The Homepage of Smarana Puntigam

Hier findest Du die deutsche Version von Smaranas Webseite.

My name is Smarana and I come from Vienna, in Austria. For me it is always amusing, when people in Asia ask me, where I come from. I tell them and they say, "Oh Australia!"

Yes, Austria is a small country, but as soon as you bring classical music, or Mozart into the picture, nearly everybody knows about it.

I am very grateful to my father, since it was him who evoked the interest for spirituality in me; we would talk for hours about psychology and spirituality. So I was very lucky to get in touch with Sri Chinmoy at the tender age of 16.

Many years later I am shedding tears of joy and gratitude for all the inner and outer experiences that I was allowed to undergo. Life has become an adventure and day for day I am exploring new spiritual land and knowing more about life.

Life has become rich and colourful and it feels like sitting in a sailing-boat, where the wind is blowing the sails and I am on course to my goal. With Sri Chinmoy(link is external) as my spiritual guide, I feel like a small child, that is taking his father's guiding and protecting hand. This hand is always there and in all the years, I have always been able to rely on that.

My spiritual life is also very closely related to running. Sri Chinmoy's motto is self transcendence, in every walk of your life. The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team(link is external) sponsors the longest race in the world: the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race(link is external).I was fortunate enough to participate in ten of these “pilgrimages”, as I call them.

In his book, The Body: Humanity's Fortress(link is external), Sri Chinmoy describes the body as being like a temple and the soul is like the shrine. It is very difficult to meditate if the temple is leaking or broken and it is difficult if the shrine is shabby.
So, spirituality can help your body and if the body is strong, it can be a tremendous help for your spiritual life.