Discipline

Denmark,

20th August, 1997

Chapter 2 - The Path To The Goal That Is You

Day 86 - Discipline

People who are free regret that they do not have discipline. They keep promising that they will become disciplined. People who are disciplined look for the end, discipline is not an end in itself, it is a means. Look at people who have no discipline, they are miserable. 

Freedom without discipline is absolute misery. Discipline without freedom is suffocating. Orderliness is monotonous and chaos is stressful. We must make our discipline free and our freedom disciplined. People who have company all the time, look for the comforts of solitude. People who are in solitude feel so lonely and want company. 

People in a cold place want a warm place. People in a warm place love something cool. This is the dilemma of life, everyone is looking for perfect balance. Perfect balance is like a razor’s edge. It can only be found in the self. Initiation is called diksha. In Sanskrit “di” means intellect. “Ksha” means the horizon or the end. 

Diksha means transcending the intellect. Education is called shiksha, the horizon of discipline, total discipline. Discipline is needed for education. Diksha is needed for meditation. A teacher gives shiksha. A guru gives diksha. A Guru takes you beyond the intellect to the realm of being. It is a journey from the head to the heart. 

Blossoming beyond the intellect is diksha. If you do not go beyond the intellect, you will not smile, you will not laugh. Once diksha happens, you are happy, blissful and contented and your thirst for knowledge is quenched. Totality of discipline is shiksha. Totality of intelligence is diksha.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Celebrating Silence