"True sportsmanship is concentrated ability, enlivened with appreciation of the performance of others." - Avatar Meher Baba
Meher Mount
Your Friday photo is in honor of Meher Baba’s affinity for the game of cricket…
Today, the India National Cricket Team plays South Africa.
Meher Baba enjoyed playing and watching cricket. Cricket and other games were often played in the ashram with His close followers.
In this photo, Meher Baba is playing cricket in Lower Meherabad, India, in 1936.
In 1959, He gave the following message to the players of the Poona Cricket Association before they left India to go to England for a test match.
“True sportsmanship is concentrated ability, enlivened with appreciation of the performance of others. And when this is manifested, everyone present, both players and spectators, receives spiritual upliftment as well as good entertainment.”
“In going to England [1959] to represent India in the field of sport, you also have the unique opportunity of practicing and of conveying to the people there the great spiritual lessons of concentration and love.
When you take the field, and if you play as eleven men with one heart, each enjoying the excellence of performance in another player as he would in himself, whether that player is on your side or on the side of the opposing team, and so eliminating feelings of jealousy, anger and pride, which so often mar the sport — you will not only be entertaining the spectators, but demonstrating the real spirit of sportsmanship.
True sportsmanship is concentrated ability, enlivened with appreciation of the performance of others. And when this is manifested, everyone present, both players and spectators, receives spiritual upliftment as well as good entertainment.
Some of you are ‘all-rounders.’ I am the greatest spiritual ‘all-rounder’ of all times, because I feel equally at home with saints, yogis, philosophers and cricketers, as well as with so-called sinners and scoundrels.
I give you my blessing that in all your actions you show forth the spirit of love.”
~Avatar Meher Baba
Sources
Bhau Kalchuri, Lord Meher: The Biography of the Avatar of the Age Meher Baba, Online Edition, pg. 4510, accessed September 14, 2024. (c)Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India. Used with permission.
Photograph: Faredoon (Padri) Driver, Meherabad, India, 1936. Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.