Sri Chinmoy Centre, South Africa

The Sri Chinmoy Centre brings together people of all backgrounds in the common pursuit of lasting inner happiness and fulfilment through a life of spirituality and service.

In our modern world, it is often difficult to maintain balance in the face of so many outer demands. Sri Chinmoy’s teachings offer a way of life based upon the harmonious development of our entire being – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual – leading to the blossoming of our many potentials and to a sense of inner fulfilment.

In South Africa, the Sri Chinmoy Centre is based in Johannesburg where we offer regular free meditation workshops at several venues around the city. We also offer free meditation workshops in Cape Town. At Sri Chinmoy's own request, all meditation classes are offered free of charge, in the conviction that spirituality is a universal birthright that can never be bought or sold.

"You can change your life. You need not wait years or even months for this change. It begins the moment you dive into the sea of spirituality. Try to live the life of spiritual discipline for a day, a single day. You are bound to succeed."

Sri Chinmoy

Sri Chinmoy and South Africa

Sri Chinmoy visited South Africa twice and was very grateful for the friendship of two of South Africa's great leaders, President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Archbishop Tutu graciously provided the foreword for Sri Chinmoy's book The Jewels of Happiness; he also read the opening chapter of the audiobook, titled Peace.

Video

Archbishop Tutu reads an extract from the Jewels of Happiness

Nelson Mandela on meditation:

You may find that the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself...in judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education …. but internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being: honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, purity, generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve your fellow men – qualities within the reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life …. at least, if for nothing else, the cell gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you.

Regular meditation, say of about 15 minutes a day before you turn in, can be fruitful in this regard. You may find it difficult at first to pinpoint the negative factors in your life, but the tenth attempt may reap rich rewards. Never forget that a saint is a sinner that keeps on trying.”

Nelson Mandela 1