Author: Nirbhasa Magee

World’s largest pencil unveiled in New York

World's largest pencil

An international group of volunteers led by multiple Guinness world record holder, Ashrita Furman, have just constructed a 76 foot long pencil in Queens, New York, the longest pencil in the world. The pencil was unveiled to coincide with a commemorative function celebrating 76 years in the life of Sri Chinmoy, the internationally respected artist and humanitarian.

The pencil weighs in at over 18,000 pounds, with a 2 1/2 foot long eraser at its end. The ‘lead’ alone weighs over 4,500 pounds, and is made using a graphite core 10 inches thick, which had to be sharpened at the end using a powerful Sawzall reciprocating electric saw instead of your average pencil sharpener. A whopping fifty gallons of paint were needed to finish off the outside of the pencil. In all, an estimated two million regular pencils could be made out of the materials used in the construction.

Forty volunteers from twenty different countries spent two weeks constructing the pencil, working from 7am to 8pm every day with the occasional night shift as the project neared completion. For the project leader, Ashrita Furman, this record will be added to the 70 Guinness records he already holds. Ashrita, a health food store manager from Queens, has held the Guinness ‘versatility’ record for holding more Guinness world records than anyone else on the planet for the past twenty years. Ashrita first began breaking records way back in 1979, and since then has performed feats such as somersaulting the entire length of Paul Revere’s ride in Massachusetts, underwater pogo sticking in the Amazon, performing almost 10,000 situps in an hour under the Eiffel Tower, and bouncing the fastest mile on a pogo stick in Antarctica! In fact, he led a team to break this very same record back in 1996, building a 20 1/2 foot pencil which weighed 560 pounds, and which currently resides in the Guinness Record Museum in Niagara Falls, Canada. This record was shattered in 2002 by the famous stationery company Faber-Castell, who built a giant 64-foot pencil to adorn their offices in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ashrita’s motivation in breaking records is to show people what is possible if they truly believe in their own potential. ”We should always push ourselves to do something greater“, he says. “What I love about the Guinness Book is that I can just go through it and choose something that I’ve never done before, train for it, and become the best in the world at that event. In a way, that’s also a challenge for me: to figure out how to train, the best way to train. The underlying principles are the same in my case, because in the end I’m going back to the inner stream, to the principles of discovering your own inner resources.”

Ashrita credits Sri Chinmoy with teaching him this philosophy of always transcending ones outer limits, and the record-breaking pencil is a token of appreciation for the tireless service Sri Chinmoy has performed in the cause of making people aware of what they are truly capable of. “I am not a natural athlete, but Sri Chinmoy has shown me that if one can be in touch with one’s inner spirit, anything is possible.”, reflects Ashrita. For over forty years, Sri Chinmoy has been making prolific contributions in the fields of art, music, poetry and athletics – all to give a glimpse of what we are capable of if we but aside the mind’s hesitations and pursue our dreams. Interestingly enough, a significant portion of Sri Chinmoy’s artistic ouevre is comprised of pencil and marker drawings – many of them form part of his ‘Soul-Birds’ series, in which he depicts the unfettered human soul in the form of a bird. To date, he has drawn over 15 million of these birds ever since he began the series back in 1991. “For me, birds have a very special significance on a spiritual level.”, Sri Chinmoy comments on his drawings. “They fly in the sky, and the sky is all freedom. So when the birds fly in the sky, they remind me of the soul’s infinite freedom. I feel that if people come here to view these birds, their inner hunger to fly in the sky of infinite freedom will be fed.”

Blog entries on the world largest pencil:

Boris Grebenshikov at the the United Nations

Listen To Concert at Radio Sri Chinmoy

On 29 August 2007, the United Nations headquarters played host to a concert by an artist whose striving for inner and outer freedom in his music exemplifies the goals of that august Organisation. Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov is a household name in his native Russia, and in particular he is widely credited with helping to usher in a new wave of artistic freedom in perestroika-era Soviet Union.

Almost half of his 35-year music career was spent creating and performing music with his “peaceful guerrilla” band Aquarium in the face of heavy restrictions from the Soviet state. Aquarium began life in Soviet-era Russia producing records out of a studio disguised as an engineer’s club, and holding underground concerts in private apartments; the intimacy of these secret concerts can still be felt in Grebenshikov’s lyrical singing style twenty years later, and has often led to his being termed the Russian Bob Dylan.

