Sri Chinmoy meets with UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, at the United Nations in New York.
“I am indeed touched by your sincere expression of support for my efforts in the cause of peace and international understanding.
“In your meditation you see beyond the superficial distinctions of race, sex, language or religion, as the Charter encourages us to do. You concentrate on the truths and ideals which unite all mankind: the longing for peace, the need for compassion, the search for tolerance and understanding among men and women of all nations.
“We must never forget that all our activities are aimed at fulfilling the lofty principles of the Charter. We must not lose sight of these objectives despite the frequent difficulties we encounter along the way. In recalling the fundamental goals which inspire our work, you are helping to re-affirm our commitment to the Organisation and its purposes.” — UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
Published in Perez de Cuellar: Immortality's Rainbow-Peace
Sri Chinmoy meets with the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand Somdej Phra Sankharaj — the head of the country’s order of Buddhist monks — in Bangkok, Thailand.
Davao International Airport a Sri Chinmoy Peace Airport
Dedication Speech by Sri Chinmoy
My dear friend, my dear brother, my dear manager of this Davao International Airport, Mr Angel Rongcal, I wish to offer you my heart’s deepest love, deepest gratitude and deepest joy for allowing my name to be closely associated with your International Airport.
The term “international” at once frightens the human in us and gladdens the divine in us. The mind quite often gets frightened by the term “international” because it refers to something so vast, so enormous, and the mind is frightened by vastness. But the heart, on the strength of its oneness with the world-family, feels tremendous joy, tremendous love and tremendous satisfaction when something is international. The heart is like the tiny drop identifying with the vast ocean. When the tiny drop enters into the ocean, it becomes so happy that it has become part and parcel of the ocean. Similarly, I as an individual feel so much joy and satisfaction that I am becoming part and parcel of the International Airport of Davao.
Every day thousands of people are arriving and departing from this place. They are coming from so many countries around the world to share their hope, joy, inspiration and aspiration with the people of Davao. At the same time, they are carrying the message of hope, inspiration, joy, love and oneness from Davao to other parts of the world.
Each airport is a home to so many aeroplanes. The aeroplanes are the children of the airport. The children of the airport bring thousands of people to their home and carry thousands of people from their home to various parts of the world. I was born in India, and I was brought from India to America by the airport-child Air India. Now I was brought to Davao by another airport-child, Philippine Airlines. So the children of the airport carry the members of the international family lovingly, affectionately, compassionately from one place to another. It is by virtue of their affection, love and concern that vastness is transformed into sweetness and a feeling of oneness-home.
Peace means happiness. This happiness comes when we see and feel the Infinite inside the finite. Today I am extremely happy because I have become part and parcel of the international existence of this International Airport. My happiness and gratitude know no bounds, for you have given me the opportunity to become inseparably one with something very vast — an international existence, a universal existence. For that I am extremely grateful to you, dear manager of the Airport, dear friend and brother of our Peace-Blossoms oneness-family.
Published in Peace-Blossoms on the Philippine Life-Tree
Netaji's Japanese Shrine
Message from Koshi Mochisuki, the Head Priest of Renko-Ji Temple, Suginami-ku, Tokyo
“We are preserving Netaji's sacred ash here at this temple in Japan. As a Buddhist, I feel that the soul knows no country. Every day I pray at his shrine.”
Note: On 26 December 1996, Sri Chinmoy made a pilgrimage to the shrine of India’s great patriot, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, at the Renko-Ji Temple in Tokyo.