WHAT IS LOVE?

 

          WHAT IS LOVE?

            Love is defined as : (i)  An intense feeling of deep affection, (ii) A great interest and pleasure in something, and (iii)  A feeling of deep affection for someone.

            Some synonyms of love are: fondness, care, concern, attachment, regard, warmth, intimacy, devotion, adoration, passion, ardour, desire, lust, yearning, infatuation and adulation.

            Give and take policy is not love. It is business. It is based on profit and loss.

            True love is not a commercial venture; it is a spiritual relationship. It is not physical or material. It belongs to the mind as also the soul. By and large, it is unselfish. It is not like a gain or loss in business. Its main concern is with a heart that believes in selfless attachment.

            According to some famous quotes, it is: (i) It is a beautiful necessity of our nature; (ii) There comes a time when the souls of human beings begin to faint for the atmosphere of the affections they are made to breathe; (iii) If you love one human being purely and warmly, you  think of loving all; (iv) We are shaped and fashioned by what we love; (v) Mutual love is the crown of all our bliss; (vi) Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; (vii) There is nothing holier in this life of ours than the first consciousness of love ---the first fluttering of its silken wings ----the first rising sound and breath of that wind  which is so soon to sweep through the soul, to purify or to  destroy; (viiii) Love is like a beautiful flower which we may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same; (ix) Love never reasons, but profoundly  gives like a thoughtless prodigal, its all, and trembles then lest it has done too little; (x) Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

                  Finally, true love is not a temporary affair. It is an everlasting bond between two hearts. No excuse is strong enough to break a love relationship. As Shakespeare said: Love is not a Time’s fool.

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

4^th December 2025

 

GREAT THOUGHTS

 

                GREAT  THOUGHTS

 

      1.‘Father, thy name be hallowed

 Thy kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread;

And forgive us our daily sins,

For we too forgive all who have done us wrong.

And do not bring us to the test.”

2. Torment not yourself, lest God should punish you.

3.  One learned man is harder on the devil, than a thousand ignorant worshippers.

4.  Throw away Thy rod, throw Thy wrath.O my God, take the gentle path.

5.  The heart is the home of God; purify it of whatever is there other than Him.

6. Oneness is an Essential Attribute of God in the sense that God Almighty has no peers, equals, rivals, or opposites in either His Essence or His Attributes.  

 7. Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in their dust.      

8. My heart can never find its way to where thou keepest company with the companionless among the poorest, the lowliest, and the lost.

9. Believe in yourself and your abilities.

10. The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

11. Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.

12. Never let yesterday use up too much of today.

13. Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching.

14. If you want something said, ask a man, if you want something done, ask a woman.

15. The glories of our blood and state are shadows, not substantial things; there is no armour against Fate ; death lays his icy hand on kings;

sceptre and crown must tumble down, and in the dust be equal made

with the poor crooked scythe and spade.

                                                            **********

 

G.R.Kanwal

2^nd December 2025.                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

RIUALS

 

                          RITUALS  

            A ritual is defined as a religious ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order

            It is also defined as the performance of ceremonial acts prescribed by tradition or by sacerdotal decree.

            It is further described as a specific, observable mode of behaviour exhibited by all known societies.

            Some modern saints and sages having  a rational, evidence-based  mindset don’t believe in old rituals. They regard  them as superstitious based on  blind faith.

            In a song contained in his book of songs titled Gitanjali, the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) says to a temple priest: “Leave this chanting and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path-maker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil !   

            The Indian saint, mystic and devotional  poet Kabir (1398-1518) was a devotee of Lord Rama but did not see him in any personal form or attributes.

            Here are some of his devotional lines:

“The harp gives forth murmurous music,

And the dance goes on without hands and feet.    

It is played without fingers, it is heard without ears;

For He is the ear, and He is the listener.

The gate is locked but within there is fragrance;

And there the meeting is seen of none.

The wise shall understand it.”

 

            Finally, his affidavit-like words:

I do all works, yet I am apart from all works.

Few comprehend my meaning:

He who can comprehend it, he sits unmoved

Kabir seeks neither to establish nor to destroy.”  

                       

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

1^st December 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LIFE LINES (From Here and There)

 

LIFE LINES (From Here and There)

      1.What is this life, if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare.

 

2. Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream !

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

“Dust thou art, to dust returnest,”

Was not spoken of the soul.

