September 7

Few Are Willing to Pay the Great Price

There are only a few people who really want to reach something high and are willing to pay the price for it. That great price is discipline in life.

How much discipline is needed to send an astronaut to the moon? How much is necessary even to make an Olympic champion? The athletes are not allowed to smoke. They have dietary restrictions; they have a curfew. They have to practice regularly. And it’s all for a small piece of gold.

How much discipline is necessary to climb an ordinary mountain? And how much more discipline is required to climb Mount Everest? Here we are trying to climb the highest mountain: Ever Rest. All the great sages and saints said, “Discipline is necessary. Discipline your life. Control your senses.” They were not fools.

We need places where we can learn discipline in life. It’s in harnessing our energies that we get more benefit. Take hydroelectric energy, for example. Where do you get it? How do you get it? A free-flowing river is harnessed by a dam. Then the water is channeled through a big pipe. It runs through a turbine. And when the electricity is generated, it is stepped down by smaller transformers until it reaches your home. It is all discipline. If even one wire were exposed in your house, it would give you a shock or start a fire.

When you have a pet, and if you say, “Sit,” and it sits, you are so happy, so proud. How many owners of pets show off how disciplined their pets are? What do you see in the circus? All the lions, tigers, elephants and horses are disciplined. So don’t ever forget that any achievement in life is based on discipline.