1983 J. Illueca, Pres. UN General Assembly, U Thant Peace Award, Dec 03 DETAILS -PHOTOS

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General Assembly President Dr. Jorge E. Illueca receives the Award from Sri Chinmoy : The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

U THANT PEACE AWARD

On 3 December 1983 Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations awarded Dr. Jorge E. Illueca, President of the Th£try-eighth Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the second annual U Thant Peace Award for his remarkable contributions toward world peace carried out in the spirit and according to the spiritual ideals, of the late Secretary-General U Thant. Following are excerpts from the programme held at Van Wyck Junior High School 217 in Queens, New York.

Mr. Adhiratha Keefe, Master of Ceremonious:

We are here today to pay tribute to Dr. Jorge Illueca, distinguished statesman who since 1947 has been actively involved in the United Nations and has dedicated himself to its purposes and principles …. His experience in international affairs, his enthusiastic devotion to the cause of peace and his achievements as Permanent Representative of Panama, as President of the Security Council , as Chairman of’ the Latin American Group, Foreign Minister and Vice-President of Panama and, now, as President of the General Assembly, are well known and highly regarded. Dr. Illueca is a man of expanding vision a champion in the inner and outer world. But, most importantly, he is our brother-friend.

Sri Chinmoy:

Shraddha

This afternoon I composed a soulful song that expresses my heart’s most soulful gratitude to my beloved brother, Jorge.

(Sri Chinmoy sings the following song.)

Brother-friend, oneness-core,

You are at the Golden Shore.

Jorge, Champion-Captain

Of the U.N.-Fountain,

O vision-eye of justice-light,

You are our Himalayan delight.

Beloved brother Jorge, dearest friend, Dr. Illueca, Mr. President of the Thirty-eighth Session of the General Assembly, I bow to you in all humility. We all bow to you with genuine admiration.

Your mind is great, divinely great. Your heart is good, supremely good. Your soul is compassionate, unconditionally compassionate. Your life is daring, universally daring. And finally, you are promising, transcendentally promising.

You are a beloved son of Panama. You are the peerless pilot of the United Nations-boat. You are the unparalleled brother of humanity’s doleful tears and sorrowful cries.

This evening it is not we who are honouring you, but you who are honouring us by giving us the golden opportunity to offer you the U Thant Peace Award. U Thant was a peace-loving universal soul, and now in your heart of oneness we have discovered our peace-inundated universal home.

O roaring lion of the United Nations,

your life of sleepless love, concern, compassion and sacrifice is at once awakening the comity of nations in an unprecedented manner and leading the world-body bravely, safely and perfectly to the Golden Shore of the ever-transcending Beyond, where a peaceful oneness-home is not a dream but a living reality. You are beckoning the entire world – all mankind – to that Kingdom of Peace, Light and Bliss. 0 unparalleled messenger from that Kingdom of Truth, your soul is beckoning us and your heart is leading and guiding us to that land of peace, which is our oneness-home, oneness-home.

Shraddha

(Sri Chinmoy gives Dr. Illueca the Award and places a garland around his neck. He then reads the message on the Award. )

THE 1983 U THANT PEACE AWARD

IS PRESENTED TO

HIS EXCELLENCY DR. JORGE E. ILLUECA,

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

FOR HIS :

• Long-term efforts for world peace, most notably, his dedicated work in international relations and international law;

• Encouraging personal example in supporting the highest ideals of the United Nations Charter; and

• Demonstrated belief in the oneness of the world family and the spiritual values that will ultimately lead to a genuine and fulfilling global peace.

Shraddha

(Above) General Assembly President Dr. Illueca receives a warm welcome from members of the Peace Meditation at the United Nations. Below) children hold placards spelling out their special greeting to the “President of the General Assembly”.

Dr. Jorge E. Illueca, President of the General Assembly:

Esteemed Sri Chinmoy and dear friends, I feel deeply grateful. This is one occasion on which my feelings are above and beyond any words. I believe that after today perhaps I will have a new heart, more open to understanding, closer to fairness, closer to truth, closer to justice and closer to your aspirations and the aspirations – with all the magic meaning of the word-of many peoples.

It is a great joy for me to be with you today. Since Sri Chinmoy and I began our spiritual acquaintance in 1977, I have had the opportunity to meet many of you in our activities in the United Nations. Not always do I have the opportunity to see such friendly faces as yours, full of good will and good neighborliness. During these several years your teacher and I have developed a special friendship and mutual understanding, and I am always deeply moved to be addressed by him as a brother, for we are indeed brothers of the spirit under the supreme Ruler of the universe. I am therefore especially touched to be among you today as a brother in a loving and united family, and I find also some deeper meaning in this word ‘brother’ and in the dimension of brotherhood. Indeed, this is the very spirit of mutual respect, self-giving and universal oneness which we all long for in our larger family of nations.

