Farewell

Mr Menuhin: We come from different worlds, but there is something that binds us together. Thank you, thank you very much. I am very grateful to you and very grateful to your followers who sing with such humbleness and ecstasy in their faces. It shows what you've given them.

Sri Chinmoy (introducing the choirmaster): She is their teacher. She is the one who guides and leads the group.

Mr Menuhin: Yes, yes, I know.

Sri Chinmoy: Could they have a group picture with you?

Mr Menuhin: Yes, yes.

Sri Chinmoy: This morning I was reading that you can do a head balance for fifteen minutes. Poor me, I cannot do it for more than even a minute! Prime Minister Nehru wanted to show you that he could do it better. The Prime Minister could not see, perhaps, that you could do it infinitely better.

Mr Menuhin: Today I don't do it as well as I could when I had my teacher. Now I'm much older, but I still do my headstand.

[Picture is taken.]

Mr Menuhin: Sri Chinmoy, I am very grateful to you. Thank you for coming. I hope we shall meet many times. Do you go back to India from time to time?

Sri Chinmoy: Occasionally, for a few days. I was brought up in a spiritual community — the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in South India. I spent twenty years there practising yoga and meditation.

Mr Menuhin: It is extraordinary to find this in the middle of New York City. You must sometimes feel that you are in a crazy civilisation.

Sri Chinmoy: I have accepted it as my own. As I said before, I feel it is my bounden duty to be of service to the hustle and bustle of New York.

Mr Menuhin: This civilisation must be very grateful to you, even if they don't know it. Thank you so much.

Sri Chinmoy: Again we shall meet. Thank you.