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Three records in one day by Ashrita Furman
For the past twenty years, Ashrita Furman has been the undisputed king of Guinness world records, with over sixty to his name at the time of writing. He is now 52 years old, but if anything he is increasing the rate at which he is breaking records - sometimes breaking multiple records in a single day!
Last Sunday saw him attempt exactly that - to break three records in various locations around his home in Queens, New York. First up - the most deep knee bends performed on a Swiss ball! This is a very difficult record involving tremendous strength as well as balance, but Ashrita has plenty of experience with Swiss balls, and was aiming to beat his own record of 30 set in September 2006, which he did with a total of 36 deep knee bends.
Next up: to beat the record of 54 feet for the furthest distance to throw and catch a water balloon without bursting it. For this record, Ashrita teamed up with his friend and long-time record-setting collaborator Bipin Larkin. Bipin has been instrumental in helping Ashrita set many of his records: together the pair of them set the record for the most grapes thrown and caught in the mouth in one minute, and in Ashrita set the record for the fastest mile carrying someone in a fireman's lift - with Bipin as the load! For this record, Bipin was the balloon thrower and Ashrita the catcher: after a few attempts which resulted in Ashrita getting completely soaked, a successful throw was made of 65 feet, 11 longer than the existing record.
The final record of the day was a new record that had just been nominated as a category by the people at the Guinness Book of Records, and Ashrita was hoping to make his mark on it straight away. The record was for the fastest mile run whilst simultaneously bouncing three balls on the ground - Ashrita has set many 'fastest mile' records over the years, such as the fastest mile somersaulting, the fastest mile pushing a 4150lb van, the fastest mile with a milk bottle balanced on top of his head, the fastest mile pushing an orange with his nose...you get the picture! After a few unsuccessful attempts where the balls dropped from his hands, Ashrita finally succeded at completing the distance, coming home in a little over nine minutes.
Remarkably, Ashrita was not at all into sports growing up, and only thought of setting records after a few years meditating as a student of Sri Chinmoy . He credits his meditation teacher with the inspiration to break records as a means of showing that the inner strength gained from meditation can also be applied to the outer life. "I dedicate every one of these Guinness records to Sri Chinmoy because I feel that he's inspired me", Ashrita reflects. "And not only inspired me—he gives me the capacity because I invoke him throughout when I'm trying to break a record. I consider them as spiritual experiences. There's always this moment of truth, somewhere—usually in almost every single attempt—where I really have to transcend my body and my mind, go deep within and really connect with my soul and with my teacher's grace. I'm invoking it all the time. There's a moment when I have to truthfully make that jump, leave my own human capacity and jump into something beyond me. It is something that I can't even take credit for."
