The first performance was at Kings College, Cambridge. One of the most impressive chapels in Britain. The last time I visited was in 2003 when Sri Chinmoy visited to honour his spiritual mentor, Sri Aurobindo. [Sri Aurobindo studied at Kings College, Cambridge before returning to India where he was an early leader of Indian Independence and later spiritual Teacher.]

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we left 45 minutes late, and so only arrived with a few minutes to spare. Kings College is very strict at closing the doors 5 minutes before the service starts. But, despite concerns over time, it all worked out – fortunately!

The Evensong service was very nice. I was admiring the architecture and beautiful singing. Then after the service, Oneness-Dream were given the opportunity to sing for 15 minutes in this sacred church. The first song was a song composed by Sri Chinmoy and dedicated to Sri Aurobindo. Sri Chinmoy would often sing this song at his Peace Concerts and counted it as one of his most soulful.

As soon as the singers sang the first note, it felt like there was a real transformation. It felt like some special Grace which allowed Heaven to fleetingly touch the earth. The soulful singing was very pure and simple. It was a magical performance – far beyond the ordinary human experience.

The other observation is that it felt like the inner coming together of three great spiritual Masters – Jesus Christ, Sri Aurobindo and Sri Chinmoy. On earth, there can be rivalry between different religions and perhaps a sense of supremacy. But in that moment, there was only a oneness of spirit as the spiritual realms seemed much more tangible than usual. It was a truly remarkable experience which will stay long in the memory.

After King’s College Cambridge, there were many other concerts in different sacred venues. I learnt to surrender to time and go with the flow of my companion’s different perspectives on time and planning. It reminded me a little of when Sri Chinmoy was in the body and was moving with great dynamism from one location to the next event. It created a need to go with the flow – to surrender to the spontaneous changes and flow. Nothing set in particular routines.

Often people would comment on how moved they were by the music – even those who were just passing by but were able to listen to the music.

The Revd Marcus Braybrooke attended our concert at Dorchester Abbey. In 2003, he was lifted by Sri Chinmoy in the “Lifting up the World with a Oneness-Heart Award” for his work in interfaith harmony.

I often describe Queens, New York as a concrete jungle, but since I first visited there in 2000, the city has planted quite a few trees and in April, many are in full blossom. It creates moments of beauty and a welcome contrast to some of the cities less scenic areas.

Pink apple blossom. A profusion of colour.

The deli behind the tree.

A misty night.

The lettuce and spinach are vulnerable to slugs, so I left a ‘beer trap’ we shall see who wins.

Other photos from the garden. 

Pink tulips

Yellow is dominant; there are some purple primulas in distance

Fritillaries need a damp spring

More seedlings on the windowsill.

Where possible, I like to visit bookshops and buy something that takes my interest. I was browsing in this bookshop in Ilkley, where I saw a book called “Secret Lives of Colour” – it turned out to be a good book – something I would never have bought by an online search.

It had easy to read chapters on colour-dyes used by painters. It was really fascinating to learn the trouble artists had to go to – in order to get different colours. For example, there was one colour which came from a secret source in India. It was apparently made from cow urine, in which the poor cows had been fed only mango leaves!

One of the most interesting colours was ultramarine. This was a beautiful deep blue – which was so rare it was for a long time more expensive than gold. During the Middle Ages and The Renaissance, the blue really stood out from a colour palate which was much more limited than our own.

Ultramarine blue came from lapis lazuli stone – which was ground down into a fine powder before being mixed with oils. The colour was so rare and expensive it is said Michaelangelo couldn’t afford to use it. It is said, his painting The Entombment, was left unpainted because he couldn’t get the colour.

Because the colour was so rare, artists would reserve for final coats and was increasingly reserved for painting the Virgin Mary, and this is partly how the Virgin Mary became associated with the colour blue.

Blue has long had a link to spirituality. Sri Chinmoy explains the significance of the colour blue.

