Sri Chinmoy:
The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

Image and description From Diplomatic World Bulletin:

Text from Diplomatic World Bulletin: “UN delegates joined over 200 Mission nationals and UN Staff in a “Peace Walk for United Nations Charter Day” – a two-day relay walk in the Rose Gardens of the UN Secretariat Building commemorating the 38th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter. A fine printed copy of the Preamble to the UN Charter was carried during the walk, then passed, relay fashion, to a national of the succeeding country. Participating delegates or their designated alternates signed the document as a symbol of their country’s renewed dedication to the ideals embodied in the Charter.“

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Text from the Secretariat News: 

In the photos : Clockwise from top left are the Philippine delegation; the Jamaican delegation; the final international lap; and Ambassador Natarajan Krishnan of India, on the right, relays a copy of the Preamble to the UN Charter to Ambassador Riyadh Al-Qaysi of Iraq.

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Held on 23-24 June in the UN North Garden, the Peace Walk for United Nations Charter Day commemorated the 38th anniversary of the signing of the Charter.

Forty missions and over 200 staff and delegates, representing about 70 countries, participated in the event, which was organized by Sri Chinmoy: the Peace Meditation at the UN and co-sponsored by ten Permanent Representatives.

In relay fashion, walkers from the various nations made a single loop around a section of the North Garden. A copy of the Preamble to the Charter, the document which, when ratified, gave life and form to the United Nations,was carried by a member of each national “team” and passed to a member of the succeeding country.

The walk ended with an ” international” loop and a brief ceremony in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium at which Assistant Secretary-General Robert Muller represented the Secretary-General.

The walk was chosen as a means to recall the spirit of hope and progress with which the Organization began, and with which it can continue, It was a way to remember, as Sri Chinmoy put it, that “The United Nations is a cry, a movement, a forward march, a forward adventure. The United Nations is crying for peace, and this very act of crying is its real capacity.”

As an additional commemoration of the signing of the Charter, an evening concert for peace in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium was held on 27 June, where Sri Chinmoy received the Peace Award from the Delegates’ Wives Meditation Group. It is hoped that the Peace Walk will be an annual event.

 

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The Peace Walk for the United Nations Charter Day was not just  an intellectual activity, nor merely a physical one. It was an occasion for United Nations delegates and staff to renew their inner cry for peace.

As Secretary-General U Thant said:

“In the wake of the most catastrophic war in the history of mankind, humanity had a new vision. It saw the glimmer of dawn of war-less world.”

By walking silently and contemplatively in celebration o the signing of the Carter of the United Nations, we have allowed ourselves to renew contact with the spirit of oneness and hopefulness upon which this Organization was founded.

Sri Chinmoy, the leader of the Peace Meditation at the United Nations expresses the spirit of this walk:

“People say the United Nations is imperfect. I wish to ask them what organization on earth is perfect. they say the United Nations has not fulfilled human needs. Is ay we have not given full opportunity , no to speak of full authority , to the United nations to go the needful.

The inner vision of the United Nations is the gift supreme. This vision the world can deny for ten, twenty, thirty, forty one hundred years. But a day will dawn when the vision of the United Nations will save the world.”

This vision of the United Nations, this yearning for peace that we have felt and acted upon during the past two days can be expressed in various ways.

As a continuation of the the Peace Walk for the United Nations Charter Day, Sri Chinmoy will be offering a concert for Peace on Monday, at 6 pm in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium. We hope you are able to attend this free concert.

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