MORTAL BODIES, IMMORTAL SOULS

MORTAL BODIES, IMMORTAL SOULS

At this time of Corona Virus which is globally taking the lives of thousands of people at a quick pace, it is germane to think of mortal bodies and immortal souls.

According to all religious seers, bodies are mortal. They become lifeless when the soul inside them departs invisibly.

This is a mystery for man. His inability to know wherefrom he comes and whereto he goes after completing his earthly journey is a brain-teaser. Is death an eternal end of his existence is the question to which he wants a most  satisfactory answer? 

Luckily an English metaphysical poet John Donne (1573-1631) and Lord Krishna in The Gita tell us that though the body is mortal, the soul that sustains its life is everlasting.  And the real substance of man’s life is not his body, but his eternal soul.

            Let’s first read what Lord Krishna says: Of the unreal there is no being, and of the real there is no non-being. The soul is unborn, un-manifest, un-diminishing, immovable, immutable, unthinkable, all-pervasive, indestructible and eternal. It is subject to neither birth nor death. It does not perish along with the body. Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and dons new ones, so does the soul leave the worn-out body and enters a new one. There is no growth and decay, birth and death for the soul. It is absolutely changeless.

            The above-mentioned attributes of the soul are intimated in The Gita to Arjuna the reluctant fighter who does want that his rivals in the battlefield who are his kith and kin should be killed by him. The truth which Lord Krishna, the teacher, succeeds in imprinting on the mind of his pupil, Arjuna, is that bodies are mortal, but their souls are not.

            Now a sonnet by John Donne .one of the greatest metaphysical poets. The term metaphysical consists of two parts,’ meta’ from the Greek prefix signifying ‘beyond’  and ‘physical’ meaning the objects of the universe. In sum the term indicates poetry’s ‘concern with the fundamental problems of the universe and man’s place and function in life.’

           

The title of Donne’s poem is ‘Death, Be Not Proud’. Its full text s given below:

                                    

                           DEATH, BE NOT PROUD

“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty, and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think’st though dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death; not yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow;

And soonest our best men with thee do go ----

Rest of their bones and souls’ delivery!

Thou’rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke. Why swell’st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more: Death, thou halt die.”

           

               Mark especially the words:

   ” One Short sleep past, we wake eternally”

and think whether it is not an exact

 echo of the message of The Gita.

31^st May 2020                         G. R. KANWAL  

REMEMBERNG PANDIT NEHRU

REMEMBERNG PANDIT NEHRU

Free Indi’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was born in Prayagraj on 14^th November 1889.  He passed away in New Delhi on 27^th May 1964.

Before becoming Prime Minister he was a great freedom fighter and was imprisoned a number of times.  Summing up his personality, Mr. Durga Das wrote in his book “INDIA From Curzon to Nehru & After (1969):”The Indian people made a hero of Nehru. For ten years he made them feel as the chosen people whose leader was the moral leader of the world. Indeed, they began to think that India had come full circle to the Vedic age, in which all wisdom was the privilege of the seers of India.  Much of the charisma had worn thin towards the closing years of his life. The Chinese attack rudely awakened the people to the harsh reality that they had been living in a world of make-believe. Nevertheless when Nehru passed way, he still enjoyed in the minds and hearts of the Indian people a place which few before him have had ------and few ever will.”

My love and respect for Mr. Nehru are due to his boundless humanism as a statesman and his deep scholarship reflected in at least three classics:  The Discovery of India (1946), An Autobiography (1936), Glimpses of World History (1934). It is not only his unique way of interpreting facts but also inimitable prose style which has won him the hearts of many intellectuals all over the world.  

 Given below are two extracts from ‘The Discovery of India’. The first one is about the moon as a symbol of the rhythm of time, immortality and eternity, as he watched it during his various prison terms,   and the second one is about his attempt to tell the masses who attended his political gatherings the literal and figurative meanings of the slogan Bharat Mata Ki JaI

FIRST EXTRACT:

AHMAD NAGAR FORT, 13^TH APRIL 1944. : “IT IS MORE THAN TWENTY MONTHS SINCE WE WERE BROUGHT HERE, more than twenty months of my ninth term of imprisonment. The new moon, a shimmering crescent in the dark sky, greeted us on our arrival here. The bright fortnight of the waxing moon had begun. Ever since then each coming of the new moon has been a reminder to me that another month of my imprisonment is over…

The moon ever a companion to me in prison, has grown more friendly with closer acquaintance, a reminder of the loveliness of  the world, of the waxing and waning of life, of light, following darkness, of death and resurrection following each other in interminable succession. Ever changing, yet ever the same, I have watched it in it different phases and in many moods in the evening as the shadows lengthen, in the still hours of the night, and when the breath and whisper of dawn bring promise of the coming day.

