Photo by Shradha

More than 4 years have now swept past since Sri Chinmoy left us.  His sudden departure from this world was a shock, not just those who called him their Guru, but also to many many others.  Spiritual seekers around the world who saw him as a spiritual beacon and inspirer of all those who sought to reach new heights both inwardly and outwardly.  His departure churned up a great wave of sorrow that spilled across the globe and touched all those with whom he had made an inner connection.

This sorrow however is such a useless thing, and certainly not what Sri Chinmoy would have wanted of anyone who admired, respected or loved him.  Nothing is ever to be gained by fruitlessly chasing down tears.  He saw joy as the only true avenue in which one could confidently move forward and continue to attain and fulfill all our own spiritual goals.  In retrospect, he certainly had accomplished all that he needed to do on this earth.   He shared the richness of his life with all and required not another year, month, or day in which to do it.  Most importantly, it is his inner connection to his followers that is in fact still intact, and is as bright and illumining as it has always been.  His capacity to nurture and inspire remains as rich and as powerful as always.

But for those of us who lived physically close to him, or had the opportunity for repeated personal encounters, it is another matter.  I do not think that I am alone in still feeling the pangs of his loss.  I am patient but certainly I still have some distance to cover before this healing can be claimed complete.  Even an examination of a tiny catalog of my personal experiences with him reminds me of how transformative, illumining and so divinely sweet each moment was.  An accumulation of them over the decades and I am reminded of just how much I was shaped and formed by them in an infinite variety of ways.

How remarkable it was that while in his brief presence, a miracle could take place with just a passing glimpse of his smile.   How you could not but be aware of the unimaginable wealth of divinity within him.  A seemingly limitless world that he offered unhesitatingly and unconditionally, not just to his students but to all who came round and about him.

Yet I know a brightness burns still within my life, as it does in the countless others that he inspired.  It was abundantly clear to anyone in his presence that he was not just a true spiritual master but also, he could also be appreciated on a human level as a brother and a friend.  Just as we will loose countless family and friends in our lives so too will we step into the next world ourselves.  Find a new path, and journey in a new direction, hopefully  with greater purpose and resolve.  Ultimately loss is part of all our lives and yet no loss is perhaps more profound and incomprehensible than the loss of one’s spiritual master.  If one remains sincere, and maintains their inner connection, than ultimately the journey must and will continue, until the goal has at last been reached within.

A year ago I had a chance to observe one unique way in which Sri Chinmoy’s life is being perpetuated.  It was on a tropical afternoon that myself and Kaivalya Torpy strolled into the Agun Rai park in Ubud Bali.  A gentle rain fell us as we walked along the tidy path, glistening with the moisture. The raindrops create a rhythmic music as they softly ‘pitter pat’ against our umbrellas.  The air hangs heavy with humidity  and the rich scent  lush gardens sweetens the air.   When you look in any direction the view is filled with flowers and shiny green leaves of the tropical gardens.   There are few places on earth more beautiful than this one.

photo by Sushuti

It is in many ways a familiar stroll for both us, as we had walked this same path just 2 years earlier.  Our conversation is casual and relaxed  as would be expected with two old chums as they take a stroll on their first day of vacation. We are rediscovering our legs in some ways.  Each of us has traveled from very far, and shaking off jet lag and the weary bonds of international travel. He has flown here from England and myself from Canada.  It has been two years since we were last here in this most sacred place.  For me it is a pilgrimage to come back here again and see a bronze statue of my Guru, for Kaivalya it is something else again.  For he is the artist who crafted this statue of his spiritual master and helped to set it in this magnificent garden.   He is eager to reacquaint himself with his creation and see how it is fared since he last left it here 2 years ago.

In fairness it was the second bronze statue he had created of Sri Chinmoy, the first being displayed in Oslo.  Now as time has passed he has skillfully crafted and constructed more and more likenesses of his late spiritual master that are being set up here and there all over the world.  At last count there were 9 bronze likenesses.  I cannot help but feel that for Kaivalya, each and every time he looks upon them, he does so with both a unique personal affection and an inspection that no one but he the artist can appreciate.

We have by chance taken the back entrance to the park, and so our longer walk has but added to our growing anticipation.  We go down a few steps and turn a corner and then quite suddenly there is Sri Chinmoy standing on his pedestal glistening from the rain.  This experience is a wonderful shock, both for my heart and my mind.  Over the least few years my Guru has only been physically attainable to me through photographs, recordings, and written material.  Yet now he stood before me in immortal shinning splendor, ageless and immune from time and the demands of the world.  The first thing I notice is that this is just not a good image of him but a great one.  For me the statue somehow captures not just a profound mirror of a physical reality, but also conveys something deeper and subtle from within as well.  That a spark of Sri Chinmoy’s consciousness has been imbedded here as well.

This was Kaivalya’s second statue of Sri Chinmoy.  His first was in Oslo and this one came a few months later.  He tells me:

“Each one is a little different, they all have a slightly different expression, I don’t know why, it’s just how they come out of the mold. 

“They all have a different feeling.  They’re in a different position, in Prague you’re looking straight at it,  This one you are looking up. 

It’s very nice to see it again.   It’s a really a fresh experience again.

For me it seems just a little disconcerting to ultimately turn my back and walk away.  I wonder if Kaivalya has any thoughts when he leaves one of his creations under the trees or in a public park.

Well no, because you’re always concentrated on the next one. There’s always a next one, just on the horizon. You’re always concentrated on getting everything right, getting the timing right.

He also has no real notion of how others will and do relate to his statues. He also reminds me that Bronzes from Greek times continue to survive and this over thousands of years.

He had over the years produced many works of art and pieces of sculpture for Sri Chimoy personally.  He has a deep and rich art experience.

It’s always been my experience that I’ve tried very hard, in the actual process of making each sculpture, whether its this one or the smaller ones to capture Guru…but in the end Guru always gave me a very short time. He never allowed me to deliberate for too longs. He always said speed was of the essence. In the end, you surrendered. Whatever comes out, comes out, and you hope that Guru liked it.. Sometimes I was more pleased, sometimes I was less pleased.

In the end, you really feel that Guru is working through you. Sometimes in your desire to get what you think is right, you miss what is going on, and then suddenly when you wake up and see the whole thing, you realize that Guru is also working through you, and you appreciate Guru’s effort

His first full sized figure of Sri Chinmoy was created in 1996.  It was created specifically to be placed on the property of Narada Michael Waldon.

The year before, ’95, Guru had been down to Sacred Rock, and he saw Mary, Mother Mary, and a plate, a copper plate statue of the Buddha, quite a big one, and it was standing high up, and Narada said – this is what I heard – oh Guru, I’d love to have a statue of you there. And Guru said, I will ask Kaivalya to do one. And by some miracle, low and behold scarcely a year later, there was a statue of Guru in white polyester resin. And it was a nightmare getting it there. Guru had to get there  I had to get there, Narada had to get there, and the statue had to get there. At times it seemed that one of the four wasn’t going to make it, and very often it was me, so I said, look, it doesn’t matter about me – let’s get Guru, the statue and Narada together, because Narada also had a timetable, and he kept saying, I can’t, I can’t. But finally, Narada picked up the statue, I think on the Friday, and then I came on the Saturday or Sunday, and then Guru came on the Sunday, I think it was,  I got a Thai Airline flight, it was a one-day flight, I mean, you returned on the next day. So we were all there – the forces all came together, and it was great.

Kaivalaya interview Part 1

I never thought too much about it, I just felt that Guru would help me. I was a total amateur, I was just doing it. I was doing the clay modeling in the boys’ bedroom, because that’s how much space there was in the apartment. I was working through the night while they slept on their beds on the floor. And it was just pure, pure belief in the system. Because I didn’t know what was going to happen next. And I did the clay, we carried it out of the house to the car and then drove it down to the casters about 25 miles away, and it all sort of happened, we arranged the transport and it went flying off to San Francisco.

He tells me about a time when he worked on just a head and shoulders project.

Guru looked at each part and worked his way down – forehead good, eyes good, nose good – then he got to the mouth, and he slowed up and said, Mouth?, hmmm.  and then he got to the chin, and he said, Next year, next year.(laughs) That was just a small head and shoulders that I did. But this one for Narada, he was totally blown away by it, he was absolutely really happy, everyone was really happy. Guru said, Narada, I’m so happy, you’ve brought down happiness, the statue is here and you are singing songs. He blessed me there.

I ask him if he ever imagined that after so many years he ever imagined that he would find himself almost working full time and creating likenesses of his Guru. (At this moment he is 72)

Well, it never occurred to me strongly. I thought, well, this is an opportunity that I have taken more will come,  But I never thought about bronze at all.

This statue in Bali was taken from a series of poses that Sri Chinmoy did on a revolving pedestal sometime in 1999-2000.

So I took the idea from that, but not the face. I took the posture, but not the face.  The pose is exactly the same, even to the fingers. Guru explained to him (Shilpa-Taru) why the fingers are apart. He said, “When I fold my hands and put my fingers together, I bring down the force, and then when I open them up, I send the light out.” This is what he said to Shilpa-Taru. I did it exactly ike that, because shilpa taru said. But the face, I worked on a lot, a lot, a lot, and I kept changing the emphasis.

The very first one I did, the face wasn’t good enough. We made the clay model and cast it, but then I made a completely new head. We took off the original head and made a completely new head.

He describes the building of his statues as being a very hands on experience.

Even now I do take photographs, and I play with photographs and computer images, and choose the ones I like. But in the end, when you’ve done all your drawings, you have made all your measurements, you have to do all that.  You have to make a structure inside to hold it all up  when you are doing it in clay. 

 Once you’ve done all that and you have created the base, then getting the feeling is something that just happens as I’m working on it,  I get  a very strong feeling as I am working on it.  Working on the surface with the material

The number of Kaivalya’s statues of Sri Chinmoy just continue to be set up in different countries and places around the world.  When asked just how many he personally would like to see he mentions the obvious, 27 statues.

I also have my own private little venture is to do 27 heads of Guru, in different modes and expressions. And then to do the Kamakura, the Guru Kamakura. It’s my fervent target to fulfill that idea  which came way round in 1999 or 1998.

