July 30

Today your Blue Centre is completing its first year. Blue signifies spirituality in its purest form. Blue signifies Infinity, the spiritual Infinity of Light and Delight. Each sincere seeker will one day be inundated with Infinity’s Light and Delight. It may take only a few years, or hundreds of years, or thousands of years, but no seeker will remain unrealised.

The Blue Centre has a significant role to play. Each of you has my special blessing on this auspicious occasion. Each of you can make very fast progress if you believe in the Supreme in me, and if you believe that the path you have chosen is the right one for you.

I am extremely grateful to Sunil. His service has all the gratitude of my heart. Now I also want to be extremely pleased with each and every individual disciple. My fervent wish is that you mix with good disciples in other Centres. This will help your aspiring consciousness and expedite your spiritual progress. Please make it a special point to mix with others.

It is also my request that the girls will wear saris to the meetings and the boys will wear white, if possible. When the boys wear white, it brings forward their spiritual purity, and the sari brings forward the divine qualities of the girls. Just by wearing saris and whites you will not realise God, but they do aid your spirituality. Read my writings and poems, sing my songs and participate in all the activities that you are invited to participate in. Every activity of our Centres means an opportunity, especially when we have family gatherings or when you are invited to the New York Centre. In this way, let everyone shine in the spiritual life. My soulful blessing, gratitude and my oneness-heart I offer to each of you.

• Mr. ROSENTHAL. Mr. Speaker, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the then Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, urged that there be a room set aside in the Secretariat which could serve as a refuge—a room of quiet for meditation.

Beginning in 1970, a nondenominational group was formed and the distinguished spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, was invited to conduct the meditations. Since that time the group membership has grown considerably and expanded its activities.

Throughout these years, Sri Chinmoy has worked tirelessly in a quiet and steady way to further the cause of international understanding and peace. The main focus of the meditation group’s activities in New York and also in Geneva is the twice-weekly meditations which provide an opportu­nity for spiritual renewal in an atmos­phere reflecting of the highest pur­poses of the world organization.

The group sponsors an ongoing series of conferences and symposia which provide a forum for Ambassa­dors, Secretariat officials and staff members, religious leaders, and other world-minded individuals who can share and reinforce their spiritual vision of the United Nations.

Behind much of this activity stands Sri Chinmoy, with his vision and support for the world organization.

While I was serving as a delegate in the 34th General Assembly, I cospon­sored a program with Sri Chinmoy, "Meditation at the United Nations," when they honored Members of Con­gress who have served there.

Today, I congratulate Sri Chinmoy on his 50th birthday which he will be celebrating on August 27, and to wish him continued success in his work at the United Nations and in his activity as an artist, poet, and musician.•