“It is a point you achieve and then you go for a new goal. The goal is ahead, far ahead. It was something to celebrate and to smile for. It was a nice achievement but I have something more to do.”
Yesterday Jayasalini achieved something historic for herself when she reached the half way point in the 3100 mile race. A tremendous achievement since it was a longer distance over a greater period of time that she had ever run before.
“Definitely it is a golden opportunity to feel the presence of God inside. To feel that it is all around you and that everything is so pure and divine. Some moments that you have here are hard to describe. They are just so beautiful. It is definitely a golden opportunity to please the higher part of you. And you feel that this is the right thing to do. At this very moment and you do your best.”
Her world for these past 26 days, as is that of each of the 14 runners, is completely different from that of yours and mine. So diametrically detached from the familiar world that we all inhabit. So remote from all our physical reference points that even as we look and applaud and appreciate we see only a glowing fragment.
Though it helps us to see and identify with it as best we can. We all can stand and cheer and help for hours but then you go home while they still continue on. Hour after hour, and day after day.
Your work may be difficult so you take a break. You get bored so read a book or watch tv. We all have a complex world of distractions and temptations at almost every moment trying to snatch and grab our attention. While Jaysalini has absolutely nothing in front of her but a hard concrete sidewalk. That and the absolute dedication and commitment that she will not stop her long hard journey, which she began 26 days ago for anything other than the finish line.
It is so simple and so pure what the runners are striving for here. Any other undertaking in comparison that gathers our attention, or energy, or commitment seems complex, futile, and in some ways meaningless. Because if you can see in even some small way that what the goal here is actually perfection itself, than how can we not applaud and be inspired by what they are doing. Seek out our own glowing embers of inspiration that also burn within each of us.
For even in our darkest slumber, even when the crush of the world seems to bind us tight, our unflagging perfection goal continues to beckons us to move on. Beckons us to run on our own inner path that has no barriers, has no limitations, and will one day show us a sweet victory just by taking even one step more.
Each day
I have a new goal,
And this goal
Lives beyond the horizon.
Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 30, Agni Press, 2002
For some it is a day of reckoning. The second half begins this morning and those who do not have 1550 miles on the board this morning know exactly what has to be done. What has to be achieved with the full understanding that it has yet to get hot. That over the next 26 days they must run more than they did in the previous 26 days,
I took the picture above after I had updated the board. Then it was pointed out that the all important number at the top had yet to be changed.
A journalist from a Norwegian publication named Ola Henmo is here to do a story.
Rupantar and Misha doing the needful which happens every morning.
Yuri checking his numbers.
The weather will not be too hot. Conditions that are forecast remain so for the next few days
Ola will be taking notes from all the runners.
Start Day 27
The crush of cars moving along the Grand Central will gradually build over the next few hours. Then the flow shifts direction after some time and the cars return with tired drivers who will do it all again.
To see the distinction between the endless river of cars and the journey happening so near and yet so far away is important.
Sarvagata is doing miraculous things. Some that we can clearly see and others that we can’t
He ran 130 laps yesterday. 5 more than the next best runner for the day Stutisheel
His 1825 miles is just one mile less than his previous best performance in 2011
How can we be surprised?
Who knows what will happen in the next lap or in the next 3 weeks.
Yuri also had a great day of 124 laps.
He has 1739 miles as he starts the day.
So strong and so focused.
He is 100 miles ahead of last year.
Panjal did 120 laps yesterday.
He has 1704 miles and is 50 miles ahead of last year.
The big man will never get lost in a crowd.
the brightness of the morning builds.
Vasu also had a great day yesterday with 124 laps.
Besides being inspired by phone calls from home today he brought the elephant he received from the orphanage. Nothing can stop and elephant he says.
Stutisheel did 125 laps yesterday.
He starts the day with 1652 miles.
He has some fun with Galya who runs a couple of laps with him.
But most of the time he is simply on his own.
Watching them run like that makes me dog tired….I mean bird tired.
Sarah had 112 laps yesterday
So remarkably talented.
She runs to her own pace and rhythm.
She has 1619 miles and is 260 over last year.
She shares with Ola some of her experiences at the race.
” The bandage I put on I use for prevention.” For many days Jayasalini has been wrapping her thigh. “I had an injury prior to the race. So, not to make it worse I put a bandage on it. Everybody asks me about this. I take it off and put it on from time to time. It is nothing serious.”
“Here at the race you have constantly newness in everything, also in injuries that come. There are millions of things that can be done to help but you never know what works and what doesn’t. So I take advice and try to find a solution.”
“The main thing is to not give up. To try your best. To do your best. If you can treat it than just do it. You never know because all of a sudden something appears. Then all of a sudden disappears. It just shows again that this race is not about our efforts. It is all about grace from above.”
“It is like a game and you just accept what comes. Do your best.”
“I have two amazing helpers. They are constantly with me during the day and night taking very good care of me. Massaging me and supporting me inwardly and outwardly. It helps a lot.”
