Perfection Journey
Taking care of the feet is a daily ritual for Ananda Lahari, Pranjal, Pranab, and Pavol. It will take each of them about 15 minutes to tape and prepare their feet before the start. With the many days of rain it was particularly important to do this as the wet conditions made it easier for the feet to blister
Suprabha is one who comes ready to run. She is less than 10 miles behind where she was this time in last years race. Like nearly all here she has passed the 500 mile mark.
There is at the race, a very basic rule of math. These shoes, belonging to these feet and legs and then attached to human beings, moving relentless onward will make these numbers grow every so inexorably greater. There is no science however that can speak to, or explain, the journey taking place within them all.
Sri Chinmoy once said of Ananda lahari, “he has the best smile.” When he is running around the loop he can make it look effortless. It looks as though the earth, sometimes has no claim over him, and that he could just as easily move above and beyond the clouds. Continue reading “June 22 Everybody Who Comes Here is Changing”
Today the sun will lift itself in a great arc across the northern skies. It will offer to the world below the most light it has seen and felt in the entire year. Nature today moves officially, according to the calender, into the wide and wondrous embrace of summer. The air this morning hangs ripe and heavy. The rain will come and go but today spirits are running high. It is Father’s Day. Many students of Sri Chinmoy have come to New York to pay tribute. They have come as they have come on this same day so often over the years. A 26 mile marathon will take place across the street in tribute. Today, on this the longest one of the year, there will be no doubt or question on why people have come to this very wet concrete street to run.
Continue reading “June 21 Father’s Day, All About the Heart”
His arrival this morning is both equal parts, a surprise and to be expected. Pranab has not recorded any miles or covered any laps for 2 days prior to yesterday. One cannot say that, either he is cured of his rash or, that it is getting any worse.
Yesterday he ran a very respectable 57 miles. As the day begins he is 200 miles behind Ashprihanal and more than 70 behind the next to last runner.
Rupantar inspects his condition and gives him the go ahead to go on for another day. Many might not understand why he perseveres, when clearly no one would blame him for just giving up. He has, in every respect, just begun his journey, and has 2860 miles to go. Yet to surrender to defeat is not in the heart of these champions. Their journey here is so much more than the sum of the miles run. The intensity of the experience here is like no other just as there is no other race even remotely like it. To be on the course with them is to feel just a fragment of the powerful, and the divine forces, which push and call them onward. What will happen to Pranab in the next few days and miles is anyone’s guess. Just as it is impossible to ponder the experiences that will arrive, and both bless and challenge all the others. For all of them there is no surrender to failure. Only surrender to the light that burns most powerfully within them all.
My morning begins
And I give God
My smiling heart of newness,
While God gives me
His dancing Breath of Fullness.
Asprihanal …………….66…367
Puhkar………………….64…351
Petr……………………..63…337
Grahak…………………62…324
Ananda-Lahar………..50…323
Pranjal…………………58…323
Diganta………………..56…319
Vladmir………………..56…308
Suprabha……………..54…293
Purna-Samarpan……47…271
Stutisheel…………….50…262
Pranab…………………0…183
The long day of rain is at last over, and though the day does not dawn bright it is dry and there are bright hints in the sky that the sun will come. The totals on the board today show what power the rain really has over the mileage. On average, most of the runners totals are 3 to 4 miles less than the day before. For the first time in 5 days Asprhanal ran less than 70 miles, and yes he is tired. Rupantar finds humor perhaps easier than he can find counters for the entire day.
The hard and unavoidable truth about the race is that injuries will inevitably come to most all who attempt the 3100. Both Pranab and Ananda Lahari have run the race 4 times. Today Ananda Lahari is having some problems and Pranab’s future in the this years race is unclear. He has not run for 2 days because of his allergies. He has swelling and a rash that was getting worse every day. Today he will walk a little. Rupantar tells him explicitly no running or race walking. Another Doctor is coming in a few hours.
My morning begins
And I hear my Lord telling my heart
That He wants to entrust my heart
With His birthless and deathless
Cosmic Duties.
Excerpt from My Morning Begins by Sri Chinmoy. Continue reading “June 19 As It Is”
Strange unreal shapes splash their way down the dim streets of a wet, and getting much wetter, Queens neighborhood. You can feel that the rain, heavy and ominous, is soon going to sweep with even more relentless power across the city. For many this imminent deluge would squash flat all sparks of brightness with its soggy gloom. Yet the rain will never succeed in its quest. Just as the cauldron summer days, which will surely soon come, succeed,in defeating the 3100 mile runners.
