Sports is a very important tool to create happiness, well-being, and harmony. When we are ridden with so many conflicts around the world, sports could be something that could bring people together, and provide the much-needed leadership for the world. In sports, when people are watching something to uplift their spirit, they believe in it, they have faith in it, and this has become sort of a religion of modern times. Religion is what gives hope and uplifts one’s spirit. And that’s what sports is doing today.
In today’s world, wars are often treated like sports, and sports are often approached with the intensity of wars. While I am not much in favour of wars, I wholeheartedly support the values of sports and their application in life.
Sports as an Expression of Life and Light
Sports is the first and the purest expression of life. A baby first starts playing and then starts speaking. It does so even before it can recognize people. Sports is the purest expression of life. In this sense, honouring sports is honouring our source, our own life.
The whole life needs to be taken lightly and sportively. If we don’t take life sportively, depression can take over our lives, which is one of the biggest issues in the world today. On one hand, people are either depressed or on the other, they are engaging in violence. The way to remedy this is to have them participate in active sports, and not just have them sit on the computer and play simulations. In real life, games would be crucial to keep our society healthy.
Whether it’s politics, economics, music, arts, or sports, the aim of all these avenues is one, to bring happiness to the society.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
I was invited to a wheelchair cricket tournament. While our youth is undergoing tremendous mental stress and is faced with so many problems, the specially-abled players exuded such hope and resilience, and their lives expressed the real meaning of sports. Today, every 40 seconds, one person takes their own life. Those sportspeople showed a ray of hope to those who have lost hope and the message was clear-you have to be sporty in life, come what may, and you have to keep a happy mind.
Bringing Joy to Our Players
There is this issue of competition and pressure among the players. To compete, there is a lot of anxiety, uncertainty, and fear of failure. We need to ensure that the mental health of our players is taken care of and that their consciousness blossoms too.
Do we see our sportsmen beaming with real happiness and joy? Often we read about sportspeople and athletes undergoing mental health crises. It is something to ponder upon. Even if they have won you see there is a tiredness and a sense of anxiety in them. It is our responsibility to bring that much-needed happiness. Not just to bring happiness to people who are watching, but to the players themselves. Instilling in them a sense of ease, comfort and understanding of the big picture is important.
When they are happy they can make others happy. If they are sad and they try to play, they cannot create the right atmosphere for sports. Mental health is essential to keep people within the bounds of ethics.
Watch International paddler Manika Batra share her experience of Sudarshan Kriya and Meditation:
For the players, we need to take care of their mental, physical, and emotional well-being as well. Here, yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, and encouragement of scientific temper can all help a person to sustain their energy.
Many prominent sportsmen believe in the importance of meditation, particularly Sudarshan Kriya, for enhancing performance in sports. Recently, Kumar Sangakarra, former captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team, in an interaction with Ravichandran Ashwin (current Indian cricketer), shared his experience of undergoing the Art of Living workshop. He said that one of the things that stuck with him during the program was ‘to be happy now’, which automatically puts you in a frame of mind that helps you give your best at any given moment.
Leadership in Sports: Moving Beyond Winning and Losing
A few years ago, there was a cricket tournament between India and Afghanistan for the first time. Afghans came to India to play with one of our teams. Of course, India has been playing (cricket) for a long time so they won. When it came to receiving the trophy, the Indian team invited the Afghan team to encourage them. They said we would like to get the trophy from the Afghan team.
In sports, you have only two options. Either you win or you make others win. One has to be equanimous in victory and loss. When we let victory get to our head, it can bring arrogance; when we allow the loss to get to our hearts, we can get depressed. It is important to just bring to our awareness that whether we win or lose we must celebrate. So when you make others win, you should be happy. With this attitude, when sports people lead their lives, there will be very little stress and they will need to get into drugs, steroids and other vices. In India, in the ancient days, they said ‘Life is a game, life is a Leela.’ Don’t take it too seriously. So, have fun in life, enjoy life. Failures or success, treat them equally. When you fail, that’s a stepping stone for success.
The purpose of life is simply to celebrate. The purpose of sports is the same – to celebrate life in its entirety. It is not just about keeping a trophy in the house.
Sincerity in playing a game, at the same time, not being attached to the outcome of the game exhibit the highest standards in sports.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
How Can we Bring Down the Violence in Sports?
In games, your participation is most important, rather than the result of a game. When we can, if we can, bring this message loud and clear to youngsters, I think most of our soccer games around the world will have less violence, fewer problems, and less work for the police and police forces. The feverishness of winning has gripped this field of sports, which has been the cause of disturbances the world over.
These sorts of things can be avoided if the true essence of sports is brought to light, which is to bring people together, uplift the spirit, and unite the world towards a much happier society.
Here, learning meditation is the solution to a serene mind which is above feverishness, craving and aversion. We know if there are ripples on the surface of a lake, we cannot see the depth. Similarly, unless the mind is restful, we cannot experience the harmony and union within us. Meditation is accepting this moment and living every moment totally with depth. This brings, focus, clarity, and sharpness of intellect, and you realize you are the source of boundless enthusiasm.
Ethics in Sports
What you don’t want others to do to you, you should not do to others, that is the baseline of ethics. There are sincere players all over this planet. Those, who cross the ethical line, are few. It is good, that we can correct even that small percentage of wrong. We all need to think about what is that we can do to fix this.
Would you like to be cheated as a viewer? You are watching a game and you realize the game has been fixed already. Will you enjoy the game? It will spoil the whole fun of watching the game. It will leave a bad taste. One cannot cheat the audience and fans.
Sportspersons should have a spirit of reverence and a sense of responsibility. Sport is the religion of young people and one doesn’t want to be dishonest when they are doing something that is close to their heart and this big responsibility lies with every sportsperson.
