Interviewer: How Does That Philosophy Relate To...

Interviewer: How does that philosophy relate to weightlifting?

Sri Chinmoy: I feel that the physical and the spiritual must go together; they cannot be separated. When we pray and meditate, we get an extra supply of energy, which you can call strength. This strength can be utilised for a good purpose. If I can inspire anybody in this world, then I feel that my life is meaningful. With my weightlifting, I am offering my physical strength to inspire people.

There are people who feel that physical is physical and spiritual is spiritual; they are like the North Pole and the South Pole. My feeling is that they are not like that at all. To me, they are the shrine and the temple. When we pray to God, we need both a temple and a shrine. The temple is our body and the shrine is our soul. So the physical capacity and the spiritual capacity must go together.

When I lift heavy, heavy weights—elephants and so forth—I try to inspire my fellow citizens. They can also try to inspire others in a similar way, but it does not have to be with weightlifting. They can write extraordinary poems, compose songs or do something else in any walk of life. So this inspiration is not confined to weightlifting.