CHINMOY ON PEACE MISSION
By YEOH OON CHUAN
WORLD peace advocate, peace missionary or goodwill ambassador, Sri Chinmoy has been affectionately referred to as all these but he sees himself as being just a “student of peace”.
The 67-year-old India-born but New York-based spiritual guru is in Malaysia to launch the “1999 Peace Run”, a torch relay focusing on friendship and peace through sport tomorrow.
It will be the continuation of the annual Peace Run first held in 1987. Next year’s run will involve all the countries in the world.
Accompanying Sri Chinmoy on this trip, his second visit to Malaysia, are 200 individuals from 15 countries who had studied under him.
Like Sri Chinmoy, who has demonstrated an ability to exercise the full potential of the human spirit, many of these disciples have accomplished goals they have set for themselves.
One of them, Vasanti Niemz from Heidelberg, Germany, said she was the first among the disciples to swim across the English Channel in 1985.
The 42-year-old employee of a soya food company said she led “a simple life” throughout 1998 so that she could save enough money to accompany Sri Chinmoy on his travels during her holidays.
Since 1964, when he first began his quest for world peace, Sri Chinmoy has written bestselling tomes, conducted concerts, met world leaders and even has a Himalayan peak named after him.
The 10km run on New Year’s Day will start at Dataran Merdeka at 7.30am. Participation is free.
Caption:
Sri Chinmoy lifting weights last month during the Lifting Up the World Programme in New York, watched by International Federation of Body Builders vice-president Wayne DeMilia
Published in The Malay Mail, page 12, Thursday, December 31, 1998