12 September 1991

Sudhahota met with Sri Chinmoy on 12 September, the next day, at Annam Brahma.

SRI CHINMOY: I am so proud of you for offering your victory to your father. Here is the proof that you believe in the spirit. An ordinary human being would say, “Oh, my father is now gone.” But you have kept such a strong and powerful inner connection with your father’s heart. That means you have kept the connecting link between earth and Heaven. So your father’s good will, his inner will and power help you tremendously. You keep your physical fit; he keeps your inner world fit.

Your father’s spirit has helped you develop tremendous inner receptivity in your life. The receptivity that you have is like a magnet; it pulls the higher forces down. You are thinking that if you had a little more strength in your quadriceps, or if you had something else, you would do better. But these things are only outer capacities, and God has given you infinitely more outer capacities than you need. In your case, you are able to bank on your inner capacity, whereas others have to entirely depend on their outer capacity. It is like having two friends who are all for you, whereas others have only one friend.

Your outer friends are your coach, your own practice and so many other things. Your coach, Tom, for example, is helping you in so many ways. He is instructing you, giving you extraordinary advice, giving you confidence. But you also have an inner friend, which is your heart. Your heart is drawing cosmic strength, cosmic energy, cosmic light from Above.

You have many inner friends, but they are invisible. I call them divine forces. They are working so powerfully and successfully in and through you. When you are jumping or running, in addition to your physical capacity, so much cosmic energy, cosmic light, cosmic power is coming to help you. These invisible capacities you can see only when you use the inner eye, the third eye. If you use your inner eye, you will see that you have so many friends who are dying to help you. That is because your victory is their victory, just as their victory is your victory. But if you want to rely entirely on earthly help, then this inner help you do not get.

I feel sad because you have touched the shore, but you have not yet jumped onto the shore. You have safely reached the shore; now the next thing is for you to step onto the ground, the victory-ground, and show that you are the victor. Do not feel that you still have to increase your capacity on the physical plane. What you have to add is only on the inner plane. Your heart tells me and your soul tells me to use the term “within easy reach.” It is not that you are 20 miles away from your destination. Your destination you have almost touched. You have to just a little way to go, and then you can declare your victory.

Do not let yourself become relaxed and say, “Oh, I have come so far; now I need rest.” Some forces may try to create unnecessary relaxation in you and take away the determination that you had gotten on the strength of your inner aspiration. Do not let this happen. If you take rest and start again, you will feel that you have retreated quite a few steps. So why retreat? You have practically reached your destination; now all you have to do is step onto the victory platform and declare that you are far better than the one who is known as the winner.

When you jump, your father’s soul and Jesse Owens’ soul are dying to help you. So do you think they appreciate it when you want to sleep? Somebody says, “Wake up, wake up! Don’t wait, jump, jump!” And somebody else says, “Oh no, father, I am tired now. I have done so much.” Sometimes it is difficult for us to go according to the soul’s speed, because they are so fast. In a fleeting second they go here and there, whereas in a fleeting second we barely take one step. But that doesn’t mean we should sleep, either.

Does your coach believe in this kind of talk? You can speak to him. He doesn’t have to understand my language. Does your mother talk to him?

AMBALIKA: I talk to him!

SRI CHINMOY: I am seeing that this is your golden chance, your absolutely golden chance. It is a matter not of months, but of weeks. The force that is helping you inwardly is very powerful. In jumping you are not fouling like you used to. In the inner world — the world that creates what appears in the world of manifestation — it is done. You have brought the victory from above down to the first floor, and are holding your victory banner there. Now you are about to bring it down to the ground floor, where the whole world can see it.

Being a human dynamo, the fastest runner in the world, how can you not think of doing something sooner than the soonest? As an American, you know the value of speed. In India we have the term “bullock cart speed.” I come from India, so I can tell you that India’s bullock cart goes on, goes on, goes on as slowly as possible. You come from the fastest country and you are the fastest human being on earth. But now you want to wait and see! Your mind is in a tug-of-war with your heart. If you take the side of your heart, then you don’t have to wait three or four months.

Being in the spiritual life, I always feel that if I can do something tomorrow, why do I have to wait for 10 years? Every day, every hour, every minute time is bringing us a new message. If you can see and feel that there are people who are trying to help you do something today, then why do you have to wait to make your mind stronger? The mind is not the only thing; there is also the heart and soul. They are all ready to for you to become the victor supreme.

SUDHAHOTA: We shall do it, Guru. We shall do it.

SRI CHINMOY: You know, one of your greatest admirers is Monica Seles. She read your book and was so deeply impressed. She is so natural and spontaneous. When I gave her a picture of the shoes that you gave to me, she couldn’t believe it. She was so excited. The following day she sent me one of her rackets.

SUDHAHOTA: The Olympic trials are so drawn out; they kill everybody. Then you have to come back again and do it at the Games! That’s why everyone is so tired. We’re the only country that duplicates the Games in our trials. Most countries just have track meets and pick their teams out.

SRI CHINMOY: Now let me learn about this wind-aided business. You will be there for 8, 10 hours, and they are so merciless that they cannot wait two minutes until the wind stops?

SUDHAHOTA: As usual, there are silly rules. When they call your name, they turn the clock on and you have 90 seconds to land in the pit. If you are running down the runway when that 90 seconds is up, it’s a foul. And if the wind happens to gust and blow at that time, that’s it!

When we went to Japan, the guy from the organising committee told us we could go to a certain track the next day to practise. But when we got there, the officials from the Japanese Track and Field Federation said we couldn’t train there until the following day. In the newspaper the next day the Federation said, “No matter who it is — even if it’s Carl Lewis — nobody is supposed to train until tomorrow.” But Joe Douglas let them have it. He said, “You can sit and talk your rules all you want, but we’re here for one reason — to give a great show for the Japanese and to set world records.” Here again, it’s rules! But what kind of rule would say the competitors can’t train whenever they want to? And anyway, the Italian team was training there with the blocks and everything.

SRI CHINMOY: You have to fight for justice! You have won so many times and proved yourself to be a world champion without taking drugs. The things you are seeing wrong in the Olympics and elsewhere you should write down and fight them to the end. There are many things that they are doing wrong, and if you do not fight them, I don’t think anybody else will do it. Because you are the 20th century’s greatest athlete, you have a voice. For the last 12 years you have been fighting against the wrongdoings of the Olympic Committee and others. They won’t listen today, but there will be new Committees and new people who will pay attention. So if you continue to fight, there will be lots of improvement.

Otherwise, these foolish things will go on, go on, go on, and after 10 or 12 years everything will be absolutely fixed. Then there will be nobody who is as powerful as you are to speak up against them. Even now, from time to time they do listen to you when you fight. These are not personal objections that you have; nobody likes these things. But nobody else is brave enough to fight against the authorities.

You also have to work very, very hard to keep politics out of sports. So many politicians say things that even they don’t believe. And every second they contradict themselves. They are in the mind, but sports is all heart. Many politicians are only trying to divide and separate, whereas athletes have the golden opportunity to join all nations together. So sports and politics do not go together.