SHAKESPEARE ON MERCY

 

 

                                SHAKESPEARE ON MERCY

            The British poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was not a saint or seer or a sage or a priest but a great poet with the qualities of a kind-hearted human being.

            A person who is almost as merciful as God Almighty has in him the qualities of compassion, forgiveness and kindness.

            A sufi poet says that God forgives all kinds of chronic sinners not only once but innumerably because His court of justice is not  one of disappointment but of eternal hope. He goes on giving the guilty new chances for self-reformation.

            According to religious thinkers patience, helpfulness, goodness, gentleness,  grace, kindness, humanism , forgiveness, and pity are the core qualities of those powerful people who have the authority of punishing the wrong-doers  but do not use their authority immediately. .

            Here are some relevant quotes from Shakespeare’s writings:

*Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill. ---Henry VI , 2^nd Part, Act 5.

**Press not a falling man too far; ‘t is virtue.----Henry VIII, Act 3.

***The common executioner,/Whose heart the accustom’d  sight of death makes hard,/Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck/But first begs pardon.---As You Like It, Act 3.

****When vice makes mercy, mercy ‘s so extended,/That for the fault’s love is the offender friended. ----Measure for Measure, Act 4.  

            Finally, a full sonnet on Mercy by William Shakespeare from Merchant of Venice, Act 4.

              The quality of mercy is not strained.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown.

His scepter shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.

But mercy is above this sceptered sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;

It is an attribute of God himself;

And earthly power doth then show like God’s

When mercy seasons justice.                                        

                                                            *****           

 

G.R.Kanwal

10 August 2026

 

 

MUST READ AGAIN AND AGAIN

 

                MUST READ AGAIN AND AGAIN

                        Great literature including poetry is a thing of beauty which has eternal relevance. According to the English romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) :

                        A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

                         Its loveliness increases; it will never

                        Pass into nothingness, but still will keep

                        A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

                        Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing

                        Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing

                        A flowery band to bind us to the earth,

                        Spite of despondence, of the human dearth

                        Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

                        Of all the unhealthy and o’er darkn’d ways

                        Made for our searching yes, in spite of all,

                        Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

                        From our dark spirits. Such the sun , the moon,

                        Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon

                        For simple sheep; and such are daffodils

                        With the green world they live in, and clear rills

                        That for themselves a cooling covert make

                        ‘Gainst the hot season, the mid-forest brake,

                        Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms,

                        And such too is the grandeur of the dooms

                        We have imagined for the mighty dead;

                        An endless fountain of immortal drink,

                        Pour into us from the heaven’s brink.

            The lines given above are in the very beginning of Endymion,” a narrative poem by John Keats.  They are full of aesthetic joy and sublime poetic imagination. The poet supports his ideas by focusing on natural objects like the sun, the moon, the flowers, and splendid dooms made for mighty dead.

            There is both pleasure and purpose for the reader. We should get connected with beautiful things of the world to feel joyous and have a sleep full of sweet dreams.

              There are enough prose and poetic works in literature which are things of beauty and a source of eternal joy.  We shall have a look at them in coming days. They deserve to be read again and again.

                                    ********

G.R.Kanwal

9 August 2026

                       

DEALING WITH ADOLESCENTS

 

DEALING WITH ADOLESCENTS

            An adolescent is a young person who is developing from a child into an adult between the age of 13 and 18. It is an awkward age.

            In his famous short story the Home Coming the Indian poet and author Rabindranath Tagore (1861-41) describes a boy at the age of fourteen as the worst nuisance in this world of human affairs. According him such a boy is neither useful nor ornamental . He finds himself stuck in an awkward, painful, and misunderstood stage of growth. He is considered neither a little child, nor a grown-up boy.

            His presence becomes inconvenient. He continuously gets in the way of others and any speech by him – childish or mature –is regarded as impertinent.

            His appearance becomes unattractive. He outgrows his clothes, and his voice starts breaking. His interacting with elders is marked by undue boldness and paralyzing shyness.

            At this age, he wants to be as close to girls and women as possible.

