Latest news and features

In the Ten Day, Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk,53,from Germany won with an amazing 777 miles. This was the 3rd longest distance in any 10 day race.

Kaneenika Janakova,38, from Slovakia won the ladies' Ten Day event with 707 miles. A personal best and her second consecutive victory.

There was a field of 44 in the 10 Day and 36 in the Six Day.

From Race Report by Sahishnu.at Marathon Team blog

Race Report at NY Times

Race reports, photos and interviews at Perfection Journey by Utpal

Photo Gallery by Jowan

• Daily Results for 6 and 10 Day Race
• Daily Blog by Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team
• Utpal's Blog on the Race - photos and interviews
• It's not over till its over Madhupran Schwek runs 136 miles on day 1
• 6 Day Race at Multidays

Audience enjoying the concert in the beautiful Riverside Church.

Photos by Jowan

More photos at Songs of the Soul New York

The Record was set in City Hall Park in Manhattan on April 14th. It was the record for reciting a poem in the most number of languages. The previous record was 79 languages, but, with help from friends in the Sri Chinmoy Centre, Ashrita set a new record of 111 languages. Ashrita read the Poem, Precious Beyond Measure, in Zulu. Speaking of the record, Ashrita said:

"It was fun learning about many of these languages - quite a few I never even heard of,"

Councilman, Jimmy Genero spoke about the record and said how appropriate it was to set the record in New York, which is renowned for its cultural diversity.

• www.ashrita.com
• Record at New York Daily News
• Ashrita's Record at Sharani.org
• Guinesss Record at Inspiring News

The team is running 1400km around the coast of Ireland, visiting Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Limmerick amongst many other smaller towns and villages. The international team includes runners from US, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Europe.

You can follow the run at the website - Ireland World Harmony Run

For the first two days the run has benefited from dry sun, often a rarity for Ireland at this time of the year!

"...Today is March 3 as I write this post, the 30th Anniversary of Sri Chinmoy running his first marathon in Chico, California. Little did we know at the time that he would run 21 more marathons in four years and two ultra-marathons as well...." post by Arpan at Sri Chinmoy Inspiration

• Sri Chinmoy's First Marathon - Chico: 4:31:34, - March 3rd  1979 - aged 47
• Sri Chinmoy's Fastest marathon - Toledo: 3:55:07,

Mind-division-supremacy
Knows no peace.

- Sri Chinmoy

Recently, a statue of Sri Chinmoy was added to the site. The statue was sculpted by Kaivalya Topry.

• Eternal Peace Flame.org in Oslo, Norway
• Fragrance of the Heart Cafe in Oslo
• Oslo Meditation
• Quotes on Peace at Sri Chinmoy Poetry

The starting point is at Nordkapp, Norway, 1. July 2008.

The finish point is at St. Johns, New Foundland, Canada. Expected, end of 2010.

Jesper Olsen is being joined by Australian - Sarah Barnett. So far they have completed 1000Km

Jesper and Sarah are currently in Africa, you can follow latest update at home page of

• World Run
• Principles of World Run II

The son of a successful attorney growing up in Kew Gardens Hills, Furman came to the realization that there was more to life than having a nice family and a big house. He started studying eastern philosophy and began meditating on his own, but shortly met up with Chinmoy. Their idea of meditating originally clashed. Furman wanted to go into a cave and drink strange teas, while Chinmoy was a strong advocate of physical activity...."

Prayers and Pogo Sticks at Queens Chronicle.

Also new design for Ashrita.com

A couple of years ago, Ashrita set record for the most pogo stick jumps by Bobbys Greyfriar in Edinburgh. - Honouring Bobby Greyfriar at Ashrita.com

The meditation classes are based on the teachings of meditation teacher, Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy, born in India, lived in Queens, New York from April 1964 to his mahasamadhi in October 2007. As well as establishing a thriving meditation centre in New York, there are now Sri Chinmoy centres in over 60 different countries.

The essence of meditation is to experience the peace buried deep within. As Sri Chinmoy says:

" I meditate So that I can inundate My entire being With the omnipotent Power of peace."

- Sri Chinmoy

For more information about New York Meditation, kindly visit: NYC meditation.org

Also pages at Sri Chinmoy Centre - New York Meditation

Sri Chinmoy in New York Times

Photo by Jowan

The next speaker was Dr Vidor Vambleim of the Centre of Peace Studies at the University of Tromso. He spoke of Sri Chinmoy as a man of dialogue. He also said that dialogue and searching for a common ground for peace was much easier in the presence of children, and praised the organisers for including children in the programme. He thanked Sri Chinmoy in Heaven, and wished that his message of peace and oneness, continue to inspire and uplift the world.

The last speech was by Mr. Paul Moen, Director of Aker Brugge Port. Mr. Moen was very instrumental in the installation and inauguration of both the Eternal Peace Flame and the Statue of Sri Chinmoy. He mentioned Oslo harbour as a focal point for Tourism, talked about his pride in having the Eternal Peace Flame in Oslo, and said that the flame represented the spirit of Oslo and the dedication of Norwegians to world peace. He also praised Sri Chinmoy, saying that although Sri Chinmoy was not tall physically, he stood as a giant of love, kindness and peace, and a champion of Interfaith Harmony. He touched on Sri Chinmoy’s good standing with other world bodies such as the United Nations, Parliament of World Religions, and leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa. Mr. Paul Moen concluded by mentioning Kaivalya Torpy, the sculptor of the Statue, and afterwards invited Mr. Svenn Kristiansen, Dr Vidor Vamblaim and Kaivalya Torpy for its unveiling. This took place at about 1345 hrs.

