Descipline Or perish
The value of discipline in life is very great. Discipline is a funda mental factor in life, which makes for all progress, happiness and harmony. Without discipline no great achieve ments can ever be realized; nay, the very existence of humanity will be rendered impossible without dis- cipline. Discipline is thus life; the gentin absence of it is death.
The word discipline has very wide connotations. It relates not only to human conduct in relation to his it and fellow-beings, but also to the entire constitution of the life as a whole. Discipline is the balancing of different clements in the make-up of a human being and the society at large. When a man's mind, heart and body are in proper coordination, he behaves as a normal human being, as a disciplined entity. But when these are disturbed, abnormality begins,
Whatever lawlessness and disorder witness in human beings or we in society, it is the expression of the absence of correct and functioning of these elements in the personality of an individual. Restraint is the life-blood of discipline. Restraint is another name for control exercised by 1 by our mind or reason over different senses; when this our control gets relaxed, trouble begins. Reason or mind has been likened a charioteer and the senses to horses. Our reason like a charioteer hold holds the reins of our senses and keeps them in check and This and curbs their waywardness This is the disciplined state of mind But when reason gets subordinated to senses, disorder or indiscipline sets in. The former state, that is, the state of discipline is always conducive to an individual's own welfare as well as to the welfare of the community in which he lives. An indisciplined individual is a problem not only to the society in which he lives, moves and has his being, but also to himself. Hence, if discipline goes, march towards destruction begins.
Discipline is not an individualistic concept only. Discipline is as much a social concept as an individual one. For our purpose there is hardly any difference between discipline and Plato's justice in the ideal state of his 'Republic. According to Plato, justice occurs when three orders of the society-the rulers, the defenders and the producers, representing reason, spirit and body respectively-are in proper harmony. They are in harmony when each of them performs the duties assigned to when there is least interference by any in any other's sphere of duties. For peace in society, proper coordination and harmony between these three elements is essential.
It thus becomes clear that discipline is the first requisite of society for its progress and well being. Freedom is also essential for human progress. Discipline does not detract from freedom. On the contrary, it promotes and fosters it. On a deeper analysis it will be found freedom and discipline are synonymous, for freedom is as much a harmonious adjustment of different elements of an individual's personality as discipline. At the social level also freedom means the proper ence adjustment and harmony between of people and classes. In a society in which everybody's hand is at every body else's neck, man's life is nasty, brutish and short. Such a society is unfree. It may well be compared with the state the of nature of Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan'. Hobbes' social contract is in fact a contract of freedom and peace. Thus freedom needs restraint and discipline in order to be fruitful and meaningful.
In other words, discipline is a necessary condition of freedom. If discipline goes, the disappearance of freedom is a natural corollary. The between societies which cannot maintain discipline can never be really free. Freedom licence i as distinguished from is a social concept. It entails concern for other people's rights for one's own. Freedom rests on the premise: take care of duties, the disc rights will take care f themselves. In other words, true freedom consists in the faithful performance of one's duties. Admitted that freedom pre supposes the enjoyment of certain rights, but the source of rights is the sof duties. Rights emanate from duties. Performance of duties is discipline as we have already considered. In this way freedom and discipline are contributory rather than antagonistic