T O Y S

T O Y S

            Toys are in the news today (31^st August 2020). The point being made is that according to the philosophy of Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-dependent India), our country should become a hub for toys production.

The global toy industry is over seven lakh crore rupees but India’s share is very small and we shall have to work to increase on it. However, the toys to be made in India should encourage the creativity of children and the motivational slogan should be Come, let us play.’’ 

            Interestingly, another news item on the same day said foreign demand for handcrafted products has taken a Covid-hit. This included the heavy fall in the export of Karnataka’s toy-town production of Channapatna wooden toys. Unlike in the past around this time , this year there was no demand from European nations and other countries.

            I am no longer a child but I do remember that several parents did not encourage a child’s engagement with toys. They regarded it as wastage of time and money, as the toys were brittle and consumed a lot of study time. Quite often disobedience in this matter invited parents’ wrath and the child was either scolded mercilessly or hit physically.   

            Given below in this context is a very famous poem ‘THE TOYS’ written by an English poet of the Victorian age Coventry Patmore (23.7.1823---26.11.1896). He was the son of Henry Patmore who was himself a prominent literary figure.

            Patmore produced a lot of good poetry, had several admirers, but was denied a front rank, given to Matthew Arnold and others, because of his angelic themes.

Two of his best loved poems are The Angel In The House and The Toys. Given below is the text of ‘The Toys’. 

Its keynote is that quite like children adults, too, play with toys.  In fact, they play with them throughout their life. The difference lies only in the forms of the toys and the nature of their emotional gratification.

So, like parents with children, God, too, can feel offended with defaulting adults, but He does not and simply exclaims: “I will be sorry for their childishness.”

                                                THE TOYS    

“My little Son, who look’d from thoughtful eyes

And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise,

Having my law the seventh time disobey’d,

I struck him, and dismiss’d

With hard words and unkiss’d,

------His Mother, who was patient, being dead.

Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep,

I visited his bed,

But found him slumbering deep,

With darken’d eyelids, and their lashes yet

From his late sobbing wet.

And I, with moan,

Kissing away his tears, left others of my own;

For, on a table drawn beside his head,

He had put, within his reach,

A box of counters and a red-vein’d stone,

A piece of glass abraded by the beach,

And six or seven shells,

A bottle with bluebells,

And two French copper coins, ranged t here with careful art,

To comfort his sad heart.

So when that night I pray’d

To God, I wept, and said:

Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath,

Not vexing Thee in death,

And Thou rememberest of what toys

We made our joys,

How weakly understood

Thy great commanded good,

Then, fatherly not less

Than I whom Thou hast moulded from the clay,

Thou’lt leave Thy wrath. and say,

“I will be sorry for their childishness.”

                                                            ------

31^st August 2020                                                         G. R. KANWAL

 

HAPPINESS

 

HAPPINESS                       

Truly speaking, there is no single definition of happiness. A happy man is variously described as glad, pleased, cheerful, delighted, carefree, blissful, ecstatic, contented and satisfied. 

Quotations on happiness, too, are highly diverse. According to the English poet Coleridge (1772-1831) happiness can be built only on virtue, and must of necessity have truth for its definition.

Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Antoninus (121-80) believes that no man is happy who does not think himself so.

French philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-62) claims happiness is neither within us , nor without us; it is the union of ourselves with God.

American author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) compares happiness to a butterfly , which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Lastly the suggestion of Greek historian Herodotus  (484-425 B.C.):“Call no man happy, till you know the end of his life. Till then, at most, he can only be counted fortunate.“

My chief concern here is with the views of Baruch Spinoza who is known as “God-intoxicated philosopher.” He was born at Amsterdam in Netherlands on 24^th November 1632 and died at The Hague, Netherlands, on 22^nd February 1677. Among his half a dozen important works is : Short Treatise on God, Man and His Well Being.

Spinoza was keenly interested in three questions. First, what sort of world do we live in? Second, who put us here? Third why has God put us here?

I am leaving out his answers to the first two questions because they are not germane to my purpose in this write up.

Spinoza’s answer to the third question is that we have been born into this world to be happy. He defines happiness as the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain. “It is our duty to seek pleasure and avoid pain, after first understanding our limitations. We are cogs in a cosmic machine. The will that moves this machine is the infinite and eternal mind of God.” To be happy human beings must abide by the laws of God. There is no such thing as free will.

