Recent Articles

Sri Chinmoy finishing the 100-metre race at the San Juan Masters Track & Field Championships in Parque Central, San Juan, Puerto Rico. His time was 15.57 sec. He took 74 strides.

Weightifting Prayers

I

My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!
O seeker
Your God-Compassion-doubt
Is
Your spirituality’s immediate death.
My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!

Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer at 6:14 a.m. before doing 640-lb. seated double-dumbbell lift. This is a new personal record.

II

My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!
The Smiles of Your Compassion-Eye
Have liberated me from my mind’s
Bondage-ignorance-night-abyss.
My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!

Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer at 6:23 a.m. before doing 840-lb. dumbbell bench press. This is a new personal record.

III

My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!
I must conquer my mind’s frustrations.
I must conquer my heart’s depressions.  
I must conquer my life’s failures.  
My Supreme, my Supreme, my Supreme!

Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer at 6:39 a.m. before doing a 1,300-lb. standing double-dumbbell lift.

Published in My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 16

At 6:23 a.m. Sri Chinmoy sets a personal record when he bench presses an 840-lb. dumbbell.

Photo: Dhanu

Sri Chinmoy observes the scoreboard at the Sri Chinmoy 700-1000-1300-Mile Ultra-Distance Trio, in Flushing Meadows Park, in Queens, New York.

Sri Chinmoy inspects the catering section, which provides around-the-clock food for the runners.

Weightlifting prayer

Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer at 9:13 a.m. before doing 620-lb. seated double-dumbbell lift — a new record.

Published in My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 16

Sri Chinmoy tries new gym equipment. If Sri Chinmoy liked a particular machine but they were prohibitively expensive, he would sometimes have his photo taken and a custom machine to reflect its likeness would be built by Unmilan and others.

Photo: Dhanu

Sri Chinmoy lifts Indian tennis player Leander Paes. 

Photo Maral

Sri Chinmoy challenges himself with the Bullworker Exerciser at Maddal Circus held on the stage of John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx. He wears a Madal Bal T-shirt given to him by his disciples who run the Swiss health food company.

Sri Chinmoy finishes the 100-metre race at Sports Day at Fox Hill High School, Bedford, New York, in a time of 15.2 seconds.

Sri Chinmoy jogs 100 metres with Olympic gold medallist Sudhahota Carl Lewis, who racewalks, and then lifts him twice – first, using only his right arm and then, using only his left arm – at Victory Field in Forest Park, New York. This is the first occasion on which Sudhahota is lifted by Sri Chinmoy.

Later in 1988, Carl Lewis would successfully defend his Olympic gold medal title in the 100m in the Seoul Olympics.

Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer at 8:26 a.m. before doing clean and press from the ground up to 45 lbs. with both arms simultaneously. (26 reps). The prayer was later published in My Morning Soul-Body Prayers, part 8.

Sri Chinmoy takes a break during a lifting programme at Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York.

Sri Chinmoy performs his heaviest one-arm lift (one person (Utthal Tindel) plus apparatus weighing 406 lbs.) using a double platform, in Jamaica, NY, USA.

Amusing Stories about Running

by Sri Chinmoy

Don’t run so fast!

I was running in the afternoon at a seven and a half or eight-minute pace. An old man with a pronounced moustache was watching me. He said, "Don't run so fast! You will get tired."

Monkey street

On one street, three or four boys and two or three girls are real monkeys. Each time they see me running, they stand up. They don't cheer me; they boo: "Boo, Guru!" That kind of thing they do! They are bad people, bad people. I pray to God, when I come back, that I don't see them, and God listens to my prayer. When I come back, I don't see them.

Woof! Woof!

When I was running a few months ago, three or four girls who were standing near the street started barking. Human beings started barking at me! Very bad! There are so many nice people in this area, but God's creation is so vast. Always He has to have a mixture of good and bad. Four or five girls and boys are so unkind to me. Each time they see me they have to make fun of me. Again, most of the others are very nice.

Stop and watch!

This morning I was running on the left side of the street. On the right side a car passed me. It was in the other lane, but just because I heard it coming, I stopped. A stout black man was driving. He gave me a smile and said, "You are right. Always you should stop and watch."

A flat two-mile course

I have been asking the boys to find me a two-mile course to run — flat, without sidewalks and side streets and no more than ten minutes away by car. Nobody has been successful; perhaps nobody ever will be successful. Vinaya last week told me he had found a place. I believed him, and he took me there. God! It was a useless road! He wasted my time, but I forgave him.

Then, three days ago, he said he had found Heaven on earth. Those were his words. I said, "To find Heaven on earth is really something!" So I went to see his Heaven. It was Heaven, according to Vinaya — our old course at my seven-mile mark. His course was full of small pebbles and stones, and it was not even clean. It was very bad, very bad! The other day Lorne took me to a place that he said was extremely beautiful. He said that Kanan was the witness, that Kanan had taken him there. So I went to see the place. O God! It was almost like a highway, with a tiny path for cyclists on the side. Thousands of cars were going by very fast. So how could I run? That was Lorne's place. Like that, many people tempt me to go and see their discoveries, but their discoveries always frustrate me.

