A Visit with Mahasamrat Bill Pearl and Bhavatarini Judy Pearl

At the beginning of the morning function, Mahasamrat generously offered hundreds of copies of his book, Beyond the Universe: The Bill Pearl Story, mainly to those visiting from around the world who did not yet have the book. Excerpts from the function follow, including some questions from the audience.

Sri Chinmoy (giving an overview of his weightlifting achievements in the last three days): I started my journey the day before yesterday. It started with small planes, a helicopter and a huge tree. Then yesterday I lifted a small house with a few people inside, and then an elephant and a camel. The camel was unmanageable, unruly. The elephant was nice. The elephant was not afraid of anything, but the camel – there was lots of trouble!

Our philosophy is progress, progress. In the seated calf raise, I think in my previous weightlifting exhibition I did 1300 pounds or so. This time I shall do 1500, plus I shall do two sets of 20 of 1200 in a row. There are also other new things. I lifted both of you together. This time I may lift four or five individ-uals together, a whole family.

Bhavatarini (commenting as Mahasamrat was answering audience questions): I just want to say a couple of things that Mahasamrat won’t say about himself. One of the things that I’m most proud of about him is that in a lot of business dealings and other dealings in life, we’ve met people that aren’t as nice as all of you. And Mahasamrat has never met a new person with the expectation of anything but fair-ness and goodness from them. He always expects the best from people, and he always gives the best he can to people. And that’s what I am the most proud of. He never gets discouraged by people disappointing him. He always goes on to the next person, expecting the best in them. And that’s probably one of the things that Guru has seen in him.

And about his diet, whenever he made a decision of what he was going to follow as a diet regimen when he was competing, he wouldn’t let himself consider for a moment cheating on his diet or having something that wasn’t part of that diet regimen, no matter how really difficult it was sometimes. Anything that he would decide that he was going to follow, he always followed it to the letter. And when people asked, “Well, how about when you wake up in the morning and you don’t feel like getting up and doing something,” he said, “I never do.” And this is true, he just will not let himself think of not doing something that he’s made up his mind to do. He just won’t let that enter his mind.

Mahasamrat: Thank you, thank you.

Sri Chinmoy: I’m so grateful to you, my dearest Sister. His modesty prevented him from telling this, so I can add just a few words. Self-giving with no expectation – this is what Mahasamrat is. This is what Mahasamrat is – self-giving, constant self-giving with no expectation. You give, give, give, and it is up to others to give you in return. Their souls, their hearts are accountable, and God is the Judge. When one of His children can give himself without any expectation, then God is bound to be proud, extremely, extremely proud of that person.

You have given advice to so many people. I am the right person to speak about this. So much advice I have received from you, without giving you a penny! It is your heart that gave, and my heart offered you gratitude, gratitude. You gave advice even to people who were going to be one day world famous, like Chris Dickerson,¹ For months he stayed at your place. You charged him nothing, gave him food, accommodations – everything. Is there anybody else among the world champions who would do that kind of favour? If a world champion is already well established, and if somebody else wants to stand on the same footing, then the well-established one will be the first person to discourage him or have nothing to do with him. I know hundreds of incidents where people are already established, but they do not want others to stand on the same footing. This is human insecurity.

I am saying, here is the difference between you and many others. You got the highest recognition, Mr. Universe. Then when somebody was trying to become Mr. Universe or Mr. Olympia, you gave him advice and training free, free, free. So here is the proof of your heart. If you had a heart like many others, it would have been all discouragement, and you would have remained farther than the farthest from him. But you did encourage him.

In your case, you offered encouragement. So here is the proof what your heart can do.

Mahasamrat (after a disciple commented on his positive energy): I’ve learned something a long time ago. If I can walk up to a group of people, 5 or 10 people, and smile, if 10 people smile back, who won? I won. One smile, ten returns. I won. It just may be that there’s a lot of this ego still involved, and I haven’t changed. But I’ve learned over time, some things sell in life and other things don’t. And being nice always sells.

Sri Chinmoy: And why do these 10 people smile at you in return? Why do they give you more? Here they inwardly receive something sooner than the soonest. When they see you, they receive something from you before you can see and feel it. Their hearts are like magnets, with a magnetic pull. So they get something from you, and then they give you in return.

Question: Mahasamrat, I was wondering if your spiritual awareness existed prior to your going into body-building, or did bodybuilding have something to do with opening up that area of your life?

Mahasamrat: To be honest with you, probably Guru has done more to open up my spiritual career than anybody or anything. It hasn’t been my bodybuilding. It’s my association with Guru. I’ve made the comment that of all the positive things that have happened to Judy and me in the last 20 years, the most positive thing of all has been my association with Guru and all of you. And that’s it. I mean, it wasn’t something I was born with, but if I hadn’t been around people such as you, I wouldn’t be like what I am today.

Question: Mahasamrat, I was wondering if you ever wanted to give up bodybuilding?

Mahasamrat: No, because bodybuilding has given me everything I have today that I think is worthwhile. If I hadn’t been a bodybuilder, I would have never heard from Guru. If I hadn’t been a bodybuilder, I would not be here today. Most of the positive things that have happened in my life are because of my back-ground in weight training. I find it very interesting because I’ve only entered about 11 contests in my entire life, so I am where I am today because of 11 days of my life. I’ve been very, very lucky, very, very fortunate, but I wouldn’t have met people like you if it hadn’t been for my bodybuilding career.

Sri Chinmoy: Mahasamrat, I am so grateful, so grateful to you, as usual. All your answers I take as blessings, as divine blessings. As soon as I see you, you inundate me with boundless, boundless inspiration and aspiration. The message of self-giving every day I learn from you.