Spinoza writes : “There is in the mind no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to will this or that by a cause which in turn is determined by another cause, and this by another, and so on to infinity.“ To put it in simpler words our acts are no more free and they have no more to do with the will than the falling of the rain from the sky or the flight of an arrow that has been shot out of a bow. The only difference between the flight of an arrow and the act of a human being is that the human being is conscious of his act and mistakes his consciousness for will power.

Spinoza claims human beings are chained to their destiny. They are only spectators in the little drama of their life.  They have no voice in its direction. They have the ability to watch their acts, which they mistake for the ability to will them. Our decisions ae the result not only of our own past life, but of the past lives of all our ancestors.

To be happy, our chief interest in life should be to love ourselves and to seek what is useful to us; and in order to love ourselves, we must love others. Love, pleasure and happiness are the treasures of the soul and are best enjoyed when most generously shared. Aristotle called it the doctrine of enlightened selfishness, which is as true today as it was in ancient times. The wise man, says Spinoza, knows that he can help himself only by helping others. He realises that individual happiness is mutual happiness. He avoids envy because envy produces not happiness but pain. He avoids hatred because hatred begets hatred. He avoids hurting others because he knows that injury is repaid with injury, that he who takes up the sword is destined to perish by the sword. He avoids conquest because he realises that every military victory sows the seeds for a future war of revenge. “Our greatest victories are not won by arms but by the greatness of soul.” The truly good man is the truly happy and the truly wise man. He is generous to others because in this way alone can he be most generous to himself.

Spinoza asserts that that our ultimate aim in life is to seek happiness through knowledge, through the acquisition of wisdom, through the enlightened understanding of the vital interrelationship that exists bet ween man and man. He who understands will hate nothing, despise nothing, injure nothing and fear nothing. He will live a life not of individual ambition but of mutual co-operation. He will adhere to the teachings of the ancient prophets and to the principle of the Golden Rule. He will “desire nothing for himself which he will not desire for the rest of mankind.”

Finally, according to Spinoza all men are equally important parts of God. And so, in order to be happy you must love yourself. But to love yourself is to love mankind, and to love mankind is to love God. And this is the reason for which we have come into the world.

Before I conclude, I would like to admit my grateful indebtedness to Henry Thomas and Dana Lee Thomas , the authors of ‘Living Biographies of Great Philosophers (1941)’, for the views expressed in this brief write up.             

                                                ………

30^th August 2020                                                             G. R. KANWAL         

 

 

                          

 

 

GHAZAL: 28th August 2020

 

GHAZAL: 28^th August 2020

Bais-e-marg hai khafa hona

Apnay mehboob  se juda hona.

Ek pal bhi kisay  gawarah hai

Zindagi tera be-maza hona.

Zeb deta nahin kisi ko bhi

Aaj achcha to kal bura hona.

Nahin mumkin khuda ki nazron mai’n

Na-rawa kam ka rawa hona.

Rab hi Janay ke kyon zaruri hai

Har khata ki yahan saza hona.

Mai’n ne seekha hai ahl-e-haq se Kanwal

Be-sadaon ki bhi sada hona.

            ------

GLOSSARY

Bais-e-marg: cause, basis or ground for lifelessness. Mehboob: loved one. Khafa hona: to be angry.

Pal: moment. Gawarah: pleasing; agreeable. Be-maza: tasteless; disagreeable.

Zeb dena: to be suitable , graceful, dignified.

Na-rawa: impossible, improper. Rawa: possible, proper.

Khata: error, lapse, offence, misconduct.

Ahl-e-Haq: men of God. Be-sadaon ki bhi sada hona: to be the voice of the voiceless.      

                             --------

THE ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER -----AND THE PURPOSE OF LIFE

THE ACHIEVEMENT OF CHARACTER -----AND THE PURPOSE OF LIFE

The achievement of character and the purpose of life is a most significant subject and concerns everybody in this world. What follows gist of a psycho-philosophical treatise written by Prof. J. Herman Randall more than a century ago.

Mr. Randall was a professor of philosophy in Columbia University. He was born in 1899 and passed away in 1980. The title of his treatise, a sort of booklet, was “Man’s Undeveloped Powers – The Achievement of Character. “

            This treatise begins with these words: “Work out your own salvation, ‘physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. The ultimate victory is found in the truth, “For it is God who worketh in you.”

In all reverence, God cannot accomplish man’s salvation alone; man can not accomplish his salvation apart from God.

The great goal toward which humanity has been tending from the beginning, man’s complete, all-round salvation, in all parts of his complex nature, is to be as accomplished only through the co-operation of God and man; or better still God in man.

