Sai Baba’s Game of Cricket

By: Dr. G. R. Vijayakumar

Cricket is more than a game; it offers many options as player, umpire, coach, health psychologist, commentator, scorer, analyst, and reporter, for instance. When we closely observe Cricket as we do ‘Parayan’ of Sai Satcharita we get a parallel between cricket and the game of a Sai devotee’s life; hence we can name it as ‘Hemadpant’s cricket’.

Let’s visualize the batsman as jivatma; pavilion as parakalpam – heaven and or hell; ground as the world; pitch as samsara; crease as the limit and stand as part of the family. The batsman steps out of the pavilion, walks to the ground, reaches the pitch where he waits within the crease and takes his stand to play his game. Similarly, every jivatma steps out of paralokam and into this world and becomes part of samsara, where he plays his role within the limits set for him. The Sai Satcharita says, “Once your punya, good deeds get over, you get ejected from heaven to earth”.

To take the metaphor further, imagine the bowler as Yama, the God of Death; bat as Viveka, intellect; ball as manas, mind; the six balls as the seasons; overs as years; three stumps as the gunas — sattva, rajas, tamas; bails as prana, life; the ten fielders as ten indriyas; umpire as Atma;bowled out as natural death, caught out as disease via indriyas, run out as an accident, hit wicket as suicide and leg before wicket as body-consciousness.

The bowler is interested to get the batsman out and keeps bowling to him every over, each consisting of six balls. We invoke Sai Maharaj’s guidance. Even if the bowler manages to get the bails off, the batsman is declared out apart from the ball hitting either or all three stumps, being caught by one of the ten fielders, hitting his own wicket, getting himself run out, or appeal upheld for the leg-before wicket.

But during this process, the batsman uses his bat to defend the three stumps or attacks the bowler and scores runs.

Yama hurls thoughts at the jivatma, who uses Viveka from Sai to manage the mind, guard life, and defend the gunas. Seasons come and go. His senses could give way and he could succumb to death by any cause.

When the play ends, one is happy or sad. The non-striker needs someone along. The scorer, like Chitragupta who counts your deeds, keeps account. The commentator is a teacher like Dasganu Maharaj who informs us of higher goals and purposes of worshipping Sai Baba. Scoring a century is like living to be one hundred years old. The boundary is – dharma, artha, kama, moksha. Purusharthas are granted to a jivatma when he leads a dutiful life just as a batsman who drives the ball to the boundary, scores four runs without running for it.

Sixers are like the six qualities of an evolved person — nyaana, vairagya, ishvarathvam, Tejas, Lakshmi, keerti. The next game is rebirth, a jivatma’s second chance to improve.

In the game of life, be conscious. Use your bat skillfully and play every ball wisely, defend, attack, or leave it. Once you understand your samsara and ways of Yama, you may step outside limits or crease to score faster. Beware of Yama and the ten indriyas; they will try to take you out. Be careful, avoid accidents, never think of suicide. Never get so body-conscious that you fall a victim to any disease. Seasons will come and go, but you need to emerge as a strong player.