U Thant Peace Award to Mr. C.V. Narasimhan, UN – Sep 1996 - Historical Repository for Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

U Thant Peace Award to Mr. C.V. Narasimhan, UN – Sep 1996

Filed under asia-oceana | U Thant Peace Award

10 September 1996 U Thant Peace Award presented to Mr. C. V. Narasimhan, Former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (1956-78) and Chef de Cabinet to three Secretaries-General –

1996-09-06-10-2-1-Sri-Chinmoy-Speaks-at-Prog-for-USG-C.V.Narashiman

1996-09-06-09-2-narashiman

The U Thant Peace Award is presented to

C. V. Narashnhan

Illustrious son of Mother India

Vision-heart and mission-life-embodiment of the United Nations

from its highest height to its farthest length

U Thant’s trusted confidant

U Thant’s illumined adviser

U Thant’s devoted admirer

U Thant’s cherished fellow traveller on the road to world peace

A fully blossomed peace-service-flower-life Of talents myriad

Unreservedly consecrated to the oneness-world-goal of the United Nations

With our deepest appreciation, admiration and gratitude

Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

10 September 1996

(Message given by MC)

On this special occasion we would like to convey the very best wishes of U Thant’s daughter, Aye Aye Myint-U, and her husband, U Tyn Myint-U. They regret being unable to attend this programme, as they are away from New York at this time, but express their happiness that Mr. Narasimhan is being honoured here today.

Presentation of the U Thant Peace Award to
Mr. Chakravarthi Vijayaraghava Narasimhan.
United Nations – 10 September 1996

Sri Chinmoy:

Today we are deeply honoured to offer our loving and grateful appreciation to our dear friend, Mr. C. V. Narasimhan, in the form of the U Thant Peace Award.

Dear Brother Narasimhan, our Peace Meditation Group has been blessed with your kind friendship since the very beginning of our devoted service to the United Nations. We love and admire your countless sterling qualities and your unparalleled achievements. Today, with our deepest pride and joy, we wish to offer you our special tribute in the name of our beloved Secretary-General U Thant. It was you, dear Brother, dear peace-lover, who most kindly and most generously welcomed our peace-serving aspiration-hearts to the blessingful attention of the supreme peace-champion, U Thant.

Dear Brother Narasimhan, your life was supremely chosen by the Supreme Himself to serve the United Nations and its illustrious leaders with your brilliant mind, your dynamic life-energy and, above all, your universal oneness-heart. Your nineteen distinguished years in the Indian Civil Service moulded you outwardly for your life’s crowning service to the United Nations, the Heart-Home of the World-Body. “. Most remarkably, you carried with you lovingly and devotedly the fully blossomed flowers of India’s culture and India’s spirituality as you ascended to the pinnacle of world power. For you, religion, devotion and life-transporting spiritual music were living realities which you brought to your most daunting tasks.

It was Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold who first perceived your United Nations destiny, appointing yo’u in 1956 to the leadership of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East and then to his inner circle. Your Indian heart, broken by the news of his tragic death in 1961 in the quest for peace, fully comprehended and beautifully expressed the elusive height and depth of this colossal nobility-soul.

Then, for ten eventful years you faithfully served our beloved U Thant. As his Chef de Cabinet, you were his fond fellow traveller; you were his alter-ego; you were his shock absorber! How rarely do we see enduring friendship, loyalty and devotion between two giant personalities! Alas, all too often ego compels them to assert their separativity and superiority. Not so in the case of your illumined service to U Thant. His shining integrity you admired unreservedly; your wisdom-flooded loyalty nurtured him unimaginably. Only a pristine service-life like U Thant’s could win the ever-increasing “. respect and affection of your penetrating mental and psychic vision. Again, only your oneness-heart, quickness-mind and eagerness-life could so perfectly anticipate and fulfill the myriad needs of the soul bearing the heaviest burden in the peace-crying world-arena. During ten long years fraught with challenging difficulties and world emergencies, while you strove for peace and attuned the delicate balance between individuals and between nations at the heart of the world body,. your and U Thant’s mutual regard, mutual affection and mutual reverence only increased and multiplied.

Who, then, dear Brother, more richly deserves to be honoured in the name of Secretary-General U Thant than you, his closest confidant and strongest supporter? And yet, the scope of your service to the United Nations far exceeds the corridors of its highest echelons. The Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East; the Department for Inter-Agency Affairs and Coordination; the General Assembly; the United Nations Development Programme; the United Nations University; the United Nations Institute for Training and Research; the Division for Human Rights; the Division for Narcotic Drugs; the United Nations International School–is there any branch of the United Nations or any aspect of its far-flung world-service that has not been graced by your illumining touch and energized by your dynamic life- breath? Three invaluable volumes of your unique reminiscences chronicle your peerless United Nations service-life. And all along, your perspicacious sense of humour never failed you, even in the most disheartening circumstances. A tennis-enthusiast, too, you always were, in your adventurous life-game.

