No Limits With Soccer

“I don’t believe in any religion or god. But I believe in a universal faith: soccer. I’ve often wondered why we don’t make football the religion of the world.

Because it’s through soccer and its binding force, the whole worldgets united,” stated Brazilian soccer legend Garrincha.

“Soccer has the power and potential to unite the world in a manner that no man-made faith has ever been able to do so throughout the history of human civilisation,” said Ernest Hemingway, who played soccer in addition to wielding his formidable pen.

Soccer has that universal ethos and a cathartic power to bind all. The one-month-long soccer carnival inspires bonhomie, camaraderie, fellow-feeling and fierce but friendly competitiveness.

Often during the World Cup matches, the lines of nations and artificial boundaries get blurred. We all become one and rejoice in each other’s success with magnanimity and universal euphoria, however short-lived that may be. This is the beauty of soccer and the relevance of sports in general.

Soccer-legend Pelé didn’t only belong to Brazil. Today, he’s a part of world heritage. When Lionel Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar kick and dribble the football, they don’t remain confined to Argentina, Portugal or Brazil, respectively. The whole world roots for them.

This is what we all urgently need. Soccer is but ametaphor. Let the entire world realise that through sports, especially football, we all can cement our bonds, wash away our bitterness and prejudices, and live with a greater sense of closeness and joy with each other.

Desires don’t come true

We are under a delusory idea that thought is an idle, impotent happening, within ourselves. In fact, thought has godly powers. As each thought sweeps across the mind, its secret potency rises up in front of us, like the mysterious genie in ‘Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp’.

A willing slave to execute our thought commands! With the ending of thought, the genie, with faithful anxiety and sincerity, turns upon his heels to execute the order given by man’s conscious mind. But alas! Ere the Spirit could take the first step to rush out on his errand, another thought wave of desire has risen up in the inner world calling the genie back to take more orders and, at the command of the mind, it swivels round its heels again to face its master.

Sad, indeed, is the plight of this godly agent, the presiding deity of the human mind! This creature of all-might and all power is made, under our own confusing commands and contradictory orders, to stand and whirl like a top, each half of the circle representing a definite command and the other half showing a definite but vain attempt made by the Spirit at its execution! But the desire’s power does not allow it any chance to fulfil itself!

Yoga is a technique of controlling, conserving, preserving and directing the mental dynamism through a chosen channel of application. If a single-pointed mind can wish for anything to the exclusion of any of its contending thoughts or desires, it shall at once be fulfilled.

The process of evolution

Abodhisattva is enlightened; he compassionately refrains from entering nirvana until every other sentient being has been released from the endlessly repeating cycle of time. However, presently we know that history does not move in cycles but is a linear developmental process that began 14 billion years ago with a burst of heat, light and energy that, over time, gave rise to matter, life and, finally, to our unique human capacity for self-reflective consciousness.

It is only in our capacity for consciousness that the very impulse that created us miraculously gains the means to know itself. Indeed, the process that began with a bang so long ago has just begun to awaken to itself through us. The bodhisattva vow needs to be updated to be in alignment with the emerging cosmic perspective.

Even the idea or concept of enlightenment or non-duality needs to be redefined. Spiritually, it no longer makes sense that the ultimate goal of enlightenment is merely a release from the world process. Nor does it mean becoming one with the world and one with that formless unmanifest dimension that lies beyond it. Because the universe is evolving in time, to become one with it, we have to become one with the process of evolution itself.

So, we find ourselves in the driver’s seat. The implications are dramatic. Enlightenment must express the dawning revelation that our conscious participation in the evolutionary process has become essential to the creative unfolding of the cosmos. It’s a revelation: from now on, it really is up to us.

Stop living on edge

The average person is like an eccentric flywheel that is not centred properly. The faster the wheel turns, the more violently it vibrates, ultimately flying apart. Most people are frequently in danger of ‘flying apart’ mentally. Living at their periphery, they vibrate more violently the faster they whirl through life. Few think of themselves as even having a centre. They are forever ‘on edge’.

Living at periphery forces you to relate to others at theirs. They, in turn, will be ‘on edge’ with you. Your understanding of them will be superficial. Get mentally inside whatever you are trying to understand, to gaze outward from its centre. The secret of understanding others is to identify with them at their centre. To find the centre of anything or anyone, first withdraw to your own centre and project your feelings empathetically from that point.

