Sri Chinmoy, 76; quirky peace advocate blended spiritual and physical

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 including Pope Paul VI and Nelson Mandela.

The charismatic but quirky Chinmoy didn’t stop there: There was weightlifting -- followers claimed the 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.”

Chinmoy died of a heart attack Thursday at his home in Queens, N.Y., ending his odyssey from an ashram in south India to a world headquarters in New York City, according to a statement from his organization, the Sri Chinmoy Centre. He was 76.

Chinmoy believed that the physical and spiritual were intertwined, a philosophy that led his followers to do some unconventional things. 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 reportedly finished 22 of them.

But some considered Chinmoy’s group a cult, and controversy 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 Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, Africa’s Victoria Falls and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

To his followers, Chinmoy was not a cult leader but a spiritual advisor and mystical figure. Musicians including guitarist Carlos Santana and saxophonist Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band were among those who found inspiration in Chinmoy.

He met with an assortment of world leaders, and Mother Teresa once praised him for “the good work you are doing for world peace and for people in so many countries.”

The youngest of seven children, Chinmoy joined an ashram in south India after he was orphaned at age 12. He spent the next 20 years in prayer and meditation before “an inner command” sent him to New York City in 1964.

Chinmoy established his first meditation center in Queens, and eventually claimed students in 60 countries.

Beginning in 1970, he began holding meditation sessions at the United Nations; in 1998, his group organized a U.N. memorial for John F. Kennedy Jr.