How helpful is the moon in counting the days and the months, or the size and shape of the moon, when it is visible, indicate the day of the month with a fair measure of exactitude. It is an easy calendar (though it must be adjusted from time to time), and for the peasant in the field the most convenient one to indicate the passage of the days and the gradual changing of the seasons.”

SECOND EXTRACT:

“Sometimes as I reached a gathering, a great roar of welcome would greet me: Bharat Mata Ki Jai ----‘Victory to Mother India.’ I would ask them unexpectedly what they mean t by that cry, who was this Bharat Mata, Mother India, whose victory they wanted? My question would amuse them and surprise them, and then not knowing exactly what to answer, they would look at each other and at me. I persisted in my questioning. At last a vigorous Jat, wedded to the soil from immemorial generations; would say that it was the dharti, the good earth of India, that they meant. What earth? Their particular village patch, or all the patches in the district or province, or in the whole of India? And so question and answer went on, till they would ask me impatiently to tell them all about it. I would endeavour to do so and explain that India was all this that they had thought, but it was much more. The mountains and the rivers of India, and the forests and the broad fields, which gave us food, were all dear to us, but what counted ultimately  were the people of India, people like them and me, who were spread all over that vast land. Bharat Mata, Mother India, was essentially these millions of people, and victory to her meant victory to these people. You are part of this Bharat Mata, I told them, you are in a manner yourselves Bharat Mata,  and as this idea slowly soaked into their brains, their eyes would light up as if they had made a great discovery. “            

27^th May 2020                                                             G. R. KANWAL

A SCENE FROM SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR

A SCENE FROM SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR

The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote the tragic play King Lear between 1605-1606. It was first performed on 26th December 1606. King Lear is the hero of the play and he is introduced as”a very foolish, fond, old man, fourscore and upward,” who is headstrong and “full of changes,” yet “every inch a king,” “more sinned against than sinning.”

            As King of Britain, Lear decides to retire and divides his kingdom among his three daughters, in fact two, Goneril and Regan who false-heatedly profess their utmost love and loyalty to him. The third Cordelia, his youngest daughter, the “unpriz’d precious maid,” who lacked “that glib and oily art to speak.” Got nothing, Her voice was ever soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.”

            As the play proceeds, Lear is dispossessed of all his power and privileges, so much so that he becomes a homeless old man like a present day Indian migrant. On a stormy day he no other alternative than to take shelter in a hovel along with his Fool (a pretty knave, devoted to Lear). It is here he realizes the misery of homeless poor people.

            I was reminded of this scene when I watched on television screens thousands of hungry migrants walking with heavy feet towards their native villages in far off states.        

            The stormy scene referred to above runs as follows:

Kent. (The Earl of Kent, a “noble and true- hearted courtier, loyal to Lear). Good my lord, enter here.

Lear. Prithee go in thyself, seek thine own ease; this tempest will not give me leave to ponder on things would hurt me more. But I’ll go in. (To the Fool) In, boy, go first. You houseless poverty---- Nay get thee in: I’ll pray, and then I’ll, sleep--- (Fool goes in).

Poor naked wretches, whereso’er you are,

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,

Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you

From seasons such as thee? O, I have ta’en

Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,

That thou mayst shake the superflux to them

And show the heavens more just.”

            These are the new words of a feudal King who has become homeless and has learnt the true meanings of the proverb: “Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. “

21^st May 2020                                     G.R.KANWAL  

AN ADVICE TO TEACHERS

AN ADVICE TO TEACHERS

What follows in this write type is a piece of advice to educators by the Indian philosopher, writer and speaker Jiddu Krishnamurti. 

This marvellous thinker was born at Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh (India) on 11^th May 1896.  He passed away on 17^th February 1986 at Ojai, California, United States.

