Grahak Cunningham wins this year’s 3100 mile race in Queens, NY

Grahak with Sri Chinmoy at an earlier 3100-miles race

The morning is cool here at the 3100 mile race in Queens, NY, a perfect day to run.  A lid of clouds has slipped across the sky, at least for now, to protect this little patch of earth from a fierce July sun. 43 days ago, way back in June, Grahak began his journey here, by this afternoon he will make one last grand circuit of the course and he will need run no more. What comes now for Grahak is the slow and gradual reentry into the world that you and I and the rest of humanity inhabit.  One that he so powerfully dashed away from back in June.  In one day more the calender peels back another page and will reveal August.  A clear note that the dreamy end of a New York summer is fast approaching. From now on, with the inevitable blessings of each new day he will gradually heal from all the pain and hurt he has heaped willingly upon himself.  The angry terrible rash that has erupted across his flesh will gradually succumb to the certain soothing cure of long baths, dips in the sea, and the dreamy embrace of real rest.   Spread out across the long sweet endless enchantment of a full night in a bed. It is the world we nearly all call heaven. But for 43 days Grahak and for 10 others heaven was listening not to slumber’s enticement but to the clear clarion call of his inner pilot.  To sleeplessly travel far beyond the realms of the possible and then on towards the miraculous shores of Self Transcendence.  He got there not by his own fierce determination but with the inner strength that comes from within, to aid and guide all those who seek out,  and surrender themselves fully to higher goals. Now he and the goal are one, after striving tirelessly for 43 days, his prize is that he has once again transcended himself for a 4th time here.  The fog of time will come and dim this bright immortal moment from his eyes.  His tremendous record setting experience will gradually fade back into shadowed memory and photographs.  Yet what cannot be removed from his heart is that he has truly and deeply tasted  satisfaction in a way that we cannot.  Gone father and higher than you and I have ever dared to attempt.  And if tomorrow we look at him and think that he is just like us we will be wrong.  For he has reached and touched the divine reality that most of us are not even aware of.  If his feet have not fully and firmly planted themselves on perfection’s shore he has at least made long strides toward it.

Shortly after crossing the finish line he says:

“I want to thank Sri Chinmoy for running with us every step of the way.  Obviously this is Sri Chinmoy’s journey and a pilgrimage we all undertake together, and I am so grateful for finishing.”

Read more on Utpal’s Blog.

A Moment’s Peace in London

Yesterday, renowned Olympians, peace leaders, artists and musicians came together at University College London’s Olympic Centre to celebrate the Olympic spirit of peace and universal friendship at a special event entitled “A Moment’s Peace.” (Photo: Ashish Zubaty)

 Nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis highlighted the event by unveiling the “World Peace Dreamer” statue, a bronze sculpture depicting renowned peace leader Sri Chinmoy holding an Olympic-style peace torch, which will be offered as a gift to the City of London. “This statue will remind us of the highest ideals of the Olympic Games – peace and friendship between all nations,” Lewis said. “Sri Chinmoy was my mentor for more than thirty years, and the most peaceful person I have ever known.” Joining Lewis on stage were fellow Olympians Tegla Loroupe — former marathon world record holder — and Bob Beamon, CEO of Art of the Olympians, whose Olympic long jump record 44 years ago remains unbroken. “This statue embodies the same spirit of oneness, brotherhood and friendship which has infused the origins and traditions of the Olympics, both ancient and modern, and which to this day gives the Games their unique appeal,” Loroupe said.

 The event was hosted by Cathy Oerter’s Art of the Olympians (AOTO), an organization founded by Cathy’s husband, four-time Olympic discus champion Al Oerter, to help Olympians promote the highest ideals of humanity through their creative talents. Among the illustrious visionaries who spoke about their dreams for a more peaceful world were the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. and CEO of The King Center, Dr. Bernice A. King;the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and founder/executive director of the Tutu Institute for Prayer and Pilgrimage, Reverend Mpho Tutu; the daughter of Muhammad Ali and respected philanthropist, Khaliah Ali; the daughter of legendary Olympian Jesse Owens and managing director of the Jesse Owens Foundation, Marlene Owens-Rankin; CEO of Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Fund Sibongile Mkhabela; Portuguese Paralympian Jorge Pina; and former President of the General Conference of UNESCO, Dr. Davidson Hepburn. “A Moment’s Peace” was organized by the World Harmony Run, a 140-nation torch relay founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1987 to foster peace, harmony and friendship among the peoples of the world. In keeping with the AOTO spirit of connecting art and the Olympics, legendary Russian singer-songwriter Boris Puroshottama Grebenshikov performed a specially written song with the London Choir. In addition, the “World Harmony Art Exhibition,” featuring paintings by Sri Chinmoy, opened at the University College London.

CELESTIAL – Amazing new Color Film on the Moon

This movie by José Escamilla was just released today. I just finished watching it and it was very enlightening about what is really on the moon. Here is what the YouTube video details says:

“The film that challenges anyone to prove that the Moon is grey. This film proves the Moon is a full color celestial body and that there are incredible structures and towers built by “someone” that has the ability to build a structure ten miles wide and six miles high within an eight month period. The evidence is presented and you will be amazed at what you will see in this film.”

