HOME AND HAPPINESS

 

          HOME AND HAPPINESS

Both home and happiness are essential. Without home, you are a vagabond and without happiness you are uncomfortable. Home is defined in many ways.  It is a house, a residence, a dwelling place, a habitation. More precisely, it is a family comprising your parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters and if you are married your wife and children. It is more than a shelter. Here you live and learn, become a citizen, an employee, a businessman or whatever else you are destined to be. It is a cradle of your growth, comforts, protection, survival, emotional health and intellectual growth.

            Happiness is joy, gladness, enjoyment, bliss, merriment and cheerfulness which is impossible in loneliness.  For that you must have company of kith and kin, relatives, colleagues, neighbours and friends.

            English clergy James Hamilton (1814-67) says six things are requisite to create a “happy home.” Integrity must be the architect, and tidiness the upholsterer. It must be warmed by affection, lighted up with cheerfulness; an industry must be the ventilator, renewing the atmosphere and bringing in fresh salubrity day by day ; while overall, as a protecting canopy and glory, nothing will suffice except the blessing of God.

            According to the German author and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) “”He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. “

            And finally, it is rightly believed that the strength of a nation, especially of a republican nation, is in the intelligent and well-ordered homes of the people.-----American author Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, ( 1791 -1865).

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G.R.Kanwal

31 July 2024

 

TALKING ABOUT THE HEART

 

TALKING ABOUT THE HEART

It is not easy to talk about the heart. Physically it is an organ in the chest that sends blood around the body, usually on the left in humans. More than that it is the place in a person where the feelings and emotions are thought to be, especially those connected with love.

No part of the human body is used in as many senses as the heart. It means sympathy, empathy, compassion, humanity, fellow-feeling, pathos, goodwill, humanitarianism, benevolence, kindness, liveliness, courage, bravery, heroism, boldness, stout-heartedness, nerve, fortitude, purpose, resolution, guts, determination, hub, essential part, sum and substance, etc.

              Physically small, metaphorically, it is bigger than anything else in the world. It can accommodate in itself the whole universe. It continues to grow qualitatively. German thinker Jean Paul Richter (1763-1826) says memory, wit, fancy, acuteness, cannot grow young again in old age; but the heart can. Another thinker has said the heart of a good man is the sanctuary of God in this world. According to the Spanish dramatist De La Barca Pedro Calderon (1600-81} the heart is an astrologer that always divines the truth. English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616) considers a good heart worth gold.

There are many other quotes worth remembering such as: The heart  has reasons that reason does not understand; the ways of the heart , like the ways of providence, are mysterious; all who know their own minds , do not know their own hearts; and mind is the partial side of man; the heart is everything.

            Finally, the heart is so generous that it accepts all sorts of descriptive  adjectives. You can say : a good heart, a large heart, a rich heart, a poor heart, a wicked heart, a noble heart, a forgiving heart, a caring heart, etc.  

            A piece of advice: Never be heartless.                                                                                                                       **************

G.R.Kanwal

30 July 2024                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

 

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART 5

 

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART 5

1.     There is something horrible about a flower; this, broken in my hand, is one of those he threw in just now: it will not live another hour; here are thousands more : you do not miss a rose. ----English War Poetess Charlotte Mew (1869-1928). In Nunhead Cemetery, from The Farmer’s Bride.

2.     If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England. -----English War Poet Rupert Brooke (!887-1915): From The Soldier.

3.     (a). It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs. ------English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928).    

(b). I shall do one thing in this life ---one thing certain --- that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die. ----Thomas Hardy.

      4. Mankind never loses any good thing, physical, intellectual, or moral, till it finds a better, and then the loss is a gain. No steps backward, is the rule of human history. What is gained by one man is invested in all men, and is a permanent investment for all time. ----American theologian Theodore Parker (1810-1860).

            5. In tragic life, God wot, no villain need be ! Passions spin the plot. We are betrayed by what is false within. ----English novelist and poet George Meredith (1828-1909),                

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G.R.Kanwal

29 July 2024

 

 

 

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART 4

 

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART 4

1.     (a). A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness; but still will keep a bower quiet for , and a sleep full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. ---The English Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821).  

(b). Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. -----John Keats.

( c ). Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.----John Keats.

(d). I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections, and the truth of imagination. ----John Keats.

(e) . My Creed is Love and you are its only tenet ---You have ravish’d me away by a Power I cannot resist; and yet I could resist till I saw you; and even since I have seen you I have endeavoured often to reason against the reasons of my Love. I can do that no more --- the pain would be too great. --- My Love is selfish. John Keats.

