Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run Executive Director, Salil Wilson, welcomed the impressive gathering of United Nations Permanent Representatives, Ambassadors, special guests, onlookers and international runners to the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza.
This Ceremony was unique as it also incorporated a Guinness World Record attempt for the poem recited in the most languages! The selected poem, "O Dreamers of Peace", was written by Peace Run founder, Sri Chinmoy.
Also noted was the recent establishment of April 6th as the United Nations International Day of Sport for Development and Peace..
This year the Peace Run will take place in over 100 countries around the world!
Brahmata Michael from Canada and Jennifer Cluck from the United States light the torch together, officially beginning the first ever truly North American leg of the Run.
For the next four months The North American team will travel over 10 000 miles, circumnavigating the United States, visiting Mexico, and covering much of the most populated and scenically spectacular terrain of Southern Canada.
Members of the International Team sang Sri Chinmoy's Oneness-Home Peace Run Song, which is sung at ceremonies all over the world.
Ms Ranjana Ghose, the Director of the Jharna-Kala Art Foundation which is dedicated exclusively to the artistic works of Sri Chinmoy, spoke of the important role art can play in expediting the arrival of Peace on Earth.
"...Poetry offers inspiration to illumine our thoughts and lives...to go forward and try to help in our own way as a musician, artist, dancer, poet..to grasp some light in our own lives which we can pass on to sombody else...in that way we can serve humanity from the grassroots level..."
Dr Agraha Levine spoke next of the 50th Jubilee of Sri Chinmoy's service in the West. He was moved by seeing Ambassadors from around the world united in Peace, making Sri Chinmoy's Vision for the Oneness-Home Peace Run a reality.
Our dear friend and Peace Run enthusiast, Cathy Oerter, introduced the poetry record by inviting members of the audience to all recite the poem together. The words follow:
O dreamers of peace, come.
Let us walk together.
O lovers of peace, come.
Let us run together.
O servers of peace, come.
Let us grow together.
-Sri Chinmoy
Cathy is the directer of Art of the Olympians, which she founded with her late husband, Olympic legend Al Oerter. Cathy highlighted the message that Al Oerter gave great importance to, that it is not about breaking records, but about the journey, the process of getting to this point, which along the way inspires us not only to dream about, but also to BE Peace.
Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative and former Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, was a good friend of Sri Chinmoy for many years. He recognised Sri Chinmoy's 50 years of service, and read the poem in Bengali, or Bangla, which was also Sri Chinmoy's native language.
Ambassador Chowdhury also spoke of the value of the expression in ones mother language; how the Bengali people shed blood for the preservation of their mother language; and that this led to UNESCO recognising February 21 as International Mother Language Day.
H.E. Mirsada Čolaković, Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, recited the poem beautifully in Bosnian.
H.E. Palitha Kohona, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka, offered his congratulations to Sri Chinmoy and the runners, and recited the poem in Sinhala, his native language.
H.E. Gréta Gunnarsdóttir Permanent Representative of Iceland recited the poem in her native language of Icelandic.
H.E. Milorad Šćepanović, Permanent Representative of Montenegro, gave a message of Peace, Love and Harmony to the runners from his country.
H.E. Edita Hrda, Permanent Representative of Czech Republic, was proud to represent her country. She was also happy to meet the Czech team of runners, who were delighted to meet with her!
H.E. Andrej Logar, Permanent Representative of Slovenia, kindly read the Slovene translation of the poem.
H.E. Od Och, Permanent Representative of Mongolia, was proud to be part of this "..celebration of unity, solidarity and the general quest for peace of all mankind". He read the poem in Mongolian.
Somaia Barghouti, senior advisor to Palestine, offered her best wishes and asked us to pray for Peace in her country. She read the poem in Arabic.
H.E. Charles P. Msosa, Permanent Representative of Malawi, was honoured to recite the poem in his native language, Chichewa.
H.E. Jean-Francis Régis Zinsou is the Permanent Representative of Benin, a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic country in West Africa with over 60 tribes and a station that broadcasts in 18 languages every week. He read the poem in his mother language of Mina.
Mr Amanuel Giorgio, Deputy Permanent Representative of Eritrea, read the poem in two native languages, Tigre and Tigrinya!
H.E. Yusra Khan, Deputy Permanent Representative of Indonesia, recited the poem in Bahasa, the official language out of more than 240 Indonesian languages.
H.E. Peter Thomson, Permanent Representative of Fiji, was happy to read in one of the native dialects, Fijian Baun. He was recently visiting 600 Fijiian soldiers serving as Peace Keepers in Bagdhad, and dedicated his reading of the poem to all the peace keepers serving the UN in the Blue Helmet of the United Nations in the troubled parts of the world.
The Japanese Minister, Mr Shinsuke Shimizu, announced his country as a staunch supporter of the Peace Run, and offered his congratulations to all the runners before reciting the poem in Japanese.
Mr Akio Haruhara and his wife, Michiko, with the Japanese Peace Run Coordinator, Harashita. Mr Haruhara designed the Nagano 1998 Olympic Torch.
