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Purushottama combines music inspired by cultures all around the globe with exquisitely poetical lyrics reflecting on life and its true meaning, and was recently seen in New York playing a concert at the United Nations to honour the work and ideals of the global body.

Sri Chinmoy also gave a concert in a children's hospital that specialized in treating leukemia. The Oneness-Heart Tears and Smiles humanitarian organisation founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1990 has been a leading supplier of leukemia equipment and medicines to Russia, and has been credited with being a factor in the marked improvement of the way leukemia is treated in that country. Incidentally, the first mission of the Oneness Heart Tears and Smiles was to respond with aid to the Russian winter food crisis of 1990; it has now gone on to deliver valuable humanitarian aid in over 24 countries. You can read more about the organisation's work in Russia here...

It was also a chance for Sri Chinmoy to meet and meditate with his students from the former Soviet Union. More than a third of Sri Chinmoy's students come from these countries, and Sri Chinmoy has long admired the one-pointed aspiration and determination of spiritual seekers and of the Russian soul in general, a view fondly reflected in the name he was inspired to give this group of countries - the Oneness Dream-Boat Shore. "Russia is like a flower, a beautiful flower full of fragrance.", reflects Sri Chinmoy. "For a number of years, the flower was unable to offer its beauty and fragrance because of man's mind-made rules. Some Russians made rules which came from the mind, not from the heart....Now the heart-power has again come forward, and the mind-power, which is full of doubt and other negative forces, has surrendered. Russia the flower, Russia the soul, is coming to the fore. Now that Russia is fully awakened spiritually, the entire world will derive tremendous blessings and be able to make very, very fast progress."

Related links:

Ashrita Furman was in St.Petersburg with Sri Chinmoy, and also found time to break another Guinness record, and plenty more incidents besides: read more on Ashrita's blog...

Music plays an indispensable role in the spiritual quest of Sri Chinmoy's students. "When we listen to soulful music, or when we ourselves play soulful music, immediately our inner existence climbs up high, higher, highest", explains Sri Chinmoy in his book 'God the Supreme Musician'. "It climbs up and enters into something beyond. This Beyond is constantly trying to help us, guide us, mould us and shape us into our true transcendental image, our true divinity. When we hear soulful music, or when we play a soulful piece of music, we feel a kind of inner thrill in our entire existence, from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. A river is flowing through us, a river of consciousness, and this consciousness is all the time illumined."

Meditation functions with Sri Chinmoy will often have a diverse range of musical performances: there are some groups and singers which will perform every week. In addition, when Sri Chinmoy's students from all around the world visit him in New York in April and August, there will be performances from every country as well as instrumental performances from Sri Chinmoy's outstanding musician-students from all corners of the globe.

On Radio Sri Chinmoy, 44 tracks have just been posted which nicely capture the flavour and diverse nature of these performances. The tracks were recorded between June and September 2007, with the majority of the tracks recorded in August when many international groups performed. The performances are mostly arrangements of Sri Chinmoy's songs, but there is also performances of songs by the immortal Rabindranath Tagore sung by Rintu Chakravarty and some traditional baoul singing by brothers Ranjit and Unmesh Swanson. For these tracks we are very grateful to Kamalakanta Nieves, who edits radiosrichinmoy.org and is responsible for the recording of many of the tracks, and Sumangali Morhall, the webmaster of Radio Sri Chinmoy. You can listen to the music tracks here...

• World Harmony Run visits Tanzania - The World Harmony Run, founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1986, is also currently running through the British Isles. The latest updates can be seen at the World Harmony Run site.

Other News and Interesting Links

• Video of World's Largest Pencil at Sri Chinmoy TV
• Sri Chinmoy Races - New look for Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team website. Also a look at some of the Members of the Sri Chinmoy MT>
• Not in the Cave - An account by Sumangali Morhall of a recent concert given in the Lake District, by members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre, including: Ananda, Shindu and Adarsha.

