Part V: Question from Mr. Zehn Eckhardt

The following question was asked by Mr. Zehn Eckhardt of the U.N. Bureau of the German Press Agency, during an interview at the United Nations on 10 October 1986.

Question: I have read and seen on television that you have achieved quite a number of astonishing feats. What is the connection between your search for peace and what you are doing with weightlifting?

Sri Chinmoy: There is an important link between what I am doing at the United Nations and what I am doing when I lift up weights, elephants and so forth. In my weightlifting I am trying to show that if you pray and meditate, you can bring to the fore your inner strength. Now, if somebody is really inwardly strong, he is always at peace. When you have confidence and strength within you, then you do not go outside to quarrel or fight with others. If you are secure at home, then you do not leave your house and start quarrelling and finding fault with your neighbours. It is only because you are insecure that you try to fight with others, because you are always afraid that they are going to surpass you.

Because countries inwardly feel insecure, they go out and fight with other countries. But the country that is inwardly secure will not come forward to fight; such a thing is beneath its dignity. An elephant is not going to approach a dog and attack it. The dog will bark and bark at the elephant, making the world feel that it is so strong, but the elephant will just ignore the dog.

So when I lift up some heavy weight, I am hoping to inspire others to also bring forward their own inner strength. Inner strength is not my monopoly. Far from it. Everybody has it. Only it has to be brought forward. If everybody can bring forward his inner strength, then everybody will be secure and nobody will try to attack anybody else.

When we are inwardly strong, not only do we not attack the world but we feel our oneness with the world. And it is out of the feeling of oneness that solid peace comes. Because the different parts of your body have established oneness with each other, they do not feel jealous of one another. When your arm lifts a weight, your eyes or your ears are not jealous, because all the parts of your body have established their oneness. Every part of your body feels joy in the body’s achievements.

Similarly, when you and I feel our heart’s oneness, whatever you achieve I also claim as my own achievement. If I claim your achievement as my own, then how can I be afraid that you will surpass me? There is no fear or competition; there is only self-giving. I will give you what I have, and you will give me what you have. So oneness, based on inner security, is the only foundation for world peace.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Aspiration-body, illumination-soul, part 1, Agni Press, 1993
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