This project is one of those immense projects that would can humble even the bravest.  Yet Kaivalya envisions it being completed, perhaps in his lifetime.  It would be a truly epic statue erected of Sri Chinmoy on the scale of the great Buddha in Kamakura Japan.  It would be a statue 13 meters high, built from a material yet to be decided and a also an unknown location.

While we are standing together admiring the statue the owner of the museum Agung Rai comes and joins us.  He had met Sri Chinmoy personally in 2004 and was grateful to have the opportunity to host a statue of Sri Chinmoy.

It is not just a statue.  It has a spirit, it has a positive spirit.  It is really amazing powerful  If you are honest when you view it you can feel the impact, the reflection of yourself.  Everything begins with our own self. 

Some artifacts are around for a 1000 years and people stll respect it.  And the way to respect it is to keep it sacred.  The old and new hand in hand this is what we call a living tradition. 

Interview with Agung Rai

Of course no statue, no matter how skillfully created or evocative could replace Sri Chinmoy.  Yet visiting the statue with its creator was comforting to me in a way that I had not  completely expected.  For Kaivalya who has a polyester cast of Guru in his back garden in London tells me that he meditates every day on it whenever he passes by.

I also ask him what he would do if I weren’t intruding upon him just now.

Why I’d go right up to the statue and meditate on it, and express my gratitude to Guru.  

With that the interview concluded and we both did exactly that.

Kaivalya interview Part 2

It is an event sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy marathon team but the prime co-coordinators and organizers are Boijayanti and Suchitra. As to why they chose to have the event here Boijayanti says, “Lake Welch worked out because it is beautiful, and the Parks people were very accommodating.” The biggest bonus was that the entire race, which consists of a 1km swim and a 10 km run could take place all within the generous dimensions of the park itself.

“The first year we had 47 participants.” As we are talking registration is still taking place. There are a few no shows and some unexpected stragglers tend to show up at the last minute. The number will turn out to be almost exactly as it was the first year. The support crew working with the girls is impressive. There are lots of people working at all the little jobs that make the event feel well run and yet you cannot help but feel that there is a real family atmosphere here as well. Boijayanti says, “Every year it gets a little smoother. There are always bumps and kinks that need to be worked out.” Suchitra adds, “it is absolutely great. We love it.” She confesses that they both have a not so secret wish to do the race one day themselves. Yet, “it is so special to be the organizers. You get to go through the whole process, and you feel so satisfied at the end when everything goes well, and everything is okay.” They have granted me a few minutes of chat as the swirl of entrants flows and bobs around them. I ask if they were ever scared about organizing the event the first year. There is a knowing glance exchanged between them and Boijayanti chimes, “terrified.” Suchitra adds, “we get scared every year.” (Laughter)”It’s definitely feeling much more routine. A little less stressful, yet there is always something that comes up and is new, and you have to deal with it. So it is always exciting. “ Click to play interview “I swim a lot.” Frank Carroll. He has come today to of course swim and to run but it is pretty obvious that if it weren’t for some injuries he would rather be spending a lot more time running and spend somewhat less time in the pool. Not too long ago when he was in high school and college he says, “I was one of the best runners in New England. And now as I have aged I can barely lift my legs off the ground when I run. I mean I can’t run at all. I can only shuffle. Because I can’t run I have been swimming for years. That is my major work out.”

Click to play interview

Hyunsoo Park	Catkin Bacon	Colin Smith
Gangane	Jessic McAnneny	Mitrasena

It is a unique perspective when you are chest deep in a still warm lake and then a powerful splashing phalanx of swimmers surges out into the lake towards you. I am desperately holding onto my stillness and camera as they come closer and closer and yet I feel a desperate urge to stroke off across the lake with them. Then my thoughts turn to next year and being in a different position. right click to make any pic big

	Colin Smith says he found out about the race from his friend searching the internet. When asked what he would like to do here today he says simply, “go as fast as I can.”Click to play interviewHe finishes 10th overall with a time of 1:12:56

Erin Jedlicka finishes 11th overall in a time of 1:13:03

Participating as a relay team is a big part of encouraging athletes to take part. Some teams plan in advance but sometimes teams are thrown together by fate. Snigdha found out she had lost her partner only at 6 am.

When she called Palash she said, “sure I’ll do it, I just have to get my shoes. Within 5 minutes I was saved. It is one of the miracles of our lives.” Palash adds, “I have never considered myself as a miracle.” Click to play interview 

Photo by Annurakta

“It was very interesting.  I am not a water creature.”  Granantan Boyle may have second thoughts about his swimming abilities but on land he was faster than anybody else over 10km.  He was the overall winner in 57:52.  His hopes of swimming around 20 minutes were realized when he swam 20:41. When asked how he compared to all the other swimmers he says he felt as though everyone else was in front of him.

I ask him when he actually practiced any swimming at all.  “The last couple of weeks.”(laughs) “I was more nervous before this race than even a marathon.”  He says he doesn’t feel comfortable in the water.  “I have been concentrating on the marathon for the past 6 years.” Click to play interview

Crosby Jurkiewicz was 2nd overall in a time of 1:00:49.  “This is my first duathlon.  I don’t have a bike so that eliminates me doing a triathlon.”  When asked what he like about the event, “Everyone was so friendly.  It was just great seeing all the motivation and the cheering.  All the volunteers I really appreciate all their efforts, working hard.  This was a great day to do a competition.

Crosby is just 21 and was the first swimmer out of the water in a time of 16:37.  Granatan was 4 minutes faster over 10km.  He says of Granatan, “he was really fast.  He is awesome.”

As for other races, “I definitely enjoyed it so I will probably do some more.  This is my first one so I guess I will see where it takes me.”  Click to play interview

Shobhavati Davies is the first girl and 8th overall.  Of her race she says, “O it was lovely.  This is the first time I have done anything like this so it is a new experience.”  She has been an active runner for some years but of her swimming she says, “I have trained but never competed.”

With her running today, “I had to push with my running, my legs turned to jelly but I am very grateful.”  Click to play interview

“What I like about it, is that it is very challenging.”  Pulak Viscardi has participated in this event in each of its 3 years.  “The only part that gets you is the first part of the swim.  Getting to the first buoy.  That is the hardest part.”  He describes simply getting the stroke rhythm and breathing organized.  “So many things.”

Now as we are talking he is standing on the beach with his medal.  “It feels good.  I am grateful.”  click to play interview

There is no better example of fulfilling a pledge for home cooking at the event then to see Rambha cooking her classic barbecued corn.  The sizzle and aroma can be experienced and enjoyed from far off.  The taste is even better.

Her recipe uses, honey, mustard, barbecue sauce, and “all kinds of spices.”  Click for a taste 

The appearance of Banshidar at the event is a surprise for me and perhaps even for him.  He hasn’t done anything like this in many years and yet felt inspired to participate.

He says that he doesn’t really train swimming but the secret to that is, “I do quite a lot of surfing.  So I kind of relied on that.  I haven’t done any straight swimming at all, just surfing.  I just did it the best I could and then ran it the best I could.  It’s great fun.  It’s all a great vibe.  Nice little small family group.  I could feel the energy.  I could feel the inspiration energy coming through.”

“I saw a big smile in the sky and just kept focusing on that smile.  That is what it is all about, joy.”

click to play interview

JOY

Give joy;
Earth will be yours.
Take joy;
Heaven will be yours.
Become joy;
God will claim you,
Earth will need you,
Heaven will treasure you.

Sri Chinmoy, Lord, Receive This Little Undying Cry, Agni Press, 1975.

Sri Chinmoy 1980 photo by Bhashwar

Yet Sri Chinmoy himself never surrendered to age and certainly hoped that his students would not listen to the braying frailties of our bodies, or the gibbering reluctance of our minds.  There can be no better examples of this philosophy in action then Gaurima, Arpan, and Dipali who even after 30 years of continuous competition have never found any excuse not to still step up and enter this most special and uniquely challenging midnight run. Their memories are rich and full with moments when Sri Chinmoy not only watched with admiration from the sidelines but even back to the 2 years when he ran this race himself.

The 47 mile race has never lacked having an enthusiastic crowd of eager young participants.  All willing to step off into the unknown realm of distance running and discover their own precious experience.  Some dreaming and training just for that moment when they can push off  from the starting line at midnight on August 27th.

Now over more than 33 years the track and road around Jamaica high school have tested and taught hundreds of runners some unique and fulfilling hard fought lessons.  Each participant is inevitably confronted  with not just the challenge of running an ultra distance but more importantly they are inevitably confronted by the simple truth, that by going deep within is also the answer to succeed in going not just 47 miles but also covering the total distance of one’s life.

High Fives at midnight	Kiwi boys signing in
Mostly new faces	some more familiar

counters getting ready

Counters getting it right

Then it all just begins.  Pratatyaya and all the 122 runners at the starting line.

From the beginning Garbitashri and Jayasalini found strength and comradeship by running together throughout the long night.

The counters ever attentive and watchful through the night, sharp pencils at the ready.

The scoreboard crew ever vigilant.

No reason to be hungry as you run

Music in the night.  Click to play

Pushkar comes in first this year and I suggest for a man who has run the 3100 mile race that 47 miles is just a warm up.  “Yes, but the intensity is a little bit different.  On the other side of the street you know that you have to go on and go on.”  His effort tonight though was so grueling he feels as though he has really given his all.  “I am squeezed out like a lemon.”

“I started getting cramps at lap 25.  I started to stretch and thought,oooooh, this is very bad.  Fortunately I got rid of it, and I said, just keep moving.  I want to say the intensity is much higher but it is just different.”  He ran much of the race with Stefan but eventually he continued his own pace and Stefan had to slow down.

As we are talking an applause builds louder in the background as Satyamurthi finishes in 4th.  He yells out encouragement to him.  Pushkar tells me that for the last 3 years he did not run the 47 because he was still recovering each of those years from his 3100 mile experience.  In past years when he ran this race he had also participated in the marathon a couple of days earlier.  This year however he felt inspired just to run the 47.

