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First posted on the Bravenet blog:

Wednesday, October 19th 2005

The Guest Blogger spot is open to anyone with some experience in this field who has a story, some advice or even relevant news. Here to inaugurate this special occasion we have my good friend, an experienced runner and a wise soul in Chanakhya.

Inside My Heart

In February of 1985 my father died and for the next 10 months I went into a very quiet and serious place. During this time I did not run that much, though I later felt that it would have helped me a lot, practicing my spiritual life did.

It was at the end of this period that Sri Chinmoy was running another marathon in Flushing Meadow Park and while giving prasad asked me if I would run in the 24 hour race that was coming up soon. I said I would if he wanted me to and he said that of course he did. The race was only a few weeks away so I did not have much time to train. Because of the lack of training I had no expectations when I started the race. I remember feeling very relaxed and seemed to run quite easily. As I went around the course I saw Sri Chinmoy in a few different places and each time he gave me the sweetest smile. Every time he did this I found myself inside my heart filled with joy. Suddenly I had reached 30 miles and I didn’t feel the slightest bit tired, then a voice inside my mind appeared and told me how could this be, I had not trained enough and sooner or later I would pay for it. I kept going pretty good till I reached 50 miles in 12 hours and then my mind began to make me believe that I should be getting physically tired. For the next 12 hours I would go back and forth between my mind telling me I was tired and my heart showing me joy which seemed to propel me forward. By the time I reached the end of the race I had made a total of 87 miles which was only 6 miles short of my personal best. I was not quite sure how I had done this and in fact felt that Guru had somehow done it for me. At the award ceremoney Guru gave me my trophy and I said to him that it was all his grace. He looked at me and seemed to shrug this idea off. Later I realised that when he showed me his sweetest smile, he was showing me how to enter into my heart, and that while I was inside my heart experiencing the joy there instead of listening to my mind I could achieve what did not seem possible.
Chanakhya Jakovic