WHAT IS LOVE?

 

          WHAT IS LOVE?

            Love is defined as : (i)  An intense feeling of deep affection, (ii) A great interest and pleasure in something, and (iii)  A feeling of deep affection for someone.

            Some synonyms of love are: fondness, care, concern, attachment, regard, warmth, intimacy, devotion, adoration, passion, ardour, desire, lust, yearning, infatuation and adulation.

            Give and take policy is not love. It is business. It is based on profit and loss.

            True love is not a commercial venture; it is a spiritual relationship. It is not physical or material. It belongs to the mind as also the soul. By and large, it is unselfish. It is not like a gain or loss in business. Its main concern is with a heart that believes in selfless attachment.

            According to some famous quotes, it is: (i) It is a beautiful necessity of our nature; (ii) There comes a time when the souls of human beings begin to faint for the atmosphere of the affections they are made to breathe; (iii) If you love one human being purely and warmly, you  think of loving all; (iv) We are shaped and fashioned by what we love; (v) Mutual love is the crown of all our bliss; (vi) Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; (vii) There is nothing holier in this life of ours than the first consciousness of love ---the first fluttering of its silken wings ----the first rising sound and breath of that wind  which is so soon to sweep through the soul, to purify or to  destroy; (viiii) Love is like a beautiful flower which we may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same; (ix) Love never reasons, but profoundly  gives like a thoughtless prodigal, its all, and trembles then lest it has done too little; (x) Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

                  Finally, true love is not a temporary affair. It is an everlasting bond between two hearts. No excuse is strong enough to break a love relationship. As Shakespeare said: Love is not a Time’s fool.

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

4^th December 2025

 

GREAT THOUGHTS

 

                GREAT  THOUGHTS

 

      1.‘Father, thy name be hallowed

 Thy kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread;

And forgive us our daily sins,

For we too forgive all who have done us wrong.

And do not bring us to the test.”

2. Torment not yourself, lest God should punish you.

3.  One learned man is harder on the devil, than a thousand ignorant worshippers.

4.  Throw away Thy rod, throw Thy wrath.O my God, take the gentle path.

5.  The heart is the home of God; purify it of whatever is there other than Him.

6. Oneness is an Essential Attribute of God in the sense that God Almighty has no peers, equals, rivals, or opposites in either His Essence or His Attributes.  

 7. Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in their dust.      

8. My heart can never find its way to where thou keepest company with the companionless among the poorest, the lowliest, and the lost.

9. Believe in yourself and your abilities.

10. The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

11. Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.

12. Never let yesterday use up too much of today.

13. Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching.

14. If you want something said, ask a man, if you want something done, ask a woman.

15. The glories of our blood and state are shadows, not substantial things; there is no armour against Fate ; death lays his icy hand on kings;

sceptre and crown must tumble down, and in the dust be equal made

with the poor crooked scythe and spade.

                                                            **********

 

G.R.Kanwal

2^nd December 2025.                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

RIUALS

 

                          RITUALS  

            A ritual is defined as a religious ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order

            It is also defined as the performance of ceremonial acts prescribed by tradition or by sacerdotal decree.

            It is further described as a specific, observable mode of behaviour exhibited by all known societies.

            Some modern saints and sages having  a rational, evidence-based  mindset don’t believe in old rituals. They regard  them as superstitious based on  blind faith.

            In a song contained in his book of songs titled Gitanjali, the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) says to a temple priest: “Leave this chanting and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path-maker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil !   

            The Indian saint, mystic and devotional  poet Kabir (1398-1518) was a devotee of Lord Rama but did not see him in any personal form or attributes.

            Here are some of his devotional lines:

“The harp gives forth murmurous music,

And the dance goes on without hands and feet.    

It is played without fingers, it is heard without ears;

For He is the ear, and He is the listener.

The gate is locked but within there is fragrance;

And there the meeting is seen of none.

The wise shall understand it.”

 

            Finally, his affidavit-like words:

I do all works, yet I am apart from all works.

Few comprehend my meaning:

He who can comprehend it, he sits unmoved

Kabir seeks neither to establish nor to destroy.”  

                       

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

1^st December 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LIFE LINES (From Here and There)

 

LIFE LINES (From Here and There)

      1.What is this life, if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare.

 

2. Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream !

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

“Dust thou art, to dust returnest,”

Was not spoken of the soul.

 

3. Life is short; art is long.

 

4. Is life worth living? Yes, so long

As ere is wrong to right,

Wail of the weak against the strong,

Or tyranny to fight ;

Long as there lingers gloom to chase,

Or streaming tear to dry,

One kindred woe, one sorrowing face

That smiles as we draw nigh;

Long as at tale of anguish swells

The heart, and lids grow wet

And at the sound of Christmas bells

We pardon and forget;

So long as Faith with Freedom reigns,

And loyal Hope survives,

And gracious charity remains

To leaven lowly lives;

While there is one untrodden tract

For Intellect or Will,

And men are free to think and act,

Life is worth living still.

(The title of this poem is: Is Life Worth Living? And it is written by Alfred Austin (1835-1912).

             

5. I live for those who love me,

Whose hearts are kind and true;

For the heaven that smiles above me,

And awaits my spirit too;

For all human ties that bind me,

For the task by God assigned me ,

And the good that I can do.

