This week we continued the roadmap of ourselves. We recapped on this topic as we discussed it in the last class. We talked about 6 stages of life - jAyate (birth), asti (we live in the world), vardhate (we grow), vipariNamate (body changes), apakshIyate (body decays) and nashyati (body dies). We represented this as a long winding path over the mountains and as though we are using a motorcycle to cover this journey. There is just one motorcycle to cover this journey.
Just like we have to maintain the motorcycle well for this journey, we have to maintain our equipment well for our journey. Our equipment is Body, Mind and Intellect.
We talked about the three pillars that help Body, Mind and Intellect function well. These 3 pillars are Brahmacharya, Ahimsa and Satya respectively.
Brahmacharya is more about control over senses in this pillar. Ahimsa is not causing any hurt. And Satya is following the path of truth. Each of this is essential for us to carry out the long journey about life well. Discipline is the way we make sure that our equipment functions well. The multipoint checklist of various things to be maintained in a car shows how the car is functioning. The tuning that goes into the regular maintenance is a way to make sure that the cars were functioning properly. Similarly, we have to discipline ourselves to keep our equipment: Body, Mind and Intellect, functioning properly. This discipline is self-control.
Our Thoughts become our actions. These actions become our habits. These habits become our character. And this character becomes our destiny. So, controlling our thoughts and making new habits is important for us.
You work on a habit HABIT
A-bit remains ABIT
Work some more-bit remains BIT
Work some more-it remains IT
We listed down a number of contemporary stars from Music, Science, Sports, Philosophy etc. And we discussed what is the commonality in the lifestyles of each of these stars. All these stars have "Discipline" in common. They have achieved so much primarily because they had discipline.
This concept of control is vastly present in the 5 elements. For example, the controlled fire is the fire used in Yagna. The uncontrolled fire burns down an entire forest. The controlled water source is a stream. The uncontrolled river is a flood that swallows an entire human habitat.
The same beneficial force, when it becomes uncontrolled, becomes harmful. Discipline, through control, is a way to get benefit from such forces. The same principle applies for our 3 instruments - Body, Mind and Intellect. We need discipline / self control to manage these well.
"Freedom is not to do what you feel like doing" - Swami Chinmayananda
As Swamiji said, self control helps us get better freedom. It is not restrictive but helps get most out of our instruments. Many times we rationalize around self-control. It is sometimes not easy to see it.
We read a story where some teenagers want to watch an R rated movie because everyone else in their student group has already watched it. They attempt to present a pros/cons view of their interest and watch it. Their father makes brownies for them with some small amount of garbage in it. He offers them to his kids saying it is mostly all good with just a little bit of bad. The kids obviously do not want to eat it because it is trash. So, when the kids ask permission to watch the R rated movie he reminds them of the brownies with just a tiny bit of trash. The kids understand.
Similarly, we read another story about a psychologist who is working on an experiment about deferred gratification. It is about promising kids 3 candies if they are able to control not eating a candy in front of them for about 30 mins. All the kids who were able to defer the gratification did better in their life (the study observed them after 25 years).
The lesson is to develop self-control to become a better individual for ourselves and our society.
As a practical exercise to build self-control, we all talked about one thing we want to control in ourselves. The class, including the teachers, talked about that one thing to control and how they want to improve themselves. We will discuss the progress in subsequent classes.
Pranaams,
Partha & Nikhita