            Professor Randall’s belief about salvation is by and large Christian but  not so different from the belief presented in the holy books of other religions.

            Dealing with man’s achievement character, Prof. Randall refers to three rules.

            The first is a clear conception of what you want to accomplish in life. Do not be afraid to face frankly your weaknesses just as they exist. Be honest with yourself and with God, whether you are with your fellow man or not.

And when you have faced fearlessly your own faults and weaknesses, get clearly in mind the image of the opposite of the things you have found to be hurtful in your life.

If it is a tendency to hasty speech, hold the ideal of self-control and kindness in speech, and think that ideal intensely until it lodges itself deep in your sub-conscious self.

If it is a tendency towards insincerity or exaggeration, or perhaps dishonesty in some of its many forms, then hold the opposite ideal. Say to yourself, “I realize the need of speaking the truth always and everywhere. I will be strictly accurate in my speech; I will not exaggerate. I will be absolutely honest with myself and others.  

        If it be the tendency to any of the grosser sins of the passions or appetites, let the method be exactly the same. Say to yourself, “I will conquer, and the appetite or passion that may be strong within can never control me, for I am the master of my fate. “Carry that thought with you day and night.

        Then by a series of suggestions adapted to the desired end, by the regular and persistent following of these suggestions, not all at once, but gradually ------- you will develop the new brain centres out of which these noble activities proceed.

            What has been said heretofore relates to chievement of character. Now a few words  about one’s purpose of life.

            As mentioned in the very beginning of this write up , Prof. Randall believes that it is God working in us, as we work out, in obedience to His great Laws.

What we have to remember is that we are not in this earthly life, primarily to gain riches; we are not here first of all to be happy; we are not here to seek pleasure only; we are not here to attain the applause of the world; if we can get these things legitimately , let us get them by all means, but let us never forget that they are always the incidentals of our life here, never the end of life.

            Prof. Randall’s final words are: “The great end and purpose of our being here at all, is that we shall grow a soul, that we shall build a character, that we shall fashion, under God, the manhood and womanhood that shall outlast all influences of Time. “

                                                -----------

20^th August 2020                                                            G.R.KANWAL   

VIEW OF MAN BY NEHRU AND SHAKESPEARE

 

VIEW OF MAN BY NEHRU AND SHAKESPEARE

When Indira was not a student in any school, Jawaharlal Nehru educated her through a series of letters, last of which was written in August 1933, and later the whole  lot was published in Glimpses of World History.

In his last letter, Nehru was quite frank and even humble.  He wrote: “I am not a man of letters and I am not prepared to say that the many years I have spent in gaol have been the sweetest in my life, but I must say that reading and writing have helped me wonderfully to get through them.  I am not a literary man, and I am not a historian; what indeed am I? I find it difficult to answer that question. I have been a dabbler in many things; I began with science at college and then took to the law, and after developing various other interests in life, finally adopted the popular and widely practised profession of gaol-going in India. “

The best thing in this letter was Nehru’s advice to her daughter to have a free and open mind and not to take his words as Biblical truth: “You must not take what I have written in these letters as the final authority on any subject. A politician wants to have a say on every subject, and he always pretends to know much more than he actually does.” This is the attitude which is ideally expected of a great educator in any sphere of life.

Though Nehru did not claim to be a literary man, he was much more than that.  His knowledge was extremely vast and his quotations from the writings of great poets and writers show that his interest in literature was quite extensive and deep. His own writings like The Discovery of India and An Autobiography are acknowledged masterpieces of literary prose, which provide to the reader a rare kind of aesthetic pleasure.

Given below are two extracts on the View of Man, one from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the other from Mr. Nehru’s Discovery of India.

Not only the theme of both the extracts is common,  their beginning, too,  is identically exclamatory.          

SHAKESPEARE: “What a piece of work is man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in form and moving how express and admirable ! in action how like an angel ! in apprehension how like a god ! to me what  is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me; no, nor woman neither. “ 

MR. NEHRU: “How amazing is this spirit of man ! In spite of innumerable failings, man, throughout the ages, has sacrificed his life and all he held dear for an ideal, for truth, for faith, for country and honour…..Plaything of nature’s mighty forces, less than the speck of dust in  this vast universe, he has hurled defiance at the elemental powers, and with his mind, cradle of  revolution, sought to master them. Whatever gods there be, there is something godlike in man, as there is also something of the devil in him.“

                                                ----------

19^th August 2020                                                                                G. R. Kanwal

 

A LOVE SONG OF MIRABAI

 

A LOVE SONG OF MIRABAI

Mirabai (also spelled as Meera) was born a princess in 1498 in Kurki, Rajasthan. She passed away in 1546 in Dwarka.  She lived the life of a mystic poet and life-long worshipper of Lord Krishna.  Her innumerable devotional songs are addressed to him and have been used by many religious and social historians as examples of Hindu devotional poetry. She is also a great attraction for musicians and film-makers.

