July 4: Continuous Self Transcendence

Today is the great American Holiday, Independence Day.  From coast to coast and through all its 50 states  people will be celebrating, enjoying themselves, and perhaps reflecting, if even for a moment what this country at its very heart represents to them.

In the grand scheme of time it is a new country compared to many.  Its history just a brief flicker compared to that of much of Europe and Asia.  Yet nearly 230 years ago something new and profound was created here when the 13 original colonies came together and established something the world had never seen before.

Screen-Shot-2014-07-04-at-5.44.44-PM

As written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–”

Now these words and ideas that the founding fathers hoped to establish have influenced governments and continued to inspire people everywhere.  It was something that had never happened before.  A new country created by those who wanted to make a world in which all its people would have freedom, equality, and that all voices could be heard. Thus to create an even more perfect home for all who lived there.

flower-parvati

There are many, both those who live away and even those who call it home who say that America could be a better and more perfect place.  That the vision of the founding fathers has to yet to be realized and manifested.  Scholars can argue and the average person can either reject or deny such claims.

The truth is that great dreams take time to reach fruition.  That the loftiest vision is not always brought forth in an instant, in a year, or even through several long centuries.

The 14 runners here today know all too well how long and hard some journeys can be.  For each, their goal is still so far off and so distant that they can barely see it, though in their hearts they still believe that it will one day come.

photo by Bhaswar 1976
photo by Bhashwar 1976

America does not claim perfection, as far as I can see. America does not claim illumination, as far as I know.

Now, does America claim anything? Yes, America does. What does America claim?

A colossal preparation: not only for its own illumination and perfection but for the illumination and perfection of the entire world.

Sri Chinmoy, The Liberty Torch, Agni Press, 1976

Sarvagata once again had another 70 mile day when he ran 128 laps. One month from today the race will be into its final hours.

board

Stutisheel is wearing stars and stripes today because of Independence day.

pre-stutisheel

Getting out of the car.

pre-jayasalini

Getting ready.

pre-boys

Rupantar checks the weather.  He sees a great green blob covering the top portion of Queens but not here where the race is.

pre-weather

Sopan has taken some special precautions for heavy rain.

pre-sopan

Snacks ready to grab.

pre-banana

Yuri checking the numbers and they are good.

pre-yuri

Start Day 20

start

Ray is the only American in the race.  Besides the US, the runners have come here from 8 other countries.

flower-ray

Yesterday Ray did 55 laps of the course.

ray

Today, because of the holiday he just might have that many friends and family come out to inspire and support him.

ray-and-friends

Ray is moving right along today.

flower-ray4

All you people seem to want to see are just squirrels.  Well nuts to that.  We birds have feelings too.  Am I  not cute too?

flower-bird

Ananda-Lahari will reach 900 miles this morning.

flower-ananda-lahari

Going and going.

ananda-lahari

Many legs moving many miles.

flowr-legs2

William had a better day yesterday.

flower-william2

He did 84 laps yesterday.

william

The calf is not completely better but he is moving well this morning.

william5

It should be a good day of weather for William.  It is much cooler than usual for this time of year.

flower-william

O how I love air conditioning at this time of year.

flower-bird3

Sopan has been consistent the last few days with 92 laps.

flower-sopan

“I have been walking and walking and walking as running is impossible due to my lower back causing problems to my left leg.”

“My right side seems to be OK even though I am  feeling sometimes extra pressure from my back being bent slightly forward and feeling compressed.”

sopan2

“Doing some exercises seems to partly relieve the symptoms. The adjustments I got a few days ago did not hold which is to be expected as the problem is already there and the body needs rest to recover which you cannot get at the race.”

sopan4

“My daily goal of 50 miles keeps me focused but often it is not easy as you need a constant good walking pace throughout the day with imperfectly working left side. Fortunately only one break at 3 pm seems to be working fine for now saving me a lot of time.”

Teekshanam had a particularly good day yesterday.

flower-teekshanam

These two legs took him 113 laps yesterday. The most that he has done since day 3.

flower-legs5

He now has 1134 miles.

