I’ve always been intrigued by Stonehenge but never felt any great compulsion to go there until about a month ago. Suddenly, I was just dying to visit the historic site in England and set a record there, so when the opportunity recently arose, I jumped at the chance. My enthusiasm was only slightly dampened when I heard that Stonehenge can be quite windy at times.
The wind at Stonehenge probably doesn’t concern most people, unless they’re trying to fly a kite (unlikely) or attempting to break the Guinness record for standing on a Swiss ball, which is what I decided to do. I always practice for this record indoors because it’s hard enough to balance on the ball even without any distractions. I knew that balancing outdoors at Stonehenge, in a stiff breeze, would be a constant struggle to adjust to the varying velocity and direction of the wind. Dealing with comments from the stream of tourists would be a further challenge, but somehow it seemed like such a perfect fit- trying to stand on a ball for the longest time next to those massive stones that have been standing in a circle for more than 5,000 years.
Since human beings are not designed to stand on round, soft objects, it is quite important, if you are trying to break a world record, to find a ball that you are comfortable with and to keep practicing on that same ball. Even balls that appear to be identical feel different when you stand on them. The last time I attempted the Swiss ball record was in Germany and there was a panic when the airlines misplaced my luggage and I had to hunt all over Munich for a replacement “gymnastic ball”, as they call it. This time, to be safe, I planned to take the ball in my carry-on luggage, but just before leaving for England, as I was about to deflate the Swiss ball, to my horror I discovered that it was already quite deflated. MY FAVORITE BALL HAD A PUNCTURE IN IT and I was due to leave for the airport in 20 minutes!
That’s what I get for showing off. Two days before the trip to England I had a with a European magazine. We walked down to Jamaica Avenue where I demonstrated milk bottle balancing on my head amidst the incredulous shoppers, and I balanced on a Swiss ball in front of a graffiti-covered wall. While walking back to the subway, we passed an open fire hydrant which was spraying water in a big arc across the entire width of the street. “Wouldn’t you know it”, the photographer exclaimed, “Just when we are all finished, along comes the perfect shot.” Within seconds I was in the street, drenched from head to toe, desperately trying to balance on the slippery rubber ball while trying to look at the camera through the blinding spray. I managed to stand upright just as the light turned green and a line of cars headed towards me, but amidst all the confusion, I must have rolled over a small piece of glass in the road. All I could do was to pack the damaged ball and a spare, which I had never tried out, and deal with the situation on the other side of the Atlantic.
As soon as I got to the hotel in Stonehenge, on the 6th of July, I inflated the spare ball, but it was much too small. It was late on a Sunday afternoon, the shops were all closed, and the record attempt was scheduled for the following morning. I was desperate to repair the injured ball. Fortunately, two of my British friends, Sanjaya and Charana, came to the rescue. They somehow located a bicycle tube patch kit and, after wrestling with and submerging the ball in the bathtub, managed to find the tiny hole and cover it with a rubber patch. We could only hope the patch would hold up under the increased pressure of my 170 pounds of bodyweight. All this drama, and I hadn’t even started the record attempt yet!
Actually, I almost didn’t make it to the record attempt. The folks in charge at Stonehenge were extremely kind and set up the ball and the official witnesses in a spot just off to the side of the historic monument. The news agency, Reuters, sent a reporter and a cameraman to record the event and, as I made my way along the designated paths to join everyone at the record venue, I realized I could take a shortcut by cutting diagonally across the grass. I hopped over the ropes and began jogging, unaware that I was precariously close to the famous stones. A woman security guard immediately shouted at me to stop but I ignored her, thinking she would figure out where I was headed. That made her even more upset and she yelled ” Stop, or else!” I was about to make a sprint for the ball, but my better judgement prevailed, which is fortunate, because when she finally caught up with me she was furious. She said she would let me go this time, but if I ever pulled a stunt like that again, I would be vigorously “tossed out on my ear.” Like a chastened school child, I meekly apologized and sheepishly took the long route over to the record site. Later, during the attempt, the guard came over and recognized me as the fellow she had almost ejected. When one of my friends said, “Oh, that’s nothing new, Ashrita once got arrested after scaling the Great Pyramid in Egypt,” she replied, “Why am I not surprised?”
Anyway, after a short meditation in which I tried to compose myself and identify with my spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, I finally stood up on the bright yellow ball and began the battle with the brisk wind and my mind. I thought of an old Zen story in which two monks are observing a flag fluttering in the wind. The first monk says, “Look, the flag is moving.” The second monk replies, “No, the wind is moving.” Finally, the Zen Master comes by and after hearing the two sides proclaims, “You are both wrong, it is the mind that is moving.” In my case, the trick to staying balanced on the ball is to keep my mind from moving, to keep it one-pointed and still. So I struggled to keep out all thoughts: of failure, of the vulnerable bicycle tube patch, of the possibility of rain, of moving flags, etc. As I got inwardly balanced, the outer balance naturally followed. I began to think that the record wouldn’t be as difficult as I imagined but, at that very moment, the arch of my right foot started killing me.
It is not unusual for my feet to ache during the ball balancing because a great deal of the stabilizing comes from adjustments made by the small muscles of the feet. However, it normally doesn’t get uncomfortable until about 45 minutes into the event. I had only been balancing for 15 minutes and, since the old record was 2 hours 10 minutes and 57 seconds, that meant I had almost 2 more hours to go. Yikes! But, once again, I calmed my mind and for the next hour and a half took in the peace and beauty of the surrounding English countryside. With 20 minutes left to reach the record my legs began shaking. I intensified my prayers and concentration but I could still hear the tourist who yelled out, “Hey, don’t fall off!” With only two minutes to go, I almost lost my balance but barely hung on to finally hear the delightful words of the official timekeeper, “Ladies and gentlemen, you have just witnessed a new Guinness world record.”
Once the record was broken I relaxed a bit, probably too much. The Reuters cameraman wanted to catch the ending but he had to change the videotape so I joked that I wouldn’t fall off until he was ready. A few minutes later (after the new videotape was in), I unexpectedly toppled off the ball onto the grass. The official time was 2 hours 16 minutes and 2 seconds. I was filled with gratitude to my spiritual teacher for his inspiration and positive energy and was thrilled to have had such an uplifting experience (no pun intended!) at Stonehenge. When my friend Bipin congratulated me, he suggested, “Hey, I have an idea for the next challenge ? how about trying the glass balancing record at the Leaning Tower of Pisa?” It’s a funny thing, ever since that moment, I just can’t seem to get that famous tilted tower out of my head!
