June 26

Inauguration of ‘RUNNERS ARE SMILERS’ 2-Mile Races

A talk by Sri Chinmoy on Tuesday evening
at Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, New York

Today we have inaugurated something very beautiful and very, very, very meaningful. I am extremely grateful both to the officials and to the runners. Again and again I am thanking you from the very depths of my heart. You all have my special love and gratitude. I shall be very, very grateful if you can come regularly; I shall offer you my heart of love and gratitude. Unless you are severely injured, you should run regularly. If you cannot run, please come here as spectators. Especially the officials must come regularly. Those of you who are officials, please take this as part of your devoted and selfless service.

I am very, very happy, very pleased, very proud of my children. I sincerely feel that this has been a tremendous success. By next week we will be able to announce this race to many organisations, and they will join us. Two miles is nothing. Invite your friends!

One other thing: I would like both the officials and the disciples who are not participating to please be extremely kind and sympathetic in every possible way to all the runners.

Sri Chinmoy begins his weightlifting career with an overhead lift of 40 lbs. at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York.

First Weightlifting Anniversary

A prayer by Sri Chinmoy
before weightlifting training at his home in New York

My Lord Supreme, my Beloved Supreme, my Eternity's All, today marks the first anniversary of my weightlifting career. 
There was a time when You made me a runner, a sprinter, an athlete. 
Now You have turned me into a bodybuilder, a weightlifter. 
My Lord, soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally I shall become what You want me to become.

Bodybuilders of the highest magnitude, weightlifters of the highest magnitude, Olympic heroes, are here to celebrate my weightlifting anniversary. 
I know, I know, my Lord Supreme, what they are actually doing. 
They are sharing their sincere love for Your infinite Compassion in me. 
They are all seekers. 
Some are conscious seekers, while others are going to be conscious seekers before long. 
What do I learn from them? 
I learn something most significant. 
This lesson I have been learning from You since I was four, when I started praying and meditating with Your infinite Grace.

My Lord, You are the Infinite. 
You become the finite, yet You do not lose Your Eternity, Infinity and Immortality. 
The finite is also You. 
Inside the heart of the finite, You play the role of the Infinite. 
Here on earth, when the supreme authorities on bodybuilding and weightlifting come to see me and be part of our oneness-family, I feel that the Infinite and the finite, the big and the small, together can sing the song of oneness-peace-family and thus make You happy, offering You satisfaction in Your own Way.

My Lord, my Lord, my Lord, may my outer name and my inner name be gratitude, gratitude, gratitude — sleepless gratitude, breathless gratitude and deathless gratitude — my Lord, my Eternity's Lord, my Absolute Beloved Supreme.  

Published in I Pray before I Lift, I Meditate while I Lift, I Offer my Gratitude-Cries and Gratitude-Smiles