            His habits change from abstinence to enjoyment. If neglected and disliked, he becomes sad, introvert, pensive,  and gloomy. His body and mind become a burden to him.

            It is during this period of life that he becomes a voracious reader of obscene literature.

            Punishing the adolescents for some indecent habits, appetites, games, wanderings, companionships, and misbehaviour, etc, does not improve the situation. If his new wants about dress, eating-cum- drinking habits, and options of entertainment, selection of friends from both sexes are violently snubbed or crushed, he becomes rebellious.

            It is better to love than to hate him. He needs  to be understood magnanimously, not criminally.

            Overlook his new tendencies because they are natural and moreover for a short period.  He will himself try to give up what is undesirable  when he becomes a mature adult.

            Sympathy rather than apathy and indifference are needs of adolescents.

            At the end, here are some famous quotes:

*Adolescence is a border between childhood and adulthood. It is a time of intense emotions, growth, and shifting identity.

**The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.  ---Alden Nowlan (1933-1983), Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright.

***Adolescence is a new birth, for the higher and more completely human traits are now born.---G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924), American psychologist and educator.

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

7^th August 2026

        

WIT AND WISDOM

 

          WIT AND WISDOM

            Given below  are some short sentences packed with wit and wisdom.

            According to lexical definition wit is quick, clever humour and sharp skill, while wisdom is deep insight, sound judgment, and long-term understanding gained through life experience.

            Common antonyms of wit are : stupidity foolishness, and dullness. And of wisdom : foolishness, stupidity, folly, ignorance, and imprudence.

            EXAMPLES:

1.     Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise.

2.     Old age plants more wrinkles in the mind than in the face.

3.     We must beat the iron while it is hot: but we may polish it at leisure.

4.     An honest man is the noblest work of God.

5.     We live in our desires rather than in our achievements.

6.     Character is what you are in the dark.

7.     There is no brotherhood of man without the fatherhood of God.

8.     Beard was never the true standard of brains.

9.     Borrowing is not much better than begging.

10.                         Anger is short madness.

11.                         Unjust rule never endures perpetually.

12.                         Votes should be weighed, not counted.

13.                         Prayer needs no speech.

14.                         Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue.

15.                         Real beauty is the beauty of soul.

16.                         Error tolerates, truth condemns.

17.                         There is not a moment without some duty.

18.                          Where  is no hope, there can be no endeavour.

19.                         The soul of woman lives in love.

20.                         Married in haste, we repent at leisure.

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

6 August 2026

 

SOMETHING WORTH READING

 

SOMETHING WORTH READING

            `           In his famous essay Of Studies, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) explained that “reading builds knowledge, conversation makes us quick-witted, and writing makes us precise.“  He advised that we must read to weigh and consider rather than to just argue or blindly believe.  He also said : Taste some books (read parts), swallow others (read without deep focus), and chew and digest a few (read completely with heavy attention).  

                        There is no reason whatsoever to disagree with Francis Bacon. He was an English philosopher and statesman, and master of the English language. In a 1592 letter to his uncle Lord Burghley he wrote: “I have taken all knowledge to be my province.”

                          Given below are two most readable extracts by world-famous great writers.

1.     From the chapter on CRIME in The Prophet by Khalil Gibran, the Labanese-American writer and poet (1883-1931).   

      Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.  But I say that even as the holy and righteous cannot rise beyond the highest, which is in each of you, so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.

       And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, so the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you.  

2.     A  poem  by Indian mystic and poet Kabir (1398-1518) translated by the Indian poet and author Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).

      All things are created by the Om; The Love-form is His body. He is without form, without quality, without decay: Seek thou union with Him.

      But that formless God takes a thousand forms in the eyes of His creatures.

        He is pure and indestructible, His form is infinite and fathomless, He dances in rapture, and waves of form arise from His dance. The body and the mind cannot contain themselves, when they are touched by His great joy. He is immersed in all consciousness, all joys, and all sorrows; He has no beginning and no end; He holds all within His bliss.

