Joel Martin: Guru, what if somebody were to say to you: "All right, it's remarkable. You have lifted an elephant, you have lifted a seaplane, a boat, various weights. How does that further the cause of world peace, which is so elusive?"

Sri Chinmoy: You have just seen me lift the seaplane, the elephant, all that. People know that it is on the strength of my prayer-life and my meditation-life that I am able to do this. There is no other way. As you can see, I do not have big muscles and my physique is not that of a bodybuilder or a weightlifter. So I entirely depend on my inner strength, which comes from God’s Compassion and God’s Grace.

When I feel inner strength, at that time I have peace of mind and I do not want to quarrel or fight. We quarrel and fight precisely because inwardly we feel that we are weak. One nation declares war on another nation, not because that nation is far superior, but because that nation feels in the depths of its heart that it is weak. I know I am weaker than you, but I want to show you that I am stronger. Perhaps you have also the same experience; you may think that you are weaker than I am, but you quarrel with me to show your superiority.

The other day with my calf muscles I lifted up an elephant which weighed 3,600 pounds. In terms of strength, a human being is no match for an elephant. Just because the elephant knew we could do nothing to it, it behaved well. So he who is really strong will not fight. For a human being, the only way to become really strong is to pray and meditate. When we pray and meditate, we develop inner strength, and this inner strength is nothing other than peace.

The reason I have entered into bodybuilding and weightlifting is to inspire everybody to pray and meditate so they can bring to the fore their own inner strength. If everybody brings to the fore his own inner strength, the world will eventually be inundated with peace. Peace is oneness, oneness is peace. If I am strong and you are strong, then definitely we have established our oneness, and this oneness is nothing other than peace.