“Blue is the colour of spirituality. Blue represents infinity, and blue represents creativity in its crystal form. It is the colour blue that constantly grows in the human nature as well as in the divine nature. When it grows in our human nature, it tries to expand our limited human nature. When it grows in our divine nature, it tries to spread the Truth, to manifest the Truth that it already embodies. In human nature it tries to expand, in divine nature it tries to manifest its own Light..” [1]

I don’t remember this. When you were in close proximity to Sri Chinmoy, it was easy to concentrate on the consciousness of the moment. The mind wasn’t working; it was more like being in the heart, absorbing the glimpse into another word. So I didn’t really remember much of the conversation. It would have been very nice to remember, but the words always felt less important than the inner experience.

But, at the same time, it was nice to hear these words after a gap of 12 years! The interesting thing is that summer I was often thinking to myself “I wasn’t making the best use of time.” I wasn’t able to cycle and had a bit of a virus. In theory, I had more free time, but without the physical discipline of cycling, I found it harder to be dynamic and make good use of time. When you have all the day ahead of you, it is tempting to think, there is no rush to get things done, and time gets wasted, then at the end of the day, you think you could have done more and regret the slow start to the day.

Since getting back into cycling this month, in theory, I have less free time, but on the other hand, it forces you to be more careful and disciplined with time. We have the capacity to make good use of time, but it is something to constantly work on.

It is known as the ‘King of asanas’ A yoga expert I.K.S Iyengar says if you only have time for one or two yoga postures – do this and other ‘inversions’ – where you put yourself upside down.

On Sri Chinmoy’s path, hatha yoga is not an important component – I did no yoga for the first 18 years on the path, but without being to cycle I have been seeking other ways to keep the body moving. This yoga also is a challenge, so you get a feeling of progress – self-transcendence.

As far as I know, the headstand is one of the posture Sri Chinmoy has specifically recommended.

“It is very good to do headstands or two or three minutes of asanas, Hatha Yoga exercises; only don’t do them for two or three hours. A few minutes will be enough.” Sri Chinmoy – The hour of meditation

It was quite difficult to do it at first.

It is best to build up slowly, not trying to get a full headstand but build up strength and control by slowly raising legs. For the first few weeks, I can only get up 70-90% of the way – I have long legs so maybe harder to balance!

It feels quite rewarding when you gain control and can hold the headstand. It is important to be able to come down with control.

I do it near a wall, but I don’t use the wall for control.

If I start growing back hair, you will know that headstands have a great benefit!

The other inversion yoga posture highly recommended is Salamba Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand) I found this relatively easier to do.

Salamba Sarvangasana

Source

Sri Chinmoy paused and then added.

“Now I just need to give up cappuccino!”

Sometimes spiritual Masters like to show they have a sense of humour.

Last year, I tried a restrictive diet of no sugar, plus cutting back on gluten e.t.c. It was all very healthy – organic vegetables, quinoa and avocados. On the banned list, was unsurprisingly caffeine, so for three days, I gave up my morning coffee. I drank decaffeinated tea and herbal tea instead. I can understand why it is good for the subtle nerves to have no caffeine, but I was just left with a feeling of too much austerity.

A good coffee in the morning does give me more joy than herbal tea, so this has to be offset against the impact of caffeine on the subtle nerves.  I say to myself as long as it is only one a day, it is OK.

I was coming back from Bali. After 19 hours flight I stopped in Costa Coffee in Heathrow and ordered a macchiato. I really enjoyed the coffee and then I stayed up for the Sunday evening centre meeting and tried to get over the jet lag.

The other thing is that when I revisit things from childhood – the magic is usually gone. When I was a kid, nothing was greater than the prospect of Christmas. I loved Lord of the Rings to the point of religious devotion and I thought playing ‘Howzat’ Cricket with rolling dice and noting imaginary scores in beautifully kept scorebooks (plus working out all the batting and bowling averages of course!) – was the greatest way to spend hours and hours of time.

