Video by Utpal Marshall
On March 3rd 1979, Sri Chinmoy completed his first marathon in Chico California in a time of 4:31:34. Each year since then, his students in New York and around the world have honoured him by running the 26-mile distance.

Video by Utpal Marshall
On March 3rd 1979, Sri Chinmoy completed his first marathon in Chico California in a time of 4:31:34. Each year since then, his students in New York and around the world have honoured him by running the 26-mile distance.
Sri Chinmoy delivers a lecture, entitled ‘Perfection-Goal’, at the University of London in London, UK.
Sri Chinmoy first meets with Sudhahota Carl Lewis, Olympic Track and Field gold medallist, in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy runs 100 metres in a relay called ‘Oneness-Peace’ together with 15 other runners including Ted Corbitt, Addwitiya Roberta Flack and Sudhahota Carl Lewis, at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Flushing, NY, USA. Sri Chinmoy runs the 15th leg of the relay, passing the baton to the final runner Sudhahota Carl Lewis. Read more...
Sri Chinmoy lifts numerous people, including Steffi Graf, world’s no. 1 female tennis player and considered the best female player of the 20th century; and Ambalika Evelyn Lewis, US Olympic athlete, mother of Sudhahota Carl Lewis, at Annam Brahma restaurant in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Sri Chinmoy lifts 30 people, including Kamalesh Sharma, former Ambassador of India to East Germany at the Dynamo Sport-und-Kongress-Zentrum in Berlin, Germany.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert (282) at the Teatro L’Alianca in Barcelona, Spain.
Sri Chinmoy lifts a fully fuelled twin-engine Beechcraft plane using a modified standing calf-raise machine at Tweed Airport in New Haven, CT, USA. The total weight, including apparatus, is 13,040 lbs. After the lift, Sri Chinmoy is interviewed for the New Haven Register.
Sri Chinmoy lifts a helicopter and three small planes at Monmouth Executive Airport in Wall, NJ, USA.
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, NY, USA.
Lewis Freedman on running
Daily long runs are part of the basic philosophical and religious teachings of Sri Chinmoy, the spiritual leader with a worldwide following who not only ran 13 miles of Sunday’s Philadelphia Marathon but brought 40 of his students from Queens, N.Y., to aid in the administration of the race.
Chinmoy, 50, originally from India, prefers not to call his organization a religion, but a way of life.
“Religion binds us,” he said in an interview in the Franklin Motor Inn lobby after the 26-mile, 385-yard race. “We call it the code of life, the code of living.”
The code of living taught by Chinmoy, whose 300 students in his center in New York and at 60 other centers worldwide call him “guru,” stresses a natural-foods diet, yoga, meditation and running. “Run and become, become and run,” is a slogan of the group.
“If we run, then we become,” said Chinmoy. “We see our capacities fully manifested. We bring to the fore our hidden capacities.”
Chinmoy himself began running long distances about four years ago. He said he had been a provincial decathlon champion in 1958 and 1959 in India, but as a runner he basically was a sprinter. He had been telling his disciples that it was good for them to run, “and I felt I must also participate. I participate according to my very limited capacity. When I run they [his students] encourage and inspire me.”
Although several followers of Sri Chinmoy run marathons, and he claims a Canadian runner in the 2 minute, 25-second range 1 among them, Chinmoy seems to have a chauvinistic outlook 2 toward mileage volume.
Female followers, he said, should not run more than 45 miles a week. “For men, it entirely depends on their capacity, 75, or 80 miles.”
Because of his reverence for those who use their bodies athletically to inspire others, Chinmoy regularly honors athletes at his teaching center. One such honoree, last year, was Gary Fanelli of Oreland, perhaps the Philadelphia area’s best long distance runner.
Fanelli, who ran briefly with Chinmoy on the course Sunday said, he was the guest of honor at a dinner in New York just before the New York Marathon in 1980. He has since been presented with a song about himself written by the guru’s followers. 3
Running is an important part of the health lifestyle Chinmoy espouses, but it is not perceived as the ultimate end.
The end, “the destination,” said Chinmoy, for his students, is “to become good citizens of the world, to become perfect instruments of God. We try to become good and perfect citizens of the world.”