I feel it is significant that Sri Chinmoy makes his home here in Queens. Here we are so near to the original headquarters of the United Nations in Lake Success and even nearer to Parkway Village, which is still home to many Secretariat and mission staff. Perhaps before long the United Nations will trace its spiritual roots as well as its historic roots to this part of our host city, where Sri Chinmoy holds so many inspiring meditations.

Shraddha

Today you are bestowing upon me the highly valued U Thant Peace Award. I humbly accept this honour, not so much as an appreciation of what I have been striving to offer to the United Nations, but as a meaningful inspiration to accomplish all that I can for the benefit of humanity in my capacity as President of the General Assembly. Sri Chinmoy has assured me of your prayers for me, and I am deeply grateful. I know that I have been elected and in some way blessed with a unique opportunity to serve mankind. I hope I shall be able to offer something significant to the United Nations, not just as an individual human being, but as J • an instrument of the highest principles of peace, progress and understanding. Here in this assembly of friends and believers in the ideals of the United Nations, I can freely affirm that no high aspiration for our human family can ever fail if we have implicit faith in God. It has been said that neither man nor nation can exist without the supreme ideal. I know it; I feel it; and I am determined to do my utmost, with God’s Grace, to manifest this truth in the fulfillment of my role.

In accepting the high honour of the Presidency of the General Assembly, I assured my distinguished colleagues of my intention to abide strictly lby the letter and the spirit of the Organisation’s Charter. The spirit of the Charter was boldly captured in the letter of the Charter during those historic early times when this Organisation was conceived by its founding fathers. Having committed most of my life in service to the United Nations, I have had the opportunity and the privilege to work with a number of remarkable individuals who have demonstrated that ideals and action can perfectly complement each other.

Perhaps no one has brought a higher spiritual vision to the United Nations than U Thant, for whom you have named the award which you have so graciously bestowed upon me. I would like to recall a few deeply meaningful thoughts which the late Secretary-General offered in his farewell address. He said,

“Above all, I would attach the greatest importance to spiritual qualities, like faith in oneself and 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” of the United Nations.

Now, if I may be permitted to go back further in my life story, I would like to pay tribute to the champions of liberty and justice in the country of my birth, and to those who helped me to prepare for my mission and who guided me in my career. It was in Panama that my deep commitments to international ideals and the principles of international law developed, in the tradition of Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Spanish America. Since the Amphictyonic Congress, convened in Panama City in 1826, we have expressed our faith in the Bolivarian ideals to inspire unity among countries and also to promote respect for fundamental human rights and for the same ethical values that the founding fathers of this country promoted in their times.

I would like also to pay a tribute to Sri Chinmoy by invoking the sentiments and feelings of my mother. I owe so much to my mother, for she was the one who stimulated me to go to school, paid for my studies, and then encouraged me to enter the legal profession. I am all gratitude to her and I have deep admiration and love for her. Recently she has become acquainted with Sri Chinmoy through his writings and also through some of the spiritual presents that he has given me. Whenever I am coming back to the United States she always says, “Please, Jorge, don’t forget to go and see Sri Chinmoy and to give him my regards and my blessing. Also, I wish you to see him because I know that he is your friend, and he is a sort of spiritual protection for all your activities.” Those are her feelings.

My dear friends, I would like to say a few words about meditation. Meditation is so powerful, so profound. I see it as a force of peace and understanding. This force is bound to change the consciousness of humanity if men and women will only be receptive to it. It is our duty as individuals who have higher aspirations to lead the way by achieving a spiritual awareness. We are blessed with the splendid example of Sri Chinmoy. His life is a symbol of holiness. He is an ambassador of peace whom every people can claim as their own. His very presence brings to us in the United Nations new possibilities, new ideas and new hopes. He reminds us of what we truly are: not limited human beings with conflicting needs and desires, but potential builders of a new world of oneness.

We know how right are those men who expressed the following thoughts: “By virtue of being born to humanity, every human being has a right to the development and fulfilment of his potentialities as a human being.” And also, I quote, “Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances.”

Just as man passed through the medieval age to the industrial age, so too shall we pass from the age of the limited intellectual mind to the age of the boundless spirit. Sri Chinmoy’s work at the United Nations clearly points the way to a new, peaceful means of solving world problems that will become ever more respected and universally ‘practised as humanity evolves toward a higher state. Slowly, silently and profoundly, Sri Chinmoy’s meditations are leaving an indelible imprint, stirring aspirations in human beings’ hearts that will make true the dream of transforming the concept of world peace into a living reality. Sri Chinmoy is an evidence that the universe is but one vast symbol of God.

Again, I wish to offer my heartfelt thanks to Sri Chinmoy and to all of you for according me such a warm welcome and for presenting me with the U Thant Peace Award. I assure you that I shall continue to do all I possibly can to honour the principles upon which this award is based in the great assembly of nations and in the hearts and minds of friends like all of you. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Sri Chinmoy:

You have bestowed upon me, upon my devoted head and aspiring heart, a most powerful blessing, and I, along with the other members of the Meditation Group, shall try most soulfully to be worthy of your blessingful thoughts, ideas, ideals and goals. You embody the pristine beauty, purity, vision and reality of the United Nations. That means the length and breadth of the world is inside you. With your aspiring heart and illumining soul, sleeplessly and unconditionally you will guide us all. For that, each and every one of us in the Meditation Group is offering you his constant gratitude. You are the living emblem of the peace that the United Nations is trying to offer to the world at large. We are with you, we are in you and we shall always, always and always be for you, for you and for you.

Dr. Illueca:

Your words will be always a source of inspiration and guidance for me. Thank you. * * *

(Dr. Illueca offers Sri Chinmoy flowers at Annam Brahma restaurant, where the President joined Meditation Group members for dinner before the award ceremony.)

Gallery of other photos form the meeting in Annam Bramaha Restaurant before the event:

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Gallery:

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Another Happy Occasion on Recent celebration of United Nations Day at the UN Headquarters in Manhattan:

In the booklet published after the event there were also information about another recent programe at the United Nations when Dr. Illueca was with Sri Chinmoy and the members of the meditation Group at the United Nations.

(Dr. Illueca and Sri Chinmoy watch as 3,800 helium-filled balloons are released to celebrate the United Nations thirty-eighth anniversary.)

Dr. Illueca recently joined the Meditation Group on another occasion, as a special guest at a celebration of the thirty-eighth anniversary of the United Nations on 28 October 1983. Over a thousand staff members, delegates and visitors gathered on the United Nations Visitors’ Plaza at New York Headquarters to witness the release of 3,800 helium filled balloons, bearing the message:

“The outer message of the United Nations is peace. The inner message of the United Nations is love. The inmost message of the United Nations is oneness. “

A prize will be given to the person finding the balloon which has traveled the greatest distance.

After a silent meditation and prayer for peace by Sri Chinmoy, Dr. Illueca addressed the gathering and then pulled the sash to release the balloons. Excerpts from the programme follow.

Sri Chinmoy:

Dear President of the General Assembly, with your kind permission I wish to say a few words. U.N. Day is the supreme victory of humanity’s colossal oneness-dream. On U.N. Day the earth-consciousness consciously and soulfully prays to the Universal and transcendental Pilot for Eternity’s Peace, Infinity’s Joy and Immortality’s Perfection.

U.N. Day has no earth-bound mind, no division, no destruction. U.N. Day has only a Heaven-free heart, a heart of oneness in a fulness home where the Lord’s Peace, Light and Delight in infinite measure reign supreme.

Dr. Jorge E. Illueca, President of the General Assembly:

Dear friends of the Peace Meditation Group. ladies and gentlemen. it is a great joy and honour for me to participate today in this celebration of the thirty-eighth birthday of the United Nations. This is a festive occasion and, at the same time. it is an opportunity to renew our commitment to the goals with which we began our journey. Thirty-eight years ago. with the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco. an historical journey was begun: the journey toward a united world.

Some will say that the United Nations has not kept its promise; our world is still full of division and discord, far from its destination. It is true that the journey ahead of us is long and arduous, but that is no excuse for pessimism. On the contrary, this is the time for us to summon greater dynamism, greater tenacity, so that we can together bring the promise of the future into the reality of today. I am keenly aware that I have assumed the Presidency of the General Assembly at a critical time in the evolution of the United Nations. Once again I affirm , as I stated in accepting this challenging task, “Our Organisation must be maintained. It must grow. It must persist, with the enlightened assistance of Member States. I am firmly convinced and fervently hope that, if we all unite, we will succeed in changing our course and advance along a new path – the path of justice, the rule of law, ethics, and the implacable will for change.”

Balloons represent joy, delight, spontaneous enthusiasm . Their charm is in their variety and abundance. So too, the beauty of our world depends on bringing together the full variety and abundance of peoples, uniting our capacities and our will for continuous peace and progress. Let us take this auspicious day as our own birthday, just as we take the United Nations to be the embodiment of our aspirations for justice, peace and progress in the world.

I would like to express my gratitude to Sri Chinmoy and the members of the Peace Meditation at the United Nations for orgamsmg this meaningful celebration today, and for reminding us in so many ways, on so many occasions, of the need to pray for peace, to meditate for peace, to work for peace, to make peace a reality in our daily life.

Now, as the balloons fly upward carrying the message of the United Nations far and wide to all of mankind, let us rejoice together in our efforts to achieve a world of oneness, peace and understanding. Many thanks. *

UNITED NATIONS

the Heart-Home of the World-Body

“We believe and we hold that each man has the potentiality of reaching the Ultimate Truth. We also believe that man cannot and will not remain imperfect forever. Each man is an instrument of God. When the hour strikes, each individual soul listens to the inner dictates of God. When man listens to God, his imperfections are turned into perfections, his ignorance into knowledge, his searching mind into revealing light and his uncertain reality into all-Fulfilling Divinity. ”

– Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

Sri Chinmoy:
The Peace Meditation at the United Nations