Discipline and Dedication - Are They Really Virtues? || AP Neem Candies
Acharya Prashant: I might be a very violent man. And my goal is to blast a building off. To learn how to do it, I have to live through stern discipline. I will have to build my body, I will have to learn several skills. I may have the discipline to learn a new language, if the building is in a foreign country. I will need to learn the skill of dodging, officials and police. I will need training in firearms. And all of that will require discipline. And all that discipline may train me to achieve success in my goal, but what is my goal? The goal is violence.
When you will look at me, just before I am going to set out for my mission. You will say, “Wow, what dedication this man has shown, what great discipline he has submitted himself to.” My body will look good, like the body of a yogi. My mind would be focused on its goal. There would be no other thoughts. So there would be a certain calmness on my face. I would be self-assured that I am going to achieve my target, the building is going to disappear tomorrow. Hence I would be gently smiling. And if you look at me, you would say, “Wow! What a spiritually advanced soul. Look at his body, no trace of fat. Look at the face radiating with bliss. Look at the composure, such great certainty coming from God himself.” But what is the goal? The goal is violence.
Discipline and struggle are no virtues by themselves. No discipline has any virtue, if that discipline is serving a self-created goal.
Most marauding armies were sometimes the most disciplined armies. The most greedy of men are also sometimes the most disciplined of man, because greed requires that kind of discipline. You might have dedicated yourself to any discipline. You may have modeled your body and mind, according to the rigors of the discipline, but mind you, it is you who are doing it, with all that you stand for. This discipline will never take you beyond yourself.