 A frequent visitor to India, J.  Krishnamurti received his education  at Sorbonne University in Paris. In India as also elsewhere, he was keenly interested in speaking to people in both large and small groups. He spoke spontaneously and was always full of original ideas. He is an author of several books on education and other subjects including philosophy.

In India, he established Valley Boarding School at his native village Madanapalle, in Chittoor District of   Andhra Pradesh.

The advice to educators which is reproduced below is part of one of his numerous letters addressed to the schools. Though written about four decades ago, its message is highly significant even today in the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic. 

            “This is one of the responsibilities of the educator, not merely to teach mathematics or how to run a computer. Far more important is to have communion with other human beings who suffer, struggle, and have great pain and the sorrow of poverty, and with those people who go by in a rich car. If the educator is concerned with this he is helping the student to become sensitive, sensitive to other people’s struggles, anxieties and worries, and the rows one has in the family.

            “It should be the responsibility of the teacher to educate the children, the students, to have such communion the world.  The world may be too large but the world is where he is., that is his world. And this brings about a natural consideration, affect ion for others, courtesy and behavior that is not rough, cruel, vulgar.

            “The educator should talk about all these things, not just verbally but he himself must fell it – the world, the world of nature and the world of man. They are inter-related. Man cannot escape from that. When he destroys nature he is destroying himself. When he kills another he is killing himself. The enemy is not the other but you. To live in such harmony with nature, with the world, naturally brings about a different world. “

18^th May 2020                                     G. R. KANWAL

TWENTY SAYINGS OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD

          TWENTY SAYINGS OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD

In this holy month of Ramzan, let me reproduce here twenty vital sayings of Prophet Muhammad.   All these are loaded with eternal wisdom for every human being whatever be his faith, sect, caste or creed.

1. Actions will be judged according to intentions.

2. No man is a true believer unless he desireth for his brother that which he desireth for himself.

3. He dieth not who giveth life to learning.

4. Those who earn an honest living are the beloved of God.

5. The best of alms is that which the right hand giveth, and the left hand knoweth not of.

6. Humility and courtesy are acts of piety.

7. No man is true in the truest sense of the word but he who is true in word, in deed, and in thought.

8. What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and to removed the wrongs of the injured.

9. Torment not yourselves, lest God should punish you.

10. Kill not your hearts with excess of eating and drinking.

11. The most excellent Holy War is that for the conquest of self.

12. An hour’s contemplation is better than a year’s adoration.

13. Go in quest of knowledge even unto China.

14. Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.

15. All actions are judged by the motives prompting them.

16. Heaven lieth at the feet of mothers.

17. God’s kindness towards His creature is more than a mother’s towards her babe.

18. When you go to visit the sick, comfort his grief, and say, “You will get well and live long,” 

because this saying will n prevent what is predestined, but will solace hi soul.

19. Women are the twin-halves of men.

20. He who knoweth his own self, knoweth God.

                                    -------------

13^th May 2020                                                              G.R.KANWAL

THE MESSAGE OF LORD BUDDHA

THE MESSAGE OF LORD BUDDHA

Lord Buddha’s birthday, called Buddha Purnima, was celebrated  this year on 7^th May 2020. Buddha , the Enlightened One, is the metaphorical name of  Siddhartha Gautma who was born in Lumbini, present day Nepal, and according to several historians , lived from  563 B.C. to 483 B.C.  

He was a prince, was married, had a son and could live a most comfortable life without any interruption.

But his mind underwent a revolutionary change when he had first hand observation of old age, sickness and death.  This prompted him to search for the way by which human beings could escape the cycle of repeated births and deaths.

What he learnt was not something theoretical or academic. He had wandered for decades together and arrived at the quintessence of his experiences, which he preached  through the eightfold path discovered by him. This eightfold path  consists of right views; right aspirations; right speech; right behavior; right livelihood; right effort; right thoughts and right contemplation . Collectively, it leads to  destruction of sorrow.

During his sermons at innumerable places he told the audience: “I have found the truth and have taught you the noble path that leads to the city of peace. I have shown you the way to the lake of ambrosia, which washes  away all evil desire. I have given you the  refreshing drink called the perception of truth, and he  who drinks of it becomes free from excitement, passion, and wrong-doing.”

