- Valson Thampu
The name that is ringing all over Kerala, especially among the youth, is Sanju Samson. Admittedly, he deserves it. It is natural to celebrate him. But there is something further that you need to do. Especially, if you are young like Sanju, or younger.
We must begin by recognizing a paradox. Sanju is sung and celebrated by cricket-crazy masses. But Sanju would not have been, if he were only one among the masses. That is to say, if Sanju were only a spectator to what was happening on the field, he would have remained insignificant and unknown.
So, there are two modes of relationship possible for him. First, Sanju being a spectator, his personal significance remains irrelevant. The second possibility is that of being on the field, excelling in playing the game, mesmerizing the masses. There Sanju is irreplaceable.
We need especially to note the following. While playing, Sanju is oblivious of the spectators. He concentrates on the game, and plays for the team. The delight he kindles in spectators happens as a byproduct. A player, who plays for himself, or to impress the gallery, could fail the team.
Further, Sanju cannot play cricket by himself. He needs a team. Beyond the team, the sports network, sponsors, spectators, and so on. But even with all of that he cannot play, unless there is cricket. It is cricket that he plays. All else are only of instrumental significance.
Put in religious language, Sanju needs to abide in cricket faithfully and passionately in order to excel. He cannot do so merely by feeling strongly for the country (patriotism), or entertaining a keen desire to charm the audience (popularity), or coveting mega rewards. Sanju, as a lone individual, even if endowed with great talent, will remain a non-entity.
But, the mere fact of being combined with something, or someone, does not nurture excellence. The alignment has to be of the right kind. In the words of Jesus, Sanju has to abide in cricket, and cricket in him. Sanju excelled in cricket because he lived cricket.
This is the relationship that Jesus envisaged between human beings and God: ‘Abide in me, ’he said, ‘and me in you’. Negatively, it is not good that anyone be alone. If you are alone, you will be like the grain of wheat that remains unsown: all, all alone with no prospect of harvest. Positively, we need to be one with God; as Sanju is one with cricket.
Being obsessed with sponsors, spectators, masses etc. may seem the remedy for the assured aridity of aloneness; but they prove illusory options. The best in you -or, in the metaphor of Jesus, ‘the light within you’- will remain unexpressed, unrealized.
Excellence is the bottom-line of spirituality. We are required to be perfect. It is not optional. To attain excellence is –a gain, in the words of Jesus – to be able to express the light within us. That light denotes personal uniqueness. It is not like the light generated by electricity, which is uniform. The light within is unique to each individual; for uniqueness is the hallmark of being human. As St. Augustine said, there never was anyone like you. There never will be another like you. The light within us is the essence of our unique personal destiny.
It is not good that we remain islands of possibilities, because this light within us cannot be expressed in aloneness. It can be manifested only via partnership. Now the question is: what is the partnership most appropriate and beneficial for expressing and fulfilling our uniqueness?
The answer writ large over the life and mission of Jesus Christ is: partnership with God. Jesus’s spiritual vision is predicated on this core insight that to be truly human is to be in partnership with God. Through the partnership of love between a man and woman a new life is born. Through the partnership of a human being -male or female- with God that new life is reborn as a new spiritual being. This was the secret of Jesus’s spiritual person and authority, his enduring appeal to humanity.
Jesus could have identified himself exclusively with his race and religion, as the Jews were required to. But, none of these alignments would have brought out his uniqueness. Jesus fulfilled his destiny as the light of the world by being one with God.
Young people could think of such a state as constrictive of personal freedom. This is baseless and erroneous. No one can remain alone. We are like phosphorus, which is kept immersed in water. If brought out of it, oxidation happens and phosphorus catches fire! If not with God, individuals will seek oneness with something or the other: a sub-group (as in drug addiction), a faction (as in campus politics, or sports fever), a party, a nation, even a club. Each of these distorts individuals. All of them force individuals into the same mold and suppress individual uniqueness. Your plight will be like that of a person in a partisan mass. You have to cheer what, and when, others around you do. You will not be free to think or act differently. Every man-made system exacts conformity. Conformity suppresses individuality and denies fulfilment. We become mere cogs in the machine. As Oscar Wilde said: ‘We are other people’ in a massified world.