My suggestion would be to watch this full screen, and in high definition, to see all the details clearly. Start the movie, stop it, then click the little gear at lower right, select HD, and then let the gray bar load for awhile. Once the gray bar is about at the halfway mark, start playing it.

12-year old Girl brings solutions for our Banking System

12-year old Victoria Grant explains why her homeland, Canada, and most of the world, is in debt. April 27, 2012 at the Public Banking in America Conference, Philadelphia, PA.

Auspicious Good Fortune

On the site blogcritics.org I found this inspiring review of an equally inspiring new book:

Auspicious Good Fortune is English writer Sumangali Morhall’s first published work, a novice author and student of an Indian spiritual master writing more than adeptly of her lifelong journey from spiritual novice to adept. Or as such things are put on lush, inviting book covers, “One woman’s inspirational journey from Western disillusionment to Eastern spiritual fulfilment.” For once you really can judge a book by its attractively designed, accurately described cover.

Morhall is from an arguably unique generation in history, a generation which grew up taking the fruits and freedoms of feminism for granted. Coming of age in the late 1980s, she virtually had the world at her feet, and like few women before her, was able to study, travel, and work in almost any field of her choosing. In the pages of her autobiography, she does.  Completely unhindered in the ability to follow her personal bliss–to borrow the mantra of Joseph Campbell–Morhall seeks happiness and satisfaction in multiple jobs, countries, relationships and experiences: gaining an art degree, lead singer of a band, teaching English in Thailand, partying in London, scuba diving and nearly marriage in Mexico. In addition, she embarked in shoplifting as well as retail store management, earned a business degree from a prestigious university and a job in a London fashion house. Morhall tries it all and willingly walks away from it all, including a model-musician boyfriend, to wear a sari and join what is traditionally one of the most patriarchal, male dominated realms—a spiritual community—where by her own compelling account, she undeniably blossoms.

Author Sumangali Morhall

Amongst the near horizonless flotsam and jetsam of our internet age–the sea of world-weariness, cheap cynicism, aimlessly drifting intellectualism, and obscure speculation–the sincere and affecting, beautiful words with which Morhall describes her sometimes stumbling, sometimes running search for enlightenment are like a life-raft floating far beyond, and the depth of wisdom on board, pearls from deep beneath.

Auspicious Good Fortune is potentially an instant classic of the world of spiritual literature. Like the writing of Christopher Isherwood, an English author better known as the father of modern gay writing, but also a lifelong member of the Ramakrishna Order, and author of several seminal works on spirituality, Morhall’s book possesses the rare distinction of being the product not just of an authentic devotee and spiritual insider—Morhall a student with a rare close access to the recently belated New York guru Sri Chinmoy—but a genuinely talented writer as well. Also like Isherwood, Auspicious Good Fortune surprises with its candour and willingness to throw back the cloister curtains, the search for inner truth, speckled equally with tears of frustration and jewels of bliss.

Heart on sleeve and on page, Morhall writes directly from the heart, with endearing honesty, and captivating charm. Hers is the pure, unaffected voice of child, but a child who has meditated for over two decades, and whom possesses piercing insight and depth of both spiritual and worldly experience. Morhall may be a novice author, but in Auspicious Good Fortune she is no novice of the spiritual realm. If Eat, Pray, Love were to become serialised, this would be concluding edition.

A subtly emotive, poetic writer, with a keen eye for the delicate and minute, so well written and metaphorically masterful is Auspicious Good Fortune, it is as if Emily Dickinson herself had entered the realm of biographical prose. By her own admission more adept at poetry than prose, Morhall is at her lyrical and transcendent best when discussing her genuinely inspiring—and at times genuinely miraculous—experiences with Indian meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy, whom, on the basis of this heart-felt account, one can’t help but want to know better.

Morhall presents us with a conclusion that echoes the wisdom of ancient sages quoted within her very pages: to find a spiritual master and to follow the life of inner truth is the most auspicious path of all. Auspicious Good Fortune is the highly recommended tale of that search, and furthermore, the tale of what is found. - John Gillespie

Ashrita Furman on Records and Meditation

In connection with the IMPOSSIBILITY CHALLENGER Games in Munich in 2002, Guinness Champion Ashrita Furman from Queens, NY, gave a most inspiring talk on his many adventures in regard to his records and how meditation was the key to all his success. This is a live recording with the English original sound and Jwalanta Voelkner simultaneously translates into German. Ashrita combines the facts with a lot of humor. It’s a must to watch. Length: 53:28 h Filmed and edited by Kedar Misani.

Impossibility Challenger back in Budapest in October 2012

The Impossibility Challenger Games are back for another edition on October 20/21 2012 in Budapest. As a warm-up you can enjoy the highlights of the 2002 event in Munich with Ashrita Furman running 1 mile with a Hulla-Hupp ring, Shamita Achenbach-König playing the cello for 11:16 h, Belachow Gima, continuously laughing for 1:40 h and much more. Filmed and edited by Kedar Misani.