A Tool For Transformation

Discipline or self-discipline?

- Gayathri Ramachandran

It has taken me few long decades to realize what Discipline really means. Unto this point, I have heard people talk about it and even suggest ways to implement it in one's life. Oh! Did I mention that I have preached it as well? Yes, day in and day out to a lot of people surrounding me! The only outcome was me being christened “Ms Rules!”

What others professed to me seemed to pass through my ears.

My ears were just acting as a hollow medium for the passage of some syllabi uttered by well-wishers. Therefore I have never felt any kind of intense influence, which would bring about a significant transformation in me. On the other hand, when I did preach to others, which I quite frequently do, it really seemed to be rhetoric and plucked right from something I had read in a book or seen in a video clip. Again, it is quite natural and I am convinced in the retrospective, that others would have felt the same way as I myself did!

This two-way interchange had been going on for some time now and I made myself superficially believe that this is what it is. While an undercurrent kept telling me that it was NOT, I comfortably and conveniently ignored it. Well, I guess a time and a situation has to come for anything to materialize in this world. The opportunity thus came to me camouflaged in the form of a much anticipated and awaited pilgrimage recently. The days thereafter taught me the true meaning of being disciplined through subtle experiential events.