Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

July 9 There was a moment this morning when Ashpihanal went by me as I was crouched on the ground taking a photograph. I heard him call out, “you know some runners have gone half way.”  As I glanced up I saw a mischievous grin on his face as he ran by.   In a little less than a lap later I caught up with him and he announces, “I reached the half way point yesterday.” “When I reach the half way point I always have a big celebration.  It was  really nice.  My big celebration is that I take a half cup of water.”(jokingly) read all

7 JULY

“It is one of my favorite places to run.” As Suprabha says this, the dawn is greeting us with an incredible gentle glow.  The 12 runners have already just set off and she has obliged me this morning to do a lap of the course with me.  Of course she doesn’t get to New York that often as she lives in the DC area.  So one can naturally assume that she doesn’t get to run here that often.  At least not now. But it wasn’t that many years ago in which this was not just her favorite place to run but in many ways the very epicenter of her life’s journey.  13 summers she spent circling this block and when I dare to even comprehend just how many laps and miles she ran here my mind shuts down.  Latter using a small calculator, it spat out a gigantic trail of numbers.  As I look at her lightly jogging along now, it all just seemed so unbelievable.  How was it possible that this petite little woman could have run so many miles here. (40,300) Read all

They are all saints of the road.  Can you not believe it?  I will tell you a secret, even sometimes they do not believe it to be true. How is it possible to have 12 saints in one place, doing this one same thing, when the rest of the world sometimes seems empty of saints? Read all

“We have to come out of our comfort zone.  When we do that we call it austerity.  What it does is moves us closer to God.  The goal of life is God realization and we have to constantly think like that.  We have to have God realization in this lifetime.”  Swami Paramesha Ananda used to be a familiar site in the early morning hours here on the course.   Read all  

It is probably one of life’s most fundamental questions, but most certainly it is not one that I would dare ask of this very tired group of runners.  Yet Baladev got inspired to ask each one running here, ‘Who are you?” Read all