Interviewer: Do you have any future goals, things you are planning to lift in the future?

Sri Chinmoy: I have no goal of my own! I have many, many students, as you know. Sometimes, by way of a joke, I tell them that my goal will be to lift five hundred pounds, let us say. But my goal entirely depends on God — I use the term “Supreme.” The Supreme sets my goal. Today if He asks me to stop lifting weights, I will be quite happy. But if He wants me to continue, I will continue. I do not know how far I am supposed to go, and I am not concerned about it. I feel that, since He is inspiring me, it is His problem, not mine. I will continue as long as I feel from within that it is His Will. If my Inner Pilot commands me to continue, I will continue.

Failure and success I place at the Feet of God. I have only two experiences in life: success and failure. There is no other experience; either I succeed or I fail. If I can place at God’s Feet both my success and my failure, then I become very happy. Otherwise, when I fail, I shall blame God; and when I succeed, I shall say God is very good. Again, it may happen that we extol ourselves to the skies when we are successful, and we blame ourselves when we fail. Then we give up everything. But that I do not do. Because I am a man of prayer, I place both my success and my failure at His Feet with the same peace and love and joy, for that is the only way we can make progress.