Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Renaissance man
The Art for Peace Association is dedicated to preserving and presenting the artistic and life’s work of Sri Chinmoy. His humanistic and Renaissance-inspired ideas spring from the deep inner silence of meditation, which became for him an inexhaustible source of inspiration in all his multifaceted activities. Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) was a man of timeless spiritual wisdom who devoted more than forty years to peace and social work around the world.
The scope of his activities was truly unprecedented. It included 37 years of active collaboration with the United Nations, hundreds of university lectures and musical performances around the world, participation in international forums, and regular meetings with prominent figures in political, cultural, and social life. For his rich creative life—which encompassed literature, music,the visual arts, and a number of international cultural, sports, and humanitarian projects, he received significant honors over the years, honorary titles, and honorary doctorates from many universities and international institutions, including repeated nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize from hundreds of prominent figures in academic and political life.
United Nations
At the invitation of Secretary-General U Thant, Sri Chinmoy began leading Peace Meditations for UN delegates and staff at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in the spring of 1970. These gatherings, bringing together people of all nationalities and cultures, took place twice a week for the rest of his life. In honor of the highest ideals of the UN, he initiated a wide range of programs, lectures, and concerts in support of world peace, often in collaboration with member states and organizations that support the ideals and goals of the UN.
“Sri Chinmoy, you are the heart of the UN. You were with us throughout my years as Secretary-General, and even before that. Your message has always accompanied us, and you have been an inspiration to us.”—Javier Pérez de Cuellar, fifth Secretary-General of the United Nations
Visual Arts
Between 1974 and 2007, Sri Chinmoy created more than 140,000 abstract paintings and nearly 16 million drawings symbolizing the freedom of the human soul.
Sri Chinmoy’s art is known for its spontaneity and inventiveness, which give his paintings a distinctive style. He used a varied palette of colors and painting tools, which he often prepared himself, and frequently used only his own fingers to create his works. More >>
Literary and Musical Works
Like many artists and thinkers during the Renaissance revival, Sri Chinmoy expressed his creative talents in the fields of literature, music, and the visual arts. He is the author of 1,600 philosophical works, essays, poetry collections, plays, inspirational stories, and other books that encourage the search for the true essence of life and self-knowledge. Sri Chinmoy was a man of inner insight, and therefore his work is imbued with personal experience that gives readers and listeners the ability to communicate with themselves and helps them touch the mystical awareness of their own being.
“Yesterday I was clever. That is why I tried to change the world.
Today I am wise. That is why I am changing myself.”—Sri Chinmoy
According to P. B. Shelley, a writer who combines poetic ability with the highest wisdom is called a “poet-seer.” Sri Chinmoy was indeed such a poet of inner vision, who left behind a body of work comparable in value to the Sanskrit verses of the Vedas and Upanishads or the wise sayings of Confucius and Laozi.
Sri Chinmoy composed over 21,000 mantric songs that capture the full breadth of meditative experiences and inner realizations. Since 1984, he has shared his contemplative compositions with hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world. During his lifetime, he held over 800 concerts, during which he played a wide variety of Eastern and Western musical instruments. These “Peace Concerts” took place not only in prominent concert halls such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Tokyo’s Budokan Hall, but also three times at the sports arena at the Prague Exhibition Grounds.
“I am immensely grateful to you for the most beautiful moments of my life.”—Don Pablo Casals, cellist and composer
Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart
Throughout his life, Sri Chinmoy bestowed his exceptional “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” award upon a number of prominent figures — “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart”—through which, in the form of a symbolic lifting onto a specially designed platform, he expressed his admiration and recognition for their exemplary attitude toward life and their service to higher ideals in society. This unique program of encouragement and goodwill includes a total of 8,300 people from around the world. Among its recipients are, among others, Presidents Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev, UN leaders, members of parliament, senators, Nobel laureates, university professors, Olympic champions, world-class athletes, and world-renowned artists and actors.
SriChinmoyin the Czech Republic
“Czech Republic, Czech Republic, your heart, overflowing with faith, and your life, yearning for truth, know no defeat. Your quiet and peaceful Velvet Revolution showed the way for countless brothers and sisters in neighboring countries to achieve the victory of their own independence with the utmost confidence and peacefulness.”
—Sri Chinmoy at the ceremony declaring the Czech Republic a “Flower of Peace” (Prague, 1999)
Sri Chinmoy first visited Czechoslovakia in 1990, when he offered a concert of contemplative compositions at Prague’s Palace of Culture as a tribute to the nation’s newly regained freedom. In 1993, he met with the presidents of both newly formed countries—Václav Havel and Michal Kováč—who presented him with the Presidential Medal of Slovakia for his lifelong service to world peace.
In October 1995, the Prague Sports Hall hosted what was then the world’s largest concert of meditative music, with 15,000 attendees. Part of this visit was also a meeting with Emil Zátopek, whom Sri Chinmoy greatly respected and admired.
That same year, Prague-Ruzyně International Airport joined the international “Sri Chinmoy’s Flowers of Peace” program, and a commemorative plaque was placed in the arrivals hall to mark the occasion. This peace initiative connects more than 1,100 significant locations and 152 countries around the world as a reminder of mutual understanding and goodwill among people. In November 1998, the entire Czech and Slovak Republics joined this program based on a declaration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ceremonial inaugurations took place in March of the following year in the presence of Sri Chinmoy at Bratislava Castle and the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague. On the same day, another large concert of meditative compositions took place at the Exhibition Grounds, attended by thirteen thousand listeners.
In 2003, Sri Chinmoy traveled to the Czech and Slovak Republics to present his international award “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” to members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Czech Republic and to thirty university professors from Charles University. The awards ceremony took place at the Senate of the Czech Republic and at Prague’s New Town Hall.
“Dear Mr. Sri Chinmoy, I would like to note that you are not only an outstanding athlete—you have convinced us of that—but also a good person, because under the motto ‘from heart to heart,’ you bring people together all over the world. I can assure you that we are delighted to have been able to be with you and to have received your award, and I can promise you that we will speak to others about your initiatives, because I believe it is the right thing to do.”
— Jan Fencl, M.Eng., Senator
Sri Chinmoy’s last visit took place in October 2004 in connection with the fourth major concert of meditative music, which was held at Prague’s T-Mobile Arena and attended by 15,000 listeners.
Recognition and Awards
In 2007, Sri Chinmoy was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a record number of prominent figures (over 700) in recognition of his lifetime achievements. Over 100 nominations were sent from the Czech Republic.
The “Harmony” Sculpture
In 2008, British artistKaivalya Torpya sculpture titled “Harmony,” inspired by the figure of Sri Chinmoy, which he presented as an artistic gift to Meda Mládková, patron of Czech culture, during a ceremonial unveiling at the experimental space on the Vltava riverfront near the Kampa Museum.