Nidrhurivi also had her best day since day 2.

flower-nidhruvi

She did 112 laps yesterday.

nidhruvi2

She takes some advice from Pushkar.

nidhruvi-and-pushkar

She passes the Enthusiasm-Awakeners as they are singing the America the Beautiful song.

nidhruvi-parvati

She runs with an up and coming runner Lyalya.

nidhruvi-and-lyalya

She is 23 miles ahead of last year.

flower-nidhruvi4

Baladev passing through a quiet camp.

camp-wide2

His legs familiar enough.

flower-legs

He is 50 miles ahead of last year.

baladev4

He did 104 laps yesterday.  He shows me a message he just received from Arpan who is on the Peace Run.  He is so inspired and grateful to receive it.

baladev

Ray taking a pit stop and rotating his tires.

camp-ray

Despite whatever difficulty that she has had to endure Jayasalini just keeps going

flower-jayaslini2

She did another 110 laps yesterday.

jayasalini

A number that she has been within one lap of for the last 10 days straight.

jayasalini3

She has 1159 miles.

flower-jayasalini

I am pretty sure I dropped my car keys right around…..here.

flower-bird6

Vasu is so wonderful to watch.

flower-vasu2

It is true that he is 70 miles behind his pace from last year.  But he is simply unconcerned  or worried about such things.

vasu

He is so happy to be here and be in the race and able to run.

vasu-behind

He did 116 laps yesterday.

flower-vasu

I have no idea what this thing is but I am going to call it lunch.

flower-bird2

I tell Sarah that I put a picture of the great Australian runner Rob de Castella in the blog yesterday.

She is a great admirer of his career and just how much he did for the sport of marathonning.  Not just in Australia but around the world. She says he always had a tremendous capacity to give his all and do his very best each time he competed.

sarah-wide2

Sarah had 112 laps yesterday.

sarah

She is 155 miles ahead of last year

sarah3

Stutisheel interviewing her for his blog.

stutisheel-and-sarah

She is doing so well and is enjoying it so much.

flower-sarah

The rain is much appreciated in some places.

flower3

“I started thinking how I could celebrate the 4th of July and give joy to others.”  With his flag shirt and shorts Stutisheel could not look more American even though he is very much a citizen of Oneness-Dream-Boat-Shore.

stutisheel5

He and Sopan also performed a play for the Enthusiasm-Awakeners.

stutisheel-play

In addition when they sang the America the Beautiful song he stopped and sang as well.  “It is touching and it is moving something inside me.  Every year I stop and sing this song with the singers.  It is a very enlightening experience for me.”

“The song itself is just great.”

stutisheel-parvati

Click to Play Song:

america

I ask him, that since he grew up in Kiev, what were his first impressions of America.  “My first images were Manhattan.  I saw the picture of Manhattan and I said wow.  This is beautiful.”

“I was just a kid living in kiev.  I still have childhood drawings where I was drawing American cars and skyscrapers.  It is interesting.  Somehow I was in touch.”

“My first visit to America was very mysterious.”  He says it happened back in 1994. A time he says when it was nearly impossible for a Ukrainian to travel here.

At the time he had a job with a firm that got a grant to send a number of its staff to Washington to be trained.  “My boss asked me. Do you want to come to America to study? Yessssssss.”

stutisheel2

“My first visa was a working visa for one year from the Economical Development Institute. This was a time when I was a student of Sri Chinmoy for 3 years.  But I was to meet Sri Chinmoy then for the first time.  So it means a lot to me my first trip to America.”

He spent most of his 3 weeks in DC but finished his last 3 days of training in New York where he was able to see Sri Chinmoy for the first time.

He also saw the statue of Liberty for the first time. “It was sunset and it was just breath taking.  Wow, can this be true.  So much vastness, peace, and everything.”

stutisheel-behind

We pass through the camp area and I mention to him his mileage.  “I didn’t count actually.”

He tells me more about his method of not focusing on his laps at all.  “It is a way of life. Is not a way of concentration, a way of running. Is something that 50 days is a big part of your life.  You have to have an attitude that enables you to have the minimum of stress and the maximum performance for that.”

“I don’t know anything about miles.  My father was asking me yesterday how many miles have you run so far.”  He couldn’t tell him right away.  He had to go through the camp and find that out.  Instead he says he concentrates only on his laps.

stutisheel3

“I count my laps that’s my day.  But otherwise it is experience every lap and every moment.”

