Felicitated or Insulted?

When Sushil Kumar won the Bronze Medal at the Beijing Olympics, I had said that by perseverance he should be able to win gold for India. Now he has shown his mettle and he has proved how through proper coaching, one can scale great heights.

What I wrote on that date is as follows: “ Today, I feel happy and confident that by right training, perseverance and with nationalism in one’s heart, India can shine in the sports field also. Yes, time has come for us to catch up with China. It is said that China started getting medals from about 1984. We may be 25 years behind in sports but I think by giving right training to the sports persons from now onwards, India can shine and vie with China when both of us become super powers”

It cannot be contested that in any field guru or coach make or mar the future of any trainee. One may take any filed whether it is sports or studies etc. it is the guidance and encouragement of the guru which moulds trainee’s character and performance. Even in the case of Sushil Kumar there can be no two opinions in this respect. It is his Guru, Satpal Singh who guided him to reach that pinnacle of success.

But what pained me was the manner in which the Minister for Sports pushed aside the guru of Sushil Kumar when he felicitated him. Since our sports minister is a politician, it did not surprise me much. Because they always change their colour according to the circumstances. For them end matters and not the means. They want to bask in the limelight to the exclusion of others, even their own mentors.

Re-action of Satpal Sigh speaks of what mettle this Guru is made of. How self less he is one can know from his re-action:

“I did not like it. But this is a happy occasion, so let’s talk about Sushil’s achievement, I don’t know why he (Gill) did that. You have to ask him. My job is to coach. I coached Sushil for so many years and I will continue to produce more wrestlers,” he said. His Sishya ( pupil) Sushil Kumar was more modest than his Guru. He said: “He (Satpal) is my guru. I have a lot of respect for him.He has trained me since childhood. He is coach to over 900 kids. If a coach is insulted, his pupil also feels insulted,” Kumar said.

I hailed when the same Minister said that the tenure of Presidents of sports associations should be restricted to ten years. I said “Jai Ho” to him. However now I have to say ‘you are wrong Mr. minister’. Sometimes I fail to understand why they behave in the manner our sports minister behaved. Why he belittled the importance of Gurus. The word Guru has been adopted even by westerners. It has become a universal name for teachers. I just tried to know the meaning of “Guru”. The Sanskrit root “Gu” means darkness or ignorance. “Ru” denotes the remover of that darkness. Therefore one who removes darkness of our ignorance is a Guru. Students also refer to their school teachers or college lecturers as guru. The connotation of the word guru in this case is one who imparts temporal knowledge and is thus accordingly offered respect.

In India a day rather a month is dedicated to Gurus. The full moon day in the Hindu month of Ashad (July-August) is observed as the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, a day sacred to the memory of the great sage Vyasa. On this day, all spiritual aspirants and devotees worship Vyasa in honor of his divine personage and all disciples perform a ‘Puja’ of their respective spiritual preceptor or ‘Gurudevs’ and we ordinary human beings worship or do padha puja of our gurus or elders. This aspect is high lighted to show the place of Gurus in our society from time immemorial.

This is the prayer we say to our gurus:

Gururbrahmaa Gururvishnuh Gururdevo Maheswarah |
Guruh-Saakshaat Parabrahma Tasmai Shrigurave Namah ||

means “Guru is the creator, Guru is the holder, and Guru is the destroyer. On earth Guru is the real God whom we can see, that is why “O” Guru we pray you. Guru is the eldest and the wisest on this earth and he lights the path to meet the God.

Nothing further need be said to say what our Minister for Sports did was not proper. Therefore it may be appropriate if our Minister expresses a word of regret to the Guru of Sushil Kumar and admits his Himalayan blunder. As the World Champion Sushil Kumar said, “If a coach is insulted, his pupil also feels insulted”.