Sri Chinmoy and Columbus Discover America

Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America — of its existence and its peoples — came in 1492.

Sri Chinmoy’s physical discovery of America occurred in 1964, when he came here to live, and made America his permanent home. His spiritual discovery of America in this lifetime came much earlier. While still at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, he began studying English language and literature, and developing a broad international perspective. His own Master, Sri Aurobindo (who was Cambridge educated), had taken a great interest in world affairs, including the failure of the League of Nations, and the burgeoning success of its offspring the United Nations. In a 1949 postscript to his earlier work The Ideal of Human Unity, Sri Aurobindo wrote:

[T]he League of Nations disappeared but was replaced by the United Nations Organisation which now stands in the forefront of the world and struggles towards some kind of secure permanence and success in the great and far-reaching endeavour on which depends the world’s future. This is the capital event, the crucial and decisive outcome of the world-wide tendencies which Nature has set in motion for her destined purpose. In spite of the constant shortcomings of human effort and its stumbling mentality, in spite of adverse possibilities that may baulk or delay for a time the success of this great adventure, it is in this event that lies the determination of what must be.

While Sri Aurobindo had a profound spiritual influence on world events which can never be overestimated, it was not his path to participate outwardly. He did not travel to meet with world leaders, and never set foot on America’s shores, where the United Nations had taken root. He remained like a brilliant sun which shone from its own galaxy. But in 1964, his disciple Chinmoy got the inner command or adesh to be of service to America, to travel there and establish a presence, putting into practice all he had learned from his mentors. In addition to Sri Aurobindo, these included Rabindranath Tagore, whom Chinmoy never met but admired deeply for his artistry; and Nolini Kanta Gupta, the great Bengali writer and savant, whom Chinmoy had served as secretary and translator. The latter two mentors in Sri Chinmoy’s life are not unrelated; for it came to pass that the young Chinmoy would translate eight of Nolini’s essays on Tagore into English.

According to Vidaghda Bennett, one of the foremost scholars of Sri Chinmoy’s early life: “In all, Chinmoy translated more than fifty of Nolini Kanta Gupta’s literary works into English during the period 1955–1964 when he was Nolini-da’s secretary.”

Translation is, itself, a profound art which requires that the translator truly understand and penetrate to the core the meaning of the work in question. Of course, it also requires literacy in the target language. As Sri Chinmoy later recounted, there had been gaps in his study of English; but Nolini saw something in him and preferred his translations to those by others who possessed advanced degrees. (See “How Nolini-da wanted me to be his secretary.”)

The best translations are usually not literal word-for-word translations, but rather entail re-imagining a work in the target language. This is especially true where the source and target languages are as different as Bengali and English. Sri Chinmoy wrote:

Luckily, from time to time, I used to go to the Ashram library and study on my own. That is why I told Nolini-da that my English was ‘self-taught.’ Afterwards, Nolini-da himself taught me so much about the English language. My heart and I shall remain eternally grateful to him.

So, we can imagine that translating Nolini’s works into English partook of some aspects of the traditional apprenticeship, just as Stravinsky had once been apprentice to Rimsky-Korsakov. But we must remember that in parallel with his activities as translator, Chinmoy was also a poet, diarist, and composer of spiritual songs in his own right. One of the best-known songs composed in his youth (which his disciples sing to this day) is “Sundara Ha-te,” here performed by the British group Ananda:

At age twenty-three, Chinmoy read Margaret Elizabeth Noble’s biography of Swami Vivekananda titled The Master as I Saw Him, which made a strong spiritual impression on him and may have fortified his English language skills. At age forty-two, he began a talk delivered at Trinity College, Dublin with this encomium:

Dearest brothers and sisters, I have special love and admiration for your country, Ireland. I have been cherishing and treasuring love for this country since I was twelve, when I read a book written about the spiritual Master, Swami Vivekananda. In his biography I read something most striking. A young woman from your country was so deeply inspired by the Swami’s spiritual light that she went to India and offered her entire existence to Swami Vivekananda, her spiritual Master. Her name was Miss Margaret Noble, but her Master offered her a new name, a spiritual name, her soul’s name: Nivedita. Nivedita means self-offering, total self-offering. She offered her whole existence to India. India’s spiritual children will forever remain indebted to her love and sacrifice. India’s freedom-boat will forever be indebted to her significant efforts to free Mother India from ignorance. Nivedita embodied dedicated self-offering.

When I was twenty-three years old, for the first time I read her book about her Master, Swami Vivekananda. The great spiritual Master, Sri Aurobindo, once remarked that this book of Nivedita’s was written with the breath of her heart.

The young Chinmoy’s readings in English were not confined to figures connected with India. He knew the works of English and American poets, digested their meaning, and quoted them, adding his own epigrams which tied together core concepts. Mother India’s Lighthouse is a collection of his writings while still at the Sri Aurobondo Ashram. See, in particular, “Part IV — World Poets,” where he quotes from William Blake, Elizabeth Browning, Walt Whitman, et al. To lines by Shelley and Tennyson he adds:

Our Shelleys of the New Age will be singing of the transformation of the sphere of our sorrow into the sphere of our Delight! … Let us look forward to the New World that is manifesting in the old — to the New World that will be full of Sir Galahads but with their hearts absolutely true to none and nothing else than the Divine and His Influence.

It was with this sense of a New Age and a New World emerging that Sri Chinmoy began his discovery of America, even before reaching its shores.