Articles on Self Improvement

• 10 Tips to avoid Becoming Depressed- at Sri Chinmoy Inspiration
• Finding Time for Relaxation - by Tejvan Pettinger
• Office Politics and How to avoid it - at Shane Magee.com

New Blog

• On the Sunlit path with Sri Chinmoy by Priyadarshan

Sri Chinmoy's best 24 hour distance was 230 miles in 1978. 1978 also saw Ashrita Furman, a student of Sri Chinmoy's, complete 405 miles. This cycling race was a key event in encouraging Ashrita that he could break Guinness World Records, and he now has the distinction of holding more than anyone else on the planet.

Speaking on the significance of cycling. Sri Chinmoy wrote:

"While we are cycling, we are reminding ourselves of evolution, of how the world is evolving in cycles. When we think of our planet, we think of a wheel turning: our life also is revolving like a wheel. So cycling reminds us of the process of evolution and of how everything goes in cycles."

My Cycling Experiences by Sri Chinmoy, AUM Publications, 2007

The Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team is currently active in the UK.

(Photo of Sri Chinmoy, Pepsi 24 hour Cycling Race, 1978.)

The two-week festival was graced by the presence of the musician Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov, a household name in his native Russia, and whose band, Aquarium, were involved in many of the landmark steps towards full artistic freedom as Russia emerged from Communist rule. On August 29th, Boris played a solo concert in the United Nations to enthusiastic acclaim (see separate blog entry for more details; a few days earlier, the same building had also played host to an all-female ensemble from the Sri Chinmoy Centre who have performed concerts of meditative music to audiences all around the world for the past 25 years. Many other musical performances took place over the two weeks; one particularly notable performance on August 18th featured an 80-strong orchestra led by Swiss musician Panchajanya Burri, performing a multi-part arrangement of the legendary Bangladeshi composer Kazi Nazrul Islam's immortal song He Partha Sarathi. A classical music evening took place on August 28th, where performers from all over the world performed classical and folk arrangements from their own countries.

An unmistakeable highlight of the event was the unveiling of the largest pencil ever created, a 76 foot long monster weighing in at an enormous 18,000 pounds, built by an international volunteer team led by Ashrita Furman (see separate blog entry for more details). During the two-week period, Ashrita also set four other Guinness records, including an amazing three in the space of just one day - performing 36 deep knee bends on a Swiss balancing ball without falling off, catching a water balloon thrown from a distance of 64 feet without bursting it, and running a mile in just over nine minutes whilst simultaneously bouncing three balls on the ground! A few days later he also achieved a long-cherished goal of breaking the record for balancing the most glasses on his chin. This record was a particularly gratifying one for Ashrita, as he had been trying unsuccesfully to break it for years.

A selection of Sri Chinmoy's paintings created between 2004 and 2007 were also displayed as part of an ongoing 'Art in the Garden' exhibition series. Sri Chinmoy calls his paintings 'Jharna-Kala', which means 'fountain art' in his native Bengali: the name describes the manner in which he composes the paintings in a spontaneous flow coming from the heart. For these particular paintings, Sri Chinmoy first wrote down a quality or ideal such as 'Compassion' or 'Tolerance', and then spontaneously created acrylic drawings based on his heart's feeling about that quality. No less than ten of the paintings in the exhibition featured the name 'World Harmony' - Sri Chinmoy has been at the forefront of many initiatives to further the cause of world harmony, the most well-known being the World Harmony Run, a global Olympic-style torch relay run which passes through over 70 countries around the world bringing people together in a spirit of friendship and understanding.

Other events that took place included a stirring talk on the ideals of Thomas Jefferson, and a virtuoso theatrical production by American director Natabara Rollinson. The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, the sporting organisation founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1977, also held a marathon on August 25th which attracted almost 1,000 people; Sri Chinmoy has long been a believer in sport as a powerful instrument for bringing people together and creating a better world.

The organisers hope that the range of events have inspired the people who saw them to pursue their own dreams in life. "I feel inspiration is of paramount importance.", Sri Chinmoy explains. "If I can inspire someone, and if that person also can inspire me, then we can do many good things for the betterment of this world. If I am inspired, you are inspired and he is inspired, then we shall be able to work together. When we are not inspired, we find fault with other human beings; we quarrel, fight and do many deplorable things. But if we are inspired, then we do many good things for the improvement of this world."