 

3. Life is short; art is long.

 

4. Is life worth living? Yes, so long

As ere is wrong to right,

Wail of the weak against the strong,

Or tyranny to fight ;

Long as there lingers gloom to chase,

Or streaming tear to dry,

One kindred woe, one sorrowing face

That smiles as we draw nigh;

Long as at tale of anguish swells

The heart, and lids grow wet

And at the sound of Christmas bells

We pardon and forget;

So long as Faith with Freedom reigns,

And loyal Hope survives,

And gracious charity remains

To leaven lowly lives;

While there is one untrodden tract

For Intellect or Will,

And men are free to think and act,

Life is worth living still.

(The title of this poem is: Is Life Worth Living? And it is written by Alfred Austin (1835-1912).

             

5. I live for those who love me,

Whose hearts are kind and true;

For the heaven that smiles above me,

And awaits my spirit too;

For all human ties that bind me,

For the task by God assigned me ,

And the good that I can do.

                                                **********

 

G.R.Kanwal

30 November 2025

READ AND REMEMBER

 

READ AND REMEMBER            

1.Women have more strength in their looks, than we have in our laws.

2. Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.

3. Wine and youth are fire upon fire.

4. Wealth may be an excellent thing, for it means power, leisure, and liberty.

5. To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.

6. God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.

7. To know how to suggest is the art of teaching.

8. Good taste is the flower of good sense.

9. Liberal minds are open to conviction.

10. Life is the soul’s nursery—it’s training place for the destinies of eternity.

11. I fear nothing but doing wrong.

  12.The  first lesson in a spiritual school is self-denial.

  13.  He is a fool who cannot be angry; but he is a wise man who will not.

   14.No sword bites so fiercely as an evil tongue.

    15.Resentment is, in every stage of the passion, painful, but it is not                      disagreeable, unless in excess.

     16.If we make religion our business, God will make it our blessedness.

      17. A verse may find him who a sermon flies.

      18.Philosophy is the art of living.

      19. Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

      20.Modesty is the citadel of beauty and virtue.

                                          ********

G.R.Kanwal

29 November 2025

 

 

BLOW,BLOW THOU WINTER WIND

 

                BLOW,BLOW  THOU WINTER WIND

 

            Given below is a lyric poem titled ‘Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind”.  It  was sung by Amiens, a character in Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It.”

           

            It has been rightly said by a literary critic : “the poem uses the harshness of the winter wind as a metaphor for human unkindness, stating that the betrayal and ingratitude from people is far worse than the physical cold.”  It  also “explores themes of bitter friendship, the falseness of human relationships, and the transient nature of life.”

 

            Look at the text of the poem:

 

“Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art so unkind

As man’s ingratitude.

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen.            

Although thy breath be rude.

 

Heigh-ho sing, heigh-ho unto the green holly

Most friendship is feigning,most loving mere folly.

Then heigh-ho the holly.

This life is most jolly.

 

Freeze , freeze, thou bitter sky.

That dost not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot

Though thou the waters warp.

Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remembered not. “

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

28 November 2025,

 

SUPERMAN

 

                                                SUPERMAN

            According to a very brief definition a superman is one who is unusually strong or intelligent or who can do something supremely well. This is also the definition of a superwoman if she has an extraordinary career and can take care of her home and family.

            Some other qualities of a superman are  super strength, stamina and invulnerability.

            Many leaders of states are regarded as supermen if they have dictatorial  powers and their states have ultramodern  weapons of war.

              Brute force in a person is not universally appreciated . Wrestlers and warriors are not loved as great supermen.

            Look at these facts : Despite his god-like power, Superman’s personality is defined by moral traits like humility, compassion, kindness, truth, justice, hope and indomitable will for peace and prosperity.

               Pride, arrogance, combative tendency, lust for more and more  power and the instinct to humiliate others by any kind of personal superiority are not admirable qualities in a superman.

            The Indian yogi Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950) defines superman as a divinely transformed individual, a gnostic being who has ascended beyond the limitations of the human mind to embody a higher consciousness. He further says : This spiritual evolution is not a purely mental or ego-driven concept like Nietzsche’s, but one that involves a full transformation of being, including the physical body, into a state of divine consciousness, knowledge and joy. This gnostic being can then act in the world from a place of unity and spiritual purpose, not personal gain.   

               A  Gnostic believes that salvation comes from spiritual knowledge (gnosis) rather than through traditional action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil.

            In his essay on Superman Sri Aurobindo says: The world’s discords have to be understood, seized, transmuted. Love must call Power and Knowledge into the temple and seat them beside her in a unified equality; Power must bow its neck to the yoke of Light and Love before it can do any real good to the race.

                                                            ******

G.R.Kanwal

27 November 2025