Vijaya

Vijaya Claxton is remembered for her pioneering work for legal reform in the United Nations, as well as for becoming the oldest American woman to swim the English Channel in 2007.

Finding her spiritual Master

After university, Vijaya came to New York to pursue a career in acting. During that period, an ethereal, mystical figure oftenappeared to her, offering her guidance and advice in her times of need.

In the Summer of 1973, she attended one of Sri Chinmoy’spublic meditations in Manhattan, and was thrilled and amazed when she realised that the guiding figure in her life had been the Guru himself. She loved the deeply contemplative atmosphere, and rushed up to the stage when the audience was invited to meditate with the Master at the end of the evening, asking to become a disciple.

The first time Sri Chinmoy spoke to Vijaya, the Master asked, “Why did it take you so long?"

Selfless service

In her early days in the Sri Chinmoy Centre, one of Vijaya’s favourite forms of selfless service was assisting at Agni Press, the main publishing division of the Centre at that time. Learning the production process in the 1970s included pasting up onto pre-cut boards the typesetting that was done on a Compugraphic, an enormous typesetting machine which took up almost an entire room, and which printed the text out on film. The boards were then photographed onto negatives.

Vijaya began doing these jobs and picked up quickly the next steps of stripping up the negatives and burning the 29-inch plates for the press.Her eagerness to learn the total operation led her to begin assisting the printers by loading paper and preparing the press for the day’s run. She was soon trusted to run the printing jobs herself and even became adept in 4-color process printing on this large one-color press, a very intricate procedure. In those days Sri Chinmoy’s creative writing output was such that the press had a hard time keeping up with his pace, so her inspired initiative was greatly welcome.

In June 1974, Rijuta recalls that Sri Chinmoy offered both her and Vijaya the opportunity to work together to produce one of his volumes of poetry, The Golden Boat, Part 12, from drawing the cover artwork to preparing the negatives to doingthe final printing. For the cover, Vijaya drew a woman standing in a boat, her arm raised high with the clenched fist of the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s protesting injusticeand fighting for equality. Rijuta gently suggested that perhaps the woman could instead be holding aloft a banner with a golden boat on it, reflecting the theme of the poetry series. Vijaya agreed.

Victory

Vijaya –
The Mother of the Heart’s Universal Victory.
The Mother of the Soul’sTranscendental Victory.

Sri Chinmoy

Through this poem, presented in his own handwriting on her birthday, 9 December 1983, Sri Chinmoy bestowed on Vijayaher spiritual name. Vijaya, which literally means “victory", isalso an epithet of the Indian Goddess Durga, a fierce and fearless aspect of the Divine Mother, who is portrayed riding her tiger and protecting humanity with her many divine weapons. Against any and all odds, Vijaya’s life was to become splendidly victorious, fulfilling her inner reality in so many remarkable ways.

Sri Chinmoy also surprised Vijaya by composing a song in his native Bengali about her namesake Goddess.

Bengali transliteration:
Vijaya Vijaya Vijaya
Dyuloke prathama bhuloke prathama
Antaratama dipti parama
He aparajita shashwata mata abhaya

Unofficial translation:
Vijaya, Vijaya, Vijaya!
First in heaven, first on earth.
In the inmost recesses of your heart is the Supreme Light.
O invincible one, you are the eternal Mother of protection!

Mahatapa Palit, a Bengali disciple of Sri Chinmoy who kindly provided the above English translation, notes that “Mata Abhaya" is a particular form of the Goddess Durga, the Divine Mother, who gives assurance, protection and blessings.

The Actress

Nobody who knew Vijaya well was really surprised when Sri Chinmoy once commented that she had an inner connection with one of his favourite comedians, Lucille Ball. The actress was one of Vijaya’s own idols, and no one could do the “Lucy" style better. Vijaya recollected that as a small child she loved watching “I Love Lucy„ and would reach out towards the television set and cry, “Mommy, Mommy!" Vijaya always maintained her love of acting, and the Sri Chinmoy Centre many a time enjoyed seeing her on stage in homespun productions, be it in comedy or drama.

Vijaya's house

Sri Chinmoy paid a visit to Vijaya’s house as an impromptu housewarming after the first round of renovations wascompleted. By that time, Vijaya had set up her living roomarea as an exercise room and was inviting her sister disciples who were so inclined to avail themselves of the equipment, which included an elliptical machine, a stationary bicycle, a treadmill, a home gym rack system, pilates equipment, freeweights and much more. There are many wonderful pictures of Sri Chinmoy’s visit which are still on display in the house today, including one of him entering the front door, one using the elliptical machine, and one meditating on the large photograph of himself in deep meditation framed over her shrine

So you did not die after all

In 1996, during a trip to Kyoto, Japan, with other members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre, Vijaya was suffering from what at the time seemed like a bad flu, but which in fact was a seriousrespiratory ailment. While lying down in her hotel room, shesaw her own soul float out of her body. Being alone, and not having the capacity to call for assistance, for some time she felt that she was about to leave this earth.

Gradually Vijaya came out of this dire state. Once she had the strength to do so, she went down to where others were gathered in order to get assistance. When her Master saw her, before she could tell him about her experience, he said simply, “So you did not die after all."