More than Vedanta, cricket is a religion in India. It unites the country and Sachin Tendulkar is god,” began L. Ramaswamy, of the Vedanta Academy, as the audience broke into titters.

Ramaswamy was addressing a gathering at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and the audience comprised members of IIT Kharagpur Alumni Association, Salt Lake Chapter. The association was hosting the meet in collaboration with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and the topic for discussion was “Vedanta and cricket”.

Life, he said, is a lot like a game of cricket. “Cricket is a batsman-centric game. The batsman wants to score but every ball coming at him tries to get him out. The ball symbolises the weaknesses of the mind. The way the ball can be slow, fast, spin or swing the mind can be overcome by emotions like lust, anger, greed, jealousy etc and they can get us ‘out’,” Ramaswamy explained.

The batsman only has one weapon — the bat — which symbolises a person’s intellect. “The mind is like a river trying to overflow with emotions but if the banks (intellect) are strong the river will reach its destination as well as nourish the land it passes. But if the banks are weak the river will flow off course, flood and destroy wherever it flows.”

The cricket ground is like our life, he explained. For instance, the crease is our spiritual discipline and the fielders are the sense objects trying to get us “out”. This happens if we fall prey to the temptations of our sight, taste, touch etc. The runner is our only friend and this symbolises “satsang” or getting together for spiritual development. It is with the help of the runner that the batsman at first starts scoring singles. It is later, after he is set that he aims for fours and sixes to increase his run rate.

Ramaswamy then picked up every form of dismissal in cricket and found parallels with life —

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Front Page> Salt Lake> Story / by Brinda Sarkar / Friday – April 01st, 2016