Ashok Parulekar
UNITED NATIONS (TIP): The singers from Sri Chinmoy: Peace Meditation at the United Nations were invited to perform at the United Nations high level forum on the Culture of Peace held in the General Assembly hall. They presented meditative peace songs composed by Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007). The event was organized by the President of UN General Assembly and Bangladesh ambassador.
The United Nations General Assembly President Peter Thomson said, “On behalf of you all, I’d like to thank Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nation for that beautiful performance and the culture of Peace for which they have stood for so long”.
In response to the issue raised by Pakistan’s permanent representative Maleeha Lodhi, the senior Indian diplomat Srinivas Prasad said, “As one of the oldest civilizations, India has been the home to a continuous stream of great spiritual teachers, thinkers throughout the centuries who have spread the message of a culture of peace”.
Sri Chinmoy was one such spiritual teacher. He tirelessly worked for world peace through his meditations, books, music, art, poetry, sports and meetings with world leaders such as Nelson Mandela and President Gorbachev. In 1970 at the invitation of then UN secretary General U Thant, he started Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations, as this meditation group is now called. He was very optimistic about the world peace. He said,” A day will come when our world will be flooded with peace. About UN he said, “The UN is now a small plant, so we underestimate its potential, eventually it will become a big tree and protect the world”.