Self Denial ---

What For?

In this push-button age of easy living, self denial, for many of us has become entirely meaningless. Nowadays, we do not even know what this word really means. Because of the advantages provided by modern technology, we no longer carry the spirit of our forebears who have crossed continent after continent, not in cushion-seated jet planes but by sweating it under the heat of the sun either in wagons, on beasts of burden or even on foot. We are losing the power to do without the extra luxuries and comforts which we assure, as our birthright, that we need not do without.

You may not know it, but those who are dominated by material desires, who live under the obsession of pleasure, will find at the end of the road, only dust and ashes of gratification beyond desire. Millions of people nowadays think of how they can enjoy themselves. People look down on work as something to be done under duress or compulsion while entertainment is looked upon as a means of gratifying man's completion of his work.

The younger generation are especially obsessed by what we call "good time".
Moreover, parental authority has become a joke -- discipline has been forgotten -- and self-restraint does not exist anymore.

But still, there is salvation for this troubled and misled planet, which does not lie in luxury, entertainment and comforts that devitalize the body and enervate the soul. It lies in the heart and will of everyone of us. Man will never know true freedom and happiness until he has tamed himself and unless he has known what it is to deny one's self.