“This time is special,” Suprabha says as she talks about her experience here this year in the 3100 mile race.  For anyone who has had the opportunity to observe Suprabha running day in day out, they would have to profoundly agree with her direct and simple assessment of her race this year.  Just 15 days ago it appeared that it would be impossible for her to continue.  One of the doctors who examined her at that time, Dr. Mitch Proffman says, “she was in excruciating pain, she couldn’t even step down.  She couldn’t even move her hip.  It is truly a miraculous recovery.  She is an inspiration to everybody.”

The mantle of heroine doesn’t fit too well upon Suprabha’s slight frame.  In a supermarket line or even out here at the 3100, as the only woman running with much younger men, after a quick assessment of her, one would probably be hard pressed to easily identify her as an exceptional athlete.  She certainly does not outwardly resemble someone who has the distinction of being, as Sahishnu called her, “the greatest super long distance runner in history.”  What defines this petite champion is not her outer strength and speed but her absolute inner dedication to this race created by Sri Chinmoy 13 years ago.  Yet even if the world does not celebrate her astounding list of achievements her incomparable distance records clearly demonstrate by themselves how incredible an athlete she really is.

The vocabulary of language is in so many ways inadequate to catalogue or even properly comprehend her accomplishments.  After so many years and miles of constant running competition, descriptive adjectives have long since failed to keep pace with her as she just keeps going and going on.  Suprabha tells me that once a friend came to her earlier in the summer and related to her that she had been listening to some old tapes in which her late spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy is speaking about her.  He said several times how miraculous it was that Suprabha ran this race.  Yet now she has done it again for a record setting 13th time.

If one has any belief, or just simply accepts, that heart power is far superior and more significant than the power of the mind or the body then what Suprabha has done, not just this year, but throughout her ultra-distance career becomes abundantly clear.  It would seem that it is in her receptivity and her inner spiritual connection, that she finds her apparently limitless strength and enthusiasm.  What would crumble most people to the ground, she simply accepts, not as adversity but as inspiration to reach higher and dig deeper.  All of course part and parcel of her spiritual teacher’s philosophy on life.  She says, “it has taken me until this year to really understand what Sri Chinmoy gave us in this race.”

Continue reading “August 13 This Time is Special”

“It is always good when people try and inspire you.”  Ananda-Lahari is evidence of one who seems to have inspiration as a constant companion in his life.  He had walked a lap with another runner very early this morning who had been trying to encourage him on this his last day at the race.  He continues, “there is no end to inspiration, you can have more and more inspiration. We think we have enough inspiration and 2 years later and we look back and think.  O this inspiration now is so much more than then.”

“Now we think that we know but it is actually that we know nothing.”  One thing that is crystal clear and has no philosophical overtones is that this afternoon, after Ananda-Lahari completes another 42 miles he will have finished his 5th 3100 mile Self-Transcendence race.

In the great scheme of things it will not be his fastest race but it will still nonetheless be 6 hours faster than his effort last year.  Sahishnu will say at the award ceremony, “5 times is no joke.  That is 15,500 miles.  You have tremendous capacity. You can do 70 miles on any given day.  If it is God’s grace you will come back and transcend yourself even more, not by hours but by days and days.  We all see your capacity.  We all know your smile and your heart, but now you have to show the world that you are great as well as good.”

Inspiration is the first step. The second and final step towards God-realisation is aspiration. He who has no inspiration is no better than a dead man. He who has inspiration, soulful inspiration, is constantly running towards and crying for the Beyond.

It is a sweet still morning, odd perhaps for a friday, when the world around us usually gathers itself for the final noisy chaotic rush of the week.  The sky is bright and glowing and the day will not get hot.  It is a day that is swelling with beauty and promise.  It is also the day that Pavol has dreamt about and struggled long and hard to achieve.

It is just a perfect morning to be wide awake.  Yet the first words he speaks today are, “It is like a dream.”  But this is a real and perfect dream for Pavol.  Today he will at last reach his goal.

On day 56 of last years race Pavol found a generous portion of solace for his mind but in his heart he felt he had not achieved his true victory.  He managed to complete 2700 miles on the penultimate day of the 3100 mile race.  It was a terrific performance considering how hard he had to work to get it but he had come to complete the full distance, not 2700, so it was a bitter sweet victory after 56 days of struggle.

On this bright morning he steps forward from the line with just 49 miles ahead of him.  There will still be a hint of brightness left in the sky when he crosses the finish line in the early evening.  He is not dreaming or sleeping in any way today. As he run he looks as though he is savoring each step. He does not look like one that he has spent 111 days here over two years going around and around thousands of times.

He is all too awake and alive and grateful to be here.  He is doing what his heart has asked of him. Tomorrow when he rises early and does not come back to the course, perhaps that will be a real dream.

This picture was taken by Alakananda at Asprihanal’s finish in 2007. Today is her birthday and she has offered this picture to all who have come to the race this morning.   For both herself and her Dad this picture represents their spiritual teacher’s love and affection for this race.  Sutisheel says, that you can see in this picture that he is asking her to take it.  So today she is giving it away.

On May 4th, his birthday, Stutisheel also gave it away and included the following aphorism.