Petr exemplifies this morning the indominatable spirit of those who run. He ran 64 miles yesterday and is doing well. All the little jobs the runners attend to are much harder to accomplish in this weather. Purna-Samarpan is just 2 days away from completing more miles than he has ever run before. He has just performed a very elegant laundry handoff to Rupantar without slowing down.
My morning begins
And I see that my poor God
Is amazed at the endless confusion
Of my mind,
And my proud God
Is amazed at the endless supplication
Of my heart.
Excerpt from My Morning Begins by Sri Chinmoy. Continue reading “June 18 Living 100%”
He arrives looking strong and upbeat but all is not well with Pranab Vladovic. In last years race, which was his 4th, he set a personal best. A physical ailment however has been relentlessly shadowing him for the past year. In 2008 he lost a full day to it and still came back and set a personal record. His skin rash, and accompanying swelling are making demands on his physical well being that appear to compromise his chances of continuing.
A nurse is coming to see him in a short while but it is 
clear that the allergic reaction, which he feels is caused by the sun, is getting worse every day. He ran only 45 miles yesterday. Nobody wants to see anything like this happen to any of the runners who have sacrificed so much to come and particpate. It is a small family, these 13 runners. They share the same road and the same goal. By helping one another they proceed on, hopefully to transcend themselves on every level. For now he is preparing to go out and run a full day.
Other runners are still arriving. Pushkar, had his own problems last year but seems to be doing extremely well this time. He has 218 miles and ran 68 miles yesterday putting him in second.
Vlady, who is a first timer ran 58 miles yesterday and has 192.
The serious business of setting up.
My morning begins
And I immediately want to hear
What God is saying.
I hear Him repeating
Again and again:
“I need only one thing-
A satisfaction-world!”
It is the beginning of day 3 and already the routine and rhythm of the 3100 mile race is beginning to feel solidly in place.
Those who come early come early and those who have a more relaxed concept of time arrive the best they can.
Technology ,in the insidious guise of accurate time, keeping snuck into the race last year. It looks like a simple clock. Of course it is anything but simple this 
little plastic box from space. It is actually called an Atomic clock and it pulls the exact time from distance pulses that have no heart and cannot be bent or swayed. The runners of course listen to much different signals. That have very little to do with technology, or space, or distant worlds and distant thoughts.
There are always the mundane and routine tasks in the morning. 
A shoe made ready, a supplement taken for a little boost, sun block applied for a day that may not be sunny but in the bright days of June, being out all day in the sun is a real concern. And yes working on feet, protecting feet, making feet happy.
My morning begins
And I immediately try to see
What God is doing.
What do I see?
I see Him weaving and weaving
And enlarging and enlarging
His Heart’s Compassion-Net.
from My Morning Begins by Sri Chinmoy. Continue reading “June 16 Where Dreams Come True”
I
t has been a very good first day for all the runners in the 3100 mile race. The board shows a promising start to the great race, but the weather on this, the second day is not sharing the same bright optimism. It is cool and the rain comes and goes and comes again with unpredictable moodiness. The faces of the arriving runners however does not reflect any disappointment in nature’s daunting damp display. Vlady starts his second day with a very respectable 72 miles
A year ago, Steve Hartman, a reporter from an American television network did a story on the race. It was near the end of the 3100 and I asked him what he thought about the race after having spent a day with the runners. He said, “How would you even start on a journey like this. What motivates people to take that first step? If I was at 2900 miles I could try and finish it. But I can’t see how they can take the first step. That seems like the hardest.”
Of course there is not easy answer for a question such as this. Each who have come here seem to have left any fears and doubts behind them. They are burdens, much to cumbersome to carry in your heart for 3100 miles, much less for a life time.
In 2007 Sri Chinmoy came to his beloved Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race for the last time. It is a unique and sacred creation of his, this, the longest race in the World. Yet his life was all about inspiring his students and the world around us all. It demonstrates clearly that we all can reach higher and travel further, beyond our perceived limitations. The race is not for everyone, but in it, for everyone who identifies with its lofty message of Self-Transcendence there is a heart felt truth that we all can go beyond and beyond.
Sri Chinmoy at start of 2007 race
click to play
Continue reading “June 14 The Beginning of the Great Journey”