Secretary-General U Thant Last message to Staff – 1971 Dec 17 - Historical Repository for Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

Secretary-General U Thant Last message to Staff – 1971 Dec 17

Staff· Committee BULLETIN – UN/ST/SCB/281

28 December 1971 – Staff pays farewell tribute to U Thant

On Friday, 17 December 1971, members of the staff at Headquarters ‘attended a ceremony in the General Assembly Hall to pay tribute to Secretary-General U Thant, whose term of office ends ·this year.

The Chairman of the Staff Committee, Dr. N.G. Rathore, made a statement on behalf of the staff and presented the Secretary-(;enera1 with a gift from the United Nations staff of a Vermeil Bamboo pattern six-piece place setting for eight from Tiffany.

In his statement, Dr. Rathore called the Secretary-General “Ia great universa1ist ll and cited the Secretary-General ‘s contribution to world peace and in areas directly affecting the staff. The Secretary-General also made a statement in which he stressed the need for the recognition by Member States of the independence of the international civil service as called for by ~he United Nations Charter.

At one point during his statement, the Secretary-General departed from his prepared text and spoke movingly about the four qualities of man -physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual — and singled out man’s spiritual qualities as the most essential for his and his neighbour’s well-being.

The complete· texts of the statements of the Secretary-General and Dr. Rathore are reproduced in the following pages. 71-29675 ( see images below)

EXCERPT from page 6 and 7:

Moral approach to all problems, tolerance and compassion

Dr. Rathore, in your statement you made very kind references to my moral approach to all problems and to the tolerance and compassion shown in my approach to all problems.

In the space of time,-available for us, I want to develop these ideas once again very briefly. One of the most important provisions of the Charter, as you all know, is the call to all Member States to practise tolerance, and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours. This is the language of the Charter. To practise tolerance and to live together in peace with one another as good neighbours is in conformity with the teachings of all great religions.

Harmonizing center – common objectives of UN Charter

Another of the objectives of this organization is that it must serve as a harmonizing centre for all Member States, as a centre to harmonize the actions of Member States with a view to the achievement of common objectives. This is again the language of the Charter.

Global or Planetary Allegiance

If we are to realize these objectives of the Charter we have to bear in mind one basic fact, the need to have a double allegiance.

Of course it is understandable, as I have said on several previous occasions, and it is even desirable, that all of us should owe our primary allegiance to our own state, whether this state is the United States of America, or Russia, or China, or Burma or India or Pakistan. We must have our own primary allegiance to our own state. At the same time, this primary allegiance must. be harmonized with our allegiance to the international community; so this calls for a double allegiance.

These two allegiances do not run counter to each other in these tense times, particularly in the shadow of the hydrogen bomb. This double~ allegiance is a must for all of us. We must have a global or planetary allegiance apart from our national allegiance. This is one of the basic facts I want to stress on this memorable occasion.

Priority of 4 Qualities: physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual (most important).

Another point I want to bring home is to reiterate what Dr. Rathore has just said: the spirit of compassion and love and the moral qualities. As all of you must have been aware, I have certain priorities in regard to virtues and human values. As far as I am concerned, an ideal man, or an ideal woman, is one who is endowed with four attributes, four qualities, physical qualities, intellectual qualities, moral qualities and spiritual qualities.

Of course it is very rare to find a human being who is endowed with all these qualities but, as far as priorities are concerned,

I would, attach greater importance to intellectual qualities over physical qualities.

I would attach still greater importance to moral qualities over intellectual qualities. It is far from my intention to denigrate intellectualism or intellectual qualities but I am just trying to define my priorities. I would attach greater importance to moral qualities or moral virtues over intellectual qualities or intellectual virtues — moral qualities, like love, compassion, understanding, tolerance, the philosophy of live and let live, the ability to understand the other man’s point of view, which are the key to all great religions.

And above all, I would attach the greatest importance to spiritual values, spiritual qualities. I deliberately avoid using the term “religion”. I use the term deliberately “spirit”. I have in mind the spiritual virtues, faith in oneself, the purity of one’s inner self which to me is the greatest virtue of all.

With this approach, with this philosophy, with this concept alone, we will be able to fashion the kind of society we want,the kind of society which was envisaged by the founding fathers 26 years ago.