2.     (a). Drive my dead thoughts over the universe, like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth; and by the incantation of this verse, scatter, as from an un unextinguished hearth ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawakened earth the trumpet of a prophecy ! O Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind. ----English Romantic Poet P.B. Shelley (1792-1822).

(b). We look before and after, and pine for what is not, our sincerest laughter with some pain is fraught. -----P.B.Shelley.

( c ). A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.

3.     Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life. ----English Romantic Poet Lord Byron (1788-1824).

G.R.Kanwal

28 July 2o24

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART 3

 

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART  3

1.     Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time; footprints, that perhaps another, sailing o’er life’s solemn main, a forlorn and shipwrecked brother, seeing, shall take heart again. ----American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

2.     Ring out false pride in place and blood, the civic slander and the spite; ring in the love of truth and right, ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease, ring out the narrowing lust of gold; ring out the thousand wars of old, ring in the thousand years of peace. -----English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.

3.     Ah, love, let us be true to one another ! for the world, which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new, hath really neither joy, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help, nor pains; and we are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and fight, where ignorant armies clash by night. ------English poet Matthew Arnold.

4.     The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, the man’s the gowd (gold) for a ‘that. What tho’ on ham-ely (homely) fare we dine, wear hoddin-gray (coarse woolens), and a ‘that? Gie (give) fools their silks, and knaves their wine, A man’s a man for a ‘that.  For a ‘that, and a ‘that. Their tinsel show, and a ‘that. The honest man, tho’ e’er sae poor, Is king o’men for a ‘that. ---- Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns.      

5.     The old order changeth, yielding place to new, and God fulfils himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world, -------English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.

G.R.Kanwal

26 July 2024

 

 

 

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART 2

 

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART 2

Dear Readers: Part 1 of this series was posted yesterday. More parts will follow at short intervals.

1.Fair pledges of a fruitful tree, why do ye fall so fast ? Your date is not so past, but you may stay here awhile to blush and gently smile, and go at last. ---English poet Robert Herrick.

2. All nature is but art, unknown to thee; all chance, direction which thou canst not see; all discord, harmony not understood; all partial evil, universal good; and, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite, one truth is clear, Whatever is, is right. -----English poet Alexander Pope .

3. (a). For my part, I really think that, next to the consciousness of doing a good action, that of doing a civil one is most pleasing. (b). A merry fellow was never yet a respectable man. (c). The desire of being pleased is universal. The desire of pleasing should be so too. ------English statesman Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield.

4. He prayeth well, who loveth well both man and bird and beast.  He prayeth best, who loveth best all things both great and small; for the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.--------English poet S.T. Coleridge.

5. If you respect life, you will start finding it difficult even to pluck a flower. You  enjoy the flower, you will love the flower, you can touch the flower, you can kiss the flower ----- but plucking it up, you are destroying it and you are hurting the plant which is as alive as you are. ---------Indian mystic and philosopher OSHO.

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G. R. Kanwal

25 July 2024

 

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART 1

 

MY SELECTED QUOTES ----PART 1

Dear Readers, the quotes that follow form part of my collection over the years. By and large, their authors are known but there are also those  whose authors could not be traced ;  yet I have included them in my selection being impressed by their everlasting wisdom.

1. The world is too much with us ; late or soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; little we see in Nature that is ours; we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!   
2. 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. In small proportions we just beauties see; and in short measures life may perfect be. ----English poet and dramatist Ben Jonson.
3. God doth not need either man’s work or His own gifts: who best bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best : His state is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed and post o’er land and ocean without rest: they also serve who only stand and wait. ----English poet John Milton.
4. Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign, beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes like ours; the land our brothers walk upon is earth like this, in which we shall lie. They, too, aware of sun and air and water, are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv’d. Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read a labour not different from our own. ------Japanese professor of English literature James Kirkup.    
What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand stare?—No time to stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep and cows: no time to see in broad daylight, streams full of stars, like skies at night: no time to turn at Beauty’s glance, and watch her feet , how they can dance….A poor life this, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare, ----Welsh  poet William Henry Davies who spent most of his time in U.K. and U.S.A.

G.R.Kanwal

24 July 2024

 

 

LOVE AND HATRED

 

                   LOVE AND HATRED

We live in a world of dualities such as life and death, good and bad, success and failure, now and then , fast and slow, body and soul, flowers and thorns, great and small, love and hatred, etc.

