Aleksandr Razvin
Sri Chinmoy pays tribute
to his dear friend* who passed away on 10 March 1998
at the Orchid Garden Hotel in Brunei
Aleksandr Razvin proved to be a true brother of my heart and soul.
Since his earth-departure, I have kept a very close connection with his wife Valentina. I call her “Sister.” How much love she and her husband had for me!
Once we had a long-distance race. She came there, crying. I said, “Sister, what is the matter? Do you think I can be of any help?”
She said, “On our wedding day we took an oath that we would never divulge any of our secrets to anyone else without taking permission from each other. If I have to tell a secret, I have to take Aleksandr’s permission, and he has to take my permission if he has to tell a secret. We have kept this promise for so many years. Always we took mutual permission to divulge any secrets. But now I have to tell you a secret without his permission.”
I said, “Oh, without his permission!”
She said, “I must tell you, I must tell you.”
I said, “Please tell me.”
Then she said that he did not want her to tell anybody that he had developed cancer, and it was almost a terminal case. She wanted to tell me, and she did not take his permission. I spoke to her for some time. She felt that, because of my oneness with both of them, her husband would not mind.
When she went home, she said to her husband, “I have told Sri Chinmoy.”
He said, “Oh! What was our promise?” Then he started laughing. He said, “Only Sri Chinmoy! You must not tell anybody else.”
She said, “I knew you would not mind. That is why I told him — and nobody else.”
I went to the hospital to see Razvin. On the way I was composing songs in Bengali, one after another. When I went upstairs to his room, we were so thrilled to see each other. He was highly appreciating the doctors. His main doctor was an Indian woman. I said to him, “Now you will be all right.”
The Indian doctor said, “Swami-ji, Swami-ji, you are here!” Then she said to Razvin, “Only Swami-ji can cure you, not doctors.”
I said, “No, doctors will cure you.”
Then she said to me, “Please, will you be here for another five minutes?”
I said, “I will be here for a longer time.”
She left the room. Downstairs her husband was waiting for her. She brought her husband to the room. She could not believe, and her husband could not believe, that I had come to see a patient. Her husband had been a great admirer of mine. He fell at my feet in the hospital room. He said, “I never thought that I would be able to meet with you.”
This is my story. Some doctors have such love.
* Aleksandr Razvin, who served for many years in the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became Russia’s Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Published in The Feet of the Supreme’s Compassion
Sri Chinmoy lifts two young boys and 24 adults at the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
The iconic American TV game show ‘Jeopardy’ features a question about U Thant Island.
In 1977, members of ‘Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations’ leased the small island from New York State, landscaped its surface and unofficially renamed it after the third UN Secretary-General U Thant. They also erected a thirty-foot ‘Oneness Arch’ which still stands. On 7 October 1982, the island was officially recognised as U Thant Island.
Also, view a light-hearted video on the history of U Thant Island.