States-Illinois

Illinois (IL). The 21st state to join the Union in 1818

Illinois factoids: The capital of Illinois is Springfield; its largest city is Chicago. Known as “The Prairie State”, today’s population is approximately 12.8 million (averaging around 230 people per square mile). Illinois’ state tree is the ‘White Oak’; its state flower is the ‘Violet’; its state bird the ‘Northern Cardinal’; its state fruit is the ‘Gold Rush Apple’ and its state vegetable is the ‘Sweet Corn’. Illinois’ State Motto is: “State sovereignty, national union”.

Activities of Sri Chinmoy in Illinois (see page for activities in each of the 50 states)

In 1998, at the age of 66, Sri Chinmoy recounted this of his youth in India (now Bangladesh): “When I was seven years old, when I was in the primary school, I liked the name “Chicago” because of Swami Vivekananda. I came of a spiritually oriented family, so I knew that Swami Vivekananda had travelled to Chicago.”

1974

• As part of his 50-state tour, Sri Chinmoy delivers his last two of three lectures of the day (in 2 states) on February 13, 1974. The lectures are entitled:
  • “Wisdom-Light” in the Congress Room at Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL.
  • “Love and Perfection” at Loyola University Chicago (LUC) in Chicago, IL.
    • After the lectures, Sri Chinmoy answered the following questions:
      • At Roosevelt University (afternoon lecture):
        • Q: You said it is good to serve God. But is the only way to serve God to serve the God in other people?
        • Q: You said that time is short. Were you referring to the spiritual life or to the life on earth?
        • Q: How can we eliminate fear?
        • Q: I’d like to know if there is any way that we can still meditate and practise yoga without giving up our own religion?
        • Q: What is the experience of God like?
        • Q: How can I improve my morning meditation?
        • Q: Can you suggest a method of meditation?
      • At Loyala University (evening lecture):
        • Q: Do you believe in the cycle of rebirth?
        • Q: When we achieve complete oneness with God, do we still see a polarity between good and evil?
        • Q: Would you explain how we can get one-pointedness and stillness of mind when we have chaos in our thoughts.
        • Q: If we are trying to go beyond the mind, is it only possible with Grace or is there something we can do?
        • Q: How can we bring intensity into our meditation without bringing it into the physical at the same time?
        • Q: In meditation, is it more important to aspire upwards or to become receptive?

1975

• December 17, 1975. Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture entitled “What Is the Spiritual Life?” at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL.

1978

• July 28-29, 1978. Sri Chinmoy visits Chicago.
  • Concerts were held by Sri Chinmoy and his students at the Chicago and Evanston campuses of Northwestern University
  • Sri Chinmoy meets with  India Consul General Pran Nevile, the Indian Consul-General in Chicago who comments “My heart is really feeling something which I can’t express. This is a blissful moment for me. It’s a unique experience for me to be in your nearness.”
  • July 28 ,1978. “Sri Chinmoy Day” is declared in Chicago by Mayor Michael A. Bilandic
  • An outdoor, lakeside meditation was held 

1980

• May 17, 1980. Sri Chinmoy attends and presents awards at the “Sri Chinmoy Tennis Classic” competition held at the Midtown Tennis Athletic Club in Chicago, IL.

1982

• June 29, 1982. Sri Chinmoy offers a short concert and delivers a lecture, entitled ‘The Seeker’s Godward Journey’, at Alice Millar Chapel of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. (Listen to this lecture here).
  • “Sri Chinmoy Day” is declared in Chicago, by Proclamation, by Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne and by the Illinois House of Representatives.

  • 

    As part of his ‘Fifty Oneness-State-Songs’ series, Sri Chinmoy runs 7-mile ‘solo’ to meditate on the soul of the state he is visiting.

1984

• June 3, 1984. Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at The Auditorium Theater in Chicago, IL.
  • During this visit to the city, he meditates with the local Chicago Centre, visits a restaurant owned by students, gives awards at a SCMT race, at which he ran 4-miles.

