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Anahata Nada, Vol. 5, Nos. 9-10-11 – Sept.-Oct.-Nov., 1979.

Guru Leads Largest Team in New York Marathon

Emil Zatopek, Olympic triple gold medalist, greets Sri Chinmoy before the start of the New York Marathon, above. Below, the Master chats with ultramarathon champion Don Ritchie.
 

New York – Spiritual Master Sri Chinmoy led a team of 150 disciples in the New York City Marathon October 21.
 

Wearing dark purple shirts and pale blue shorts, the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team was the largest team entry in the 26-mile race.

Dozens of other disciples, who didn’t run, assisted the race organisers before and during the run.

A group of disciples also added a touch of musical dynamism to the scene by singing several of Sri Chinmoy’s running songs over the loudspeaker just before the race began.

Prior to the start, Sri Chinmoy chatted with ultramarathoner Don Ritchie and Olympic triple gold medalist Emil Zatopek, who served as Grand Marshall of the New York Marathon.

Sri Chinmoy had met Ritchie this past June when the runner visited his spiritual Centre after setting a new world record in a 100-mile run in Flushing Meadow Park.

For Zatopek, the only athlete ever to win three gold medals for the 5,000-metre run, 10,000-metre run and marathon in a single Olympics (1952), it was his first introduction to Sri Chinmoy, whom he had heard a lot about.

“This is the best blessing I ever had,” he told the Master. Sri Chinmoy, who regards running as a physical complement to the inner life, normally trains about 80 miles a week. The New York marathon was his sixth this year.

Only two weeks earlier, he had run the historic ‘Marathon to Athens’ marathon in Greece.

Anahata Nada is the longest-running newsletter of the Sri Chinmoy Centre. It was first published on January 1, 1974, and has chronicled Sri Chinmoy’s life and activities for over three decades.

Anahata Nada, Vol. 1, No. 1 – January 1, 1974.

The writing of 1,000 poems was Sri Chinmoy’s avowed goal for 1973 and he applied himself to the task with all his yogic determination and concentration. On some days he was able to write 50 or 100. By September his 1,000 poem work, The Dance of Life was complete.

But even then Sri Chinmoy was not content to rest. He felt that he could write still another 1,000 poem work before the end of the year and immediately he started on the new work, to be called The Wings of Light. Entering into the spiritual stream of creativity, the Master again began to produce poem after poem, each one a model of beauty and depth.

On November 16 Sri Chinmoy broke all his previous records when he wrote 150 poems in a single day.

By the end of 1973 both twenty-volume sets of The Dance of Life and The Wings of Light were completed. Two thousand poems in one year! An achievement not done before, and one not likely to be repeated by anyone else.

Note: Anahata Nada was the longest-running newsletter of the Sri Chinmoy Centre. It was first published on January 1, 1974, and chronicled Sri Chinmoy’s life and activities for over three decades until 2007.

Anahata Nada, Vol. 1, No. 3 – February 28, 1974.

Decathlon Poet: 200 Poems¹ in 22 Hours

The yogi’s concentrated power and the poet’s soaring vision joined for a brief interlude earlier this month to produce a truly unparalleled achievement.

In a 22-hour period on Feb. 2, Sri Chinmoy wrote 200 poems in one sitting. That comes to one poem every six and a half minutes. In point of fact, however, the pace was even faster, since he interrupted his writing stride for at least one hour when he left his house to conduct a meditation for his Manhattan Centre meeting that evening.

The Master began writing at one minute after midnight, and concluded at 10:01 that evening. Then, in the next few minutes – just for the joy of it – he dictated an additional eight poems.

He does not find it difficult to write poetry, he said afterwards. Normally when one writes, he explained, one must wait for “the bird of inspiration to make its appearance.” But because of his own spiritual power, he said, when the bird flies by “I just grab it.”

Some of the poems he wrote while lying on his bed; others he wrote or dictated while sitting downstairs on his living-room chair. The whole house, but especially his bedroom, was literally charged with concentration, and the force was so palpable and intense that those required to disturb him for one reason or another did so with almost a muted sense of awe.

At 5:30 in the morning two disciples began typing up the poems he had written up to that point. They were the first of a long procession of typists, proofreaders, artists, printers, collators and binders – all disciples – who transformed the handwritten manuscripts into actual printed books in a massive cooperative effort.

As Sri Chinmoy was writing his third group of 50 poems, for example, two disciple-owned printing operations – Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse and Vishma Press – were getting ready to print the first two 50-poem series. Beginning at 12 noon that day, they worked all through the night and by noon the following day Feb. 3, had printed four volumes of 50 poems each. In this way the Master’s spiritual children helped bring their Guru’s achievement to full fruition.

The four volumes became part of a new 1,000-poem series Sri Chinmoy is writing called “The Golden Boat.” The first volume was printed by AUM Press of the San Juan, Puerto Rico Centre, and these four books constitute volumes two through five.

A large group of disciples were gathered at the Master’s house as the boxes of books were brought in from the two presses, ink still wet. As each group of printers arrived, they were greeted with loud applause. This joyful atmosphere persisted into the next week, when there was a big party to celebrate the achievement. Many of the disciples brought their Master gifts, which were carried up to him inside a large wooden boat. The disciples sang songs and told jokes, mimicked one another in impromptu skits, and performed feats of magic. The evening was topped off by a meal cooked by the New Jersey Centre.

Endnote:
1 Sri Chinmoy wrote 208 poems during this time period – (ref. Anahata Nada, Vol. 1, No. 6 – May 27, 1974.)

Anahata Nada was the longest-running newsletter of the Sri Chinmoy Centre. It was first published on January 1, 1974, and chronicled Sri Chinmoy’s life and activities for over three decades until 2007.