SELF-RESTRAINT v. SELF-INDULGENCE

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

 

SELF-RESTRAINT v. SELF-INDULGENCE

 

 

 

 That the first edition was sold out practically within a week of its publication is a matter of joy to me. The correspondence that the series of articles collected in this volume has given rise to shows the need for such a publication. May those who have not made self-indulgence a religion, but who are struggling to regain lost self-control, which should under normal conditions be our natural state, find some help from a perusal of these pages. For their guidance the following instructions may prove useful:

1. Remember if you are married that your wife is your friend, companion and co-worker, not an instrument of sexual enjoyment.

2. Self-control is the law of your being. Therefore the sexual act can be performed only when both desire it and that too subject to rules which in their lucidity both may have agreed upon.

3. If you are unmarried you owe it to yourself, to society and to your future partner to keep yourself pure. If you cultivate this sense of loyalty, you will find it as an infallible protection against temptation.

4. Think always of that unseen Power which though we may never see we all feel within watching and noting every impure thought and you will find that Power ever helping you.

5. Laws governing a life of self-restraint must be necessary different from a life of self-indulgence. Therefore you will regulate your society, your reading, your haunts of recreation and your food. You will seek the society of the good and the pure. You will resolutely refrain from reading passion-breeding novels and magazines and read the works that sustain humanity. You will make one book your constant companion for references and guidance. You will avoid theatres and cinemas. Recreation is where you may not dissipate yourself but recreate yourself you will therefore attend bhajan mandalis where the word and the tune uplift the soul. You will cat not to satisfy your palate but your hunger. A self-indulgent man lives to eat; a self-restrained man eats to live. Therefore you will abstain from all irritating condiments, alcohol which excites the nerves, and narcotics which deaden the sense of right and wrong. You will regulate the quantity and times of your meals.

6. When your passions threaten to get the better of you go down on your knees and cry out to God for help. Ramanama is my infallible Help. As extraneous aid take a hip-bath i.e., sit in a tubful of cold water with your legs out of it, and you will find your passions have immediately cooled. Sit in it for a rew minutes unless you are weak and there I danger of a chill.

7. Take brisk walking exercise in the open air early in the morning and at night before going to bed.

8. “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” is a sound proverb. 9 o’clock to bed and 4 o’clock to rise is a good rule. Go to bed on an empty stomach. Therefore your last meal must not be after 6 p.m.

9. Remember that man is a representative of God to serve all that lives and thus to express God’s dignity and love. Let service be your sole joy and you will need no other enjoyment in life.