Finding a Door in the Gobi Desert
2007-06-20 08:03:33
I had everything I needed for my record attempt in the Gobi Desert
in Mongolia except for one small item - a 4-foot by 5-foot plank of wood! I had the regulation stilts, I had a jump rope and I had the official witnesses in the car with me. We were on our way to the Ulaan Bataar airport to catch a flight to Dalanzagad, not much more than an airstrip deep in the Gobi. I was going to attempt the record for jumping rope the most times in a minute on stilts. I needed the wood to bounce on because the stilts would sink deeper and deeper into the sand without it, preventing me from cranking out the 102 jumps required to break the current record. I was trying not to dwell on the fact that if I didn’t have the wood with me already, how was I going to find a plank of wood in the middle of one of largest and least populated deserts on the planet?!
Great Expectations
2007-06-29 02:02:17
A few days ago, I visited New Orleans and attended a program dedicated to the courageous spirit of the people of the city. The function was the brainchild of Ashish Verma, the General Manager of the renowned Windsor Court Hotel. As part of the program, Mr. Verma invited my spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, to say some encouraging words and give a short concert.
Also, a couple of New Orleaneans were honored for their outstanding efforts to help rebuild the city. I was so inspired that I decided to attempt a Guinness record the next morning at a local track even though I wasn’t completely trained.
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, Great Expectations
Lost and Found
2007-07-10 00:32:24
Sometimes a simple story can have a profound impact. More than twenty years ago, my friend, Adhiratha, told me about an incident that happened to his uncle and I have never forgotten it. In fact, every time something gets lost, I think of Adhiratha’s uncle and I’ve never even met the guy!
Adhiratha comes from a very religious Catholic family. Just to show you the level of their devotion, at dinnertime, before they began eating, they would take turns reading out a chapter from a book about the lives of saints. Anyway, one hot summer day, Adhiratha’s uncle, Francis, was taking a refreshing swim at Jones Beach, here in Long Island. Suddenly, he noticed that his wedding ring had slipped off his finger into the Atlantic Ocean. He was in shock. However, without a moment’s hesitation, he prayed to St. Anthony, who is the patron saint of missing things, and dove headfirst into the murky water. He touched the bottom, skimmed his hand along the sand and, when he re-surfaced, tears wel
Meditation Works
2007-07-25 13:47:09
I was watching the men’s British Open Golf Championship on TV this past Sunday and the commentators brought up a fascinating point. They said that in order to play golf well, a player must be in control of his emotions. They pointed out that many golfers are brilliant on Thursday, Friday and Saturday but, on Sunday, when all the adrenaline is pumping and they have a possibility to win the tournament, their games fall apart. They even have to take the effect of their adrenaline into account when they choose which golf club to use for a particular shot. My immediate reaction was that those golfers should learn to meditate!
Meditation
really works. Meditation fills you with inner peace and I use it not only in my day-to-day life, but also to break Guinness world records. A perfect example is the record for doing the most deep knee bends on a Swiss Ball in a minute. When I can stay within myself, I'm able to balance on the ball and crank out the squats. However, as soon as I get a bit e
Read more: Works
The Pencil Wars
2007-08-16 15:39:07
I apologize for not putting up a blog in a while – I’ve been involved in organizing a celebration in honor of my spiritual teacher's birthday. Every year, hundreds of Sri Chinmoy’s students from around the world come to Queens, New York, to join in the festivities. Although the celebration centers mostly around prayer and meditation, there are other activities including classical music performances and sports competitions. Also, recently, it has become a tradition for a small group of us to break a Guinness record by building something GIANT.
A few years ago, we succeeded in creating the world’s largest bouquet and we presented the magnificent flower arrangement to Sri Chinmoy on his birthday. It was made up of 100,000 roses and, afterwards, we invited everyone in the neighborhood to take armfuls of roses home. For days, the entire area smelled like a rose garden!
Read more: Pencil
Anyone Need a 76-Foot, 21,000-Pound Pencil?
2007-09-09 20:26:34
Well, we did it and we had a blast! A bunch of guys from about 15 countries spent 2 weeks building the world’s largest pencil. It wasn’t easy. We had to make the pencil to scale, it had to look precisely like a normal pencil and it had to be made out of exactly the same materials. We used over 8,000 board feet of wood, 4,500 pounds of 10-inch graphite, which ran the length of the 76-foot pencil, and we even manufactured a 250-pound eraser. It took our two main carpenters a full day to sharpen the point of the pencil using a Sawzall, axes, and a grinding machine!
Read more: Anyone
, Pound
, Pencil
Behind Closed Doors
2007-10-01 11:45:09
There is an expression: “the morning shows the day.” If that’s the case, then my trip to St. Petersburg was portending to be a disaster! On my first day in that former capital of Russia, I was pickpocketed and, let me tell you, the gang who did it was smooth!
Read more: Closed
, Doors
My Beloved Teacher
2007-11-06 00:42:23
Dear friends,
My Beloved Teacher
, Sri Chinmoy, entered into Mahasamadhi on October 11th, but I can still feel my Teacher's presence so powerfully in my heart.
I am certain that Sri Chinmoy is most lovingly blessing us and encouraging us all from the higher worlds.
