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By Praghosa Dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n Sport is often referred to as the religion of the 21st century. As we are all living in the 21st century and as we are all endeavouring to follow a religious life, the question could be asked \u2013 does sport have any place in the life of a devotee? For the non devotees it certainly plays a part in most of their lives (particularly when you consider that there are nearly as many forms of sport as there are species of life :) and some take it so seriously that merely referring to it as a religion hardly reveals the full picture. One well known sports manager\/coach once responded when asked the question:<\/p>\n \u201cDo you consider football a matter of life and death\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cNo\u201d he said \u201cIt is far more important than that!\u201d<\/p>\n For sure death is closely associated with sport and not only due to accidents. Fans attending football matches (at least in Europe) often find themselves in brawls that regularly end with the loss of life, but it can get even more bizzare. Some years ago one football player scored an ‘own’ goal in a world cup game and on returning home some weeks later was shot dead by angry fans who decided that he had let his country down and was no better than a traitor who deserved to be executed. What is interesting about this story is that the killer\/s couldn’t even employ the ‘crime of passion’ as a defence, as weeks had passed between the ‘crime’ and their act of ‘passion’.<\/p>\n Yes the passion, hope, expectation and clasping at straws that is glaringly evident among followers of sport is there for everyone to see. Indeed that passion etc., which is displayed by sports fanatics is on a par with some of the extreme radical behaviour that we see manifest in those who give their lives in the cause of political aims. Being under the grip of such passion is certainly an unfortunate place to be;<\/p>\n In the conditioned stage, one’s conceptions of life are sometimes polluted by passion and ignorance, which are exhibited by attachment, hostility, greed, lamentation, illusion, fear, madness, false prestige, insults, fault-finding, deception, envy, intolerance, passion, bewilderment, hunger and sleep. All of these are enemies. So far there seems little basis for devotees to be within a million miles of a sporting event, what to speak of taking part, let’s explore a little more the relationship between sport and devotees.<\/p>\n Most sports involve the use of a ball whether it be a big, small, hard, soft, oval or round one. In general the references to balls in Srila Prabhupada’s books are again not so encouraging for those devotees who fancy themselves as budding Maradona’s or John McEnroe’s.<\/p>\n \u201cDemons arrange many kinds of performances to see the glaring beauty of a beautiful woman. Here it is stated that they saw the girl playing with a ball. Sometimes the demoniac arrange for so-called sports, like tennis, with the opposite sex. The purpose of such sporting is to see the bodily construction of the beautiful girl and enjoy a subtle sex mentality\u201d For any devotees enthusiastic about sport there is little comfort in the above statement except perhaps the use of the word ‘sometimes’. On a personal note such thoughts as explicitly mentioned in the above reference were not to the forefront of my mind as an 8 year old when I trained twice a week in the cold and rain in the forlorn hope that one day I would follow in the footsteps of football players like George Best or Pele. And while I do not know the origins of women’s tennis, I readily accept Srila Prabhupada’s analysis above. On a subtle level even training in the wind and rain likely included the desire for puja, pratistha and labha on my part. I can often remember dreaming \u201cIt might be a mucky field tonight in the lashing rain but one day it maybe the green carpet of Wembley on a sunny afternoon in May in front of 100,000 fans\u201d We can also conclude with confidence that the same motive is behind the rest of the game of tennis where men only play men.<\/p>\n A little later in the same section of the Bhagavatam we find this interesting quote which gives a hint of encouragement to those devotees who include sport in their keep fit routine:<\/p>\n \nThe Gandharva Visvavasu, while flying in the sky, could see Devahuti playing ball on the roof of the palace. Ball playing was also current, but aristocratic girls would not play in a public place. Ball playing and other such pleasures were not meant for ordinary women and girls; only princesses like Devahuti could indulge in such sports. It is described here that she was seen from the flying airplane. This indicates that the palace was very high, otherwise how could one see her from an airplane? The vision was so distinct that the Gandharva Visvavasu was bewildered by her beauty and by hearing the sound of her ankle bangles, and being captivated by the sound and beauty, he fell down. I do not know what kind of sport Devahuti was playing but it was certainly with a ball. However this sporting activity of Devahuti was not considered bogus, rather it suggests it was an acceptable activity for those in aristocratic circles as long as it was undertaken in private. The reason for the privacy becomes evident when we learn that Visvavasu fell down once he witnessed this sporting of Devahuti. So from this example it could be deduced that sport in and of itself is okay as a means of exercise and regulated recreation, as long as it is not responsible for negative effects on one’s own spiritual life as well as the spiritual life of others. This instruction would also appear to have more implications for women than men. It is hard to imagine even the most demigod-like of men having the effect on women that Devahuti had on Visvavasu. <\/p>\n Notwithstanding that, the privacy issue also makes sense for men when you take into account the current obsession with sport in general society. If all sport was engaged in privately (or at least not professionally in massive arenas), there would no longer be the problems associated with thousands upon thousands of fanatical supporters demanding the success of their team, and baying for the blood of those who stand in the way of their teams victory. In addition, the commercial pressures to succeed that lead to drug abuse and other associated problems, would cease to exist. There seems little doubt that if you take both the public and competitive aspect out of sport, you would also take much, if not all of the passion out of it as well. Without removing such passion one could argue that there is little difference between a bunch of men playing with a ball and 2 women playing with a ball while being ogled by eager men.