            These dualities co-exist in every part of the world. It is for the people there to choose either of them and reap the benefits or disadvantages of their choice.

            Love is affection, fondness, regard, warmth, intimacy, togetherness,    attachment, etc. Hatred is dislike, ill-will, enmity, animosity, repulsion, antipathy, etc.

            Love unites, hatred divides; love attracts, hatred repels; love breeds peace, hatred generates discord; love creates warmth, hatred produces cold; love promotes strength, hatred nourishes weakness; love means harmony and togetherness, hatred stands for disharmony and separation.

            In a multi-religious and multicultural society, harmony in social life depends upon love for one and all. This phenomenon is better known as unity in diversity. Here, one has to sincerely believe that we all are the children of the same God.  Our religions are different, we worship God in diverse places of our belief  but our objective is not unidentical. We live under the same sky and receive light from the same sun. We have a common earth and a common divine law about life and death. So our survival rests on love, not hatred.

            A Sufi saint defines love as wisdom and wisdom as love.

Finally, the following words of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) : “When we voluntarily embrace healthy rules – both socially and in our personal lives – we can ensure peace and harmony in the world.”

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G.R.Kanwal

23 July 2024            

 

UNITY OF RELIGIONS

 

                UNITY OF RELIGIONS

Though there are hundreds of religious faith groups, there are only seven  major religions : Christianity, Islam, Hinduism , Sikhism,  Buddhism,  Jainism,  and Judaism. Furthermore, they have essential unity among them due to their common religious values like truth, love, mercy, charity, compassion, kindness, humility, modesty and ethics .

According to the American Theologian Tryon Edwards (1809-94) religion in its purity, is not so much a pursuit as a temper; or rather it is a temper, leading to the pursuit of all that is high and holy.  Its foundation is faith; its action, works; its temper, holiness; its aim, obedience to God in improvement of self and benevolence to men.

India’s greatest freedom fighter and apostle of non-violence Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) said : True religion is a universal belief in the one and only God. The world is fast growing out of dogmas and creeds which have so sickened it that it has become confused and has begun to deny the very existence of the maker. ---Harijan: July 13, 1947.

Finally, let us say that human race is one, though it is made up of many tribes with many names. The religions followed by them have common values of love, truth, kindness, compassion and many more which show a fundamental unity among them. No religion teaches negative values like untruth, hatred, unkindness, violence, etc.  

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G.R.Kanwal

22 July 2024

PEACE OF MIND

 

 PEACE OF MIND

“Mind’ is defined as the part of a person that makes him able to be aware of things, to think and to feel. It is also called brain, head, seat of  intellect, psyche, ego and subconscious.    

 “Peace of mind” is stated to be a state in which one’s brain is calm, at ease and untroubled by worry. However, such a mental state is hard to achieve because the human mind is frequently restless. It is never empty of cares, worries, hopes , desires and disappointments.

The English poet John Milton (1608-1674) said in his epic poem Paradise Lost : The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven.”

According to another English poet Edmund Spenser (1552-99) : It is the mind that maketh good or ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.”

It is also true that anguish of mind has driven thousands to suicide; anguish of body, none. This proves that the health of the mind is of far more consequence to our happiness than the health of the body, although both of them are deserving of much more attention than either of them receives.

  In the end, remember that nothing can bring you peace but yourself. A most effective approach is the practice of Lord Buddha’s eightfold path: Right thinking , right speech, right resolve, right action, right  effort, right livelihood, right mindfulness and right concentration. Add to these contentment, self-satisfaction and trust in the Will of God.    

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G.R.Kanwal

21 July 2024

 

A BIBLICAL PSALM

 

                    A BIBLICAL PSALM

The English poet John Milton (1608-74) wrote his masterpiece Paradise Lost to justify the ways of God to men.

It is unfortunate that almost every man in his life , in some or the other way, disobeys the laws of God and becomes liable for punishment. It is another matter that the most merciful God may not treat him harshly and may either forgive him or mix His justice with mercy.

The Book of Psalms in The New Testament begins with the following  lines on almost the same theme.

“BLESSED is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

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

For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

To conclude , a significant  quotation on godliness: “True godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it. “  

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G.R.Kanwal

20^th July 2024

 

WHAT IS EGOTISM?

 

                WHAT IS EGOTISM?

Ego is defined as a person’s sense of his/her own value and importance. If you are egocentric , you think only about yourself and not about what other people need or want. In other words you are selfish.

            Egoism or egotism is the fact of thinking that you are better or more important than anyone else.