The pencil weighs in at over 18,000 pounds, with a 2 1/2 foot long eraser at its end. The 'lead' alone weighs over 4,500 pounds, and is made using a graphite core 10 inches thick, which had to be sharpened at the end using a powerful Sawzall reciprocating electric saw instead of your average pencil sharpener. A whopping fifty gallons of paint were needed to finish off the outside of the pencil. In all, an estimated two million regular pencils could be made out of the materials used in the construction.

Forty volunteers from twenty different countries spent two weeks constructing the pencil, working from 7am to 8pm every day with the occasional night shift as the project neared completion. For the project leader, Ashrita Furman, this record will be added to the 70 Guinness records he already holds. Ashrita, a health food store manager from Queens, has held the Guinness 'versatility' record for holding more Guinness world records than anyone else on the planet for the past twenty years. Ashrita first began breaking records way back in 1979, and since then has performed feats such as somersaulting the entire length of Paul Revere's ride in Massachusetts, underwater pogo sticking in the Amazon, performing almost 10,000 situps in an hour under the Eiffel Tower, and bouncing the fastest mile on a pogo stick in Antarctica! In fact, he led a team to break this very same record back in 1996, building a 20 1/2 foot pencil which weighed 560 pounds, and which currently resides in the Guinness Record Museum in Niagara Falls, Canada. This record was shattered in 2002 by the famous stationery company Faber-Castell, who built a giant 64-foot pencil to adorn their offices in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ashrita's motivation in breaking records is to show people what is possible if they truly believe in their own potential. ”We should always push ourselves to do something greater", he says. "What I love about the Guinness Book is that I can just go through it and choose something that I’ve never done before, train for it, and become the best in the world at that event. In a way, that’s also a challenge for me: to figure out how to train, the best way to train. The underlying principles are the same in my case, because in the end I’m going back to the inner stream, to the principles of discovering your own inner resources."

Ashrita credits Sri Chinmoy with teaching him this philosophy of always transcending ones outer limits, and the record-breaking pencil is a token of appreciation for the tireless service Sri Chinmoy has performed in the cause of making people aware of what they are truly capable of. “I am not a natural athlete, but Sri Chinmoy has shown me that if one can be in touch with one’s inner spirit, anything is possible.”, reflects Ashrita. For over forty years, Sri Chinmoy has been making prolific contributions in the fields of art, music, poetry and athletics - all to give a glimpse of what we are capable of if we but aside the mind's hesitations and pursue our dreams. Interestingly enough, a significant portion of Sri Chinmoy's artistic ouevre is comprised of pencil and marker drawings - many of them form part of his 'Soul-Birds' series, in which he depicts the unfettered human soul in the form of a bird. To date, he has drawn over 15 million of these birds ever since he began the series back in 1991. "For me, birds have a very special significance on a spiritual level.", Sri Chinmoy comments on his drawings. "They fly in the sky, and the sky is all freedom. So when the birds fly in the sky, they remind me of the soul's infinite freedom. I feel that if people come here to view these birds, their inner hunger to fly in the sky of infinite freedom will be fed."

Blog entries on the world largest pencil:

• Ashrita's personal blog - what are we going to do with the pencil now? The blog includes a funny story about how the pencil was so big it showed up on satellite photos....
• Video of Pencil Being Made at Sri Chinmoy TV
• S. Neil Vineberg's reaction to the pencil

Almost half of his 35-year music career was spent creating and performing music with his "peaceful guerrilla" band Aquarium in the face of heavy restrictions from the Soviet state. Aquarium began life in Soviet-era Russia producing records out of a studio disguised as an engineer's club, and holding underground concerts in private apartments; the intimacy of these secret concerts can still be felt in Grebenshikov's lyrical singing style twenty years later, and has often led to his being termed the Russian Bob Dylan.

Despite the restrictions, Aquarium's music found its way to every corner of the Soviet Union via pirated tapes passed on from hand to hand, which meant they were universally well known by the time restrictions finally began to loosen, and Aquarium - with Grebenshikov as the creative force behind the helm - were invariably involved in many of the landmark steps which paved the way for full musical freedom in Russia.