About the Statue, it stood 2 metres tall (6ft 6 ins), majestically and powerfully overlooking the Eternal Flame. Arms folded in front in prayerful obeisance and seemingly in deep contemplation, Sri Chinmoy‘s Statue appeared to be radiating light in abundant measure.

The evening had a cute conclusion with Mr. Paul Moen playing and singing a ballad-type song on his guitar, to the delight of all present.

See also: WHR Report

The race started at 12pm Saturday, continuing around a 400m track right through the night till 12pm the next day. The field of runners came from many different countries. As well as organising the race, there were also two members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team participating. One of the, Asprihanal Aalto from Finland, has the distinction of being a four-time winner of the world's longest race, the 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence race. Alongside the faster runners, it was especially aspiring to see many older people also participating - the oldest was 77 years!

For me, it was a nice experience to take care of the runners and to meet their requests for coffee, tea and soup - even after hours of running most of them were still able to smile! With in a couple of hours, we knew the names of all the runners, and they really appreciated this personal treatment.

Some of them (including the winner) ran very fast in the beginning before slowing down towards the end of the race. Others were mre constant, including Asprihanal, who in the last hour put on a surprising burst of speed to run 7 kilometers in 40 minutes to end up in 7th place. One of our jobs as helpers is to run along with the runners forthe last 2 or 3 minutes to mark thir finishing spot - I was running with Asprihanal, and it was a very nice feeling - he really is a very humble guy who doesnt think of boasting about his considerable achievements.

The race was won by Chris Finhill covering a distance of 243km followed in 2nd place by Ireland's Eoin Keith who ran 235km, breaking the Irish national record along the way. However, a race like this is really all about competing, and at the end everybody was honoured with a race medal and photo commemorating their achievement. It was very inspiring for me, and I think I will definitely work towards entering this race myself at some point in the future.

Race photos: Alan Young

Karteek Clarke from the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Edinburgh cmpleted the gruelling swim from Dover to Calais, making it his 9th time! Quite a few of Sri Chinmoy’s students have swum the channel, and in fact the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team (the sporting organisation founded by Sri Chinmoy as a service to the sporting community) holds the record for the team with the most Channel crossings.

In April 2008 and again in August 2008, two beautiful concerts were performed in tribute to Sri Chinmoy and his music. These concerts, called ‘Songs of the Soul’ featured well known musicians such as Philip Glass, Roberta Flack, Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov and Kristin Hoffman. One highlight of both concerts was the Gandharva Loka Orchestra, a 75 member instrumental and choral ensemble of Sri Chinmoy’s students, performing dazzling orchestral arrangements of Sri Chinmoy’s songs which brought the audience to their feet. The orchestra are now scheduled for a European tour in November, taking in the cities of Berlin, Prague, Munich, Milan, Zurich and Heidelberg and a North American and Canadian tour next spring.

Mrs Reedová, Carl Lewis and runners from all 49 European countries then ran over the Charles Bridge and arrived just after 1 PM to the stage at the Old Town Square. Deputy Mayor Markéta Reedová spoke to the international runners and then together with the sport legend Carl Lewis and the Executive Director of the run Salil Wilson lighted the beacon of harmony. The World Harmony torch that travelled through all the 49 European countries was then passed between ambassadors, mayors and other guests. The ceremony culmination was a song, composed by World Harmony Run founder Sri Chinmoy, performed by the renowned violin player Pavel Šporcl, Patron of the Run in Czech Republic, the children’s philharmonic orchestra from Liberec and children’s chorus Slavíčci (Nightingales) from Prague. After a release of 7 doves the World Harmony Run torch was headed to a representative form Ireland where the run will start again in 2010.

The European leg of the World Harmony Run, a worldwide relay run fostering international friendship and understanding, started in Rome on March 27th, 2008. In Europe the international team of runners carried the torch for 24.000 kilometers through all 49 European countries. This year the Run will visit more than 100 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. About 1 million participants are expected. The World Harmony Run was founded in 1987 by the Indian philosopher Sri Chinmoy (Shree Chin-moy) (1931-2007) as an opportunity for people from different countries to express their hopes and wishes for a more harmonious world. The Run is organized by the World Harmony Run association in cooperation with local authorities, schools and sport clubs. From 22 to 29 May coming from Holland an international team of runners had covered 800 km in Germany between Bremen, Schwerin and Berlin and visited 5500 school children to promote harmony.

More at World Harmony Run.org

In the morning we had our usual early meditation followed by 2-mile race (this time thankfully it was not up and down a huge hill!)

The afternoon function featured numerous French singing groups including Ashcharjya's group and the newly-formed Bhashini's group, and an amusing play featuring Bhashini speaking in French and Natashira and Helene? speaking in English. This was all topped-off by an amazing performance of magic from Oindrajalik who had doves appearing from all kinds of places and many other tricks that astonished us all.

Many thanks and gratitude to the French disciples for organising this Joy Weekend which was inspiring, aspiring, amusing, stomach-filling, dynamic and yet relaxing and well organised. It is amazing how much you can receive from one weekend.

By: Suswara Payne

In Auckland, the run was greeted by a variety of people and groups including a traditional Maori greeting. - a solo warrior's challenge, a welcoming group haka, songs and a prayer. The World Harmony Run team also offered songs in return.

A Maori warrior

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The Auckland Boy's Grammar School perform on the percussion. (Founder, Sri Chinmoy in background)

• More photos and reports from the Run - Auckland WHR
• NZ - World Harmony Run