Book excerpt: This historic collection of all of Sri Chinmoy’s university lectures in eBook form has been released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s arrival in the West on 13 April 1964. Sri Chinmoy’s very first university lecture was given at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, on 10 January 1968. It was entitled “Spirituality: What It Is and What It Is Not.” This inaugurated a whole era of talks which saw Sri Chinmoy travelling ceaselessly across the length and breadth of America and around the world to address the youth of each country. He would spend countless hours travelling by car or train to reach far- flung universities, sometimes visiting two or even three in the course of a single day. After many of these sublimely inspiring discourses, he would answer questions from the audience or spend time instructing sincere seekers in the age-old practices of concentration, meditation and contemplation. By the mid-seventies, Sri Chinmoy had spoken volumes and he began to include longer and longer periods of silent meditation in his lectures. Then, in 1984, in a significant departure from the spoken word, he introduced the theme of Peace Concerts. At these concerts, Sri Chinmoy would play his own soulful and devotional compositions on a variety of instruments of both Eastern and Western origin, meditating between each instrument and sometimes giving aphorisms on peace and related themes. In 2003 yet another form of Sri Chinmoy’s self-offering unfolded when he travelled to a number of universities to honour distinguished professors for their significant contributions to the betterment of humanity by physically lifting them overhead. This remarkable endeavour was part of his “Lifting Up the World With a Oneness-Heart” award programme. Thus, through words, silence, music and a combination of physical and spiritual upliftment, Sri Chinmoy has shared his profound spiritual message with the aspiring Truth- seekers and God-lovers of the university-world for four decades. Sri Chinmoy’s words are mantras for the modern age, reverberating in our hearts with their timeless and truly life-transforming wisdom. In his exquisite prose, which is suffused with the very breath and cadence of poetry, Sri Chinmoy has revealed all the many stages of the seeker’s journey towards the Golden Shores of the ever-transcending Beyond. For generations to come these three volumes will awaken the inner mounting cry of seekers everywhere to achieve the highest Goal of Yoga—union with God—in this life.