“Self conquest is the greatest of victories” Plato, Greek Philosopher.
I define self conquest as the ability to control and influence ones’ matters or affairs, to move in the direction of his or her purposes and to achieve their goals.
I think the greatest obstacle to achieving an inspired harmonious life is ones’ self. It is therefore crucial for us to conquer or master the self if we are to live an inspired harmonious life.
Self conquest is comprised of a myriad of components. One such component is self control. The book of Proverbs in Chapter 16:32 says “One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And one who rules his spirit, than one who captures a city.” It is a powerful thing to be able to control one’s spirit and one’s passions if you may. I recall a certain advert by Pirelli Tyres that would run on the Television some years ago, it ended with this adage “power is nothing without control”. If you think about it, everything we have access to or that is in nature can be useful or dangerous. It is useful if it is controllable, it is dangerous if it is uncontrollable. Take fire for instance, under control, we use it to do good stuff like cooking meals, when it goes out of control, it destroys, burns up people, burns buildings, forests etc. Same goes for water, if it is under control, we use it to drink, wash, irrigate farms, run industries, however if it is out of control, it is disastrous. It causes floods which destroy buildings, kills people and destroys entire cities.
I think there are two ways to achieve self conquest. The proactive way or the catastrophic or challenging way. The catastrophic way is one where a momentous occurrence causes one to make sweeping changes to make progress and survive.
I recall a story of a King who wanted to get a courageous young man in his kingdom to marry his beautiful daughter, the Princess. The King sent word around his Kingdom about this, he set an appointed time for the contest in which the victor would marry the Princess. The contest was a challenge for any young man to swim across a river with hungry crocodiles. The first young man to do this, would marry the Princess. On the day of the contest, fine young men from all over the Kingdom showed up. They were all excited at the prospect of marrying the Princess. There were spectators who lined up the banks of the river, ready to take in this fine contest. Anxiety and excitement were high. Then suddenly, there was commotion in the river, the crocodiles were moving about, trying to seize prey. You see there was a young man in there, frantically swimming, making every effort to escape from the hungry crocodiles. With the crowd cheering in excitement, the young man made it to the other side of the river. The King’s aides were waiting to receive this courageous young man. The King was waiting to meet the young man. Once the young man had regained his breath, he was asked, how did you do it? He said, I will answer that question, but first, I want to know “who pushed me!?”
We do not have to wait till a catastrophic or challenging moment appears. I think we can be proactive in ensuring we master the self and thereby achieving an increasingly inspired harmonious life.
