Spirituality:The hidden secret of Kho-Kho

Spirituality: The Hidden Secret of Kho-Kho

The spiritual connection of Kho-Kho is little difficult to believe at first as you don’t see much evidence of spirituality at a Kho-Kho match, with 9 chasers out of which one attacker is around chasing a defender and another few people shouting at them; But there is a pronounced - though usually hidden - channel and divine aspect to Kho-Kho, which the best sportsmen are familiar with, even though they may not use the word ‘spiritual’ to describe it.

Kho-Kho is meaningful because it’s one of the most readily available ways of activating the state of mind which one can experience when our attention is completely absorbed in an activity, and our awareness of our surroundings even of ourselves fades away, no voices of crowd listened. It’s not the stagnant absorption of watching a movie or playing PlayStation games, but the ‘active’ absorption we partake when we fully concentrate and make powerful mental efforts - when we perform challenging, soliciting, creative activities like adventure, musical instrument, painting or playing sports. This state of mind enables us to take control of our own consciousness, and step beyond the normal state when worries, desires and other kinds of chaos ‘thought chatter’ run through our minds. We experience inner peace and a sense of being more ‘energised’ or alive than usual.

Also read: Kho-Kho: Art of Yoga

A strong relaxation and calmness are observed and gigantic power with a warm feeling is the result of practising sports with complete control and strong belief.
These states open the door of spirituality as it comes during deep meditation Which is one of the spiritual practices (dhyana).

The game Kho-Kho which I experience can sometimes enable us to reach these higher levels too. Once a sportsperson can touch this state of mind his or her absorption might strengthen further until it reaches a state which is similar to dhyana. This is a state of unusual things which is attained in higher states of consciousness, and true players occasionally experience these.
These are moments when suddenly universal power is felt and they shift to a higher level of performance and become capable of extraordinary accomplishments. Without even trying very hard, everything seems natural and inescapably perfect. Time moves slower than normal is the main reason you can see the player is capable of such amazing performance because he or she has more time to play with, more time to predict his opponents’ actions and to position himself.

I recall in one final match, I felt that time is slowdown and I started the turn, watching the defender drifting to make an entry and then I dived, lifting my body in the air and touched him. All was like a slow-motion replay and everything was quiet, like some otherworldly dream, until my hand made contact with the player. Then everything zipped back into conscious time, I landed and bounced on the ground and the noise erupted as if someone had turned off the mute button and these type of experiences are still creating a strong impact on my body and soul which is lasting forever.

Also Read: Explosiveness of Kho-Kho

These type of  experiences are also shared by some famous player of cricket, football, some athletes as well due to their immense practise of concentration during play which is developed by moving your mind, body and soul into the game with total devotion to one and only thing.

                                                                         

As written in by some players like Don Bradman - the best batsman of Australia with a batting average superior to other batsman of the world as he was the amazing amount of time he seemed to have to play his shots. Though he never committed himself until the last moment, he always had more than ample time to position himself and find the correct stroke, as if the fraction of a second it takes a ball to reach a batsman from the arm of a fast bowler contained more time for him than for others.

      

Some best footballers also felt these type of experiences like David Icke a goalkeeper and sports broadcaster. He recalls how once when he was playing in an important match, somebody fired a shot from close range, which looked unstoppable: watching the ball drifted towards the goal he dived to his left with ample of time and grab the ball It was like a slow-motion replication and everything was stagnant and all noises are shushed. It leads to base level spirituality and opens the path to a higher level.

As based on the above writing I want to share this experience to my viewers across the globe that Kho-Kho leads to a connection to spirituality which one can experience if he plays with pure devotion, self-control and strong belief to attain victory that is the hidden side of Kho-Kho.

                                                       Voice of International Player

                                                            Pankaj Malhotra(India)