Month: July 2015

In the morning I asked Stutisheel if he wanted to tell me some of his favorite experiences that he has had here at the 3100 mile race.

“I believe one lap will not be enough.  Over the years there have been many good stories.”

Stutisheel and his family have lived and experienced a lot here at the race.  Coming nearly every year since 2004, only Ashprihanal has been here more times.  As I listen to some of his remarkable tales it is easy to see why it has so profoundly shaped and illumined his family and himself.

“All the diamonds in my life I found here, on this half mile loop.”

https://vimeo.com/133243153

“I remember one time I was walking for three days.  Everything was okay, I didn’t have any blisters.  The problem was that I was so weak, and nobody could fix it.  By the end of day 3 I was pretty much depressed.  Many doubts started coming to my mind.”  Stutisheel was not certain what was the true source of his problem.  He felt he had some weakness that he could not transcend.

On this very same day his daughter, Alakananda went to a function where his spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy was going to be there.  At the end of the evening Sri Chinmoy, as was his custom was handing out prasad to the children.  Instead of giving her one piece he gave Alakananda 2.  “This is for your father.”

“She came running to me at 10pm.  I have prasad for you.  The moment I took this prasad I had a flash.”

Stutisheel’s instantaneous experience was that he suddenly realized that all he needed to do was to simply keep moving, no matter with what speed.  If he could do this he knew he would be pleasing his soul and pleasing his heart.

“That was such an illumining experience that the next day I was running again.”

Stutisheel describes another time in a different race when he was having such serious problems in his legs that he could barely walk.  “It was pain, pain, pain.”  Once again nothing seemed to help.  “Then Sri Chinmoy came to know about my walking and my suffering.”

“The next morning miraculously the pain decreased dramatically and I could run again.  Than in the morning Sri Chinmoy came and was giving out prasad from his car.  He asked me, how are you? It was than that I realized that it was he who was behind this miraculous cure.  I had a broad smile and I said, thank you Guru.  I am fine.”

Sri Chinmoy’s car than moved further off down the road and stopped where his daughter Alakanda was.  “He gave prasad to my daughter and told her, I put a strong force into your father.”

Stutisheel than describes how his daughter and wife were so happy with what had just happened that they believed that he would now be able to finish the race.  “But I immediately felt that this force I had just received was not just for that race but was enough for me to complete any 3100 mile race I attempted right into the future.  For all my life.”

Stutisheel than quotes a favorite passage from  Sri Chinmoy’s writings.

Question: How can we effectively channel spiritual energy into physical energy

Sri Chinmoy: We have to know that physical energy has only one source, and that source is spiritual energy. As long as we remain in the body-consciousness, we are not aware of this. But when we go deep within, we see that spiritual energy is the source of physical, vital and mental energy. When spiritual energy enters into the physical, it becomes somewhat polluted. It is unable to maintain its pristine purity. What we need is purity on the inner plane and dedication on the outer plane. Inner purity we can get through aspiration, and outer dedication comes through gradual inner purification and inner awareness. When we have both inner purity and outer dedication, then spiritual energy enters into physical energy, and physical energy at that time becomes an added strength to spiritual energy.

Continue reading “July 11: Diamonds In My Life”

“I feel good.  I feel amazing, every day is better.”

Every year since 2008 Baladev Saraz, a 39 year old runner from Slovakia has spent his summer running around Thomas Edison High school in Queens New York.  For the past 26 days he has done exactly what he loves most.

Putting on his shoes and heading around the block for 18 straight hours.  A different direction every day.  He would like to complete the 3100 miles that he and 10 other runners are all trying to achieve.  In front of him now is just 26 more days in which to do it.  No matter what the outcome may be,  he will love and cherish each step, each lap, and each day for as long as the race lasts.

https://vimeo.com/133192155

Yesterday he ran around the block 100 times which when added to all the previous days makes 2857 times.  There is a part of him that would probably like to have done a few more.  But counting off the laps and miles is not what brings Baladev coming to Queens each summer for the last 8 years. He did miss only one year, 2011.

When asked whether the second half of the race gets tougher.  “I need a long time to warm up and to heal my injuries from the beginning.”

“Every day I think, this is my best day.”

“I am not just saying this, it is really true.”

“Every day there are many stories.  Every day you could make a small book.  Every day is different, a different experience.  Also every year is a different experience.  Sometimes every lap is different.”

“It is like we are running in an infinite ocean.  With everything around you.  It is the same here.  It is really really nice.  Of course sometimes it is hard to swim.”

“Sometimes your mind is working, and than you think about things.  It is not like your are totally without mind.  Sometimes it is like that but not all the time.  Maybe some day somebody will reach that point, totally without mind.  Than we will be able to run 80, 90, 100 miles every day.”

