July 22, 2011
Just before we left for our recent trip to Lahaul Spiti, I heard a BBC interview in which Jamie Carragher talked about the reasons for the English football team's poor performance in the 2010 FIFA World Cup championship held in South Africa.
The English Premier League is arguably the most competitive football league anywhere in the world. Yet, the English football team has not won the World Cup since 1966. In 1990, they placed 4th. For the football crazy English, this has been a sore point for years. The headline on the BBC website makes it clear "Fear of failure undermines England, says Jamie Carragher." He goes onto blame the hotel where the team stayed as boring. In the same documentary, the Tottenham manager, Harry Redknapp argues that "many Premier League footballers now prioritise club football over representing their country." Unfortunately, the full Radio 5 show is no longer available as a podcast or on iPlayer.
This brought to mind Arjuna's collapse on the battlefield at the start of the Mahabharata war and Śrī Kṛṣṇa's life changing therapy. Pujya Gurudev clearly states that our ego is "a bundle of memories of the past and expectations for the future." By itself, this is not a problem but when we get bogged down by these, our ability to act in the present suffers. Explaining समत्वम् योग उच्यते (२-४८) samtva.n yoga uchyate (2-48), Pujya Gurudev says, "Thus, in complete self-forgetfulness, to get intoxicated with the activities undertaken in the present, is to live vitally, fully and entirely with all the best that is in us. To dissolve ourselves thus, our past, our future, our hopes, our fears, into the fiery contents of the PRESENT is to work in inspiration. Inspired work ever promises the greatest returns."
Gurudev returns to the theme in explaining 3-30
निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः ||३-३०||
niraashiirnirmamo bhuutvaa yudhyasva vigatajvaraH .. 3\-30..
Gurudev explains, "Hope is the child of the unborn future, ego is the lingering memory of a dead past. To revel in ego and hope is an attempt on our part to live, either with the dead moments of the past, or with the unborn moments of the future. All the while, the tragedy is that we miss the 'present', the active dynamic 'present', which is the only noble chance that is given to us to create, to advance, to achieve, and to enjoy. Krishna advises Arjuna, therefore, to act renouncing both hope and ego; and this is indeed a primary instruction on how to pour the best that is in us into the 'present', blockading all unintelligent and thoughtless dissipation of our inner-personality-energies, in the 'past' and the 'future'."
Perhaps Fabio Capello should read the Geeta! At another time I'll post about Phil Jackson, the NBA coach who coached first the Chicago Bulls and later the LA Lakers into a total of eleven NBA championships.
I realize that I have already posted a few entries on Geeta and sports. A couple of these posts mix sport and films but I'm starting to pay attention to how we can discover opportunities to contemplate on the Geeta while pursuing our favourite sport. Here is the list of previous entries related to sport. Golf, Baseball, cricket earned two, here and here.
Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post
Just before we left for our recent trip to Lahaul Spiti, I heard a BBC interview in which Jamie Carragher talked about the reasons for the English football team's poor performance in the 2010 FIFA World Cup championship held in South Africa.
The English Premier League is arguably the most competitive football league anywhere in the world. Yet, the English football team has not won the World Cup since 1966. In 1990, they placed 4th. For the football crazy English, this has been a sore point for years. The headline on the BBC website makes it clear "Fear of failure undermines England, says Jamie Carragher." He goes onto blame the hotel where the team stayed as boring. In the same documentary, the Tottenham manager, Harry Redknapp argues that "many Premier League footballers now prioritise club football over representing their country." Unfortunately, the full Radio 5 show is no longer available as a podcast or on iPlayer.
This brought to mind Arjuna's collapse on the battlefield at the start of the Mahabharata war and Śrī Kṛṣṇa's life changing therapy. Pujya Gurudev clearly states that our ego is "a bundle of memories of the past and expectations for the future." By itself, this is not a problem but when we get bogged down by these, our ability to act in the present suffers. Explaining समत्वम् योग उच्यते (२-४८) samtva.n yoga uchyate (2-48), Pujya Gurudev says, "Thus, in complete self-forgetfulness, to get intoxicated with the activities undertaken in the present, is to live vitally, fully and entirely with all the best that is in us. To dissolve ourselves thus, our past, our future, our hopes, our fears, into the fiery contents of the PRESENT is to work in inspiration. Inspired work ever promises the greatest returns."
Gurudev returns to the theme in explaining 3-30
निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः ||३-३०||
niraashiirnirmamo bhuutvaa yudhyasva vigatajvaraH .. 3\-30..
Gurudev explains, "Hope is the child of the unborn future, ego is the lingering memory of a dead past. To revel in ego and hope is an attempt on our part to live, either with the dead moments of the past, or with the unborn moments of the future. All the while, the tragedy is that we miss the 'present', the active dynamic 'present', which is the only noble chance that is given to us to create, to advance, to achieve, and to enjoy. Krishna advises Arjuna, therefore, to act renouncing both hope and ego; and this is indeed a primary instruction on how to pour the best that is in us into the 'present', blockading all unintelligent and thoughtless dissipation of our inner-personality-energies, in the 'past' and the 'future'."
Perhaps Fabio Capello should read the Geeta! At another time I'll post about Phil Jackson, the NBA coach who coached first the Chicago Bulls and later the LA Lakers into a total of eleven NBA championships.
I realize that I have already posted a few entries on Geeta and sports. A couple of these posts mix sport and films but I'm starting to pay attention to how we can discover opportunities to contemplate on the Geeta while pursuing our favourite sport. Here is the list of previous entries related to sport. Golf, Baseball, cricket earned two, here and here.
Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post
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