Ishtadev Niwas Ashram
  • Home
  • About
    • Living Yoga Society
    • Founders & Teachers
    • FAQs
    • Getting Here
    • Cancellation and Refund Policy >
      • Liability Waiver
  • Online Programs
    • LYFE - Online Community
    • Karma to Dharma Program
    • Online Masterclass Retreat in Yoga Psychology
    • LIVE Online Asana
    • Navaratri Sadhana
    • LIVE - Saundarya Lahari Chanting
  • Yoga Retreats
    • Retreat in Golden BC (Apr 29 - May 1, 2022)
    • Advanced Chakra Immersion
    • Living Local Retreat
    • Foundations of Yoga Ecology Week-long Retreat
    • Study in Residence Yoga Ecology
    • Karma Yoga Community Days
    • Private Sessions
  • Farm
    • Farm Employment
    • Bakery
  • News & Prasad
    • Living Yoga Blog
    • Living Yoga Podcast
    • Recipes
    • YouTube Channel
    • Book
  • Contact

YogaMag Inspiration: Discipline

14/12/2021

0 Comments

 
-~ by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, from YogaMag Oct 2019 (Originally from On the Wings of the Swan, Volume VIII)

Discipline means to become responsible; indiscipline means to become irresponsible. It is as simple as that. If you are responsible and you act in a responsible manner, you are disciplined. If you behave in an irresponsible manner, then naturally you will be labelled as undisciplined. The problem is that people want ‘rights’. ‘This is my right. That is my right.’ People are more aware of their rights and less aware of their responsibility – the basic idea is forgotten. People want rights without responsibility. However, if you become responsible, then naturally you get rights.

Discipline is nothing but being responsible for oneself. Discipline does not mean that you have to act according to this time or that time, within these parameters or limitations, or in this area. All that can change: today you are here, tomorrow you will be some place else. However, if you become responsible for yourself, your development, your well beingand your peace, then that responsibility will be seen as a discipline – in action, behaviour, attitude and mentality.

What is responsibility? I do not have to definethat. You know what responsibility means. There is a greater sense of responsibility when you feel that you belong. For example, a piece of rubbish has been thrown on the path. Somebody goes and picks it up, and puts it in the rubbish bin. It did not tax anyone; it was a simple act. If you leave the rubbish and wait for somebody else to remove it, are you being responsible? If somebody tells you, “Please pick up that rubbish,” a reaction happens.
Discipline is not a structured method, system or lifestyle – that in the morning you do this, in the afternoon do this, in the evening do this. Routines change from place to place. In your home you also have a routine, but by following the routine you do not become disciplined; it is by becoming responsible for your development that you become disciplined.

When you are responsible all rights come to you naturally; nobody can deny you any rights. On the other hand, if you want rights and you do not want responsibility, you will struggle with everyone, whether it is your family members or the government. Therefore, take responsibility for your growth and development. That is the best form of discipline, which will also make you free from your own mental hang-ups, reactions and bondages.

-8 January 2008
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Living Yoga Blog

    Learn to LIVE YOGA! Welcome to our collective blog with Ashram life and traditional Yoga articles, musings and recipes for living Yoga every day.

    Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019

    Categories

    All
    Adaptability
    Announcements
    Anxiety
    Aradhana
    Ashram Life
    Astrology
    Ayurveda
    Chaturmas
    Contentment
    Doshas
    Faith
    Garden
    Growing Food
    Kirshna
    Living Yoga
    Living Yoga Recipe
    Navaratri
    Parenting
    Plant Medicine
    Residency
    Restraint
    Rikhiapeeth
    Sankalpa
    Santosha
    Satsang
    Self Care
    Simplicity
    Social Responsibility
    Sustainability
    Swami Niranjan
    Sw Sivananda's Ities
    Wildcraft
    Yoga Ecology
    YogaMag

    RSS Feed

Donate

Contact

"In order to maintain a tree, we need to water the roots."   - Sw. Niranjanananda Saraswati
© COPYRIGHT 2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • About
    • Living Yoga Society
    • Founders & Teachers
    • FAQs
    • Getting Here
    • Cancellation and Refund Policy >
      • Liability Waiver
  • Online Programs
    • LYFE - Online Community
    • Karma to Dharma Program
    • Online Masterclass Retreat in Yoga Psychology
    • LIVE Online Asana
    • Navaratri Sadhana
    • LIVE - Saundarya Lahari Chanting
  • Yoga Retreats
    • Retreat in Golden BC (Apr 29 - May 1, 2022)
    • Advanced Chakra Immersion
    • Living Local Retreat
    • Foundations of Yoga Ecology Week-long Retreat
    • Study in Residence Yoga Ecology
    • Karma Yoga Community Days
    • Private Sessions
  • Farm
    • Farm Employment
    • Bakery
  • News & Prasad
    • Living Yoga Blog
    • Living Yoga Podcast
    • Recipes
    • YouTube Channel
    • Book
  • Contact