<\/p>\n This theme of women playing ball and thus bewildering men is further developed in the Srimad Bhagavatam. The story of Lord Siva being bewildered by the beautiful form of Mohini murti comes to mind. In this pastime the ball plays a very prominent role as it the object used by Mohini murti to enhance her beauty, thus attracting Lord Siva more and more. <\/p>\n Srila Prabhupada mentions in one converstation: <\/p>\n \u201cLord Siva became so mad after Mohini-murti. So what to speak of us insignificant creatures. So lusty desire is there. That is material world. Unless one is fully Krsna conscious, this lusty desire cannot be checked. It is not possible\u201d Mohini-murti is of course an incarnation of Krsna and the point is made that Lord Siva could only be bewildered by Krsna. On the other hand as conditioned souls we are so vulnerable to sensual bewilderment at each and every turn. Hence we cannot take lightly the connection between sport or ball playing and illicit sex that Srila Prabhupada highlights.<\/p>\n Going back to the original question – does sport have any place in the life of a devotee? We can fairly confidently conclude that sport of the professional, competitive and passionate variety does not, and clearly falls into the category of what Srila Prabhupada termed ‘unnecessary sports’. Yet if we remove those elements, the argument could be made that engaging in sports like tennis, basketball or squash etc., might be okay for devotees. Perhaps not young full time temple devotees who have the opportunity to spend hours either dancing in kirtan or harinam but rather for the middle aged devotee variety who are more or less chained to their desks at work. One quote that might interest those under the grip of the middle-age spread relates to Lord Balarama who used the equivalent of a bat and ball in his victory over Dvivida;<\/p>\n \n“When no more trees were available, Dvivida took help from the hills and threw large pieces of stone, like rainfall, upon the body of Balarama. Lord Balarama, in a great sporting mood, began to smash those big pieces of stone into mere pebbles.” Even today there are many sports wherein people enjoy striking a ball or similar object with a stick or bat. This sporting propensity exists originally in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who playfully (lilaya) pulverized the deadly boulders hurled at Him by the powerful Dvivida. Still if we want to play it (excuse the pun) safer again then we could limit our sporting activities to only those involving water. Water sports are referred to time and time again both in Krsna and Caitanya lila. <\/p>\n But if we want to be 100% sure we are doing the right thing we could engage exclusively in the sport of philosophical debate, presenting the Krsna conscious siddhanta;<\/p>\n \u201cAs in the modern day there are many champions in sports, so in bygone days there were many learned scholars in India who were champions in learning. One such person was Kesava Kasmiri, who came from the state of Kashmir. He travelled all over India and at last came to Navadvipa to challenge the learned scholars there. Unfortunately he could not conquer the learned scholars in Navadvipa, for he was defeated by the boy scholar Caitanya Mahaprabhu\u201d As devotees we would not only be on safe ground but we would unlimitedly please Srila Prabhupada if we were to challenge and defeat the atheistic presentations of some modern day scientists and academics;<\/p>\n \nPrabhupada: What is the problem? But still, these rascals will say that he is right. You see? He cannot even analyze properly, and still he is obstinate; he is right. This rascaldom is going on. And if we say “rascal,” they are angry. Murkhayopadeso hi prakopaya na santi…: “To a rascal, if you give the right instruction, they will be simply angry.” That’s all. Not pacification, they will be angry. Payah-panam bhujanganam kevalam visa-vardhanam: “Just like the serpent, rascal. If you give him milk, he’ll drink it and increase his poison.” That’s it. The result will be he will increase his poison. Better to keep them starvation. Therefore everyone, as soon as one sees the serpent, immediately kills. No consideration. “Here is a serpent. Kill him.” Similarly, immediately we see the scientists, kill. (laughter) That is the only process. So-called scientists. So do you agree, Harikesa, for kicking on the face of these rascals or not? Happy sporting :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Going back to the original question – does sport have any place in the life of a devotee? We can fairly confidently conclude that sport of the professional, competitive and passionate variety does not, and clearly falls into the category of what Srila Prabhupada termed ‘unnecessary sports’. Yet if we remove those elements, the argument could be made that engaging in sports like tennis, basketball or squash etc., might be okay for devotees. Perhaps not young full time temple devotees who have the opportunity to spend hours either dancing in kirtan or harinam but rather for the middle aged devotee variety who are more or less chained to their desks at work. One quote that might interest those under the grip of the middle-age spread relates to Lord Balarama who used the equivalent of a bat and ball in his victory over Dvivida;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-featured","category-praghosa-dasa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91533,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions\/91533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nMay 11th 1975 Morning Walk Perth<\/font><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nCC Adi 16.25 purport<\/font><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n Morning Walk Mauritius October 26th 1975<\/font><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"Hare](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/prat5a_asura.jpg\")
By Praghosa dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n