Our primal drives
constantly demand appropriate action, and we continue to satisfy the need
of the urges. The narcotic of the sensual pleasures further weakens our
willpower. Only way then to awaken and develop it is to stop feeding it
with the befogging narcotics through the exertion of self-discipline.
When the Will is supine,
we nourish sensual desires and delude ourselves in believing that pleasure
is happiness. When the Will is partly awakened, a desire for self
discipline and spiritual awareness is born. We begin to discriminate
between what is good and what is evil. True, we would still be affected by
external temptations and may sometime succumb to them; but in due course
the Will will be fully awakened and our attitude, thought and perception
begin to rotate round the nucleus of reasoning and rational conduct. Once
we stop succumbing to our sensual desires, our supine Will begins to
awaken from its stupor. The strangle-hold of delusion will be first
weakened, and then destroyed. We shall become alert and vigilant towards
truth and discipline. Then the vigilant rational mind becomes strong
enough to regulate the responses to the insistence of the instinctive
drives and demands of carnal desires.
Once we have fully
awakened our supine Will, we have to reinforce its power with
determination and self-discipline. Thus strengthened, our rational mind
will establish its supremacy. It will then be able to regulate our
responses to even the most powerful urges and drives. Environmental
conditions may temporarily influence our behaviour, but the power of the
Will and rational mind is supreme.
Self-discipline acts as
a defending fort against the onslaught of contamination through carnal
desires. Ultimately external environment also fails to influence the
behaviour of one who is self-disciplined.
Philosophy
