Meeting with President Mandela and First Lady Graca Machel in New York at the Plaza Hotel

Sri Chinmoy and President Mandela warmly greet each other at the commencement of their meeting on 20 September 1998 at the Plaza Hotel in New York. President Mandela was in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly. He then travelled to Washington to receive the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest civilian award. He became the first African to receive this award.

President Mandela and the First Lady enter the Presidential Suite of the Plaza Hotel and warmly greet Sri Chinmoy and others, shaking everybody’s hand. At one point when the President is shaking hands with the children singers, his grandfatherly affection for them is so sweet and compassionate.

A few seconds later, one of the security guards quite eagerly introduces Colonel Elsa Jones to the President, as the former Commander of Robben Island.

President Mandela (placing his hand affectionately on Colonel Jones’ shoulder): Yes, it is good to see a familiar face. It’s a small world! Are you staying here now? You are not going back to South Africa?

Mrs. Jones: No, I am still with the Correction Department. I will be going back to South Africa on Sunday.

President Mandela: Very good. (To Sri Chinmoy) How are you? It is such an honour to meet with you.

Sri Chinmoy: What a blessing for me to be in your presence once again, beloved President.

Sri Chinmoy offers his heart’s deepest gratitude to the President for blessing him and his students during this most significant farewell tour. President Mandela, who turned 80 on 18 July this year, is planning to retire in the Spring of 1999.

President Mandela shows utmost affection in greeting Colonel Elsa Jones of South Africa. Colonel Jones was appointed Commander of Robben Island on 15 September 1995, long after all the political prisoners had been freed. In January 1997, President Mandela closed the notorious prison and Colonel Jones oversaw its transformation into a world heritage landmark museum. She preserved the President’s own cell, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison, as a national shrine. Also pictured is Ms. Ranjana Ghose, the curator of Sri Chinmoy’s artwork.

President Mandela: It is a great honour for us to meet with you.

Sri Chinmoy: We have come to receive your blessings.

President Mandela: The blessings are mutual, mutual, mutual. (After greeting everyone) Please, sit down. Please, sit down.

(Requesting Sri Chinmoy to sit on the couch in between him and the First Lady) Here, you sit in between us.

Sri Chinmoy (giving copies of the special songs he had composed to President Mandela and his wife): May I give you these? (Pointing to the first song) This is the first song they are going to sing.

President Mandela (referring to the song with the First Lady’s picture on it): I’ve seen this lady somewhere!

The First Lady (laughing delightedly): Thank you!

President Mandela (reading the poem): It is very lovely indeed!

The First Lady: It is beautiful!

President Mandela: Very good! They will sing “Eureka!”

Sri Chinmoy presents President Mandela with a copy of the song which he had written about the First Lady in which he describes her as the “world-children’s mother unique.” The First Lady is deeply committed to the welfare and happiness of children around the world. She is the former Minister of Education in Mozambique, a post which she held for 10 years, and the supervisor of the 1997 United Nations report on “The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.”

The First Lady: What, Madiba?²

President Mandela: “Eureka!” This is very lovely, very lovely!

The children singers perform the first song dedicated to the First Lady. The President and the First Lady are deeply moved, exclaiming and applauding happily.

Sri Chinmoy: This morning I wrote this.

President Mandela: Very good!

The First Lady: I was just thinking, isn’t it a shame that we don’t have anything to record this with!

President Mandela: I Say! Yes!

Sri Chinmoy: We will offer you a copy. This morning in the newspaper I saw this.

(Sri Chinmoy points to a copy of a photograph that appeared in New York Newsday showing the First Lady lovingly, affectionately and compassionately embracing two children.)

The First Lady: Oh yes, this was yesterday, with the children.

“Mother Graça… compassion-eye, affection-heart… ”

Sri Chinmoy: In Harlem. I was deeply moved. I wrote this song this morning and the children learned it.

The First Lady: It is SO difficult.

President Mandela: This is wonderful! I never expected this.

Sri Chinmoy: Now they will he singing the next song.

