Seize the Day

"Carpe diem!" Or in plain English, “seize the day!” Life is short and every moment is precious. Each time I hear Horace's immortal phrase, I am infused with energy. It is in perfect harmony with Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy: “To expedite your God-realisation-journey, you must take full advantage of every opportunity that knocks at your heart-door.” Recently, I was presented with a unique opportunity to seize the day and attempt a world record.

I love animals and get special joy incorporating them into my record attempts. One of my all time favorites was the record for the most jumps on a pogostick in a minute. And what made it so special was that I was holding a dog with one arm during the event! When Suki, my dog partner, and I performed the record, I was concerned that she might get uncomfortable. However, Suki was fine and seemed to thrive on all the TV cameras and attention. In fact, you might say she turned out to be a media hound! Read more in Ashrita's Blog

The Most Exotic Animal

As you might have guessed by now, I am an avid animal lover. So, a few days before I was scheduled to go to Mongolia, I began thinking about what kind of exotic animal I could possibly meet in Genghis Khan’s homeland. Mongolia is famous for its horses, but I’ve met hundreds of horses (in fact, I’ve been thrown off the back of a few!) and I was looking for something more unusual. And then I remembered reading that Mongolia has the second largest population of yaks in the world, next to Tibet. Now you can’t get more exotic than a yak! I don’t think I had ever even seen a yak in a zoo. So, with yaks on my mind, I boarded the plane to Ulaan Bataar and, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, the idea came to me. I had been practicing for the sack racing mile record - why not race a mile in a sack against a yak? The plan seemed ludicrous so I knew it must be good! Read more in Ashrita's Blog

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