The Nature of God in the Philosophy of Sri Chinmoy

In his extensive writings Sri Chinmoy presents a comprehensive vision of God, creation, good and evil, the human person, spiritual practice or yoga, and the illumination of human nature. Drawing on traditional and modem Vedantic language and also forging his own vocabulary, he expounds a spirituality of dynamic transformation based on love of God and self-transcendence. Born Chinmoy Kumar Ghose in East Bengal in 1931, he become a resident of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1943 when still a child and lived there for twenty years before coming to the United States in 1964. During more than forty years of writing and teaching, musical composition and performance, painting, athletics, humanitarian programs and peace advocacy, he has become well known internationally, yet there is very little secondary literature on his works.1 This article is intended to be one step towards filling this gap. What follows is a straightforward and unembroidered account of what Sri Chinmoy says on one philosophically fundamental topic: the nature of God. It is hoped that such a summary may serve as a reference and a point of departure for further analysis and interpretation. It is confined to the content of Sri Chinmoy’s works themselves, as historical contextualization or comparison would require another treatment of at least equal length.