July 1, Utpal: When You Are Inside Your Strength Is Infinite
“I feel it.”
Like everybody who is running the 3100 mile race Yuri is not immune from all the noise and confusion that is now continuing to spill across their sacred path. Yet he is finding something positive is coming out of all the discord.
“It concentrates you to be inside. You take all your strength and direct it inward.” Pointing at a big machine moving past us, “this technology in the outer world is ready to crush you. But when you are inside nothing threatens you. The technology that is here blocks your strength. It is very hard to run. But when you are inside your strength is infinite.”
“This technology is a very good teacher. It teaches you very quickly.”
I then ask if this is the case than he must be receiving a very good lesson.
“It forces me to be exactly where I have to be. It doesn’t allow me to get relaxed. It doesn’t allow my mind to be floating around in the clouds. It means I am doing the true inner work within, and that is the way it has to be.”
At his home in Vinnitsa Ukraine he says it is very hard there right now. “That which is happening in my country is also happening inside my heart. When I am there it is very painful.” There are so many problems that they all cannot be solved quickly or easily. “They are being resolved but not so fast. I am one with my country and with my people.” Yuri says he prays that the complicated situation there can be healed peacefully.
“But with my prayer, I always end it with, Let they will be done.”
I mention to Yuri that he is known on the block as the smiling runner. Each year he seems to get more joy and more experience. I wonder what he does with these new gifts.