The goals of affirming "the dignity and worth of the human person" expressed in the United Nations Charter are echoed in Grebenshikov's lifelong musical search for inner freedom and happiness. "The world is a perfect place.", he enthuses. "The problem with us humans is that we don’t see it, we’re not being taught to see it. There is a great silence inside of everybody, the source of all inspiration, of everything.” For Grebenshikov, music gives a window into this source, and points the way to a better and higher way of living. “It’s a living feeling." he explains. "When I sing I just feel alive, only more alive than for example now. Now I’m sort of fifty per cent dormant, but when I sing that’s when I really live”.

His search for inner meaning has also led to a long-standing interest in Eastern mysticism, spending much of the last 20 years travelling in India and Nepal and translating several important Hindu and Buddhist texts into Russian. The Eastern influence can also be seen in the name Purushottama, which was given to him by his friend and meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy, and which means "the one who goes beyond all limitations". The concert was a wonderfully blissful experience for all who attended it, and Sri Chinmoy remarked afterwards that the performer had "brought down Heaven on earth".

Related links:

• Video report on concert from Russia's NTV station (in Russian)
• Official website of Grebenshikov and his band, Aquarium
• Boris Grebenshikov: beyond all limitations - article on shanemagee.com

Then off to the local baseball park to break the second record - the longest distance a water balloon can be thrown or caught without breaking it. Ashrita stood at one end of the park, trying to catch the balloons thrown by his friend and frequent record collaborator Bipin Larkin. After a couple of attempts which resulted in burst balloons (and a dripping wet Ashrita!), they managed to set a new mark of 65 and a half feet, eleven feet longer than the previous mark.

Now for the final record of the day - the fastest mile whilst simultaneously bouncing three balls on the ground. Unlike the previous two records, there was no existing mark to transcend, as the category had only just been approved by Guinness for inclusion in their book. Nonetheless Ashrita was determined to inaugurate the record with a bang, and he set a new mark of just over nine minutes - a tough act for anyone to follow.

Earlier this week, Asprihanal Aalto from Helsinki, Finland entered the record books as he crossed the finish line of the 3100 Mile Self Transcendence race in a time of 43 days and 4 hours, making him the only person to have won the race four times. The second and third place finishers, Ayojan Stojanovic from Nish, Serbia and Pranab Vladovic from Bratislava, Slovakia will both finish today after 46 days on the road. The race is still continuing for the other intrepid runners, and they will gradually be coming in over the next two weeks.

Asprihanal finished at around 10 a.m. in front of a cheering crowd of friends and wellwishers. During the ensuing celebration, an enthusiastic choir sang the song that race founder Sri Chinmoy composed in honour of Asprihanal after his completion of the race last year. His time is the third fastest in the history of the race and a personal best for him. Sri Chinmoy once said something to the effect that for Asprihanal, running was like drinking water; this certainly seems to have been borne out in his performances over the last year - he has finished first in both the San Franscisco 24 hour race and the Self Transcendence Six Day Race in April.

(Photo: Asprihanal (right) with his brother Antaraloy immediately after the race)

Related links:

There are regular updates on the race on multidays.com blog...

(Photo: Sri Chinmoy lifting light airplane - total weight including apparatus comes to 980 lb. The height of the lift can be seen in the small gap between the white lines on the apparatus above Sri Chinmoy's head)

Over the years Sri Chinmoy has lifted many aircraft as part of his effort to demonstrate the power of the human spirit. At the beginning of June, he lifted an ultralight plane and a Stearman biplane as part of a lifting program that also included cars, motorcycles and boats. Lifting airplanes also sometimes form a part of the weightlifting program that often takes place on the anniversary of when he started lifting; as part of this program he lifted airplanes in 2002 and 2004. In 2003, Sri Chinmoy celebrated the centenary of the first manned flight by the Wright brothers by lifting over 100 pilots overhead using a special apparatus - this program was part of the Lifting up the World with a Oneness-Heart award program, in which Sri Chinmoy recognises the achievements of men and women who have been of service and inspiration to the community and the world by lifting them. To date, he has honoured over 8,000 individuals in this way.

