God As Physician

 

God As Physician

Personally, I believe in the efficacy of both medication and meditation.  My conviction is that a sick body needs quick and effective medication to get rid of any organic malady and resume its normal functionality. There are multiple forms of medication, and one has to choose from amongst them according to one’s individual constitution. Medicine-less treatments like fasting, relaxing, walking, talking, singing, dancing, reading, writing, travelling, socialising is also effective in many cases.  Love, with all its varieties, is another drugless healer. Religiously, confession of one’s guilts and seeking pardon by repentance, purifies the mind which, in turn, throws out the physical causes of illness.

According to Lord Buddha the path that leads to the annihilation of suffering consists of right views, right decision right speech, right action, right living, right struggling, right thoughts and right meditation.            

I am motivated in choosing the title of this write-up by a song of Mira Bai, a 16^th century mystic poet and Bhakti saint of Rajasthan. She was a most passionate devotee of Lord Krishna and had decided to remain so since her very childhood. However, her boundless love for her divine Lord, had also wounded her heart on which no other physician than God Himself could put the soothing balm.

Her song, as translated into English (1935) , by a Gita Press author, Bankey Behari   reads as follows:

“O friend, I am mad with love: none knows my anguish. There, on the point of the pike lies my bed, how can I sleep! The bed of the Dear One is spread in heaven, how can I meet Him. Only he who has had a wound can understand the condition of the wounded, or else who has dealt the blow. Only a jeweller can know the secrets of a jeweller or else the jewel itself. Smitten with pain I roam about the forest, physician I have found none. The pain of Mira will vanish, O Lord when You act the physician.”  

My personal belief is that during any period of illness, more so in the current period of Corona pandemic, medication should be strengthened by meditation to achieve perfect   and speedy. After all, we are the children of God, and who, better than He, can relieve us from our physical, mental and emotional sufferings.

The very word ‘God’. says America clergy Henry Ward Beecher (1813-87), suggests care, kindness, goodness; and the idea of God in His infinity, is infinite care, infinite kindness, infinite goodness. -----We give God the name of good: it is only by shortening it that it becomes God.             

Let us, therefore, remember God, both when we are sick and healthy

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29^th September 2020                                                              G.R.Kanwal

 

GHAZAL : 22.9.2020

 

GHAZAL : 22.9.2020

Jo bhi aafat Zam’in pe aati hai

Apna paigham chod jaati hai

Umr ke aakhiri parao par

Be-khudi had se badhti jaati hai

Aas umeed ki har kashti

Mauj dar mauj dagmagati/digmagati hai

Din guzarta hai na-umeedi main

 Raat sapney naye dikhati hai

Aksar auqaat mai-kadai  ki faza/fiza

Tashnagi/tishnagi aur bhi badharti hai

Bam dar bam yun bhi hota hai

Dhoop hi dhoop chilchilati hai

Aaina dekhta hai ji bhar kar

Aisi surat jo muskrati hai

Rooh-e-tehzib har zamanay main

Peeth apni hi thapthapati hai

Jis ko sunta hai har faqir Kanwal

Woh sada aasman se aati hai

            ……………..

GLOSSARY

Aafat: Calamity, disaster, misfortune, catastrophe.

Paigham: Message, advice, warning.

Umr: life. Aakhiri: Last, final. Parao: Stage. Be-khudi: insensitiveness/rapture.

Aas umeed: Hope. Kashti: Boat.

Mauj dar mauj: Wave after wave. Dagmagati, digmagati: totters, staggers.

Na-umeedi: Disappointment; despair.

Aksar auqaat: Often, many a time. Mai-kadai: Bar, drinking house. Faza/fiza: place;environment.

Tashnagi/tishnagi: Thirst, desire, temptation.

Bam dar bam: Terrace after terrace; upper storey.

Ainah: Mirror. Ji bhar kar: To its heart’s content.

Rooh-e-tehzib: The soul of good breeding or polite, cultured behaviour.