Historically Mirabai belongs to the group of Bhakti poets who believed that God is one and all human beings are His equal children.  Like her contemporary mystics, she also did not believe in meaningless superstitions and wasteful rituals.  She discarded the prevailing caste system.  To serve humanity, especially the poor, the sick and the needy, was one of her firm creeds. She showed equal respect to all religious beliefs.    

           Lovers of God compose their poems like those of ordinary    lovers of men and women.   They use the same vocabulary and figures of speech to express their devotional feelings and emotions. Like romantic men and women they, too, yearn for union with the one to whom they are devoted.   Union with the loved one is a continuous dream; separation is the constant reality. And it is this perpetual state of painful separation which gives birth to their pathetic poetry. Most of Mirabai’s innumerable songs depict this restless state of her heart and mind.

          The poem given below was composed by Mirabai in Hindi.  It was translated into English by Mrs. Keay almost one hundred years ago and was included into an anthology entitled POEMS BY INDIAN WOMEN edited by Margaret Macnicol, L.R.C.P. & S.E., Poona. According to my information, Association Press (Y.M.C.A.). Calcutta published it as one of the Heritage of India books.

          The English translation of the poem reads as follows:

                            SEPARATION      

The clouds, driven to and fro, have come,

But they have not brought any news of Hari.

The frog, the peacock and the sparrow hawk utter their cries,

And the cuckoo calls aloud.

In the black darkness the lightning is flashing,

And terrifies the women whose husbands are away.

 

The pleasant wind produces a sound like music,

And the rain is streaming down continually.

The coil of separation is like that of the cobra with its

       hissing sound,

But Mira’s heart is set on Hari.

       .     .     .    .     .    .    .    .      .   

For lack of the vision of him my eyes are aching.

Ah, my Lord, ever since thou hast been separated from

        me my heart has found no rest.

 

Hearing thy voice, my heart begins to tremble.

Thy words are very sweet to me.

 

My eyes are fixed on the way of thy coming.

One night seems to me like six months.

 

O my companions, to whom shall I tell the pain of

    separation?

The whole night is passed by Mira in restlessness,

 

O my Lord, when shall I find thee,

So that thou mayst remove my pain and give me happiness?

                                      --------

 

 

18^th August 2020                                                          G.R.Kanwal

LORD KRISHNA: THE ETERNAL MOTIVATOR

 

LORD KRISHNA: THE ETERNAL MOTIVATOR

This year Lord Krishna’s birthday was celebrated on August 12^th. I did not celebrate the day with any ritual about him but I did think of his role as an eternal motivator in the Gita. His student in this sacred book is Arjuna, a reluctant warrior, unprepared to fight against the wicked opponents including his own kith and kin. The issue was whether it is morally fair to kill one’s own relatives.

Lord Krishna seized this occasion to motivate and inspire Arjuna with true knowledge about human life and death.

I hold that the best way for a motivator is to uproot the inherent ignorance of his audience and liberate them from untenable beliefs and false fears.  Fears bred by ignorance demotivate and discourage even those who are otherwise heroic persons. That is why Tagore prayed to God to bless the Indian people with a mind without fear and a head that can be held high.   

            The words with which Lord Krishna transforms the hesitant Arjuna into fully charged war hero read as follows:

The unreal has no existence, and the real never ceases to be. Both he who knows that the soul is capable of killing and he who takes it as killed are ignorant. The soul being unborn is primeval, eternal and everlasting.  It is the body which is slain, not the soul. The body is perishable but not the soul. To tell Arjuna that man is eternal, the great Lord says:  Just as a person discards worn out garments and puts on new ones, so does an embodied soul gets rid of its exhausted body and enters into a new one. These enlightening words about the reality of the soul enable Arjuna to shed his earlier notions of human mortality and empower him to fight the impending war with indomitable courage.  

              Arjuna in the Mahabharata symbolises every human being on this planet.