Baladev describes that what Ashprihanal is doing this year is beyond comprehension.  “He is manifesting the Supreme power, strength, every thing.  Running 76, 77 miles a day for 26 days is amazing.”  Baladev than proceeded to compliment the performances of all the other runners.  “They are all champions.”

“I am just learning how to run.”

When asked whether or not he is looking forward to the end of the race.  “Of course I would like to run all year.  It is really hard for me to stop after 52 days.”

 Click to Play Interview:

baladev

Continue reading “July 10: Every Day Is My Best Day”

“Of course I am happy to reach the half way point.  But on the other side, it is still a long way.  The second half is always easier.”

Other than a short period near the beginning of the race Surasa has been performing incredibly well. And to arrive so comfortably at the half way mark on the 26th day is a very good sign indeed.  “If your running is good you are just grateful that you can run.  Everything is easier.”

https://vimeo.com/133097726

At this moment we pass Nirbhasa who is going through a struggling phase. He agrees with her, “certainly, let me tell you.  It feels like you are dragging a bed behind you.”

“It is so hard if you have no energy and cannot run.  You cannot compare.”

Nirbhasa also had recently mentioned that he never knew it was possible to be so tired.  “Yes that is true.  When I had a bad stomach and some other things. I thought how can you be so tired, so exhausted, unimaginably. Normally you are just lying in bed when you are like this. You cannot go to work or do anything.”

“It is really a miracle for me that you can run, with so little sleep.  This is what I was thinking all the time.”  Surasa relates this experience in particular to the period when she was having some physical difficulties.  “How was it possible that I could do these miles.  Because I was so tired.”

Surasa also explains the importance of eating.  “If you don’t eat than you are so weak.  You feel it immediately if you don’t eat enough.  In the morning you are weak.  You have to eat each lap.”

On getting messages from her home in Vienna. “It is so nice when you see that people are thinking about you.  I feel such gratefulness.  It is very touching always.”

The hardest part of the day for her is the middle part between 1 pm and 6pm.  “I always think I am nowhere with my miles.  But than in the evening I am somehow so surprised….it is not so bad.”

“When midnight comes I am happy because now I can go home, and have a little bit of rest.”

“You just see that nothing is impossible.  I also cannot believe it, what I am doing, and what everybody is doing here.  Sometimes I think, how is it possible that it works like this? But you have no time to think.  Each day you have to run.”

Click to Play Interview:

Surasa

Continue reading “July 9: Nothing Is Impossible”

“Sometimes I have problems in my knee or maybe in my mind……mostly in my mind.” (laughs)

“I try to dive deep in my heart and take some happiness energy from it.  It helps me so much.”

https://vimeo.com/132982605

Today is the 25th day of the race and from his results over the past 2 weeks Vasu has been finding all the energy and happiness that he needs.  Yesterday he ran his 3rd consecutive day of 70 plus mile.

The 1660 miles he has run in the first 24 days of the race would take him from his home in St Petersburg to Omsk.  For a man so inspired to transcend himself he has a lot to be grateful for.  As of today he is 140 miles ahead of last years pace.

Vasu is in 3rd place.  He is 79 miles behind Galya and 14 miles ahead of Yuri.

“I have gotten many  letters and my disciple friends have written aphorisms for me written by Sri Chinmoy.  Also I have received an article on concentration and meditation.  I have tried to use it and it helped me so much.” Vasu says that his meditations have been bringing him much, aspiration and energy.

“After that I can easily run.”

Nicolai has been a very attentive helper for Vasu throughout the day.  “Usually things are very very good.  He does many jobs and this lets me be more relaxed and not think about many different things.  I am very grateful to have Nicolai.”  Vasu also has another Russian helper who comes later in the day.

We somehow run up behind Ashprihanal as we run into camp.  “He inspires me so much.  He gives jokes and says push, push,  push.  His mantra is push, push, push.”

Click to Play Interview:

vasu

Continue reading “July 8: Deep In My Heart”

“What a great day. I am having a soul’s name anniversary.”

5 years ago today, on July 7 2010, both Atmavir and Baladev received their spiritual names.  For spiritual seekers receiving a name is perhaps their most precious possession.  A way of defining themselves in the outer world with a tangible reminder of an inner identity trying always to come to the fore.

https://vimeo.com/132885512

“It was on a day when I was also having some problems like this.  I had to stop the race and they took me to see Dr. Kumar and than I came back.”

When he arrived one of the race directors handed him an envelop and told him, “you have received a spiritual name.” He stopped for a while to meditate and says, “I was so happy.  That I got my name here at the race.  For us runners it is a privilege to get it here.  Atmavir means hero’s soul.  It is he who has a mighty soul and will attain the absolute.”

He says that he chants his name often when he runs.  “It helps me a lot.”

For nearly a week now Atmavir has seen his big mileage days vanish and his strong subtle stride diminish into a walk.  Almost over night his world shifted.  The ease of his relentless pace that he once seemed to have so readily mastered was reduced to another kind of more pedestrian experience.

