Lecturers in spirit

Even the most prolific of writers such as Shakespeare or Arnold Bennett would have been no match for the spiritual master or guru Sri Chinmoy, who arrived in Perth yesterday.

During one 24-hour concentrated session, Sri Chinmoy says, he once wrote 834 poems. Recently he also completed 10,000 paintings in 24 hours.

“If even one of the paintings give you something in spirit, then it is all worth while,” he said.

“I do it not to compete with others but to compete with myself.”

He said that the exercise gave him great joy.

Yesterday Sri Chinmoy called on the new Dean of Perth, the Rev John Cornish, because the guru was to lecture last night in St George’s Cathedral.

The dean had earlier had an anonymous phone call from a woman who said that the lecture should not be allowed.

“I spoke to her gently and she calmed down,” Dean Cornish said.

The two spiritual leaders discovered yesterday that they had more in common than leading their flocks.

They were both born in 1931, the guru in August and the dean in October.

Sri Chinmoy was born in Bengal but now lives in New York, where he conducts meditations twice weekly for delegates to the United Nations.

He teaches a mystical approach to God based on love, devotion and surrender to the divine will.

— Jill Crommelin.