Five-time Mr. Universe Bill Pearl and his wife, fitness expert Judy Pearl, are better known to Sri Chinmoy’s disciples as Mahasamrat and Bhavatarini; these are the spiritual names that Guru gave them.

I live in Seattle, and they have visited our Seattle Centre numerous times. Mahasamrat is such an amazing person. His vibration is so powerful— Guru once said about him that he could walk into a hospital and help heal people just from his prana, or life-energy. He has such energy and such a deep love for Guru. You can just feel it when you're in his presence. And Bhavatarini is the same way—it’s like you can't take the two of them apart. They are absolutely one.

And even though they are getting older, they both still work out. They have a gym at their house, and people come to train with them. They start at 4:00 a.m. every day. They are living examples of the “never give up” philosophy.

And one of the things that always touches me about Mahasamrat is that he says when he gets up in the morning and goes out to the gym, he passes by a picture of Guru, at which point he kisses his hand and touches it to Guru's heart.

There's a story from India’s great epic, the Mahabharata, in which the warrior and hero Arjuna offers a thousand flowers to the Supreme every day, but he is overly proud of it, whereas his brother Bhima simply offers one flower and then goes about his day. But Bhima reaches a high state of consciousness just from offering that one flower. That story always reminds me of Mahasamrat touching Guru’s picture every morning—to me, that says everything. He's just so much in Guru’s consciousness without even trying.

Every year around November Guru would hold a weightlifting exhibition, and Mahasamrat was always the master of ceremonies. His encouragement of Guru in the weightlifting world was unparalleled—almost unbelievable. How much he encouraged Guru!

When Mahasamrat and Bhavatarini visited the Seattle Centre recently, we tried to honor them in the way Guru would have. So we celebrated Mahasamrat’s birthday, even though it was a month early. We had a cake. The boy disciples did some really cute skits acting out different stories that Guru had told about Mahasamrat. We had big pictures of him posing as a bodybuilder. In every way, we tried to bring to him how much we loved him and how much Guru loved him. And we all had a wonderful time.

Bhavatarini and Mahasamrat are a unit.  In her own right, she is also extremely knowledgeable about nutrition and fitness and very down to earth with a most compassionate nature.  We all feel that she is a true sister.

We have a statue of Guru in a park in Seattle, and whenever anyone comes to visit, we always go to the statue and try to have a little ceremony there with flowers and a garland for the statue and so on. In fact, Mahasamrat was present when we dedicated the statue, so he is quite familiar with it.

So of course we went to the statue with the two of them. When you see Mahasamrat standing next to the statue, you can see just how much he and Guru have the same vibration, and how much they look like brothers.

He and Bhavatarini live in a small town in Oregon, and all kinds of animals come to their house—deer, turtles, birds, and more. Bhavatarini, in particular, has a real connection with animals. She feeds them and they are never afraid of her.

And whenever you're with them, you feel those big hearts of theirs, which embrace not only people, but animals and nature and the whole world. They are both really special, unique souls, and I feel privileged to know them.

When two oneness-hearts talk
To each other,
We see the most beautiful dance
Of affection and sweetness.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 9, Agni Press, 1998

This is a story about my mom and Guru. Over the years, my parents have become increasingly grateful to Guru. Originally they were not at all—quite the opposite—but they have since grown to be quite thankful to Guru in a deep way.

A little background about my mom—the first time she can remember going to the doctor was when she had her first baby. She grew up in the Italian countryside in a very poor family. Her mother knew about herbs and the old ways of curing sickness, so she never went to the doctor. To this day, whenever she gets a pain or feels anything wrong, she says, “As it comes, so it will go.”

Several years ago my mom called to tell me about some shoulder pain she was having. She never complains, so I knew it must have been pretty bad. “My shoulder hurts so much I can’t sleep at night,” she said. “I can only sleep sitting up.”

A couple of days of this went by and I told her, “Mom, talk to Guru, tell Guru.” I knew that in their bedroom my parents had a photo of Guru, and they also had a Transcendental photograph in their car which Guru had told them they could have, so my mom knew that was for protection. So I told her, “Mom, just tell Guru.” She didn’t, and day by day her shoulder pain got worse. Finally she got to the point where she couldn’t sleep for two full nights. She was in her late eighties, and this was very much telling on her health. Unbeknownst to me, she finally became so desperate that she inwardly spoke to Guru. I got a phone call out of the blue, and my mom asked me, “Does Sri Chinmoy talk to you?”

