After lifting
At the end of the programme, Professor Hedges’ wife, Laurie, offered Sri Chinmoy a most beautiful bouquet of flowers. While doing so, she said to Sri Chinmoy, “I am so grateful to you. Wives are never honoured, but today you have honoured the wives. You are the first person to honour me.” Sri Chinmoy replied, “Husbands are flowers and wives are the beauty and fragrance. Without beauty and fragrance, the flower has no meaning. Again, if there are no flowers, how can we have beauty and fragrance?” Then Sri Chinmoy offered Professor Hedges and his wife some refreshments.Professor Brian Catling and his wife Sarah exchanged some humorous observations with Sri Chinmoy. Professor Catling said, “We know the law of gravity: it comes down. But in your case, when you lift, the apple went up. It did not fall down!”
Professor Brian Catling offers Sri Chinmoy a copy of his book of poetry entitled Thyhand.
Dr. Peter Carey and Sri Chinmoy spoke together about the world situation and about Dr. Carey’s work in East Timor. Sri Chinmoy said to Dr. Carey, “Only the peaceful heart, and not the medicine of the mind, has the power to effect healing and change.”
Sri Chinmoy's previous visits to the University of Oxford
1 November 19, 1970 Lecture entitled “The Universe”, Keble College2 June 11, 1973 Lecture entitled “Three Lessons in Spirituality” in the Newman Room, University Catholic Chaplaincy
3 June 25, 1974 Lecture entitled “Confidence”
4 June 19, 1976 Lecture entitled “Goodness and Greatness” in St. Cross Building, Manor Road
5 May 16, 1981 Lecture entitled “Success-Height” in the Oxford Union Debating Chamber
6 October 15, 1987 Organ recital in New College
7 June 26, 1989 Organ recital in Christ Church Cathedral, Christ Church College, followed by Lifting Up the World With a Oneness-Heart Award ceremony in the garden of Mr. Robin Waterfield, Oxford. Sri Chinmoy honoured Professor Dame Dorothy Hodgkin (1964 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, University of Oxford), Professor B.K. Matilal (Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, University of Oxford), Dr. Nicholas Goodrick-Clark (historian and author, University of Oxford), Sir George Trevelyan and Mr. Robin Waterfield. That same evening, Sri Chinmoy offered a Peace Concert in the Sheldonian Theatre, preceded by a short talk entitled “A Conversation with My Lord Supreme”
8 May 22, 1997 Sri Chinmoy offered a Peace Concert in Christ Church Cathedral. This was one of his fifty worldwide concerts to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of India’s Independence. The introduction to Sri Chinmoy was given by Professor Indra Nath Choudhuri, Director of the Nehru Centre in London.
