Members of the European Parliament in Brussels receive the World Harmony Run.

Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of the World Harmony Run is our annual visit to the European Parliament in Brussels. And today was that day.

We rose early and gathered at the entrance of the Parliament at 8:30, to run to the nearby elementary school of Claire Joie. We remembered this school well from last year, when they had created a wonderful presentation for us. This year they amazed us again with a special dance.

They symbolically lifted a big globe together as part of their dance, accompanied by the tones of the European hymn ("Alle Menschen werden Brüder" translation: "All men will become brothers"). It was a very moving scene.

Afterwards we all put our best legs forward and ran up and down the street together. We are very grateful to Claire Joie and its director Mrs. Pardonge for hosting the World Harmony Run so generously again this year.

From the school, we ran through the little park adjacent to the European Parliament and posed for a group picture at the Sri Chinmoy Peace Tree, which is planted inside the park. The tree, dedicated to the founder of the World Harmony Run, was planted in 1991.

We then set out to prepare for the meeting with the Members of European Parliament (MEP's) who were coming to receive the World Harmony Run torch and greet the runners.

Six MEP's and their assistants came to attend our ceremony, which took place outside the entrance of the Parliament.

After a brief introduction, the runners came running in for the ceremony. Team captain Dipavajan Renner gave a short speech and then passed the torch to Mr. Pál Schmitt, MEP for Hungary and the host of our event.

Mr. Schmitt is the vice-president of the European Commission on Culture and Education. His speech was very warm-hearted and full of sincere appreciation for our initiative as well as for Sri Chinmoy and his significant work for world harmony.

Mrs. Zita Gurmai, MEP for Hungary and vice-chairwoman of the Committee on Women's Rights spoke straight from the heart and touched us deeply in her uplifting speech.

She requested everybody to stand and observe a minute of silence in memory of the founder of the World Harmony Run, Sri Chinmoy, who passed away in October last year. She referred to Sri Chinmoy as "a great, great human being".

Dr. Ingo Friedrichs, MEP for Germany and Questor of the European Parliament, held the torch and encouraged the runners. Being a lover of music, he suggested we could sing the European hymn next time. Coincidentally, the school we visited earlier today had played that same hymn!

Thomas Mann (left), MEP for Germany and President of the Tibet Intergroup, and Astrid Lulling (right), MEP for Luxembourg, also held the Torch.

Thomas Mann gave the following special message:

"I was thrilled to be part of the passing of the torch today at the European Parliament. Just at the right time - during the "Intercultural Dialogue", runners from over 10 European member nations met with us to demonstrate harmony, tolerance, fairness and friendship. I wish this spirit will spread to more and more people all over the world." 

In the end all the MEP's ran together with the torch. Despite not having running shoes on they did admirably well!

We are most grateful to all the politicians for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet us today. As Mrs. Gurmai said, "This is all about the happiness of the heart."

Happy and satisfied, we left Brussels and ran 30 kilometres to the town of Mechelen, in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. For me it was great to be able to switch back to my mother tongue, instead of wrestling through my scanty French during the ceremonies.

In Mechelen we visited the Romboutscollege elementary school. All the children were waiting for us in the schoolyard.

In our presentation we made sure to also involve the teachers and, to the children's great delight, had the teachers run around them with the torch. We were impressed with the teachers' dynamism and enthusiasm!

The children of the Romboutscollege were extremely sweet and cheerful. We were so happy to meet them, and had a great time together.

Bye for now!

And off we were to our final meeting of the day in the city hall of Heist-op-den-Berg, another 20K of running. On the way a camera team from the local television caught up with us and filmed us running. In the evening we saw ourselves on TV.

In Heist-op-den-Berg the city representative of sports received us. We were offered delicious sandwiches - a welcome treat after a busy day. We retired tired but satisfied, to our sleeping places for the day.

Mr. and Mrs. Spits-De Haes offered us free lodgings at their Bed & Breakfast.

The boys team stayed at the Bed & Breakfast of Mr. and Mrs. Spits-De Haes in Heist-op-den-Berg and the girls team went to Mrs. Ruelkens's B&B in Itegem. Both places were so kind and generous to our initiative that they offered us free lodgings. We are very grateful to both of them.

– Abhinabha

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Distance: 95 km

Team Members:
Dipavajan Renner (Austria), David Mouton (France), Namitabha Arsic (Serbia), Darya Soboleva (Russia), Ksenia Soboleva (Russia), Abhinabha Hidde Tangerman (Netherlands), Anita Borics (Hungary), Sabine Meyer (Belgium), Rabinath de Lange (Netherlands), James Doran (New Zealand)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

Gallery: See more images!

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