Mystery and Excellence on The Human Body - Message - Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo

Message

In their more superficial aspect they [sports and physical exercises]  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

generalization 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 appoint ed 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 realization. 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 ... and in universities sports have now a  recognized 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.... 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.

Sri Aurobindo 

Bulletin of Physical Education, 

February 1949