Despite the restrictions, Aquarium’s music found its way to every corner of the Soviet Union via pirated tapes passed on from hand to hand, which meant they were universally well known by the time restrictions finally began to loosen, and Aquarium – with Grebenshikov as the creative force behind the helm – were invariably involved in many of the landmark steps which paved the way for full musical freedom in Russia.

The goals of affirming “the dignity and worth of the human person” expressed in the United Nations Charter are echoed in Grebenshikov’s lifelong musical search for inner freedom and happiness. “The world is a perfect place.”, he enthuses. “The problem with us humans is that we don’t see it, we’re not being taught to see it. There is a great silence inside of everybody, the source of all inspiration, of everything.” For Grebenshikov, music gives a window into this source, and points the way to a better and higher way of living. “It’s a living feeling.” he explains. “When I sing I just feel alive, only more alive than for example now. Now I’m sort of fifty per cent dormant, but when I sing that’s when I really live”.

His search for inner meaning has also led to a long-standing interest in Eastern mysticism, spending much of the last 20 years travelling in India and Nepal and translating several important Hindu and Buddhist texts into Russian. The Eastern influence can also be seen in the name Purushottama, which was given to him by his friend and meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy, and which means “the one who goes beyond all limitations”. The concert was a wonderfully blissful experience for all who attended it, and Sri Chinmoy remarked afterwards that the performer had “brought down Heaven on earth”.

Related links:

  • Video report on concert from Russia’s NTV station (in Russian)
  • Official website of Grebenshikov and his band, Aquarium
  • Boris Grebenshikov: beyond all limitations – article on shanemagee.com

3 Guinness world records in one day

A New York health food store manager and student of Sri Chinmoy, Ashrita Furman, holds over 60 Guiness World records, and seems to be increasing his tally more rapidly as he gets older. Last Sunday, he attempted the remarkable feat of breaking three records in one day. First, Ashrita attempted to break his own previous mark of 30 deep knee bends performed on a Swiss balancing ball in one minute. This is a very demanding record, requiring both balance and stamina, but Ashrita managed to get his record-breaking day off to a good start with a total of 36.

Then off to the local baseball park to break the second record – the longest distance a water balloon can be thrown or caught without breaking it. Ashrita stood at one end of the park, trying to catch the balloons thrown by his friend and frequent record collaborator Bipin Larkin. After a couple of attempts which resulted in burst balloons (and a dripping wet Ashrita!), they managed to set a new mark of 65 and a half feet, eleven feet longer than the previous mark.

Now for the final record of the day – the fastest mile whilst simultaneously bouncing three balls on the ground. Unlike the previous two records, there was no existing mark to transcend, as the category had only just been approved by Guinness for inclusion in their book. Nonetheless Ashrita was determined to inaugurate the record with a bang, and he set a new mark of just over nine minutes – a tough act for anyone to follow.

Asprihanal wins the world’s longest race for a record fourth time

Earlier this week, Asprihanal Aalto from Helsinki, Finland entered the record books as he crossed the finish line of the 3100 Mile Self Transcendence race in a time of 43 days and 4 hours, making him the only person to have won the race four times. The second and third place finishers, Ayojan Stojanovic from Nish, Serbia and Pranab Vladovic from Bratislava, Slovakia will both finish today after 46 days on the road. The race is still continuing for the other intrepid runners, and they will gradually be coming in over the next two weeks.

Asprihanal finished at around 10 a.m. in front of a cheering crowd of friends and wellwishers. During the ensuing celebration, an enthusiastic choir sang the song that race founder Sri Chinmoy composed in honour of Asprihanal after his completion of the race last year. His time is the third fastest in the history of the race and a personal best for him. Sri Chinmoy once said something to the effect that for Asprihanal, running was like drinking water; this certainly seems to have been borne out in his performances over the last year – he has finished first in both the San Franscisco 24 hour race and the Self Transcendence Six Day Race in April.

(Photo: Asprihanal (right) with his brother Antaraloy immediately after the race)

Related links:

There are regular updates on the race on multidays.com blog…

Sri Chinmoy lifts six light aircraft and a glider in New York

Earlier today, Sri Chinmoy continued his recent run of amazing weightlifting feats, this time lifting an assortment of aircraft. The lifts included four light aircraft which were placed overhead on a modified calf-raise machine and lifted, two stunt planes which were placed on a platform and lifted also using a calf raise technique, and a glider which was lifted overhead using the right arm.

