Sri Chinmoy
Eight members of Auckland’s Sri Chinmoy athletic and meditation group, recently spent Saturday night together in a most unusual celebration — by running up to the summit of Auckland’s Mt Eden 350 times.
The occasion was to celebrate spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy’s most recent accomplishment of lifting overhead a 350-pound dumbbell from a powerrack, with one arm. The 55-year-old guru, weighs only 159 pounds and achieved his remarkable feat after only 15 months of training.
Running between, midnight and dawn, Sri Chinmoy’s Auckland students logged up 350 ascents of the mountain, one trip for every pound Sri Chinmoy lifted.
All have run marathons before and helped organise this year’s Sri Chinmoy 1000 mile race in New York in which Siggy Bauer of Raetihi lost his world record but finished second.'
Sri Chinmoy started weightlifting when running injuries forced him to give up ultra-marathons.
His rapid progress has astonished the world’s weightlifting community and inspired countless tributes from many top competitors.
Published in Central Leader, Tuesday, November 18, 1986, No. 48