Weightlifting Interview with Sri Chinmoy
Excepts from Vision of Asia cable television programme
Question: Why do you do weightlifting?
Sri Chinmoy: I am not a bodybuilder or a weightlifter. I am a truth-seeker and a God-lover. I pray to God and meditate on God, and I encourage my students and other people all over the world to pray and meditate. Prayer and meditation are my inner secret and my outer secret. My muscles are next to nothing compared to the muscles of the professional bodybuilders and weightlifters. It is because of the strength of my prayer-life and meditation-life that I am able to accomplish these feats of strength. You may think that concentration, prayer and meditation are only for the inner life, but I wish to say that they are not. We can also use them in our outer life. Through God’s infinite Compassion and Grace, from my concentration, prayer and meditation I am able to bring forward inner strength, inner power, and use that power to increase my outer strength. The inner strength that enables me to lift elephants and airplanes is not my sole monopoly. Far from it! It is available to anyone who prays and meditates. Everyone can get inner strength from prayer and meditation. Once we have inner strength, we feel secure and confident. At that time our insecurity disappears and we have solid peace. When our mind has peace, when peace has inundated our entire being, we no longer quarrel with others, we no longer speak ill of others, we no longer declare war on others. It is only because of insecurity that individuals and nations become jealous of one another, fight with one another and try to show their supremacy. In the depths of their hearts they know they are weak, so outwardly they want to prove to the world that they are strong. But if inwardly they know they are strong, then their inner peace will come to the fore, and they will not feel the necessity of proving anything. So if we can develop our inner strength and inner peace, then this world will have harmony and the feeling of oneness. It will be our true oneness-home.
This morning I lifted an elephant. I am not a circus performer, but I do identify with the animal kingdom. The animal consciousness is also in the Universal Consciousness of our Beloved Supreme. In the spiritual world, the occult world, the mystical world, an elephant represents solid strength — not just strength but solid strength. On the physical plane also its strength is unparalleled. The 3,000-pound elephant could easily have destroyed all the human beings who were present when I lifted it. If you had put all of us together, we would have been no match for it. But the elephant was very mild and had tremendous poise and peace. In terms of strength, I am no match for that elephant. But just because it knew it was infinitely stronger than I, the elephant remained calm and quiet. That is why I was able to bless it and garland it.
Similarly, if a country is really strong, especially with inner strength, peace and poise, then like an elephant that country will remain peaceful. We call some countries super-powers, but this is all comparative. They have no inner confidence; therefore they are constantly quarrelling and fighting and trying to prove their supremacy. If they were really superior powers, they would identify themselves with other powers, both superior and inferior. Only when we are strong do we identify ourselves with another strong person. God is omnipotent; He is all Power. That is why He can easily identify Himself with us. Unfortunately, we are very weak, and that is why we find it difficult to identify ourselves with our Beloved Supreme. But again, He has given us the supreme secret for acquiring strength: prayer and meditation.
So I tell my students that we should always pray and meditate to bring forward our own strength from within. It is individuals who are responsible not only for their own lives but also for their countries and for the entire world. It is from individuals that the message-light of inner strength can and will enter into nations. And when oneness-light-strength enters into the nations, there will be no more war. It will all be oneness-song. We talk about peace, but talking is not the answer. The embodiment of peace is the answer. The revelation of peace is the answer. The offering of peace to the entire world is the answer. First we have to embody peace, and then we have to reveal and offer peace to the world at large. That is what I am trying to do with my weightlifting.
Question: This must be very difficult physically. Is it painful?
Sri Chinmoy: No, it is not actually painful, but it is a tremendous task, and very exhausting. Inner strength has to come to the fore, and the physical body has to receive the power that is coming from within. The physical body has to become a pure and perfect instrument of the spirit. I am doing these lifts with the physical body, but the strength and power are coming from within — from an inner source.
I am not competing with anybody. I am competing with myself. Last month I lifted up an elephant in Connecticut. It weighed only 1,200 pounds. This morning the elephant I lifted weighed over 3,000 pounds. It was more than twice as heavy as the previous one. So here also I am competing with myself. If we can compete only with ourselves, then this world will definitely be a better world. If we compete with others, by hook or by crook we try to defeat them, and that does not add to the divine qualities and capacities of the world. But if we compete only to increase our capacities, to transcend ourselves and to inspire others, then we will be better citizens of a better world.
Question: Do you work out every day?
Sri Chinmoy: Every day I work out for at least three hours. I take about twenty exercises on different machines and gadgets, and I do many stretching exercises before I start. So this workout takes at least three hours.
Question: Why did you choose this way to show people your philosophy? I mean, is it something people can understand better?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes, they can understand it better this way. I can lift up 500 pounds with one hand and I can lift up 1,600 pounds with my legs, but people find it difficult to understand what I am doing. They do not identify with a metal plate. But when they see a huge elephant or a plane or a sailboat, they can begin to imagine how heavy it is.
Again, it is by virtue of prayer and meditation that I do it. Physically I don’t have the physique of a bodybuilder or weightlifter. I give all credit for my weightlifting to God’s Grace.
Published in Aspiration-Body, Illumination-Soul, part 2
