ACTIONS

 

ACTIONS

            Some common synonyms of actions are deeds, activities, movements, operations, maneuvers, performances, accomplishments and achievements.

They are the results of one’s ideas, thoughts, aims, ambitions, desires, aspirations, dreams, intentions, goals, targets and plans.

            A simple antonym of action is inactivity which is undesirable. Our body and mind must perform their actions if we do not want to become sick and consequently die.

            Actions are also qualitative. Good actions are virtuous; the bad ones are vicious. The former maintain and promote life; the latter, spoil and destroy it.

            Religiously, too, actions are significant. They have both good and bad results. Heaven is awarded to morally sound people; and those who do evil deeds are confined to hell.

            A man, according to a proverb, is judged by his actions, not by his words.  Another proverb says—actions speak louder than words.     

The Greek philosopher Sophocles (c.496- 406/405 BCE) says: Heaven never helps the man who will not act.

Religiously, a man’s fate is the consequence of his healthy or unhealthy actions.

The British statesman Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881) believed: Action may not always bring happiness ; but there is no happiness without action.

Look at the following everlasting thoughts on action:

(i).The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts. --- English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704).

(ii).To do an evil act is base. To do a good one without incurring  danger, is common enough. But it is the part of a good man to do great and noble deeds though he risks everything in doing them.---Greek philosopher and historian Plutarch (Born about 45 CE –Died around 120 CE).     

       (iii).We must be doing something to be happy. –Action is no less necessary to us than thought. ---English essayist William Hazlitt (1778-1830).

            To conclude, a quote by the English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) : Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

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G.R.Kanwal

1^st April 2025

 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON EDUCATION

 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON EDUCATION

Abraham Lincoln (12 Feb 1809-15 Apr 1865) was the 16^th president of the United States. He was in the chair from 4 March 1861 to 15 April 1865 when he was assassinated.

According to historians :“His actions, particularly the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 led to the end of slavery in the Confederate states and paved the way for the 13^th Amendment, which abolished slavery nationwide.”

Lincoln was an eminent legislator and lawyer, though he was mostly self-educated and had only intermittent schooling for about a year. He never attended any college. However, his interest in self-learning was life-long.

The letter which is given below was addressed by him to his son’s first school teacher. It is an eternal document on the man-making philosophy of education.  Let us read it thoroughly.

“My son starts school today. It is all going to be strange and new to him for a while and I wish you would treat him gently. It is an adventure that might take him across continents. All adventures that probably include wars, tragedy and sorrow. To live this life will require faith, love and courage.

 

“So dear Teacher, will you please take him by his hand and teach him things he will have to know, teaching him – but gently, if you can. Teach him that for every enemy, there is a friend. He will have to know that all men are not just, that all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero, that for every crooked politician, there is a dedicated leader.

 

“Teach him if you can that 10 cents earned is of far more value than a dollar found. In school, teacher, it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat. Teach him to learn how to gracefully lose, and enjoy winning when he does win.

         

“Teach him to be gentle with people, tough with tough people. Steer him away from envy if you can and teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Teach him if you can – how to laugh when he is sad, teach him there is no shame in tears. Teach him there can be glory in failure and despair in success. Teach him to scoff at cynics.

“Teach him if you can the wonders of books, but also give time to ponder the extreme mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hill. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if every one tell him they are wrong.

 

“Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone else is doing it. Teach him to listen to every one, but teach him also to filters all that he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

 

“Teach him to sell his talents and brains to the highest bidder but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Let him have the courage to be impatient, let him have the patient to be brave. Teach him to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind, in God.

 

“This is the order, teacher but see what best you can do. He is such a nice little boy and he is my son.”

 

                                      **********

G.R.Kanwal

31^st March 2025

 

 

 

WHAT IS GREATNESS?

 

 WHAT IS GREATNESS?

Greatness is an extraordinary quality of head, heart, mind and soul. Literally, it may stand for bigness, largeness, extensiveness, vastness, immensity, hugeness, enormity, spaciousness , bulk, size, mass and  length.

 

Metaphorically, its implications are as  different as grandness, grandeur, magnificence, impressiveness, gloriousness, eminence, renown, nobility, proficiency, profundity and skillfulness.

 

A really great man, says Otto von Bismarck, a German statesman and diplomat (115-1896), is known by three signs --- generosity in the design, humanity in execution, moderation in success.

 

According to the American clergy William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) : The greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptations from within  and without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menace and frowns; and whose reliance on truth, on virtue, and on God, is most unfaltering.

 

The English poet and essayist Joseph Addison (1672-1719) had this to say: A contemplation of God’s works, a generous concern for the good of mankind, and the unfeigned exercise of humility --- these only, denominate men great and glorious.

 

In recent times, men like Mahatma Gandhi may be included in the list of great men of the world. He is the truest illustration of the following lines from A Psalm of Life, a poem written by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) :

 

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

 

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take hear again.

                        ***********

 

G.R.Kanwal

30^th March 2025

 

 

 

 

 

ADVANTAGES OF HONESTY

 

          ADVANTAGES OF HONESTY

When Lord Gautam Buddha (563 BCE—483BCE) laid emphasis on eightfold path of ---- right view, right mindfulness, right intention, right speech, right concentration, right effort, right action and right livelihood, he showed the way to honest living in this world. This approach to existence, according to him, was  the key to achieving liberation from the painful cycle of rebirth, which is a form of nirvana.

Honesty stands for  truth, integrity, sincerity, loyalty, fairness, reliability, uprightness, trustworthiness, truthfulness, and credibility.

It has many advantages. Some of these are ---- peace of mind, fearlessness, good health, sound sleep, unperturbed conscience , spiritual strength, public respectability, legal protection, moral prestige, professional honour and closeness to God.

Honesty, like truth, fears no examination. It may not make one materially rich but does make him morally wealthy.    

An honest man, said the English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744), is the noblest work of God.

The English poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) said : To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

The Greek philosopher Socrates (died 15 Feb 399 BC) believed: The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.

The English politician and philosopher Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3^rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1672-1713) said: A grain of honesty and native worth is of more value than all the adventitious ornaments, estates, or preferments, for the sake of which some of the better sort so oft turn knaves.     

Finally, the following quote by the America clergy and writer Charles Simmons (1798-1856} :

True honesty takes into account the claims of God as well as those of man; it renders to God the things that are God’s, as well as to man the things that are man’s.

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

29 March 2025

WHAT DO BOOKS DO?

 

          WHAT DO BOOKS DO?

Books make us learned, remove our ignorance, answer our questions on  life and death, God and Universe.

There are books on all sorts of subjects. You can read them to find solutions to you personal as also universal problems.

Some books  are books of the day, that is, they are ephemeral; their relevance is short-lived; but there are other books which become classics.  They do not become irrelevant for centuries to come.

The Gita, The Koran, The Bible, The Guru Granth Sahib and Dhamapada are the holy books of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism respectively. They answer all sorts of questions about life and death, body and soul, and show the way to the attainment of godliness. They make us noble children of God.  

Holy books are not to be read only once but repeatedly day after day, month after month and year after year. Every time they contribute new illuminations to our enlightenment.

The English clergy Caleb C. Colton (1789-1832) says: Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again ---for, like true friends, they will never fail us ---never cease to instruct---never cloy .

Without books, says A. Bartholini, the Danish physician and litterateur (1597-1643), God is silent, justice dormant, natural science at  a stand, philosophy lame, letters dumb, and all things involved in darkness.

According to the English poet, essayist and playwright Joseph Addison (1672-1719): Books are the legacies that genius leaves to mankind, to be delivered down from generation to generation, as presents to those that are yet unborn.

To conclude, here are a few precious words of the American clergy Talbot Wilson Chambers (1819-96): Books are standing counselors and preachers, always at hand, and always disinterested; having this advantage over oral instructors, that they are ready to repeat their lesson as often as we please.

                                    **********

G.R.Kanwal

28 March 2025   

       

BOASTING

 

          BOASTING

While self-praise may be good, boasting is not.   The former shows self-love, self-appreciation, self-confidence, self-inspiration, and self-satisfaction; the latter expresses excessive pride and self-satisfaction in one’s achievements, possessions, abilities, talents, skills, performances, achievements,  etc.

If self-praise may be fair and equitable; boasting may be unfair, exaggerated and unjustifiable.

Both self-praise and boasting should not forget the virtue of humility. Today’s success can be tomorrow’s failure; and present victory can be followed by future defeat,

In every success and in every achievement be thankful to God. You are not self-sufficient.  Your perfection for every accomplishment needs God’s help and blessings.

It is undesirable to claim yourself as the best, the strongest, and the most advanced in the world.

We live on a common earth, shared by different nations, with different beliefs, faiths, religions, political ideologies, philosophies, and natural resources.

The happiness of the world lies in the co-operative working of all the nations, not in the policy of subduing each other.

Remember the philosophy of togetherness and of co-existence and  also that of the Biblical saying: Love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Neighbour here means everybody in the world wherever he may be.

Also remember a poet’s saying: No lands are strange; no men are foreign.

There is an un-contradictable saying : The end of boasting is the beginning of dignity.

The English poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616) rightly believed that “The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.”  

The Church of England clergyman and religious writer William Secker (d.1681) said: Usually the greatest boasters are the smallest workers. The deep rivers pay a larger tribute to the sea than shallow brooks, and yet empty themselves with less noise.

Finally, this popular quote on boasting: Whatever accomplishment you boast of in the world, there is someone better than you.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

27 March 2025

 

 

     

WHAT IS EDUCATION?

 

          WHAT IS EDUCATION?

Education is not literacy. An illiterate man may not be uneducated if he has acquired knowledge; learnt skills and  crafts;, the ability to earn his bread and butter;  some good manners; the moral and spiritual values of life; has understood the purpose of life; can live peacefully and co-operatively both in his own place and in other parts of the world. Such a person believes that all mankind is one; and  loves life in all its manifestations; is close to nature; spends every moment of his life in self-discovery; regularly prays in the morning;  and offers his gratitude to God at bed time.

Such a man may be lacking institutional knowledge; may not be holding certificates and degrees; may not be knowing many languages, yet he is not illiterate. He is a scholar because he is schooled in the practical institutions of life.

Those who cannot read and write are also successful. Formal education is in no way superior to practically acquired knowledge.

Read the following quotes:

(i).The education of the human mind commences in the cradle. ---English physician Thomas Cogan (1736-1818).

(ii). Education commences at the mother’s knee, and every word spoken in the hearing of little children tends toward the formation of character. --- American clergy H. Ballou (1771-1852).

(iii). Education does not consist in mastering languages, but is found in that moral training which extends beyond the schoolroom to the playground and the street, and which teaches that a meaner thing  can be done than to fail in recitation. –American educationist Paul Chadbourne (1823-83 ).

 (iv). Do not ask if a man has been through college; ask if a college has been through him…if he is a walking university, ---Edwin Hubbell Chapin , American clergy (1814-1880).

Finally an anonymous quote:

Education does not commence with the alphabet; it begins with a mother’s look, with a father’s nod of approbation, or a sign of reproof; with a sister’s gentle pressure of the hand, or a brother’s noble act of forbearance; with handfuls of flowers in green dells, on hills, and daisy meadows; with birds’ nests admired, but not touched; with creeping ants, and almost imperceptible emmets; with humming-bees and glass beehives; with pleasant walks in shady lanes, and with thoughts directed in sweet and kindly tones and words to nature, to beauty, to acts of benevolence, to deeds of virtue, and to the source of all good ---to God Himself.

Note: *emmets are social insects.

                                                            ********

G.R.Kanwal

26 March 2025