But he did not give up and instead simply kept moving.  But with the prospects of 2000 km yet to go still inevitably laying in his way it had to have been hard for this 37 year Czech runner. He has already completed the distance 7 times before.

Atmavir says that he feels that the difficulties he has been experiencing of late have been a spiritual test.  “An inner lesson which I had to go through.  I really suffered physically.  I was walking 7 days straight.  It went so fast.”  But as of last night something shifted and he was once again able to run.  For the last 2 hours of the day he ran, “it gave me so much joy.”

Looking back at this period he feels that he was supposed to have a real experience of surrender. “Very often it is forced.  It is not spontaneous.  Or it is not cheerful.  But this time I felt during those 7 short days, that my soul was very pleased and very happy.  It was the first time that I overcame it with a sincere cheerfulness.”

He says though that from the beginning of the race he has felt his soul intensely within him.

Click to Play Interview:

Atmavir

Continue reading “July 7: An Inner Lesson”

“I am moving a little better.” It is now Kaneenika’s 23rd day of running at the 3100 mile race, and even to a casual observer she is clearly moving well, and in the process not making it too easy for a camera man to keep up with her.

https://vimeo.com/132767735

In 20 years of competitive running in numerous multi day races, 45 year Kaneenika Janakova has not only moved a lot but achieved a lot along the way.  Thousands upon thousands of miles have passed beneath her feet in those years.  In that time she has set records, won events, and proven herself to be one of the very best distance athletes in the world.

Traditionally her premier event has been the 10 day race held each year in Flushing Meadow.  A race that she has won overall on 2 occasions.  It was in 1014 that she set her personal best of 727 miles.  The furthest she has ever run before this race was a 1000 mile event.   But the obstinate hard rectangle, that garlands Thomas Edison High school has begrudgingly surrendered its miles to her.  Its hard surface, glides without notice under a pedestrians shoes, but to runners who become so acquainted to its foibles for 18 hours every day, it is another story.

Kaneenika’s feet have had an intimate contest with the loop around the school thus far.  In the past 22 days she has completed it 2384 times, and has the painful blisters to prove it. Yesterday though she ran 60 miles, the best she has done in 5 days. It was 5 days earlier that she surpassed her record by running beyond 1000 miles.  It was a shock she says. “It was as though the body was surprised at what was happening.”

She says though, “with every lap now I am going beyond.”

“My 1000 mile race was really hard.  When I did it I thought it was the hardest thing I ever did.  I can’t really compare the 2, because this is hard as well.  But there is something different about this race.”

“When I did the 10 day race I am always thinking, can this not be 7, or 8, or 9 days.  But in this race I know I have to reach the 3100, or whatever I reach.  It is not like, can I finish tomorrow.”

Speaking of Ashprihanal’s performance this year, “it is very inspiring.  I am very happy to be in this race with runners like Ashprihanal, Galya, and Surasa.  I can see and feel that everybody is so focused, and that helps me a lot.”

Kaneenika confesses that she herself sometimes looses focus.  “But than I try and go back to my source and try and stay focused.”

“It is quite interesting.  When the construction was happening last week sometimes you  had to go on the road.  As soon as I stepped on the road I felt as though I was lost.  I feel so safe and so secure here (On the sidewalk course.)  Sri Chinmoy created this for us.”

Click to Play Interview:

Kaneenika

Continue reading “July 6: I Am Going Beyond”

“I had 3 experiences with Suprabha.  They all happened in my first race.”

Ananda-Lahari is eager to tel me some stories this morning.  I am more than a little surprised.  After running non stop for the past 3 weeks all the runners at this stage of the race often have little energy or enthusiasm for story telling.  Yet as Ananda-Lahari speaks about events from 10 years ago, his eyes sparkle with added delight.  Something this 39 year old Slovak runner continually confounds me with year after year.

https://vimeo.com/132657704

His ability to remain cheerful is probably his strongest asset in the 3100 mile race.  But as he explains through his experiences, it was not always so.  In 2005, his first race, he speaks about reaching 2700 miles.

“I was just going through the counting station.  People were clapping and going….oh, .. 2700 miles.  Great!”

“It happened that Suprabha was also there.  She said, congratulations for reaching 2700.”

“I replied, it does not give me joy.”  Suprabha than simply changed the topic.  Not willing, it would seem to have a discussion of her beloved 3100 mile race that wasn’t positive. “Than she ran away.”

“For me it was a very good experience.  I realized that there always things to be grateful for.”

For his 2nd story Ananda-Lahari was reminiscing about all the difficulties of his first race.  He felt that he was feeling like he was running slow and was lacking in some motivation.  A helper in the camp suggested repeatedly,  that he should just cross the street for a moment.  Leave the course to see a little garden that was there.  They were insistent.  “You will get some joy and some newness. I was resisting.”

