Day 23…Intensify Your Inner Cry (July 10, Utpal)
A conversation with Ananda-Lahari as he makes his way around the course is always for me a great wake up call. A crystal clear reminder of how beautiful and simple life can be when you dedicate yourself, as he has done now for 13 years, to the 3100 mile race. Doing some pretty basic math, that means by the time August rolls around he will have spent nearly 2 years of his life going around the loop. Doing one of the simplest things a human body can do, move forward.
It is a journey that he seems to never grow tired of, refrains from complaining audibly, though I am pretty sure his love of the course and the event is such that the grumbling words are not there any way. He seems to have an almost complete absence of negativity of any kind. He seems to be simply immune to such negative thoughts and feelings. Thus they can find nothing to cling to, either in his mind or in his heart.
I asked him this morning if some days are better than others. “Yes, just like in life. Some days are better and some are worse.” I follow this up with what makes a bad day. He ponders this for a moment. “We have to go beyond. Actually there are no bad days. So I was wrong. (smiles) There is only a wrong attitude.”
As for what makes a good day, “when I can cry sleeplessly for God.” He doesn’t know for sure what stops all of us from summoning this cry. He says it must be our own ignorance.
He experiences it most profoundly here and says that when he is not at the race he cannot invoke it in the same way. “This is the place where it intensifies your inner cry. The race really helps me to focus on the things that are important in life.”
