Conversation — part X

Muhammad Ali: Yes, sir.

Sri Chinmoy: You are not like the preachers who speak one thing in the pulpit and do something else in their lives. Their words are one thing and their actions are a different matter altogether. In your case, people see something in you that they don’t see in other boxers. They see that you live the truth that you preach. The light that you want to offer, you embody. That is why you are a supremely chosen instrument, because you have made your heart pure. You have made your heart the temple of truth so that Allah can enter into you and perform His divine activities.

Muhammad Ali: Yes, sir.

Sri Chinmoy: When I wrote the poem at Kennedy Airport, I said, “Sleepless you cry for Allah’s Grace, deathless you fight for the Muslim race.” Sleepless you cry for Allah’s Grace, therefore, your victory is Allah’s Victory. Your victory is victory over ignorance. You are fighting for a supreme cause, and for that Allah is most pleased with you, most proud of you. This I am saying on the strength of my own inner oneness with the Inner Pilot, whom you call Allah and I call Supreme. It is your heart, the receptivity of your heart, the pure heart which you are, which makes the world receive you, welcome you and embrace you as its very own.

You are the greatest. The world fully accepts this. In my song I have said that you are greater than the greatest. With your kind permission I wish to explain this. “The greatest” is an ever-transcending term. You wanted to win the Golden Gloves, and you did win them. Then you wanted to transcend. You wanted to be the Olympic champion. You are the world’s greatest champion. Now you want something else from your life. You are fighting for the cause of the Muslim race. Something more you are doing: you are trying to spread the universal love by invoking Allah’s Grace.

Muhammad Ali: There’s something else I heard that I wanted you to give your approval of. Tell me what you think about this. Here it says: “The creation of the universe caused God no mental exertion. His existence is eternal. He didn’t come into being in some period of time, nor was He created. His existence does not amount to the coming into the existence from non-existence. He is beyond the reach of time. He has no following to share His greatness, no children to inherit His mighty domain. He was before time and space came into existence. Suns and solar systems are moving in space according to the ways ordained by Him. And they cover gigantic distances in their journeys. He fully knows the detail of all the gigantic solar systems in space and He sees that each works according to the plan set by Him. And they are not able to thank Him as much as His Kindness and Mercy deserves. Because if He willed so, He could destroy things created by Him in such a way that they would cease to exist and disappear into nothingness. To annihilate the total universe after having created it is no more difficult for Him than to make the original creation out of nothing. Again there would be no time, no space. Days, hours, minutes, years shall disappear and the earth’s sun, moon and galaxies shall all vanish into nothingness. Only He will remain the Supreme Lord, the Grand Architect of the universe.

“He stops those who try to match their power with Him. He destroys those who disobey Him. He overcomes those who behave as His enemies. But to those who put their trust in Him and to those who beg of Him, He always grants according to their works and their wants. And to those who are helpful, loving and charitable toward others, He always bestows His Blessings. Allah, God, the Originator of all energy, matter, creatures and forms of life did this without having any model or any pattern or sample before Him; nor was He helped in His creation by any other God before Him. He knows the life history of every drop of rain. He knows the life history of every grain of sand. He knows how the wind has blown it from place to place and how one day it shall come to an end. He knows under which leaf and inside the bark of which tree mosquitoes live and multiply. He knows the nests of birds and the peaks of mountains. He knows the songs birds sing in the shade of trees. He has not to make an effort to understand these things.”

It goes on, but I am still studying it. It explains Allah, God, what it is that we all pray to. He has no ears though He hears. He has no eyes though He sees. He remembers everything without the aid of mind or memory. He could see before there was any created thing to see. He’s explaining the Supreme Power we are talking about. These are some of the things that I’ve gotten from Hazrat Ali. He was the holy man who followed the Prophet Muhammad of Arabia fourteen hundred years ago. I met the Shah of Iran. The Shah of Iran gave me a book. It’s in Arabic but he had it translated into English. It’s on Hazrat Ali, who was a great writer, spiritual man and poet, who fought and rode with the Prophet Muhammad of Arabia. One day he was fighting with the Turks or somebody and Hazrat Ali’s enemy fell to the ground. He started to kill him but then he stopped. He said, “Run, friend! Get up and run.” So the enemy said, “Hazrat, if you hadn’t gotten me in this position, I would have killed you.” Hazrat said, “Just because you would kill me, that’s no reason I should kill you.” He said that’s no good; that’s not a good enough reason. Isn’t it strange how spiritual he was? He said, “That’s not a good enough reason for me to kill you — just because you would kill me.” The enemy said, “Hazrat, I heard that you have never refused a beggar. I am asking for your sword. If you give me your sword I will kill you.” Hazrat gave him his sword on the battle ground. He said, “None can stop my death when it comes and none can kill me before it’s time.” The other one said, “Hazrat, you have brought me to tears. You are not merely a great man. Not only did you refuse to kill your enemy, but you even gave me a chance to kill you because you believed that God would protect you. May I ride with you and fight for you on your side?” Hazrat said, “No, friend, don’t fight for me. Fight for truth and justice.” And they got him a horse and rode off. This is a real story on the battleground.