“One day I was particularly slow, so I said okay, I will go and have a look.”  When he crossed back again Suprabha was there.  “Where were you?”

When he told what had happened, she said, “Was it worth it?” Than she simply ran away. He doesn’t know exactly if Suprabha had planned it this way but he immediately got the message.  “Once you know what to do. Once you know your way.  Once you know your direction.  Even if I am slower than the slowest.  Don’t leave your course.  Don’t leave your path.”

“In the first race I was really dying.  It was endless.  It was my last day and I thought, I must get there.  But it felt like time had stopped.  It was the worst possible moment.”  Right than Suprabha passed by and asked him how he was.

“I was like….oh, I have sore knees, my stomach is upside down, I am exhausted.”

Suprabha’s reaction was instantaneous.  As he recalls the moment, Ananda-Lahari starts to jab his finger into the air.  In a surprisingly loud voice he repeats her words.  “Don’t think of it.  Don’t think of it, and she ran away.”

Click to Play Interview:

ananda-lahari

Continue reading “July 5: Things To Be Grateful For”

21 days ago 12 runners set off on a magnificent journey here.  They came from countries scattered around the world, from a total of 8 different nations.  None of them are American, and yet like the millions who have made their way to the great welcoming shores of this land for nearly 4 centuries, they are seeking an opportunity which their own countries cannot provide.

https://vimeo.com/132613513

What these explorers seek is of course what we all seek, an opportunity to transcend.  Yet this golden opportunity of running 3100 miles, is one that precious few on earth are ready or willing to take up the challenge.

Still all of us have this beacon inside us, that wants to awaken and illumine us.  One, that some of us are conscious of, and who for others, their earthly slumber does not allow them to awaken yet and strive for their own certain perfection.

On this July 4th holiday Americans awake from shore to shore with the great promise of what America could and should be safe within their hearts.  Yes there will be fireworks and music and a time for silly things true.  But within each person, on this day, and in this country America, a bright promise still burns.

Some may have lost hope that the dream has long vanished, obscured by events and actions that seem so contrary to the vision laid down on parchment in Philadelphia 239 years ago.  But what the founding fathers dreamed for this country the 12 runners pursue in both a tangible way, and in their divine pure journey.

So far they all have completed 20 days of the Self Transcendence 3100 mile race.

Tomorrow is a very significant day for the American soul, American heart, American consciousness and American life. Let us all try to be in a very, very high consciousness the entire day.

Those who sing very, very well “America the Beautiful” will sing the song tomorrow. That is my most favourite American song. That song is very, very significant.

July 3, 2002

Continue reading “July 4: America The Beautiful”

They have run so many laps and miles together over the past 18 days that is literally impossible to know just how many.  Whatever the number may be it is a lot.

Galya completed 1309 miles last night.  He suspects that many hundreds of them have been completed with Stutisheel, running at his side.  The scuffing of their feet along the dusty sidewalk creates a pleasing hypnotic cadence. They have both placed a great dent in the tremendous goal they are both trying to conquer.

Stutisheel says, “usually long distance races are quite lonely.  It is good to have a running friend.”

https://vimeo.com/132484314

I ask Galya if he missed not running with Stutisheel a few days ago when he was having some problems.  “I was sad the he was suffering. But I stopped almost each lap to talk with him.”

Stutisheel: “He was asking me all the time how I was suffering.  By the way, every time I feel that I am limiting his speed, I just let him go.  He is faster and more powerful right now.”

Galya: “We have the same speed when we run together.”  He than jokes that the only reason he ran the race this year was because Stutisheel promised to run 70 mile days.

Stutisheel: “Second half.  We have time.”

Galya has passed Atmavir to take over 2nd place.  He says he is just trying to maintain his same orderly pace everyday of doing 70 mile days.  In fact he has not dipped below that amount for the entire race so far.

“I am trying to do 70 miles a day.  What is happening on the board (place) is not so important.  Atmavir is my friend too.  He will start running soon and he can take his place back again.” Atmavir is 43 miles behind.

Galya says he is not comparing his mileage to his previous races.  He does know that his 10 day marks, and both his 1000 mile and 1300 mile personal bests he has broken.

Talking about Ashprihanal, “he is trying to stay ahead of Madhupran (current record holder 2006). I am sad that I cannot help Ashprihanal because I am not so fast.” He says that even though Ashprihanal has not said as much they can see that he has been trying since the start to break the record.  “He can do it.”

Galya says that for several days during the race he had an experience in which he was almost oblivious to the hard sidewalk and all the construction going on around him.  “It was transformed.  It was like I was in heaven.  I was just running and I felt connected to heaven.  I think if I only have this experience this race. This is enough….more than enough.”

Click to Play Interview:

galya1

Continue reading “July 2: More Than Enough”