Breakfast at Annam Brahma

SRI CHINMOY: You have to go to Japan now and give a few talks. After his Olympic glories, Jesse Owens used to go to so many places and give talks. You should do it to inspire people. You have achieved something far, far beyond humanity’s imagination. Now you are what you wanted to become. So this is the golden chance not only for you but for the public as well, because now people are very eager to listen to you. There are thousands and thousands of people who admire you tremendously and who can receive real nourishment from you. When you speak, flames of inspiration will enter into them most powerfully. This is the time for you to do it because if even once someone else wins, people will not take you 100 percent seriously. That is how human beings are. But now they will take you 1,000 percent seriously because you have proved to them what you are.

You should go not only to Japan but to other places as well to speak. Japan worships you, so you should go to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and various other places. But also go to Switzerland, Norway, France and wherever else you have been before. You can also give talks to children and to your Christian group, the Lay Witnesses for Christ. Then you will be able to combine all your talks into another immortal book. Poor Jesse Owens had only six talks — ready-made. His friend Payton Jordan told me that these six talks he used to give everywhere. In your case, you don’t have to worry about that. Because of your inner background, you can write 600 different talks.

QUESTION: I saw a TV show about you in Japan. The most fascinating thing was your shoes, because you could see they were spikes when you walked around.

SUDHAHOTA: They were very light. When I first put them on, I said, “My God, these are too light.” It felt like I was just putting on a tight sock and running barefoot.

QUESTION: But it gives you inspiration in a way, doesn’t it?

SUDHAHOTA: Yes, it does. The first day of practice, it felt funny, but you get used to it. The hardest thing was that track! That track was as hard as this table. We did some hard starts Wednesday, a few days before the competition. Boy, my legs were dead. I mean dead! That track was hard! All of us were hurting after the hard rounds.

QUESTION: It’s a little scary, isn’t it, on the day of the competition when your legs feel a little dead, and you say, “Uh, oh!”

SUDHAHOTA: Right! The morning of the competition they were rested, but still a little sore. After each race, it actually takes between 40 to 48 hours for your body to recover 100 percent. So when you run four rounds, that’s four races. And we had to run the entire four rounds in about 36 hours. It would be better if they set it up so you ran just two rounds before the finals.

SRI CHINMOY: Now, may I change the subject? You are 30 years old, so as I told you earlier, I have started to compose 30 soulful utterances about you — "Carl Lewis: The Champion inner Runner.” Three days ago I started writing this — on my return from Europe. When I heard how they had honoured you in New Jersey, I got the inspiration to honour my Sudhahota in my own way.

(Sri Chinmoy reads from the typescript.)

This will be finished and printed in a few days.

SUDHAHOTA: Wow! All right, Guru!