“I have 2 main breaks during the day. But helpers do save a lot of time. It is also good to be with someone who you feel oneness.”
“I have so many friends here. Sometimes they even do a lap with me and we laugh together and smile. They tell stories and it is beautiful. Just recently go so many gifts from Russia. I had so many cards that my helpers were giving me one card every lap.”
She describes that with each card she opened she immediately then visualized the person who had sent it to her standing in front of her. “It was vivid and it was a beautiful evening.”
She has brought with her a long sheet with all the supplements she wants to take. Along with the amounts and the times to do so. “The majority of them are herbs. They are very gentle. Your body needs some support here. It likes it when you take good care of it. So I am taking supplements so that I can keep moving. Here at the race I have found out things that I need to remove and also things I need to add. So it changes during the race.”
“Sometimes I feel that the race just started, that this is day one. Sometimes I have a period of time when I feel so fresh and so good. Nothing is aching, and you just run even though it is not that fast. You are just in a flow. Nothing bothers you. You just fly and fly and fly. It is so beautiful and different feelings come to you. It is part of the race.”
Click to Play Interview:
It probably shouldn’t be so surprising why Teekshanam is doing so well.
He did 116 laps and has 1573 miles going into his second half.
This gives him 23 extra miles. But when you see him here and just how composed he is and how prepared it is just a natural thing that he does as well as he does. His Mom and sister should be very happy. Moldovans and Moldovans at her should be rejoicing for this fine young man.
Nidhruvi did 108 miles yesterday.
On her third lap this morning she made the half way point.
She has adapted so well to life here.
Yet she so calmly and gracefully flows through it all.
You cannot help be excited and proud for her. And also realize just how many others this 49 year old girl is inspiring here there and everywhere.
Bob we just don’t know what kind of animal it is. It looks dangerous though so lets keep it in a cage until we figure out what to do next.
Baladev is not in any cage
He starts the day with 1525 miles. He did 94 laps
He recites for me one of Sri Chinmoy’s poems
Trust not what you hear,
Trust not what you see,
But trust
What you feel.
The only thing clear is that nothing is clear.
William had his best day in 2 weeks.
He did 118 laps and starts the day with 1487. This means he has to find 63 miles in 26 days.
The presence of both Tim and Tarit have been crucial to aiding him through this.
But when Tarit leaves tomorrow there will be a gap until the next helper comes.
“This is going to be a feature story in the weekend magazine in a couple of weeks.”
Ola Henmo is from Oslo. He is not sure how he first heard about the race but because he has done quite a bit of running himself he found a connection to the the story.
“I read about it somewhere and I found it fascinating.”
“The most wacko thing about it is that they run around and around and around one single city block in New York. You have people who do amazing long runs. They run from Norway to Turkey. They do crazy things but this, in a hot New York summer.”
“I have done a marathon and I am never going to do it again.”
He has been here only a short while when we speak and says it is still too early to fathom why the runners have come here to do this. “The mental part is of course the essential. You can’t to this on physical fitness alone. It is interesting to hear their mantras are and how they actually get through it.” He mentions the obvious details like lack of sleep for 2 months.
“Also it is interesting with the Guru thing.”
He is also searching for a protagonist amongst the runners. “One who achieves the impossible.”
“I have spoken to Sarah. It is interesting to find a woman who has run this far. It is interesting that in these kind of events, that the woman are almost as strong as the men.”
In his conversation with William he learned that the closest train station to his home in Sanday is actually in Norway.
Click to Play Interview:
Sopan starts the day with 1365 miles.
Somethings are immovable or just appear to be so.
Camp buzzing with activity.
Yet not too far off it so different.
Ananda-Lahari starts the day with 1234 miles.
Yes I will sing for you, but Please. Do you call….This, a stage.
There is something really NY urban about this picture….With Ray off in the distance.
Ray starts the day with 1035 miles.
Nearly as many new friends as miles here.
Jayasalini recites the Prayer of the Day.
Click to Play:
Enthusiasm Awakeners
Song of the Day
Click to Play:
Every day
Set a new goal,
Even if you have failed
To reach your previous goals.
Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, Part 48, Agni Press, 1984
Beautiful! In every way!
Hi Utpal
very Inspiring, thank you.
Each new day beckons you
To walk on the road
Of self-transcendence.
Sri Chinmoy, 3884 Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants Part 39, Agni Press, 1984.
Dear Utpal!
Every Wednesday I show a little slideshow about the race, with fotos of yours and Jowans, and I read the wonderful stories, that you collected so dedicated and selfgivingly. Me and my whole Center want to say: THANK YOU FOR TRANSPORTING GURUS PRESENCE SO EASILY TO US AND GIVING US SUCH AN PRECIOUS INSIGHT TO THIS EXTRAORDINARY EVENT 🙂
Dear Utpal, since I am an Vienna Child of Guru as well as Nidhruvi, I would like to hear some interview with her! I saw some foto, which shows you interviewing here, but I could not find the interview. Kindly help.
Gratitude and appreciation to you,
Sushuti