Kabbadi, not Cricket was Krishna's sport. Should we learn?
Radhika Gopinatha dasa
Professor of Vedic Theology and Religious Studies: Present society needs a new paradigm of devotion to God.
Vedic sports work on the body, the mind and the soul. Modern sports have a tendency to do one thing at a time.
According to a lecture by H.H. Romapada Swami, in one of the pastimes(lilas) where Bhagavan Krishna temporarily takes us the body of Kali mata (Durga devi's form) to play with the gopis. Here he mentions how Krishna plays Kabbadi before he performs the lila.
Cricket is a legacy of the colonial rule and is better given up. The British have left India 75 years ago and yet we indulge in vicarious slavery of the British by following their sports.
Greg Chappell said that "Test cricket will die if India gives it up". And Bharat should give it up and replace with traditional forms of sports.
The famous Irish dramatist, George Bernard Shaw once supposedly said, "Cricket is a game played by 11 fools and watched by 11,000 fools". So dear Bharat vasis, give up Cricket and adopt Bharatiya sports.
It is said that Lord Krishna tutored Abhimanyu’s father Arjuna the technique of attacking and escaping from various army formations. And as a fetus in his mother Subadhra Devi’s womb, Abhimanyu is said to have absorbed all the words of wisdom from Krishna.
Analyzing Kabbadi
If you look closely at a kabaddi match, you would notice the seven defensive players forming a semi-circle to entrap the lone raider just like how the Cauravas trapped Abhimanyu. Just like in a war, it is believed that Kabaddi was invented to develop a defensive responses by an individual against group attacks and group’s responses to an individual attack. This is the only combative sport in which offence is an individual effort whereas defense is a group effort. For many years, Kabaddi was practiced in Indian Vedic schools with earliest references found in writings by Tukaram pointing that Lord Krishna played Kabaddi as a boy!! Kabaddi is an extremely fast sport. It takes just 40 minutes for a match to be decided. These 40 minutes are packed with exhilarating action. [1]
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Countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Iran have chosen Kabaddi as their national sport. The sport is played all over the world with a variety of countries from Spain, Kenya, Japan, Canada, Poland, Argentina and a lot more participating in the Kabaddi World Cup apart from the Asian nations like Iran, Pakistan, Korea and India.
Here the monks at the Udupi Matt in Karnataka play Kabaddi.
Kabaddi in India got its first international exposure during the?1936 Summer Olympics?in Berlin. Although the sport wasn’t officially a part of the sporting extravaganza, a 35-member?kabaddi team?from Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal (HVPM), an educational institute in Amravati, was invited to demonstrate the antics in Berlin. [2]
The team performed at the Congress of Physical Education a day before the commencement of the Olympics leaving spectators amused. The team, eventually, received medals on the final day of the?Berlin Olympics. [2]
The widespread recognition of the sport saw the establishment of the?All India Kabaddi Federation?(AIKF) in 1950, which staged the first men's and women’s national tournament in 1955 in Chennai and Kolkata respectively, after running it as a demonstration sport in the inaugural?1951 Asian Games.?[2]
In 1972, the?Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India?(AKFI) was formed to promote the game in India’s neighbouring countries. The decision bore fruit as the first?Asian Kabaddi Championship?was held in 1980 where Japan, Nepal, Malaysia, Bangladesh and India contested. The?Indian national kabaddi team?defeated Bangladesh in the final to become the first-ever champion. [2]
In 1982, the game was once again added as a demonstration sport in the?1982 Asian Games?before it was finally established as a medal sport in the 1990 Asiad. India have always been a superior side in the Asian Games, winning all but one of the eight finals since 1990. It wasn’t until 2018 that their winning streak was halted by Iran in the final. [2]
Conclusion:
Bharat has a great trasdition of spirituality and spirituality in sports. Let's shake of the slavish mentality of imitating the British and adopt sports from pour own scriptures.
References:
Excellent read. I will delete this comment once typos are fixed. Let's shake of the slavish mentality of imitating the British and adopt sports from **p**our own scriptures. Bharat has a great tra**s**dition?
Very nice.
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