“This very moment I tried to be as positive as I can. I try to cut jokes with other runners, encourage them and appreciate them.”

“This year the field of runners is just excellent, everybody.”

He feels that the only limitations he and the other runners have is simply their own lack of receptivity to the higher inner divine forces.  “So I try and not to block my limits and the vision for this race, for me and for the other runners.”

silouhete-stutisheel

He describes that the only thing that holds any runner back here is a lack or receptivity and willingness to go beyond.  “So my task is to be ready for that.”

Click to Play Interview:

stutisheel

Little things and big journeys.

flower

Pranjal describes how when it gets hot and humid more problems come.  “You have to deal with it in your own way.  You have to drink a lot and it is not just about running.  There are lots of other problems to deal with.”

pranjal4

He did 122 laps yesterday and has 1239 miles.

pranjal

Wow.  Isn’t it amazing what you can see from up here.

flower-bird5

Yuri is also putting together a string of very good days.

flower-yuri

He did 121 laps yesterday

yuri4

His 1269 miles this year is 40 more than last year.

yuri5

Things will be green for days now because of the rain.

flower-good

Bhagirathi is visiting the race today and she tells me there is a long tradition of celebrations on July 4th.

bhagirathi4

John Adams said:

“I believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival,” he wrote his wife, Abigail. “It ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other…”

Thomas Jefferson said:
“Our fellow citizens have a sacred attachment to the event of which the paper of July 4th, 1776, was but the Declaration, the genuine effusion of the soul of our country at that time.”
.
For herself she adds, “I think Sri Chinmoy was deeply fond of the soul of America.  That it could genuinely offer something spiritual and progressive to the world.  That America had a definite role to play.”
.
“For some reason I always think of Sri Chinmoy on the 4th of July, and the fondness he had for the race.  He was always out here himself on the 4th of July.  So I find it very inspiring to come and retrace his steps.”
bhagirathi2
.
“I do not think of the 3100 mile race as merely a course around a neighborhood block in Queens, but as sacred and holy ground where the impossible happens.  What better place to honor the Fourth of July when, over 230 years ago, something impossible happened in America.”
.
Sarvagata had his biggest day since 4 days earlier.  He did 128 laps.
.
flower2.
He is clearly focused.
.
sarvagata5.
He is 105 miles ahead of last year.
.
sarvagata.
Bashata recites the daily prayer.
.
prayer-Bashata.
Click to Play:
.
Enthusiasm-Awakeners
.
parvati.
Song of the day.
.
song-of-the-day.
Click to Play:
.
Question: After two hundred years, has America accomplished much of her main goals?
.
Sri Chinmoy: America’s goal, like the goal of all the nations and human beings, is always in the process of self-transcendence. There is no fixed goal. America’s main goal is a flood of satisfaction, inner and outer. This satisfaction has undoubtedly been achieved to a certain extent. But since everything is progressing and evolving, America’s goal is an ever-loving and ever-illumining and fulfilling goal of continuous self-transcendence.

Sri Chinmoy, The Bicentennial Flames At The United Nations, Agni Press, 1976

flower4

3 thoughts on “July 4: Continuous Self Transcendence”

  1. America’s independence, humanity’s self-awareness and Divinity’s self-transcendence were one, inseparably one.

    Sri Chinmoy, The Liberty Torch, Agni Press, 1976

    this blog gives us a real inside view of this longest and hardest self-transcendence race, I think it can only happen in America

  2. Hi Utpal
    Happy 4th of July.
    Thank you

    America means speed:
    Speed to run the fastest.
    America means victory:
    Victory over ignorance.

    Sri Chinmoy,9119 Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 92, Agni Press, 1983

  3. Thanks for mentioning the email I sent to the runners. It was for everyone as I feel very close to all those who venture out into this amazing adventure. It is impossible to explain or describe this event, but you are doing a great job at capturing the feeling and consciousness as far as anyone can right now.
    I would suggest for people to visit the race whenever they can to really get the feeling for what is happening. Of course running it is the only way to truly understand it but I don’t recommend that to anyone except maybe a few well-trained healthy, hearty, brave souls who should aspire to that ultimate goal some day. Gratefully, from the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada,…Arpan

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *