Sri Chinmoy:
The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

13 February 1996, A number of members so the Peace Meditation Group at the UN. Participated in the

Farewell reception for

H.E. Dr. Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Ambassador of India to the United States ,

attended by

• Mr. Vladimir Petrovsky,
• Ambassador Karel Kovanda of the Czech Republic to the UN, and  others  –     13 February

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Sample of Tribute received:

 

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PROGRAMME FOR THE FAREWELL PARTY IN HONOUR OF
AMBASSADOR SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR RAY AND HIS WIFE. MAYA DEVI

 

• SCC Men and Women Groups sing Bande Mataram.

• Choir sings Bharat Amar.

• Garland offered to Ambassador and his wife.

• Vijaya Catherine Claxton welcomes the honoured guests.

• Choir sings Bharat Janani.

• Sri Chinmoy’s Introduction.

• Groups sing one song for the Ambassador and one song for Maya Devi.

• sri Chinmoy sings I Dearly Love My India with

• representatives of many countries standing behind him.

• Afterwards they offer roses to the Ambassador and his wife.

• Readings of excerpts from writtten tributes.

• Tributes from guests present:
  • Mr. Jayaraman
  • Ambassador Chowdhury
  • Consul General Bashin

•   Two songs dedicated to Swami Vivekananda (introduced by Sri Chinmoy)

• Three readings from Ambassador Ray’s writings.

• Anecdotes

• Groups sing:
  • 1. When the Power of Love
  • 2. Bhulite Diyona
  • 3. Everest Aspiration
  • 4. Amal Dhabal Pal

•   My Own Gratitude-Heart in English and Russian

• Bhajan Singers sing
  • 2 bhajans and
  • Sri Chinmoy’s newFarewell song for the Ambassador and Mrs. Ray.

• Ambassador and Mrs. Ray are invited to offer their remarks .

 

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NEW YORK -‘-

India’s departing Ambassador to the V .S., Siddhartha Shankar Ray, and his wife, Maya Devi, received a moving farewell Feb. 13 shortly before returning home.

Tributes from ambassadors and luminaries around the world were read out in a special function hosted by Sri Chinmoy.

“Physically tall, patriotically and culturally taller, politically infinitely taller, self-givingly taller than the tallest: This is our beloved Ambassador Siddhartha Shankar Ray.” This was part of Sri Chinmoy’s soulful appreciation of him.

The event included a performance by Sri Chinmoy’s students of several Bengali songs, including special ones the spiritual leader had composed about Ambassador Ray and his wife.

“You have given us so much of your love,” Maya Devi remarked. “I am always very happy when I am amongst you.”

When she and the Ambassador return to India, she said, “I would not like to feel that spiritually we are not as close to you as we are today.”

For Ambassador Ray, “It was a tremendously moving, a tremendously emotional evening.”

“Every time I visit you,” he said, “it is a new kind of joy that comes into me. Maya and I leave refreshed, with new spiritual vigor …. ”

The Ambassador ended his remarks by teaching his mostly American audience the Bengali way of saying farewell – using a term that affectionately and charmingly expresses the feeling of arriving rather than departing.

“I am not saying goodbye,” he said. “I will tell you Ashi, which means ‘I am coming,’ and you will respond, Esho, which means, ‘Yes, come! ‘”

That wintry February night, in a small hall in New York’s Hunter College, America cried out to India’s beloved elder statesman: “Esho, esho!”

– from Anahata Nada, Dec  1995 – mar 1996

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