Sri Chinmoy's biography, written by one of the most famous Bengali authors

The story started long before I became a disciple. Anwarul Chowdhury was the deputy secretary general of the United Nations. He was at the UN for many years and he loved Guru, just loved Guru. He eventually became an ambassador, so Guru always called him Ambassador Chowdhury.

Ambassador Chowdhury is a very literary person and he knew one of the best writers, the most famous writers of Bengal. Not from Bangladesh, but actually from Calcutta. The writer's name is Mani Shankar Mukherjee, but people just call him Shankar. His books are so famous that they have been made into films by well-known filmmakers.

Shankar was very, very impressed to see that Guru, as a Bengali, came twice a week to the UN to give the peace meditation and also inspired his disciples to wear saris, which they did when they went to the UN.

Shankar is also a spiritual person. He loves Swami Vivekananda and has written many books on Swami Vivekananda. He was inspired to write a biography of Guru. This was in 1988 when he first met Guru.

Many years passed. Shankar came, I think, one more time. He also got to meet Guru in 2005. Guru sent him a lot of material, and he started writing his book. But just before Guru's passing something happened and somehow the book project stopped.

Later, I went to India and I heard there that Shankar's wife had passed. I sent him flowers and spoke to him. We talked about restarting the project. Eventually the book got finished. I invited Shankar to come to New York again to sign the book and present it to the disciples.

Shankar is a good writer. The book is beautiful and very well written. Bengalis in different parts of India have read the book, and some have come to the United States and made a trip to the Sri Chinmoy Centre Aspiration-Ground just to know who Guru is.

This book has also been translated into Hindi, the main language, the common language, of India. Vijay and his family from Nepal and other disciples, including Mahavir-ji, have also given copies of the book to many, many people in India.

God's biography,
Abridged and condensed,
Is the earthly life Of an Avatar.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. The Supreme and His four children: five spiritual dictionaries, Fleet Press Corporation, New York, 1973