Although Bill DeVoe of Queens was disappointed he didn’t run faster than 2:25:48 in winning the race for the second straight year, DeVoe called the victory and receipt of the first Jumbo Elliott Trophy “good compensation.”
Chinmoy was not the only notable participant, although like him, former city councilman and Olympic rower Jack Kelly, one-time Olympic steeplechaser Browning Ross and Moses Mayfield, winner of the first two editions of the race in 1970 and 1971, were not in it for the duration.
Ross’ advice to the pack, although not what he practices himself, was: “When the going gets tough, quit.”
Mayfield, 36, employed in the housekeeping department at Temple University, showed up for sentimental reasons. He has been back in training for three months after an eight-year absence from the sport and he ran one loop of the river course, 8.4 miles, looking very strong.
He was not prepared, he said beforehand, to even be tempted into going longer. “l won’t be foolish,” he said. He passed the five-mile point very comfortably in 28:43.
Sri Chinmoy
“If we run, then we become”
Published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Wednesday, November 11, 1981
Following are some inaccuracies in the article.
1 The Canadian marathon runner’s time referred to, is 2 hours, 25 minutes, not 2 minutes, 25 seconds.
2 While Sri Chinmoy recommended that a select group of women runners restrict their weekly training, it was not a general mandate. As early as 1978 some of his women disciples had already run ultra-marathons, such as the 47-mile run on August 27th of that year, and the years that followed. Over the decades, Sri Chinmoy encouraged women to compete in 24-hour races and multi-day events including 7-and-10-day races, and distances of 700, 1,000, 1,300 and 2,700 miles — to the world’s longest certified footrace, the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. Many of these pioneer women runners went on to achieve national and international rankings. Sri Chinmoy always championed the cause of women’s participation in sport.
3 The song for Gary Fanelli was written by Sri Chinmoy and sung by Sri Chinmoy’s students.
A daily newspaper in Bratislava, Slovakia
Question: Could you tell us what you were talking about during your interview with our President?
Sri Chinmoy: President Kováč was extremely kind and compassionate to me. He was appreciating what I am doing in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and I appreciated and admired him for his many, many good qualities. I often use the term ‘interdependence’. Your President has such a good heart. He tries to bring forward the good qualities of all human beings and also all nations — the neighbouring nations and nations quite far from here.
Question: Did the President offer any comments about Slovakia’s relations with the Czech Republic?
Sri Chinmoy: About the Czech Republic he said, “We have to coexist. We have to feel that this is our common homeland.” He had such nice things to say about your common history. About America also he said such nice things. American democracy is his source of freedom. Something else most significant he said: that no matter where someone has come from, if he is a citizen now here in Slovakia, he will be treated as one. There is no stranger here.
Question: What is your own feeling about Slovakia and the Czech Republic?
Sri Chinmoy: In my heart, Czechoslovakia is still one country. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are like complementary souls. With their mutual determination-strength, they shall proceed. It is not by virtue of a feeling of competition with each other, but only through self-transcendence that they shall run faster than the fastest. It is only through self-transcendence that we shall become good citizens of the world. Self-transcendence is our goal, and not competition.
Question: Are you personally in favour of the division of Czechoslovakia?
Sri Chinmoy: I am a student of peace. Division is something that I cannot appreciate. If division takes place, it is a most painful experience. I want oneness, oneness, oneness. In a family, for years and years, brothers and sisters live together. When they are young they need one another. Then when they grow up, they want to show their supremacy. One brother thinks he is superior to the other brother. When they were growing up together, that kind of jealousy, rivalry, insecurity, superiority complex or inferiority complex they did not have. But as they grow up, all kinds of unhealthy, undivine qualities enter into them. Previously they said, "If our bad qualities divide us, at least let us try to be interdependent." If they are interdependent, then when they are grown up, they may not stay with their parents, they may live separately, but at Christmas time and on special days, they will meet together.
Here it is exactly the same. Division is not the answer. But if a painful division takes place, then let us try as much as possible to live with goodwill. Once upon a time you were brothers. If you cannot stay together under the same roof, at least try to be interdependent and have utmost goodwill towards one another. If you need something, you will just make a phone call and your brother will come to your rescue, and if he needs something, then you will come to his rescue. So division has taken place, but division is not the final answer. The goal is coexistence, interdependence. By division alone we do not get any satisfactory result.
