CONFUCIUS SAID

 

CONFUCIUS   SAID

Confucius, a great Chinese politician and philosopher (551 -  479 B.C.) said:

 

1.Learn the past and you will know the future.

2.Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.

3. A blemish may be taken out of a diamond by carefully polishing it, but, if your words have the least blemish, there is no way to efface it.

4. In a well-governed country, poverty is something to be ashamed of.

5. Everything has beauty but everyone does not try to see it.

6. Don’t do to others which you do not want to be done to you.

7. Be benevolent.

8. Practice family rituals religiously .

9. Be honest both to ourself and others.

10. Be a life-long learner.

11. If you are building a mountain and stop before the last basketful of earth is placed on the summit, you have failed in your work. But if you have placed but one basketful on the plain, and go on, you are on the way building a mountain.

12.He who offends against heaven has none to whom he can pray.

13. To acknowledge one’s incapacity is the way to be soon prepared to teach others; for from the  moment a man is no longer full of himself, not puffed up with empty pride, whatever good he learns in the morning he practices before night.

14. Humanity means the love of masses.

15. Serve your superiors both loyally and diligently.

                These are just a handful of his eternal ideas.  He has many more.  Study some exhaustive biographical book on him.

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27^th June 2022                                                                                   G.R.KANWAL

 

DON’T QUIT

 

                DON’T   QUIT

‘Don’t Quit’ is a motivational poem about the advantages of steadfastness and perseverance. Its message is that it is a blunder to become impatient at the last moments of an adventure and give up thinking that success is unsure. It is indeed the last moments which matter most in any competitive or non-competitive game. It is at this time that the player becomes pessimistic and stops playing. In the uncertain affairs of life nothing can be more harmful than this type of attitude. To give up during the last stage of a venture is to lose foolishly, to hold on, is to gain wisely. Better, relax a bit if you must, and  hold on. Don’t quit.

            The text of this anonymous poem runs as follows:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest  if you must, but don’t you quit.

 

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As everyone of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow---

You may succeed with another blow.

 

Often the goal is nearer than

It seems to a faint and faltering man---

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor’s cup.

And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

 

Success is failure turned inside out ----

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.

And you can never tell how close you are;

It may be nearer when it seems afar;

So, stick to  the fight when you’re hardest hit---

It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.

 

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25^th June 2022                                G.R.Kanwal

 

ABOU BEN ADHEM

 

ABOU BEN ADHEM

‘Abou Ben Adhem’ is the title of a poem written by the English poet and critic , James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859). Published in 1834, this poem became, very popular and found place in a number of anthologies. Its aesthetic and spiritual appeal has not waned till today.  It has an eternal message for people of literary and religious interest.  

Leigh Hunt was the son of a clergyman. According to a biographer: “Of careless habits he led an unsettled life till his death in 1859.” However, he remained a Christian throughout and was always free from indelicacy.

‘Abou Ben Adhem’ belonged to Persia. His original name was Ibrahim which means the son of Adam. He believed in Sufism, died in 777 and posthumously earned the title of  a Wali which means ‘a friend of God or holy person.’ The word ‘saint’ is one of its synonyms.  

  Leigh Hunt’s poem is about  love of God and  love of humanity.  According to him  love of humanity is more virtuous than the love of God because what afflicted humanity needs is not saints but fellowmen who sympathise  provide them requisite relief.   

   The poem reads as follows:

 

ABOU BEN ADHEM (may his tribe increase)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

And saw, within the moonlight in his room,

Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,

An Angel writing in a book of gold:

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,

And to the Presence in the room he said,

“What writest thou?” The Vision raised its head,

And with a look made of all sweet accord

Answered, “The names of those love the Lord.”

“And is mine one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so,”

Replied  the Angel. Abou spoke more  low,

But cheerily still; and said, “I pray thee, then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow men.”

 

The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names who, love of God had blessed,

And, lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest!

 

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23^rd June 2022                                      G.R.Kanwal

B R A H M A

 

B R A H M A

If the red slayer think he slays,

Or if  the slain  think he is slain,

They know not well the subtle ways

I keep, and pass, and turn again.

 

Far or forgot to me is near;

Shadow and sunlight are the same;

The vanished gods to me appear;

And one to me are shame and fame.

 

They reckon ill who leave me out;

When me they fly, I am the wings;

I am  the doubter and the doubt,

And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

 

The strong gods pine for my abode,

And pine in vain the sacred Seven;

But thou, meek lover of the good!

Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

 

            In this short poem by the American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1802-1882),  the supreme Hindu God Brahma tells us that we live in a world of illusions. Reality being subtle is spiritual. It is not physical. Therefore. Its  appearance can be deceptive.  

           

 Brahma , in this poem, describes himself as all-powerful and all-inclusive. For him shadow and sunlight, fame and shame are similar. The seven sacred gods have no independent existence of their own. They are all his components.  He alone is everything and every action . The wings of the flier are  his, and so is  the reality  the  hymn which a Brahmin sings.

 

The very first stanza of the poem Is the most significant. It assures the reader that death is an illusion.  Both  the slayer and  the slain  are ignorant . Their claims of slaying and being slain  are unrealistic because  the indwelling soul in the human body is immortal.  

 

This idea is also explained in the Gita where Lord Krishna refutes the idea of death. He says that people don’t die; they simple drop their existing garbs and adopt new ones according to the law of Karma.

 

17^th June 2022                                                            G.R.Kanwal       

THE HUMAN TOUCH

 

THE   HUMAN   TOUCH

‘Tis the human touch in this world that counts,

The touch of your hand and mine,

Which means far more to the fainting heart

Than the shelter and bread and wine;

For shelter is gone when the night is o’er,

And bread lasts only a day,

But the touch of the hand and the sound of the voice

Sing on in the soul alway.

 

            This short poem is the creation of an American poet,  Spencer Michael Free (1856-1938).

 

The title is significant.  Currently, it is an integral part of social, political and psychological thought.

The theme is the help ‘a fainting heart’ needs at a particular time.  Materially, a night shelter, some bread and wine will uplift him but only temporarily because “the shelter is gone when the night is over and the bread and wine last only a day.”  What will give him lasting support is the touch of the helper’s compassionate hand and the sound of his kind words which will go on singing  in his soul for all times  to come. So, what the  people in trouble need is ‘the human touch’ defined as “the ability to make ordinary people feel relaxed ‘ not temporarily but perpetually .

                                               

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6^th June 2022                                                                                  G. R. Kanwal