New Yorker honours Sri Chinmoy

AN obsessive record-breaker has done it again: lighting what is claimed to be the world’s biggest torch in New York in honour of Indian spiritual leader Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, popularly known as Sri Chinmoy.

The torch is 7.5m high, 11 times taller than its inspiration — the torch that was used at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan.

It was lit by Ashrita Furman to commemorate the arrival of the Indian guru in New York in April 1964.

Furman, 59, runs a health food shop in the city and began setting records with the encouragement of Sri Chinmoy.

He holds 179 records, including the one for holding the most Guinness World Records.

The torch, which weighs 1 200kg, was lit in Queens, home to a large community of Indian immigrants.

It was also where Sri Chinmoy opened a meditation centre.

Furman said he inaugurated the torch in memory of Sri Chinmoy, who died in 2007, because the spiritual teacher had inspired him to excel.

The guru advocated exercise as a way of achieving spiritual enlightenment and established “peace” marathons and triathlons around the world to encourage participation.

Last week, a Sri Chinmoy Oneness Home Peace Run was launched at a gathering of UN permanent representatives, ambassadors and international runners in New York.

The ceremony also incorporated a Guinness World Record attempt for the poem recited in the most languages — O Dreamers of Peace, which had been written by Sri Chinmoy. — Arun Kumar