Related links:

• Video of Sri Chinmoy lifting airplanes during 3-day weightlifting event in 2006
• Fitness Guru for Body and Spirit: a very nice introduction to Sri Chinmoy's weightlifting by Chidananda Burke

Also on this site:

• Sri Chinmoy's weightlifting: a case study in listening to the inner voice
• Volcanic Calf-fire: an early history of Sri Chinmoy's calf raises by Dr. Vidaghda Bennett
  

In 1991, during a visit to the island of Malta, Sri Chinmoy began a new phase in his artistic career, by drawing the first of what he called 'Dream-Freedom Peace birds'. The birds are often popularly known as 'soul-birds' by virtue of the fact that they represent the boundless flight of the human soul. "For me, birds have a very special significance on a spiritual level.", says Sri Chinmoy. "They fly in the sky, and the sky is all freedom. So when the birds fly in the sky, they remind me of the soul's infinite freedom. The soul has come from Heaven. When we think of birds, we are also reminded of our Source, and this gives us enormous joy. "

To date, Sri Chinmoy has drawn over 15 million of these birds, either in single drawings or in vast artworks that contain hundreds of different birds. As well as his other 'Jharna-Kala' paintings, his bird drawings have been exhibited in many prestigious locations around the world such as the Louvre and the Sydney Opera House. There have been several exhibitions with large numbers of soul-birds, including an exhibition of one million birds in Ottawa in 1994 and another exhibition of 200,000 birds in Augsburg.

Over the years, Sri Chinmoy has used a great deal of imagination in his choice of artistic 'canvas' - as well as a wide variety of paper, he has painted birds on sheets of fabric suspended from a line, and also used a wide variety of everyday objects to draw birds on - plates, cups, seashells, even clocks and children's toys! He will often do a series of drawings using one particular medium - for example, in late 2004 whilst visiting China, Sri Chinmoy drew a series of birds on Chinese rice paper using traditional calligraphy brushes, whilst in November 2006, he drew another series of birds on black paper which when scratched reveals the coloured paper underneath.

Drawing these birds is something that always gives Sri Chinmoy great joy. "When I draw a bird, I think of the soul — new creation, new hope, new promise, new peace, new bliss and new perfection on earth", he says. He will often use what other people would consider 'dead time' - time waiting for something to happen or travelling between places - do draw a few more of these beautiful birds, exemplifying his philosophy of never wasting a moment. Such is the speed at which he draws these creations that one feels the artist is not so much creating something as setting something free that was already there. For many people, viewing Sri Chinmoy's birds evoke a spontaneous sense of their own inner flight, and they have met with much praise and admiration over the years from art critics all around the world.

Related links:

• Soul-Birds at Sri Chinmoy Art
• Video of exhibition of 200,000 birds in Augsburg
• Video of one million bird exhibition in Ottawa
• Article on New York exhibition in the New York Beacon

Each edition of the magazine usually contains submissions on a particular topic, and past editions have been themed on such diverse topics as meditation, humour, great poets, and extreme sports!

The most recent edition came out only yesterday, and is themed on the rather interesting topic of ...miracles! The entries are not restricted miracles of the dramatic variety (although there are a few in there!), many of the writers take great joy from finding miracles in art, music, exploration and the simple incidents of everyday living. Enjoy...

Then all for you is sun-vast Grace. Your brave despair, your hopeless cry, Your prison of mortality Her gaze of Power will break the maim Into a thousand fragments of Her Name.

Sri Chinmoy first began writing poetry in earnest during his adolescence. First he began writing in his native Bengali, then later moved to writing poetry in English. His early poetry is much more structured and metricized than his current output, which mainly consists of short haiku-like aphorisms.

The above poem is a typical example dating from 1958, referring to the mother aspect of the Divine.

Related links:

• My Flute: more examples of Sri Chinmoy's early poetry at poetseers.org
• Sri Chinmoy's poetry used in a Cambridge sermon
• An introduction to 'Ten Thousand Flower Flames', a collection of 10,000 of Sri Chinmoy's short aphorisms, on shortpoems.org

Photo: Prabhakar Street on Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries

