During my travels in Mumbai, I saw people tied to TVs and mobiles trying to get the latest information about the ongoing series of cricket matches between India and Australia.

Mankind has always excited sport. Our sacred books talk about that Kšṣṇa also enjoys sport in His eternal kingdom. In Srimad Bhagavatam we found this:

“Balarama and Krishna were one day leading the cows to pasture when they entered a beautiful forest with a clear lake. They started playing sports there with their friends. "

Let's playfully

The desire to play and enjoy the game seems to be personal to people. But our daily duties and responsibilities do not allow us to live playfully. In another episode, Srimad Bhagavatam describes how Balarama killed the gorilla demon Dvividu, who wanted to defend him in the game.

Srila Prabhupada explains in his commentary the origin of our sporting affection:

"When he had no more trees, Dvivida took large stones from the hills and threw them at Balarama. Balarama began to reflect these stones in a sporty mood. To this day, there are many sports where people use a bat to bounce balls. ”

But today's games in our human society are a perverted reflection of the original games found in the spiritual kingdom. There is competition and rivalry, the emotions in the material world are usually unhealthy. Only a single winner may come from a tournament with several teams. At the end of the game, only one person or one team is happy while the others are sad.

We can end this discussion and say: “All this is natural and inevitable. After all, those games are just for fun, and we shouldn't take them so seriously. "

Sport becomes more of a business

But we take them seriously - and often more than is healthy. A sports struggle can be a healthy form of entertainment if it is run in the right spirit, and sports activities should be encouraged, especially for children. However, modern sports have become a billion-dollar trade. Huge amounts are spent on infrastructure, coverage and broadcasting and other forms of sports management. Players have to move from one city to another for a match and have to stay in the best hotels.

Also worth mentioning are the scandals accompanying such sporting events. Betting, falsifying matches and other financial manipulations lead to major financial losses every year. It is a sad state when, in a country where millions of people almost do not have one meal a day, there are individuals earning a package just by watching a cricket match. We do not want to call sports as greedy as such. But with such poor resource management and a distorted value system, money is invested in uselessness.

We need to look at the imbalance in our company's values. We need to orient ourselves in reality and understand what is really valuable in life.