Perfection Journey

“It was my first year in the race in 2007.”  Grahak reaches across the handlebars of the bike he is riding and points down towards the Grand Central.  “I was going through a tough time and I remember thinking.  I am never doing this race again. This is just torture.  There is no way I am doing it again.  I can’t wait to finish and get it over and done with.”

*Click on the Picture Below to See Day 31 Movie…….You will Go to Dropbox.  Than Click on Open Box top right:

Than the next thing he knew a car carrying Sri Chinmoy pulled up beside him.  “Normally Guru would quietly and soulfully give you prasad.  Just as I was thinking this Vinaya mounted the curb.  It was really aggressive driving.”  Than Grahak points once more to the spot.

“Guru gave me prasad.  He didn’t say anything, but immediately it took away all my troubles, and mental difficulties I was having that day.”

Of course Grahak did not only came back again in 2008 and ran faster than he had the previous year, he also came back in 2009 and set the 4th fastest time ever in the race. So his return to the race this year after 5 years was no small thing.  He wanted to once again transcend himself and run a good 3100.

The 3100 though does not bestow its blessings or its pains in ways that can be easily predicted or that we can expect.  16 days ago Grahak’s race came off the rails when his bad hip became too much of burden for him to continue to run.

In the period since then, he has had a chance to heal a little and reflect a lot.  In a way that certainly he wouldn’t have predicted he instead has discovered a new role for himself at the race this year.  Grahak has found that by helping others achieve their best he may be finding some unexpected self transcendence as well.

“I am so grateful I can help Ashprihanal.  It is still tough.  Sometimes I think, O I should have kept going.  Or I wish I was still running.  These sort of things, but the past is dust.”

Grahak is extremely modest when discussing how much aid he is really providing to Ashprihanal in his quest to break the record.  To nearly everyone else though his presence is the absolute key to Ashprihanals success.

“He is pretty low maintenance.  Sometimes I think I have helped him when he has felt really sleepy.  I think he likes it on his break, he likes to have a little chat.  It relaxes him a little bit.  He had some goals this race that he was determined to achieve.  I am just a bonus.  Maybe it gives him a bit of a boost.  A lap extra a day.  Who knows, he would still be doing what he is doing.”

“I guess it was meant to be.  I wanted to come and try and do the race. It didn’t work out.  It is really easy to get depressed and I was definitely heading that way. I was pretty lucky when the opportunity came to help Ashprihanal.”

Click to Play Interview:

grahak

Continue reading “July 14: Meant To Be”

“I am feeling pretty good. One of the nice things I guess about getting into the second half of the race is your body is more adjusted.  Also your mind starts to dissipate a little bit. There is still a long way to go.”

*Click On Picture Below to See Day 30 Movie*…………you will go to dropbox.  Than click on Open:

*Click on above Pic to Play*

Just before the first half was over, Nirbhasa saw his race slipping away.  He went through almost a week of rock hard days that slowly started chipping away at his mileage cushion.

Not that he ever lost his infectious smile and optimism.  But some parts of his body were just not resisting or accommodating to  the strain of running 60 plus miles a day.

Nirbhasa said that he did not experience doubt at this time.  “I just surrendered to whatever happens happens.  I knew that I was doing my best out there.  I wasn’t wasting time,  that week, that I was really slow and wasn’t making the daily mileage.”

Now however even though the finish line though is still 1377 miles away it is looking  just that more attainable.

“Yesterday was interesting. I found myself counting down the days.  The mind gets a kind of temporary stability in dealing with things by trying to count things.  But you get no joy out of it.  So I am really trying to cut that out. Instead just enjoy the morning running.”

“This morning I woke up and was only thinking about running this morning.  I am just really enjoying being out here.”

Yesterday he had a long call with friends back home in Dublin.  “You really feel that you are not doing it for yourself.  That it is not just you out there that there are a lot of people, getting inspiration, getting joy.  That really helps.  Also it is really nice to get on the phone and talk to people.” (laughs)

“My relationship to Sri Chinmoy and I think all of our relationships to Sri Chinmoy was that many of the moments.  Many of the transformative moments that they didn’t fit into the usual narrative.  A lot of the time when Sri Chinmoy wanted to do something, or wanted to have an experience through you.  He could do it like that.” (snaps fingers)

“He could do it with a smile, with a meditation, with a look your way.”

