Sri Chinmoy
Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov will be performing this concert in memory of his dear friend, the beloved musician, poet and peace advocate Sri Chinmoy, who passed away in October 2007. Throughout his life, Sri Chinmoy worked tirelessly to inspire his fellow man to go deep within and bring out the best from within themselves.
Sri Chinmoy was a prolific musician in his own right, composing over 20,000 songs touching on all areas of the human experience. From 1984 until his passing in October 2007, Sri Chinmoy performed almost 800 concerts of meditative music in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House and New York's Carnegie Hall. During these concerts, Sri Chinmoy would perform on a variety of instruments, ranging from the Indian esraj (pictured below left) to Western instruments such as flute and cello, to powerful improvisations on piano and synthesizer.
Sri Chinmoy's music won acclaim from many of the great modern composers and performers, such as Ravi Shankar, Pablo Casals and Roberta Flack:
"Sri Chinmoy's music is God-given! He has a tremendous, a fantastic creative urge." - Ravi Shankar
"The way you write music is extraordinary. This civilization must be very grateful to you, even if they don't know it." - Yehudi Menuhin, legendary volinist.
"You are a miraculous model of the abundance in the creative life that we lesser mortals seek, and I can only hope that someday I may participate in that cosmic fountain of stillness and profound energy which you inhabit." - Leonard Bernstein, famous American composer and conductor.
Sri Chinmoy attributed his tremendous musical output to the source of creativity which lies deep within each one of us. He saw music as a great unifier that could bring people together, and which everyone could relate to no matter what background they came from. Sri Chinmoy also saw music as a gateway to inner peace. "When we listen to soulful music, or when we ourselves play soulful music, immediately our inner existence climbs up high, higher, highest." he explained. "It climbs up and enters into something beyond. This Beyond is constantly trying to help us, guide us, mould us and shape us into our true transcendental image, our true divinity. When we hear soulful music, or when we play a soulful piece of music, we feel a kind of inner thrill in our entire existence, from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. A river is flowing through us, a river of consciousness, and this consciousness is all the time illumined."
Sri Chinmoy sought to demonstrate that inner peace could be brought to bear in all fields of human endeavour - not only music, but art, poetry, theatre, and athletics. In 1987, Sri Chinmoy founded the World Harmony Run, which has since grown into the world's largest relay for peace. Every year, runners carry an Olympic style torch and pass it from hand to hand as they go from country to country, inviting the local community to join with them in spreading the message of international friendship and understanding. In 2008, the run will travel through over 100 countries, and over one million people are expected to hold the torch as it travels along the route. The European leg of the Run will visit London from 15-18 May, the weekend before the concert.
Sri Chinmoy's friendship with BG is one that began relatively late in his life, but which quickly blossomed into a profound meeting of hearts. The two first met in February 2006, when Sri Chinmoy gave him the name Purushottama, meaning "the one who is beyond all limitations". In August 2007, Sri Chinmoy introduced Purushottama's concert at the United Nations building in New York, and Purushottama guest performed some songs at Sri Chinmoy's St. Petersburg concert in September 2007, a concert which turned out to be Sri Chinmoy's final performance, taking place just two weeks before his passing.
On 10 February, BG dedicated his weekly show on Radio Russia to the memory of his dear friend: "When I first saw Sri Chinmoy and heard his music, I should have been surprised; I should have been, but I was not." he recalled on the show. "The trust which I could not help feeling towards him simply made his music a new and uncharted experience which I did not doubt in the least was true...the way he played his favorite Esraj - a kind of Indian violin - at times reminded me of Hendrix's play: harmonious sounds could sometimes transform into screeching, purposely harsh disharmony, but the final feeling was that of perfection and fulfilment."
Let us not try to understand music with our mind.
Let us not even try to feel it with our heart.
Let us simply and spontaneously allow the music-bird to fly in our heart-sky.
While flying, it will unconditionally reveal to us what it has and what it is.
What it has is Immortality's message
And what it is is Eternity's passage.
- Sri Chinmoy
Related Links
- Sri Chinmoy's official website
- Sri Chinmoy Biography
- Radio Sri Chinmoy - music by Sri Chinmoy and his students