Rev. Fr. P. Paul Rajkumar
Principal & Secretary
St. Joseph's College of Arts Science, Cuddalore - 607001
“Discipline is demanded of the athlete to win a game. Discipline is required for the captain running his ship. Discipline is needed for the pianist to practice for the concert.
Only in the matter of personal contact is the need for discipline questioned. But if parents believe standards are necessary, then discipline certainly is needed to attain them” (Gladys Brooks)
Yes we agree on the point that discipline is a must. Often we find that we lack in such a beautiful virtue. If so, it would give way to compromise in our duties. Failing in our duties would question the very meaningfulness of our life.
“I slept and dreamt, life was beauty
I woke and found, life was work and duty.
So work is the only way
For high and low to be happy and gay.” (Anonymous)
Therefore achievement is what gives us a greater sense of fulfillment. We can’t accomplish sans discipline. Margaret Thatcher says,
“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing. It’s when you have had everything to do, and you’ve done it.”
Failure is the fruit of laxity in discipline. Elders often warn us of the same when they happen to discover our waywardness. Motivation is inherited through strict sense of discipline. Hence discipline is essential for a meaningful life. When we lack in it, we are a failure. John F. Kennedy on failure says:
‘Success has many fathers, but failure is always an orphan.’
Indiscipline also makes us loose the essence of life. Similar to the salt which is thrown away when it looses its saltiness, we become unwanted by the society. Rather we are considered to be burden on society. In other words, we are dead persons. Let us make this our motto: Let’s not die until we are dead.
Poverty of spirituality is a crisis we are trying to grapple with today. Materialism and its various dimensions are strongly at play in our behavior.
Many people seem to feel that science has somehow made ‘religious ideas’ untimely and old-fashioned. But science has a real surprise for skeptics. Science, for instance, tells us that nothing in nature, not even the tiniest article, can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation.
Now, if God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of His universe, doesn’t it make sense to assume that he applies it to the human soul? I think it does.
If we are true believers in science, then it should teach us to strengthen our belief in the continuity of spiritual existence after death. Nothing disappears without a trace.
But today everything is judged on worldly terms. God is seen and experienced through material spectacle. Hence the wealthy are mighty. Religion and God are used as instruments to suit our selfish goals. On the contrary, in Beatitudes, Jesus preaches us the opposite value system when he says, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ Mt.5:3
A proverb goes thus: Religion costs, but irreligion costs more. Yes:
There can be no lasting happiness without love.
There can be no satisfaction of achievement without work
There can be no release from tension without play.
And there can be no experience of the joy and peace and power of life without worship.
We can only be values if we make ourselves valuable. The person who is not virtuous cannot be happy. Let me conclude with what Albert Einstein has to say: ‘Try not to become a person of success but rather a person of value.’