(Photo: Sri Chinmoy lifting light airplane – total weight including apparatus comes to 980 lb. The height of the lift can be seen in the small gap between the white lines on the apparatus above Sri Chinmoy’s head)

Over the years Sri Chinmoy has lifted many aircraft as part of his effort to demonstrate the power of the human spirit. At the beginning of June, he lifted an ultralight plane and a Stearman biplane as part of a lifting program that also included cars, motorcycles and boats. Lifting airplanes also sometimes form a part of the weightlifting program that often takes place on the anniversary of when he started lifting; as part of this program he lifted airplanes in 2002 and 2004. In 2003, Sri Chinmoy celebrated the centenary of the first manned flight by the Wright brothers by lifting over 100 pilots overhead using a special apparatus – this program was part of the Lifting up the World with a Oneness-Heart award program, in which Sri Chinmoy recognises the achievements of men and women who have been of service and inspiration to the community and the world by lifting them. To date, he has honoured over 8,000 individuals in this way.

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Also on this site:

Sri Chinmoy’s Soul-Bird drawings

soul-birds

In 1991, during a visit to the island of Malta, Sri Chinmoy began a new phase in his artistic career, by drawing the first of what he called ‘Dream-Freedom Peace birds’. The birds are often popularly known as ‘soul-birds’ by virtue of the fact that they represent the boundless flight of the human soul. “For me, birds have a very special significance on a spiritual level.“, says Sri Chinmoy. “They fly in the sky, and the sky is all freedom. So when the birds fly in the sky, they remind me of the soul’s infinite freedom. The soul has come from Heaven. When we think of birds, we are also reminded of our Source, and this gives us enormous joy. ”

To date, Sri Chinmoy has drawn over 15 million of these birds, either in single drawings or in vast artworks that contain hundreds of different birds. As well as his other ‘Jharna-Kala’ paintings, his bird drawings have been exhibited in many prestigious locations around the world such as the Louvre and the Sydney Opera House. There have been several exhibitions with large numbers of soul-birds, including an exhibition of one million birds in Ottawa in 1994 and another exhibition of 200,000 birds in Augsburg.

soul-birds
Over the years, Sri Chinmoy has used a great deal of imagination in his choice of artistic ‘canvas’ – as well as a wide variety of paper, he has painted birds on sheets of fabric suspended from a line, and also used a wide variety of everyday objects to draw birds on – plates, cups, seashells, even clocks and children’s toys! He will often do a series of drawings using one particular medium – for example, in late 2004 whilst visiting China, Sri Chinmoy drew a series of birds on Chinese rice paper using traditional calligraphy brushes, whilst in November 2006, he drew another series of birds on black paper which when scratched reveals the coloured paper underneath.

soul-birds

Drawing these birds is something that always gives Sri Chinmoy great joy. “When I draw a bird, I think of the soul — new creation, new hope, new promise, new peace, new bliss and new perfection on earth“, he says. He will often use what other people would consider ‘dead time’ – time waiting for something to happen or travelling between places – do draw a few more of these beautiful birds, exemplifying his philosophy of never wasting a moment. Such is the speed at which he draws these creations that one feels the artist is not so much creating something as setting something free that was already there. For many people, viewing Sri Chinmoy’s birds evoke a spontaneous sense of their own inner flight, and they have met with much praise and admiration over the years from art critics all around the world.

Related links:

Inspiration-Letters: premium writing from Sri Chinmoy’s students

The Sri Chinmoy Centre has more than its fair share of good writers, and there are many wonderful articles put there by members describing their own inner experiences and reflections on life. One special section of the website is Inspiration-Letters, a periodical ezine edited by New Yorker Mahiruha Klein featuring articles from our very best writers. Each edition of the magazine usually contains submissions on a particular topic, and past editions have been themed on such diverse topics as meditation, humour, great poets, and extreme sports!

The most recent edition came out only yesterday, and is themed on the rather interesting topic of …miracles! The entries are not restricted miracles of the dramatic variety (although there are a few in there!), many of the writers take great joy from finding miracles in art, music, exploration and the simple incidents of everyday living. Enjoy…

An early poem by Sri Chinmoy

Her Face O earth! but once behold her Face,
Then all for you is sun-vast Grace.
Your brave despair, your hopeless cry,
Your prison of mortality
Her gaze of Power will break the maim
Into a thousand fragments of Her Name.