There is also egomania:  a mental condition in which somebody is interested in himself or concerned about himself in a way that is not normal.

            Some famous thoughts on egotism are :

(1) Egotism is the tongue of vanity.

(2) It is never permissible to say “I say.”  

(3) There is not one wise man in twenty that will praise himself. English dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616 ).

(4) Egotism is more like an offence than a crime, though ‘tis is allowable to speak of yourself provided nothing is advanced in your own favor; but I cannot help suspecting that those who abuse themselves are, in reality, angling for approbation. ---Swiss physicist Johann Georg Zimmerman -- 1728-95.

(5) The egotist hates losing – even to God.

            Finally, an egotistic person cannot become admirable  because he continues to remain snobbish and swellheaded,  and does not cease  claiming himself to be high-and-mighty.    

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G.R.Kanwal

19 July 2024

 

ANGER MUST BE CONTROLLED

 

                ANGER MUST BE CONTROLLED

Instant anger must be controlled. It may turn out to be self-destructive. When offended by a dealer, a bureaucrat slapped him on the face , was arrested;  tried under law; imprisoned and dismissed from his high profile  job. The net result was life-long repentance.

Controlling of anger should be part of one’s upbringing;  and parents should be legally forbidden to practice the ancient proverb : Spare the rod and spoil the child. Many a time, the rod frightened the child for ever and he absconded from his home never to come back.

When anger rises, think of the consequences. This is one of the best  pieces of advice. The other is delay your response. Yet another is forget your hurt; forgive the offender; and enjoy lasting piece of mind.

Lord Buddha said:“You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.“

 According to the American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) : ”For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.”

Anger has been included in the list of vices, not virtues. It is a form of revenge and retaliation. It is defined as a strong feeling of displeasure and usually of antagonism.

Remember one can control only one’s own actions and not how others react or respond.

Finally, the significant words of the English divine and hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674-1748 . He says: To be angry about trifles is mean and childish; to rage and be furious is  brutish; and to maintain perpetual wrath is akin to the practice and temper of devils; but to prevent and suppress rising resentment is wise and glorious, is manly and divine.”

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G.R.Kanwal

18 July 2024                

BODY AND SOUL

 

                             BODY AND SOUL

In the sacred book of the Hindus The Bhagavad Gita  written by Shri Vyasa between 400 BCE and 200 CE, there is a lot of discussion between Lord Krishna and his follower Arjuna who has been asked to fight against the rivals of his clan comprising his kith and kin but he is hesitant because it will cause their death.

In the discussion, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna about the perishability of the temporary body and the eternal existence of the soul which only migrates from one body to another and will always do so.

What follows is a short paragraph about our concept of the destined  death and the criminal act of murdering some body.  Its source is the notes in Dr. S. Radhakrishnan’s book on the Bhagavadgita first published in 1948. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888 -1975) was an Indian politician, philosopher and author. He had served as the second President of India from May 13, 1962 to May 13, 1967.

The text of the aforesaid paragraph reads like this:

“The inevitability of death, however , cannot justify murders, suicides or wars. We cannot desire deliberately the death of others, simply because all men are bound to die. It is so that all life ends in death, the progress is perishable, that nothing is permanent in the temporal sense of the word. But in every perfect realization of life, the eternal becomes actualized and the development in time is only the means to this essential aim.”

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G.R.Kanwal

17 July 2024

TO THE CUCKOO

 

                TO THE CUCKOO

“To The Cuckoo” is a romantic poem written by the English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850). The full poem consists of eight stanzas. What is reproduced here is a two- stanza gist of the poet’s romantic vision about the cuckoo, which is a bird with a call that sounds like its name.

            “Though babbling only to the Vale,

            Of Sunshine and of flowers,

            Thou bringest unto me a tale

          Of visionary hours.

           

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring

            Even yet thou art to me

            No bird, but an invisible thing,

            A voice, a mystery.

 

Wordsworth  loved nature and all its accompanying elements. The stanza of the lyrical poem quoted here are from a pastoral ode to the cuckoo bird.

            To conclude, here is brief description of  Wordsworth’s theory of poetry : “ To choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate and describe them throughout, as far as possible, in a selection of language actually used by men, and at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect.”

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G.R.Kanwal

15 July 2024

OSHO’S BUNCH OF THOUGHTS

           OSHO’S BUNCH OF THOUGHTS

Osho was an Indian mystic and philosopher.  He was born on 11 December 1931 and died on 19 January 1990. His real name was Rajneesh. Because of his spiritual qualities which he expressed in his numberless public discourses ,he came to be known as Bhagwan Rajneesh and ultimately just Osho.