It is also a very intense spiritual experience for him running this race.  He spent much of his time chanting and feeling real gratitude that he could offer this race to his spiritual master, Sri Chinmoy, in honor of his 8oth birthday.  He feels that his experience was all grace.  That he won the race in a time of 6:22 he says, “I feel very honored or humbled or whatever.”

Click to play interview

Sukhajata finishing

Stefan finishing

“I have prayed.  I have tried to feel the presence of my spiritual master, and to give him the result of my actions.”  Satyamurthi has come in 4th.  This is the 7th time he has run the race.  “This is my 4th time that I have come 4th.  I have not done my best but I am very happy.”

Click to play interview

Tomaz is one of the remarkable new generation of runners who enjoy doing both the marathon and the 47, back to back.  Less than 48 hours earlier he ran the marathon in 3:12.  He finishes the 47 with a time of 6:47, good enough for 5th place.  He says that during the marathon he didn’t push harder because he wanted to save his best effort for the 47.

Pushkar tells him that he once ran a fast marathon in 3:01 and then followed that up with a very slow 47, 8:51.   Tomaz says his double time was better last year.

He says that more training and preparation gives you more confidence.  “You know your body and your inner body better if you train.”

click to play interview

“We are feeling great.”  This is of course more than understatement by Garbitashri, who moments earlier had just completed the 47 mile race with Jayasalini at her side nearly every step of the way.  Still a little out of breath the 2 girls are celebrating not just their combined victory in this years race but also that their first place achievement is the ultimate present they can offer on this most auspicious day.

What makes their run tonight even more impressive is that the girls finished 1,2 in the marathon less than 48 hours earlier.  Garbitashri in 3:11 and Jayasalini in 3:19.  These are both terrific times and tonight they have run 6:58 which is a superb achievement.

“We were running the same pace and in oneness we just ran together,” says Garbitashri.  “It was just a joy.”

For Jayasalini this is the second year in a row that she has found a companion to share the race and the win with.  Last year she and Dhavala had an historic race and sharing the win as well.  This year she says, “it just happened.”

“It was not on purpose.  We had so much joy.”  She tells me how they shared so much together through the night.  Particularly helping each other at water stations.  “It was so sweet.”

Both are in agreement that there can be no higher and deeper satisfaction on this auspicious day than to run this, their spiritual teacher’s most sacred race.  “It is the best way for me.”

Click to play interview

At 7:17 the next girl finisher crosses the line.  For her this day and this race is like no other.  Since 1981, and nearly every August 27th in between she has been at the starting line solely to honor her Guru, and offer him the complete and sum total of her inner life and her outer running capacity.  For 30 years she has shared birthdays with her spiritual teacher and this race has been her gift.  For many reasons this race is unique.  Simply by taking part in it has for her always been a total commitment, that blends in equal measure all parts of her being, from the physical to the spiritual.

The number of occasions  that she has not run has been miniscule and on this occasion, hard to recall.  Now without question running the race is for her and many others as well a sacred tradition.  Sometime during the long dark night she turned 52 years old.  Yet in the glow of this bright new day she, like Arpan and Gaurima show no hint or sign that this will be the last time to run throughout the night on August 27th.

“I feel very much full of gratitude, and exhausted.  But in that exhaustion, are the tears of gratitude are flowing.  I would say this race is the hardest of all my adventures in my running.”  She says that the other races are nothing in comparison.  “I am so grateful to have the same birthday.  I fell like my soul is just crying.”

click to play interview

Sri Chinmoy 1980 photo by Bhashwar

Question: What does your slogan mean: “Run and Become, Become and Run”?

Sri Chinmoy: If we run, we see our capacities becoming fully manifested. Previously our capacities were dormant; they didn’t function inside us. But when we run, we bring to the fore our hidden capacities and are able to do something and become something.

But once we have become something, that is not the end. Still we have to go forward, because we are eternal pilgrims. Everything in us is transcending. It is like a child. To learn the alphabet is his first goal. He studies and learns it. But will he then give up? No. His second goal is to go to school. Then he wants to go to college.

A runner brings forward his capacity and becomes something. Then he looks around and sees some champion runners, and he gets the inspiration to try to become an excellent runner like they are. Perhaps he will one day excel and go beyond them. So there are always higher goals even after we have become something. Once we reach our first goal, we have to run towards a higher goal.

Sri Chinmoy, The Outer Running And The Inner Running, Agni Press, 1974.

This all happened more than 30 years ago.  Time has removed the sharpness and clarity of many moments of my life but the start of the first 47 I am certain is etched so deeply into my heart and life, its sweet memory has yet to fade or dim.  I can still clearly remember as Sri Chinmoy stood in powerful silent meditation in the darkness.   An almost indefinable outline, illuminated barely by far off streetlights, and a couple of dim flashlights.  Yet where our eyesight’s failed, another part within us was acutely aware of his presence and his gratitude that we should participate in this great new undertaking.  On this night and at the moment as the clock ticked past 12 it became his 47th birthday and the race began.

What we did not know then was that this race was his gift to us and to future generations of runners.  An unprecedented 47 mile long spiritual journey whose goal was infinitely longer than 40 laps of Jamaica High School.  Yet for each and all who participated it would also be in turn a powerful opportunity to bring to the fore some small measure of our own self offering.  The very act of running a perfect gift to him who inspired us in the first place.  It was and remains to be both an unprecedented sporting event and a unique spiritual exercise, that many continue to take advantage of, and seems destined to remain as a timeless tradition.

In the weeks leading up to that midnight start he had made clear that the 47 mile race was going to be  something new and challenging like nothing before.  We simply had but to let go of our doubts and fears and surrender fully to the experience.  A short while later he coined a unique expression that clearly and beautifully defined what this sport of running could offer both outwardly and inwardly, “Run and Become, Become and Run.”   Spiritual progress and athletics and fitness can and must go together.

I have watched Abakash’s  47 mile footage many times.  The faces of all those who ran that first race are deeply familiar to me, as we shared the dusty track and windy Queens streets all together for many hours. For a brief and glorious moment, time is graciously and delicately wound backwards.  When the person, who bears a great deal of resemblance with one who once used to look back at me from my own mirror, crosses paths with Abakash’s  camera, I have doubts that I was ever really quite that young.  For all the limitations of shooting film at 24 frames per second  it still nonetheless can transport all of us who were there that night back to the very beginning of a brand new exciting chapter in our lives and in the life of the Sri Chinmoy center.  Hopefully it also can demonstrate for future generations just how much absolute oneness Sri Chinmoy had with all those who were pioneering his new creation.

When you see him attentively standing on the sidelines you cannot help but notice in his gaze, that he is all affection and concern for those running around the course.  With each runner and in fact with all who contributed in any way, he shared a deep and personal inner identification with.  We were all part and parcel of his very own spiritual family. By the time dawn cast its warm brightness to the day and the camera could begin to roll, all the doubts of any of us might have held were long discarded,  replaced instead  by certainty and celebration.

What time would soon reveal was that 47 mile race was opening a brand new door to Sri Chinmoy’s manifestation.  That from the first step we 38 took on what appeared to be an impossibly long journey was just the beginning of something infinitely longer and even more transformative.   Sports and fitness were to become central and integral aspects of our spiritual life.  The 47 mile race simply and eloquently demonstrated this philosophy.  Looking back it is hard not to realize how  revolutionary it actually was. It was only in June that Sri Chinmoy had first announced his personal commitment to distance running.  During that first 47 mile race he would run 23 miles himself and come back the following 2 years and run the entire distance.   Some years later, because of injury his own distance running would not continue.   His love and commitment to distance running though would remain a part of his life until his passing in 2007.

For this years race, which would have been Sri Chinmoy’s 80th birthday all who had ever run the event in past years were invited to run or walk a ceremonial first lap. Shortly after he has returned from his lap I chat with Sundar, who was one of the pioneers of the event.  The air is alive with energy and excitement.  122 runners have entered and from time to time clusters of runners spill onto the track and come up in enthusiastic waves in front of the attentive counters.

We are standing in the light of the counting hut.   “I remember when Guru inaugurated the race over on the other side of that wall.  One morning, I remember Guru used to play tennis over there.”  He points across the track, over towards Jamaica High school.  “Guru announced that we were now going to have a new event.  It was a 47 mile race, and I thought, oooooo.  He was calling for volunteers, and I thought, if he asks me, I will agree to do it.  So he asked me, and I agreed to do it.”

When asked if he was scared, without hesitation he replies, “yeah.”

On this night he says that by walking around the course that it helped him remember all the other times he had run the race.

click to play interview:

“It was very thrilling very exciting. It was a lot harder than I thought.”  (Laughter)  Vidura is hard pressed to talk about his experiences that first night because he is so busy trying to keep track of his runners.  He ran the first race and in his own way kept very involved with the 47 helping in different ways the help it all happen.  It needs runners but also needs many hands behind the scenes as well.

As he looks back on that first race you can see him reliving it once again.   He had run a marathon so had some idea of how hard it would be but of course it was all that and more.  “I trained, but not like I should have trained.”

“It was very fulfilling to do it.  To do 47.”  For him as well, he always considered himself a sprinter.  “I never did long distance.  I don’t like to do long distance, but Guru inspired us so much.  It was very thrilling to do it.  It was very very exciting.”  He can’t remember exactly how many times he did the race but knows, “it was a lot.”

Asked what was the best part of doing the 47, he says, “basically it is the only time you are alone.  You can do whatever you want.  You can meditate, you can sing.  Nobody really bothers you.  It is like you are in your own space.  It is meditative, you feel the pain of the body, but you still just keep rolling and moving.   It is quite inspiring.”

Then Vidura announces something remarkable.  He tells me that next year he will be 65 and he plans on not only running the marathon but also the 47.  “It will be very interesting to see.”

Click to play interview

“The beginning is always a little chaotic.”  This years 47 has literally just begun, and like Vidura, Devaki is one of the main helpers.  She is in fact in charge of the girl counters.  When asked if she remembers the first race she answers with a strong yes.  “I do, because I ran it.  I was a lot younger and I was in shape. (Laughter) I remember it was hard, but Guru ran and it was very inspiring, because Guru was running at the same time.”