Sri Chinmoy first began writing poetry in earnest during his adolescence. First he began writing in his native Bengali, then later moved to writing poetry in English. His early poetry is much more structured and metricized than his current output, which mainly consists of short haiku-like aphorisms.

The above poem is a typical example dating from 1958, referring to the mother aspect of the Divine.

Related links:

Photo: Prabhakar Street on Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries

A weekend of weightlifting: Sri Chinmoy lifts the world’s tallest horse, and then the strongest men in the world


At the beginning of June Sri Chinmoy lifted the world’s smallest horse, Thumbelina, weighing just 57 pounds. On Saturday, the last day in June, the 75-year old fitness champion and harmony leader went to the other end of the scale, lifting 2540 lb Radar, who is the Guinness world record books as the tallest horse in the world. In this lift, Radar stood on a platform as Sri Chinmoy performed a calf raise lift as shown in the photo above. Then his handler, Charles Wood, stood on the platform with Radar as Sri Chinmoy performed a second lift – including the apparatus, the total weight for this lift came to 3966 pounds.

Sri Chinmoy frequently honours men and women who have been an inspiration to the world by lifting them as part of an award program called ‘Lifting up the World with a Oneness-Heart’ – in the same way, Sri Chinmoy also says that Radar has been an inspiration to him: “Radar is the tallest, so Radar gave me the inspiration to set my goals to the highest”, said the 75-year old fitness champion. Sri Chinmoy also wrote 2 songs in praise of Radar which were performed at the event.

The very next day, Sri Chinmoy was in Philadelphia at the Liberty Strongman Classic, where many of the world’s strongest men were gathered for a unique ‘Team USA’ versus ‘Team World’ strongman competition. To show his appreciation for the contestants on both sides, Sri Chinmoy lifted eight of them overhead with his right arm, as one by one they stood on an overhead platform. Then all the members from each team ascended onto an overhead platform as Sri Chinmoy lifted them all together using a calf raise. In this photo we see all the Team USA members being raised in this manner.

In total Sri Chinmoy lifted 5948 pounds in the space of half an hour. “Today was one of the highlights of my weightlifting career“, he reflected after the event. “These great strongmen have inspired countless people on earth, and I am so happy I could offer them my most sincere appreciation from the inmost depths of my heart.”

The honorees themselves were very impressed by the lifting. The world’s number 1 strongman, Zydrunas Savickas of Lithuania exclaimed, “It is fantastic for this little man to do these magnificent lifts!” His fellow team member Andrus Murumets of Estonia, ranked number five in the world, concurred. “It was amazing this little dude could lift me. It was very, very impressive!“

Sri Chinmoy in concert – two shows on the West Coast

For the past twenty-five years, Sri Chinmoy has been travelling the length and breadth of the globe giving concerts of meditative music, offering those who attend the chance to let the music take them on a journey of the heart. This year alone he has given concerts in locations as diverse as Bulgaria, Thailand, Norway and Mongolia. However, this month saw him play closer to his New York home, as he travelled the West Coast of America to packed audiences in the cities of San Francisco and San Diego.

Sri Chinmoy has been singing ever since he was a small boy, and composing meditative music ever since early adolescence. Whilst in the spiritual community where he lived for twenty years, he learned to play the harmonium, a portable Indian version of the organ used to accomplany soulful songs. When he came to the West however, he felt an inner call to expand his capacities and take up more and more instruments to practise. Having freed himself from the mind’s confines through meditation, he is not subject to the usual hesitations and fears about not being good enough that normally occur when an adult takes up an instrument – he just dives straight in and gets joy just by making progress. In the early seventies, he began playing the esraj, a haunting Indian bowed instrument which is often the very first instrument he plays in his concerts. It is Sri Chinmoy’s favourite instrument, and one in which he is now regarded as being amongst the foremost exponents in the world. He went on to enlarge his repertoire to include instruments such as flute (Indian and Western), violin and cello.

In the mid 1980’s, Sri Chinmoy started performing dynamic and spontaneous improvisations on the grand piano. Nowadays, he will often perform similar improvisations on synthesizer, sampler or electronic percussion instruments; often these instruments are ingenious and novel creations by his students. All of this adds up to a very special concert experience for the audience – one in which Sri Chinmoy might be singing a soulful acapello song one minute, playing one of the hundreds of different instruments he has performed on over the years the next minute, and then bringing down powerful meditative energy with his synthesiser improvisations.

