I still love watching the Fawlty Towers videos, even though I’ve seen them so many times. For quite a few years I was in a play troupe that put on Fawlty Towers plays regularly at Aspiration-Ground. I played the Major, who was a fuddy-duddy fixture at the hotel and was always forgetting things! I had a ball practicing with the boys and I think Guru really appreciated our plays. I’m grateful to Guru for all his beautiful play experiences which brought me so much joy.

I was also in a very special play put on by Saurjya, whom I like very much. It was a musical with a very deep meaning about adopting children, and Saurjya gave me a beautiful singing role that thrilled me to the core. It took me back to my younger days playing summer stock. Acting always appealed to my "life is a play" philosophy. I am grateful to Guru for his play-world. Nowadays, I listen to Guru’s stories and plays and it gives me so much joy! Hearing Guru’s cute short stories actually inspired me to write the stories in this book.

Circus

Guru loved the Madal Circus that we held every April and August Celebrations and I loved it too! Everybody had an opportunity to bring their hidden talents to the fore and to play with Guru and for Guru. I loved the joy of everything at the circus: the band, the laughter, the divine "acting out" – and don’t forget the hotdogs with sauerkraut, of which I averaged about ten each circus!

No one was more instrumental in bringing us joy at the circus than Charana, with his closing-act extravaganza that often surpassed Monty Python in its off-the-wall hilarity. I was always happy to be givena special crazy role to play in the production, and in between hotdogs I practiced almost the whole day on the act. I treasure my circus days with Charana, Ongkar, Kaivalya, Sanjaya and all the Brits and Scots and others. Such camaraderie I experienced! I really love those guys!

It was my favorite day of the year! I always looked forward to the act with Ongkar, Sanjaya and Kaivalya...and overall I think I just loved the joy that Guru created for us on that day. I waited for the moment when Guru would stand up and entertain us with "shooting hoops" or some other sport. Guru was our Supreme Entertainer – a subject which should, in itself, be an entire series of books! Most of all I loved watching Guru’s expressions of joy as the performers went through their acts. Guru loved us to be like seven-year-old children, and the circus was about as close as it gets to that!

I often drove those British boys to and from the airport at Celebration time and they would always bring me gourmet British tea or preserves. Hiranmoyi would always be on the lookout for those delicacies when I came home and she would try to get her hands on them. Of course, I always intended on giving them to her anyway!

My Singing Career

My memory for learning Guru’s songs is pathetic! After so many years, I just learned a handful of songs, so you can imagine how surprised I was when Guru put me into Sumadhur’s singing group. I had only been part of one group before, and that was Hashi’s group in South America on one Christmas Trip. I tried, I really did try to learn Guru’s songs, but even when Hiranmoyi would write down the words for me to peek at, I couldn’t even remember to do that!

So it was very fortunate that Guru put me into Sumadhur’s group, because the boys would come over to my house for practices and an automatic spin-off was that I heard so many songs that I was able to learn more of Guru’s songs. Guru commented on several occasions how the boys always practiced at my house and how I nicely served them hot drinks.

During one function at Aspiration-Ground, Guru called Sumadhur’s group to sing, but much to my surprise there were only two of us there. I bravely started Nijhum Rate and after we finished the song Guru said, “That is Hiranmoyi’s song!" I said, “I know, Guru!" That’s how smart and cute Guru is. He knows everything!

One Saturday I was in New York, race-walking the Saturday two-mile race, which used to be called Runners Are Smilers. As usual, I finished after most of the others, and as usual, Guru had already given the after-race prayer, and a special prasad for the children’s singing group was underway. I paused for a moment looking at everything, and the thought silently came to my mind, "This is really a path for younger people, not for someone old like me."

Well, watch what you think, if Guru is your Master! When I came to Guru’s side of the street, Guru called me over (having read my mind) and said that, from now on, I would be an honorary member of the little girl children singers’ group and that, whenever Guru gave prasad to them, I should also come! Can you imagine Guru’s beautiful response to my own thoughts? Guru could not let a thought like that go unanswered.

On the Christmas Trip in 2006, I arrived in Malaysia the night before my birthday. The day before my arrival, Guru had had a push-up competition for his guards and honored the "super-excellent" winners of the competition.

When I arrived in the function room on my birthday, Guru asked me if I was going to compete with those boys. Luckily, I had been practicing push-ups, so of course, I rolled up my white birthday kurta sleeves and began my push-up challenge.

The whole function room of disciples was encouraging me and cheering like anything, and at the end of it all I was successful and Guru said my form was excellent. Guru gave a beautiful talk, which I have on tape, during which Guru compassionately said that I was in the same class as the super-excellent much younger boys. Guru had my picture taken with all those other boys!

Boy, Guru really knows how to make a guy feel divinely good on his birthday! He set that up just so that he could then compliment me like anything. Later that day, I was in a play at the evening function in which I enthusiastically (and maybe a little stupidly) did a handstand on a chair. Guru later commented on this also. Guru is like that. He bestows gifts on us and then compliments us for his own gifts! That’s our Guru!

