Written by Jim Arvantes

Suprabha Beckjord has spent most of her adult life on a spiritual journey, relying on deep meditation and long-distance running to create a life of creativity, tranquility and self-fulfillment.

Suprabha’s spirituality and her positive, unassuming approach to life was exemplified by the gift shop she owned and operated in the heart of Cleveland Park for more than 40 years, a gift shop called Transcendence-Perfection-Bliss of the Beyond. That shop, nestled in a small but cozy space next to the legendary Uptown Theatre on Connecticut Avenue, sold a colorful collection of gifts, cards, stationeries, stickers, games, calendars, books and many other unique and interesting items. 

During the past four decades, the shop carved out an iconic niche in Cleveland Park, exuding its own positive energy while pulling in a diverse mix of loyal customers throughout the Washington, DC area and beyond.

“People would bring their little children in and they would buy stickers and presents for their friends,” recalled Suprabha during a Tuesday Talk event at the Cleveland Park Library on Sept. 17. “When they grew up, they would sometimes come in with their own children. It was very joyful getting to know all of these families and extended families. It was very special having that experience.”

Suprabha closed the shop in mid-July because of ongoing construction in the shop’s building, ending a long and successful run for a business that helped to define Cleveland Park as a unique and inviting neighborhood. But memories of the shop still linger, resonating with countless patrons who shopped within its walls.

During the Tuesday Talk Suprabha talked about her career as a business owner in Cleveland Park, and how that experience as well as her love of running and meditation shaped her life’s journey while playing a prominent role in how she ran her shop. 

“My meditation helped me decide what to get for the store,” Suprabha explained. “I tried to bring in beautiful things, fun things but nothing uninspiring or yucky. That was my standard, and I think in the end people appreciated that.”

Cassandra Hetherington, Director of the Cleveland Park Main Street, moderated the discussion, asking thoughtful questions that revealed some of the finer details of Suprabha’s life.

Hetherington told Suprabha at the start of the program that “when I think about you, I think about three things – your store, your spirituality and your running.”

Suprabha was, in fact, a world-class ultra-distance runner for many years, competing in the world’s longest foot race, a 3,100 mile Self-Transcendence Race from 1997 to 2009. She was the only woman competing in the race from 1997 to 2009. 

That race of 3,100 miles is the equivalent of running from Boston to Miami and back again.

“How did you do this?” Hetherington asked. “You just run to Miami and come back?”

Suprabha explained that she began gradually, first running in her neighborhood and eventually training for longer and longer races. Before competing in the Self-Transcendence Race, she ran in a 200 mile race, finishing first for woman and second overall.

Suprabha is a student of the late Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual leader whose teachings live on through his writings, his music, and his artwork. Sri Chinmoy ran as a form of exercise and his students follow his example. He was the founder of the 3,100 mile Self-Transcendence Race.

“It is really an amazing event,” said Suprabha. “Sri Chinmoy has inspired so many people with these races – the joy someone gets from running.”

Meditation & Running

For Suprabha, running and meditation go hand in hand. 

During the Tuesday Talk, the organizers of the event showed short clips from a documentary about Suprabha called The Spirit of the Runner. In that documentary, Suprabha said, “my running and meditation have always gone together.” 

She described meditation as “such a natural thing.”

“Everyone has meditated before,” Suprabha said in the documentary. “If you think of when you were at the ocean and the sun was rising or you were in the woods, and it was Fall and sort of mystical and peaceful. That was meditation.”

When meditating, Suprabha said she “tries to go into my heart and not focus on my mind’s thoughts.”

“I just focus on joy and beautiful qualities that I want to bring forward in myself and positive things,” she said.

Suprabha does not leave her apartment in Woodley Park in the morning without meditating.

“I meditate for about 45 minutes,” she said. “I do a little bit of reading of spiritual books, meditate, and then I sing some songs.”

By meditating, Suprabha found that she could store a little happiness and peacefulness inside of her, drawing on it later in the day.

“When you get to the point where you can focus your mind and really concentrate then meditation is like an opening — an expansion,” she explained. 

