Chapter 3
Rules and Discipline
Words of Sri Aurobindo
Rules are indispensable for the orderly management of work; for without order and arrangement nothing can be properly done, all becomes clash, confusion and disorder.
Words of Sri Aurobindo
[Discipline:] To act according to a standard of Truth or a rule or law of action (dharma) or in obedience to a superior authority or to the highest principles discovered by the reason and intelligent will and not according to one’s own fancy, vital impulses and desires. In Yoga obedience to the Guru or to the Divine and the law of the Truth as declared by the Guru is the foundation of discipline.
Words of Sri Aurobindo
In all such dealings with others,1 you should see not only your own side of the question but the other side also. There should be no anger, vehement reproach or menace, for these things only raise anger and retort on the other side. I write this because you are trying to rise above yourself and dominate your vital and when one wants to do that, one cannot be too strict with oneself in these things. It is best even to be severe to one’s own mistakes and charitable to the mistakes of others.
1 In this case the correspondent became angry when his request for help in his work was not promptly met. – Ed.