I TAKE the opportunity of the publication of this
issue of the "Bulletin d'Education Physique" of the Ashram to give my
blessings to the Journal and the Association—J.S.A.S.A. (Jeunesse Sportive de
l'Ashram de Sri Aurobindo). In doing so I would like to dwell for a while on
the deeper raison d'etre of such Associations and especially the need and
utility for the nation of a widespread organisation of them and such sports or
physical exercises as are practised here. In their more superficial aspect they
appear merely as games and amusements which people take up for entertainment or
as a field for the outlet of the body's energy and natural instinct of activity
or for a means of the development and maintenance of the health and strength of
the body; but they are or can be much more than that: they are also fields for
the development of habits, capacities and qualities which are greatly needed
and of the utmost service to a people in war or in peace, and in its political
and social activities, in most indeed of the provinces of a combined human
endeavour. It is to this which we may call the national aspect of the subject
that I would wish to give especial prominence.
In our own time these sports, 'games and athletics
have assumed a place and command a general interest such as was seen only in
earlier times in countries like Greece, Greece where all sides of human
activity were equally developed and the gymnasium, chariot-racing and other
sports and athletics had the same importance on the physical side as on the
mental side the Arts and poetry and the drama, and were especially stimulated
and attended to by the civic authorities of the City State. It was Greece that
made an institution of the Olympiad and the recent re-establishment of the
Olympiad as an international institution is
a significant sign of the revival of the ancient spirit. This kind of interest
has spread to a certain extent to our own country and India has begun to take a
place in international contests such as the Olympiad. The newly founded State
in liberated India is also beginning to be interested in developing all sides
of the life of the nation and is likely to take an active part and a habit of
direction in fields which were formerly left to private initiative. It is
taking up, for instance, the question of the foundation and preservation of
health and physical fitness in the nation and in the spreading of a general
recognition of its importance. It is in this connection that the encouragement
of sports and associations for athletics and all activities of this kind would
be an incalculable assistance. A generalisation of the habit of taking part in
such exercises in childhood and youth and early manhood would, help greatly
towards the creation of physically fit and energetic people.
But of a higher import than the foundation, however
necessary, of health, strength and fitness of the body is the development of
discipline and morale and sound and strong character towards which these
activities can help. There are many sports which are of the utmost value
towards this end, because they help to form and even -necessitate the qualities
of courage, hardihood, energetic action and initiative or call for skill,
steadiness of will or rapid decision and
action, the perception of what is to be done in an emergency and dexterity in
doing it. One development of the utmost value is the awakening of the essential
and instinctive body consciousness which can see and do what is necessary
without any indication from mental thought and which is equivalent in the body
to swift insight in the mind and spontaneous and rapid decision in the will.
One may add the formation of a capacity for harmonious and right movements of
the body, especially in a combined action, economic of physical effort and
discouraging waste of energy, which result from such exercises as marches or
drill and which displace the loose and straggling, the inharmonious or
disorderly or wasteful movements common to the untrained individual body.
Another invaluable result of these activities is the growth of what has been
called the sporting spirit.
That includes good humour and tolerance and
consideration for all, a right attitude and friendliness to competitors and
rivals, self-control and scrupulous observance of the laws of the game, fair
play and avoidance of the use of foul means, an equal acceptance of victory or
defeat without bad humour, resentment or ill-will towards successful
competitors, loyal acceptance of the decisions of the appointed judge, umpire
or referee. These qualities have their value for life in general and not only for
sport, but the help that sport can give to their development is direct and
invaluable. If they could be made more common not only in the life of the
individual but in the national life and in the international where at the
present day the opposite tendencies have become too rampant, existence in this
troubled world of ours would be smoother and might open to a greater chance of
concord and amity of which it stands very much in need. More important still is
the custom of discipline, obedience, order, habit of team-work, which certain
games necessitate. For, without them success is uncertain or impossible.
Innumerable are the activities in life, especially in national life, in which
leadership and obedience to leadership in combined action are necessary for
success, victory in combat or fulfilment of a purpose. The role of the leader,
the captain, the power and skill of his leadership, his ability to command, the
confidence and ready obedience of his followers is of the utmost importance in
all kinds of combined action or enterprise; but few can develop these things
without having learnt themselves to obey and to act as one mind or as one body
with others.' This strictness of training, this habit of discipline and
obedience is not inconsistent with individual freedom; it is often the
necessary condition for its right use, just as order is not inconsistent with
liberty but rather the condition for the right use of liberty and even for its
preservation and survival. In all kinds of concerted action this rule is
indispensable: orchestration becomes necessary and there could be no success
for an orchestra in which individual musicians played according to their own
fancy and refused to follow the indications of the conductor. In spiritual
things also the same rule holds; a sadhak who disregarded the guidance of the
Guru and preferred the untrained inspirations of the novice could hardly escape
the stumbles or even the disasters which so often lie thick around the path to
spiritual realisation. I need not enumerate the other benefits which can be
drawn from the training that sport can give or dwell on their use in the
national life; what I have said
is sufficient. At any rate, in schools like ours and in universities sports
have now a recognised and indispensable place; for even a highest and
completest education of the mind is not enough without the education of the
body. Where the qualities I have enumerated are absent or insufficiently
present, a strong individual will or a national will may build them up, but the
aid given by sports to their development is direct and in no way negligible.
This would be a sufficient reason for the attention given to them in our
Ashram, though there are others which I need not mention here. I am concerned
here with their importance and the necessity of the qualities they create or
stimulate for our national life. The nation which possesses them in the highest
degree is likely to be the strongest for victory, success and greatness, but
also for the contribution it can make towards the bringing about of unity and a
more harmonious world order towards which we look as our hope for humanity's
future.
(Message from Sri Aurobindo
to the Bulletin of Department of Physical Education, Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
Puducherry. Source: http://motherandsriaurobindo.in)
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