In this lift, Radar stood on a platform as Sri Chinmoy performed a calf raise lift as shown in the photo above. Then his handler, Charles Wood, stood on the platform with Radar as Sri Chinmoy performed a second lift - including the apparatus, the total weight for this lift came to 3966 pounds. Sri Chinmoy frequently honours men and women who have been an inspiration to the world by lifting them as part of an award program called 'Lifting up the World with a Oneness-Heart' - in the same way, Sri Chinmoy also says that Radar has been an inspiration to him: “Radar is the tallest, so Radar gave me the inspiration to set my goals to the highest”, said the 75-year old fitness champion. Sri Chinmoy also wrote 2 songs in praise of Radar which were performed at the event. The very next day, Sri Chinmoy was in Philadelphia at the Liberty Strongman Classic, where many of the world's strongest men were gathered for a unique 'Team USA' versus 'Team World' strongman competition. To show his appreciation for the contestants on both sides, Sri Chinmoy lifted eight of them overhead with his right arm, as one by one they stood on an overhead platform. Then all the members from each team ascended onto an overhead platform as Sri Chinmoy lifted them all together using a calf raise. In this photo we see all the Team USA members being raised in this manner.

In total Sri Chinmoy lifted 5948 pounds in the space of half an hour. "Today was one of the highlights of my weightlifting career", he reflected after the event. "These great strongmen have inspired countless people on earth, and I am so happy I could offer them my most sincere appreciation from the inmost depths of my heart."

The honorees themselves were very impressed by the lifting. The world's number 1 strongman, Zydrunas Savickas of Lithuania exclaimed, "It is fantastic for this little man to do these magnificent lifts!" His fellow team member Andrus Murumets of Estonia, ranked number five in the world, concurred. "It was amazing this little dude could lift me. It was very, very impressive!"

Sri Chinmoy has been singing ever since he was a small boy, and composing meditative music ever since early adolescence. Whilst in the spiritual community where he lived for twenty years, he learned to play the harmonium, a portable Indian version of the organ used to accomplany soulful songs. When he came to the West however, he felt an inner call to expand his capacities and take up more and more instruments to practise. Having freed himself from the mind's confines through meditation, he is not subject to the usual hesitations and fears about not being good enough that normally occur when an adult takes up an instrument - he just dives straight in and gets joy just by making progress. In the early seventies, he began playing the esraj, a haunting Indian bowed instrument which is often the very first instrument he plays in his concerts. It is Sri Chinmoy's favourite instrument, and one in which he is now regarded as being amongst the foremost exponents in the world. He went on to enlarge his repertoire to include instruments such as flute (Indian and Western), violin and cello.

In the mid 1980's, Sri Chinmoy started performing dynamic and spontaneous improvisations on the grand piano. Nowadays, he will often perform similar improvisations on synthesizer, sampler or electronic percussion instruments; often these instruments are ingenious and novel creations by his students. All of this adds up to a very special concert experience for the audience - one in which Sri Chinmoy might be singing a soulful acapello song one minute, playing one of the hundreds of different instruments he has performed on over the years the next minute, and then bringing down powerful meditative energy with his synthesiser improvisations.

Related Links:

• Article about November 2006 concert in Turkey in Turkish Daily News
• Sri Chinmoy's albums on MSN music
• srichinmoyconcert.org: News on Sri Chinmoy's upcoming concerts, plus a chance to hear some of the instruments played...

He recalls disliking weightlifting intensely back then; he would lift 20 pounds twice a year so that he would do well in the shot put event in the decathlon.

And yet many years later, fast approaching the age of 76, Sri Chinmoy is regularly lifting astounding amounts of heavy weights. This new phase of his service to the world started in 1985, when Sri Chinmoy received an inspiration in the depths of his meditation: "I did not choose to start lifting weights.", he says in an interview he gave a year later. "If one prays and meditates sincerely, somebody within him talks to him and tells him what to do and what not to do. You use the term ’God’; I say my ’Inner Pilot’. Last year, when I was praying and meditating, that somebody within me — you can call it an inner voice or a source of inspiration — asked me to start weightlifting. That is why I am doing it."

Sri Chinmoy says it is only because he is able to act from the heart due to his meditation that he was able to take up weightlifting and embark upon the many feats of strength he has performed over the years. He has often spoken about the difference between the mind's fear and hesitation and the heart's spontaneous eagerness: "When I look at the weights with my heart, I am not frightened at all, no matter how heavy they are. But when I look at them with my mind's eye, I am filled with fear. I have no idea how I am going to lift them."

