Ethical Discipline

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ETHICAL DISCIPLINE

 

by Swami Sivananda

 

1. 'Atman or Self is one. There is one common consciousness in all

beings. All Jivas are reflections of the one Supreme Soul or

Paramatman. Just as one sun is reflected in all pots of water, so

also the one Supreme Being is reflected in all human beings. One

cannot become many. One appears as many. One is real. Many are

illusory. Separateness is illusory. Separateness is temporary. Unity

is real. Unity is Eternal. One life vibrates in all beings. Life is

common in animals, birds and human beings. Existence its common.'

This is the emphatic declaration of the Upanishads. This primary

truth of Religion is the foundation of ethics or Sadachara. If you

hurt another man, you hurt yourself. If you help another man, you

help yourself. On account of ignorance one man hurts another man. He

thinks that other beings are separate from himself. So he exploits

others. So he is selfish, greedy, proud and egoistic. If you are

really aware that one Self pervades, permeates all beings, that all

beings are threaded on the Supreme Self, as the row of pearls on a

string, how can you hurt another man, how can you exploit another

man?

 

2. Who of us is really anxious to know the Truth about God or Divine

Life? We are more ready to ask ourselves: " How much money you have

got in the Imperial Bank? Who said that against me? Do you know who I

am? How are your wife and children doing? " and questions of this sort

than questions like: " Who am I? What is this Samsara? What is

bondage? What is freedom? Whence have I come? Whither shall I go? Who

is Isvara? What are the attributes of God? What is our relationship

to God? How to attain Moksha? What is the Svarupa of Moksha? "

 

3. The beginning of ethics is to reflect upon ourselves, our

surroundings and our actions. Before we act we must stop to think.

When a man earnestly attends to what he recognises as his duties, he

will progress and in consequence thereof his comfort and prosperity

will increase. His pleasures will be more refined; his happiness, his

enjoyments and recreations will be better and nobler. Happiness is

like a shadow; if pursued it will flee from us, but if a man does not

trouble himself about it and strictly attends to his duties,

pleasures of the best and noblest kind will crop out everywhere in

his path. If he does not anxiously pursue it, happiness will follow

him.

 

4. The increase or rather refinement of happiness, however, cannot be

considered as the ultimate aim of ethics, for pain and affliction

increase at the same rate because man's irritability, his

susceptibility to pain grows with the growth of his intellectuality.

The essence of all existence is evolution or a constant realization

of new ideals. Therefore the elevation of all human emotions, whether

they are painful or happy, the elevation of man's existence, of his

actions and aspirations, is the constant aim of ethics.

 

5. The Socratic formula: " Virtue is knowledge, " is found to be an

adequate explanation of the moral life of man. Knowledge of what is

right, is not coincident with doing it, for man, while knowing the

right course is found deliberately choosing the wrong one. Desire

tends to run counter to the dictates of reason; and the will,

perplexed by the difficulty of reconciling two such opposite demands,

tends to choose the easier course and follow the inclination rather

than to endure the pain of refusing desire in obedience to the voice

of reason. Hence mere intellectual instruction is not sufficient to

ensure right doing. There arises the further need for chastisement or

the straightening of the crooked will, in order to ensure its

cooperation with reason in assenting to what it affirms to be right,

and its refusal to give preference to desire or the irrational

element in man's nature when such desire runs counter to the rational

principle.

 

6. The pure reason urges a man to what is the best. The Asuric nature

of a man fights and struggles against the man. The impulses of a man

who has not undergone the ethical discipline runs counter to his

reason. All advice, all rebuke and exhortation, all admonition

testify that the irrational part is amenable to reason.

 

7. The basis of good manners is self-reliance. For such reasons have

the great founders and eminent teachers of all religions repeatedly

proclaimed the need for recognising the Godhead within and for self-

reliance in the last resort rather than any texts and persons and

customs. Self-reliance is the basis of behaviour.

 

8. Self-control is the greatest in the man whose life is dominated by

ideals and general principles of conduct. The final end of moral

discipline is self-control. The whole nature of man must be

disciplined. Each element requires its specific training. Discipline

harmonises the opposing elements of his soul. The self-control will

enable the aspirant to know the Truth, to desire the good and win the

right and thus to realise the Reality.

 

9. Discipline is the training of our faculties, through instructions

and through exercise, in accordance with some settled principle of

authority. You must discipline not only the intellect but also the

will and the emotions. A disciplined man will control his actions. He

is no longer at the mercy of the moment. He ceases to be a slave of

his impulses and Indriyas. Such mastery is not the result of one

day's effort. One can acquire the power by protracted practice and

daily self-discipline. You must learn to refuse the demands of

impulses. A self-controlled man will be able to resist the wrong

action to which a worldly man is most strongly impelled.

 

(Source: http://sivanandaonline.org/html/)