Related Links:

Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting: a case study in listening to the inner voice

If Sri Chinmoy had not embarked upon the path of spirituality and attained such high meditative states, he might still have been a poet and singer, and perhaps even also an athlete – these are activities which have always given him tremendous joy and satisfaction right from his childhood. However weightlifting is something that, as a young man growing up in a spiritual community in South India, he never dreamed he would be doing 50 years later. He recalls disliking weightlifting intensely back then; he would lift 20 pounds twice a year so that he would do well in the shot put event in the decathlon.

And yet many years later, fast approaching the age of 76, Sri Chinmoy is regularly lifting astounding amounts of heavy weights. This new phase of his service to the world started in 1985, when Sri Chinmoy received an inspiration in the depths of his meditation: “I did not choose to start lifting weights.”, he says in an interview he gave a year later. “If one prays and meditates sincerely, somebody within him talks to him and tells him what to do and what not to do. You use the term ’God’; I say my ’Inner Pilot’. Last year, when I was praying and meditating, that somebody within me — you can call it an inner voice or a source of inspiration — asked me to start weightlifting. That is why I am doing it.”

Sri Chinmoy says it is only because he is able to act from the heart due to his meditation that he was able to take up weightlifting and embark upon the many feats of strength he has performed over the years. He has often spoken about the difference between the mind’s fear and hesitation and the heart’s spontaneous eagerness: “When I look at the weights with my heart, I am not frightened at all, no matter how heavy they are. But when I look at them with my mind’s eye, I am filled with fear. I have no idea how I am going to lift them.“

Therefore, when he lifts the weights, he tries to keep his mind completely silent, so that he can become an instrument for a much greater strength to operate in and through him: “Through God’s infinite Compassion and Grace, from my concentration, prayer and meditation I am able to bring forward inner strength, inner power, and use that power to increase my outer strength. The inner strength that enables me to lift elephants and airplanes is not my sole monopoly. Far from it! It is available to anyone who prays and meditates. Everyone can get inner strength from prayer and meditation.”

Sri Chinmoy has published several books of anecdotes detailing his experiences with weightlifting: they are an eye-opening view not only of a weightlifter, but of a spiritual Master trying to push out the boundaries of the possible. In these first-person accounts, we observe a contrast common to all spiritual Masters who try to offer what they have and are to help mankind progress – a contrast between the finite human frame which experiences discomfort and pain at these arduous activities, and the infinite consciousness of peace and delight, housed within that ‘still small voice’ which spiritual Masters can access at will through their meditation. Time and again, Sri Chinmoy invokes the Infinite to help him perform these feats:

Absolutely the fastest way to make progress in the inner life is through gratitude. When I look at my 350-pound dumbbell, believe me, perhaps my mind is more frightened than yours! But when I offer my gratitude to the Supreme early in the morning, there is no fear at all. (11 September 1986)

The two following entries give a very direct insight into how spiritual Masters are able to surrender to the inner command all the time:

I am seriously thinking of stopping again after November 17th. I want to walk outside again in the fresh air with Nature. This gives me so much joy. During these last twelve months with my weightlifting I have reached a very high level. Now I want to concentrate on other things. (2 October 1999)

I had been planning to give up my weightlifting after the 17th, but the Supreme Himself has asked me to continue. This weightlifting brings joy and inspiration to thousands of people. So I will be taking my weightlifting equipment to Brazil and I do hope that I can make some progress there. (29 November 1999)

These diaries are also full of appreciation for all the distinguished figures in the weightlifting and bodybuilding world who inspired Sri Chinmoy and encouraged him to go further. Sri Chinmoy has always seen inspiration as being a two-way street – it is not just a case of him inspiring others, but of contributing alongside his fellow world-citizens to make a better world. Indeed he has frequently used his weightlifting to show his appreciation to men and women who have given inspiration to the world in their own fields, in an award ceremony called “Lifting Up the World With a Oneness-Heart“. In this ceremony, Sri Chinmoy will lift these inspiring figures overhead in both body and spirit using a specially constructed overhead platform.

Resources:

Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting anecdotes have been published in the books My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles (Parts 1 and 2) and A Mystic Journey in the Weightlifting World (Parts 2-4). Other excerpts used in this article come from the Sri Chinmoy Answers series of books and also the book Aspiration-Body, Illumination-Soul. These books can be found on Sri Chinmoy Library.

Recent blog entries on Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting:

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