Marty Gallagher: Some weightlifters are critical because they are too ego-filled.
Sri Chinmoy: My whole purpose is to be of service to mankind and this I can do only through inspiration. I get inspiration from my prayer, and this inspiration I try to offer to my friends and dear ones. This is my whole purpose in life. I have written thousands of poems. In hundreds of places I have given musical performances. I have also composed thousands of songs. It is all for inspiration.Some people may want to enter into competition and defeat others. But right from my childhood, I have been only competing with myself. If I can compete with myself and improve myself, I will become a better person. And if I become a good person, Mother Earth will be so happy, since she will be blessed with one less undivine person. I want to increase my capacities, I want to go beyond and beyond, so that others will be inspired to do the same. This is the message and the inspiration that I am trying to offer.
As soon as we compete with others, we forget our oneness. When we compete, we try to win by hook or by crook and our undivine qualities come forward — jealousy, pride and all kinds of negative things. Then we get unhappy experiences.
Hugh Cassidy: I think it would be great if some champions would lay their egos aside and take on this attitude — the feeling that they don’t have to compete with others or challenge others, but just find out what they themselves can do.
Marty Gallagher: In the weight world, the problem today is the way young lifters make progress. When they can no longer go beyond the capacities of the body, they take drugs. And that is a dead end; it’s an evil. We know that the way to overcome this drug problem is through the mind, through spirituality. But to get that message out to the young lifters is so difficult. That is why we were so pleased when word of your lifts first came out.
Sri Chinmoy: I am extremely grateful to you. This very thing I call inspiration. There is one gym in San Francisco where they keep two or three of my weightlifting pictures on the wall. Young weightlifters concentrate on my picture and make progress. For days or weeks perhaps they cannot lift something; but after looking at my picture they are able to lift it. Because they believe that I can do it, they feel that they also have the capacity to do it.
This is the kind of inspiration that I wanted to offer through my weightlifting. Competing with others does not serve any purpose. People who want to increase their capacity can seek inspiration from others.
Hugh Cassidy: When you do that, you have to believe in the other person.
Sri Chinmoy: Believers will always believe and disbelievers will never believe, no matter what you do. They will say it is magic or deception. How can you ever prove anything to them? There are many, many things you cannot prove. Right now I cannot prove God to you, but I do know that God exists. My faith in God is infinitely stronger and more fruitful than any proof I can offer you. For me, God is a living Reality. Although I cannot show God to you, that does not mean that the Reality of His Existence is less. I know He exists because I feel Him, I see Him, I talk to Him.
If I have eaten a most delicious mango this morning and I am unable to prove it to you, who cares? You may think I am fooling you, but I will simply say, “You remain satisfied by calling me a liar, and I will remain satisfied that I was lucky enough to eat the mango.”
In this world we are all running after satisfaction. Some people get satisfaction by doubting me and speaking ill of me, and I get satisfaction because God’s Grace was able to accomplish something in and through me. So each of us is satisfied. Why do we all have to have the same kind of satisfaction? I like water; you like milk. As long as you get milk and I get water, it is fine. But you cannot say that water is very bad and I have no right to tell you that milk is very bad. When I say that my drink is nectar and your drink is all poison, then the problem starts.
My whole approach is through love. Just before I lifted the elephant, I went to the elephant and said, “You are my friend, you are my heart’s friend, you are my soul’s friend, you are my life’s friend.” Somebody else might come and try to frighten the elephant, but that is not my way.
Before I lift very heavy weights in my house, I go and touch each plate before I lift it. I can show you on the video. I touch each plate and try to establish my friendship with it, for even an inanimate object has pride. If you are my friend, then you will have no objection if I lift you up. As your friend, I can beg you to do something and you will feel obliged to do it. But if I am your rival, you are under no obligation. If I act like a commander and say “Stand up!”, why do you have to listen to me? You will say, “Who are you to tell me to do something?” Then it will be like fighting with an enemy — challenging the weight or being challenged by the weight. The weight will say, “You cannot lift me,” and I will say, “I can lift you.” At that time, the weight will be like a rival and, as soon as I hold it, there will be a competition between me and the weight. I will say, “I am going to lift you up,” and the weight will say, “Who are you to lift me up?”
That is not my approach at all. Instead I become one with the weight itself. My whole approach is one of friendship and oneness. I am trying to be of service on the strength of oneness. So whether it is an inanimate object or an animal or a human being, my whole purpose is to establish oneness, oneness, oneness.
Oneness starts with the members of your family. Then gradually, gradually, you establish your oneness with your neighbours, associates, countrymen and, finally, with the whole world.
