Joy Weekend – South of France

This Joy Weekend was in a place called Sommieres – a medieval town, complete with castle, next to the Vidourle river. While walking around it’s narrow alley-ways it was not too difficult to imagine life many hundreds of years ago. Is all of France this beautiful or are our French brothers and sisters just good at finding wonderful locations? Even the weather was perfect…

After our huge meal (I lost count of how many courses there were) we had our function. Manjula had just returned from the Harmony Run, so we saw a slideshow of some pictures she had taken. Then we played all kinds of games until it got quite late.

In the morning we had our usual early meditation followed by 2-mile race (this time thankfully it was not up and down a huge hill!)

The afternoon function featured numerous French singing groups including Ashcharjya’s group and the newly-formed Bhashini’s group, and an amusing play featuring Bhashini speaking in French and Natashira and Helene? speaking in English. This was all topped-off by an amazing performance of magic from Oindrajalik who had doves appearing from all kinds of places and many other tricks that astonished us all.

Many thanks and gratitude to the French disciples for organising this Joy Weekend which was inspiring, aspiring, amusing, stomach-filling, dynamic and yet relaxing and well organised. It is amazing how much you can receive from one weekend.

By: Suswara Payne

World Harmony Run in New Zealand

The World Harmony Run, is currently passing through New Zealand. The route involves a 3,544Km journey around the north and south islands. The Run will pass through some of New Zealand’s stunning scenery and also touch thousands of people along the way.

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The Run at Whangarei Falls

In Auckland, the run was greeted by a variety of people and groups including a traditional Maori greeting. – a solo warrior’s challenge, a welcoming group haka, songs and a prayer. The World Harmony Run team also offered songs in return.

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A Maori warrior

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The Auckland Boy’s Grammar School perform on the percussion. (Founder, Sri Chinmoy in background)

New World Record for Candles on Cake

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Guinness world record champion Ashrita Furman set a new world record with an international team in Queens, New York, by lighting 48,523 candles to burn simultaneously on a huge cake. Furman is the holder of 85 currently standing Guinness world records—more than any other Guinness figure. His 48,000-candle event will become his 86th record. Furman staged the event on a cake spanning 52 by 17 feet (15.8 by 5.2 meters.) Furman, manager of a New York health food store, dedicated the new Guinness Record as an expression of gratitude to his Indian born spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007), who would have reached the age of 77 on 27 August 2008. Furman stated: “Sri Chinmoy has such a giant heart, so we want to celebrate his birthday with a giant cake.”

A team of 200 helpers spent several hours counting and inserting the 48,000 small, colourful birthday candles in a cake spanning 52 by 17 feet. The candles were lit in a space of just two minutes by a second team of 80 assistants with blow torches. The audience of 1100 friends and supporters of Sri Chinmoy’s lifetime of work for world harmony sang the traditional “Happy Birthday” song. Sri Chinmoy is the initiator of the World Harmony Run which brought together millions of people in 140 countries in the spirit of friendship since 1987. After the candles were extinguished, many members of the audience enjoyed a piece of cake.

Furman had been waiting to attempt the new record after his previous record of 27,000 candles was upset by a Canadian team who lit 30,000 candles in September, 2006. Other Guinness world records by Furman include the largest flower bouquet (101,791 roses), underwater juggling, bobbing 33 apples in one minute and covering a mile the fastest while twirling a hula hoop and balancing a milk bottle on his head.

Further reading:

Songs of the Soul Concert NYC

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Songs of the Soul – a concert dedicated to Maestro Sri Chinmoy

On August 25th, a variety of illustrious performers offered a concert of music dedicated to the musical spirit of Sri Chinmoy.

The concert featured music from:

  • Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov
  • Roberta Flack
  • Samir Chatterjee
  • Kristin Hoffmann

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Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov

The concert was held in Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church 7 West 55th Street. A capacity audience enjoyed the concert which lasted for over 3 hours.

More pictures at Songs of the Soul Concert site

Good News for Runners

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A study by Stanford University Medical Center found that elderly joggers were half as likely to die prematurely from conditions like cancer than non-runners. They also found that runners were more likely to lead healthy lifestyles and suffer less disabilities.

According to lead author Professor James Fries:

If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise

Source: BBC

This will come as welcome news for the 11 runners who recently finished the ultimate ultra – 3100 Mile Race.

Sri Chinmoy often spoke of the physical and spiritual benefits of running – View: The inner and outer running at Sri Chinmoy Library

3100 Mile Race Won by Flying Finn

Asprihanal Aalto, from Finland won the 2008 3100 mile Self Transcendence Race. Finishing in a time of 44 days 2 hours 42 minutes and 15 seconds. This was his 5th victory and 8th time of finishing.

5 other runners have also finished including:

Pranab Vladovic, Grahak Cunningham, Pranjal Milovnik, Smarana Puntigam and Petr Spacil
In the next few days other runners are expected to finish.

See: Race Results for daily updates

http://www.3100.ws/

Sri Chinmoy’s 23rd Weightlifting Anniversary

Sri Chinmoy lifting pyramid of 15 men

June 26 was the 23rd Anniversary of the beginning of Sri Chinmoy’s serious weight lifting and the 20th Anniversary of the `Lifting Up The World’ program. There was a function in New York to commemorate this significant anniversary.

Arpan kindly wrote a function report, which you can read here – Weightlifting anniversary

“It was and still is obvious that Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting was not really about a strong man trying to get stronger. It was really about a great Spiritual Master who had a dynamic approach to faith in God and tried to include as many people as were inspired to participate in his efforts to show how important and real this faith is for all of us in our own lives. His lifting of seemingly impossible weights, objects and subjects was a dramatically convincing way to show us how any of us, even a small Indian Yogi, can work toward achieving what only seems impossible to our minds if we use our faith and hearts of Oneness.”

You can also view a new site on Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting – Inspiration Lifts

Celebration of Light at Hidden Gardens

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Hitaloka performing

An all-night celebration of the life of Sri Chinmoy at the Hidden Gardens in Glasgow.

On the longest day of the year, the Sri Chinmoy Centres in Great Britain celebrated the life of Sri Chinmoy in a festival of readings, musical performances and a puppet show about incidents in the life of Akbar and Birbal.

The event was organised by Adarsha and friends and was held at the beautiful location of the Hidden Gardens, in the heart of Glasgow.  Janaka Alan Spence, started the program with a beautiful introduction and recitation of Sri Chinmoy’s poems.

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Ananda performing

Other groups performed including Hitaloka, Ananda and Shindu. Despite the unfavourable weather, many also stayed up all night singing bhajans to welcome the dawn on the shortest night of the year.

Continue reading “Celebration of Light at Hidden Gardens”