Student: Are you affected in any way by the heavy weights?

Sri Chinmoy: No, after weightlifting I can enter into my highest meditation. Even while I am weightlifting, I can do that. Once one reaches the Highest, at that time he can transform heaviness into lightness.

In the case of ordinary people, if something is heavy, it is heavy. If something is light, it is light. Their concept is fixed. In my case, it is not like that. Even when I am lifting heavy weights, my mind can deal with subtle things. In my inner world, I may be composing, I may be singing, I may be writing poems.

I am not the world’s best musician, but I have come to a certain standard. At least ten instruments I play well. In the art-world, I have drawn so many beautiful birds. Similarly, thousands of poems I have written. These are delicate things. Again, I am the same person who is lifting very heavy weights. Even when I lift heavy weights, my consciousness is dealing with very light things.

Many years ago a journalist came to our meditation session at the United Nations to interview me for a weightlifting magazine. I was playing some musical instruments. When he saw my muscles, he left the auditorium! He could not believe that this fellow could lift up 200 pounds with one arm! So I cannot be compared with other weightlifters because my life is totally different. This moment I am meditating, next moment I can deal with gross matter. Let other weightlifters try to write a few poems, a few delicate lines, or play a few instruments. They will break the instruments before they touch them!