Playing games for relaxation – which mode does it fall in?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Laying gates for relaxation. What mode does it fall in? Prabhupada said that kabaddi, swimming, these are, especially swimming, he was quite appreciative of that. That is, but more important thing is, rather than the specific forms, look at the principle.
See, any particular game, it can be, it can be done for relaxation, it can be done for exercise. At the same time, we have to ourselves be honest about the consequence of it. Sometimes we play the game, not so much for relaxation, because we get attached to it.
We get consumed by it. So, at least, actually, playing sports is better than watching sports. Because, you know, watching sports is simply spectator sport.
You are not really doing much constructing. So, people often… So, in that sense, playing sports is good. So, we have to find out from ourselves what is the effect on our consciousness.
So, the more reflective an activity is, the better it is for spiritual growth. So, for example, if you go for a walk, then walking, if it is also a form of exercise, what happens is, walking does not emotionally consume us. When we play games, they emotionally consume us.
And that emotional consumption, that will later distract us from bhakti. You know, yesterday I was playing table tennis. If I had only played this shot, I would have won the match.
So, what happens is that we get emotionally consumed by it. So, there is a form of physical exercise and relaxation that is there. But we have to see how much we are getting emotionally consumed by it.
So, that’s why those activities which don’t emotionally consume us so much, if we do them for relaxation, then our emotions and our consciousness will be better available for Krishna. So, especially if you are doing some sports also, it’s best not to do them in a competitive mode. It’s like walking, there is no competition involved over there.
Even if it’s jogging or some, we may, whatever exercise is required, we may need to do it for the body. But we want our consciousness to be available for Krishna. And for serving Krishna, we need to, we not want a healthy body also.
So, how best we get that, that varies from person to person. So, if we have Krishna as the purpose clearly in our life, suppose we decide that, now then I feel that this is the exercise that relaxes me and I do that. Or this is the particular game that I feel it relaxes me.
We do that for a few months and then we objectively evaluate. Now, what is the effect on my consciousness? If we find that actually it is consuming me too much emotionally, it is distracting me, then we decide, okay, I don’t want to do this. But if we find that, okay, this is something which helps me to work better, we may continue it.
So, rather than making a value judgment that this is good, this is bad, we can focus more on individual effect on our consciousness and try to make sure that our consciousness is not emotionally consumed by things other than Krishna. We want our consciousness to be available for Krishna. Does it answer your question? Thank you very much.
Shri Prabhupada.