DON’T LIVE IN THE PAST

 

                DON’T LIVE IN THE PAST

            Don’t live in the past. Move forward. Look at the present. Use every new moment creatively. Time is like a river. It flows forward; does not stop anywhere aimlessly, takes new jumps and crosses new places.

            What is the charm in repeating the past?  Whereas it can be a little delightful, it can also be massively grave.

            In the past, wars were crude; life styles were stagnant; people had both harmony and disharmony among them. Most of the rulers were auto-crats.; only some of them were benevolent.

            It is true that history repeats itself both positively and negatively. But why should we ignore the present and remain attached to it.

            Human mind is a room of memories. Some of them are new, some are old. Why to keep the mind retain old rubbish? People like dusting, and cleaning, and even washing every corner of the house almost daily. They get rid of old, stale, old-fashioned things in whatever way they can.

            They do not go on collecting the junk into piles.

            As you clean your dwelling area every day and get rid of old, useless goods and chattels, so should you clean the areas of your mind every day. 

            Get up every morning with a clean mind to receive new knowledge, new ideas, and new plans.

              Note: the past is dead, It is not going to revive itself.

                 The future is uncertain.

                  The present is in your hands to do new things.

                   The English poet John Keats (1795-1821) said: Heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter.

                    And another English Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962) said:

                    Time, you old gipsy man

                     Will you not stay,

                      Put up your caravan

                     Just for one day.                                                       

                       

            Yet another English poetess A. A. Procter (1825-1864) said:

                       

                         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.

 

Finally: This old saying: Don’t dig the old graves.

 

                                                *****

G.R.Kanwal

25 June 2026                     

THE STORY OF A STAG

 

                THE STORY OF A STAG

            Things themselves are more important than their sizes. Elephants and  camels are big animals. Ants and cockroaches are small insects. And as the English poet Ben Jonson (1572-1637}  said in his poem The Perfect Life:
                                                A lily of a day

                                                Is fairer far in May

                                                Although it fall and die that night-

                                                It was the plant and flower of Light

            Look at the human body. All its parts are not of the same size. You have long legs but small eyes, likewise one has a big head but a small pair of  ears.

 

            Everything big or small, gigantic or tiny has its own utility. This is what we learn from the story of the stag who had long horns but a small pair of legs.

           

            Given below is the full story:

“A stag quenching his thirst in a clear lake was struck with the beauty of his horns, which he saw reflected in the water. At the same time, observing the extreme slenderness of his legs, what a pity said he, that so fine a creature should  be furnished with so despicable a pair of legs ! What a truly noble animal I should be, were my legs in any degree answerable to my horns. In the midst of this soliloquy, he was alarmed by the cry of a pack of hounds. He immediately flew through the forest, and left his pursuers so far behind, that he might probably have escaped; but, taking into a thick wood, his horns were entangled in the branches, where he was held till the hounds came up , and tore him in pieces.

 

            In his last moments, he thus exclaimed,----“How ill do we judge of our true advantages ! the legs which I despised would have borne me away in safety, had not my favourite antlers had betrayed me to ruin.

                                                            --------

            *Explanation :

Antlers are large, branched bone structures that grow on the heads of deer and similar animals.

                                                            --------                                                           

            *Moral: Value things for their usefulness rather than their appearance.

                                                            *********

G.R.Kanwal

24 June 2026

 

   

                                     

 

A SHORT STORY ABOUT ANTS

 

                 A SHORT STORY ABOUT ANTS

            This very short story pertains to my personal experience. A number of years ago,  it was a very hot summer afternoon. I was typing my Ph.D. thesis when I thought of going to the wash basin outside the room to wash my face.

            As I reached there I found an ant which was trying hard to come out but continued to fall down repeatedly from near the top of the basin.  

            I stood there for a while waiting for the end of the ant’s existential struggle.  But it did not seem to be happening. On my part I was a coward and could not dare to turn on the tap without killing the ant.

            Then I went to my seat again, brought a plain  sheet of paper, returned to the wash basin hurriedly, supported the struggling ant on the leaf, and brought it out.

            As it came out, it was extremely happy and felt relieved because it started running amazingly fast with its tiny legs.

            For me, an ant is a mysterious insect. I can’t understand : “What is her role in God’s creation? ”

             However, I feel deeply motivated when I read in the Bible:

            “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.”

                                    _____________

            Here are some quotes about the insect surviving the wild.

·        Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment.

·        If all humans disappeared today, the earth would start improving tomorrow.

·        Do not kill ants.

·        Somebody discovered that if one looks a little closer at the beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath.

·        If an ant carries an object a hundred times its weight, you can carry burdens many times your size.

·        If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.---Martin Luther King Jr.

·        When you have a dream, you have got to grab it and never let go.----Carol Burnett.

·        You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.---- C.S. Lewis.

·        Finally: No obstacle ever bogs down ants. Whenever they encounter one, they find a way out !

                                                            ********

G.R.Kanwal

23 June 2026

 

           

 

A POEM BY RUDYARD KIPLING

 

                A POEM BY RUDYARD KIPLING

            Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, novelist, poet and short -story writer.

            He was born in Mumbai (British India) on 30 December 1865 and passed away -in London (United Kingdom) on 18 Jan 1936.

