Question: I have been told that you have returned to sprinting.

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, I am once more sprinting. Again, it is because of the inner message. Always I listen to the dictates of my Inner Pilot. It is He who is asking me to practise sprinting, and I am trying to improve. Our goal is progress, progress. I am not trying to compete with the world’s fastest sprinter.

I have students all over the world. Ours is like a small family. I happen to be their spiritual father, and they are my spiritual children. We are all trying to please our Inner Pilot. That is why I ask my students to organise ultra-distance races, not because it is not being encouraged by other running groups, but because I feel from within that it is the right thing to do. I am just listening to my inner dictates. If my Inner Pilot wants me to stop, I will stop and I will ask my students to stop. I am at His behest. Whatever He asks, I try to do with devoted oneness. And my students are also one with me. If I want to do something, they immediately come forward to help me. I am so happy, so grateful to them. They help, and together we undertake the project. It is not an individual effort. It is a collective effort, and we try to offer the results to the One who has inspired us, namely our Lord Beloved Supreme.