1989

• July 20 1989. Sri Chinmoy
  • offers a Peace Concert including a piano performance, and delivers a talk, entitled ‘Helplessness’, in Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place, in Chicago, IL.
  • lifts 20 people at the State of Illinois Building in Chicago, IL,, as part of his “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” programme. This includes Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, Roman Catholic Bishop of Chicago; and Beverly Owens, the daughter of Sri Chinmoy’s boyhood hero, Jesse Owens.

1991

• September 13, 1991. Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (watch video)  at the University of Illinois in Chicago, IL.

1993

• August 28, 1993. Sri Chinmoy was invited to hold the opening silent meditation at the opening of the main plenary session of the Parliament of the World’s Religions (see video) in Chicago, IL.

As the event was the 100th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s legendary addressing of the Parliament of the World’s Religion in Chicago, here is a excerpt from the talk Sri Chinmoy gave on February 13, 1974 entitled Wisdom-Light”:

 

“I am here in Chicago. The very name of this city gives me enormous joy and delight. When I was eleven years old, I read a biography of the great spiritual figure, Swami Vivekananda. In 1893, when they held the Parliament of Religions here, Swami Vivekananda came and offered the eternal wisdom of the soul’s light. My young heart was so delighted and moved, for he came from the same place where I was born, Bengal. So the younger brother feels a oneness with his elder brother. Vivekananda was divinely and supremely blessed to be able to offer the wisdom light of India here at the Parliament of Religions.”

• August 29, 1993. Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert — the 32nd of 39 concerts held in honour of Swami Vivekananda — in the State Ballroom at Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, IL, USA. Read Sri Chinmoy’s remarks at the first of this series of concerts.
  • Sri Chinmoy meets again with his longtime friend, the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United States, Ananda Guruge, at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, IL.
• September 18, 1993. Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert – the final in a series of 39 concerts dedicated to Swami Vivekananda – at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, IL. Read Sri Chinmoy’s remarks at this last of this series of concerts.

2002

• August 3, 2002. Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, IL
• August 4, 2002. Sri Chinmoy lifts 36 people at Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, IL,, as part of his “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” programme.
  • The liftees include several great athletes (Olympic medalists and a 3-time English Channel swimmer) — as well as more members of the family of the great Olympian Jesse Owens (daughters, Beverly and Marlene; and grandson, Stuart. See entry for July 20 1989 , where Beverly had been lifted previously).
• November 15, 2002. Sri Chinmoy receives the Jesse Owens Humanitarian Award from the Jesse Owens Foundation, presented by the family of the legendary Olympic Track and Field gold medallist at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago, IL.

1987-current, the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run often visits Illinois on its cross-country trek and engages with its welcoming citizens (see example of photos of its previous visit).

******

 

Listen to the melody Sri Chinmoy set for name ‘Illinois‘ as part of the “50 Oneness-State-Songs”:

(read more about these on the 50 Oneness-State-Songs page)

---

Fifty oneness-state-songs,
 
Our Lord’s Compassion-Gongs.
 
Within, without, a seeker’s sleepless cry
 
To reveal America’s perfection-sky.

—Sri Chinmoy
(see https://www.srichinmoysongs.com/fifty-oneness-state-songs)

---

Among the many songs Sri Chinmoy composed on America, his adopted country, this one is perhaps the most powerful:

America, America, America!
Great you are, good you are,
Brave you are, kind you are.
O my America, America.
Your Heaven-freedom is earth’s aspiration-choice.
With you, in you, is God-Hour’s Victory-Voice.

—Sri Chinmoy
(see https://www.srichinmoysongs.com/america-great-you-are-good-you-are)

The song “America! Great You Are, Good You Are” recording, below, as performed by the Sri Chinmoy Choir:

********

Return to page with activites in other States  //  // Go to DevotionSongs.com home