Short Stories on Self-Control  -  The Mother

* A wild horse can be tamed but one never puts a bridle on a tiger.  Why is that?  Because in the tiger there is a wicked, cruel and incorrigible force, so that we cannot expect anything good from him and have to destroy him to prevent him from doing harm.  But the wild horse, on the other hand, however unmanageable and skittish he may be to begin with, can be controlled with a little effort and patience.  In time he learns to obey and even to love us, and in the end he will of his own accord offer his mouth to the bit that is given to him.  In men too there are rebellious and unmanageable desires and impulses, but these things are rarely uncontrollable like the tiger.  They are more often like the wild horse: To be broken in they need a bridle; and the best bridle is the one you put on them yourself, the one called self-control.

© All India Magazine (Feb-Mar 200) published by Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry 605002. Website:www.sriaurobindosociety.org.in; Reprinted with permission.

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