Har zamanay main: In every age. Peeth thapthapana: Thump the back, encourage.

Sada: Voice.

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22^nd September 2020                                                      Dr.G.R.Kanwal

 

 

 

THE PRICE OF LIFE

 

A SHORT NOTE ON OSHO

 

A SHORT NOTE ON OSHO

Osho was known as an Indian mystic of rare international fame. He was born Chandra Mohan Jain on 11^th December 1931 at Kuchwada, British period Bhopal State in Madhya Pradesh and died on 19^th January 1990 at Pune in Maharashtra. 

Initially, he was addressed as Acharya Rajneesh or Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh but finally as Osho, the Buddhist name. This word is said to be derived from the Sanskrit “Upadhya” meaning ‘master’ or “teacher. But Osho explained that his name was derived from the word oceanic of Wiiliam James , American philosopher and psychologist (1842-1910) , who used it in the sense of dissolving into the ocean. However, the word ‘Oceanic’ describes the experience, what about the experiencer. For that the word to be used was “Osho”.

Osho spoke a lot, not imitatively, but originally and demolished many existing  concepts.  He was against orthodoxy, conservatism, and unscientific beliefs. The past was not of any significant use to him. “If we cling to the past the only possibility is global suicide.  If we drop the past the possibility arises of writing a new destiny of man. He had no tolerance for repressionism. Life for him was a celebration, not a mourning.  Happiness, according to him, was not an occasional but a perennial episode in the general drama of life. He regarded existence as hilarious and life as a great cosmic laughter. “I do not ask you to do prayer. I ask you to find moments, situations, in which you can laugh whole-heartedly. “Laughter Is My Message” is the title of one of his books.

Osho’s innumerable discourses which later on became books were provocative and to provoke his audience he had to be offensive.

Look at the following aphoristic statements all of which are a good deal provocative

(i) A man without God is an authentic man. (ii) No woman is anybody’s wife; every woman is a woman. (iii) The feeling of jealousy is a bye-product of marriage. (iv) Friendship needs no marriage because friendship is far higher. (v) The house of a bachelor is never a home,it is just a place where he sleeps. (vi) You can be serious but your seriousness shows a sickness of the soul.  (vii) Existence makes no distinctions, no discriminations between the sinners and the saints. (viii) Man, free from priests, will have a beauty of his own. Priests have crushed and crippled man from every direction. (ix) Nature is for freedom, not for any kind of bondage. (x) The poets, the painters, the dancers, the musicians, the actors are more loving but their love is not focused on individuals. (xii) Love is the ultimate law; man is born with it. (xiii) Idiots don’t want to change anything because change means they will have to learn something again. (xiv) The truth is your own experience, whatever you believe about truth is only a belief. (xv) All beliefs are lies, and all believers are blind.         

 Finally, there is much to learn from Osho because he is so different from other mystics. He speaks what he feels and thinks not as an imitator, but as creative scholar of life. He was always learnt something new, which, according to him keeps us young. If one keeps growing up in maturity and understanding, one never becomes old.

17^th September 2020                                                   G. R. Kanwal

PRISON THOUGTHS OF OSKAR WILDE

 

THE MEN OF OLD

 

THE MEN OF OLD

‘The Men Of OLD’ is a poem written by the English poet Lord Houghton (19.6.1809—11.08.1885). His full name was Richard Monckton Milnes. He was born in London (U.K.) but died in Vichy (France).

Houghton was a great patron of literature and politics. The poem mentioned above has a nostalgic tone. Its theme is that the men of old were more contented, unselfish and orderly than those of present time.

The theme itself is perennial. The evolution of man on this planet has been progressively materialistic and self-centred.  Social, moral and spiritual values are constantly getting a hit. The feelings, thoughts and emotions related to goodness, beauty and truth which were the hall mark of many earlier s periods are regularly withering away. Today we are in a new world with different un-altruistic interpretations of the summum bonum, i.e. the highest good which, according to ethics, should govern all human actions.