Suprabha compared the 3,100 mile Self-Transcendence Race to a spiritual journey. The entire 3,100 mile race is run over a mile-long course, and runners have 52 days to complete the race, meaning they have to run about 61 miles a day in order to complete the course within the 52 days.

“Everyday we would switch directions so you wouldn’t be tilting one way or the other,” she said.

Runners start at 6 a.m. and can run until midnight. The course then closes until 6 a.m. the next morning when the runners again form up at the starting line. 

The runners stay in apartments near the race course. Suprabha used to stay with a dear friend. 

Sage Advice

Sri Chinmoy gave Suprabha valuable advice on how to think when running these incredibly long distances. He told her to “not allow your mind to come forward. Don’t focus on the individual laps or the time or how long you have been running.”

“Just feel like you are a small child and bring forward qualities that you want to strengthen in yourself like enthusiasm, eagerness and sweetness,” he advised.

Suprabha owes much of her running and spiritual life to Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy even gave Suprabha her spiritual name, which means life and soul beauty, a name she embraces.

In 1984, Suprabha visited the United Nations where Sri Chinmoy meditated twice a week with U.N. delegates, and at the end of one of those meetings he gave Suprabha – who was born with the name Amy – her new name.

“He spelled it to me so I had it,” Suprabha said. 

 Sri Chinmoy also sang her new name in a song, allowing it to seep into her soul.

In addition, Sri Chinmoy gave Suprabha the name for her shop, Transcendence-Perfection-Bliss of the Beyond.

Suprabha opened the shop in 1983, calling it Visions of Beauty. Back then, the shop occupied a space on the same block as the metro on Connecticut Avenue, above the original location for Vace, a well-known Cleveland Park pizza and pasta restaurant. When customers climbed the stairs to Visions of Beauty, they smelled the pizza and pasta at Vace, and they asked Suprabha what she was cooking. 

Suprabha was initially pleased with the name Visions of Beauty. But before long, people started calling in, asking for hair appointments, thinking it was a hair salon.

“I guess it had that ring to it,” said Suprabha.

In 1984, less than a year after opening the shop, Sri Chinmoy stopped by while on a visit to Washington, and he gave the shop its new name, Transcendence-Perfection-Bliss of the Beyond, a name that gave the shop a renewed focus and mission.

Suprabha and her staff “did everything we could to live up to it,” she said.

In 1990, Suprabha moved the shop to 3423 Connecticut Avenue, next to the Uptown Theater where it remained for the next 34 years. Over the years, some people wandered into the shop simply because they were curious about the name.

Practicing Transcendence

During the Tuesday Talk, Suprabha focused on one part of the shop’s name in particular – transcendence. Suprabha explained that the concept behind transcendence amounts to competing with yourself when striving to make progress. 

“If you set a goal for yourself, and you manage to go beyond your previous goal – whatever you are challenging yourself to do – then you are the one who is going to reap the benefits because no one else is involved,” she said. “You’ve gone beyond your previous best.”

That, in turn, “gives people a lot of joy and satisfaction,” Suprabha said.

“No one can take it from you because it is not a matter of competition where there are different people vying for being on top,” Suprabha explained. “It is just you and yourself.”

Suprabha stressed that anyone can apply transcendence to their lives.

Moving Forward

Suprabha has made a name for herself in the world of running and spirituality. But she will always be remembered in the hearts and minds of Cleveland and Woodley Park residents as the spiritual woman who owned and ran Transcendence-Perfection-Bliss of the Beyond so successfully for so many years. 

“I loved being in the store,” she said. “It is actually hard not being there anymore.”

Suprabha does not plan to open another shop nor does she plan to retire. She always remembers what Sri Chinmoy proclaimed when he turned 65:

 “He said, ‘don’t retire – aspire,’” remembered Suprabha.

Suprabha wants to teach meditation, possibly at the Cleveland Park Library.

Meditation, she said, “brings you a more balanced feeling – a feeling of peace and light.” And those feelings will give you inspiration and aspiration, enabling you to make progress, according to Suprabha.

“That’s what it is all about – making progress and moving forward,” she said.

Learn more about Cleveland Park Main Street here, and donate here to invest in the future of small businesses in Cleveland Park.