Spirituality And Football

Spirituality and the game of Football,

What’s up? Are you up to making a baffle?

Spirituality & soccer! Yes, parallels there're, 

“You’ll be nearer to heaven through soccer,

compared to the study of the Bhagavad Gita”

Qoth the greatest sage, Swami Vivekananda.

‘Thou art unfit’ for the spiritual journey,

without the requisite strength of mind & body.

‘A player & a seeker’ both undergo tough trials,

The patience & perseverance surely pays.

 The ‘ball’ here signifies one’s own ‘ego’,

Team members, family & friends, with whom we go,

Your trust in teammates certainly helps,

Blissfully, win the match of happiness.

Players in the opposition are obstacles,

such as, anger, pride, hatred & haughtiness.

The ‘goal post’ is, of universal consciousness,

There exactly, thou ego, ye soul submits.

Coach here, is our ‘guru’, who teaches us,

From his mistakes on the field, a player learns.

And the referee? He is Karma & its laws,

For playing, he reinforces the correct rules.

The audience is the society that reacts,

Post any performances on the fields.

Every ‘Life’ is like a ‘Game’, and, 

A game that has started must end.

So long as a player engrossed in the game,

There’s the illusion of limited space & time.

Like every player, designated roles one hath,

Forward, midfielder, so on and so forth.

The game of soccer is meditation on the run,

In the moment, a player is, for the entire duration.

A good spectator watches with no attachment,

for him, no wins or loses, but only excitement.

Through this, I solemnly salute Sri P Venkatesh,

For discovering the lovely ‘metaphor’ to cherish. 

                            *******