THE NATIONAL NEED ... 12

THE NATIONAL NEED ... 12

It will be good to initiate the children of the country en masse to badminton, table tennis and swimming rather than only focusing on cricket. Swamiji, though, had exhorted the youth of this country to take up football before they were equipped in physical and mental strength to take up the serious study of the Geeta. The point being stressed is this : let our children be proficient in sports along with academic studies so that they emerge confident citizens of the morrow. A healthy polity alone can build up a flourishing country in every sense.

In ancient India sports was an integral part of the psycho-physiological training of the student en route to higher learning in the science of the soul. The Upanishads say, 'Naymatma balaheenena labhya.' Adi Shankaracharya has interpreted this as follows : 'He who is devoid of the strength of continence (brahmacharya) cannot realise the Self.' But Swamiji altered its practical connotation thus. He said that he who is of feeble constitution is unfit for the realisation of the Self. And when countered by his disciple, Sharat Chandra Chakrabarty, to the aforesaid Shankara interpretation, Swamiji emphatically said what he said, thereby setting to rest the matter there as inviolable observance for this day and age, if not for all time. The gist of the matter thus resolves out to be : 'Be strong in the body and the mind before you aspire for spiritual strength.'

It is in this context that we must reformulate our national education policy, laying plentiful emphasis on sports and physical culture as the prerequisite for enlightened citizenry. The juvenile's motto for the ancient Greeks ran thus : 'Mens sana in corpore sano'. This means 'a sound mind in a sound body'. This was also the ancient Indian motto for students, only with a massive spiritual difference in emphasis. Where the Greeks stopped at their aim of producing a healthy mind in a healthy body, the Indians went further in the sense that they wanted a sound body and a sound mind as the preparatory ground for spiritual soundness. And it is this ancient Hindu holistic academic ideal that we must set up before the students today as their academic aim to be achieved, to begin with, before they take on life in all its manifold aspects and throwing up its myriad challenges. May our children thrive ! Jai Swamiji !

Written by Sugata Bose