(In retrospect, I’m glad I had Howzat rather than the modern video games/screens. We did see computers come in but I was never that taken with them. I remember the family getting a BBC 32k computer. You loaded games on a cassette and it took three minutes to load ‘Chuckie Egg.’

But, sometimes it’s best to leave the past in the past. Your idea of perfection can’t stay the same as when you are seven years old. My rare foray into social activities as a young child was when we used to play teddy bear cricket with a wooden peg snapped in half for a bat and a small red ball. But, that’s another story!)

Anyway, the one exception to getting bored by films was watching ‘Star Wars’ I watched the film at the weekend and I surprised myself by really enjoying it. I haven’t seen the film for years and years. But, I think I enjoyed it more now than I did as a child. Maybe it helped that I heard my teacher Sri Chinmoy say it was a good film with a spiritual theme  (don’t know the exact words) Anyway it was great. A good film and I was suitably inspired to try and clear the mind and follow the way of the Jedi Master’s in their battle against darkness and ignorance!

May the force be with you!

This is a tree in Iffley Village – part of my extended commute into town. It’s a beautiful time of the year.

I am currently reading a book on the “Alexander Technique” I like it because it encourages a moment of reflection before doing anything – trying to avoid bad habits we get into. In terms, of my understanding, it reminds me of Sri Chinmoy’s encouragement to meditate before doing anything.

There was one sentence in the book which said.

“We always have time to correct our mistakes, but we think we don’t have time to avoid them in the first place.”

This is very true, often I rush into things, create a problem then spend much longer time solving them. So I will try live up to this.

Think of God,
Pray to God,
Meditate on God —
Before something goes wrong.

Sri Chinmoy ST-44195

The thing about Heathrow Terminal 3 is that – like any airport – all people want to do is be somewhere else.

Cafe Nero is one of the better options for passing some time. It has six tills split between two halves, which gives you a split second to choose the queue of shortest wait. I choose right, but am soon disconcerted by the lack of clarity. Is it just one queue for three tills or is it three separate queues? There is a corridor of uncertainty, with a long queue on the right, but a tempting shorter queue on the left.

The only choice is to join the longest queue. But that creates a subtle fear that someone could come from behind and join the half-formed queues in front. If I deny myself a shortcut, I need to deny others too!

So I perform an act of self-interest and civic duty all at once. I queue at a diagonal to move the queue away from the right flank – right into the middle where it should be by the natural law of things. Then I nervously wait, using my psychic energy to secretly discourage people from sneaking through on the flanks.

The tension is palpable, heightened by the fact all the queues in front seem to grind to a halt. As Murphy’s Law would have it, the queue on the other side of the cafe is speeding through. For a split second, I contemplate jumping ship and moving to the other side. I would probably get served quicker, but I’m too invested in my own queue  – which, if not moving very quickly, is at least bringing a little order into the chaos of Heathrow.  Even the people in front seem to be shifting a little to the centre, as if there is an unconscious recognition for the proper, invisible line of our queue. The centre ground is holding. A very small victory in life’s battleground.

***

Just last week I was queuing in a bank to deposit a cheque. After a several minute wait, disaster struck – a lady appeared from nowhere to pass three people to create a second line. Not only has she jumped the queue, but she stands uncomfortably close – no sense of personal space, no sense for the value of a queue. I’m dumbstruck into silence, and silently brood – ready to sprint to the counter as soon as it is free. The inner queuer in me resents this abrupt challenge. But, alas, with scant regard for social convention – she seems to anticipate her turn and has the audacity to beat me in a walking-sprint. I have to hold back and admit defeat.

But, there is a secret hero behind the counter.

“I’m very sorry madam, but there is just one queue, if you could join the back of the queue over there. Thank you!”

I inwardly smile – there are unheralded heroes in the unlikeliest of places, as long as the bank teller believes in the queue there is still a little hope for civilisation.