I love the Supreme because I came from Him. I devote myself to the Supreme because I wish to go back to Him. I surrender myself to the Supreme because He lives in me and I in Him.

Excerpt from Service-Boat And Love-Boatman, Part 2 by Sri Chinmoy.

Continue reading “August 7 Like a Dream”

Ananda-Lahari tells me this morning, his 54th day on the course, that he walked all day yesterday.  I ask him if the reason he walked was due to lack of inspiration or due to lack of energy.  He answers quickly.  “Inspiration I have always.”

He is here at the race for the 5th straight year.  Over the years he has been much much faster and slower than he will be this year.  He has a personal best of 49 days and 14 hours.  It is a time that is almost 7 days faster than his current pace.  This year he is likely to finish on the 56th day, a slightly quicker time than he did here last year.

He is one of those very rare individuals in which the outer results seem to be secondary in importance to the inner achievement.  It is something that most of us like to strive for but so often fall into the obvious trap of wanting to see the results of our efforts all line up in our favor.  It is simple human nature to set goals and try to achieve them.  Ananda-Lahari is someone who is not oblivious about wanting to surpass his previous achievements, but more significantly, he wants to be satisfied and content within himself all along the way.  There is an outer goal he has worked hard to achieve here, but there is for him an inner goal that cannot be reached with footsteps alone.  It is reached with joy, positiveness, and prayer.    As he says, “I believe there is nobody here who is not trying to do their best.”

Keep trying!

Continue reading “August 6 This is What I am Supposed to Do”

Today Pavol is wearing a T shirt that says, ‘Go Forward.’  It is written in the gently flowing handwriting of his late spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy.  The letters are a bright bold red and around it are a collection of four of his bird drawings in soft blue.

On this, his 53rd day on the course, Pavol is just 161 miles from completing his journey.  Just like Pushkar, his race in many ways began one year ago when he entered the 3100 for the first time in 2008.

His race last year was an epic struggle almost from the beginning.  An injury prevented him from ever really being able to run.  He courageously stayed on the course however for 56 days, at which time he reached 2700 miles and was obliged to stop, 400 miles short of his goal.  On the following day Suprabha finished her 3100 miles and the race was officially over.

5 days ago Pavol crossed a self-transcendence threshold that has weighed upon him for the past year.  Late friday afternoon he past the 2700 mile mark and then just kept going without a pause.  Knowing full well that not only was each step, one step further than he had ever gone in a race before, but also that his goal was now most certainly and assuredly fast approaching.    It now appears that on Friday, sometime in the evening of his 55th day on the course he will complete running the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race.

From time to time Pavol has written some short poems about his experience here.  Today his poem is:

No Mind

No Form

No Break

I am only running.

Continue reading “August 5 Go Forward”

Diganta starts his final day at the 3100 with just 51 miles to go.  For this young man from Austria, who is just 29, it will be his 4th finish of the worlds longest race.

When he arrived this morning he showed not a hint of excitement or anticipation, it appeared for all intents and purposes like just another day at the office. Not one he has been working so hard to reach for the past 51 plus days.

In his first few laps of the day he moves slowly and easily.  He says it will not be until he has 10 miles to go that, “I will have the feeling that it is really going to end.” For now he says it is just like any other day.  The major difference today being he says,”except that it is very quiet, because most of the people have finished,” and with this remark  he laughs.

He has received lots of encouraging messages from friends and family back home in Austria and from Italy where he lived much of the past year.  He tells me with real amusement about a fax he received from his two brothers.  One wrote simply, ‘greetings,’ and the other wrote, ‘Who ever runs the fastest finishes first.” He finds this amusing and I ask him if he thinks people understand what he is really doing here and has done over 4 summers and he says, “I don’t think so.”

A few days ago, a story was printed in the New York Times, written by a journalist who was describing what it was like standing in one gallery of the Louvre for two hours.  He just wanted to observe how the visitors reacted to the display of magnificent artworks that were notable, but were certainly not as prestigious as, lets say, the Mona Lisa.

He realized that most people moved quickly through the gallery rarely even pausing for even one minute in front of any of the priceless pieces of art.  If they did even stop, a precious amount of time was spent just looking at the label and not on the art. Some just snapped photos and moved swiftly through.  Perhaps trying to take in the whole museum in a single day.

Of course Diganta is not on display here at the race, nor are any of the runners who have finished their tasks or have yet to complete their journey.  He moves slowly so he can be easily seen, but our minds eye will never really catch the transcendent beauty and magnificence of what he or any of others have done here.

Later in the early evening at his finish Sahishnu will say of Diganta, “You are soulful, you are thoughtful, you care for all the other runners, you have always been an asset to the race, and you still know how to run.  People don’t realize that if you don’t run 41 or 42 days that you are not any good.  You run with such grace and poise, that Sri Chinmoy would be proud of you, and we are all proud of you.  Four times here, no joke.”

I tell you once and for all:

Simplify your life-pilgrimage.

God will be proud of you.

Intensify your heart-pilgrimage.

God will be proud of you.

Purify your mind-journey.

God will be proud of you.

Cancel your vital-journey.

God will be proud of you.

Expel your body-journey.

God will be proud of you.

Excerpt from The Wings Of Light, Part 18 by Sri Chinmoy.

Continue reading “August 4 Proud of You”