We all remember when we as a child, used to build castles in the sand, along the beach or with mud, stones and bricks. Then, we stay around it as long as we can, play being the King, protector and maintainer of that Castle. When, its time to go, we leave and go away. Next day you comeback and everything is gone. We understand that’s the way things work. No matter, how many forts and castles are built? It’s only the matter of time they all are going to be destroyed. It was fun and acceptance of the fact that, things here are temporary. There is no attachment or expectations about my Castle that I built, yesterday. Now, this modern digital age, we have an issue. Firstly, people started building Castles in the Cloud or web. I am sure, you know better than me. I am talking about that game, where you build Houses, Castles and Forts. And, then you take so much pain to protect it. People, download, so many extra features, Mods, weapons what not, so that their castle is safe and secure. Recently, I met a friend who told me that one of his Colleagues at work is so much addicted to playing this game, which he could not literally go to sleep because of the fear that someone may come and destroy his Castle in the web or Cloud. And, it kept happening that every time he built one, someone would come and destroy it. He got infuriated and kept downloading the latest updates, Mods and weapons. In a span of one year, he spent around good $2000 dollars and finally got fed-up with the whole thing and stopped playing. And, my friend asked him “so what about your Castle? He his reply was, “That’s the reason I spent so much money on it and made impregnable, secure, so that no one would enter or destroy it and I can sleep peacefully”. Can you believe It.? The actual game costs between, 8 to 25 dollars but, makes one so crazy that they can spend thousands of dollars on it. So why do people play these games? There are number of reasons like, boredom, loneliness, a sense of achievement, being a creator and maintainer of something. Ultimately, these people are doing this because; they are getting some taste out of it. Millions of copies of these games are sold to people all around the world. This is only, the speck or tip of an iceberg. There are thousands of Game Videos uploaded by the Veterans of the games to the you tube, who train or show the aspiring people can watch them, learn the new tricks of the game etc. Then, there are additional plugins that enhance the user experience of what is being played. There are blogs talking about the games, its updates etc. And, the list goes on, endless. Video game addiction is an excessive or compulsive use of computer games or video games, which interferes with a person’s everyday life.
This reminds me of a verse from Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3 Karma-yoga TEXT.27
prakrteh kriyamanani
gunaih karmani sarvasah
ahankara-vimudhatma
kartaham iti manyate
Translation: The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature. (By Srila Prabhupada)
We all want to be a Creator, maintainer and enjoyer. So I built a Castle in the virtual reality, or in the air which can be called as Phantasmagoria and, then I start worry about maintaining, protecting and enjoying walking in the Palace corridor, viewing from the wall of the fort for virtual enemies coming to attack, who are created either by the computer software program and so other geniuses like me and taking all this trouble for something that actually doesn’t exist in reality..
Video game addiction – it is simply mind boggling. Young Kids, teen age, Adults everyone is addicted to this thing which is causing apart from health problems, Loss of Money, troubled social and family life etc, people are wasting the most precious thing in life – The Time. Regarding the value of time, Chanakya Pandita says, all the riches of this world cannot buy or bring back a moment of time lost.
Similarly, Prahlad Maharaj in Srimad Bhagavatham says that, this human form of life even though is temporary and cause of all suffering, it is the most valuable one because, it is only through this form, one can realize Supreme God and get away from the cycle of Birth and death. If you misuse this chance of human life, the Vedic Scripture warn us that, you might slide back into lower species of life and be born as one of 8,400,000 species of life form.
This problem is so great that, it’s included as one of the addictions list. Again, there are thousands of websites and blogs – as a start up, you can try the below link that I found good with my quick 2 mins google search. I am sure there would be many more like this. http://www.addictions.com/video-games/
The bottom line is- please don’t waste your time in these useless games, do something real, practical, go out in the open air, play some real indoor or outdoor games. Finally, I leave you with this – The Vedanta-sutra (1.1.1) states, athato brahma jijnasa: “(Now that you have taken up this human form of life) Now one should inquire about Brahman – The absolute truth, the transcendental, spiritual nature”
One request… This is not one person, one community’s problem. This is everyone’s problem, irrespective of Age, Gender, and Location etc. I request your kind comments and feedback, your experiences of this Addiction and how you resolved it or helped someone to resolve it.