Initially, he started his career as a college professor. He was a vastly learned man but his thoughts were amazingly original. He believed in the personal freedom of every person.

 Introducing himself, he says  in a lecture, “I am just an ordinary man, just like everybody else. If there is any difference, it is only of quality. It is only of knowing. I know myself, you don’t know.”

“As far as our beings are concerned, I belong to the same existence, you breathe the same air. You just have not tried to know yourself. The moment you know yourself, there is no difference at all. It is just like I am standing and looking at the sunrise and you are standing by my side with closed eyes…..You just have to be shaken and told, “Just open your eyes. It is morning, the night is over.”

Here is a small bunch of Osho’s thoughts for your enlightenment. (1.) When mind knows, we call it knowledge. When heart knows, we call it love. And when being knows, we call it meditation. (2). Just count how many thoughts are your own. All are from other sources, all are borrowed. (3).Respect life, revere life. There is nothing more holy than life, nothing more divine than life. (4).The mind is the root of all the questions that arise in you. The mind cannot rest at ease with things as they are. It is the nature of mind. (5). There is something of immense importance about truth: Unless you find it, it never becomes truth to you. If it is somebody else’s truth and you know it, in that very borrowing, it is no longer true ----it has become a lie.”

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G.R.Kanwal

14 July 2024                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

WHAT IS HARMONY?

 

                WHAT IS HARMONY?

Harmony is defined as a state of peaceful existence and agreement. It may be among the members of any kind of party, faith, ideology, school of thought, institution, or society.

In music, it stands for the way in which different notes that are played or sung together combine to make a pleasing sound.

Some synonymous of harmony are : agreement, co-operation, unity, friendship, sympathy, like-mindedness, fellowship or  peacefulness.

            Indian professor of musicology, and pioneer of the transmission of Sufism  to the west,  Hazrat Inayat Khan (5 July 1882 – 5 Feb 1927) says harmony is that which makes beauty.  Beauty in itself has no meaning.  He adds that harmony is a combination of colours. It is in the drawing of a design on a line.  A word , a thought, a feeling, or an action which is productive of beauty represents harmony.

Quoting the words of Lord Christ, ‘Resist no evil’, Hazrat Inayat Khan calls them a hint not to respond to inharmony. For instance a word of kindness, of sympathy, or an action of love and affection, finds response, but a word of insult, an action of revolt or of hatred , creates a response too, and that response creates still more inharmony in the world.   

Answering the question what causes inharmony in a person, Hazrat Inayat Khan  says “weakness” . Physical weakness or mental weakness, but it is always weakness. Very often , therefore, one finds that bodily illness causes disharmony and inharmonious tendencies.

Finally, Hazrat Inayat Khan finds the cause of every discomfort and every failure in inharmony; and the most useful thing one could impart in education is the sense of harmony. To develop it in children and to bring it to their notice will not be as difficult as it appears; what is needed is to point out to them  the different aspects of harmony in all the various affairs of life.

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G. R.Kanwal

12 July 2o24

 

MORALITY AND IMMORALITY

 

MORALITY AND IMMORALITY

Morality is concerned with ethics. It is a derivative of moral which stands for goodness, virtue, righteousness, honesty, uprightness, justness, decency, purity and blamelessness.

Immorality is defined as sin, vice, evil, badness, dishonesty, wickedness, corruption and indecency, etc.

Religiously morality refers to charity, kindness, humility, chastity, temperance, patience and humility. On the contrary, immorality means lust, greed, envy, wrath, pride, gluttony and lethargy.

Whereas morality is admirable and acceptable by God, immorality is undesirable and punishable.  There is heaven for practitioners of morality, and hell for those who are guilty of immorality.  Morality insures  fearlessness and peace of mind.  Immorality breeds loss of happiness and causes  an unpeaceful soul.

Teaching of both cardinal virtues and deadly sins is part of education and literature all over the world. In secularism, their synonyms are right and wrong.

The French writer Voltaire (1694-1778)  says all sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same because it comes from God.   

According to the American theologian Edwards Tryon (1809-94) piety and morality are but the same spirit differently manifested. Piety is religion with its face toward God ; morality is religion with its face toward the world.

Finally, as somebody has said : One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

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G.R.Kanwal

11 July 2024

 

BENEVOLENCE

 

                   BENEVOLENCE

Benevolence is defined as kindness, kind-heartedness, charity, generosity, compassion, philanthropy and humanitarianism.