This was after Guru had physically passed away. Nevertheless, I said, “Yes, he can, if he wants to. He can speak to you, too.”

“He did speak to me,” she confided.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I was in so much pain and I didn’t know what to do, so I talked to him and he said to me very clearly, ‘The problem is not your shoulder. There’s nothing wrong with your shoulder. The problem is that your handbag is too heavy.’” She finished by saying that she immediately knew this was true—in fact, many years ago a doctor had told her that her handbag was too heavy and she shouldn’t use it. I asked her if she had been carrying it lately and she told me she hadn’t picked it up in a few weeks because her shoulder was getting so bad.

However, at that exact point her shoulder pain started getting better. Guru had fixed her shoulder, and she knew it.

To this day, if she forgets this incident and we’re talking about Guru, I’ll say, “Remember how he talked to you, and how he cured your shoulder?”

“Oh yeah, that’s right!” she’ll say, recalling the whole experience.

I hope this sweet story can serve as inspiration to others and to increase our gratitude to Guru. He is very much here, aware, and taking care of us often before we even know there’s a problem. Sometimes what we call a problem just indicates a time when Guru can help transform us in some way. He can use that experience as something to help us in our spiritual life.

As God knows that we have
Many problems,
Even so,
His Heart has
All the solutions
For each and every problem of our life.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 25, #24523, Agni Press, 2002

Guru always encouraged us to use our talents, but he also encouraged us to try things that we were not talented at. For me, perhaps the most striking example of being untalented was running.

I was not very good at it, but I still tried to do it. In fact, I was one of the first disciples to get interested in long-distance running. Most of us were not running much at that point. We would go to work and have functions at night, and we were singing and doing so many activities. But somehow I found the time to do some running.

Then the New York City Marathon came around. Previously only two or three disciples had done a marathon, but that year, 1977, about eight girls and thirty boys ran the New York City Marathon for the first time.

The morning of the marathon came. We made it to the starting line, I started running... and about two miles in, I thought that I was going to faint. I kept going, though, and managed to make it all the way to Queens. (The New York City Marathon goes through all five boroughs of New York City, and when you reach Queens, you are getting fairly close to the end.)

I had not eaten anything during the entire marathon. I don't know if I ate anything that morning, but I know I didn't eat much the night before. I also had no money with me to purchase any food. I was in a very lonely part of Queens, and I went into a little store and begged somebody to buy me a banana. An old man bought me one, then I went outside and sat down on the sidewalk and ate it. I was very sad because I was running so slowly and still had some distance to go.

Then a little boy, about ten years old, came up to me on a skateboard. He sat down next to me and put his arm around me, and said, “You're going to make it. Are your mother and father at the end?”

Then he said, “Come on, I'll take you to the bridge.” He got on his skateboard, and I followed him to the Queensboro Bridge.

On the other side of the bridge was Manhattan, and they were starting to take down the marathon barriers that were blocking the traffic. But a young man driving a truck saw me, and he decided to block the traffic for me all the way up First Avenue. At one point he got out of his truck and bought me something to drink.

Guru had been waiting at the twenty-mile mark, and at one point all the other disciples had already passed him by. Somebody said to him, “Guru, Nemi hasn't come yet.”

Guru said, “She's all right.”

He then left, but when I got to the twenty-mile mark I met my “inspirer.” For each woman disciple running the marathon, Guru had appointed another to be her inspirer. She wore a t-shirt that said “inspirer” on the front, and on the back it said “Go” and then the person's name. So my inspirer was Pratyaya. The back of her shirt said, “Go Nemi,” and I did. I followed her for the last six miles to the finish line.

So I finished my first marathon, and that was totally Guru’s grace because I certainly wasn’t a great runner at all. Over the years, though, I did many more marathons—about 53 of them all together. Pretty inspiring for a bad runner!

My Lord,
I want to run with You
Sleeplessly and unconditionally,
But I cannot keep pace with You.
What can I do?
“My child, Your very eagerness to run with Me
Is more than I need.
Sleeplessly think of running with Me;
Unconditionally meditate on running with Me.
Lo, sooner than at once
You and I will be easily running Together.”

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 99, Agni Press, 1983