Chapter Twelve: Blessings from Above
On Sunday, July 17th, the three millionth drawing was counted. It was found to contain 44,360 birds, bringing the total to 3,032,682. With an amused and relieved air, the artist asked his secretary to search in various nooks and crannies in his house. “A few more thousand may be loitering around,” he commented, enigmatically. Some more drawings were discovered and the artist completed another drawing during the search to bring the final count to 3,056,074. [14]
Wednesday, July 20th: Sri Chinmoy’s tennis court had been decorated like an oriental garden. There were delicate Japanese paper screens, fluttering crepe paper streamers, overhanging lanterns, and a white picket fence on which were hung the handmade paper drawings. In addition, some easels displayed several of the landmark drawings in this series. After Sri Chinmoy had read aloud a few of his recent poems, various singing groups performed and the audience succumbed to the magic of the gentle summer’s night, the twinkling lights and unseen presence of thousands of winged forms.
Then, as we had almost come to expect, large drops of rain began to fall. The drawings were quickly transferred under cover and a plethora of raincoats and umbrellas appeared. Sri Chinmoy, however, moved his chair from under the decorative canopy and placed it out in the open expanse of the tennis court. Clad only in his thin, purple Indian robes, he seemed to be challenging the storm. The intensity of the downpour increased until a veritable deluge was cascading on the heads of Sri Chinmoy and his guests. The words of the Gita – “Water cannot drench the soul” – echoed in our minds as the programme continued. There were plays, a banquet, songs and meditations – all carried out under torrential blessings from above.
Postscript
The soul-bird drawings numbered 3,056,074. Was it the end of an epic story? Not yet. One day, Sri Chinmoy sat contemplating this final figure in silence. After a few minutes, he said, very simply, “That means I have 56,074 towards my next million.”
And so, in this unassuming fashion, the fourth million began – leaving us to wonder what it must be like to live a life that was ringed about with visions of such beauty and splendour.
– End –
- This article was completed in November 1994.
- The Golden Boat, Part 11, Agni Press, New York, 1974, p. 35.
- From the sonnet “Cosmic Consciousness” (written July 28th, 1938) in Sri Aurobindo: Collected Poems, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry, 1989, p. 134.
- When he first began the bird drawings, with each new million, Sri Chinmoy would ask a different person to be in charge of the counting team. It fell to my turn for this third million series of birds. My responsibilities involved not only maintaining accurate records for each drawing – including its measurement, type of paper and medium used by the artist, and number of birds – but also keeping Sri Chinmoy informed on a daily basis of the individual and cumulative totals.
- From private correspondence between Sri Chinmoy and the Gorbachevs, unpublished.
- Concerning the Spiritual in Art, M.T.H. Sadler (translator), Dover Publications, Canada, 1977, p. 25.
- For examples, see: image search
- Yoga and the Spiritual Life, Agni Press, NY, 1974, p. 48.
- The Outer Running and the Inner Running, Agni Press, NY, 1986, p. 17.
- Kandinsky, op cit, p. 35.
- Pensées, 1670.
- My India, Agni Press, NY, 1997, p.3.
- See http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/
- Some statistics for this third million series are:
Starting date: April 21st, 1994
Finishing date: July 16th, 1994 (87 elapsed days)
Largest number of birds in a single drawing: 81,447 (May 26th)
Largest drawings: canvas 56” x 46”/paper 44½” x 28”
Location: This series was done entirely in Queens, New York.
Special showings:
On October 16th, 1994 the birds were exhibited privately at the Palace Hotel in Manhattan during Sri Chinmoy’s meeting with President Gorbachev and his wife Raisa Maximovna.
On October 29th, 1994 a large print of “My Self-transcendence-Song” was displayed at Annam Brahma Restaurant in Queens during Sri Chinmoy’s meeting with R. Venkataraman, former President of India.
From October 30th–December 5th, 1994 a wide selection from this series was displayed at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Manhattan.
