Sri Chinmoy

Indian-born spiritual teacher, athlete, artist, poet, and musician whose Sri Chinmoy Centre — founded in 1964 in New York — became one of the most widely-distributed contemporary movements teaching meditation as the path to inner peace and self-transcendence. Born in 1931 in Shakpura, East Bengal (now Bangladesh), Sri Chinmoy spent twenty years at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry before moving to New York in 1964 at the invitation of his disciples. From there he built an international community of meditation centers, led the Self-Transcendence Marathon (the world's longest certified footrace, 3,100 miles around a single block in Queens), composed more than 21,000 songs, painted millions of small bird-images called 'Soul-Birds,' and wrote more than 1,500 books — a torrent of spiritual material that emphasizes the inner journey as the heart of every outer endeavor. He died in 2007.