She recalls, “I was not a long distance runner.  I was a sprinter.”  Yet she felt such powerful motivation to do it she could not resist and at the same time how inspiration was able to move her forward.  “I could feel Guru, somehow.”

She then fills me in on all the little jobs she and a large team led by Pratyaya have working on now for days.  “It has been our project ever since the beginning, a Canadian project.  We feel that it is our privilege to do it.  It is like an honor.  To honor Guru on his birthday.  We were always so thrilled when Guru would even just walk around the track.  So we still feel it.  He’s here.”

Click to play interview

For Saral tonight’s ceremonial lap reminds him not just of the first 47 but also how he once ran his very best race here on his teacher’s birthday.  “25 years ago today I was very fortunate to come in 2nd place.  One of the best races of my life.  It was an amazing race for me.  I passed the marathon in 3:23.  Just like floating.”

“It just shows you how much work it takes and how much grace.  I am just lucky to be out here and remember it.  The feelings are there even if the fitness is not quite there.  The feeling of the soul is still there.”

Click to play interview

Surashri marvels at just how long his lap has taken.  “It was pretty bad, but I was remembering that first one.”  The course is exactly the same and with the little candles burning to mark some of the turns and a waft of sweet incense it reminds him of that first night.  “Just the feeling of specialness.”

“I didn’t know I was doing the first one until a few days before.  Inadvertently I had trained for it to some extent.”  Shortly before the race he read some advice that greatly helped him.  “Have a program right from the beginning of walking and running.  Don’t wait until you are really exhausted.  So I walked the track part and ran the outside part.  Right from the very first lap.”

“I don’t think there was a lot of pain.  It was probably difficult as it always is with long runs.  (laughter)  I am only speculating because I can’t remember exactly.  There is a feeling of elation too,  because you know you are doing something very special.”  Coming back for his lap tonight he says, “was such a nice opportunity to reconnect with it.  Because I hadn’t in so many years.

Click to play interview

“For almost 20 years every new years I have made the resolution to run 2 marathons in the year and I broke it.”  Kusumita is a very visible figure in the first 47 mile film.  As a chance would have it she comes into view on several occasions.  Not content to slip into retirement she has taken her vow of running very seriously and did in fact run all of this year’s marathon in 6:47.  It was also a big thrill to come back, along with many other veterans and do a lap of the 47 as well.

“But after Guru left his physical body, it seemed to me that there comes a time to keep our resolutions.”  Remarkably it was in 2008 that she came back and ran the August marathon then after not having run one in 19 years.   She recalls having once heard Sri Chinmoy say, that if one has taken a vow one should try and fulfill this pledge, no matter how much time has elapsed.

She says that describing running the marathon is very hard to do to people who have never done it.  “There is a huge difference between doing something and actually thinking about it.  Doing something changes a person.  Whatever the action is.”  She says there is a real transforming power to action itself.  She says for this years race she trained for it and most certainly experienced a real sense of satisfaction.  “By doing something I resolved to do.”  She says that running the one in 2008 was even more fulfilling as it had been such a long period since she had run one.  “It was like getting it back.  That was a very valuable experience.”

When she ran the very first 47 she says that she had never even run a marathon.  As for her thoughts at that moment on the starting line, “I think I wasn’t really thinking.  Which is by far the best.”  She says that like a number of other runner she was given some advice by the great ultra runner Ted Corbitt.  He said, “if you are fit for a marathon, you are fit for this.  The rest is mental.  It was the best thing he could possibly have said.  You shouldn’t be afraid of what you are going to do.  I think the runners of the 3100 say the same thing.  Just do it.”

She says that doing the first lap of the 47 this year was very beautiful.  “Everyone was in a wonderful mood of celebration, and at the same time a bit quiet.  A sense of sacredness at the beginning of what would have been Sri Chinmoy’s 80th birthday.  I thought that was a wonderful way to honor him on his  birthday.” She says that before the first race, Sri Chinmoy gave her permission in private to run the race.  “I have never had a reputation for being an athlete in my whole life.   When I ran the 47, people were really really surprised.  I enjoyed that.”

Click to play interview

Sanjaya, at age 40 ran the second 47 in 1979.  When asked if he was a little frightened of undertaking such an event, he admits, “I was.” His strategy to overcome everything was, “I found the best way was to turn off.”  He says that he would have like to have done more training for the race.  His longest training run prior to the race was to the seaside town of Felixstow, which is 11 miles from his home, and then run back again.  “I remember calling in at an Indian take away at 1 o’clock in the morning, asking them for water.”  When delicately suggesting that seemed very late, he adds, “that is the only time you can do it brother.”

Describing his first 47, he says, “it was a challenge, and actually it was a lot better than I thought.  You were on your own for a lot of it and you could really go in on yourself, quite a bit, and that was quite fun.  I think that by turning off it was easiest to deal with it.” He ultimately did the race 3 times but believes his best was 8:35.  He also suggests that being prepared and fit makes the experience that much better.  “It means you are running much of the time.”

“Here we have some excellent lads.”  Now of course he has been part of the crew for many years.  His role includes delivering sandwiches, back rubs, and the occasional checking of figures.  It is not an easy job but part of the joy of being here is that he it is just one member a large team with everyone contributing,  in their own way to the celebration of Sri Chinmoy’s birthday.

Click to play interview

Animesh was one of a considerable number of runners who for that first 47 mile race who had never even run a marathon.  “It was great, because, I think we all felt that first year, that if Guru had asked us to run the 47 then we had the capacity to do it.  There was no doubt.  The marathon distance, which I had never passed before, felt like a breeze.  It was nothing almost.  Then of course it gets a little harder as you go on. (laughter) It was quite a special time.”

“The physical suffers, there is no doubt about it.  You get out there around the 30 mile mark, which is a totally unknown.  In the weeks prior to it there was a lot of information going in.  (advice from ultra-marathoners like Ted Corbitt)  But then we had to turn it into something practical.  Like actually finishing the race.  Regardless of what the body was going through there was a joy pervading everyone.  Just the fact that we out there doing it for Guru’s birthday.”

I mention that throughout Abakash’s footage of the race he is seen running side by side with Kishore.  “That year was fantastic, because Kishore and I ran together the whole way.  Certainly we had quite a few people putting pressure on us near the end.  I think we came 4th.  Then of course next year (laughter), I never saw Kishore again.

He describes how that for him running the race was all about having faith in his spiritual teacher.  “Of course you realize that it is the making of you, these types of events.  To be able to go out there, and do something you have never done before.  Really transcend your physical and mental limits.  That’s something that really can’t be taken away.  It is something that you have achieved and it is something that is deep within you, always.”

He has just walked the first lap of the 47.  Due to some physical ailments he confesses that his feet aren’t up to much more than that.  “It was great.  Standing at the starting line, I am feeling Guru’s presence.  Knowing it is his birthday.  I was just pulled along.  It was really quite a special feeling.  It is great that it is continuing and it will.  There is no doubt.  This has become an institution.  This race will go on.”

Click to play interview

Guru running 47, 1979, Photo by Bhashwar

Run and become. We run, we become. We run in the outer world, we become in the inner world. We run to succeed, we become to proceed.

Inspiration helps us run, far, farther, farthest. It helps us run the length and breadth of the world. Aspiration helps us become fast, faster, fastest the chosen instrument of our Beloved Supreme.

Inspiration tells us to look around and thus feel and see boundless light, energy and power. Aspiration tells us to dive deep within and enjoy boundless delight, inner nectar and bliss.

Inspiration tells us to claim and proclaim our own divinity, which is our birthright. Aspiration tells us to feel and realise once and for all that we are exact prototypes of our Beloved Supreme. We can be as great, as good, as divine and as perfect as He is. Inspiration tells us to become our true selves. Aspiration tells us to become God Himself.

Inspiration tells us to feel what we soulfully have: God’s Love, God’s Compassion, God’s Beauty and God’s Peace in infinite measure. Aspiration tells us to feel at every moment that we are of the Source and for the Source. We are of our Beloved Supreme the One, and we are for our Beloved Supreme the many. Him to fulfil, Him to manifest, Him to satisfy unconditionally in His own way is of paramount importance.

We run. We become. At every moment we are running to become something great, sublime, divine and supreme. At the same time, while we are becoming, we feel that we are in the process of reaching our ultimate Goal. But today’s goal is only the starting point for tomorrow’s new dawn. At every moment we are transcending our achievements; we are transcending what we have and what we are. By virtue of our self-giving we are becoming the Beauty, the Light and the Delight of our Beloved Supreme.

8pm, October 5th, 1978 Stanford University.

Sri Chinmoy, The Vision-Sky Of California, Agni Press, 1980.

The  journey is not about the number of signposts that you have passed along the way, or who you have left behind. It is more that you have been attentive to your own inner voice and just how many you have inspired and gathered up with your heart’s oneness.  In so many areas of life we judge and measure and attempt to balance all the conflicting and self important bits of who we are and who we think we are.

Here the playing field is flattest for those runners who can somehow manage to toss away the nagging conflicts that erupt between a lethargic body, a restless vital, and a mind tainted by doubt and fear. It never becomes effortless and yet the greatest burden a runner here has to bear are those stubborn bits dredged up from the shadowed places we all have within.

Photo by Jowan

Sri Chinmoy created this race.  His vision now still as bright, gleaming,and fulfilling as it was 15 years ago.  His legacy is not an easy thing to measure.  One can try and count up all his accomplishments.  Somehow attempt to find a formula to measure all his books, his art, his music, his athletic achievements and then again, so much more.

Sri Chinmoy Photo by Bhashwar 1980

Yet if all this were swept away something more significant would still be left.   What would remain would be a goal he set,  not just for his students but perhaps for all humanity as well.  One in which he never tired of illumining for us, and constantly demonstrating,  and continually proving that it was possible to achieve.  Also, if you allowed him to, he would gladly guide and help you to attain your goal.  All this he constantly did, until he breathed his last.

