The five-mile race⁴¹

Mitali completed our five-mile race today. For Mitali to complete five miles is really something! Her better half, Boiragi, was so happy that she had finished. I also was so delighted! I was clapping and clapping. On other days when I smile at her, she smiles, but today she was dying, so she could not smile at the finish.

Mitali was my first competitor when I started running and the second was Nemi. Like that I competed with about ten girls. Pranavananda’s assistant, Susan, gave me a very hard time. I ran and ran trying to pass her. At one point she went to drink water and I was very happy that she had stopped. I didn’t go to take a drink. O God, after drinking water, she got extra energy! So my intuition was totally wrong. I didn’t even dare to think of defeating her after that. But after covering a few hundred metres, she finally slowed down. Then, with Kritagyata, I had to struggle for at least four hundred metres to pass her.

After four miles I thought that all the worthless runners were behind me, so I didn’t have to worry. My ego was quite satisfied. Then all of a sudden I saw Sarama. I couldn’t lose to Sarama, so I was praying to my ego to come forward. Then my ego listened to my prayer and I defeated Sarama. It is a great achievement to beat Sarama. I didn’t know she was so far ahead of me, but I passed her at the four-mile mark.

After four hundred metres, whom did I see? Ilona! She was making noises: “Eee, Eee!” I said to myself, “Wait, wait.” Then during the fifth mile I ran so fast that I went two or three hundred metres ahead of her. She was nowhere near me at the finish.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Run and become, become and run, part 6, Agni Press, 1981
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/rb_6