A Visit to the United Nations Gift Center, 11 Feb 1977

Filed under Other programmes

On 11 February 1977 Sri Chinmoy visited the United Nations Gift Center, managed by a member of the Meditation Group. Sri Chinmoy meditated with the staff of the shop before their working day began and then gave a short talk .

An excerpt from his talk follows.

U.N. Gift Center staff listen to Sri Chinmoy during his talk in their shop.

 

Sri Chinmoy : Every day people come to this shop from various parts of the world. They come here to identify themselves with the large, larger and largest world. Let me give you an example. I come from a tiny, obscure village in Bengal. India.

If I buy something from this place and take it back to my little home and show it to my friends, immediately a new world dawns before them–a world of vastness, a world of oneness, a world of satisfaction. The tiniest possible world is my village, Shakpura, in Bengal, India. The tiniest world comes into this shop and gets a gift which comes from another part of the world . Perhaps that part of the world where the gift was made may also be a small village. But my coming to this shop from one tiny place and your offering this gift from another tiny place makes a happy union between the two places. 

We come to the United Nations to be united and to serve humanity with one heart, with one soul and with one body. In this way the little, little worlds become one with the big world, and again, the big world gives to the little worlds what it has and what it is.

* * ********************************

The gift supreme

The inner vision of the United Nations is the gift supreme. This vision the world can deny for ten , twenty, thirty, forty, one hundred years. But a day will dawn when the vision of the United Nations will save the world. And when the reality of the United Nations starts bearing fruit, then the breath of Immortality will be a living reality on earth.

–  Excerpt from talk “The United Nations As An Instrument Of Human Unification”  by Sri Chinmoy  on 9 May 1974 in Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium . Published in book: The Tears Of Nation-Hearts, Agni Press, 1974.

From Brooklyn Museum:

>

Folk Art has always been a focus for the Brooklyn Museum whether is it collecting great examples of folk art made around the world or through our exhibition program as well as what is showcased for sale in our Museum Shop.

The Library also holds some great books and periodicals documenting international folk art. Recently this collection was greatly enhanced by the books from the library of Roma June Henneberger, former Brooklyn Museum staff member. Ms. Henneberger had co-founded the very first museum shop in the United States known as the  Brooklyn Museum Gift Shop in the 1960s! From 1964-1965, June created a similar cultural store called the “People to People” pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. From the late 1960s through the 1970s, she was the manager of the United Nations Gift Center.

Her library was filled with lots of rare books on folk art around the world and we are delighted to give them a home. Some titles that were in her library that are now available here: Pollock’s Toy Theatres, Fancy ribbon tying, Pottery: a utilitarian folk craft and the Folk art of Peru.

Gallery: