NEW YORK — As a spiritual guide to followers worldwide, Sri Chinmoy spread a message of peace through his lectures, his writings, and his meetings with world leaders like Pope Paul VI and Nelson Mandela.
The charismatic but quirky Chinmoy didn’t stop there: There was weightlifting — followers claimed the slight guru hoisted 7,000 pounds with one arm. And music — he wrote more than 20,000 songs. And illustrations — he sketched more than 1 million “peace birds.”
The peripatetic disciple of peace suffered a fatal heart attack Thursday at his home in the borough of Queens, ending his odyssey from an ashram in south India to a world headquarters in New York City, according to a statement from his group. Chinmoy was 76.
Chinmoy believed that the physical and spiritual were intertwined, a philosophy that led his followers down some strange paths. One of them rode a pogo stick up and down Japan’s Mount Fuji, while another set a world record for continuous hand-clapping with 50 straight hours of applause.
His group sponsored 1,000-mile ultramarathons in which participants ran for two weeks, and Chinmoy — in addition to his weightlifting claims — reportedly finished 22 of them.
But some considered Chinmoy’s group a cult, and a flap arose in 1996 when his followers persuaded federal officials to hang a “peace blossom” plaque inside the Statue of Liberty’s lobby. The plaque was removed three weeks after its dedication amid complaints, including one from the Chicago-based Cult Awareness Network.
The peace blossom plaques, designed to promote world peace and “oneness,” were left at other international landmarks including Mount McKinley, Africa’s Victoria Falls and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Musicians including guitarist Carlos Santana and Clarence Clemons were among those who found inspiration in Chinmoy.
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