Below are a few selections from his talk at UN Headquarters in New York.
Excerpt from the keynote address by Ambassador Nazareth, 2 October 2012, UN Headquarters in New York:
As Mahatma Gandhi had declared soon after the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “The moral to be legitimately drawn from the supreme tragedy of the bomb is that it will not be destroyed by counter bombs. Non-violence is the only thing the atom bomb cannot destroy…. Unless the world now adopts non-violence, it will spell certain suicide for mankind.” Albert Einstein had made a similar assertion: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything but our thinking; thus we are drifting toward a catastrophe beyond comparison. We shall require a new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”
This “new manner of thinking” will have to emanate as much from the United Nations as from peace activists all over the world.
An enlightened effort to initiate this “new manner of thinking” at the United Nations was made by the farsighted and deeply spiritual former UN Secretary General U Thant in 1970 by inviting Sri Chinmoy, the Indian spiritual Master, to conduct regular meditation sessions at the UN, for diplomats, delegates and staff members representing their countries/working at it. Said meditation sessions and related activities such as lectures, seminars, plays, art exhibitions and sports have continued unbroken since then even though Sri Chinmoy passed away in October 2007.A biennial Peace Run, instituted by him in 1987, now traverses 70,000 kilometers in 100 countries in all continents and has internationally renowned athletes and Olympic Gold medalists like Olivier Bernhard, Carl Lewis, Katrina Webb, Paul Tergat, Tatyana Lebedeva and Tegla Loroupe participating in them. After one such run Carl Lewis declared “When I carried the flaming torch, I felt so much oneness with all the people of the world.”
The tragedy of the contemporary world is that there is too much religion, particularly of the fundamentalist kind, and too little of the spirituality it so greatly needs. Spirituality that is deeply rooted in truth, justice, love and universal brotherhood could contribute substantially to changing the untruth, injustice, religious and racial hatred plagued international scenario, and in due course bring about the global spiritual renaissance which the revered U Thant firmly believed was an essential requisite for a real and enduring world peace.
Sri Chinmoy’s memorable quote about this says that “world peace can be achieved when, in each person, the power of love replaces the love of power.”
Following is the song that Sri Chinmoy dedicated to Ambassador Nazareth.From:Sri Chinmoy,Concern: A Reality of the Heart, Agni Press, 2025
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/crh