The U Thant Peace Award was created by Sri Chinmoy's peace meditations at the United Nations, after U Thant's death. [1] First offered in 1982, the award is given to individuals and organizations who have exemplified the lofty spiritual ideals of the late United Nations Secretary-General U Thant and implemented those ideals in the tireless pursuit of world peace. [2]
It had been bestowed by The Peace Meditation at the United Nations upon Mahathir Mohamad, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Kurt Waldheim the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Dada Vaswani, Swami Satchidananda and U Thant's daughter, Daw Aye Aye Thant. [3]
The U Thant Distinguished Lecture Series is a forum through which eminent thinkers and world leaders speak on the role of the United Nations in addressing the challenges facing the world's peoples and nations in the 21st century. The lecture series is co-organized by the United Nations University and the Science Council of Japan.
The UNU has a tradition of inviting world leaders and renowned individuals to Tokyo to explore the role of the United Nations in a rapidly changing world. The U Thant Distinguished Lecture Series builds upon this tradition by providing an opportunity for Nobel laureates and heads of state, current and former, to share their insights and experiences with scholars, policymakers, business leaders and the public.
On April 8, 2006, the Award was offered to Kofi Annan, who refused it. Similarly in 2007, Ban Ki-moon declined the Award.
Swami Vivekananda, born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world, and the father of modern Indian nationalism who is credited with raising interfaith awareness and bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was the creator of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and leader of the worldwide organization that has been characterized in multiple ways, including as a new religious movement and as non-religious. He became known as Maharishi and Yogi as an adult.
Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, better known as Sri Chinmoy, was an Indian spiritual leader who taught meditation in the United States after moving to New York City in 1964. Chinmoy established his first meditation center in Queens, New York, and eventually had 7,000 students in 60 countries. He was an author, artist, poet, and musician, he also held public events such as concerts and meditations on the theme of inner peace. Chinmoy advocated a spiritual path to God through prayer and meditation. He advocated athleticism including distance running, swimming, and weightlifting. He organized marathons and other races, and was an active runner and, following a knee injury, weightlifter. Some ex-members have accused Chinmoy of running a cult.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati was a renunciate monk of the Hindu Saraswati order of sannyasa. Pujya Swamiji as he was fondly known was a renowned traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta, and founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulams in Pennsylvania, USA; Rishikesh, Uttarakhand and Coimbatore Tamil Nadu, India. He was also the spiritual Guru of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was awarded posthumously the Padma Bhushan,, for his exemplary service to the nation in the field of spiritualism in 2016.
Thant, known honorifically as U Thant, was a Burmese diplomat and the third secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-Scandinavian to hold the position. He held the office for a record 10 years and one month.
Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was an American Hindu religious leader known as Gurudeva by his followers. Subramuniyaswami was born in Oakland, California and adopted Hinduism as a young man. He was the 162nd head of the self claimed Nandinatha Sampradaya's Kailasa Parampara and Guru at Kauai's Hindu Monastery which is a 382-acre (155 ha) temple-monastery complex on Hawaii's Garden Island.
Sivananda Saraswati was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, and was named Kuppuswami. He studied medicine and served in British Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism.
U Thant Island is a small artificial island or islet in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The 100-by-200-foot island, created during the construction of the Steinway Tunnel directly underneath, is the smallest island in Manhattan.
Satchidananda Saraswati, born C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder and usually known as Swami Satchidananda, was an Indian yoga guru and religious teacher, who gained fame and following in the West. He founded his own brand of Integral Yoga, and its spacious Yogaville headquarters in Virginia. He was the author of philosophical and spiritual books and had a core of founding disciples who compiled his translations and updated commentaries on traditional handbooks of yoga such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita for modern readers.
Thant Myint-U is a Burmese-American historian, writer, grandson of former United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, former UN official, and former special advisor to the president for the peace process. He has authored five books, including The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma and Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia. He founded the Yangon Heritage Trust in 2012 to protect colonial architecture and lobby for urban planning in the Burmese commercial capital of Yangon. He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge and United Nations Special Adviser on Humanitarian Diplomacy.
Paramananda (1884–1940) was a swami and one of the early Indian teachers who went to the United States to spread the Vedanta philosophy and religion there. He was a mystic, a poet and an innovator in spiritual community living.
The Temple of Understanding is an interfaith organization founded in 1960 by Juliet Hollister and located in New York City.
The Peace Run is a global relay which promotes international friendship and understanding, founded by Sri Chinmoy.
Swami Nigamananda Paramahansa was an Indian yogi, guru and mystic well known in Eastern India. He is associated with the Shakta tradition and viewed as a perfect spiritual master of vedanta, tantra, yoga and prema or bhakti. His followers idealized him as their worshipped and beloved thakura.
Prakashanand Saraswati or Swamiji is a convicted child molester and Hindu monk from Ayodhya, India. Previously, he founded the Hindu new religious movement "International Society of Divine Love" and Radha Madhav Dham temple in the United States. In 2011, a jury found Swami Prakashanand Saraswati guilty on 20 counts of indecency with a child. He is still a fugitive and appeared on the Fox TV show America's Most Wanted.
Challenging Impossibility is a 2011 documentary film which chronicles the weightlifting odyssey of the spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy, who in 1985 at the age of 54 took up weightlifting and performing feats of strength using the power of meditation. His lifts were featured on newscasts worldwide, inspiring people to transcend their personal limitations and to abandon their concepts of the restrictions of physical age. Directed by Natabara Rollosson and Sanjay Rawal. The film was an Official Selection of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and premiered April 22, 2011.
Lectures from Colombo to Almora (1897) is a book of Swami Vivekananda based on the lectures he delivered in Sri Lanka and India after his return from the West. Vivekananda reached Colombo, British Ceylon on 15 January 1897. After delivering lectures in Colombo and Jaffna, Vivekananda arrived at Pamban in South India. A forty-feet high monument was built by the king of Ramnad, Bhaskara Sethupathi, on the spot where he landed to celebrate his achievements at the West. Vivekananda travelled extensively and visited many Indian states delivering lectures on a variety of topics. On 19 June 1897, he reached Almora. The lectures delivered by him in this period were compiled into the book Lectures from Colombo to Almora.
Hinduism in Los Angeles made its first significant impact in the late 19th century when wandering Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda, a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, came on his second visit to the United States. Swami Paramananda, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, founded the Vedanta centres in Los Angeles and Boston.
Integral Yoga is a system of yoga that claims to synthesize six branches of classical Yoga philosophy and practice: Hatha, Raja, Bhakti, Karma, Jnana, and Japa yoga. It was brought to the West by Swami Satchidananda, the first centre being founded in 1966. Its aim is to integrate body, mind, and spirit, using physical practices and philosophical approaches to life to develop the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of individuals. The system includes the practices of asana, pranayama, and meditation to develop physical and mental stillness so as to access inner peace and joy, which Satchidananda believed was a person's true nature. It also encourages practitioners to live service-oriented lives.
Nataliya Lehonkova is a Ukrainian marathon runner.
