Self Discipline

SELF DISCIPLINE BRINGS HONOUR "Their's is not to question where and why Their's is to make no reply Their's is to just do or die Thus rode the six hundred". Mr president sir, these were a few lines from Lord Alfred Tennyson's famous poem " The Charge of the Light Brigade" . These verses always take my imagination to the Crimean Peninsuala back in nineteenth cenyury. I visualize a force of about six hundred riders confronting a huge legion. This is the last stand of the famous Light Brigade. The commander of The Light Brigade, Sir Robert Crauford, orders his men to charge the enemy. And to my surprise, the force complies the orders well aware of the fact that it will lead to a certain death. The majority of the force perished but earned an honour for themselves which has become one of the most celebrated sagas of obedience and courage in the military history . A normal human mind is perplexed at such a selfless submission to the orders. What made these men do it was only and only discipline.

Field Marshall Earl Wavell in his book "The Good Soldier" defines discipline and I quote "Discipline is teaching which makes a man do something which he would not , unless he had learnt that it was the right, the proper, and the expedient thing to do." Unquote.

There are two forms of discipline i.e. imposed discipline and self discipline. Imposed discipline is one which relies on a system of punishment and fear and makes the people obey orders without assimilating them. Whereas self discipline is inborn and developed from within.

According to Field Marshal earl Wavell " At its best , discipline is instilled by pride in onself, one's unit, in one's profession; only at its worst by a fear of punishment." Unquote

In army self discipline has a major purpose and that is to ensure that when unsupervized, in times of great danger, the soldier does not give way to his natural instinct for self preservation.

Self discipline is not only