Published in Run and Become, Become and Run, part 4

Sri Chinmoy achieves a lift of 500 lbs. using a seated calf raise, and a lift of 1300 lbs. using a standing calf raise in Jamaica, NY, USA. Photo: Pulak Viscardi

Sri Chinmoy runs 4 miles from his house to the National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows Park in a time of 37:00. He then racewalks another 4 miles at Flushing Meadows Park in 47:20, as part of the Sri Chinmoy Grand Prix races held in New York.

Sri Chinmoy places first in the Sri Chinmoy Tennis Tournament for Priests and Rabbis, in Jamaica, NY, USA.

Two ultra-running legends — Ted Corbitt, widely known as the father of ultra-distance running in America and founder of the New York Road Runners congratulates Suprabha Beckjord as she finishes the world’s longest certified footrace, the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race held in Jamaica, New York. (She is the only woman to have completed every edition of the race from 1997 to 2009. The annual event is sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team.)

Sri Chinmoy (no. 1) running in his first 10-mile race, one sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in Greenwich, Connecticut. He completes the course in 1:45:22.

Dhrubha Hein (no. 180) leading the pack across th bridge.

Canadian Olympic running coach, Daniel St. Hilaire, meets with Sri Chinmoy at Aspiration-Ground, New York, asking questions about taking drugs in sport.  This included the question:

Question: Is it possible to be among the best in the world in power events, such as weightlifting and sprinting, without using steroids?

Sri Chinmoy: My answer will be in the affirmative. It is quite possible to be among the best in the world without using steroids. There will come a time in the near future when weightlifters and athletes will be able to break world records and better the world standards without using any drugs.

Sri Chinmoy, Aspiration-Body, Illumination-Soul, Part 3, Agni Press, New York, 2004

On a chilly New York morning, and less than 2 days after returning from Europe, Sri Chinmoy walks the 2-mile course around the perimeter of Jamaica High School, in Jamaica, New York.

At the race, Sri Chinmoy offers this prayer:

My Lord, please forgive me.
Today I do not have any special prayer
To place at Your Feet.

“My child, tomorrow you must pray to Me
More than usual.”

My Lord, today I am unable to think of You.

“My child, tomorrow you must think of Me
Much more than usual.”

My Lord, today I am unable to love You.

“My child,
Tomorrow you must and must and must
Love Me infinitely more
Than you usually do.
My child, today I am forgiving you,
But you must not be negligent
In your prayers.
You must not be negligent
In thinking of Me.
You must not be negligent
In loving Me.
If you want to claim Me to be yours
And if I want to claim you to be Mine,
Then you must never, never, never
Forget your morning spiritual
Love-devotion-surrender-disciplines.”

Published in My Race-Prayers, part 2

Sri Chinmoy runs a personal best for 10 miles in 1:23:47 (8:23 pace) at the Sri Chinmoy Race in Greenwich, CT, USA.

Sri Chinmoy (wearing the light-blue tracksuit) holds aloft the Puerto Rican flag during the athletes’ march past of the V World Masters Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Sri Chinmoy lifts champion athletes and coaches at Aspiration-Ground, New York as part of "Lifting Up The World With a Oneness-Heart" Pictured here are Sudhahota Carl Lewis and sister Carol Lewis. The banner in the background read “The Morning of Champion-Hearts Supreme”

Sri Chinmoy achieves a 380½-lb. lift, using only his right arm, in Jamaica, New York.

My Solid Goal

This morning I transcended myself in the one-arm lift by lifting 380 pounds. 390 pounds I am not going to do, because I don’t like the number 90. So, from today on, I am aiming at 400 pounds. This is my solid goal. Let it take even forty days if necessary!

— Sri Chinmoy

My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 1

It Happened to be My Car

Remarks by Sri Chinmoy
after lifting cars and passengers at Aspiration-Ground, in Jamaica, New York

Our philosophy is self-transcendence. Two days ago, I lifted a car with my calves. At that time, no human beings were sitting in the car. Today, again, I wanted to lift a car. This time it happened to be my car. When some of the disciples bought me the car, they told me it was gold. But when I got it, I saw that it was brown. The weight of the car is 2,960 pounds and the apparatus for lifting it is 82 pounds. So, altogether 3,042 pounds were loaded onto the machine.

I lifted the car twice. Then, on the third lift, Ranjana, Unmilan and Vinaya were inside the car. The weight on the calf machine was 3,521 pounds. On the fourth lift, five persons were inside. The car and the weight came to 3,811 pounds. On the fifth lift, seven persons and the car totalled 4,107 pounds.

On the sixth lift — this one really killed me — four persons were in the front seat, four were in the back seat and three were on top of the car. There were eleven people altogether. The weight came to 4,515 pounds. I have no idea scientifically how much I actually lifted. Our great mathematicians and physicists are working it out. I lifted the 4,515 pounds twice and held it for around seven seconds. Luckily, I am still alive. Now I shall take rest from the car lift for a long time, because I really suffered a lot.

Published in My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles, part 1

Sri Chinmoy visits, the Sri Chinmoy 700, 1,000 and 1,300 Mile Races at Wards Island Park

Sri Chinmoy running at Games Day at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, Connecticut.

During the day, one of Sri Chinmoy’s students Databir Watters, a former junior Connecticut wrestling champion, crawls continuously on his hands and knees for 7 miles in the time of 8 hours 41 minutes.

Sri Chinmoy practises sprinting at Aspiration-Ground, New York.

Sri Chinmoy performs 13,000 crunch sit-ups in 2 hours and 40 minutes, in Jamaica, NY, USA.