This goal of course is not some secret mystery of life, but always visible should you just open your heart and embrace it.  It is not impossible, it is instead inevitable that we all one day will and must take our own self transcendence journey.  One that is not reached at the end of 3100 miles but one that tirelessly calls us ever onward into the distant shores of our own beyond.

There are many not so glamorous aspects of the race.  Climbing out of the car with all your aches and fatigue refusing to ever let you go.

Ananda- Lahari will not finish the race and yet he will continue until the last drop of time is available to him.

Vajra, a tireless saint doing the most unglamorous job of all.

Pradeep finds himself in a bit of a media spotlight this morning.  Friends back in Holland have been arranging for various interviews with newspaper, radio, and television back home.  When he was younger he was a champion drafts player and traveled to many competitions around the world.

“My main purpose for doing the race was to have a deep spiritual experience.  But I know that other runners after the race, try to inspire their communities or countries with what they have achieved with the help of meditation.

When I came here I never dared to imagine that the media in Holland would be so interested.  It is really great, because now of course it is really happening.  So it is great that my friends back home want to show it now.”  For him as well he is inspired and impressed that all his friends back home have so much enthusiasm and oneness with what he has done here.  “They are doing their best to share the inspiration of the race with other people.”

“I got a last minute invitation to join the race.  I never really showed the capacity that I could even finish the race. Rupantar tried to protect me from myself.  He said, take it easy, don’t even try to finish, just try and do 50 miles a day for the first 3 weeks.  Learn form the other runners.”  He thinks that both he and Rupantar were surprised at how it all turned out.

“I also had no clue how well I had recovered from the earlier 10 day race.  I said, let me take this opportunity that they are giving me.  Let me learn as much as I can and have a great spiritual experience.  Who knows maybe next year I will finish.  I really didn’t think that I would be able to finish this year.

Half way through the race I started to glimpse that I could finish.  More so, my soul, or something higher, really wanted me to finish.  Then suddenly it became a struggle with the part of myself that is insecure.  That doesn’t want to give everything.  That is afraid of the pain and the effort, and the exhaustion.  Part of me didn’t want to open up completely and receive the grace.”

“Basically I was making a good effort, even for the first 3 weeks.  I was giving 100% of my own personal capacities and then for the rest, I was also praying for God’s will to be done, in and through me.  At one point I realized, that if you really want to open up to a higher force, and let that force run through you that is not good enough.  You have to claim God’s will and make it your own.  Only then can you make 200%, because then you are not only with your own efforts and your own capacity.  If you have that Fearless Dedication than you can also draw the Supreme’s capacities.  You are not just running for the Supreme you are running as the Supreme.  Then, once I glimpsed that than resistance also came.”

“I don’t think that I ever felt really bad.  I can say, that I never had as much pain in my life.  But somehow, amidst all that I was still quite happy.  I didn’t suffer.  I didn’t get depressed.  Somehow there was such grace and just such a blessing to be here.”

“With Sri Chinmoy as a force behind this race we realize that we don’t run it for ourselves.  And somehow with the Japanese monks and the Tibetan monks, I did get the feeling that it was question of personal transformation.  Here, even though our capacities are smaller then them.

I don’t feel that we run for ourselves.  Of course we get transformed in the process.  This is I think working on a higher level.  Of course I don’t have a full understanding of what is going on here, but that is my personal feeling.”

“This is a diamond day in a golden incarnation.  It is so special and just to be able to fulfill a kind of dream of the soul within this lifetime.  I am sure the Supreme will allow me to do a few things more for him.  Personally, I don’t need much more than this.  I am quite fulfilled.”

Click to play interview

“On May 30 I sent an email to Den Haag.  I was trying to find out if he would be interested in running the 3100 mile race.  Which he was interested in doing…..next year. I said, this year.  Do you still have the dream?

Pradeep finishes in 7th place in the 3100 mile race.  Becoming the first Nether -lander.  A new national record of 53 days, 9 hours, 3 minutes and 25 seconds.  Which is an average of 58.096 miles per day.  He is now ranked 27th on a list of 31, all time finishers.” Sahishnu

Click to play finish

“I was speaking to Mike from ESPN and he said the course is humble and that really struck me.  Because it is not about the venue, or the course itself.  It is about how the runners react to the race itself.  It’s their reaction and how they overcome the obstacles.  It’s all about the runners. It’s not like we are climbing up Mount Everest, or running around the world.”

“It is just a very simple humble course.  We are just running on this concrete course, a half mile loop, a city block in Queens.  The real emphasis of the race is totally on the runners.  How they react to the various circumstances that occur during the race.  So that is how the self transcendence comes in.”
Click to play interview

“It is a very special day.”  No runner this year has had quite the miraculous experience that Surasa has had.  Last year injury kept her from reaching the goal and it attempted to offer the same fate one more time.  She declined to accept the offer.

I spoke to the chiropractor, Gaurish today, and he says that from his perspective the injury she maintained this year was so severe there was no way she could go on without extensive rest.  He says this as one who is reluctant to offer this doomsday scenario.  In fact he did not tell her.  He simply shared it with the race directors.

When asked if she ever worried about it.  Her answer simply, “I did not think so much.  When it happened, it just happened.”  Very quickly after she was slowed to a walk, the buffer miles she had in the bank, quickly disappeared.  “I didn’t worry about all the miles and all this.”

“I just have to try and then see what happens.”  What happened clearly is that she simply didn’t indulge in fear or worry.  She remained calm and happy, yet at the same time an iron spirit of never giving up pervaded her presence.  Also she says, “everything depends on grace.”

Even when in the early stages when she couldn’t even walk back to the camp, and had to be picked up by a car instead was she overly concerned.  “There was not much thinking.  You just have to wait and let things be uncovered, day after day.”

She has not returned to her previous running speed but still she moves quite quickly.  “I am really surprised that I have this pace.  But today I know that I have to be careful and to take it easy.  That is my feeling for today.  No pushing.  No looking at the time.”

As for tomorrow.  “It will be very boring not to get up at 5 o’clock.  I don’t know how I can manage this.  Not to come here.” (laughter)

Click to play interview

Poem of the Day

Recited by Salil

Enthusiasm Awakeners

Click to play

“Against all odds.  This young lady at age 52, has accomplished the impossible.  She had this resolve, this steely determination to finish the race.  She believed, she had the faith, and she had the grace from above, and the determination from within to reach the goal.  So Surasa Mairer, at age 52, becomes the 2nd woman in the history of the race.  She is ranked 28th out of 31 runners.  She is the 109th performance in the history of the race.  She averaged 57.7 miles per day.  She is the 2nd oldest finisher in the race.  Finishing the race in 53 days, 15 hours, 54 minutes, and 25 seconds.  Congratulations, unforgettable.”Sahishnu

click to play finish

Surasa remarks

The body’s food
Is matter-made.
The soul’s food
Is spirit-made.
Gratitude-life,
Gratitude-heart for God
Is food for the soul.
Perfection-cry
Is food for the soul.
Heart’s awakening
Is food for the soul.

Sri Chinmoy, Transcendence-Perfection, Agni Press, 1975.

Somewhere in the Ukraine or maybe even in the Russian Federation a young runner went out running knowing that by tonight something  significant would  at last be realized.  Something that would take place far away but still be able to uplift their own dreams.

For no matter how you look at it, Stutisheel, over 8 years has been a consistent and true  inspirer of distance runners throughout the region.  Tonight in what is most certainly an historic event, he will complete the Self Transcendence 3100 mile race for the 8th year.

They may have never met him, perhaps only read one of his books, or attended one of his talks.  They may have never even fully committed themselves to the spiritual life, or maybe never even run as far as a marathon.  Yet still they have somehow heard of his historic accomplishments and felt in themselves an unmistakable inner thrill.

We know this to be true because once upon a time a young runner from Berdansk, Ukraine, felt this same thing.  His name is Sarvagata.  In Vinnitsa, also a young runner named Igor was dreaming of the 3100.  Both thinking it was impossible,  not just to run 3100 miles, but also to spend such a lengthy time here in New York so far far away from home.

Yet in their admiration of Stutisheel they found that the impossible was possible.  That he was just the first of many who would follow in his steps and find their own places on the starting line.  Find that transcendence is not to be taken lightly but with absolute willingness, cheerfulness, and surrender to whatever the inner experience commands that you do.

Now one can follow Stutisheel’s whole experience this year on his blog or this one.  See pictures of all the highs and lows and everything in between.  For some it just may be so remote and impossible that they can only shake their heads with wonder.  But despite this there is some runner who is out training and preparing themselves even now.  Stutisheel’s magnificent accomplishment shines like a distant star in the sky for them.  Yet each step they take draws them ever closer, so that one day they too might shine as bright as he.

We don’t really know what it has been like to have been here for these past 8 summers.  Each one adding something more to his inner life and to that of his family as well.  None of us has a shopping list to pick and choose what experiences we want to have in our lives.

It all looks so mundane and ordinary when you see him sit here like that.  Yet in a few hours more he will complete his 7th race.  Daughter Alakananda a huge part of this epic journey.

Start

Day 53

This morning the reality has not yet quite sunk in.  For Stutisheel just 56 miles remain.  Soon the race will be over and yet there is still a lot of experiencing of life to be enjoyed throughout the long day ahead.

He says that for the past week he has been doing his absolute maximum.  “I need a little more time to wake up, to feel something.”(laughter)

“A few days ago I asked the Supreme to help me get out of my mind.  I see that my mind has been indulging in negativity, and I suffer from this very much.” He says he prayed that he be relieved of this burden until the end of the race.  He laughs and says that in this he was successful, “no mind.”

“Somehow after Independence day (July 4), my speed declined.”  He says that for sometime he has been suffering from shin splints.  “It is a strange pain and I cannot do anything with it.  No previous experience helped me.”  He says it was Ashprihanal who actually understood what his problem was.  “Still nothing can cure it.” He has had it continually for the past 32 days. The other new problem is a sciatic nerve problem.  “But I am living with them happily and they are living with me happily also and don’t want to leave.”

