On  12  January  1979  Sri  Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation  at  the  United  Nations  honoured  former  United  States  President  and  founder  of  the  League  of  Nations,  Woodrow  Wilson,  in  a  commemorative  programme  in  the  Dag  Hammarskjold  auditorium .

 The  programme included:

•  some  biographical  material  about Wodrow Wilson written  by  the  leader  of  the  Meditation  Group,  Sri  Chinmoy,  in  his  book  America  in  Her  Depths;
• some personal  comments  about   association  with  the  family  of  the  former  United  States  President, by  Mr .  Donald  Keys ,  President  of  Planetary  Citizens; 
•  performance  of  the  song  “0  Wilson  s  League  of  Nations”  as  well  as
•  reading  of  a  scene  between  Woodrow  Wilson  and  his  daughter,  Margaret ,  from  Sri  Chinmoy’s  play  on  America ,  The  Sacred  Fire.

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Sri  Chinmoy,  in  his  book  America  in  Her  Depths.:

  “Ever-memorable  is  the  name  of  Woodrow  Wilson .  He  was  born  in  Virginia  in  1856,  the  son  of  a  Presbyterian  minister.  “Princeton  University  of  New  Jersey,  one  of  the  most  important  universities  in  the  United  States,  nurtured  Woodrow  Wilson’s  youth,  and  in  1902  he  became  its  head.  As  president  of  the  University,  he  successfully  carried  out  a  good  many  reforms.  He  held  that  high  posi- tion  for  eight  long  years.  Then  he  had  to  steer  the  course  of  his  life  in  another  direction:  he  was  elected  Governor  of  the  state  of  New  Jersey.  Just  two  years  later  the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  Party  selected  Wilson  as  their  Presidential  candidate,  and  he  was  elected  President  of  the  United  States.  The  spirit  of  Andrew  Jackson,  the  seventh  President  of  the  U.S.A.  and  founder-president  of  the  Democratic  Party,  once  more  smiled  through  his  worthy  descendant,  Woodrow  Wilson,  the  twenty-eighth  President  and  a  mighty  champ- ion  of  democracies  the  world  over.  

“Wilson’s  Inaugural  Address  on  his  assumtion  of  the  Presidential  Chair  is  characteristic  of  the  man:  ‘This  is  not  a  day  of  triumph;  it  is  a  day  of  dedication.  Here  muster,  not  the  forces  of  party,  but  the  forces  of  humanity.’  “The  election  of  Wilson  has  a  special  signi ficance,  for  it  marked  the  first  time  that  all  the  forty-eight  states  took  part  in  the  election.  For  the  two  territories  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  had  been  admitted  to  the  great  family  of  the  American  Union  by  then.  Between  1789  and  1912  the  original  thirteen  states  had  increased  to  forty-eight  and  the  population  of  four  million  to  ninety-five  million.  10  “A  notable  feature:  Wilson  was  the  only  President  to  deliver  his  own  messages.  The  messages  of  his  predecessors  had  ) een  read  out  by  somebody  else.  He  had  the  gift  of  ex- cellent  speech-making.  

“In  August  1914 ,  the  First  World  War  broke  out  in  Europe .  America  remained  aloof  and  silent.  In  January  1917  Germany’s  fool- hardiness  over leapt  its  bounds.  Germany  went  to  the  length  of  declaring  that  her  submarines  or  U-boats  would  sink  on  sight  any  ship  belonging  to  any  nation  carrying  goods  to  the  enemy.  America,  true  to  her  Monroe  doctrine,  kept  clear  of  the  European  melee .  But  when  a  hundred  American  lives  were  lost  with  the  tor- pedoed  giant  of  the  Atlantic,  the  passenger  ship  Lusitania ,  America  was  horror-struck.  Her  next  move  was  to  take  arms  against  the  submarine-infested  sea  of  troubles.  That  was  in  April ,  1917.  Desperate  Britain  and  France  saw  the  benign  Hand  of  God  in  America’s  decision  to  come  forward  and  stand  by  them.  