Nirbhasa recalls a time when he visited New York and his meditation group had just completed working very hard on some project.  He was sitting with a large group at a function when Sri Chinmoy mentioned Ireland.  “When he mentioned Ireland I could immediately feel inside my heart this tremendous outpouring of gratitude coming from him.  He was so unbelievably grateful.”

Nirbhasa describes the mix of what on one level appears to be a casual conversation, and on the other, “I am having this tremendous experience, feeling this gratitude pouring from him.  I had many different experiences like that.”

Nirbhasa describes how on another occasion he was stressed out and felt he was carrying a tremendous weight of stupid unnecessary thoughts.  With one brief look from Sri Chinmoy he felt the weight simply vanish.  “Gone.”

He also feels that he knew his physical time with Sri Chinmoy was going to be brief so that he had to create a deep inner relationship, this inner understanding.  “This has served me well since Sri Chinmoy passed.”

“I still feel that I have these kind of experiences, even during the race.  I still feel that I can call on Sri Chinmoy at different points during the race. That I feel when I get different experiences during the race that they are somehow coming from him.  The one thing that spirituality teaches us is that the soul is eternal.”

Click to Play Interview:

Nirbhasa

Continue reading “July 13: The Soul Is Eternal”

From the very first day Yuri Trostenyuk started running the 3100 mile race 3 years ago he has been a passionate devotee of all its terrors, all its beauty, and of course how it transforms every part of his being.

By using the best calculations that we have, it is possible to examine Yuri’s data as he starts day 29.  From the lap sheets we can see that he had a good day yesterday, with 65 miles.  His total at the end of day was 1913 miles.   With his current pace he is set to make a new personal best.  Last year this same time he had 1873 miles.  So now he is 40 miles ahead of that.

https://vimeo.com/133293920

But to listen as Yuri describes an experience that happened to him a few days ago and it is easy to see how unimportant crunching the  numbers really are to him.

“Not long before I completed 1000 miles.  From daily pressure I started to have pain in my body.  Unpleasant and worrisome thoughts were occupying my mind.  I was tired of getting rid of them already.  It was just simply hard.  It was only getting harder and harder.”

“I began to pray to God.  I said, God, please help me.  It is so hard for me right now and I won’t survive this.  Please support me, guide me, and show me the way.  Then, a few minutes after my prayer an inner world started to open up in front of me.  It was as though I was seeing a corridor to the inner world opened.”

“50 meters away I saw all the other runners of the 3100.  There were 12 of them and they were standing in a row, shoulder to shoulder.  The first thing that struck me was their clothing.  It was as if as though the clothing was made of light.  It was illuminating and it was if it was alive.”

“Then I paid attention to their faces.  Light was coming out of their faces.  There was strength, energy, calmness, peace, and joy.  I thought to myself, wow.  In the whole universe there is probably no power that can stand up against that.  But what I felt was the peace, the calm, the bliss that was entering into my heart.”

“I identified with how great they felt.  I wanted to be there with them.  I even tried to jump across and be with them.  But I felt as though something was holding me back.  Then I became embarrassed.  I thought to myself, my work here is not done yet. If I leave from here than who will remain and do the work.”

“With this sense of gratitude and in this state of being, this corridor slowly dissolved.  But everything was not finished then.  When I went for my break I felt how inside of me lives some kind of energy.  I couldn’t fall asleep because this energy was circulating inside of me.  At night I woke up because I felt this energy.”

“This experience, this energy is now giving me the strength to move and guides me.  It continues to give me strength and inspiration.  Whenever I remember this experience I begin to feel good again.”

Click to Play Interview: (much thanks to Lyalya for translating)

Yuri

Continue reading “July 12: My Work Here Is Not Done”

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”