‘You will be nearer to heaven through football than through the study of Gita"
- Swami Vivekananda
A famous quote by Swami Vivekananda’s book ‘Lectures from Colombo to Almora’. These words seem very uncanny coming from an Eastern monk. Indeed befuddling, however, the sentence that follows the quote is often forgotten, which goes as ‘I know that these are bold words but I have to say them because I love you’. Swamiji actually wanted to convey a very profound concept of Vedanta – Weakness is the source of all miseries. These weaknesses manifest in various forms like ignorance, hatred, jealously, listlessness and many more. But, physical weakness is the root cause of all other weakness. The reasoning is that our body is the manifest form of life and it is eventually through our body that we experience various facets of life. An unfit body hinders the assimilation all other life energies. Finally our body is the foundation of our being and if that is not taken care of, it precludes building of a strong mind. Therefore the importance of sports and physical recreation cannot be undervalued.
Given this backdrop, I am very pleased to see the initiative taken by IIM Shillong to spread this message of Swamiji. IIM Shillong in its 8
th year has inducted a Sports Committee with a vision of being dynamic interface to sporting activities both inside and outside the institute. The founding committee primarily aims to augment physical fitness, sportsmanship spirit and leadership qualities. It helms the responsibility of contriving various sports events and seminars that involves the entire student fraternity, faculty as well as the staff. More importantly, the committee will strive to utilize the talent pool available at IIM Shillong and make the institute’s presence felt in as many competitions. IIM Shillong has always been blessed with students taking great interest in sports and recreational activities. Now that the institute will very soon complete its 10
th year, inter college sports events will be quintessential for leveraging its relationship with other elite business institutes. Apart from all this, the sports committee of any institute helps in building a connect with the local community and involvement of the society is imperative to the success of the institute. Formation of this much awaited committee has spurred enthusiasm in all the stakeholders involved; Undoubtedly the IIM Shillong Sports Committee 2015-17 will live up to the expectations because making the students of IIM Shillong game for life is the raison d’etre of its existence.
Author- Girish Pai
The author is a first year PGDM student and member of The Sports Committee of IIM Shillong
Read other stories from IIM Shillong at-
http://insideiim.com/tag/iim-shillong/