Ashrita Furman, the Peace Run team member responsible for the poetry record, is also attempting a Guinness Record for the World's largest Peace Torch, which is being modelled on Mr. Haruhara’s design. He came to New York especially to see the torch, we were very honoured to have him present at our Opening Ceremony!
H.E. Sewa Lamsal Adhikari, Deputy Permanent Representative of Nepal, was delighted to bring the true message of peace from the Golden Buddha of Nepal.
Ms Joanne Neenan, first secretary of Peace Keeping and Conflict Prevention of the United Kingdom, dedicated her recitation to all the Blue Helmet workers who serve towards the endeavor of Peace across the world.
H.E. Milan Milanović, Permanent Representative of Serbia, was honoured to recite the poem in Serbian.
H.E. Kyaw Tin, Permanent Representative of Myanmar, read the poem in Burmese, one of over 135 official languages in his country.
Mr Harry Reynolds, Counsellor of Ghana, brought special greetings and read the poem in Fanti, the language of the Akan people of Ghana. There are many languages in Ghana.
H.E. Baraniko Baaro, Deputy Permanent Representative of Kiribati, a small Island in the Central Pacific, read the poem in the Kiribatese language.
H.E. Igor Vencel, Deputy Permanent Representative of Slovakia, offered his warmest greetings and read the poem in Slovakian.
H.E. Michael Grant, Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada, read the poem in the two official languages of Canada; English and French.
H.E. María Cristina Perceval, Permanent Representative of Argentina, read the poem in Spanish and offered her thanks to those present for being not just people who believe in Peace, but people who build Peace every day, not just today.
Salwa Kader, USFME representative, recited the poem in Lebanese Arabic, and invited all the runners to come to the Middle East. Her organisation is bringing 11,000 Soccer Balls to Egypt as part of the UN Sport for Development and Peace Programme. She is pictured her with the Korean Peace Run Coordinator, Hemabha Jang.
H.E. Cristina Pucarinho, Deputy Permanent Representative of Portugal, sent her warmest greetings and read the poem in Portugese.
Mr Danraj Mehta of India read the poem in his native language of Gujarathi, and offered respect and peace to every soul in the Universe.
Mr David Karlsson, representing Sweden, kindly read the poem in Swedish.
Mr Riaz Abdul Razak, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Malaysia was extremely honoured to read the poem in his native Bahasa Malay.
Mr Alan Cordina, First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Malta was pleased and honoured to read the poem in his native Maltese language.
H.E. Danijel Medan, Deputy Permanent Representative of Croatia, kindly read the poem in Croatian.
Mr Malefetsane Moseme was greatly honoured to represent Lesotho reading the poem in Sesotho.
Dr Amina Smaila spoke on behalf of the Ambassador of Nigeria offering a prayer for peace to the world and to the children, and beautifully recited the poem in her native language, Hausa.
Mr Napoleon Beras was very excited to recite the poem in Spanish on behalf of the Permanent Mission of The Dominican Republic. He offered the poem as a Speech of Peace from the 9 million peace loving inhabitants of his country.
Nawal Mustafa of Somalia read the poem in her mother tongue, Somali, on behalf of the Somalian Ambassador.
Ms Melinda Vihay from the Permanent Mission of Hungary read the poem in her native language, Hungarian.
Two of the Hungarian Peace Runners were very happy to meet with Ms Vihay.
Mrs Noemi Diaz from the Philippines Permanent Mission dedicated the poem to all peace advocates. She is pictured here with her daughter.
Mr Kinley Dukpa, from the Permanent Mission of Bhutan, the "land of the peaceful dragon" read the poem in his native language, Dzongka.
Mr Miguel Dialamicua, First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Angola, kindly read the poem in his native language, Kikongo.
Dan Oanta, representing the Permanent Mission of Romania, was honoured to read the poem in Romanian.
H.E. Dr Caleb Otto, Permanent Representative of Palau, was happy to read the poem in the official language of his country, Palauan.
Mrs. Diana Al-Hadid, first Secretary - Recited Arabic.
Mr Sudhir Dhyani, one of the Diplomats of India, was honoured to read the poem in Hindi.
H.E. Ahmed Abdallah, Deputy Permanent Representative, represented the Permanent Mission of Comoros reading the poem in his mother tongue of Comorian.
Ms. Mili Shrestha read the poem beautifully in Newari, one of the national languages of Nepal.
This young man, Sonam Sherpagoley, read the poem in Sherpa.
Ashrita Furman, who happens to hold the Guinness Record for the most Guinness Records, announced that "O Dreamers of Peace" had been recited in 206 languages, far transcending the previous record of 146!
Ashrita was very happy and offered his deepest gratitude to all of the participants. He ended saying that Sri Chinmoy was a Peace dreamer, a Peace lover and a Peace server, and that he was also a great believer in self-transcendence.
Ashrita felt that today at this special event we had surely embodied the message of the poem that when we serve we grow!
Members of the International Choir sang Sri Chinmoy's beautiful song which he set to the words of the poem in 1995.
Before the official ceremony, members of the International Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run family recited the poem in 196 languages, ensuring the establishment of a new record and a deeply inspiring experience for all!!
Deepest gratitude to everyone who took part in so many small and big ways.
