heaven. Maybe Sri Chinmoy wanted to invoke their memory on this
special occasion.

After that, Sri Chinmoy lifted the Chancellor and offered his deepest
gratitude to the man for offering him this great honour.

Many groups performed tonight. I particularly enjoyed Satyajit's
group's performance. They recite Guru's devotional poetry and sing
his songs in a very simple way. But their sheer simplicity and
sweetness adds a lot to my Wednesday night meditation. Sri Chinmoy
once remarked that when Satyajit's group performs, that people who are
sincere seekers get tremendous benefit. He remarked that he himself
enjoys their performances very much.

After that, Sri Chinmoy read out some poems by a Bengali writer of the
last century whose name I don't recall. He then also spoke about a
famous Bengali novelist, Sarat Chandra, who was really supremely
great. He said that Sarat Chandra and Rabindranath Tagore were great
rivals. He also remarked that Sarat Chandra had a dog which was
uglier than the ugliest and, at the same time, ferocious. Sarat
Chandra had many literary admirers, who were themselves writers of the
highest order. They would come to his house and the dog would snarl
and bite them. But they used to offer the dog so much love. And when
the dog died, Sarat Chandra cried as if his own mother or father had
died. And his friends and literary admirers wrote poems and stories
about this cur and read them out at its funeral!

Today, September 27, was our late and beloved Jagatarini's birthday.
There was a big photograph of Jagatarini beside Sri Chinmoy's chair.
She was smiling in the photograph, wearing a beautiful garland of
marigolds. He spoke about her tireless service to the spiritual
cause, and how her immense soul had come to bless us all. The singers
sang beautiful songs in her memory. I will miss her very much, and
will always cherish her incredible strength and sincere affection.

Today is also Sri Chinmoy's twenty-third cello anniversary! What a
remarkable anniversary indeed. Many, many congratulations to Sri
Chinmoy on this great occasion. I happen to like the cello very much
but am afraid I'm too old to learn how to play. But maybe following
Sri Chinmoy's teachings means that we're never too old for anything!

It's getting late so I'll sign off now.

With gratitude to my vast spiritual family,


Morris


To me, music is not
Something that we see.
Music is not even
Something that we feel.
Music is something
That we must
Grow into.

(Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees #9346-9348)

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