The 12th Man

In the game of cricket, there is this mystical 12th man who can replace an injured fielder, and otherwise he is the one who brings on the drinks and refreshments in the drinks interval. He is supposed to go through all the rigorous practice sessions and has to be as fit as the other 11 players. My Vedanta teacher gave a fabulous definition to this 12th man as “Always ready, seldom needed.” This is the foundation Sutra for any service we wish to render in our relationships or social causes or in any other endeavour where we want to just give whether it is our Time or our ears to somebody’s problems or our shoulder to cry on or if you allow me to say, our Heart too to someone we care for or love without any need for a return in any form, not even a thank you. We just have to be “always ready,” but realise deeply that we may be “seldom required.” Is there any scope for any anger or let down feelings or hurt then? In fact, most of times we are not really required when we are very ready to offer. Ironically, we are not ready where we are most required. In my enthusiasm to offer a lot, many a times, I was made to realise that I was not really needed in the first place. The 12th man was supposed to only bring refreshments, and not try to take on the role of a saviour of the Team. This point was not understood by me many a times. John Milton brings out this point in his beautiful sonnet ‘On his blindness.’ He starts with a complaint that how can God now enable me to express my poetic skills without eyesight? But soon, he realises that God does not need anything from anyone. He writes: 

“God does not need Either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best Bear His (God’s) mild yoke, they serve Him best.” (Here ‘mild yoke’ are our difficult situations, difficult people in our lives, unfavourable events, etc.). Milton ends with his immortal words “They also serve who only stand and wait.” This is exactly what a 12th man needs to know. Milton’s brilliant stroke is when he calls all our ‘yokes’ as mild. Even Lord Krishna in the Gita tells a disagreeing Arjuna that “I can accomplish what I need to do with or without you, O Arjuna. So step aside if you do not wish to fight.”

So Real Devotion is to become the 12th man of the team whose eternal captain is the Lord Himself. Be ‘Always available’ with the humility to realise that we may be ‘not needed’ at all in this game called ‘Life.’ And the best thing about Humility is that “we lose it the moment we think we have it.”