Age
When Sri Chinmoy turned 68 years old, he captured the imagination of millions around the world who saw his lifts on television. The standing calf raise was one of the lifts performed by Sri Chinmoy that was featured frequently, as it is a standard machine found in many gyms. Normally stacked with a maximum of 800 lbs of weights, Sri Chinmoy's custom-made machine bore over 2,000 lbs and was often dubbed in the media: “The World's Heaviest Calf Raise Machine.” A year later, at the age of 69, Sri Chinmoy lifted a staggering 2,000 lbs on this machine - considered by many experts to be a World Record.
In September 2006, Sri Chinmoy embarked on a three-day weightlifting exhibition with special guests Bill Pearl and Hugo Girard - at that time the world’s No.1 strongman. Sri Chinmoy had just turned 75 years of age; yet he saw his advanced years as an opportunity, a chance to prove that age is irrelevant if you live in the heart rather than in the mind.
“The mind makes us feel that we are very old, but the moment I use my heart, I am 20 years old. I wanted to see if age has anything to do with physical fitness. I have found that it is our human mind that creates the problem. We have to go far beyond the domain of the physical mind which binds us and at every moment discourages us. It says, “You cannot do this, you cannot do that, it is not possible for you.” But when we live in the heart, there is no such thing as impossibility. When I look at the heavy weights with my heart, there is no fear. A child has a feeling of oneness with his father. Even if his father is very tall and stout, he will not be afraid of him. Similarly, when I look at the weights with my heart, I am not frightened at all, no matter how heavy they are. But when I look at them with my mind’s eye, I am filled with fear. I have no idea how I am going to lift them.” – Sri Chinmoy
As part of the large July 4 celebration in Philadelphia, Sri Chinmoy lifted seven of the world's strongest men overhead with one arm, one at a time. Each lift was between 320 and 420 lbs. It was part of a Team USA versus Team World Strongman competition. He then lifted each team separately on a standing calf raise apparatus. The total weight Sri Chinmoy lifted in the span of half an hour was nearly 3 tons – 5,948 lbs!
Master of Ceremonies Mahasamrat Bill Pearl commented: “Nobody in the entire world can do what Sri Chinmoy has done! Nobody else sets world records at the age of 76!“
Sri Chinmoy describes his philosophy on age:
”My philosophy is very simple - never, never, never to think of age. We have many, many important things to accomplish in life. If we think of age, how old we are, then we are doomed to be disappointed when we cross the barrier of fifty. But if we are wise enough, if we are wise in the proper sense of the term, than there is no such thing as impossibility. We can cross far beyond the barrier of age. We can only accomplish one thing after another.“ - Sri Chinmoy
“Age is in the mind and not in the heart. If you can live in the heart and for the heart, than there can be no age barrier. The heart is like the child, it does not know and it does not want to know, how old he is. He just plays here, there, everywhere and we also try to play exactly the same way like a child in our heart-garden. Again I come to the point that age is in the mind. If we can simplify our lives and if we can feel the eternal child in us, then we can go forward, we can fly upward, we can dive inward to our deep satisfaction.“ - Sri Chinmoy