Question: Do you foresee a time when all of Europe will be united?
Sri Chinmoy: It is not only possible; it is inevitable. Previously the European countries were quarrelling and fighting. Now the European countries are trying to create a oneness-home. Previously, the American states were separate. Now America is one. Australia is one. Canada is one. But when it comes to Europe, each country has its own individuality, its own way. Sometimes when neighbouring countries were practically on strike, they did not get any kind of sympathy from other nations. But now, European countries are having summit meetings and they are trying to feel their oneness.
Europe is one continent. Why should Europe be divided into pieces? Europe is like a tree. This life-tree has many branches. Because of the trunk, there are branches, flowers and fruits. If the branches are cut off, then there will be no flowers, no fruits. Now wisdom is dawning on the European leaders. So many countries in Europe are trying desperately to have a common home. Then Europe will have oneness-strength like America has. America has fifty states, but when necessity demands, they are all one. Here also, Europe now feels the supreme necessity of oneness. There shall come a time in the near future when Europe will have its oneness and the division that we have had for so many years will disappear.
In this respect, your President is showing absolutely the best way: he is appreciating his neighbouring countries, he is appreciating America and many other countries. By appreciating others, we bring to the fore their good qualities and they become strong, stronger, strongest. If I say one nice word about you, you will feel obliged to say something nice about me. But if I criticise you ruthlessly, you will also speak ill of me to your heart's content.
Your President is a man of sincerity, a man of integrity, a man of determination, a man of sacrifice, a man of self-giving. So many good qualities he has at his disposal. When he speaks, immediately you see wisdom, compassion and love. When he gave me the Presidential Medallion, I thanked him from the very depths of my heart. Then, while holding the Medallion, I said to him, "In you I see three persons: a friend, a father and a supreme pilot. Your heart of love has made you a true brother-friend of Slovakia. Your soul of wisdom has made you the father of your nation. Your constant sacrifice, inner and outer, for your country has made you its supreme pilot. All your citizens are inside your boat, and you are steering it safely and unmistakably. Your boat is bound to touch the Golden Shore, where there is only peace and peace and peace."
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 20
After Sri Chinmoy lifted a fully fueled twin-engine Beechcraft plane using a modified standing calf-raise machine, at Tweed Airport in New Haven, Connecticut, he was interviewed by a reporter from the New Haven Register. The weight of the plane, the fuel and the lifting apparatus was 13,040 lbs.
Reporter: You lifted heavy things like planes and elephants many years ago. What made you resume it again now?
Sri Chinmoy: I wanted to see if age has anything to do with physical fitness. I have found that it is our human mind that creates the problem. If we can go beyond the mind by challenging the mind, then the physical body obeys us. But the mind makes us feel that we are very old.
Now I am 67 years old. The moment I use my heart, I feel that I am 20 years old. So I try to use my heart when I do these kinds of weightlifting feats. When I use my heart, I feel oneness with the aeroplane. Everything helps me and everybody helps me when I use my oneness. Whereas if I stayed in the mind, I would not be able to lift heavy weights at all.
The human mind is full of division at each and every level. Our mind appreciates our right hand more than our left hand, for example, even though they are both part and parcel of our body. Since the right hand is stronger than the left, our mind prefers our right hand.
Reporter: Is lifting a plane different from lifting anything else?
Sri Chinmoy: Elephants are totally different from planes! As soon as you see the elephant standing in front of you, you get frightened because it is so huge. The one that I lifted was over 8,000 pounds, and when it was standing on the lifting platform it was only a few feet away from me. When I lift an elephant, for some reason I feel that I need more strength.
When I lift planes, I get a feeling of lightness from the plane itself. Plus I get a kind of inner thrill or joy because I fly in planes.
Reporter: Yes, it is hard to think of an elephant as light!
Sri Chinmoy: The mind immediately makes us feel that the elephant is such a solid object. How will it be possible to lift it? So I do not use my mind at all; I use my heart and try to establish my oneness with the elephant.
Reporter: Does that mean that this 13,000-pound plane was easier to lift than the elephant?
Sri Chinmoy: Strangely enough, even though the plane is so large and heavy, it has a kind of charm. That charm takes away the weight of the plane. I feel that I am flying with the plane. When we think of an elephant, on the other hand, a kind of unfettered fear enters into us. So everything depends on our inner feeling.