“Now it is clear, that I am doing all that I can here.  I am quite happy.  I was not a slave to inertia, or weakness.  I was doing what I can do and my soul was pleased.  We have this saying, the body is dying but the soul is flying.  I felt it many times during this race.”  He says that he also heard this summer that Sri Chinmoy once predicted that no one would ever receive a permanent injury participating in one of these races.  “I found that so inspiring.”  He illustrates this by saying he was so able to recover from his leg problem last year that he could come back here again this year and once again complete the race.

“Quite often during this race I was comparing myself to the fellow who came here the first several years.  Back then, I would say I was a guy with abundant energy.  I used to really hold myself the first half of the race.  Don’t burn out.  Keep it for the second half.  Now many say that I am a wise man.  I am even.  Not sprinting anymore.  I just love the speed but I can’t.”

Click to play part one

He describes some of his experiences with the Doctors who came here and tried their absolute best to help and cure all his ills.  They always try their best but ultimately the hand of fate will ultimately decide which pain to relieve or injury to cure.  “Still I am happy.”

While we are running we pass the Enthusiasm Awakeners who know that this is his last day and they come forward to give him a special cheer.  Also, a local morning exerciser. who comes by every day to power walk across the street, comes across to congratulate him.

Stutisheel also has many fond and vivid memories of Sri Chinmoy who he saw here at the race many times.  “When Ashprihanal finished this year.  I felt Sri Chinmoy’s presence vividly.  I was literally crying.”   He said he could envision his late teacher sitting at the finish line enjoying the finish.  Which for Ashprihanal as well are the brightest moments of his life as well.

“It was I believe 2006.  When like this year I was slow, but even slower, and it was a much hotter year than this one.  So by the end of the race I was not within the limit of 51 days, and it was so hard.  Constant heat, and I was walking, like dead.”  He had already completed 3000 miles but was in a tough way.  “It was really hard for me.”  At that moment Sri Chinmoy was at the course offering prasad to the runners.  Because the time limit had passed he was almost certain that Sri Chinmoy would suggest that he stop.  Instead he said, “Only 100 miles to go.”

He recalls a previous year when many of the other runners had finished and he was still on the course and struggling.  Sri Chinmoy at that time was there celebrating a runners finish and also taking the opportunity to ask who would come back and run the following.  He asked each in turn and eventually all agreed to come back.  Stutisheel says he had a lap to think it over.  Should he or shouldn’t he come again.  When he circled back around again he heard his teacher call out.

“Heh Stutisheel, will you run next year? Yes, if you want me too.  I want more people to run the 3100.  I could not resist his affection and concern.  I smiled spontaneously from within, and I said yes, and he was smiling so brightly.”

“I really adore the spirit of self transcendence, and when you do everything that you can, then the Supreme does the rest.  That Changes me.” As for a next year, he says, “everything is possible.”

Click to play part two

“I think it is more sad than happy.”  Alakananda has been up most of the night working on her slide show and yet wants to be here and help her Dad on his last day.  “The last day is always a little bit sad.  You know, it is over for the year.  But now that we know that it is over for possibly for ever, it is a little more sad.  I guess that is life.  I feel there is always the next step.  You cannot always do the same thing for your whole life, and be happy.  Because there might be some other plans for you.  You have to be prepared that you have to go somewhere else farther, the next step.”

“The tough experiences are always very tough of course.  But there is not enough love in this world, so those experiences actually make me feel that consciously.  That is pretty amazing.  I don’t think I have had that before, this is the first year.”

“All the runners are contributing to the general consciousness of the race which is my home.”

Click to play interview

There never seems quite enough room to include all the wonderful people who help out or simply come by to inspire the runners.  Felix is a massage therapist who has helped a lot here.  He says, “there is a tangible vibration here that you will feel.” Mercedes and her dogs.

Poem of the Day

Recited by Kodanda

Enthusiasm Awakeners

Click to play

“Finishing in 6th place, in a time of 52 days 16 hours, 19 minutes, and 18 seconds, it is not his fastest but he is still ranked 17th all time out of 31, averaging 58.49 miles per day.

He is the champion of champions.  7 finishes in 8 attempts extraordinary.  I don’t know how many times around this course.  Thousands and thousands of laps.  Self giving laps, thinking about higher realities.  He has 7 peaks that he has reached, the Everest of ultra distance running.” Sahishnu

Click to play finish

If you forget to dream
Of higher realities,
The higher realities
Will never be manifested.

Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 22, Agni Press, 2001.

To observers it was so effortless it was almost as though they barely touched the ground.   Their faces continually turned up to the sky, focusing on a single celestial object.

In her book, “Magic and Mystery in Tibet,” the author Alexandra David_Neel, wrote

“By that time he had nearly reached us; I could clearly see his perfectly calm impassive face and wide-open eyes with their gaze fixed on some invisible far distant object situated somewhere high up in space. The man did not run. He seemed to lift himself from the ground, proceeding by leaps. It look as if he had been endowed with the elasticity of a ball and rebounded each time his feet touched the ground.”

Less mythical and certainly very real are the marathon monks of Japan called Kaihigyo, a Buddhist sect based in Kyoto Japan.  They are recognized as spiritual athletes and train extremely hard both in their exercise regime and in their meditation. Their ultimate goal is to one day complete a 1,000 day challenge.  Only 46 men have completed this feat of fasting, chanting, and running in the last 130 years.

There is no simple all encompassing description for anything to do with the self transcendence race, other than the two words that make up its name.

After that the mental world flounders at trying to grasp the enormity and significance of how the runners do what they do, and more significantly just how powerful, peaceful, and transformative it is to be there and identify with it.

*Yesterday the injured Surasa increased her mileage once more and completed 106 laps (58 miles) She has 3 days to complete 168 more miles*

Pradeep the birthday boy arrives.  He said that for some days he has felt extra enthusiasm and energy.  That his soul day would not just be celebrated on Tuesday, but instead the inspiration could be felt for many more days.

Stutisheel is nearing the end of his race.  Sometime near the end of the evening on Wednesday he will be able to complete his 7th 3100 mile race.

For Ananda Lahari, as much as he would dearly like to see 3100 by his name it is simply not going to take place this year.

Start

Day 52

As always the birthday song is sung.  His comrades rejoice that they have all shared an incredible and unique experience together.  His has been a joyful soulful journey. Atmavir and all the rest who have finished will come by.

“I have to say that when I was thinking how it would be like to have my birthday here, I didn’t know what it would be like.  I had hopes that I would be super strong and not tired.  That kind of didn’t happen.  It took me a while to remember it was my birthday.  I dragged myself out of the slumber of sleep.”

“Then I feel as though my consciousness is very light and very happy, even though my body is tired and aching.”

As for which of his 33 birthdays has been the happiest.
Well this one isn’t over but it is going to rank very high.”

“Being together for so many days we all get a real inner connection with the other runners.  They become friends on a completely different level.  It is just very special to me and fulfilling to be together with them on my birthday.”

“It is not so much the technical things, although it definitely helps.  I did a few extra laps the last few days.”

“it it is the joy I suddenly got from seeing Unmukta on the block.”  For the past few days a surprise helper has been almost ceaselessly at his side to aide Pradeep.

Pradeep had called him the best birthday present and for even a casual observer he seems to be helping Pradeep tirelessly and selflessly.

Just his appearance alone gave him the confidence to be able to say, “then I knew I was going to make it when I saw him.”

“I already knew that I was getting so much inner support “  I ask if it it was like the frosting on a birthday cake and he says, “no, this is like the whole birthday cake.”

“We are really good friends but at home we usually don’t have time to do things together.  I am just really happy that he is inspired by the race, and we can experience this together.  Because it is a really special experience for me.  I am happy to share it this way with him.”

“On a physical outer level it is also great.  It is just very special.”

click to play interview

“I am just using the opportunity to bask in the soul’s effulgence, on the birthday of Pradeep.”  For a period this morning Pradeep runs with Stutisheel.  With just 4 runners on the course the opportunity to have a companion does not come too often any more.  Pradeep is also running faster.  He ran 66 miles to Stutisheels 57 yesterday.  But for a while at least their pace and rhythm are in sync.

“I am using the draft of Stutisheel, who has seen the goal, and he will reach it tomorrow evening.  He is speeding up because it is getting within reach.”

I ask Stutisheel what he feels Pradeep as a newcomer has brought to the 3100. “I don’t feel that he is a new runner.  He told me that for many years he was dreaming of participating in this race.  This year when he came it was quite natural.  He just immediately became a member of the 3100 mile boat.  And I am also pretty amazed that I have never seen him down, he always seems okay.  He had physical problems but his consciousness was always quite good.  He never complains, always smiling.”

I suggest that this has to be the key for the success of all the runners.  “It is not a new thing for me but still it is hard to implement.  For example when you have something happen to you on the material level, like a blister, or some other injury.  You can do things to fix it, and you know it.   But when you have inner problems, you know what to do, but the affects can come or not come.  It is just up to a higher force. So we just need to be wise and patient.”

I ask Pradeep now that he has run so far can he imagine doing it like Stutisheel has done.  “It is amazing somebody doing this race 8 times.  The guys who have done it before have cleared the way for all of us.  so many things we learn from them.  We don’t have to make the same mistakes.”  He says that Stutisheel has been telling him many of the stories from the past history of the race particularly when Sri Chinmoy still came.  “We are reliving those moments together.  It is great it is amazing.”

Click to play interview

“It is nice.  Once you are here you can really see what is involved.”  Unmukta started off as a surprise guest of the race but quickly as become an integral part of Pradeep’s running these past few days.  But he as well has benefited a lot as well.  “I was just realizing it today.  It started to sink in how special it is to be here, and also really get the feeling of the race.”

“I am following Pradeep and I realize how intense it is here.  He has to keep going.  He takes little breaks but immediately he has to get up.  Be focused, be disciplined.  That is really amazing.”

He has learned many little things that most outside observers cannot see.  Like even during his short 15 minute naps, something inner is happening, he gets inner strength. “A powerful recharging. That is how he experiences it.”

He said a lot of factors influenced his decision to come and help out.  Ultimately it came down to a feeling, “I should be there, to help out a few days.  It is so special.  It is so fantastic to be a part of it.”