Modern philosophers agree that science and technology have made human life more comfortable but less humane because it lacks the eternal values preached by world’s greatest religions. There is currently a good deal of selfishness and alienation in all types of personal and social relationships. Genuine philanthropy, loyalty to human welfare and yearning for togetherness are declining, rather astoundingly. People now feel lonely and helpless in the times of all sorts of critical situations.  

In short, something beautiful, heart-warming, and soul-enriching which existed in the past is tragically missing and its gradual disappearance is being deeply felt by men of letters rather than those of other pursuits of life.

Let us listen to the first stanza of the ode Intimations of Immortality from recollections of Early Childhood written by the English poet ‘William Wordsworth (1780-1830):

“There was a time when, meadow, grove, and stream.

The earth and every common sight,

            To me did seem

Apparell’d in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore; ---

            Turn wheresoever I may,

            By night or day,

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.”

 

What follows is Lord Houghton’s poem ‘The Men of Old’ cited in the introduction:

“I KNOW not that the men of old

Were better than men now,

Of heart more kind, of hand more bold,

Of more ingenuous brow:

I heed not those who pine for force

A ghost of Time to raise,

As if they thus could check the course

Of these appointed days.

 

Still it is true, and over true,

That I delight to close

This book of life self-wise and new,

And let my thoughts repose

On all that humble happiness

The world has since forgone,

The daylight of contentedness

That on those faces shone.

 

With rights, tho’ not too closely scann’d,

Enjoy’d as far as known;

With will by no reverse unmann’d,

With pulse of even tone,

They from today and from tonight

Expressed nothing more

Than yesterday and yesternight

Had proffer’d them before.

 

To them was Life a simple art

Of duties to be done,

A game where each man took his part,

A race where all must run;

A battle whose great scheme and scope

They little cared to know,

Content as men-at-arms to cope

Each with his fronting foe,

 

Man now his Virtue’s diadem

Puts on and proudly wears:

Great thoughts, great feelings came to them

Like instincts, unawares.

Blending their souls’ sublimest needs

With tasks of every day,

They went about their gravest deeds

As noble boys at play. “

 

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13^th September 2020                          G.  R.  Kanwal

GHAZAL (9.9.2020)

 

                GHAZAL   (9.9.2020)

Jis ne barson mujhe pukara hai

Mujh ko har lafz us ka pyara hai

Ab mera raabta bas us se hai

Be saharon ka jo sahara hai

Na khuda us taraf ghuma kashti

Behr-e gham ka jidhar kinara hai

Ye to baten hain sab purani si

Kis ki aankhon ka kon tara hai

Dar-e fani mein mat sawal karo

Kya hamara hai, kya tumahra hai

Bhool jata hai jo ravish apni

Wo muqaddar ka hi sitara hai

Wo jo donon jahan ka malik hai

Har taraf us ka hi nazara hai

Kis se poochoon, kise khabar hai Kanwal

Ye jahan kis ka istaara hai.

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GLOSSARY

Barson: A large number of years. Pukara: called. Lafz; word.  Pyara: dear.  Raabta: contact. Na-khuda : boatman; sailor. Behr-e-gham: the sea of sorrow. Dar-e-fani: temporary world. Ravish: track; direction.  Donon jahan: Ttis and the next world. Nazara: presence; show. Istaara: metaphor; representative symbol.

                                                -----

9^th September 2020               Dr.G.R.KANWAL

 

 

 

 

 

A SHORT POEM ON LOVE

 

A SHORT POEM ON LOVE

 

There can be no single definition of love. Indeed, even a million definitions will be insufficient to exhaust its scope. Enough to say love is a beautiful necessity of all living beings, and according to a French author Abbe Hugo Lamennais (1782-1854), the heart of him who truly loves is a paradise on earth; he has God in himself, for God is love.