And one day, a lady was working in her house and she had so much work to do that she asked Hazrat to help her. She didn’t recognise him; she didn’t know he was the King and a general of the whole army. Hazrat moved furniture and worked in the house. As he left on his donkey, some thirty or forty people gathered outside and said, “Do you know who that was? That was the King of the country; that was Hazrat.” She said, “I never would have recognised him. He worked as a loyal servant all day.” You understand? He was so warm, he was so great. It was his country, he was the King; yet he worked for this lady all day. It shows you how humble he was.

There are many stories like this. One day Hazrat was going to the mosque to pray when he saw a slave girl crying. He said, “What is the matter?” She said, “Well, my master sent me to buy some dates and some plums, but they were too dry. He didn’t like them and he told me to take them back and get the money back. But the fruit man wouldn’t take them back, so the master won’t let me come home. I don’t know what to do.” So Hazrat said, “Come with me.” He took her down to the fruiterer and said, “Could you give this girl her money back?” The man was a newcomer to the village and he didn’t recognise Hazrat, so he became rude. He started arguing, “I said I am not going to give it back to her, and I don’t care who you are.” A passer-by recognised Hazrat and told the fruiterer that this was Hazrat. He said, “Oh, King Hazrat, I’m so sorry,” and he gave the girl her money back. Hazrat said, “Isn’t it a shame that you are so willing to bow to power and might but not to this little girl’s humble request?” He said, “How cruel of you to treat this little girl so badly when you are so nice to the King.” By that time the man who owned the girl had come and he said, “Hazrat, I am so sorry for the confusion she has caused. Will you forgive me?” Hazrat said, “Have you got any right to expect forgiveness from me or from God who is over you, when you will not forgive this little girl who is under you?” Wasn’t that beautiful? “You won’t forgive her and now you want God and me to forgive you.” He said, “You people only profess the word of Islam, but you don’t believe in it.”

You know, there are so many heart-warming stories that only a man like you or me would really understand or appreciate. I think this is why I am so thankful to Allah for my fame in the world today. This is the day of automation, of jet planes, temptation, discotheques, mini-skirts, nude women, prostitution, dope. We live in a hard day. During the days of Hazrat, Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad, the world wasn’t as big or as complicated as it is now. They talked to thirty or forty people. But we really have a job today. God’s prophets today would really have a headache if they had to deal with all the televisions, the nightclubs and the pretty cars. You understand? You know, people are dancing and drinking, and riding in pretty cars, and you are trying to tell them about God. You look like a square; you look like a drag. They all say, “I’ll see you later.” We have so much to fight today. We have a harder job today than they had during the days of Jesus. He didn’t have to go up against television, movies, dope and jet planes.

The devil is offering so much temptation today that we look more out of place today in this society. So I’m thankful to God that He’s made my heart like it is and I’m big in their world and yet I’m still in the spiritual world where I can live this life that the world doesn’t know. You probably live the most spiritual life, but you recognise how I fight for Allah, how I stand up. I’m not a saint. I’ve got my little wrongs. Every time I pray to Allah I say, “Forgive me for my sins and forgive me for the sins that I will commit after this prayer.” You understand? Because I’ve got my little weaknesses and little faults, you know. But I pray to Allah, “If You punish me, punish me behind the doors. When I fight tonight, let me win for the cause of all our people, religion and God. Regardless of the name of the religion, let me win for all who are good and pure in heart. So Allah, bless me. If I’ve done something wrong, punish me after the fight or spank me later. But don’t embarrass me before the infidels.” My main purpose in life was to be big in this financial sport world and, at the same time, to be an example for all those millions looking up at me. They say, “See, he did it. He didn’t promote cigarettes, whiskey or alcohol.”