President Mandela: I See, I See!

The children sing the second song dedicated to the First Lady. President Mandela and the First Lady applaud enthusiastically.

President Mandela: This is very lovely, very lovely!

The First Lady: Thank you.

Sri Chinmoy (to President Mandela): This is the next song that the children will sing. At your ANC headquarters we sang this for you.

The First Lady: That was in Johannesburg, yes.

President Mandela (looking at the song): Yes!

The children sing A Perfect Justice-Voice. President Mandela and the First Lady again smile broadly and applaud enthusiastically.

President Mandela: This is very lovely! We must thank you for this, and also thank the singers. It is very lovely that you should think of us. I don’t know whether you still remember coming to South Africa and singing for us. It was a wonderful day for us. Although we have a very tight programme today, when we heard that there was a possibility that you might come around, we welcomed it, because it brings us a lot of joy. I have not got the words to thank you, but it gives us a great deal of solace to know that you are working for world peace (affectionately patting Sri Chinmoy’s knee). We are sincerely grateful for all this. (To the First Lady) Do you want to say something more?

Enjoying the soulful singing of the children.

The First Lady: Yes, I wish to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you very, very, very much! It was very nice of you.

President Mandela: Thank you very much.

Graça Machel, Sri Chinmoy and President Mandela jointly hold the Peace Torch of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run, a global relay run that takes place every two years. Runners symbolically carry the Peace Torch and pass it from hand to hand. The Peace Torch has also been blessed by world luminaries such as Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, President Gorbachev and Olympian Carl Lewis.

Sri Chinmoy: May I request you to bless our Peace Torch that goes all over the world? This is our Peace Torch that covers more than 70 countries. It is our prayerful Peace Torch that goes all over the world with the message of prayerful peace. This is what we have been trying to do for the last ten years.

President Mandela (holding the Peace Torch): That is so important. We are with you in upholding peace, which brings solace to many people throughout the world. It doesn’t matter what language they speak. They appreciate peace. I think peace is one of the things that is going to save the world. Thank you, thank you very much.

Well, thank you, all of you.

[The President and the First Lady thank everybody personally.]

/Sri Chinmoy (presenting to the First Lady a glass plaque etched with some of his peace-bird drawings): These are peace-birds. _The First Lady: Oh yes! Thank you, thank you!

/Sri Chinmoy (presenting a gift for the President: And this is for our beloved President. _The First Lady: Thank you, thank you very much.

Dr. Agraha Levine (to the President): This is Ranjana Ghose, Sri Chinmoy’s Executive Secretary and also the Curator of Sri Chinmoy’s artwork.

President Mandela (giving Ms. Ghose a broad smile while enthusiastically shaking hands): I see, I see!

Dr. Agraha Levine: Mr. President, we are so grateful to you. I was eager to mention that we have been working closely with Comrade Jacob Zuma for our Peace-Blossom programme.

President Mandela (enthusiastically): Yes!

Dr. Levine: Sri Chinmoy is extremely, extremely grateful that you have allowed his name to be associated with your country as a Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossom-Nation. First came the country of Malta.

/President Mandela: Yes, I have heard! _Dr. Levine:/ Then your own great nation of South Africa. We were all very thrilled. And just two days ago Finland has joined our Peace-Blossom family. _President Mandela: Very good!

Dr. Levine: We are all extremely happy and very grateful to you for giving your blessings for South Africa to be a part of our worldwide peace programme.

President Mandela: Thank you! That is wonderful! We are also very happy.

After Sri Chinmoy has walked just a few steps out of the Presidential Suite, the main South African Security officer who was present at the meeting approaches him.

Security officer: Sri Chinmoy! Sri Chinmoy! You did not say good-bye to Graça. You must say goodbye to her!

Sri Chinmoy: I did! I did!

Security officer: No, you did not! You should come back now.

[Sri Chinmoy faithfully returns to the room, shakes hands with the First Lady and thanks her deeply.]

Sri Chinmoy faithfully returns to the room, shakes hands with the First Lady and thanks her deeply.