World's biggest peace torch lit for Indian spiritual guru in US

Ashrita Furman, a Guinness World Records record-breaker, has lit what is claimed to be the world's biggest torch in New York in honour of Indian spiritual leader Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, popularly known as Sri Chinmoy.

At 7.5 metres, the aluminum and steel torch monument is 11 times taller than the torch that brought the Olympic flame from Athens to the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan on which its design is based, according to Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home website.

The flaming torch has a height of 20 feet (6 metres) and a base of 5 feet (1.5 metre) - a total height of 25 feet (7.5 metre)and weighs 1,200 kg.

The torch commemorating Sri Chinmoy's coming to New York from India in April 1964 was inaugurated Sunday in New York's Queens Borough, home to a large number of Indian-Americans.

Furman, 59, operator of a health food store in New York, has set 513 official Guinness Records to date and currently holds 179 standing records, including the record for holding the most Guinness world records.

He says he inaugurated the torch in memory of Sri Chinmoy as the Indian spiritual teacher had once inspired him to excel.

Earlier, a Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run was launched last week at a gathering of UN permanent representatives, ambassadors and international runners to the UN Dag HammarskjAld Plaza.

This ceremony also incorporated a Guinness World Record attempt for the poem recited in the most languages!

The selected poem, "O Dreamers of Peace", was written by Peace Run founder, Sri Chinmoy.