After my birthday meditation, Guru told me that there was nobody on earth who would not be proud of me. He told me that I was a treasure in his family.

Hiranmoyi says that I shouldn’t feel embarrassed saying all these beautiful things that Guru told me. I treasure Guru’s words to me so deeply that I repeat them daily like a mantra. Repeating them in these stories is another way of telling Guru how much I treasure all he has done and is doing for me.

All this goes to prove that Guru has kept me as dynamic and childlike and enthusiastic for as long as possible. And I am grateful to Guru for all the joy he has brought me along the way!

The joy of physical activity has followed me right from my days in the RCMP, and every phase of my life is marked by some kind of sport or activity that gave me tremendous joy. As a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team I was never without opportunity for ever-new experiences in the running world, weightlifting and push-up competitions.

But one of my greatest privileges in this area is the fact that Sri Chinmoy and I were in the same age category, there being only six months’ difference in our age. This meant that in many events Guru and I would be in the same race. It all started with the Green Leaves and Ripe Fruits two-mile races in Flushing Meadows Park, during which so many times Guru and I were running together, even side by side. Guru would inevitably win, but my joy in running with Guru cannot be expressed in words.

In today’s eight-hundred-metre Green Leaves and Ripe Fruits race for men and women over fifty, Vince and I were going slowly and only keeping pace with Ilona during the first four hundred metres. But we knew that we would end up going ahead of her. After four hundred metres we started widening the gap, and Ilona fell behind us by a big margin. Whenever I increased my speed, Vince would increase his speed. In the last hundred metres we had a wonderful fight. I won by only one second.

I was planning to walk the whole race, but then Vince would have had no other competitor, except for a few ladies.

Sri Chinmoy
12 April 1982 1

Even as I write these stories, I just watched a DVD of Guru’s 100m races, and I couldn’t believe it when I saw myself running beside Guru in three consecutive races on this video. What a lucky guy I am!

My greatest joy was before one of the April Celebrations when Guru organized a run, country against country. Guru also had his own team and I was a member of Guru’s team. He had special T-shirts printed for us. Can you imagine being a member of Guru’s team? I even have a picture to remember this beautiful experience.

One of the most memorable moments of my life

One day I was out running. Still hot and sweating from the run, I came by the tennis court and saw Guru sitting in the driveway. Guru called me over and asked me to kneel before him on the towel at Guru’s feet. We meditated together for what seemed like an eternity. It was one of the most memorable moments of my life. Afterwards Guru gave me a most spiritually significant message that I have told only to Hiranmoyi. Thanks to one of the kind photographers, I have a photo of this amazing experience that happened when it was least expected.

Memorable Marathons

I think that I must have run or race-walked well over 20 marathons over the course of my running days. These were all wonderful memories because Guru was present during almost all of them. The New York City Marathon was the grandest of all marathons for many reasons, but mostly because Guru was always there sitting beside the road, handing out his blessings in the form of prasad and smiling with such compassion and pride.

My first marathon experience was one of the most memorable, as it was the Inspiration Marathon put on by our marathon team in February somewhere outside New York. Every year we all used to arrive on Friday night, and after a function with Guru we would all bunk up in a small hotel. In the morning the marathon experience would begin. Often the weather was quite cold and snowy, but every time we ran this marathon it was a fantastic experience and adventure with Guru. When I finished my first marathon, Shatapatri presented me with a little toy doggy that she had found and that doggy became my mascot. I kept it in the car above the mirror for about 25 years, and it is now in my bedroom. Many other marathons we ran, but the Inspiration Marathon was a special time!

The 24-Hour Challenge

I had already run many New York City Marathons as well as other marathons, and two or three 47-mile runs, but I wanted to challenge myself to a longer ultra-marathon. I was in pretty good shape (for me) because I had been doing interval training with the Lions Club running group every day. I had also participated in shorter races with various masters meets. So the idea of a 24-hour run that was being held by our marathon running team at the Terry Fox Stadium in Ottawa attracted my attention. I wasn’t nervous about it because I had planned my strategy very carefully: run one lap and then walk one lap. As it turned out, this simple strategy kept me feeling energetic and allowed me to do 92 1⁄2 miles in 24 hours. I felt terrific about this achievement. I attribute my success to the encouragement of the disciples at the event. It was a very meditative experience as well because I chanted “Never give up!„ and “Supreme„ the whole way. How proud my soul was of me! I could really feel it after the run and the feeling of elation lasted for a long time. I would never in a million years have thought of participating in such an event if it had not been for Guru’s inspiration. How much joy it brought me! Even now when I think of it, I smile with gratitude to Guru.

Enthusiastically participating

Even after I lost sight in one eye, I still tried to fulfill Guru’s comments about me and continued to walk the 3100-mile race course and around the Divine Enterprises while Guru was driving in the morning. I think Guru always appreciated that, in spite of my physical difficulties, I was enthusiastically participating as I had always done. Often Guru would stop while driving to give special prasad, and I would really treasure those tasty blessed morsels!

• 1. Sri Chinmoy, Run and become, become and run, part 10, Agni Press, 1983