How the Principles of War Apply to Our Lives

[Music]

okay students

ladies and gentlemen it is an absolute

honour to be standing in front of you

and i think there is no better way for

me to start than to quote

possibly the best military quotation

that i have heard

it goes something like this if you want

to be peaceful

you have to retain the capability of

intense violence

because if you are not capable of

violence

then you are not peaceful you are

harmless

standing in front of you i assure you is

a very

very peaceful man and i’d like to inform

you that

this peaceful man 40 odd years back

was wearing his short pants and sitting

possibly in the same place where you sit

listening to somebody like me expound

from the stage

so is there a common link a common link

between

you and me a common thread which i can

share with you and

we will find that out in the next 15 odd

minutes

uh there’s a question for all of you

how many soldiers in this audience

so i see a raise of about two or three

hands

uh and i’m going to surprise you by the

time i finish

asking you this question has actually

provided me

the wildfire that i intend for today

because i’m going to be the small

spark for this wildfire but i’m going to

ensure that you all

are the small flames you’re the tinder

you’re the strong breeze and you’re the

wood

and you’re the wildfire for my 15 to 18

minutes of talk

so what you see standing in front of you

is a soldier

and a general what you don’t see

is on a day-to-day basis i go through

the same travails as you do

i go through the same fears

the same tests and some

amazing examinations just the way you go

through

so the point i’m trying to make is

there’s a soldier and a general with a

large amount of student in him standing

in front of you

so i ask myself this question is the

converse also true

amongst all these young bright students

sitting in front of me

is there a soldier lurking in you yes

yes

so as students together

i have realized that even when i was a

young kid

there was an inner voice a conscience in

me which told me right from wrong which

told me when to go

when to stop when to do the right thing

the same thing has continued with me

throughout my life

the difference between you and me today

is

that i have been able to ensure that

these have been all identified

as broad rules

guidelines or principles where has you

not been able to firm them in

so i decided as fellow students

to give you the benefit of these rules

or principles which have guided my life

to define them for you to help you

define yourselves

i’m going to start with the most

important one which is the mother of all

rules and principles and that’s aim

you have to be able to define your aim

in life as early as possible

i had a doctor sitting with me the other

day who told me in class

10 he knew he was going to be a doctor

today he is a famous

surgeon in the apollo hospital i stand

in front of you in class

6 and 7 i knew i was going to be a

soldier

your broad aim for your life define it

for yourself

so that you can concentrate all your

energies towards it

and that’s the second guideline

concentration of force we’re talking

about the inner force which is inside

you

which is a sum total of all that makes

you

a person your capabilities your

abilities

your desires your talents your strengths

your weaknesses

concentrate them and ensure that you

are working towards your aim in life

just remember towards your aim in life

they’re going to be many goals

how you achieve each goal is something i

will come to later

you must understand that you have a main

effort

and when we speak about effort we come

to the third rule

which is the economy of effort an

economy of effort

equally means recognizing your main

effort

and the ability to eschew the

peripherals

you must know where to put in your main

effort

in the army we say the more you use the

less you lose

identify that effort offensive

that’s the fourth extremely important

don’t sit back and wait for things to

happen

make them happen the initiative should

always be with you you’ve heard of this

famous term carpe diem

seize the day in the army we say

if you are always acting you will never

have to react

so wake up that action man and action

woman in you

be offensive in everything that you do

surprise the x factor

it is really important to develop and

nurture the capabilities and the hidden

talents that are in you

they could be academic they could be on

the sports field they could be

extracurricular

whatever be your hidden talent nurture

it

every child i believe every child every

student is special

nurture your qualities please remember

pleasant surprises

are accelerators to success they’ve just

spoken about

it was on a whim at the last moment that

i decided that i would

give a pleasant surprise to my command

of almost 1.8

lakh men and tell them that you have to

get physically fit so if a 59 year old

man can cycle to 80 kilometers so can

you

a pleasant surprise flexibility

we’ve all heard about the famous story

of the storm and the bamboo bending to

it

and the oak getting uprooted

we cannot be inflexible flexibility is

an extremely extremely

important quality for a scholar and for

a warrior

if you recollect i spoke to you about a

single aim

and many goals in the army we say

you can lose a battle and still win the

war similarly in your life there will be

goals which you will not be able to

achieve

you will have to shift gears shift goals

but still work towards your aim

that is what flexibility is all about

cooperation stand by me

stand by your men stand by your friends

and families

stand for each other stand with each

other that is what cooperation is all

about

it is extremely important to us as army

men it is extremely important to you

as students you know they say

when you cooperate you divide the task

you multiply the success they also say

in the army

you want to go fast you go alone you

want to go far

you go together cooperation is extremely

important

morale

you all heard of cargill and you had all

heard of

the manner in which the soldiers had to

climb those great heights

to attack an enemy was sitting atop them

it all happened

because of a very very high state of

morale and morale is nothing else but a

positivity of mind

believing good things will happen will

make good things happen

it’s called the power of serendipity

they’ve been books and tomes written

about it one of the best being secrets

by rhonda bryan

just remember if you are positive and

you think positive

good will happen

maintenance of

security

security and administration are two

really important facets for you

to know that your six is guarded to know

that you always have

fallback options it is

through your friends through your

families through your school your

organization

your teachers all of these people

are the ones who back you up who are

your fallback options

if you know that you have a secure

foundation

you can strike out from the shore and

try and cross the ocean so security and

administration

are again two really important

principles

now i’ve outlined nine or ten principles

for you

which are going to be flashed on the

slide

so that you can actually see them

remember them and imbibe them

but there is something which i’m

actually not telling you about here

which i will let you know after i reveal

to you what my anthem is

since i was a young boy

in my 10th 11th in class and then a

young soldier

a middle piece soldier until now i have

followed a single anthem

which actually i know by heart

it goes something like this out of the

night that covers me

black is a pit from pole to pole i thank

whatever gods may be

for my unconquerable soul

in the fell clutch of circumstance i

have not winced

or cried aloud under the bludgeonings of

chance my head is bloodied but unbowed

beyond this place of wrath and tears

looms but the horror of the shade

and yet the menace of the years finds me

and will find me unafraid

it matters not how straight the gate how

charged with punishments the scroll

you are the master of your fate you are

the captain of your soul

now this is the famous poem called

invictus

it is the strength of these words either

the strength of these 16 lines

that nelson mandela spent 27 years of

incarceration

it is on the strength of these lines

that i have actually worked my way up

through some amazing situations some

amazing travails and tests and reached

the rank i have this is my anthem

but the last two lines are extremely

important it’s important for you

and they’re important for me i am the

master of my fate

i am the captain of my soul

you know soldier very interestingly

is a noun and a verb so the noun stands

in front of you

but all that i’ve done on my life was

the verb i’ve soldiered on

soldiering on applied to nelson at

mandela soldiering on applies to all of

you

so the point i’m trying to make to you

ladies and gentlemen what i’m going to

reveal to you right now

these 10 principles that have revealed

to you

these are actually the principles of war

which are followed by the indian army

every army in the world every army in

the world has principles of

war some of them have five some of them

and eight

the indian army has ten principles of

four and when i was coming out here to

address you i thought there was no

better way

than to align you and make you

understand that these principles of war

they apply as much to every soldier of

the indian army

every officer this general they apply to

you

they apply to all of you so i believe

just the way as a soldier standing in

front of you there’s a student in me

i believe as a student sitting in front

of me there is definitely a lot of

soldier in each one of you

so i’m going to finish by asking this

one question again

how many soldiers in the audience please

raise your hands

wow thank you you just made my day jai

hinds thank you