Karmayoga and a Cricket thriller

By Akhilesh at 10 June, 2009, 3:53 am

Last week I was in Delhi, where I have seen most of my cricket. I remembered the old days when my Nani and I used to watch cricket together for hours together. By the way my Nani was a great cricket fan and never used to miss a single cricket match (though her education was only till class 5, she remembered the names of all the players international and national. Although she was well aware of the basic rules of the game, her interest in the game was so deep that she always tried to understand the positions on the cricket ground and certain complicated rules of the game. She was a true cricket fan like most of us. And she was the first player with whom I have played cricket as a child.)

The nostalgia engulfed me as I was about to watch the opening game between Netherlands and England of the ongoing T20 world cup. England had scored 162 odd runs and Netherlands had a golden chance to grab the opportunity to create an upset. As Netherlands came closer and closer to the target, I was enamored by the words uttered by Harsha Bhogle. It seemed like that someone is reading out the Chapter on Karmayoga from the Bhagvad Gita.
Harsha said, “Netherlands has done the hard work but will they believe in themselves to create victory.” The most important phrase here to notice is will they believe in themselves to create a victory. As an underdog when you start winning against a tough team the focus of the mind so easily shifts from action [that is batting, bowling or fielding also Karma in this case] to the result or the outcome [phala that is watching the scoreboard or getting anxious about winning or losing]. That is why Krishna in his famous word has said, always be in union with the work and not the result. All energy should be focused on the action and not the outcome. As soon as the mind shifts the focus to outcome the union with karma ceases to exist and doubts about ability start creeping in and in turn the result or outcome may or may not come in your favour.
David Lloyd the English commentator said “the team who will keep the nerves will win”. Well this certainly means the players and the team who will be in union with their Karmas for a longer period of time will win the contest because of they are not focusing on the outcome of the game they are not going to get any nerves and they will be held nicely till victory becomes theirs.

This is what Netherlands accomplished that day. This was very evident in the last over when they required 7 runs of 6 balls and two relatively new batsmen at the crease. Both batsmen had planned their action that they are running every ball, whether it hits the bat or not. And they did it. They ran if the ball went to the bowler, they ran if the ball went to the wicket keeper and they kept running and running that over. On the final delivery they again ran when the ball had just reached bowler Stuart Broad. They had completed the run even before the ball was fielded by him. They kept running as the throw at the Stumps missed the target and Netherlands claimed victory over a much tougher opposition just by being in union with their action as it was on display on our TV screens.

The match for me was a wonderful lesson to understand the Theory of Karma. The most intriguing thing that struck me was that in subconscious mind we all are doing the same thing as taught in the Bhagvad Gita but when we try to comprehend the same thing through a conscious mind it looks like an alien language to most of us. That is how amazing is this GAME…

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Categories : Entertainment