The Guinness Book of World Records, is a book published or issued annually that lists world records of human achievements as well as the extremes of the natural world. This book itself also holds a world record, as the best- selling copyrighted book of all time. There are more than 40,000 records in the database of the management. They currently included over 15,000 records online. The offices of this book are New York City and Tokyo. The headquarters remain in London. There are many different categories of records that are broken or maintained by people.
My dream was to break any one record but it could not become true but a person proved that he achieves what he dreams of. We are going to talk about Ashrita Furman, who was born on 16 September,1954 as Keith Furman. He is a Guinness World Records record breaker. Yes you heard it right. He has set more than 600 official Guinness Records and currently holds 226 records, thus holding the World Record for the most world records. His current record is 31 watermelons sliced on his stomach in one minute. Furman is breaking records since 1979.
Ashrita Furman was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was interested in the Guinness Book of world Records as a child but never thought that he could ever break a record since he was very unfit and unathletic. As a teenager, he was engrossed in spirituality and in 1970, He became a devout follower of the spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy. Furman was inspired by Sri Chinmoy to participate in a 24 hours’ bicycle race in New York city’s Central Park in 1978. Furman tied for the third place with only two-week training. He cycled 405 miles (652 km). In 1979, He set his first official record by doing 27,000 jumping jacks. In 1986, he set the record for underwater pogo stick jumping and launched or introduced it on Good Morning America on 1st April that is April Fool’s Day. Ashrita’s teacher also taught him his philosophy of self-transcendence, that when you have access to the divine power we all have with us, nothing is Impossible.
Ashrita has been practicing meditation with will power for more than 40 years and sees his records as a way to demonstrate the benefits of this ancient eastern art. Ashrita is a Sanskrit name meaning “Guarded by God”. Sri Chinmoy gave Furman the title of Ashrita. Furman loves challenge and after many years of practice, He eventually broke the record for running 8 km (5 miles) on stilts in the fastest time, a record that had stood since 1892.
He is a great animal lover and few of his record attempts have involved animals or creature, not always with the best results. Furman successfully originated the sport of underwater hula hooping and set a record alongside several dolphins in a lagoon in Florida. Although, while trying to break the record for underwater juggling in an aquarium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Furman’s attempt ended when a large shark intentionally bumped into him and knocked the balls out of his hands. Today at the age of 62, he’s the picture athletic prowess. He can ride a unicycle while juggling and can also walk around with a lawnmower balanced on his chin, and jump on a pogo stick for hours. In a fascinating turn of events, Furman has become something of a super athletic- all in the name of breaking as many as world record as possible.
Let us discuss few records set by Ashrita Furman. Few can amaze you and few can shock you all. In April 1986, Ashrita set the record for the longest continuous distance while somersaulting and covered 12 miles 390 yards. Longest duration with pogo stick jumping underwater till 3 hours and 40 minutes in the month of January 1987 in Peru. He also has the title of most games completed in 24 hours [Completed 434 games} in March 1998 in the city of Mexico. He also balanced the milk bottle on his head and walk the longest continuous distance that 80.95 miles in US. He also carried brick with one hand {9 pounds} and walked longest continuous distance that is 85.05 miles in October 1999. He completed sack racing in 1 hour 22 minutes and 2 seconds in August 2001 in US. He tried skipping and set a record for the fastest time for a marathon {26.2 miles} in 5 hours 55 minutes and 13 seconds in August 2003 in Canada. He also balanced milk crate on his chin and set a record on most weight balances {93 pounds 7 ounces}. He made a popcorn sculpture that is the largest in the world {20 feet 10 inches} in US. He created the largest pencil in the world {76 feet 2.75 inches} with the help of people of Sri Chinmoy centre. “Most Apple cutting with Samurai Sword” and “the most apples cut midair in one minute” title goes to Ashrita. He also fabricated the largest tennis racket in the world that is 50 feet 3.07 inches long and 16 feet 6 inches wide.
There are many record broken or created by Ashrita Furman and I will not be able to cover all the record, so let me end this article with a beautiful quote that will suited to Ashrita Furman’s Life.
“Work hard in silence Let success make noise”
