ACT, ACT , IN THE LIVING PRESENT

 

 

                             ACT, ACT , IN THE LIVING PRESENT

 

“Time” has been classified into three stages ---- present, past and future. None of them is stationary. The present comes and in no time becomes past.  We cannot call it back. It becomes history. As regards, the time which is yet to come is called future. But it is unreliable. It may or may not come for you. You are living at the current moment. The next moment is a dream. You may not be there to see it and use it as per your advance planning.                                                   

 

            In her poem “NOW” , the English poetess and philanthropist A.A.Procter (1825-1964)  uses in each of the four stanzas of her  poem a line beginning with the word “Rise ! These lines are:

            Rise !  for the day is passing

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            Rise from your dreams of the future

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            Rise ! if the past detains you      

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            Arise ! for the foe is here

 

            Her poem is inspirational. She wants to tell her readers:

 

“The Past and Future are nothing,

In the face of the stern today.

 

She believes that time has three dimensions ----- there is present which is in your hands “Now” .  This dimension of time is alive and real. It is available to you for realizing any dream. The past time being over has become dead. The future is like a dream which may or may not come. She does  pray that the future should come but advises you to:

Rise from your dreams of the Future,

Of gaining some hard fought field;

Of storming some airy fortress,

Or bidding some giant yield;

Your future has deeds of glory,

Of honour (God grant it may!}

But your arm will never be stronger,

Or the need so great as To=day.

 

She counsels you also against brooding over the past:

            Rise ! if the past detains you,

Her sunshine and storms forget;

No chains so unworthy to hold you

As those of a vain regret:

Sad or bright, she is lifeless ever;

Cast her phantom arms away,

Nor look back, save to learn the lesson

Of a nobler strife To-day.

 

Finally, these words of the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-182): “Trust no Future, however pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act,---Act in the living Present ! Heart within, and God overhead! -- ( From A Psalm Of Life). “

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G.R.Kanwal

13 December 2024