Preface

The following is an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that took place on 27 June 1987 prior to the opening ceremony of the US National Senior Olympics.

Do you have a philosophy on physical fitness?

As a truth-seeker and a God-lover, I feel the supreme necessity of physical fitness. To me, the body is the temple, and inside the temple is the shrine. If there is no temple, then there can be no shrine. The shrine is our soul, our inner life, our inner hunger for truth, for delight, for beauty, for perfection. The body and the soul must go together, like the inner life and the outer life. If I have a good thought inside my mind, then I can express it to the world at large. If I have a pure heart, then in my outer actions and dealings also, I will be pure. The inner and the outer must go together. This is my simple philosophy.