Sri Chinmoy always taught that meditation and inner silence could be employed to great benefit in all spheres of human endeavor.

He demonstrated this with his own accomplishments on more than one occasion. Here is a story of one of those accomplishments.

A weighty journey

Sri Chinmoy didn't start lifting weights until 1985 when he was 54 years old.

He was asked why he began lifting weights so late in life.

"I did not choose to start lifting weights," he replied. "If one prays and meditates sincerely, somebody within him talks to him and tells him what to do and what not to do. You use the term "God," I say my "inner pilot." Last year, when I was praying and meditating, that somebody within my – you can call it an inner voice or a source of inspiration - asked me to start weightlifting."

At first, Sri Chinmoy worked simply on increasing his strength by weightlifting. He had started by lifting a 40-lb dumbbell over his head in a technique known as a "clean and press" – bending over and lifting the dumbbell from the ground to chest height, pausing and then lifting, or "pressing" it over his head to complete the movement.

Within two months he had doubled the weight he was lifting, and continued to make progress. When he began to find it difficult to bend over, a student of his, Unmilan Howard, who as a metallurgist, designed a support rack for Chinmoy that enabled him to press weights over his head from a standing position.

His progress was slow but steady over the next months until he was lifting weights that others had thought impossible.

His goal was more than just to improve his personal best with weightlifting.

"I am trying to be of some inner service to people who want to go one step forward…perhaps they will take the inspiration that I am offering and make the effort to do something in their own lives which they previously thought was too difficult or impossible."

In 1988 Sri Chinmoy founded a program which he called "Lifting up the World with a Oneness Heart." He requested people he admired, people who were positive inspirations in their communities - to step onto a platform (specifically designed for the purpose by Unmilan Howard) which he would then proceed to lift a few inches into the air to "show my appreciation of their achievements."

On these occasions, Sri Chinmoy would be lifting over a thousand pounds, a feat that would be near impossible for even the most powerful weightlifters.

But Sri Chinmoy accomplished this feat over and over again.

"When I pray and meditate, I feel that somebody else is helping me, whereas an ordinary man feels that he can rely only on himself. When he is under the weight, he thinks that he is lifting it all by himself. He has practiced for so many years and developed his strength, and he feels that everything depends upon his physical strength. But in my case, I feel that I am only an instrument. There is some other power that is coming to help me. That power I call God's Grace."

Sri Chinmoy's goal was always to inspire others and to be inspired by them.

"When we are not inspired, we find fault with other human beings, we quarrel, fight and do many deplorable things. But if we are inspired, then we do many good things for the improvement of this world."