Sarojini Naidu (1879-1994) wrote a poem entitled “To A Buddha Seated On A Lotus”wherein she asks what mystic rapture, what peace, unknown to the world of men is the secret of Lord Buddha[i]s Lotus throne?. This mystic rapture is contrasted with the sufferings and strife, the strenuous lessons of death, deferred hopes, futile strivings of the spirit and the unsatisfied hunger of the soul, which are the common human destiny of the unenlightened masses.  

According to Buddhist scholars,  Lord Buddha does not speak of a God, a Creator. He does not tell why we live, but how to live. He teaches a way of life, a way to rise above the troubles of life, and finally, a way to achieve the ultimate happiness of Nirvana. In which state of blissful non-being untroubled peace is combined with the complete opening-up of understanding.   

8^th May 2020                                                  G. R.KANWAL

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REMEMBERING RABRINDRANATH TAGORE

REMEMBERING RABRINDRANATH TAGORE

Today is the 159^th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. He was born on 7^th May 1861 in Kolkata and passed away on 7^th August in 1941. He was  the first Asian who was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 because of his profound, sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse by which, with consummate skill, he had made his poetic thoughts expressed in his own English words,  a part of  the literature of the west.

Tagore was a versatile genius. He was a poet, writer, philosopher, educationist,  musician, painter,  and what not. Most of all he was a cultural ambassador and a great spiritualist. In fact, his dedication to God was limitless. It occupied a good deal of space in whatever he wrote .  His best known poetic anthology is Gitanjali which won him the Nobel Prize in literature. However, he is the author of a number of literary and non-literary works.

Given below are two short extracts taken from the article “Tagore And Rural Reconstruct ion”  contributed by Shri  D. N. Dutta to the Tagore Number of ‘ Cultural Forum’ published  by the ministry of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs in November 1961. They shed a lot light on Tagore’s total personality .   

   Firs t Extract: “Though Tagore was growing in poetic stature and received the Nobel Prize in 1913, and though the Brahma Vidyalaya of Santiniketan took more and more of his time and energy as it developed, he never wavered in his resolve to give a practical shape to his ideas of rural reconstruction.  An opportunity came to him after two decades. In 1920, while he was touring in America, he met a young Englishman named Leonard K. Elmhirst , who after graduating from Cambridge and serving in the First World War was studying Agriculture at the Cornell University,. Elmhirst was impressed with Gurudeva’s philosophy of rural reconstruction as a way to the development of human civilization. He volunteered to help Gurudeva in founding an Institute of Rural reconstruction on Tagore’s ideas. The Institute was started with Elmhirst as the first Director in 1922. “   

Second Extract: “The world knows Tagore as the most outstanding poet and literary figure of modern India. It also knows him as a philosopher and a seer. He is known even as an educationist though not adequately appreciated in that role. He preached internationalism when most of the leaders of different countries of the world were working for narrow national interests. He also showed a way to build a non-authoritarian human society cutting across the barriers of race, colour, language and nationality on the basis of mutual aid and common welfare and not on that of exploitation or application of force. We shall be paying real homage to Gurudeva if we try to understand his philosophy of social reconstruction and work it out in practice which may be able to save human civilization from self-annihilation. “

7^th May 2020                                                              G. R. KANWAL  

THE BLESSED MAN

THE BLESSED MAN

The Blessed Man is the theme of a beautiful Psalm included in the Bible.  It describes two types of human beings – those who remain godly and those who become ungodly.  There is reward for the first type, but horrible punishment for the second type.

Currently the whole world is in the grip of a new virus called Corona, which  is an invisible enemy and also invincible so far.  No available drug or vaccine is effective enough to undo the damage which it can cause to the human body from head to foot.  Abundant personal immunity alone is capable of putting up some defence.  Till date millions of people have been affected by it and quite a few millions have already lost their lives. 

  Whereas there may be many other causes of the emergence of the Corona virus, the supreme one seems to be man’s disobedience of the laws of God. By his indifference to those laws he has converted this beautiful world into a hell.

It is in this context that the Psalm given below is absolutely relevant.

“BLESSED is the man that walketh not in the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  

2. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his 

season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

 4. The ungodly are not so; but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

5^th May 2020                                                              G. R. KANWAL