Posted on: Aug 17, 2011

Life is a Game - Play it

Welcome to the exciting world of Sports - a world filled with energy and passion, a world of determination and devotion, a world where you are called cool if you can face the heat, a world where champions soar to great heights by diving deep into themselves - into the heart of inspiration. Sports in fun. Sports is entertainment. And without doubt, Sports is thrill. Yes! Sports is all these and much more.

Lets find out what Sports means to some of our sportsmen. Here is Sharath, Sharath Kumar.

“Hello Sharath, how do you feel after a tiring session of basketball?”

“Hmm. I feel really fit. But more than that, it is the feeling of togetherness that is rejuvenating. All through the game, I am one amongst the team and the team is an extension of me.”

“Thank you Sharath. Let us now speak to Ramkrishna. Well Ram, your team won the match. How do you feel now?”

“Oh! I feel on top of the world. The feeling of victory is so amazing. It gives me confidence and ….I am in a good mood for the rest of the day.”

“Thank you Ram! I’ll let you go now. But remember, its not important whether you lost or won the game. Its important how you played it.”

Why Sports in the first place? All of us know that Sports enables fitness. As Sharath told us, he feels fit after a basketball game. If we look literally beneath the skin, we are burning the fat accumulated in our muscles and that allows for the proper functioning of the muscles and gives us a feeling of fitness.

Well, then what about the euphoric feeling of victory that Ram told us about? Looking into the greatest bio chemical model, the human body, we note that the feeling of joy comes from the release of particular types of chemicals to the brain - the endorphins and dopamine. Thus, they are also called the joy hormones.

Bhagawan says, “Shareera Madhyam, Khalu Dharma Sadhanam.” Indeed, the human body is God’s greatest miracle. The red blood cells are the first marathon runners. They started running long before the Greeks even thought of Sports. If laid end to end, these blood cells add up to a 100,000 miles - equivalent to encircling the whole world, four times!

When things are fine, we take our body for granted. Little Ashutosh will now teach us the critical crises management, co-ordination and team work that happens daily in our body. As he plays, a thorn pricks Ashutosh. The pain is quickly relayed by the nerves to the spinal cord which commands a reflex action. The hand stretches out to help. Fighter cells in the blood rushes to the accident site and the skin expands and braces for repair work. Meanwhile, the eye sheds tears and the brain triggers Ashutosh to call out for his grandfather who is nearby. All these happen in seconds and soon Ashutosh is back to his old smiling ways.

Is there just anything that a team cannot achieve? So is it in sport, so is it in life. We all know that it is absolutely important to maintain the body. How, we may ask.

When we buy a car, we make sure that we wash the car regularly, charge the batteries and fill her up with petrol. Swami says that the human body itself, is like a car.

“The body is a big magnetic car. The eyes are its lights. The mouth is the horn. The mind is the steering wheel. Dharma, Artha, Kaama and moksha are the tyres. These tyres are filled with the air of faith. This too is different for the front tyres compared to the back tyres. Where the air is more, we have to release it. Where it is less, we have to pump in more. The stomach is the petrol tank. This car has everything!”

Yes! We all are cars and He is the divine mechanic. The University is His divine garage. Right from the inception of the University, Swami has been giving a lot of attention to Sports and Games. As early as 1984, He inspired the students to participate and present a grand sports show. They had gymnastics, drills, stilt walking and so on.

And when He went to His Anantapur campus, He was very happy watching the students as they put up a collective Sports item. He wanted them to repeat the performance at Puttaparthi.

At Parthi, He would regularly visit the grounds to make sure that it was being levelled properly. He would personally supervise and inspire the students during such visits. Gradually, inter campus sports and staff sports became an annual affair.

Swami often says, “When among children, I am a child.” indeed, He was a child as He watched with curiosity and interest, every bit of the Sports. He was also a friend, encouraging the participants and when the game was over, He was the proud mother - blessing and pouring love on all the participants, irrespective whether they won or lost the game.

For His students, He was ready to do anything, even a thing like tossing a coin before the start of a match - after all, is He not the Divine Referee? What about blessing the basketball with His signature? But then, the opposite team too would not leave Him. No! They want their ball signed too! “With Love Baba” signs Swami on the basketball. Everything He does, is with love isn’t it?

These events were forerunners to what has now evolved as the grand and glorious sports meet that we have every year on the 11th of January.

In the year 2006, He blessed His students with a world class Sports facility - The Sri Sathya Sai International Centre for Sports. Dear Swami, we all came in to you as broken cars. You repaired us, physically made us fit, taught us the importance and value of team spirit, filled our hearts with inspiration, the spirit of sacrifice and showed us the path we need to tread to achieve the ultimate goal - the ultimate victory of human existence. When you say, “Life is a game , play it”, we now realize all the rules of the game. By your love and grace, we will all win in this game of life. We will make you proud of us dearest Mother! We will make you proud.

- Radio Sai Team