            He wrote a lot which made him popular not only in India but  in many other countries.

             He was the first English-language writer who was  awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907.

            Two of his famous  compositions are : (i) The Jungle Book, and a poem titled “IF” which mentions a number of qualities which man should acquire.

            The poem  “IF” is a big which looks like one long sentence written “ as  a tribute to  Leander Starr Jameson (1853-1917), a  Scottish physician , colonial administrator, and key figure in British imperialism. “

            The following very popular  line :

            “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet” was written by Rudyard Kipling.

            Given below is the poem : ‘IF’.

            ‘If you can keep your head when all about you  

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,  

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;  

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;  

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;  

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;  

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,  

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,  

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,  

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,  

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”

                                    *****

G. R. Kanwal

22 June 2026

 

PRIDE IS A DEADLY SIN

 

          PRIDE IS A DEADLY SIN

                        According to Christianity ,there are seven cardinal virtues , and likewise seven deadly sins.

            Cardinal virtues are named as: chastity, temperance, charity, patience, diligence, kindness, and humility.  

            Deadly sins include lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and  pride.

            Of all the above-mentioned  sins, pride is the most obnoxious. Proud people hate and humiliate others. They are proud of their wealth, abilities, skills, superficial  knowledge, so-called  unreliable wisdom, sources of physical strength, fleeting achievements, political resources, and all those cuurent qualities that are absolutely transient.

            In his poem Death  the Leveller , the English poet James Shirley ( 1596-1666) says:

            The glories of our blood and state are shadows, not substantial things. There is no armour against fate, death lays his icy hands on kings, Sceptre and Crown must tumble dowm. And in the dust be equal made with the crooked scythe and spade.

            Concluding his poem, Shirley says: Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust.

            Undoubtedly, humility is better than pride; the former does not belittle the achievements of its predecessors and contemporaries.

            It is an ever-changing world; what is unique today becomes obsolete  in future.

            Self-praise  with some humility is agreeable but with arrogance it is detestable.    

            Look at these famous quotes:

*Pride is the master sin of the devil.

            *To be proud of learning  is the greatest ignorance.

            *We rise in glory as we sink in pride.

            *Pride, the most dangerous of all faults, proceeds from want of sense, or want of thought.

            *Historically. the beginning of pride was in heaven. The continuance of pride is on earth. The end of pride is in hell. This history shows how unprofitable it is.    

PUNCHLINE: Dissolve your ego before it dissolves you.

                                                *****

 

G.R.Kanwal

21 June 2026

 

 

                                               

 

QUOTES FOR A BETTER LIFE

 

                QUOTES FOR A BETTER LIFE

            Some quotes are full of wisdom. They are based on the experience of a great number of intelligent people. They help you to act wisely. They are evergreen because they have an element of eternity in them.

            Here are a few of them:

1. God helps those who help themselves.
2. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
3. Truth fears no examination.
4. The seeds of our punishment are sown at the same time we commit the sin,
5. Never was the voice of conscience silenced without retribution.
6. Punishment is justice for the unjust.
7. Malice drinks one half of its own poison.
8. Love makes obedience lighter than liberty.
9. Better to be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of misfortune.
10.  Ideas control the world.
11.  Idleness is a constant sin.
12.  Knowledge is but folly unless it is guided by grace.   
13.  To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
14.  Work is worship.
15.  He that is a drunkard is qualified for all vice.
16. A man of integrity never listens to any plea against conscience.
17. He who puts up with insult invites injury.
18. Indolence is the sleep of the mind.
19. Indigestion is the remorse of a guilty stomach.
20.  Indiscretion, rashness, falsehood, levity, and malice produce each other.
21.   There are heroes in evil as well as in good .
22.  Heaven is the treasury of everlasting joy.
23.  Happiness is not the end of life, character is.
24.  Habit is the deepest law of human nature.
25.  Genius does what it must, and talent what it can.
26. Friends should not be chosen to flatter.
27.  No one loves the man whom he fears.
28.  All things are ordered by God.
29.  None but a fool is always right.
30.  We forgive too little; forget too much.

                             ******

G.R.Kanwal

20 June 2026                                      

ACT, ACT IN THE LIVING PRESENT

 

ACT, ACT IN THE LIVING PRESENT

                Mind is always active. It is a running pool of thoughts, ideas, dreams,  feelings, emotions, joys and sorrows. There is repentance as also re-determination.  

            As for human life it demands activity, movement, onward march, dynamism and restlessness.  It believes in doing  one’s  best at the present moment. There should be no postponement.

            A famous  proverb says : “Time and tide wait for none.”   

            What is available at the present moment is certain ; what is to come is uncertain.   

            Another proverb says: Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

            The  English poet-dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616)  said in his play Julius Caesar :

“There is a tide in the affairs of men    

Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries

On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.”

 

The English poet Miss A.A.Procter (1825-1864) said in her poem titled Now :

            Rise! For the day is passing

            And you lie dreaming on;

            The others have buckled their armour,

            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 Today.

 

            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 honour (God grant it may !)

            But your arm will never be stronger

            Or the need so great as Today.

                                   

            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 Today.

                                                                        *******

G.R.Kanwal

19 June 2026