Question: You must be very tired after lifting all that weight?

Question: Are you happy?

Sri Chinmoy: I get joy in serving mankind. All of us are serving mankind in a special way. Even now, you are taping this programme and thousands of people will be inspired from our conversation. You are asking me most significant questions and I am trying to answer your questions according to my inner awakening. So undoubtedly, this conversation of ours is going to help people who are longing for truth, light and bliss.

Question: Forgive me to say, but you do not look like a weightlifter.

Sri Chinmoy: True, very true! In my case, it is all God's Grace. I do not have the body of a weightlifter. Previously I was a runner. I never thought of lifting. But now God's Compassion has asked me to do quite a few things for His Manifestation in and through weightlifting.

Question: Can other people, if they meditate, lift like you do?

Sri Chinmoy: Definitely! If it is the Will of God, then anybody can easily be a weightlifter.

Question: How often do you meditate? Is it all the time?

Sri Chinmoy: I meditate for quite a few hours during the night. I have a few thousand students all over the world and I meditate mostly on them. Since my childhood I have been meditating and now my own meditation has become spontaneous. Even when I am in the hustle and bustle of life, I feel deep within that meditation is going on.

Question: What do you feel while you are lifting?

Sri Chinmoy: While I am lifting, I feel that divine Compassion from God is flowing in and through me and I try to become a perfect instrument. God is acting in and through me and I am trying to become a perfect instrument of His. While I am lifting, I feel that I am not the doer; I am only an instrument. An inner force, inner power, is operating in and through me and I try to bring it to the fore.

Question: Many people find your weightlifting feats incredible.

Sri Chinmoy: My own human mind finds it difficult to believe! Again, I know that I am not the doer. Infinite energy is acting in and through me. In this way, I can silence the mind.

Question: How long have you been weightlifting?

Sri Chinmoy: My weightlifting career started four years ago, but I have been lifting up human beings only for one year.

Question: You are also a runner, of course.

Sri Chinmoy: I started as a sprinter. Then I became a long distance runner. As a sprinter, according to our Indian standard, I was something, but not according to the world standard. Here, in the West, I have run twenty-two marathons and two ultra-marathons. Then I gave up because my right knee was injured. I could no longer run. I wanted to do something to keep my body fit and so I began weightlifting.

Question: Your runs are triumphant all over the world!

Sri Chinmoy: I encourage the inner running and the outer running. They must go together. When you have a good thought, a good inner feeling, that feeling is your inner running. Then, when you express that feeling outwardly, when you share your good thought with others, that is your outer running. The outer running always starts from deep within.

Question: I am attempting a 30-kilometre run soon. What advice can you give me?

Sri Chinmoy: When I used to run long distance, I used to break each run into fragments. I did not think of the entire distance, which in your case is 30 kilometres. Whatever the distance is, try to imagine that you are not going to run such a long distance. If you are supposed to run a mile, feel that you are going to run a quarter. You can tell the mind, "I am not such a fool that I will run a long distance, oh no! Just a quarter of a mile." Then, after you have covered a quarter of a mile, you will find that you have more energy.

Like that, it is always good to fool the mind, to discipline the mind. Otherwise, the mind will put so much added pressure on us. Before we even begin, the mind will give us so many worries and anxieties.

But if we can play a trick on the mind, if we can wisely tell the mind that what we are doing is within our capacity, we can relieve the burden of the mind. Then we will have no anxieties or worries.