A benevolent person is one who is friendly, helpful, humane, liberal, sympathetic, charitable, philanthropic and altruistic.

Benevolence is not the quality of only rich, well-to-do and wealthy persons. Even poor or hard up and deprived people are benevolent. They share with others whatever they have. Their benevolence is natural.  It has no selfish motive. They don’t do it to  become famous or get any praise or admiration.

According to the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) :”To feel much for others, and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfish, and exercise our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature.”

Benevolence is a religious quality. The English writer  and magistrate Henry Fielding (1707-1754) says: There cannot be a more glorious object in creation than a human being replete with benevolence, meditating in what manner he may render himself most acceptable to the Creator by doing good to his creatures.

A Hindu maxim says : He only does not live in vain, who employs his wealth, his thought, his speech to advance the good of others.

Finally, the following words of the American author William Dean Howell (1837-1920): The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect, but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection.

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G.R.Kanwal

10 July 2024

SOME QUOTES ON OLD AGE

 

SOME QUOTES ON OLD AGE

Old age is both a blessing and a problem. In India, most of the aged people are venerated. They are treated as saints and sages. Their feet are touched and their blessings are sought. They have large families with more or less successful descendants. What is prayed for is their good health. If they are victims of physical or mental ailments, they are looked upon as a burden, not a blessing.  

Most of the quotes on old age are not positive. For example: (a) Years do not make sages; they only make old men. ( b) Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success, (c) As we grow old we become both more foolish and more wise. (d) A healthy old fellow, who is not a fool, is the happiest creature living. (e)  No snow falls lighter than the snow of age; but none lies heavier, for it never melts. (f) Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. (g) Some older persons might feel that they are so useless, helpless and at the mercy of their physical problems, changes in living arrangement or negative events. This sense of hopelessness and helplessness might be prolonged and lead to the development of depressive illness or even suicidal attempt.

The authors of the preceding quotes which are mostly negative could not be traced.  

But the best positive quote is from the English poet Robert Browning’s poem Rabi Ben Ezra who says: Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made:  Our times are in His hand who saith “A whole I planned, youth shows but half, trust God: see all, nor be afraid.”

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G.R.Kanwal

9 July 2024

 

THE SEVENTH AGE OF MAN

 

THE SEVENTH AGE OF MAN

In his play As You Like it the English poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) makes a cynical character Jaques sing a poem which divides a man’s life into seven ages.

The seventh age which is the last scene of life’s  strange and eventful   history ” Is second childishness, and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.”

An old man with his now most inefficient organs feels not only disabled but also lonely and abandoned. He is an unhappy, unclaimed  and burdensome member of the family suffering from multiple diseases. If he complains as a neglected man, he is disliked and unwanted all  the more.

According to a popular saying : We hope to grow old, yet we fear old age; that is we are willing to live, and afraid to die.

Morally, old age should be respected, given all sorts of comforts – physical, mental and emotional and provided with good company of friends and relatives who can indulge in with some interesting talk and easy to do activity like telling stories or playing cards.  

Finally, the following words of the English politician William Cullen Bryant (1794 -1878):  Old age, says he,  is wise for itself, but not for the community. It is wise in declining new enterprises, for it has not the power or the time to execute them; wise in shrinking from difficulty, for it has not the strength to overcome it; wise in avoiding danger, for it lacks the faculty ofready and swift action by which dangers are parried and converted into advantages. But this is not wisdom for mankind at large, by whom new enterprises must be undertaken, dangers met, and difficulties surmounted.

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G.R.Kanwal

7 July 2024

 

SOME QUOTES ON CHILDREN

 

SOME QUOTES ON CHILDREN

Children are innocent, lovely, affectionate, attractive, companionable, sweet to talk to, deeply curious and highly inquisitive.

The English novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870) says “I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they who are so fresh from God, love us.”

German humorist Richter  (1763 -1826) regards smallest children as nearest to God, as the smallest plants  nearest to the sun.  

According to the English poet and author Mary Howitt (1799-1888) : God sends children for another purpose than merely to keep up the race ---to enlarge our hearts; and to make us unselfish and full of kindly sympathies and affections; to give our souls higher aims; to call out all our faculties to extended enterprise  and exertion; and to bring round our firesides bright faces, happy smiles, and loving tender hearts.

She adds : my soul blesses the great Father, every day, that he has gladdened the earth with little children. “

Finally, m prayer : God should create a world where there should be only children and no grownups.      

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G. R. Kanwal

5 July 2024