This are excerpts of a speech Sri Chinmoy gave at a reception in Höfði in 2000.  Höfði is famous as the site of the 1986 summit between the US and the Soviet Union that was an important step in ending the Cold War.

I prayerfully bow to the soul of Iceland. I soulfully bow to the heart of Iceland. Iceland believes in peace; Iceland practices peace. This is something very, very rare. We talk about peace, but our peace has to be in a very special way; that is to say: I have to be ahead of you, you have to be behind me. Then that is peace. But real peace is the opening of the heart. Together we walk, together we march, together we fly. So here Iceland has proved to the world at large it believes in oneness.

Nature’s beauty, Nature’s love and fondness for God the creation, Iceland has, embodies, in infinite measure. There is not a single country in the world that does not speak about peace, but when it comes to practice the story becomes most deplorable. Here you have proved you mean what you say. Here you do not have military. Is this not the most significant way of showing the world that we do not believe in arms, we believe in the power of our heart; and this power of our heart is a oneness-world. The whole world you have a very special message to offer and you have been offering it for so many years: We have to be all the time in our heart – if we live in the heart, then we do not need weapons, because heart is vastness, heart is oneness. If we can establish oneness in the community of nations, then we do not need arms, we do not need weapons, we do not need anything that will stand between the nations.

So, you are the pioneer-pathfinder of a new world. We can live in peace, harmony and oneness. Oneness is fulness. And here, when I come here I feel here at home, precisely because peace is reigning supreme in the heart of Icelanders and here the dream is fulfilled. There are many places where they are dreaming, while others are not thinking of it even, and here is a place where you have manifested your dream into reality. Iceland, you are peace within, you are peace without…

…I am a student of peace, and wherever I see peace, wherever I feel peace, I feel that is my real home. So, my heart’s home is Iceland, and therefore I am here with you.

We are all birds, we are flying in the firmament of peace, and again we have a nest, a heart-nest, and this heart-nest is my Iceland.

October 30th 2000

An Icelandic translation is available at Sri Chinmoy’s official site