Question: Would you have any message for coaches who are training athletes?

Sri Chinmoy: My simple message that I can offer to coaches is to have a childlike heart, a oneness-heart with their students. They should try to feel constant oneness not only with their students’ outer needs but also with their inner needs. Most coaches help their students outwardly, but inwardly they are unable to help. But if they pray and meditate along with their students while the students are performing, they can help their students considerably.

Coaches should practise the prayer-life and meditation-life and also encourage their students to do the same. On the outer plane they have wisdom; they know much more than their students. But if they do not take help from their own inner resources and also help their students on the inner plane, then their students may not or cannot develop to their greatest potential. Coaches should dive deep within and bring to the fore their own inspiration, aspiration, dedication, determination and will-power and offer these capacities to their students. In that way the students and the coaches will work together in their inner lives of aspiration and their outer lives of dedication, and the success they have will be tremendous and will last forever.