Sri Chinmoy hailed Mikhail Gorbachev as the greatest peace-dreamer of our times. Because of President Gorbachev's perestroika-vision-light, the face and fate of the suffering world-community was changed forever. In their numerous meetings and through hundreds of private letters and messages, President Gorbachev and Sri Chinmoy exchanged their mutual hopes for a more peaceful world.

President Gorbachev wrote to Sri Chinmoy about the significance of his peace-initiatives: "Your deeds are invaluable, for they cannot be measured by any economic or political parameters. They are noble and cure the human soul." President Gorbachev and his wife Raisa Maximovna held the Peace Torch during Sri Chinmoy's meeting with them in New York on 16 October 1994.