Reporter: What are you trying to prove when you do these things publicly?
Sri Chinmoy: I lift these heavy weights to inspire people. Inspiration is joy. You are so kind to come and watch my lift in this bad weather. Perhaps you will mention it in your newspaper or it may come out on your local television station. In this way, we are trying to spread our inspiration.
When we, as human beings, are inspired, we do many good things for ourselves and also for the betterment of the world. If we are not inspired, then we will have nothing to offer to the world. We may even try to destroy ourselves or others. Inspiration can bring us so much happiness and, if we are happy, then we will also get peace. Inside happiness abides peace. If we are happy, then we will not quarrel and fight with others. We will not find fault with them. If you are happy, you will be kind to me and I will be kind to someone else, and from there it will spread. So this happiness comes from inspiration. That is my simple philosophy.
Published in Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 14
Video by kedarvideo
Video by kedarvideo
Video by kedarvideo
Sri Chinmoy offers a Peace Concert at the Teatro L’Alianca in Barcelona, Spain.
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of London
Perfection is the seeker's fulfilling realisation and fulfilled manifestation. Everything else has dawned on earth save perfection, perfect Perfection.
Perfection is the tree.
Perfect Perfection is the fruit.
Man's speculation about perfection is his ignorance. Man's concentration on perfection is his knowledge. Man's meditation on perfection is his wisdom. Man's contemplation on perfection is his world-illumining, world-transforming inner eye.
God's Message is Perfection. Man's message is temptation.
God's Message is Perfection. Man's message is frustration.
God's Message is Perfection. Man's message is destruction.Perfection-Goal and the freedom-soul go together. He who reaches the state of freedom-soul has conquered his inner life and immortalised his outer life. He is the chosen instrument of God. He is the direct channel of God. He is the representative of God here on earth.
Cry and try.
When we cry to see the transcendental Light and when we try to perfect our outer nature, our perfection does not remain a far cry. Perfection is ours.
Exert and control.
When we exert the divine in us and control the animal in us, perfection begins to dawn within us. The flower of perfection blooms.
See and be.
When we try to see the truth with the Eye of God, not with our eyes, and when we consciously try to be the surrendered instrument of God, perfection in no time dawns. The Golden All of perfection beckons our aspiring hearts. It is true that perfection cannot be achieved overnight. Realisation cannot be achieved all at once. It takes time.
Let me tell you a story. A young seeker once came up to a spiritual Master for initiation. He was duly initiated by his Master. Then the following day he said to his Master, "Master, now that you have initiated me, you have to give me realisation. I want to see God." The Master said, "My child, how is it possible for you to realise God in one day?"
Again two days later, he said, "Oh, I want to realise God." The Master said, "You are not ready." A few days later, again the same question. "Master, I want to realise God." He has not completed his task. He has not launched into the spiritual path properly. Just the other day the Master initiated him, but now he is crying for realisation without following the proper method. Without swimming in the sea of aspiration, he wants to realise God.
The Master was going to the Ganges for a dip and he invited this particular disciple to come with him. The disciple followed. So the Master and the disciple entered into the water and the Master pressed the head of the disciple down into the water for a couple of minutes, then he released it. The Master asked, "What did you feel when I pressed your head into the water?" "Master, I was dying. I was gasping for air. I was practically dying and I thought I would die. The moment you released me, I got my life back." The Master said, "If you can come to that particular state of consciousness, that without God you cannot live even for a few minutes, you will realise God. You will realise God at that moment on the strength of your highest aspiration. Your inmost inner flame has to be kindled, and then you have to cry, cry for God as a child cries for his mother. Then only God-realisation is possible."
The disciple got the lesson. Truly and soulfully he entered into the spiritual life. He listened to his Master's dictates at every moment. Wholeheartedly he launched into the spiritual life. He felt the necessity of freedom from the domain of desires. He felt the necessity to grow into the mounting flame which is called aspiration, constant aspiration. Then realisation for him was not a far cry. He did realise God.
When we use the term "Heaven", we feel Heaven is all light, delight and perfection. But where is that Heaven? It is deep within us, in the inmost recesses of our hearts. High Heaven, higher Heaven and highest Heaven are all within us.
When we offer our soulful thoughts to our brothers and sisters, we live in high Heaven.
