Some, of course, might ask why any sports at all in an Ashram which ought to be concerned only with meditation and inner experiences and the escape from life into Brahman. But that applies only to the ordinary kind of Ashram to which we have got accustomed and this is not that orthodox kind of Ashram. It includes life in Yoga, and once we admit life we can include anything that we find useful for life's ultimate and immediate purpose and not iconsistent with the works of the Spirit. After all, the orthodox Ashram came into being only after Brahman began to shun all connection with the world and the shadow of Buddism stalked over all the land and the Ashrams turned into monasteries. The old Ashrams were not entirely like that; the boys and young things belonging to life . . . . (10 July 1948)

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It might be better to remind you that we are here for a special work, a work which is done nowhere else. We want to come in contact with the supreme consciousness, the universal consciousness, we want to bring it down in ourselves and to manifest it. But for that we must have a very solid base; our base is our physical being, our body. Therefore we have to build up a body solid, healthy, enduring, skilful, agile strong, ready for everything. There is no better way to prepare the body that physical exercise: sports, athletics, gymnastics, and all games are the best means to develop and strengthen the body.

Therefore I call you to go through the competitions beginning today, full-heartedly with all your energy and all you will. (1 April 1966)

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On this occasion of our physical education and sportive activities; I must tell you once more that for us spiritual life does not mean contempt for Matter but its divinisation. We do not want to reject the body but to transform it. For this physical education is one of the means most directly effective.

So I invite you to participate in the programme beginning today with enthusiasm and discipline- discipline, because it is the indispensable condition of order; enthusiasm because it is the essential condition of success. (1 April 1967)

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Do not forget that to succeed in our yoga one must have a strong and healthy body.

For this, the body must do exercise, have an active and regular life, work physically, eat well, and sleep well.

It is in good health that the way towards transformation is found. (18 April 1971)

Physical culture is the best way of developing the consciousness of the body, and the more the body is consious, the more it is capable of receiving the divine forces that are at work to transform it and give birth to the new race. (15 December 1971)