Meditation is the process of finding your centre. Its success depends on right attitude. The first attitude fundamental to ‘centring’ is self-acceptance. You are who you are. Make the best of it, and envy no one. Encourage yourself in your efforts to attain your highest potential. Self-acceptance will come progressively as you try to live up to the highest in you.

True conscience is innate. It is the silent voice of the soul. Be clear in your true conscience. When you resist your lower impulses and strive towards inner heights, your conscience will be reasonably clear. You will achieve that measure of emotional and psychic relaxation without which it is impossible to find rest at your centre.

Spiritual journey

Someone once asked me what I considered to be essential ‘ingredients’ for spiritual progress. He was surprised by my answer.

I said, “The only essential ingredient is you!” We are all complete and capable of achieving realisation. As such, the only essential ingredient on this journey is us. Whether we have a ‘hunger’ for spiritual progress or not, work hard at it or not,… one day, realisation will dawn.

You might ask, “What, then, is the fuss about? Why this rush, this rat race?” I would say the rush is largely our egodriving us. If you look back at the Bhakti and Sufi movements, there were ‘spiritual giants’ who had utmost yearning and love for God, for union with our creative force, for realisation. They were not in a rush. They enjoyed the yearning and exuded love.…

To enjoy the spiritual journey, Iwould suggest a ‘triple twist’ of solitude, silence and soul food.

* Solitude: This is ‘my time’, a few minutes a day for oneself. This helps in reflection, charging one’s batteries and assessing what has gone by during the day and focusing on what is to come.

* Silence: Silence is very powerful. Speech is designed to communicate with the outside world; silence is to communicate with yourself.

* Soul food: Solitude and silencewill provide you with food for thought. Use these ingredients to prepare food for your soul.

Nurture your soul with the light of knowledge, the water of compassion and fertilise it with joy. And share it. For, as long as you keep sharing it, your plate will never be empty.

Keep smiling and stay blessed.

Connect to your centre

I am often asked, what is your religion? My religion is nothing but love. You should inquire into your true nature and believe in yourself. Regular meditation can help us practise universal love. Restless and dissatisfied people miss the gift of life. So much energy is wasted that we could otherwise have used to enhance ourselves, our families, jobs and society.

What we search for is actually present in the now. We can never close our eyes to the world in the name of spirituality. Selfrealisation is the ability to see ourselves in all beings. This is the third eye through which you see. We should be able to love and serve others, seeing ourselves in them. This is the fulfilment of spiritual practice.

Meditation helps conserve energy and puts us in touch with our centre, calms our restless minds, sharpens our intellects, makes us more aware of what is going on around us. It opens our hearts to the beauty and bliss of each moment, to the interconnectedness and unity inherent in all beings. The silence we experience in the depths of meditation carries over into the rest of our day, effecting calm. We become less irritable and less distracted. The energy normally wasted on unessential thoughts is now available for us to direct as we deem fit, allowing us to focus on the job at hand.

When we meditate, the whole environment is purified. So, even those around us are positively affected. We are not isolated, we are like links in a chain. The harmonising effect of an individual’s meditation can spread to the community, nation and the world.

When You Make a Wish

A man serendipitously standing under a Kalpataru wished for water. He found it. He desired food, dreamt of riches; spouse, children, assistants, and all his dreams were fulfilled. One day he feared: what if a tiger came? A tiger appeared and devoured everyone. Everything happened as he had willed. Was it his karma( destiny) or his thoughts that made his wishes come true?

We all live under the Kalpataru of the divine cosmos. Swami Vivekananda asserted that each thought has a life and whatever one thinks even sitting in a Himalayan cave is bound to happen. Even if a person fails to realise his thoughts in one lifetime, his prayers will take shape in some birth. One reads about law of persistence of force, law of conservation of energy, law of indestructibility of matter; so too mental activity, willing and wishing cannot be destroyed.

Wishes form samskaras in the mind. These wishes may take several births to come true and some may not bring happiness. Psychologists advise people to think positive and visualise their dreams coming true because positive thoughts help us in realising our dreams. In the Yoga Vasishta, Sage Vasishta explains to disciple Prince Rama that human action can overcome destiny. He instructs that by vichara and viveka — right thinking and discrimination cultivated by self-efforts — one can achieve anything, even salvation.

Each human is given a chance to exercise free will to get liberation. With satsanga, company of sages and scriptures, one can overcome the cycle of births and deaths by will power.