Just A Minute

October 2004

Photo: Ashrita practicing in his kitchen.

It is said that failures are the pillars of success. I guess I learned the hard way the truth of that statement!

Just after the orange nose-push adventure I was invited to go to England to break a record on a T.V. show commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Guinness Book of Records. It was going to be a big extravaganza – a national, live broadcast featuring 50 record attempts spanning two hours. Actually, the producers wanted me to be ready to break two records in the studio, each one lasting one minute. It was decided that I would attempt to do the most jumps with a jump rope while bouncing on a pogo stick (the pogo stick is tied around my waist) and the most revolutions of a hula hoop around my waist while standing on a Swiss ball. I got pretty good at coordinating the pogo stick and jump rope, but the ball feat became a daunting challenge. The Swiss ball is also known as a “stability ball” but the reason eludes me – I must have fallen off that thing hundreds, possibly thousands of times!

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary

By the time I left for London, I still couldn’t manage to balance on the ball and hula for a full minute and my legs were aching from working at it. After a sleepless flight, I arrived in London exhausted. If I had been wise I would have told the organizers to cancel the ball event but, instead, I went straight to the studio for rehearsals and started practicing again. The good news was that by the time the big show rolled around the next day, I could “hang ten” on that ball and hula like a Hawaiian. The bad news was that, due to time constraints, the ball record ended up being scratched!

Anyway, even though my quads were fatigued, I felt pretty confident about breaking the pogo stick-rope jumping record, since the current mark was 130 jumps in a minute and I had done more than 140 in practice. However, while waiting to go on, instead of focusing on my own event, I became intrigued with the other performances. I couldn’t help but be concerned about the fire-eater’s safety and I got some good ideas from the guy who smashed watermelons with his forehead! When Jamie, the master of ceremonies, introduced me and I bounded out onto the stage, I was suddenly overcome by nervousness and I couldn’t wait to get the record over with.

It’s amazing how long a minute can feel sometimes. The buzzer went off, the stopwatches clicked on, and I started jumping. The lights were dim and the rope was difficult to see, my legs felt shaky, but I still thought things were going smoothly until I heard the announcement over the loudspeaker, “Ashrita is doing well folks, he’s up to 60 jumps in 30 seconds.” I tried not to panic. I knew I had to go faster, but if I went too fast the rope could get caught in the spring of the pogo stick and the attempt would be over. Faster and faster I jumped as the seconds ticked away in my head, faster and faster the jump rope passed over my head. My legs were cramping and time was rushing by as I tried desperately to hold onto the pace. Suddenly, the buzzer shattered my concentration.

Stuart Claxton, the Guinness judge, picked up the microphone and solemnly announced: ” Ladies and gentlemen, it’s official, in one minute Ashrita has done-129 jumps.” A loud, groan emanated in unison from the sympathetic studio audience. Jamie came over to me, buried his head in my shoulder and said: “Oh Ashrita, Ashrita, it couldn’t have been any closer.” Four million people watched my disappointment and at that moment I promised myself that I would try again under better conditions when I returned back home.

 

Photo: The three of us at the sign.

A few days later, an ideal place for the attempt suddenly came to me – Yellowstone National Park in Montana. The famous geyser at Yellowstone, Old Faithful, has erupted for centuries like clockwork. The steaming hot water shoots 180 feet into the air and each eruption lasts for about a minute! It was a perfect fit! It would be so exciting to break a record while being energized by the power of Mother Nature. Surprisingly enough, the Parks Department actually liked the idea and, within days of getting their kind permission, my friends Vinaya and Prabhakar and I were on a plane headed to Montana, full of hope and expectation.

Our hopes were somewhat diminished when we picked up our luggage and my pogo stick turned up missing! It was a finely-tuned, precision, German-made machine which was specially designed to accommodate people over 170 pounds. All I could do was pray that my irreplaceable apparatus would turn up the next day in time to make the attempt at Yellowstone before dark.

But Vinaya had other ideas. No matter how much I explained to my friend that there was no way we would find a suitable pogo stick in the small town of Bozeman, Montana, let alone New York City, he insisted we go out looking for one anyway. Of course, we returned empty-handed. The next morning I continued trying to reason with him all the way to the toy store where we proceeded to actually find a small kid’s pogo stick that inexplicably came equipped with a massive heavy-duty spring! Shocked and amazed, we dashed off to Old Faithful to attempt the elusive record.

The 2 1/2 hour drive to the Park was breathtaking. It was such a joy to experience the beauty of the mountains and trees and see herds of elk and bison along the way. We arrived at the ancient geyser 20 minutes before it was due to erupt, checked in with the Park rangers, and set up the video camera. I had a profound meditation and felt the blessings of my spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, inside my heart. This time I would stay focused within and just try to be a receptive instrument. Old Faithful went off on schedule and, as I hopped onto the kid’s pogo and started turning the rope, Vinaya began counting the jumps out loud. Every now and then I would hear the count “one hundred twenty-one, one hunded twenty-two, one hundred twenty-three…” The number didn’t matter anymore. I was enjoying the intense inner thrill too much to pay attention. Vinaya finally shouted out “one hundred fifty-five, one hundred fifty-six, stop, that’s one minute. Congratulations, you’ve just set a new world record!”

It was a journey that spanned two continents and 8,000 miles, but it was a significant inner journey as well. Although the record only lasted a minute, 3 weeks later I am still feeling elevated from those precious 60 seconds of self-transcendence.