I am not certain when he first discovered Emily Dickinson, but in December 1975, on the occasion of the 145th anniversary of her birth, he gave a superb talk at the United Nations filled with unique psychological insights into Dickinson from the spiritual point of view:

Emily learned very little from her association with her outer life. But she learned much from her inner association with her world-seclusion. Indeed, the outer world was an experience devoid of integral reality to her. Therefore, what she knew of earth and thought of earth could not become an encouraging, sustaining, inspiring, illumining and fulfilling experience leading to her own existence-reality.

Emily’s love of God and her love of nature made her inwardly beautiful. All her life Emily lived the life of an introvert. A self-imposed seclusion-life she embraced. God’s Compassion-Beauty was her reward. In God’s Compassion-Beauty, her world and those who wanted to live in her world became preparation-instruments for the transformation and perfection of the frustration-experiences of life.

Her aspiration was not only in seclusion, but seclusion itself became her aspiration. Inside seclusion-aspiration she did get a few striking glimpses of the inner illumination-sun. Life’s buffets gave her two or three times intolerable frustration-experiences, which commanded her to dive deep, deeper within to discover the wealth of the inner life.

While still at the Ashram in Pondicherry, Sri Chinmoy was keenly aware of goings-on in America, and saw the election of President Kennedy in 1960 as a progressive step toward fulfilling America’s destiny as a modern, freedom-loving, peace-sowing nation. For all its faults and contradictions, America in the 1960s was truly a great bastion of freedom and emerging possibilities. Tragically, by the time Sri Chinmoy discovered America in the physical, JFK had been assassinated less than six months earlier.

Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America in 1492 is not without its controversies. In 1969, comedian-activist Dick Gregory breviloquently summed up the problem this way:

How do you discover something that is not only occupied, but being used at the time? That’s like me and my old lady walk out of here tonight, and you and your old lady sitting in your brand new Cadillac, and my old lady says: “Gee, that’s a beautiful car. I sure wish it was mine.” And I say: “Well Lillian, let’s discover it!

Fortunately, Sri Chinmoy’s discovery of America in 1964 did not entail ignoring or displacing persons already present (nor misappropriating anyone else’s Cadillac). He came to teach, had an illustrious career teaching, but often described himself as a humble “student of peace.”

In that capacity, he travelled the globe, meeting with world leaders, cultural luminaries, and figures who inspired him. While honouring them, he shared in a gentle way his vision for a world united by forgiveness, tolerance, compassion, oneness and brotherhood. He shared as much of his Divine consciousness as those he met with were eager to assimilate.

True to his Master Sri Aurobindo, Sri Chinmoy believed that the United Nations was not just a halting mechanism for political expediency, but rather a divinely ordained instrument for gradual world-transformation. In 1970, he began holding peace meditations at the United Nations for delegates and staff, in an NGO capacity. Both his spiritual power and his unwavering vision of the UN as a force which could counterbalance the ever present danger of world-destruction attracted many diplomats to his services, held in the UN chapel.

In November 1971, the New York Times recognized this phenomenon with the article “Many at UN Find Guru’s Message Brings Peace,” noting that:

Usually a dozen nationalities are represented in the austerely furnished chapel, and the garb of those present often creates a spectrum of color. … Sri Chinmoy recently summed up what his teaching is all about by reading a verse from one of his books: “God’s compassion does three things for us: In the morning it argues with ignorance-night and saves us; in the afternoon it threatens ignorance-sea and guides us; in the evening it conquers ignorance-cry and liberates us.”

Given the skepticism of some Western intellectuals towards Eastern mysticism poetically expressed, the article is all the more remarkable.

Sri Chinmoy continued to be a force for good at the United Nations, a participant in many interfaith activities there, and a stalwart defender of the institution against its critics. He patiently explained on more than one occasion that:

The day shall dawn in the near or distant future when the United Nations will definitely achieve and grow into everything that is good and divine. But just because it has not achieved these things at this particular stage of its development, just because over the years it has encountered failure in some of its efforts, we cannot say that the vision of the United Nations is imperfect or that it will not succeed. No, it will succeed — slowly, steadily and unerringly. And for that, each individual member has a significant role to play according to his own inner awakening.

–Sri Chinmoy from My Meditation-Service at the United Nations for Twenty-Five Years, Agni Press, 1995

This year is the 90th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s birth, and the 14th anniversary of his death. (This almost suggests a TV series: Jamaica Hills, 9014.) It’s also the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking New York Times article which called attention to his achievements and acceptance in America. 1971 was the year the Times discovered him.

In 1973, Sri Chinmoy published The Dance of Life, Part VII, which includes this Columbus-themed poem:

Before Columbus Discovers You

Don’t sleep,
Get up at least.
Don’t stand still,
Walk a little at least.

Before Columbus
Dares to discover you,
Fly your wings
Into the unknowable Beyond
Where
Your doubt-Columbus,
Your fear-Columbus
Shall have no access.

There you can reign
Unseen,
Unchallenged,
Unfathomed,
Sovereign,
Absolute,
Supreme.

Sri Chinmoy passed away on the morning of October 11, 2007. This year, that day falls on Columbus Day, which coincidence gave rise to this essay.

There are many big or small things one might do to honour Sri Chinmoy’s significant contributions to world spirituality. This essay is one of the small things. Another small thing is suggested by Stan Freberg in his venerable satire on Columbus, pilgrims, American history, politics, racism, and hypocrisy: Take an Indian to lunch!