Sri Chinmoy and I run Half-Marathon Personal Bests

On Sunday morning November 15 1981, the day after I met Sri Chinmoy for the first time, I ran a half-marathon race organised by Sri Chinmoy’s New York students in Flushing Meadow Park, Queens.

I was sharing a room with some very nice Canadian students of Sri Chinmoy and they kindly drove me to the race. It was a chilly, wet morning but I was delighted to hear that Sri Chinmoy was running the half-marathon also. The course had several out and back loops past the start/ finish area.

After 6 miles I was feeling very happy and was running quite well when I approached an aid station. There were about 20 women standing in the cold, misty rain singing Sri Chinmoy’s running songs. I clearly saw and felt myself running into a serene cloud of mystic light and I felt such joy that I was taken into an enchantingly luminous higher world. It was a damp, bleak day, yet the area around them had a heavenly aura.

Near 11 miles I was approaching the dark entrance to a freeway underpass. I felt tired and was struggling to stay with the pack of runners that I had been running with. Exiting the underpass from the opposite direction and heading towards the last turnaround point was Sri Chinmoy.

Sri Chinmoy looked very hot and tired and we both saw each other at the same moment. Instantly a powerful blast of spiritual white light came from Sri Chinmoy's eyes and enveloped me. I felt such gratitude at his selflessness as he was clearly struggling even more than I was.

Even though I was still very tired, somehow my body was moving a lot faster, and I literally flew past the pack of runners that I had been falling behind. My last 2 miles were the quickest of the race - and my time of 1:28:10 was a personal best.

A few minutes after I finished, I heard a lot of clapping and cheering - people were shouting encouragement to Sri Chinmoy.

"Come on Guru, you can do your best time."

Sri Chinmoy ran the last few metres with a group of supporters running alongside, and achieved his lifetime best of 1:55:24.