Dravid, cricket & God

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Father Dominic Emmanuel [1]

Some of the glowing terms used to describe Rahul Dravid when he retired from all forms of international cricket a few days ago were that Dravid was the one “who stood for grit over beauty, team over self and humility over arrogance” and that he always played for the country rather than for self. Dravid was convinced that it was time for him to move on and let the young ones take charge of the team.
If cricket is often considered religion in India and Sachin Tendulkar its god, then Dravid could easily be described as a saint of sorts. According to him, the decision to retire was “taken after a lot of ‘contemplation’ with friends and family”.

And “contemplation” usually carries a certain element of a soul in contact with the Divine which in this case made Dravid convert his humility into a detachment from the glory that cricket brought him.
Quite a few great players and artists in the past have done exactly what Dravid did. So I am inclined to believe and take forward the idea that it is not just the spiritual gurus and the so-called “holy men and women,” but good simple human beings like you and me who have something to teach the world about humility, spirituality and the search for God.
Our scriptures place before us ample instances of reducing our dependence on worldly things and attaching ourselves to higher values, which ultimately lead us to submerge ourselves in the Divine.
For instance, we find in the Gospel that the mission of certain John the Baptist was to go before Jesus and prepare the way for Him (Mark 1: 2-3), a role he was performing brilliantly and people were beginning to hang on to his lips. But when Jesus appeared on the scene it was time for John to fade into the background and allow Jesus his place.
It is in this context that John, with considerable grace and humility, says, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3: 30). John sported no pretensions of himself being greater than Jesus, much like Dravid in the field of cricket.
The ultimate aim of all our rituals and spiritual exercises, including fasting and prayer, is to have deeper experience and realisation of God. What often prevents this realisation, however, is cramming our life with too many worldly and egoistic concerns and with less humility and detachment.
In this process we crowd God out and provide little or no space to let Him rule our life. Let us realise that we will find God only if we first let Him find us by offering Him enough space to abide within us and by letting Him increase, while we decrease.

Father Dominic Emmanuel is the director of communication of the Delhi Catholic Church. He can be contacted
at frdominic@gmail.com