People are often divided on the point of playing to win, or playing in the right spirit of the game. While one group of people extols fair play, there are always those who believe anything is fair in order to win. And yes, we have heard of those who play to lose as well, for their own personal gains. When asked if it is okay to cheat during a recent talk with English footballer Rodney Marsh, this is what Sadhguru had to say…

I wouldn’t think about it in terms of cheating and not cheating. It’s not about cheating and not cheating. What we need to understand is that a game is a game only because of a certain set of rules. A certain set of rules means this is football, another set of rules means this is throwball, another set of rules means this is cricket. So it is the set of rules that makes the game. If you want to go into the football field and carry the ball and run away, you could play rugby. You shouldn’t be playing football. The moment you break the rule, you are breaking the very fundamentals of the game. So it’s not about winning or losing, you are just destroying the game. Completely you will destroy the game. If he can touch the ball once and it’s okay, then I will touch it all the time. I will carry the ball and throw it in the goal. Instead of one, I’ll carry an extra ball that you can’t see and I’ll put it in the goal. Then why should we play a game at all?

A game is created only with a certain set of rules. When you say, “I want to break the rule,” what you are saying is, “I want to destroy the game.” You have no love for the game. Such people should have no place in the game at all.

Next week, in the second part of this series, we will take a look at playing a game with absolute involvement and how sport is an essential ingredient to building a healthy life.