Question: How should our vital feel when we transcend ourselves in sport?

Sri Chinmoy: The vital should be happy but, at the same time, the vital should not get malicious pleasure by defeating others. When we win, we have to feel that it is the standard of humanity that has gone high. If I have defeated you, then I should not get malicious pleasure. Only I should say, "You and I are one. You are part and parcel of humanity and I am also part and parcel of humanity. So in my achievement, it is humanity's progress."

Whether we win or whether we are defeated, that is how we should observe sports. That is the best type of happiness, to feel that humanity has made progress.

Recently Sudhahota Carl Lewis and his team-mates won the 4x100 metres relay and broke the world record. That record was established ten years ago. So it took ten years to break the record. Look at humanity's progress! So now, who has won? Here the Supreme has won through Sudhahota and his colleagues. It is the Supreme's progress that Sudhahota and his team have shown to the world at large. Previously the Supreme acted in and through four individuals to set the record; now He has acted in and through four individuals to create a new record and, when the time comes, He will make progress through four more individuals.

Our vital should be happy with the progress of humanity. That is the right attitude. Otherwise, if we think that it is our vital, our capacity, which has done something great, if we extol ourselves to the skies, then in a few days or a few months or a few years, our pride will be smashed.

The winners should always feel happiness on the strength of their oneness with Mother Earth, with humanity. Humanity has made progress in and through them and they were the perfect instruments for humanity to come one step higher.

Not only the vital should be happy, but the mind should also be very happy. The mind should feel that it is not the individual mind that has succeeded; it is the collective mind through an individual that has made this progress. So the mind should be very happy for the progress that was brought about.