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Plays

Sri Chinmoy wrote several full-length plays, as well as books of smaller one-act plays.

Plays about spiritual Masters

Most of Sri Chinmoy's full-length plays depict illumining stories from the life of one of the great spiritual Masters. These plays reveal Sri Chinmoy's love and admiration for these great spiritual figures, and also capture the essence of their lives and spiritual message in direct and simple language.


Sri Chinmoy's plays have been performed by his students around the world. In 1973, the then UN Secretary-General U Thant, a devoted Buddhist, offered the following kind words upon viewing a stage production of Siddhartha becomes the Buddha in New York.

Sri Chinmoy and U Thant attend a play perfomance, 25 May 1973.

"It is extremely difficult to depict the important episodes of the life of the Buddha in the course of a few minutes or an hour or so, but I find that Sri Chinmoy has done a most remarkable job in presenting the play in simple, understandable language for the uninitiated."

U Thant 1
25 May 1973, Harrison, New York.

'The Son' by Sri Chinmoy

In 1974, Sri Chinmoy gave a one-person performance of the first scene of The Son, performing both roles in a conversation between Jesus Christ and his Father.

The Sacred Fire

This play was written by Sri Chinmoy in 1976 as a devoted offering to the soul of America on the bicentennial of its founding. The play establishes the founding of America as a divine occurrence, and follows its development over 200 years through the lives of great figures in American history, from Thomas Jefferson to John F. Kennedy.

Read the full play: Sri Chinmoy Library

Deshabandhu: Bengal’s beloved friend

At the age of 16, Sri Chinmoy wrote this imaginative play about India’s revolutionary heroes in 1948 - a year after India gained independence. The play celebrates the contributions of three immortal freedom-fighters from Bengal: Deshabandhu (Chitta Ranjan Das), Netaji (Subhas Chandra Bose) and Deshapriya (Jatin Rammohun Sen). The play was originally written in Bengali, Sri Chinmoy's mother tongue. In 1996, Sri Chinmoy translated this play into English in honour of the forthcoming 50th anniversary of India’s Independence and the birth centenary of Netaji.

Read the full play: Sri Chinmoy Library

Books of one-act plays

  • The disciple illumines the Master \\ Plays based on spiritual stories set in the India of the historical Upanishads and Mahabharata.
  • The heart of a holy man \\ Twelve plays - both original stories or based on classic Indian spiritual stories.
  • Mother, give me the Light of Knowledge \\ Illumining stories from India's rich spiritual tradition, including figures such as Dhruva, Vishwamitra and Akbar.
  • Supreme sacrifice \\ More illumining stories put into dramatic form, such as Harish Chandra and Surya and Sanja.
  • Chanda and Tandra \\ An early play written by Sri Chinmoy.

View all Sri Chinmoy's Plays at Sri Chinmoy Library.


  1. AUM Magazine, Vol 11-1, No. 12, 27 December 1974.↩︎