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

5 August 2026

   

POPULAR AND UNPOPULAR VIEWS

 

                POPULAR AND UNPOPULAR VIEWS

            Given below are the miscellaneous views of  two well-known Indian personalities.

            The first one is Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh popularly known as Osho (1931-1990).

            By profession, he was a college professor but by contemplation he was a mystic, a great thinker, and philosopher. His talks on various topics of life run into a number of published  books which are best sellers in the whole world.

            He concluded one of his discourses with these words:

            But to return to a bygone culture or civilization is an impossibility. No culture ----be it Hindu, Muslim or Christian ---can ever make man happy by taking him back to the past. The ideal lies n the future ---where there is no Hindu, no Christian, no Muslim;---just man, and man alone. To this man belongs the future. To give birth to him, we need more productivity, more thinking, more consciousness.

            We need healthy people ----healthy in body and in mind.

            This man will create for us the music of bliss, the bliss that will ultimately take us to God himself!

            Osho is not wrong. Some orthodox people may disagree with him but they cannot reject all his views without valid arguments.

                                                            ----

            The second world-famous personality is Lord Buddha with reference to his secret of happiness.

            By birth he was a prince. He was born in Lumbini (in present-day Nepal). His biographical years are Circa 563 BCE-483 BCE). He was married, had a son, yet became sad when he observed outside his palace --- a wretched old man.  a sick man, and a dead man.

            This made him believe that the world is a place of suffering, and he must abandon his palace life, wander and wander, meet all sorts of learned people , and find the secret of happiness.

            After several years of this mode of life, one day he suddenly attained supreme knowledge. He was then 35 years old and was eager to share his supreme knowledge with entire humanity.

            It was at Sarnath near Benares (now Varanasi) that he delivered his main sermon. He said:  

            There are four noble truths: 1. Life is full of suffering. 2. The cause of this suffering is that man is selfish and has desires. 3. Suffering ceases when the desire ceases. 4. Desire can be abolished by following the eightfold path which consists of:

            1.Right faith. 2. Right Resolve. 3. Right Speech. 4. Right conduct. 5.Right Living. 6. Right Effort. 7. Right Remembrance. 8. Right Meditation.

            Lord Buddha also preached the middle path. Neither too much enjoyment , nor too much torture. He preferred self-control to anger; compassion and kindness to hatred and malice. He also  preached compassion, love and kindness to all living beings.

            To conclude, Lord Buddha suggested  that one should not lie, steal, kill or drink.

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

4^th August2026    

 

LITERARY MEMORIES OF PAST READING-V

 

          LITERARY MEMORIES OF PAST READING-V

1.     Courage and modesty are the old English virtues.---WILLIAM HAZLITT.----Literary Remains. February 1822.

2.     Between the acting of a dreadful thing/And the first motion, all the interim is/Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream. ----WILLIAM HAZLITT. Literary Remains. February 1822.

3.     ON THE FEELING OF IMMORTALITY IN YOUTH.   No young man believes he shall ever die. It was a saying of my brother’s, and a fine one. There is a feeling of eternity in youth, which makes us amends for everything. To be young is to be as one of the immortal gods. One half of time indeed is flown ---the other half remains in store for us with all its countless treasures ; for there is no line drawn, and we see no limit to our hopes and values and wishes. We make the coming age our own---

                        “The vast, the unbounded prospect lies before us. “

Death,  old age, are words without a meaning, that pass by us like the idle air which we regard not. Others may have undergone, or may still be liable to them ---we “bear a charmed life,” which laughs to scorn all such silly fancies. As in setting out on a delightful journey, we strain our eager gaze forward ---

                        “Bidding the lovely scenes at distance hail,”—

And see no end to the landscape, new objects presenting themselves as we advance; so, in the commencement of life, we set no bounds to our inclinations, nor to the unrestricted opportunities of gratifying them. ----WILLIAM HAZLITT. Literary Remains. 1827 .

4.     As flies to wanton boys, are we to te gods’

They kill us for their sports.----WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) in the play King Lear , Act 4, Sc.1.

 

5.     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.----WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE  in his play Hamlet, Act 2, Sc,2.

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

3^rd August2026