President Franklin D. Roosevelt
A tribute by Sri Chinmoy
at the United Nations in New York
President Roosevelt, we, the members of the United Nations, salute you. O man of lofty ideals, O hero-warrior, O prophet of the world-illumining dawn, we soulfully salute you.
Admiration you received in abundant measure. Condemnation, too. One thing more you so richly deserved: your dear countrymen should have seen life clearly and should have seen it as a whole, as you so surprisingly did.
The supremacy of your soul’s will over your body’s revolt [infantile paralysis] is unparalleled.
Your very existence was a stranger to fear. Your indomitable courage went far beyond the flight of our wild imagination. It was your heart’s wisdom-light that so lovingly and convincingly taught the entire world: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Indeed, the vision-light of this loftiest message can illumine the length and breadth of the world.
The embodiments of your vision-height and action-power during World War II will always be treasured by the freedom-loving and peace-spreading world.
Your aspiration-mind and dedication-heart planned a conference of united nations which was to convene in San Francisco. Therefore, today’s flowering United Nations bows to you with its gratitude heart.
Peace and faith: these two divine qualities abide in each other, supporting each other and fulfilling each other. Your last message to your own family, the American Nation, can most unmistakably and most profitably be accepted and treasured by the vast world-home: “… to all Americans who dedicate themselves … to the making of an abiding peace, I say — the only limit to our realisation of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”
Published in AUM – Vol. 5, No. 1, 27 January 1978
Sri Chinmoy meets with Girija Prasad Koirala, Prime Minister of Nepal, at the Inauguration Ceremony of Nepal as a Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossom–Nation.