A Record With a Peel
2007-11-22 12:47:10
Sri Chinmoy, my spiritual teacher, has written thousands of profound aphorisms including many about not accepting impossibility and never giving up. Here is one of my favorites:
“I do not give up,
I never give up,
for there is nothing
in this entire world
that is irrevocably unchangeable.”
Of course, we can apply this to major life challenges, but, in my case, I feel it is equally applicable to less important issues such as breaking Guinness world records!
Read more: Record
Time Flies
2007-12-15 15:31:16
Today's blog is not about breaking a record, but instead it's about something that happened between me and a fly on my birthday a few months ago!
In general, flies are not much appreciated, but several prominent authors have used the fly in their writings to make observations about life. Honore Balzac commented on the unfairness of the justice system, "Laws are like spider webs which the big flies pass through and the little ones get caught". Benjamin Franklin remarked, "A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar" which might be interpreted as highlighting the value of kindness, and Miguel De Cervantes was probably saying "silence is golden" when he wrote, "A closed mouth catches no flies". Finally, Francis Bacon referred to an ancient fable about overestimating one's own importance, "The fly sat on the axle of the chariot wheel and said, "What a lot of dust I raise!"
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, Time Flies
My Friend Saves the Day
2007-12-10 10:13:32
It's hard to imagine that good grooming could almost ruin a record attempt, but it actually happened to me a few days ago!
I was in the Dominican Republic on retreat with my meditation group and I decided to attempt the record for walking the fastest mile while spinning a hula hoop around the waist and simultaneously balancing a full pint milk bottle on the head. The bottle must remain balanced for the entire mile, and cannot be touched in any way to adjust it. I admit, the record is crazy but I love it. It actually requires tremendous concentration to keep the bottle balanced, especially while bystanders are laughing at you and traffic is whirring by!
Read more: Saves
Humility Comes in Small Bottles
2008-03-02 23:07:23
One of the real joys for me in breaking records and sharing my experiences is that hopefully it inspires others to go beyond their own capacities and travel into the realm of “self-transcendence.” Of course, any transcendence requires appropriate training. With extreme events, you’ll often hear, “Don’t try this at home.” Well, this record attempt is one of those!
There are many members of my meditation group who are medical doctors. Most of them are amused when they hear about my Guinness records, but some of my doctor-friends express genuine concern for my health and safety. One pediatrician in particular—Garima (from San Francisco) —always laughs when I tell her about my Guinness exploits, and she usually follows with, “Don’t overdo it and be careful of those knees!
Read more: Humility
, Small
, Bottles
Seize the Day
2008-02-04 12:26:33
"Carpe diem!" Or in plain English, “seize the day!” Life is short and every moment is precious. Each time I hear Horace's immortal phrase, I am infused with energy. It is in perfect harmony with Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy: “To expedite your God-realisation-journey, you must take full advantage of every opportunity that knocks at your heart-door.” Recently, I was presented with a unique opportunity to seize the day and attempt a world record.
I love animals and get special joy incorporating them into my record attempts. One of my all time favorites was the record for the most jumps on a pogostick in a minute. And what made it so special was that I was holding a dog with one arm during the event! When Suki, my dog partner, and I performed the record, I was concerned that
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Pushing the Envelope
2008-03-20 10:25:17
New Yorkers enjoy a reputation for not being the friendliest or the most helpful people, but my experience while recently training for the car-pushing record was just the opposite. In fact, I was amazed at how kind my fellow New Yorkers could be!
The record for car-pushing by an individual is 12 miles. The car has to weigh a minimum of 1609 pounds. The engine cannot be running and a person must sit in the driver’s seat to steer. I was practicing with a friend’s Ford Festiva (which weighs about 1850 pounds) around a ½ mile loop along streets of Howard Beach, Queens. Guinness requires you to push the car on a loop to eliminate any possibility (and advantages) of a downhill course. On a loop, whatever respite you get from the downhills, you eventually pay for on the corresponding uphills
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, Envelope
Worth the Weight
2008-04-30 13:45:14
“There is only one dream that will always be perfect in your lifetime.
And that is the dream of self-transcendence.” Sri Chinmoy
Every year, friends of mine put on an event in Munich, Germany called the Impossibility-Challenger games. Impossibility-Challenger is dedicated to self-transcendence in the purest sense. The event is always packed full of energy and inspiration and I love its diversity. Imagine amazing feats of strength and daring: strongmen pulling cars with their teeth, brave souls juggling chain saws and shot puts, martial artists breaking blocks of ice…everyone testing the limits of their talents. One creative fellow even rode a bicycle backwards for a considerable distance while playing his violin! Plus, it has a very special impact on me personally—compared to ever
Read more: Worth
, Weight
The Elusive 200th Record
2008-05-23 12:26:46
Recently, I set my 199th Guinness record (since setting my first record in 1979). My friends thought that I should do something special for number 200 and, while I would have preferred to keep the whole thing low-key, my pesky pals wouldn’t hear of it. Unfortunately, over time, they began to convert me to their point of view.
Normally, I don’t do the records in any particular order, but now fo
Read more: Record
The Spice of Life
2008-07-24 21:43:52
My spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, is a relentless advocate for newness, always seeking fresh and creative ways to express joy and aspiration. For me, this inspires me to look for new and different types of Guinness records, sometimes beyond the fitness categories (star jumps, sit-ups, etc.). Lately, I’ve made a few forays into categories that have led to some interesting failures:
Category:
Read more: Spice
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