A game for life

[1]

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev [1]

India is a country where we have 365 different festivals for 365 days of the year, which means that the whole culture is in a state of celebration, always. Everything is a celebration. If today is ploughing day, it is celebrated. If tomorrow is planting day, another celebration. If day after tomorrow is weeding, that is another celebration. Harvesting, of course, is a very important celebration, though it has now slowly moved into a state of depression.

A large part of the Indian population which lives in the rural areas of the country has lost its celebratory mood for this occasion because of a few generations of abject poverty.
Sports is a simple way of bringing back the celebratory mood. Sports makes human beings function with a certain exuberance for life. Sports makes human beings function beyond their limitations.
The expression “Are you game?” means “Are you ready for life?” So, playing a game, or being in sport, is an essential ingredient for building a healthy life. Physically, mentally and even for a spiritual process, it is important to know how to play at least one sport.
The most important thing about playing a sport is that you cannot do it half-heartedly. You can work half-heartedly, you can handle your marriage half-heartedly, but you cannot play a game half-heartedly. Unless you involve yourself, there is no game.
The sense of involvement in whatever you are doing — the focus that it takes — and the human ability to stretch yourself beyond your limits to achieve something are essential ingredients for a successful life.
The other significant thing about sport is that it levels communities. Whoever is playing a game well becomes visible. Nobody is concerned about his caste, creed or parentage. Nobody in this country asks, “What caste does Mahendra Singh Dhoni belong to?” because nobody is bothered about it; what he does on the field is all that matters. So sports is a huge levelling factor.
Playing games or bringing sport into communities builds a sense of harmony that even a million teachings can’t achieve because sports is a natural inspiration for people to be together and move together in one particular direction. When you want to play a game with a team of people, unless you bring yourself into a certain space of inclusiveness, you cannot play the game well. This sense of inclusiveness — which goes beyond your likes and dislikes — where all are striving for a common goal, is the fundamental ingredient for community building.
Social transformation, economic revitalisation and spiritual development of the human being can be very easily introduced into societies if sports is used as an entry point. The idea is not necessarily about developing competitive sport, but to bring in the spirit of sports to make every human being “game for life”.