An Olympic-style round-the-world relay, the 1991 Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run, started on 19 April 1991 at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. This biennial event, which was first run in 1987, is a series of national and international relays spanning six continents intended to dynamically express humanity’s continuing self-transcendence in the pursuit of peace.
On hand to see the runners off were singers Addwitiya Roberta Flack and Eartha Kitt; Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger; several United Nations Ambassadors; Mr. Moorehead Kennedy, former diplomat, hostage, educator and President of Moorehead Kennedy Associates; Grammy Award winner Narada Michael Walden and Peace Run founder Sri Chinmoy.
The run is sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy Centre, a nongovernmental organisation accredited to the United Nations, and the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, which seeks to promote international peace and good will through sports.
Excerpts from the opening ceremony follow.
Sri Chinmoy: God, our Lord Supreme, may humanity’s Oneness-Home Peace Run grow into Divinity’s Fulness-Joy and Victory-Smile.
Ms. Ruth Messinger, Manhattan Borough President: Sri Chinmoy, honoured guests, runners and friends, there are few things that warm the heart as much as this does. We only need the international events of the last several months to make us understand that we must have peace. And how better to remind people that we can live in peace than to have this Oneness-Home Peace Run to help people reach out across the globe with these torches of light to bring us all together. Nothing honours Manhattan and New York City more than to have you start here. The city , the borough has among its residents many people from each of the countries these runners represent, from each of the seven continents, trying to learn how to live together. You are starting here, and we will take heart from the message you bring as you run through our streets. We will support you as you run in your own countries, and we will work with you to give peace a chance.
Ms. Eartha Kitt: What glorification is in my heart to have the opportunity to be a part of today, and because all of us from so many parts of the world are so interested in the same cause: “Let peace have a chance.” We all have to do something about it, as the people of each of our countries. Each country should be ruled by the people, for the people and of the people, and if people are going to be dormant about it, peace will never have a chance. So I am very glad we have all come together today to give peace a chance.
H.E. Mr. Martin Huslid, Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations: I am very glad to be here with you at this event, dedicated to peace and friendship, built, as I understand, on the Olympic ideal. We need it more than anything these days. I wish you good luck for this event and for the ideals you represent. Thank you.
Dr. Moorehead Kennedy, President, Moorehead Kennedy Associates: We have been living in very difficult times. Peace is very much at stake these days. We have heard a lot of a word, jihad, standing for holy war. But, ladies and gentlemen, jihad means much more than that. It doesn’t just mean holy war; it means striving, it means maximum effort. And that is what a run requires. A Peace Run is a jihad for peace. I think we could do well to emulate Sri Chinmoy, who is striving all his life for peace. So should we all, and that is what this run symbolises. Thank you very much.
Mr. Narada Michael Walden, Grammy Award-winning producer: The Peace Run has been Sri Chinrnoy’s dream, his vision to help us to bring more peace into the world. As it says here, “Peace can happen.” It’s true. Please believe that peace is a reality. As you run, inspire the world, in your own way, to bring peace into the world, now in the ’90s.
Ms. Addwitiya Robert Flack sings “Imagine. “
Mr. Sylvester Jackson,TV and radio sports commentator: I have had the pleasure of listening to Addwitiya Roberta Flack and to Narada Michael Walden. I have had the pleasure of watching Joe Montana step back and throw a winning touchdown pass to win the Super Bowl with only twelve seconds left . I have had the honour of seeing Magic Johnson up close, coming down court. I have had the pleasure of seeing Henderson dare to be the best runner in baseball and succeed. I have also had the pleasure of seeing your eyes and feeling your hearts, and I do believe that when we look deep inside we understand that we are all compatriots for peace. If we take that fire that is needed to run around the world, the fire that is needed to sing a song like Addwitiya or to make a song like Narada, then there will truly be a jihad for peace.
Appears in Meditation at the United Nations – 1992 Jan – Mar, Periodic Bulletin