“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 everyone else, I seem almost normal! Anyway, I decided to participate and attempt a stilt running record. And I figured, since I was going to Germany, why not make a “European Tour” of it with a stop in Italy?

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!”

A few months ago, Garima was visiting New York when I was actively training for an unusual record…drinking the most tobasco sauce in 30 seconds. When I told her about it, I expected her usual chuckle. Instead, a worried look came over her face. I assured her that tobasco sauce drinking was harmless and that I had just recently drunk 2 bottles of the stuff with no ill effects.

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!”

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!

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!

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!

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 welled up in his eyes. The ring had miraculously slipped back onto his finger!