When we offer the results of our soulful actions to mankind, we live in higher Heaven.
Finally, when we offer our soulful existence to humanity at large, unreservedly and unconditionally, we live in the highest Heaven.
We can live in the highest Heaven every day. God has given us the capacity. He has given us the potentiality. It is we who have to manifest our inner potentiality and capacity. We all are surcharged with indomitable inner courage. Unfortunately, we do not use our inner unlimited capacity. We use our outer limited capacity. We are afraid of diving deep within. Inside is the treasure. Inside is the key. We do not know where we have kept the key. We have totally forgotten. We do not know where the treasure lies.
Here at this point is the necessity of a spiritual Master who knows where the key is and where the treasure lies. He does not give something of his own to the seeker. He only brings to the fore the seeker's inner wealth. God-realisation is not his sole monopoly. Everybody has to realise God without fail. It is a matter of time. One realises God today on the strength of his highest realisation. Another realises God tomorrow on the strength of his sincere aspiration. Everybody has to realise God, at God's choice hour. Again, the sincere seekers can expedite their journey. We can walk towards our goal. We can march towards our goal. We can run towards our goal. If we run, naturally we shall reach the goal sooner than one who is walking towards his destination.
Perfection-Goal. Perfect Perfection here on earth has to be manifested, but how? We have to start our journey with inspiration. We have to feel deep within us every day in all our activities the necessity of inspiration. No inspiration, no proper achievement. Then we have to go one step ahead. After inspiration we have to feel the momentous necessity of aspiration. Inspiration is not all. We have to aspire to reach the Golden All, to see the Golden Shores of the Beyond, the ever-transcending Beyond. This is what we expect from aspiration, the mounting flame within us.
Then, aspiration is also not enough. We have to meditate. Aspiration includes meditation. When we meditate, we have to feel that we are entering into infinity, eternity, and immortality. These are not vague terms — infinity, eternity, and immortality. These are our possessions. To enter into our own divine possessions, infinity, eternity and immortality, is our birthright.
Then, when we are advanced in our meditation, when meditation starts offering its fruit to us, we enter into the realm of realisation. We realise the highest Truth in this body, here on earth. We do not have to go elsewhere to realise God. We do not have to enter into the Himalayan caves or sit on the snow-capped mountains in order to practise spirituality. No. Here on earth, in the hustle and bustle of life, we have to practise spirituality. We have to accept earth as it stands, as it is. If we are afraid of earth, if we fight shy of earth, then God-realisation will always remain a far cry. Here on earth we have to realise the highest Truth.
Then, realisation is also not enough. After realisation we have to reveal our realisation. If we do not reveal our realisation, we act like a miser; we want to hoard our treasure. No. We have to offer our realisation in the form of revelation to mankind.
Revelation is also not enough. We have to enter into the domain of manifestation. If we do not manifest what we have realised here on earth, if Mother Earth does not receive the fruit of our realisation, and if She does not have it for good, we can never be truly fulfilled. Mother Earth has to be fed with the fruits of our realisation. Here on earth the manifestation of realisation has to take place, and when manifestation takes place, perfection is bound to dawn. Perfect Perfection is nothing other than the absolute manifestation of God's Transcendental Will here on earth.
We are all seekers of the Infinite Truth. It is our bounden duty to rise high, higher, highest. Each human being has come into the world with the message of perfection. No human being on earth will remain unrealised. No human being on earth will remain unfulfilled. No human being on earth will remain imperfect.
Realisation, fulfilment and perfection — these three are brothers. Realisation is the youngest, fulfilment is the middle, and perfect Perfection is the eldest in the family. These three brothers must go together. They have to walk along the field of aspiration. They have to swim in the sea of meditation. They have to fly in the sky, the blue welkin of contemplation.
God-realisation, God-revelation and God-manifestation can take place only when man feels that he has to transcend himself. His goal of today is not the ultimate Goal. Today's goal has to be transcended tomorrow. Today's goal is the foundation-stone. Every moment we have to transcend ourselves, and while transcending, deep within us we shall cherish the message of perfection.
Perfection is bound to loom large and important in all our activities if we feel that aspiration is the only thing we need, the only thing we are striving for.
In aspiration is the key that can ultimately open up the door of perfect Perfection.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 1