In  his  war  message  to  Congress ,  Woodrow  Wilson  called  upon  America  to  put  an  end  to  the  wanton  aggression  and  brutal  tyranny  of  Germany :  ”  ‘The  day  has  come  when  America  is  privileged  to  spend  her  blood  and  her  might  for  the  principles  that  gave  her  birth  and  happiness  and  the  peace  which  she  has  treas- ured.  God  helping  her,  she  can  do  no  other. ‘  

” Further,  the  truth  of  his  democratic  heart  cried  out:  ”  ‘The  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy. ‘  

“America’s  action  saved  France  from  being  bled  to  death  and  Britain  from  being  starved  unto  surrender.  “Wilson  was  the  chief  architect  of  the  organization  known  as  the  League  of  Nations,  which  was  potentially  a  step  towards  human  unity.  ‘Unless  America  takes  part  in  this  treaty,’  Wilson  was  firmly  convinced,  ‘the  world  is  going  to  lose  heart.  I  cannot  too  often  repeat  to  you  how  deep  the  impression  made  upon  me  on  the  other  side  of  [the]  water  is  that  this  was  the  nation  upon  which  the  whole  world  depended  to  hold  the  scales  of  justice  even.  If  we  fail  them,  God  help  the  world!  Then  despair  will  ensue. ‘  “In  this  connection  let  us  not  forget  William  Bolitho:  

”  ‘Like  Arthur  and  the  legendary  Alexander,  and  many  other  lesser  men,  he  [Woodrow  Wilson]  left,  even  though  defeated,  a  hope,  a  promise:  that  League  which  is  as  it  were  a  symbol  of  his  perished  flesh  and  blood,  a  fragment  torn  out  of  his  heart  and  left  with  us,  to  serve  for  one  who  will  come  after  in  a  retaking  up  of  his  adventure .’  ”

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Mr.  Donald  Keys,  President  of  Planetary  Citizens

I  wasn’t  privileged  to  know  Woodrow  Wilson;  he  died  the  year  I  was  born .  I  had  the  privilege  of  knowing  one  of  his  daughters,  Eleanor  Wilson  McAdoo,  who,  in  carrying  on  with  the  faith  of  her  father,  was  supporting  my  small  efforts  in  work  for  human  unity.  Another  marvelous  daughter  carried  the  faith  forward  in  her  own  way ,  in  an  inner  search  for  herself  and  human  unity  in  a  famous  ashram  in  India.  With  great  men  like  Woodrow  Wilson  who  sow  a  seed  of  a  new  beginning  or  lay  a  foundation  stone  crucial  to  humanity’s  future ,  it  is  almost  character- istic  that  they  feel  they  have  failed.  

Recently  I  visited  the  Woodrow  Wilson  House  in  Washington,  D.e.  It  is  maintained  as  an  open  museum  and  any- one  can  visit  and  move  freely  through  the  house.  There  was  an  atmosphere  of  nobility,  of  intelligence  and  of  sorrow,  because  it  was  here  he  lived  when  he  was  aware  that  he  had  failed  to  bring  America  into  the  League  of  Nations,  the  League  which  he  himself  had  initiated.  And  yet  in  his  sor- row,  if  he  could  have  but  known  that  he  was  instru mental  in  laying  the  foundation  stone  which  led  directly  to  this  Organization!

 If  Franklin  Roosevelt  was  the  Father  of  the  U.N.,  Woodrow  Wilson  was  its  Grandfather.  In  the  acts  which  he  undertook  he  made  a  beginning  of  an  unprecedented,  historic  and  evolutionary  unfoldment  which  is  leading  even  now  through  this  universal  Organization  – in  which  America  and  virtually  every  country  is  playing  its  role  – leading  to  a  more  fully  expressed  human  unification.  Thank  you 

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Performance  of  the  song  “0  Wilson  s  League  of  Nations”  :

 

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Reading  of  a  scene  between  Woodrow  Wilson  and  his  daughter,  Margaret ,  

from  Sri  Chinmoy’s  play  on  America ,  The  Sacred  Fire.

Act V, scene 2

 

• for PDF of report in periodical Bulletin:  “Meditation at the UN” Jan 1979 :  bu-scpmaun-1979-01-27-vol-07-n-01-jan-ocr-opt.pdf

See also related scanned  page-Images  11 – 15  (below)

Gallery: