WISDOM

 

                WISDOM

          ‘Wisdom’ is defined as the ability to take sensible decision and give good advice to others because you have enough experience and knowledge with regard to their difficulties and problems.

          Some common synonyms of wisdom are: knowledge, intelligence, prudence, discretion, sagacity, erudition, learning, common sense, understanding, judgment, insight, experience, and discernment.

          It is okay to call potato a vegetable but not wisdom to place it among apples which are fruit.

          In his poem “Lord, Make A Regular Man Out Of Me , the British-born  American poet Edgar A. Guest (1881-1959) writes:

                   I would like to be –

                   Just a bit wiser because I am older,

                   Just a bit kinder to those I meet,

                   Just a bit manlier taking defeat;

                   …..just a bit quicker to stretch out my hand

                   Helping another who’s struggling to stand

                   ….I would like to be ---just a bit fairer,

                   Just a bit better, and just a bit squarer,

                   Not quite so ready to censure and blame,

                   Quicker to help every man in the game.

         

          Wisdom has a touch of friendliness, not of enmity. It helps the rivals and the needy, does not hinder or harm them. It is a blessing for those who approach it for guidance, for light in darkness, for knowledge in ignorance, and for experience in ignorance.

 

          Finally, this quote: Wisdom is to the mind what health is to the body.----French author Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680).

                                     ********

G.R.Kanwal

20 September 2026

                                     

 

            

ONE TITLE : TWO PRAYERS

 

                                ONE TITLE : TWO PRAYERS

            To pray is to request, entreat, supplicate, demand and petition. It also means to speak to God, especially to give thanks or ask for help.

            The title of both the prayers is the same and that is AN ANCIENT PRAYER. However , the  periods  of both the prayers are distant from each other.

            The text of the first one mentioned here is also available under the title The Lord’s Prayer. It is the most famous ancient Christian prayer, taught by Jesus to his disciples more than two thousand years ago. It reads as follows:

            *Our Father in heaven

            * May your name be kept holy

            *May your kingdom come soon

            *May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven

            *Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have             forgiven those who sin against us.

            *And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.     

            The text of the second prayer also mentions food as a human necessity.

            Its title “An Ancient Payer” is absolutely identical.

            It was written by the English poet , who was also a soldier, Thomas H.W.Webb. His authentic biographical facts are not available.  However, the full text of the poem mentioned above is found in “Web Documents”.

            Here is the full poem:

Give us a good digestion, Lord, and also something to digest;

Give me a healthy body, Lord , and sense to keep it at its best.

 Give me a healthy mind, good Lord, to keep the good and pure in sight,

Which, seeing sin. is not appalled, but finds a way to set It right.           

Give me a mind that is not bound, that does not whimper, whine or sigh.

Don’t let me worry overmuch about the fussy thing called I.

Give me a sense of humour, Lord; give me the grace to see a joke,

To get some happiness from life and pass it on to other folk.

                                                            ******

G.R.Kanwal

19 September 2026

S0ME THOUGHTS FROM MY MEMORY

 

                S0ME THOUGHTS FROM MY MEMORY

1. He who digs a pit for others himself falls into it.

2.  When you think of God, you think of this truth: If you take perfect from perfect, what will remain will be as perfect as before.

3. The man who claims that he knows, knows nothing.

4. Wealth cannot satisfy a man.

5. A man does not kill nor is he killed.

6. Everything owes life and movement to Spirit.

7. Matter is life.

8. Life is immorality.

9.  Blunderers, charlatans, weaklings cannot attain the Self. It is attained by the pure, daring and cautious man.

10. Om is Spirit. Everything is but Om.

11. Food is the chief of things. It is the universal medicine.

12. Food has three qualities ---the grossest becomes excrement; the finest mind, and whatever is midway becomes flesh.

13. Mind comes from food and life from water.

14.There  are six gods : Fire, earth, wind, air, sun,  and sky.    

15, Education is a preparation for life.

16. Some people praise ancient times. I admire the present.

17.Every thing appears  yellow to a jaundiced eye.

18. Lies have short legs but long wings.

19. Religion belongs to the higher mind of humanity.

20. Even in madness there is method.

                                    G.R.Kanwal

                                    16 September 2026

 

                                     

A BEST LOVED POEM

 

A BEST LOVED POEM

 

            The poem that is quoted below is one of the best-loved inspirational choices. It is written by the English poet and philanthropist Adelaide Anne Proctor (1825-864) . She had started writing invigorating  poetry when she was just a teenager.

 

            Unfortunately, she died young at the age of 30 years.

 

            Her poems were published in the English novelist Charles Dickens’s periodicals Household Words and All the Year Round. The subjects of these journals  were “homelessness, poverty, and fallen women among whom she performed philanthropic work.“

 

                        The  title of one of her famous poems , which is reproduced below,  is    Now.

 

                        The message  of the poem lies in these selected lines:

                        *Rise! For the day is passing

                         And you lie dreaming on.

                       

                        **Rise from your dreams of the Future---

                         Of gaining some hard-fought field.

                       

                         ***Rise ! if the Past detains you,

                          Her sunshine and storms forget.

                       

                        ****Stay not to sharpen your weapons,

                          Or the hour will strike at last,

                          When, from dreams of a coming battle,

                           You may wake to find it past!

                                                …..                                                                                                      The full text of the poem follows:                         

                               

 

RISE! for the day is passing,

And you lie dreaming on

The others have buckled their armor,

And forth to the fight are gone:

A place in the ranks awaits you,

Each man has some part to play;

The Past and the Future are nothing,

In the face of the stern To-day.

 

Rise from your dreams of the Future,—

Of gaining some hard-fought field;

Of storming some airy fortress,

Or bidding some giant yield;

Your Future has deeds of glory,

Of honor (God grant it may!)

But your arm will never be stronger,

Or the need so great as To-day.

 

Rise! if the Past detains you,

Her sunshine and storms forget;

No chains so unworthy to hold you

As those of a vain regret;

Sad or bright, she is lifeless ever;

Cast her phantom arms away,

Nor look back, save to learn the lesson

Of a nobler strife To-day.

 

Rise! for the day is passing;

The sound that you scarcely hear

Is the enemy marching to battle:

Arise! for the foe is here!

Stay not to sharpen your weapons,

Or the hour will strike at last,

When, from dreams of a coming battle,

You may wake to find it past!

 

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

15 September 2026

AN INSPIRATIONAL POEM

 

AN INSPIRATIONAL POEM

            To inspire a person is to encourage, animate, elevate, exalt, cheer. hearten, or invigorate him.

            A psalm is a hymn, sacred song, song of praise, religious song, or anthem.

            The title of the poem which is given below is ‘A PSALM OF LIFE.’ It  was written by the American poet and educator HENRY Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).

           

            The principal message of the poem is that it is unwise to treat life as an empty dream. Life is, on the contrary, a  hard reality. It has to be lived actively and fruitfully. There should be no pessimism about the purpose of life. To fill it  with enthusiasm and the intention to make it lofty, grand, elevated, dignified, glorious, magnificent, or superb, one should study the biographies of great men which remind the readers that they can make their lives sublime, and departing leave behind them footprints on the sands of time. These footprints dissolve pessimism, low spirits, and a feeling of inability.

 

            H. W. Longfellow tells the readers:

                        Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

                          Is our destined end or way:

                          But to act, that each tomorrow

                          Finds us farther than today.

 

            The text of the complete poem follows:

               

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.

 

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

   Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

   Find us farther than to-day.

 

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

   And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

   Funeral marches to the grave.

 

In the world’s broad field of battle,

   In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

   Be a hero in the strife!

 

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!

   Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,— act in the living Present!

   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

 

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 heart again.

 

Let us, then, be up and doing,

   With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

   Learn to labour and to wait.

                                    *********

G.R.Kanwal

13 September 2026

SOME VIEWS ON MAN

 

                    SOME VIEWS ON MAN

               The statesman and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom William Gladstone (1809-1898) said :  Man himself is the crowning wonder of creation; the study of his nature  the noblest study the world affords.

               According to the English romantic poet Lord Byron (17881824) : Man is half dust, half deity, alike unfit to sink or soar.

               The writer and former Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom  Edmund Burke (1729-1797) had this to say: How little man is; yet, in his own mind how great ! He is lord and master of all things, yet scarce can command anything. He is given a freedom of his will, but wherefore? Was it but to torment and perplex him the more? How little avails this freedom, if the objects he is to act upon be not so much disposed to obey as he is to command!

               The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) said in his play Hamlet, Ac 1, Sc.4:

               What a piece of work is man ! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty ! In form and moving how express and admirable ! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!

               The last view is by the English poet and translator Alexander Pope (1688-1744). It is extracted from his poem  An Essay on Man: Epistle II:

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;

The proper study of mankind is man.

Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,

A being darkly wise, and rudely great:

With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,

With too much weakness for the stoic’s pride,

He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest,

In doubt to deem himself a god or beast,

In doubt his mind or body to prefer,

Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;

Alike in ignorance, his reason such,

Whether he thinks too little or too much:

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;

Still by himself abused or disabused;

Created half to rise and half to fall,

Great lord of all things, but a prey to all;

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

 

                                                            *********

G.R.Kanwal

11 September 2026

 

WHAT, IF YOU ARE GREAT?

 

                WHAT,  IF YOU ARE GREAT?

            What, if you are great and you are looked upon by lots of people as : mighty, powerful, invincible, unparallel, god-like, authoritative,  terrible in the use of your powers, resources, arms, and  all that?

                You may be a great king, emperor, ruler, governor, leader, conqueror, etc.         

                  You may be having many followers, helpers, subordinates, hirelings, slaves, servants, coordinators, partners, etc.  

                        Your material resources may be unlimited. Your arms and weapons may be deadliest.  Your fighters and soldiers may be uncountable.

                        In spite of every asset mentioned above you are not immortal. You will die one day. Your empire will come to an end. Your friends and followers and the people at large who were just like your slaves will forget you.

                        Here is a sonnet titled Ozymandias written by the famous English poet Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822). Its moral is that all human power, greatness, and pride are transitory,

                        “No matter how mighty a ruler is or how vast their empire becomes ,time and nature will inevitably destroy their legacy and reduce it to dust.”

                           The full text of the sonnet follows:

                                                OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

 

G. R. Kanwal

10 th September 2026