            Given below is a little love poem by the English poet Henry Alford (1810-18710.  Its title is:

                                                YOU AND I

by which the poet means that lovers should always remain together because only with each other’s help can they ‘ comprehend, the dream, the hope , things planned, or seen, or wrought.”  He also tells his lady love that life is short and the lone hours fly very fast. So whatever span of life is given to them should be spent together, not in isolation, to achieve maximum fulfilment of their hopes and dreams.       

“MY HAND is lonely for your clasping , dear;

My ear is tired waiting for your call.

I want your strength to help, your laugh to cheer;

Heart, soul and senses need you, one and all.

I droop without your full, frank sympathy;

We ought to be together ---- you and I;

We want each other so, to comprehend

The dream, the hope, things planned, or seen, or wrought.

Companion, comforter and guide and friend,

As much as love asks love, does thought ask thought.

Life is short, so fast the lone hours fly,

We ought to be together, you and I.

                                                                        --------

9^th September 2020                           G.R.KANWAL                                                        

 

 

 

THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION

 

THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION

On this Teacher’s Day which is attributed to the birthday of  Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, let us recall what this extraordinary teacher thought about the purpose of education.

He was born on 5^th September 1888 at Tiruttani, then in Madras Presidency, had his secondary education at Tirupati and Vellore, college education at Voorhees College, Vellore and Madras Christian College.

He distinguished himself as one of  the greatest Professors of Philosophy all over the world.

He was elected President of India in 1962.  The Government of India had conferred upon him its highest civilian award of Bharat Ratna in 1954.

His state visits to a number of countries lasted from 1949 to 1965.

He passed away in Madras (now Chennai)  on 16 April 1975.

In his address at Moscow University on 18^th June 1956 he declared that buildings do not make a university. It is the teachers and the pupils and their pursuit of knowledge which make the soul of a university. The university is the sanctuary of the intellectual life of a country. The healthy roots of a national life are to be found in the people. They are the well-springs of national awakening. They are the spirit behind revolutionary movement of society.

When we give education, we start a ferment of debate and discussion of first principles. The educated youth will voice their thoughts and find fault with things as they are. Human development is not to be confused with the acquisition of mechanical skills or intellectual information. It is the development of the spirit in man.

            Earlier in his address at the Free University of Brussels on 4^th June 1956  he had said man is not a biological animal or economic being. He is a spiritual person. He is not satisfied with temporal possessions. The great teachers of mankind, Hindu and Buddhist, Jewish and Christian, Muslim and Sikh speak to us of peace on earth.

            He quoted an 1888 statement of Louis Pasteur of France in which he had said: ”Two opposing laws seem me to me now in contest. The one, a law of blood and death, opening out each day new modes of destruction, forces nations to be always ready for battle. The other, a law of peace, work and health, whose only aim is to deliver man from the calamities that beset him…which of these laws will prevail, God alone knows. But of this we may be sure, that science is obeying the law of humanity, will always labour to enlarge the frontiers of life.”

            Dr. Radhakrishnan rightly believes that if education cannot change our minds, it cannot change anything. We cannot ignore the influence of ideas and beliefs on human minds and actions. Ideas have a life of their own, get developed and distorted when they enter the whirlpool of accidents and personalities. Even those who do not belong to our race or religion are also human beings. They are like ourselves, not much different from us. W have to train our youth in the consciousness of a common purpose for mankind, in the brotherhood of man.

The greatest men of the world are great because of their humanity, fellow-feeling, for their love of the ideals of knowledge, love and beauty. They are the sculptors of men. In universities, we glorify men who benefited humanity and not indulged in violence and bloodshed, men like the Buddha, Socrates and Jesus, who asked us to love our enemies.

            Finally, his views about science and scholarship. These, says he, belong to the world, not to any particular age of humanity. They overlap the boundaries of nations. All those who are consecrated to the service of learning are brethren. They belong to the one republic of letters.

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5^th September 2020                                                                  G.R.Kanwal