When asked what has impressed him the most since he came.  “I think it is also the oneness.  This feeling I already got a little bit at home, how much oneness there is with everybody”

Due to a change of scheduling he is leaving tomorrow, a day before Pradeep’s finish on Thursday night.   “I will try and be there inwardly.”

Sri Chinmoy 1979 photo by Bhashwar

“Just to be in this area, is kind of special.” Unmukta has been a student of Sri Chinmoy for many years.  He recalls how so much of Sri Chinmoy’s sporting activities took place in and around this area.  He was able to share some of this with a younger friend today who had no idea of the long and powerful history this area represents to the entire group.  He describes this block simply, “as where it all started.”

“It is beyond the mind to think that they are running 2 and 1/2 marathons every day, for 52 days.  That is unbelievable.”

For pradeep, “today is the important day for him.  He said, if it goes well today, then he can finish it probably by walking.  It has always been a dream for him.”

Click to play interview

Poem of the Day

Recited by Satyavrata

Enthusiasm Awakeners

Click to play

Question: Can we purify our daily actions?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly, that is what we are aiming at. If we cannot purify our daily actions, then how are we going to make progress? Again, if we make progress, then only can we purify our life. These things go together. If I become good, only then will I become a good instrument of God. And if I become a chosen instrument of God, then only will I become really divine. They go together. It is like meditation in action. If I meditate well, then only can I think of loving God and serving God. Again, if I serve God devotedly and unconditionally, then only can I think of meditating at my highest. As action and meditation go together, so purity in our day-to-day life and spiritual progress must go together; they are complementary. If we don’t have purity, we cannot make very fast progress. And any progress that we do make does not remain permanently if we do not have purity. So, purity is of paramount importance in the spiritual life.

ri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy Speaks, Part 8, Agni Press, 1976.

The runners who come here to the 3100 each year do not have the singular excuse that human nature can provide, to do what they do.  Their journey goes no where but around and around.  It is a task in which though they are never hungry they are however almost always continually sore and tired. All their human needs and wants could easily be fulfilled back home in their own countries.  There is no incentive to do this other than one that is indescribable and is generated by a deep and inner source.

Atmavir today will finish the race for the 5th year in a row today.  “I feel very grateful to be here this year, though it was a very difficult year for everybody.  For me it was absolutely the toughest one.  For me it was a miracle that I was able to compete the race this year.”  He says that on the very hot day 2 weeks ago, that when he left the track that night he went home and had tremendous problems.  “I felt it might be over.”  He says that it was only through divine grace that he was able to complete the race this year.  “I am very grateful.”

Despite being so difficult he says, “I got inner fulfillment.  There are more things than miles and laps here.”  He feels as though he made real progress towards his goal.  He then reads a poem which he says helped him tremendously.

How can he be happy
When wild storms are ahead of him?
How can he be happy
When red dangers are beside him?
He can be happy,
He can be happy
Because his Master has said:
“Be happy.”

How can he be happy
When he knows that he has failed
In his life-examination?
How can he be happy
When he knows that he has fought
Against the compassion-warriors of Light?
He can be happy,
He can be happy
Because his Master has said:
“Be happy.”

Sri Chinmoy, The Dance Of Life, Part 16, Agni Press, 1973.

A friend from home sent the poem and he says that receiving it gave him tremendous inspiration.  “I feel that oneness of paramount importance in the spiritual life, and to be aware of your goal.  I really felt I touched the level that I was aware of my goal, and all the time try and feel oneness with others.”

“This year I felt as though you really had to pray for protection, because it was so intense, right from the beginning, for everybody.  I am extremely grateful that many people prayed for us and felt oneness with us, and they supported us in many different ways.  Many local disciples they offered their heart.  And of course my brothers and sisters from many different countries all over the world.  I really felt support from different places.  I am really grateful for that and I treasure it very much.”

Click to play interview

For all the true followers of Surasa they are probably not too surprised that this marvelous lady seems to be somehow finding a way to get through her injury.  It is not always pretty, it has to hurt, but somehow her formula for facing grim adversity just seems to be working. She doubled her lap count yesterday and managed 100 (54 miles) She has 4 days to do 216 miles. In other words she just has to repeat this again every day in order to succeed.

Start

Day 51

“It takes a lot to do what they do, day in day out.”  Bobby is a long time friend of the race.  His parent’s home is just a block away and he has often been around to support the runners.  Not a stranger to long distances he used to drive across the country in his 18 wheel truck twice a month.

“I go away for 2 weeks and come back, and they are still running. You see them continuously going and going.  It really encourages me to go too.”

He tries to do 4 laps each time he is here, and repeat it again in the evening.  “When I talk to these runners what I do is not even a warmup.  It encourages the whole neighborhood.”

Click to play interview

Sandhani has been a race director since the very early years of the Sri Chinmoy marathon team.  The group has continually put on many multiday races and says that it was in 1991 that the seeds for this race were first planted.  It took a few years to work out all the logistics of just how to go about doing it successfully.  He says that Sri Chinmoy during this period would gently ask about it.

He says that Sri Chinmoy envisioned and wanted it very much.  His reaction, “how can we do this?”

“It is a commitment.  Obviously we do a lot of work, physical work, and planning.”  It also needs the help of many people to cover all the facets of the race.  “We are there every day.  You don’t work as hard as the runners do physically.  But we have to be there as well until the distance is covered by all the runners.  There is no letting up any way.”

“I always felt that the multi day races are an amazing manifestation of Sri Chinmoy.  The running I find is the medium that he is using.  They are uniquely his creation.”

“The main thing was to take care of the runners, as much as possible.  They are all really putting themselves out to conquer the distance.”  He feels that Sri Chinmoy manifests something powerful and unique, in and through these races.  “They are conducted according to his wishes and his vision.  I feel that there is something he brings to the earth consciousness, in and through the runners, and everybody who helps, and everybody who is involved.”

He says that Sri Chinmoy used to come by the race at least 2 times a day and even sometimes 4 times.  He feels that he had real love and concern for the event and was particularly pleased with all those who could identify with it.

He says Sri Chinmoy had a real love of running.  Eventually injuries forced him to stop his own running and eventually in the mid 1980′s he turned his attention to weight lifting.  Sandhani says he once asked him once which sport he preferred.  The tone of his words conveyed his feelings, there was no comparison.  Running gave him infinitely more satisfaction.

“He loved it.  Running was a real spiritual metaphor in this world in which we live.” He adds that he is grateful to be able to serve the race and see it to its completion.  “It is a great satisfaction.”

Click to play interview

Poem of the Day

Recited by Nishta

Enthusiasm Awakeners

Click to play

“Ladies and Gentlemen, finishing in 5th place in a time of 50 days, 8 hours, 59 minutes and 7 seconds, which is 61.542 miles a day.  This was his 5th consecutive finish.  This young man is a really fantastic runner.  He still holds the 7th fastest time.” Sahishnu

“I am coming back.” Atmavir

Click to play Finish

Question: Is it better to use heart-power or mind-power?

Sri Chinmoy: If it is the illumined mind, or the mind that has achieved light, then you can use it. But if the mind is still only in the process of searching for good, for light, then use the heart. In the heart, the light of the soul is always more prominent than it is in the mind. Heart-power is one with the soul’s light. Mind-power at times glimpses this light and at times does not.Mind-power is tricky; heart-power is never tricky. Mind-power cherishes separativity; heart-power cherishes oneness. The ordinary mind uses power to dominate, to possess, to lord it over others. It gets joy from a conscious, deliberate, uncompromising sense of separativity. The heart derives fulfillment only from oneness. So let us use heart-power as often as possible. Only if the mind has achieved light should we use it.

Sri Chinmoy, The Giver And The Receiver, Agni Press, 1987.

Runners, helpers, well wishers all caught up in a dizzy swirl of anticipation.  Who dares or wants to see that an inevitable  stone faced conclusion was going to simply march forward to end it all.  Perhaps not to mortal ears but certainly to some, the distinct discordant note of finality could always be heard, even when the calender made it all seem so so distant and so endless.

Back then certainly I could not peer forward into the murky mists of time.  Now of course you don’t need any telepathy, or crystal ball, or conjuring spell.  An ever increasing weight of quietness, and a sobering lack of energy is tangible and real here now. The great fat luxury of what appeared to be endless time has now been reduced to just 5 stick thin days.

Four runners have retired victoriously from the course and one was felled by injury.   The math is clear, that leaves but 5 gallant souls to continue the great odyssey on their own.  The board is static with victory banners, a few are still creeping their way up there as well.  But 5 less bodies means 5 less footfalls, 5 less smiles and cheers, and all who are left are more alone on the half mile loop than ever.

Then you have the incomprehensible saga of Surasa.  The luxurious reservoir she had in order to reach the goal has been reduced to vapors.  2 days ago she completed just 12 miles and yesterday 27.  In front of her is 261 more unflinching miles and 5 hot days in which to do it.

The Las Vegas odds makers certinaly wouldn’t  put any money on her chances here, and yet.

And yet today she begins to tentatively run once more, if even for a few steps here and there.  To push and prod her way back from the brink of disaster. How this story will conclude I cannot yet see or hear.  It is only on the tablet of her heart that it is etched clear.  Eventually time will be forced to share it with us all.

Start

Day 50

Atmavir went home last night with the goal clearly insight.  He completed 3000 miles before retiring for the day.  Sometime on Monday he should arrive at the finish line at last.

There is none of the runners who seem to take as much delight in what they do here as does Ananda Lahari.  He never displays even a hint of agitation or worry.  Rather he just seems to beam constantly with light and joy.

He is now 5 days away from the end of the race and has an impossible task of trying to complete 5oo miles in that time.  I ask him if nobody made him stop after 54 days would he simply keep coming back and keep running.

He says, “maybe like Forest Gump.  Go, go, go, go on, and a certain point you say, I am tired. I am going home.”

“Here everything is intense.  So it is a great opportunity to make progress, and to serve.  When I am at home it is intense but not as intense as here.  I go as fast as possible.  I can’t really push more.”

