*Video recorded yesterday…..finish to follow soon*
Yesterday morning I spoke with Nirbhasa as he was completing his final 59 miles. I joke when I ask if he is thinking about a good nights rest. “I am not really thinking about that right now.”
“In one way today is just the same as every other day. You have to take every lap at a time. Be in the present moment. Be in a good a consciousness as you can be.”
Nirbhasa says there is no coasting into the finish line. It is never like that.”
I am curious if he has any advice for others who might be faced with their own great challenges. “Of course in this race you have some tough times and then you have some very tough times. But they all somehow pass. You know at the end of the day that everything is just an experience. The good times the bad times. They are all fleeting.”
“The important thing is to somehow rise above and beyond those transient things. Enter into something deeper. You are almost an observer of your own good or bad experiences. There is some deeper part of us that is just an observer of the whole thing.”
“Even if you are having a bad experience. Even just to be able to solve the issue you have to put some distance from it. Not get caught up in your own reactions to it.”
“In many way the tough experiences are ones that ultimately become almost in a way your good experiences. Because at the end of it you really have to use your soul. You end up ultimately closer to your soul and you feel that your soul is the most real part of your being.”
There are still some hours left and he says, “you have to treat it like every other day. In other words another day to try and go deep within. To pray, to meditate, and try to feel happy and grateful.”
Experience is not acquired information.
Experience is not required observation.
Experience is the result of an inner investigation.
Sri Chinmoy, Flame-Goal, Agni Press, 1973
Board at the start of Day 50
It will be more quiet today
Clock
Yuri
Vajra cleaning up
Smarana
Sweta from Nepal
Harita
Smarana
Nidhruvi and Sergey
Camp
Rupantar
Andrey
On the phone
Nidhruvi weighing herself
Putting on the shoes
Start of Day 50
A great day
Vasu just enjoying running
He runs for a while with Swamiji
Flower
Nirbhasa is just doing his 13 laps in order to make 5000 km
He runs a few laps with his sister Louise and brother Keith
A great race
A great finish
Happy rock
Harita did 60 miles 111 laps
Running with Suprabha
She now has 2930 miles
Telling jokes
Bringing joy
So close
Flower
Yolanda did 63 miles 115 laps
She now has 2918 miles
She did the most laps
Just 182 miles to go and 3 more days
Real friendships
Flower
Smarana did 62 miles 114 laps
He now has 2720 miles
3 more days
flower
Andrey did 41 miles 76 laps
He now has 2608 miles
Flower
Sergey did 47 miles 87 laps
He now has 2570 miles
Flower
Nidhruvi did 52 miles 96 laps
She now has 2554 miles
With Mareike
Telling jokes
Doing her best
Flower
Ananda-Lahari did 40 miles 74 laps
He now has 2444 miles
A bit of green
A cool morning
Still 3 more days
Alexy writing down the daily prayer
“Honestly I like the looks of the shoe but really don’t think you will get 3100 miles out of it.”
Sahishnu with his last weekly wrap up
Click to Play:
Pranika reads the Daily Prayer
Click to Play:
The prayer mentions feet and Pranika is inspired to tell me about an experience that took place with Sri Chinmoy in a hotel in Peru, many years ago.
“I was running inside the hotel, where we were staying with Guru and I was doing stair training. so I was inside the stairway. I was going up and down and up and down.”
“Then all of a sudden Guru came in the stairway. I was carrying a little book of poems that I kept that were only about the Supreme’s feet. Each page had a very tiny picture of Guru’s feet.”
“As I was running Guru stopped me and asked me what I was doing. I said I am stair training Guru. He said, no, no, no, what do you have in your hand? I answered that these were my favorite poems.”
“So he wanted to see, so I gave the book to Guru, and he looked at the book and the poems were all about feet. Poems that Guru had written.” He then asked her to lend the book to another disciple and said he would pick his favorite poems out of the book and then write songs to them.
“Guru then said to me. If you keep this kind of devotion throughout all your life. Nothing can ever harm you. This kind of devotion I should keep too. I will keep a picture of my feet in my house for me to see every day.”
Enthusiasm Awakeners
Click to Play:
Each experience
Is an improvement.
Each improvement
Is an inspiring, aspiring and encouraging
Stride towards God.
Pages and words of supreme beauty, Light and Delight. Exceptionally inspirational!!!
Manatita