100 m to 100 km

The making of an ultra runner… As I crossed  the 100 km mark after about 17 hours and 21 minutes, around 9:30 PM on Sunday the 22nd November, 2020, to the roaring cheer and applause of my running mates and their families, I felt elated, relieved, accomplished, thrilled, excited, joyful and above all a deep sense of gratitude and love with utter disbelief! A sea of emotions and memories flew past my mind in a flash traversing my 7 years of running experience. 

Vipassana means ‘observing as it is’. That is what Gouthama Buddha, at the age of 35, did on a Chitra pournami night around midnight, under a peepul tree. He sat with an ‘adhittana’ (meaning self-determination) that he would not move until he attains ‘nibbana’ – the ultimate state of realisation. And it is said, within the hour after midnight the whole secret of life was revealed to him.

Vipassana means ‘observing as it is’. That is what Gouthama Buddha, at the age of 35, did on a Chitra pournami night around midnight, under a peepul tree. He sat with an ‘adhittana’ (meaning self-determination) that he would not move until he attains ‘nibbana’ – the ultimate state of realisation. And it is said, within the hour after midnight the whole secret of life was revealed to him.

Wishing people ‘best of luck’ is a very common practice. I too used to do it as a routine for a long time. One fine morning when awareness dawned on me that we are responsible for our actions I started questioning the purpose of wishing best of ‘luck’. Then it implied to me that I was ascribing the outcome of my actions to an invisible factor called ‘luck.’ In Tamil it is called adhirshtam. I thought then that when I wish ‘best of luck’ I was implying ‘I’m not sure if you will do well, so anyway I wish you achieve what you want through a stroke of many chance factors coming together.’

For a few moments on the 6th day of my first 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat I got a glimpse of what it is to be the Buddha. I think that is what Samadhi is… it was an exhilarating experience and I said to myself, ‘this works and that is it!’ It was almost like having found the key to life!

Dharma’ stems from the root sound dhri, in Sanskrit which means ‘to sustain; carry, hold’. At the cosmic level dharma refers to underlying order in nature and human life. At the basic human level it refers to behaviours being in