To ensure human beings that their souls do not die and they continue to live on in new forms is a unique motivational gift of Lord Krishna. After being thus ensured, everybody starts passing his days and nights without any kind of fear whatsoever.   

 As a supplement to what has been said above, here is a part of an unknown poet’s English composition:

 

THERE IS NO DEATH        

            THERE is a plan far greater than the plan you know;

            There is a landscape broader than the one you see,

There is a haven where storm-tossed soul may go ----

You call it death --- we, immortality.

You call it death ---- this seeming endless sleep;

We call it birth -- the soul at last set free.

‘Tis hampered not by time or space – you weep.

Why weep at death? ‘Tis immortality.

 

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

14^th August 2020                                                           G. R. KANWAL        

 

 

 

A GHAZAL BY RAHAT INDORI

 

A GHAZAL BY RAHAT INDORI

Dr. Rahat Indori (1950-2020) who died on 11th August was a great attraction for lovers of Urdu poetry. He was suffering from multiple ailments including Covid-19. The news of his death was stunning both for literary circles and the common audience who had enjoyed his poetry in mushairas or otherwise.   He was known for his unique style of addressing the audience which was full of plentiful delight and enlightenment. His themes were topical, nostalgic and futuristic, whereas his vocabulary was simple but loaded with profound meanings. He could hold the listeners’ attention for as long as he wanted.  The audience stayed on till he arrived on the stage and immediately captured their attention accompanied with loudest applause. His verses have been quoted many a time both by young and old admirers including politicians.  One of his famous couplets which was recited in the Lok Sabha reads as follows:

                        Sabhi ka khoon hai shamil yahan ki mitti mein

                        Kisi ke baap ka hindostan thori hai

Given below is short ghazal as a specimen of his simple diction but deep nuances.

            Chamakatey lafz sitaron se cheen laey hain

            Ham aasman se ghazal ki zamin laey hain

            Wo aur hongey jo khanjar chupa ke latey hain

            Ham apnay saath phati aasteen laey hain

            Hamari baat ki gehrai khak samjhen gay

            Jo parbaton ke liye khurdbin(microscope) laey hain

            Haso na ham pe ke ham badnaseeb (unfortunate) banjarey

            Saron pe rakh ke watan ki zamin laey hain

            Mirey(mine) qabiley ke bachchon ke khail bhi hain ajeeb

            Kisi sipahi ki talwar cheen laey hain.

                                                --------

12^th August 2020                                                                           Dr.G.R.Kanwal

                

GHAZAL : 2nd AUGUST 2020

GHAZAL : 2^nd AUGUST 2020

Hum Nashin guzra zamana bhool ja

Tha jo us ka tana bana bhool ja

(Dear comrade! Forget the olden times. Forget their web and woof.  They are not going to come again.)

Aandhion ki zad se jo mehfooz tha

Wo chaman, wo ashiana bhool ja.

(Forget the garden and the nest therein which were safe from the onslaught of hurricanes. We are not going to have them again.).

Kon kehta hai ke yaron ko bhula

Un ko seenay se lagana bhool ja.

(You are not asked to forget your old friends.  But you must not embrace them now. It is dangerous, so forget the old way of meeting and greeting them.)

Ahde nau ke zamzamon par rakh nazar

Ahde rafta ka tarana bhool ja.

(Now focus on the lyrics of modern times and forget the one you were habitual of reciting in the past.)

Bhool ja wo dil lagi ki mehfelain

Doston ka har thikana bhool ja.

(Forget the past assemblies of friends which delighted your heart.  Forget the residence of each one of your old friends.)

Gham ka saya bhi jahan padta na tha

Hasta gaata wo gharana bhool ja.

(Forget that home on which did not fall even a shadow of sorrow. Forget that old house of songs and laughters.)

Tha hamari guftgu mai’n jo kabhi

Wo tha ik jhoota fasana bhhol ja.

(That love story which found its way in our conversation was unreal.  It was np mor than fiction, so forget it.)

Doston ko dil ke ghoshon mai’n basa

Ab gharon mai’n aana jana bhool ja.

(Accommodate your friends in the nooks and corners of your heart.  Now, there is no going to their homes to greet and embrace them.)

Lot kar jab aa nahin sakta Kanwal

Apnay bachpan ka zamana bhool ja.

(Listen Kanwal, It is now but appropriate to forget  the golden time of your childhood because it can no longer be revisited by you.)

2^nd August 2020                                               Dr.G.R.Kanwal