“Now I don’t have strength.  When you are strong you can push for 2 laps.  Now I can’t go any faster.”

“It doesn’t affect me that people have left.  It affects me that it is so long.(laughter) But it is hard.  You may see the end of the race coming closer but it is tricky.  Now it is like 5 days to go, but every day is so long.  It can somehow catch you if you are impatient, or that you cannot get there.”

“I am looking forward to it. (the end) I would say that it is clear that I am not going to complete 3100 miles.  I like to run but I am just walking, walking. So it is quite hard.  It is harder to walk then to run.  It will make it easier for me when it ends.”

“I am on my gratitude schedule, but I know that I can do much more.  I feel much more gratitude than previous years. But I know it is not infinite gratitude yet.  You have to try and do you best.  To think of the Supreme as much as possible. It takes time to get to perfection, perfect perfection.   I don’t worry that I am not doing so well for a few years.  Everything is okay.  It is a journey, and we don’t know what we get.”

Click to Play interview

The appearance of Unmukta is a surprise to everyone including Pradeep.  Now it is clear that nothing is for certain here but to have a friend at his side for the next few days is a real boon.

Pradeep, whose birthday is on Tuesday looks upon his arrival as a real birthday present.

Last night Nikhad was at the race to shut down as he usually does.  You have to put away all the tables and stuff, and then you have to park the vehicles, so it was probably quite a bit past midnight when he was finished with his duties.  What he did next is not what he usually does.  For then he got on his bike and road almost non stop for the next 5 hours.  He had completed 70 miles.  The only reason he stopped then was because he then had to set up the camp again for this morning.

“In the pitch dark, I made loops around the 3100 mile course.  It was nice. Terrific.  I was full of energy.”  After 9 this morning he says he will continue his cycling  journey. He tells me that once he biked for 66 hours without sleeping and without stopping.  So I can do much more than 5 hours.”

When he continues to ride he hopes to go an additional 55 or 60 more miles.  Other bikers  are also involved in Nikhad’s project, which he is doing to celebrate what would have been Sri Chinmoy’s 80th birthday.  “I hope a few more people will participate.”

Click to play interview

Last year the Doctor told me I had gained a lot of weight.  My Doctor said, that if you don’t start running or walking you are going to have a problem.”  In May of last year Taposh started and hasn’t stopped.  He immediately chose the 3100 mile course as his running route and goes to the gym only when the weather is bad.

He works for NYPD traffic control directing traffic.  It is standing he says but not really movement.  When he first came here he ran really fast and couldn’t even make one lap.  “They asked me, why do you run so fast?  So they gave me tips and they gave me inspiration.  I really appreciate them and am grateful to them.  They taught me how to run especially this guy Atmavir.”

He now is up to running about 5 miles a day.  Of the course he too finds that it is a spiritual place.  He says that last year Dharbhasana and Pushkar told him that being here is not just about the physical.  “I realize that,  so I am grateful to them and appreciate them.”

Click to play interview

Poem of the Day

Recited by Unmukta

Enthusiasm Awakeners

Click to Play

I make progress fast
When my mind
Cheerfully loves God.
I make progress faster
When my heart
Soulfully serves God.
I make progress fastest
When my life
Unconditionally obeys God.

Sri Chinmoy, Fast, Faster, Fastest Progress, Agni Press, 1994.

What is similar throughout all the variations of the tale is how, once it is reduced to ashes, it rises up again to take flight.  It somehow lives again as it did before.

Surasa has amazingly reappeared on the course again this morning.  Maybe not rising out of the ashes, and certainly not immortal, but just perhaps maybe unstoppable, as she refuses to give up her flight of self transcendence.

“I am just trying to see if I can walk properly.  I like to be here and to be out, and not to lie down.  I just came and I will try and see if it gets better.

The first Doctor said that it was a very deep muscle inside my calf and it was injured, and I have to rest for 3 days.  Then I should see her and she would tell me if I can walk or run.

After this I thought, I have to try everything.”  Then she visited a local auyervedic Doctor who gave her some pills and a massage oil.  “Ahh, in 3 or 4 hours you can run.”  (Laughter)  “And I was looking at him, hunnh?  He was absolutely sure, yes.  Of course.  In 3 or 4 hours you will run.”

After this she went home and applied the oil, took the pills, and came back to the race.  So she continued.  Not flying, not running, but at least she is walking.  “What can I do?  You have to take it and accept it.  That’s life.”

Click to play Surasa interview

Pranjal patches himself up so that he can once again enter into the battlefield of life.  He does not wear beautiful armor, he has no charioteer to speed his way into the fray.  No sacred weapons or magic spells to subdue all the enemies he surely must face.  No army marches at his side for he goes out alone to face the day.

Yet he does hear a General’s call that beckons him to come forth.  One that he can scarce resist and one that is so strong he hears it resonate within every part of his being.

Not just one mighty roar but instead a comforting and consistent command.  It is one that gives him strength and courage when the outcome of the battle seems most in doubt, and gives him extra speed when the way is clear.

His trust so complete he holds back nothing to its call.  For how can he resist.  How dare he fail his one and only sacred task.  To not go forth at all is to die a thousand times.

Now there are just 10 miles more to go.  Soon it all will be done.  Done but not yet over.

On a practical level Surasa has to be taped up this morning to make even walking possible.  The only certain thing is her will and wish to continue.

Start

Day 49

After Pranjal finishes today the next to finish will be Atmavir, sometime on Monday.  More and more will take up places on the sidelines.

It is while having a discussion with Pranjal that the topic of being forced to stop running comes up.  He snaps his fingers and says, it can be over like that.  If it were to happen to him he says, “in this case it is really hard.  I don’t know if it were to happen to me if it would be so easy to accept it.  I mean I would have to, but it is not easy.”

“In my first year I had this ankle injury.  It was like the 4th to 7th day.  I was thinking that it was over actually.  I could not even walk properly.  I did 50 laps in 12 hours, then 8 laps in another 3 hours or more.  I couldn’t even step on it.  I was thinking.  That’s it. It’s over.”

“The next day I went to see the Doctor.  He looked at my feet and said for 2 weeks you have to stay in bed.  With the leg up.  Your joints are overloaded. So I looked at him, aw come on.  I knew what it was, but what I wanted was to know how to run with it.  He said, I cannot run.”

“So I said okay.  I will put a bandage around it and run as hard as I can.  I will either destroy the ankle completely or get healed.  So in 7 laps it was okay.  It disappeared.  It was over.”

“It was a kind of miracle.  I was suffering for 3 days and couldn’t even step on the ankle.  Then I just pushed through it and it disappeared.  (He completed the race in 59 days and some hours) He has completed the race every year he has entered.

It was a dream of his to run the race for a long time.  “I couldn’t imagine me running the race because it was just too expensive.  While visiting China in 2004 he decided, “I am just going to run it.  I will not think about the money I will just apply.”  In that year both Pranb, Ananda Lahari, and he were accepted.  “Then the money came after that.”

I ask if he ever wonders if there are others who get the inspiration to come and then simply don’t apply.  “The main thing is our doubts.  People doubt that they are able to do it.  That it is too hard or they are not fit enough.  Or they will suffer too much.  You just have to look at Sarvagata.  The best he has done till now was 60 miles a day for 10 days.  Now he has done almost 70 miles a day for, I don’t know how many days.”

“Here on this course something special is happening here.  Some kind of special energy.  I don’t know what it is but it helps them to do better.  But you have to want to do it.  You have to feel that you want to do it.  Nobody can really push you.”

“This race will change you.  Once you go through this race something inside you will change forever.  You learn something about yourself.  You will find capacity within yourself that you hadn’t even dreamed about before.”

“You have no idea how hard this race is.  You can’t even think or imagine how hard it is.  Only after you have done it can you realize how hard it is.  It is really really hard to even imagine.  What you have to go through.”

“I mean in my case, I was given the capacity to do it.  So from my point of view it is my duty to use this capacity.”  He the suggests that because of this he has to simply go on until the capacity is  then taken away.

“Any capacity that you have been given by God you have to use it.  It doesn’t matter what the capacity is.  Otherwise it will be taken away.  It is some kind of grace.  This capacity which we get here is a kind of grace.  So we have to use it.  Otherwise it is just wasted.  I don’t think that it is my capacity I feel that it came from somewhere above.”

“It is not that I want or don’t want to run.  I will do it as long as I have the capacity to do it.”

“I am giving my best only here.  The rest of the year is just preparation for next year.  I feel this race is so intense and you have so many experiences inside that it can really feed you all year. I am not as focused the rest of the year like I am right here. Because here I am just focused on what I am supposed to do. Here is only one thing that you have to do.  Just to run as much as possible.  So it is kind of easy.  Out there in the world are so many distractions that can take away your concentration.  It is much harder in the outside world.”

photo by Jowan

For him crossing the finish line is not what it is all about.  “For me it is just a number, 3100.  What is really important is what you experience throughout the whole race.”

The cake and the bells and all the celebration at  the finish line, “is just the top of the iceberg.  The main thing is under the water. The race is going somewhere in between the start and the end.  For me the goal is not important it is the way to the goal.”

Click to play interview

Poem of the Day

Recited by Sasha

Enthusiasm Awakeners

Click to play

“Can you imagine.  A guy as big as him going around this course 5649 times times 7.

The 7th finish for our 4th place finisher this year.  In 48 days, 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 5 seconds.  It is less than a day behind his record setting pace for himself last year.  And when you consider that he lost a whole day because of the heat.  He is right there.”

“He is always the first one in the morning and the last one to leave.  He averaged 64.44 miles.  He is still ranked 12 all time out of 29 finishers.”

“His consistency is remarkable.  He is our hero.” Sahishnu

Click to play finish

THE GOAL OF THE BEYOND

Obey and trust,
Trust and obey.
Indeed, this is the short way
To the Goal of the Beyond.

Love and serve,
Serve and love.
Indeed, this is the shorter way
To the Goal of the Beyond.

Surrender and offer,
Offer and surrender.
Indeed, this is the shortest way
To the Goal of the Beyond.

Sri Chinmoy, The Dance Of Life, Part 20, Agni Press, 1973.