During your astonishing career, Brother Narasimhan, you have also most attentively nurtured the fragrant flowers of Indian culture and spirituality in Western soil. In your early days at United Nations headquarters you translated the epic Mahabharata–a life-work for any individual! In New York you established a branch of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, India’s foremost cultural institute. You served as President of the Hindu Temple Society of North America. Your command of South Indian devotional music is extraordinary. Your vast knowledge of Indian scripture and your utter devotion to Indian music suffused all your activities at the United Nations. You organized many concerts of Indian music at the United Nations, and we, your fond admirers of the Peace Meditation Group, have been blessed a number of times to hear your gifted voice in song. With your exquisite expressiveness, you have described the ultimate goal of Indian devotional music as “soaring on wings of song into the ethereal heights where it is possible for you to establish communion with the Lord Himself.” In your unique life-song, Brother NarasiIl1han, you have soared to the heights of oneness-service, peace-fulfillment and perfection-manifestation. Therefore, today, with our heartfelt love and admiration, we are offering you our U Thant Peace Award.

Award Background and some Previous recipients:

THE U THANT PEACE AWARD

IS A SYMBOLIC PRESENTATION

BY SRI CHINMOY: THE PEACE MEDITATION AT THE UNITED NATIONS

TO ACKNOWLEDGE, APPRECIATE AND ADMIRE

DISTINGUISHED ACCOMPLISHMENTS

TOWARD THE ATTAINMENT OF WORLD PEACE.

THE AWARD WAS NAMED FOR THE LATE SECRETARY-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

IN HONOUR OF THIS CONTEMPLATIVE WORLD LEADER’S

EXEMPLARY DEVOTION TO PEACE

IN BOTH -HIS PERSONAL AND HIS POLITICAL LIFE.

THE RECIPIENTS ARE INDIVIDUALS OR ORGANIZATIONS

REFLECTING U THANT’S LOFTY SPIRITUAL IDEALS.

THE U TRANT PEACE AWARD

IS OFFERED PERIODICALLY BY THE MEMBERS

OF SRI CHINMOY: THE PEACE MEDITATION AT THE UNITED NATIONS,

WHO WORK FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

IN VARIOUS CAPACITIES

AND HAVE MADE AN ADDITIONAL PERSONAL COMMITMENT

TO THE HIGHEST GOALS OF THE UNITED NATIONS.

PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS OF THE AWARD INCLUDE

THE LATE UN AMBASSADOR ZENON ROSSIDES OF CYPRUS,

FOR HIS LIFE-LONG EFFORTS

FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AND DISARMAMENT;

THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME,

FOR ITS COMMITMENT TO INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT IN ALL NATIONS;

JAMES GRANT, THE LATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNICEF;

MOTHER TERESA; AND

PRESIDENT MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Gallery:

: 1996-09-06-09-2-narashiman

Photos from a earlier meeting on 9 Mar 1996 see . V. Narasimhan honoured – book highlighting career Mar 1996

Anahata Nada Report Aug – Nov 1996

– – Volume 25 – – – -. . – — – U N OFFICIAL RECEIVES U THANT PEACE AWARD UNITED NATIONS – C. V. Narasimhan, the Chef de Cabinet under U.N. Secretaries-General Hammarskjold, U Thant and Waldheim, received the U Thant Peace Award on Sept. 10. In presenting the Award on behalf of Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations, Sri Chinmoy commented on how Narasimhan was unique among recipients because of his closeness to U Thant. “In your unique life-song, Brother Narasimhan, you have soared to the heights of oneness-service, peace- fulfillment and perfection-manifesta- tion,,’ Sri Chinmoy declared. The award plaque described Narasimhan as “U Thant’s trusted confidant, CT Thant’s illumined adviser, U Thant’s devoted admirer, U Thant’s cherished fellow traveler on the road to world peace – (a) fully blossonled peace-service-flower-life of talents myriad, unreservedly conse- crated to the oneness-world-goal of the United Nations.” In accepting the award, the U.N. luminary said, “I appreciate this award for two main reasons: the first – the giver; the second – the name of the award, the U Thant Peacc Award.” For someone like himself, who worked so closely with U Thant, he said, it was very gratifying “to be recognized in this way by Sri Chinmoy and his associates.”

More Text and Photos to be added as available

Download PDF: