Message by J.P. Grant, EXD UNICEF; For 25th of Sri Chinmoy in West; 1989 Apr 21

Filed under Tributes and Expressions of appreciation | UN Anniversaries

Message by Mr. James P. Grant
Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

on the occasion of
the completion of twenty-five years of exemplary services to the
Indian Culture and spiritual heritage in the West
by

Sri Chinmoy

New York – 21 April 1989

I am pleased to add my voice to those who will, this evening, honour Sri Chinmoy for his 25 years of spiritual leadership in the West.

From my perspective at the United Nations, I must also express a special appreciation for Sri Chinmoy’s 20 years of guiding the Peace Meditation Group at the U.N. The events and activities that the group organizes serve to remind the international community of the highest purposes of the gathering of nations that of peace for all peoples. Amidst all of the intellectual debate and assemblages at the U.N., and occasionally at the same time that the settling of tense international situations is underway, two times a week, most weeks, Sri Chinmoy sits in silent meditation in one of the conference rooms at United Nations Headquarters along with the Peace Meditation Group and anyone else of the U.N. community who would like to join them.

Dag Hammarskjold, the former Secretary-General of the U.N., said at the dedication of the meditation room at the headquarters building in New York: “We all have within us a center of stillness surrounded by silence”. He quoted an ancient saying that the sense of the vessel is not in its shell, but in the void. It is for us, he said, to fill the void with whay we find in our center of stillness.

It is a valuable service to carve out these moments to focus on the still center as Sri Chinmoy does amidst the activity of the international community. As Sri Chinmoy tells us in one of his thousands of inspired poems:

“The heart’s simplicity

Shall always succeed

When and where

The mind’s complexity fails.”

Sri Chinmoy reminds us of the powerful strength of the heart’s simplicity, and of our capacity to achieve great things for a higher purpose. The work of the United Nations is enhanced by his commitment to its highest success, and by his presence amid its deliberations.

Response from Sri Chinmoy to Mr. Grant

12 May 1989

Dear Mr. Grant,

I am so grateful for your deeply moving comments given on the occasion of my 25th anniversary in the West. My appreciation for your heart of oneness can only be felt and not adequately expressed.

I see in you a true instrument of God’s vision-dream of the United Nations. Your dynamism and sense of service inspire all those who meet you. In you, the visionary and the realist have joined to foster peace in the hearts of all peoples.

In you, I have found a genuine brother and friend. Your loving appreciation of my humble service has profoundly touched me.

Yours in the Supreme,

Sri Chinmoy

Mr. James P. Grant

Executive Director, UNICEF

UNICEF House

3 UN Plaza New York, NY 10017