Month: August 2015

“All I can say is that this race you don’t do alone.  You are never alone out there on the course.  You have so many hopes and dreams and inspirations of everybody, who is following the race.  It is just amazing how even though you are not really in contact with humanity.  You are not in contact with newspapers and whatever.  You really feel how the race is somehow percolating out there, and inspiring people.”

The sound of Nirbhasa’s Finish:

finish

“Life is hard for everybody.  Everybody is running their own version of the 3100 mile race.  Everybody has their own difficulties.  Definitely I felt that if I could inspire even one person to stick it out one more day.  To never give up.  To just push your way through the tunnel.  Than that is somehow really worth it.

“Nirbhasa you did something remarkable, you finished the race on your first attempt.  You have become the first Irishman to ever finish the race.”

“I think the race is really Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy in action.  The mind can’t really comprehend the distance. It can’t comprehend the enormity.  It can’t even comprehend doing a full day, never mind, it is just trying to get to the next break.  That is about as far as the mind can handle.  It is only when you live in the heart, and only when you have tremendous eagerness.  A tremendous feeling of being in the moment, and just being happy, and letting it happen.”

Click to Play Nirbhasa’s Speech:

Nirbhasa speech

Sahishnu announces Nirbhasa’s time and data.

“Finishing in 8th place in a time of 51 days, 12 hours, 12 minutes which is an average of 60.1 miles a day or 96.8 km.  He is now ranked 32nd on the list of 38 finishers.”

“We are so proud of you.  It is so hard to do this race.”

Click to Play Speech:

sahishnu speech

*It is with the deepest respect and gratitude that I thank all those who have followed the race here along with me these past 52 days. 

No matter whether your visits were long and rambling or that you came for just a quick click now and then.  I hope you have felt even an iota of the enormous blessing that this race is to me.    That you are drawn even one step closer to your own perfect perfection……..Utpal

Continue reading “August 4: You Are Guided By Your Heart”

“I would like to thank the race directors.  The undying enthusiasm from morning until eve, for so many days.  Unbelievable.  The cooks, unimaginable.  Better and better from year to year.  I don’t know how they do better but they do better every year.”

https://vimeo.com/135313678

“I wish to thank the Enthusiasm Awakeners.  I would like to thank my family, Alakananda and Atandra.  My fellow runners they are the best people in the world, and of course my deepest gratitude goes to my Guru, Sri Chinmoy.  The one power behind every body and every thing.”

Stutisheel speech:

Stutisheel speech

“Ladies and gentlemen, Stutisheel Lebedev finishes in 7th place today.  His 9th finish in 11 attempts.”

“Stutisheel finishes in 50 days 12 hours and 52 minutes.  Which is an average of 61.34 miles per day or 98.72km.  He is ranked 16th all time.”

“Stutisheel is the consummate athlete because he is involved in every aspect of the sport.  He has written books about his experiences.  He has helped other runners.  He helps to get them organized so that they can do well. He keeps a blog to show the reality of this race.  But only he can experience the reality.”

“He has done this race and covered almost 28,000 miles.  It is a staggering amount.  I think he could go another 1000 miles right now.  Thankyou for your inspiration it is wonderful.  It is glorious, please come back again.”

Click to Play Speech:

sahishnu

Continue reading “August 3: There Is Only One Power”

“I just want to say that standing here with this record is really hard to believe.  It is hard to believe because I had doubts until the beginning of this race.  Because I always felt that I was not strong enough.  That I am too weak and too tired.  But there were always good persons who said, no, no!”

“You just have to come to the starting line and everything will be okay.  Good that I listened to her.  So I registered very very late.”

https://vimeo.com/135203193

“It is hard to believe because you cannot capture it.  Because it is all grace.  It is all grace, grace, grace.  That I could do it at this age (56 years old).

“So what more can I say than gratitude.  All gratitude to the great Sri Chinmoy Marathon team, because they are working so hard.  Very very hard, and still they are all very nice.  I admire this really very much.”

“Than of course I want to thank all my helpers.”

“You can be a good runner and you can accomplish nothing.  You always need a team.  Otherwise you will do nothing.  Than of course I want to thank Nirjharini and the great cooks.  They also working very hard.  I also want to thank the counters and those who came around, and of course Parvati and the Enthusiasm Awakeners.”

“They give us so much joy.”

Click to Play Speech:

Surasa’s Speech

“Surasa Mairer from Vienna what an extraordinary performance.  3100 miles in 49 days, 7 hours, and 52 minutes.  You averaged 62.84 miles per day, or 101.1 km a day.  The fastest women’s time in history. You move from 26th to 21st place.  You have gone 6 hours and 38 minutes faster than the previous record held by the immortal Suprabha Beckjord.

“I really thought that Surasa’s career had peaked in 2001 and 2002 when she set numerous records.  She vanquished her opponents in every race for the women and sometimes the men.  She has such a sweet child like nature about her.”

“I remarked when she finished her first 3100 mile race at the awards ceremony I said, I only wished that she was 10 years younger.  Just to see what she could do.  Now I am the one with the egg on my face.”

“She has done something extraordinary at age 56.”

“I must say she runs with lightness, with power, and with determination.  Like all the great champions.  They run not only because they can but they feel as though they are running towards the greater horizon. We all become better as they better themselves.”

Click to Play Speech:

Sahishnu’s Speech

Continue reading “August 2: It Is All Grace”

The practical world has lots and lots to offer us.  It has countless comforts and many many remarkable things but it is missing something that is most significant to all of us.  The practical world does not have dreams of transcendence.

https://vimeo.com/135147980

photo by Alakananda

The practical world has boundaries and dimensions that can be measured and recorded and kept safe.  Human beings need to have firm structures in order to pursue the things that matter to them.  But spiritual seekers feel the call and pull of the divine world that exists within us all. A realm of light that has no dimensions or boundaries.

The practical world doesn’t want or feel the need to look within.  The divine world however is compelled to express itself continuously in the outer world in and through those willing to transform themselves.  In this same process the outer world is as well transformed.  In so doing, the divine creation evolves into the perfect perfection of what the creator intended.

Today 37 year old Atmavir Spacil from the Czech republic completed the Self Transcendence race for the 8th time.  He came in 5th and his time was 48 days 7 hours and 13 minutes.  He did something that no practical person would do.

He won nothing.  His name will not appear on the news tonight and other than the few hundred people who follow the race, most of the world will not even know what a remarkable thing he has done here today.

His distance over 8 years (24,800 miles) is enough to take him around the world.  Atmavir has run now 45,192 times around a school in Queens New York in a time span that would take up a full year of his life.  What he has done and what he actually has accomplished cannot be explained or understood by the practical world.

Spirituality expresses itself in and through him with each of the countless steps, laps, and miles that he has completed here.  Is the world changed by it in ways that we can see and understand?

Only our hearts can feel and understand this.  Atmavir however has no questions of this as he crossed the finish line of Self transcendence yet again.  As he truly sits down for the first time in many many days.  A large cake is placed upon his lap and he promises to the few happy souls gathered around and about him, to come back next year and do it all again.

Click to Play the Sound of his finish:

finish

Continue reading “August 1: Good to Have Goals”