Therefore, when he lifts the weights, he tries to keep his mind completely silent, so that he can become an instrument for a much greater strength to operate in and through him: "Through God’s infinite Compassion and Grace, from my concentration, prayer and meditation I am able to bring forward inner strength, inner power, and use that power to increase my outer strength. The inner strength that enables me to lift elephants and airplanes is not my sole monopoly. Far from it! It is available to anyone who prays and meditates. Everyone can get inner strength from prayer and meditation."

Sri Chinmoy has published several books of anecdotes detailing his experiences with weightlifting: they are an eye-opening view not only of a weightlifter, but of a spiritual Master trying to push out the boundaries of the possible. In these first-person accounts, we observe a contrast common to all spiritual Masters who try to offer what they have and are to help mankind progress - a contrast between the finite human frame which experiences discomfort and pain at these arduous activities, and the infinite consciousness of peace and delight, housed within that 'still small voice' which spiritual Masters can access at will through their meditation. Time and again, Sri Chinmoy invokes the Infinite to help him perform these feats: Absolutely the fastest way to make progress in the inner life is through gratitude. When I look at my 350-pound dumbbell, believe me, perhaps my mind is more frightened than yours! But when I offer my gratitude to the Supreme early in the morning, there is no fear at all. (11 September 1986)

The two following entries give a very direct insight into how spiritual Masters are able to surrender to the inner command all the time:

I am seriously thinking of stopping again after November 17th. I want to walk outside again in the fresh air with Nature. This gives me so much joy. During these last twelve months with my weightlifting I have reached a very high level. Now I want to concentrate on other things. (2 October 1999) I had been planning to give up my weightlifting after the 17th, but the Supreme Himself has asked me to continue. This weightlifting brings joy and inspiration to thousands of people. So I will be taking my weightlifting equipment to Brazil and I do hope that I can make some progress there. (29 November 1999) These diaries are also full of appreciation for all the distinguished figures in the weightlifting and bodybuilding world who inspired Sri Chinmoy and encouraged him to go further. Sri Chinmoy has always seen inspiration as being a two-way street - it is not just a case of him inspiring others, but of contributing alongside his fellow world-citizens to make a better world. Indeed he has frequently used his weightlifting to show his appreciation to men and women who have given inspiration to the world in their own fields, in an award ceremony called "Lifting Up the World With a Oneness-Heart". In this ceremony, Sri Chinmoy will lift these inspiring figures overhead in both body and spirit using a specially constructed overhead platform. Resources:

Sri Chinmoy's weightlifting anecdotes have been published in the books My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles (Parts 1 and 2) and A Mystic Journey in the Weightlifting World (Parts 2-4). Other excerpts used in this article come from the Sri Chinmoy Answers series of books and also the book Aspiration-Body, Illumination-Soul. These books can be found on Sri Chinmoy Library.

Recent blog entries on Sri Chinmoy's weightlifting:

• Airplanes, Cars, Motorcycles and 40-ft. high Catamaran - all lifted by Sri Chinmoy
• Sri Chinmoy lifts the world's smallest horse
• Sri Chinmoy receives Mongolian national award - and does some more weightlifting!
• Two remarkable weightlifting feats by Sri Chinmoy

Related articles:

• Index of weightlifting videos on Sri Chinmoy TV
• Lifting up the world with a Oneness-Heart at Ancient Arts and Sciences website
• Article on Sri Chinmoy's calf raise lift in The Hindu newspaper
• Sri Chinmoy's Weightlifting: Article in American Fitness magazine

Today is the opening day of the Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, the longest certified road race in the world. For the best part of the next two months, 13 runners will be pacing around a half mile loop in Jamaica, New York for eighteen hours a day, aiming to push their capacities to the very limit in one of the toughest endurance tests imaginable. This is the eleventh holding of this epic race. Last year, Madhupran Schwerk from Germany shattered the race record, completing the distance in the astonishing time of 41 days and 8 hours. Madhupran is not competing this year, but three-time winner Ashprihanal Aalto from Finland will be looking to transcend last-year's time of 43 days and 15 hours.

