Acharya Mahaprajna
Daily Excelsior
Fear and intimidation would have run rampant in the world, if there were no self-control. A turbulent river becomes harmless if it is bound by two banks. Human life, like the turbulent river, has got to be controlled by self-discipline, otherwise social life would become impossible. The bridge built across the Sabarmati river enables all kinds of vehicles and pedestrians to cross the river without any clash. This disciplined passage of traffic shows the value of self-control in life.
The Gita praises the disciplined behaviour of the tortoise who knows how to hide its head in its shell. By doing so it saves itself from the beasts of prey. Bhagwan Mahavira and Buddha spoke of the value of self-control in the same language: "Control your arms, legs, speech, sense organs and mind."
Everyone seeks his own security. Self-control provides the greatest security. It is not germs but self-indiscipline which is the cause of a large number of diseases. Self-indiscipline is more injurious than weapons. The police binds a smaller number of people than self-indiscipline. Self-indiscipline is more mortal than death.
Specialists in physiology tell us that half the quantity of food we consume provides jobs to the physicians. We eat not to satisfy our hunger, but to satisfy the palate. If delicacies were abandoned, we would need only half the quantity of food which we are now consuming. We forget our intrinsic needs by placing a higher premium on articles of food. That is what is happening today. Gluttony and not the shortage of food has created the greatest problem for us.
India is poor in resources. It is a pitiable situation in which a handful of people enjoy gluttony and millions starve. Lack of selfdiscipline is to a very large extent responsible for such a situation.
Acharya Tulsi once came to know that his monks and nuns in several parts of the country were not able to procure sufficient food. He immediately reduced the quantity even of the meagre food he was eating. This sympathetic gesture for his disciple monks and nuns had a great effect on their minds and now they began to feel that they had no difficulty in matters of food. Sympathy may not directly proidltce a material effect, but it does produce a mental effect on those who are sympathised with. If those who are well off could offer such a sympathy to those who are experiencing scarcity, it would provide much mental relief to the latter. Self control is capable of solving many of our problems. Our economists think that increased production alone can solve our material problems. But a large number of problems are man-made and they can certainly be solved by exercising self-control. For this we expect our religious leaders to expound religious discipline in a scientific way so that self-control may be relied on for solving our mental as well as material problems. Religion becomes lifeless when the rules of conduct laid down by the scriptures are given priority over self-control and it becomes a reality when self-control it treated as more important than any rule of conduct.