The race features three new competitors this year looking to try their hand at this most challenging of distances; Vlastimil Dvoracek and Petr Spacil (fresh - if that word can be applied - from his victory in the Self-Transcendence Ten-Day Race in April) from the Czech Republic, and Grahak Cunningham from Perth in Australia. Suprabha Beckjord, the sole female entrant in the race, is also the only person to complete all ten previous editions.

This race is organised by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, who have been putting on events for the sporting community around the world for the past 30 years. Many of their events, such as the 3100 Mile and Six and Ten Day Races in New York, the Triple-Triathlon in Australia or the 24 hour lake swim in Zurich, really offer a challenge to those who participate and an oportunity to extend their true potential.

You can watch a video of the 2007 race start on Sri Chinmoy TV...

Related links:

• Catch up on all the latest news on the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team blog...
• Watch some 3100 Mile race videos from 2006 on SriChinmoy.tv ....
• Watch video clip of 2006 race from ABC News...
• In this footrace, the last 3,000 miles are the toughest - article from Columbia News Service
• Blog entry on last year's race by Joy Bringer @ Zaadz

In an article just published on the Sri Chinmoy Centre site, cafe owner Toshala Elliot describes one such enterprise - the Blue Bird cafe in Auckland, New Zealand, which has now been running for over 13 years. 'The Blue Bird' is actually a name that Sri Chinmoy suggested for the cafe. Sri Chinmoy, in his artwork, has frequently used the bird as a metaphor for the unhorizoned flight of the soul; similarly blue, the colour of the sea and the sky also evokes that feeling of meditative vastness.

View:

• Introducing: the Blue Bird - article on Sri Chinmoy Centre site

• The beautiful new (and blue) website of the Blue Bird cafe

As you get older, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of feeling you have to take it easy and wind down the activities you were once doing. However, there are many people who feel they have to squeeze every drop out of life right till the end - for example Ed Whitlock, the Canadian who ran a sub-3 hour marathon at the age of 73. Another example is Sri Chinmoy, who at the age of 75, is still making eye-opening contributions in the field of poetry, art and strength fitness to show the world that, regardless of age, each one of us can still pursue our dreams to be a better person and work for a better world. He feels that old age only becomes a problem when one lives in the hesitating mind rather the ever-new heart: "The heart is always carrying newness, whereas the mind is carrying oldness.", he says. "For the mind, there is no newness. By the second day, the mind loses all its enthusiasm because it feels that everything is too old, too old, too old. But for the heart, every day is new, like the sun." [1]

He cites the example of the great cellist Pablo Casals, who still practised every day at 95 years old. Once someone asked him, "Why do you practise at your age? You have become the greatest cellist. Now you can rest!" Casals replied: "You want me to rest? You do not want me to make any progress? Every day I am playing the cello and I have been playing for years and years, ever since my childhood. Every day I feel I have made some progress."

This statement is very insightful, as it reveals some very important requirements to keeping (and even increasing) your productivity as you stay into old age:

• Be a child at heart. "If you can feel that you are not thirty or forty or fifty years old, but only seven years old, you will be able to discard so many of your bad qualities in the twinkling of an eye...every day you will see your life in a new way and your sweet, sweeter, sweetest qualities you will be able to bring forward once again." [2] Children have that wonderful quality of not nursing grudges or disappointments and seeing newness in everything. Think about it; how many times as a child you played with your favourite toy or watch your favourite videos; whereas as an adult we get bored of everything after one or two uses. Regaining these childlike qualities will help us have new and beautiful experiences no matter what age we are.

• Keep up a sense of discipline. No matter what age we are, we still have to practise daily to reach our goals. With a doable learning curve and a well-thought out schedule, anything is possible. Again the difference in the mind's and heart's perspectives comes into play here: With the mind's jaded viewpoint, it can be very easy to regard discipline as something painful and monotonous, but like Pablo Casals you can instead view it as a chance for progress.

• Aim for progress rather than for success. Focusing on an external result (which might be beyond your control) can be frustrating if things don't happen according to plan, whereas it is much easier to get joy from progress on a day-to-day basis. Success is often taken to mean a big result, whereas progress can lie in simple things like even persisting despite the odds.

References:

[1] New Adventures in Old Age, a talk published in The Mind-Jungles and the Heart-Gardens of Life

[2] From Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 6

Photograph by Pavitrata Taylor