                                                **********

 

G.R.Kanwal

30 November 2025

READ AND REMEMBER

 

READ AND REMEMBER            

1.Women have more strength in their looks, than we have in our laws.

2. Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.

3. Wine and youth are fire upon fire.

4. Wealth may be an excellent thing, for it means power, leisure, and liberty.

5. To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.

6. God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.

7. To know how to suggest is the art of teaching.

8. Good taste is the flower of good sense.

9. Liberal minds are open to conviction.

10. Life is the soul’s nursery—it’s training place for the destinies of eternity.

11. I fear nothing but doing wrong.

  12.The  first lesson in a spiritual school is self-denial.

  13.  He is a fool who cannot be angry; but he is a wise man who will not.

   14.No sword bites so fiercely as an evil tongue.

    15.Resentment is, in every stage of the passion, painful, but it is not                      disagreeable, unless in excess.

     16.If we make religion our business, God will make it our blessedness.

      17. A verse may find him who a sermon flies.

      18.Philosophy is the art of living.

      19. Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

      20.Modesty is the citadel of beauty and virtue.

                                          ********

G.R.Kanwal

29 November 2025

 

 

BLOW,BLOW THOU WINTER WIND

 

                BLOW,BLOW  THOU WINTER WIND

 

            Given below is a lyric poem titled ‘Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind”.  It  was sung by Amiens, a character in Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It.”

           

            It has been rightly said by a literary critic : “the poem uses the harshness of the winter wind as a metaphor for human unkindness, stating that the betrayal and ingratitude from people is far worse than the physical cold.”  It  also “explores themes of bitter friendship, the falseness of human relationships, and the transient nature of life.”

 

            Look at the text of the poem:

 

“Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art so unkind

As man’s ingratitude.

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen.            

Although thy breath be rude.

 

Heigh-ho sing, heigh-ho unto the green holly

Most friendship is feigning,most loving mere folly.

Then heigh-ho the holly.

This life is most jolly.

 

Freeze , freeze, thou bitter sky.

That dost not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot

Though thou the waters warp.

Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remembered not. “

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

28 November 2025,

 

SUPERMAN

 

                                                SUPERMAN

            According to a very brief definition a superman is one who is unusually strong or intelligent or who can do something supremely well. This is also the definition of a superwoman if she has an extraordinary career and can take care of her home and family.

            Some other qualities of a superman are  super strength, stamina and invulnerability.

            Many leaders of states are regarded as supermen if they have dictatorial  powers and their states have ultramodern  weapons of war.

              Brute force in a person is not universally appreciated . Wrestlers and warriors are not loved as great supermen.

            Look at these facts : Despite his god-like power, Superman’s personality is defined by moral traits like humility, compassion, kindness, truth, justice, hope and indomitable will for peace and prosperity.

               Pride, arrogance, combative tendency, lust for more and more  power and the instinct to humiliate others by any kind of personal superiority are not admirable qualities in a superman.

            The Indian yogi Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950) defines superman as a divinely transformed individual, a gnostic being who has ascended beyond the limitations of the human mind to embody a higher consciousness. He further says : This spiritual evolution is not a purely mental or ego-driven concept like Nietzsche’s, but one that involves a full transformation of being, including the physical body, into a state of divine consciousness, knowledge and joy. This gnostic being can then act in the world from a place of unity and spiritual purpose, not personal gain.   

               A  Gnostic believes that salvation comes from spiritual knowledge (gnosis) rather than through traditional action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil.

            In his essay on Superman Sri Aurobindo says: The world’s discords have to be understood, seized, transmuted. Love must call Power and Knowledge into the temple and seat them beside her in a unified equality; Power must bow its neck to the yoke of Light and Love before it can do any real good to the race.

                                                            ******

G.R.Kanwal

27 November 2025

     

EXTRACTS FROM TWO ODES

 

EXTRACTS FROM TWO ODES

            Great poetry, even when written in simple language, haunts our mind day after day. It becomes a thing of beauty about which  John Keats (1795-1821) said  is a joy forever.                                                                                                   

            The first extract which is given below is from Ode to the West Wind written by P.B., Shelley (1792-1822):

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 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?

 

            The second extract comprising a few stanzas is also from P. B. Shelley’s Ode to the Skylark.

            According to a literary critic: Between the “West Wind’ and the ‘Skylark’ the choice for the first place is hard. Each has its points. If the former has greater strength, the latter has greater delicacy and grace.

 

Like a high-born maiden

In a palace tower,

Soothing her love-laden

(Soul in secret hour)

With music sweet as love which overflows her bower.

                                    -----

Teach us, spirit or bird,

What sweet thoughts are thine;

I have never heard

Praise of love or wine

That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.

                                    ----

We look before and after,

And pine for what is not,

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught,

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

                                                ********

       

G.R.Kanwal

26 November 2025.

 

  

SOME THOUGHTS FOR TODAY

 

                 SOME THOUGHTS FOR TODAY

1. Thoughts, ideas and images that dwell in our minds become a part of us notwithstanding the fact that they spring from a country or place we do not belong to or have not even visited.
2. A great thought holds the attention and stirs the blood of the listener.
3. A man should rather sever his tongue than risk being rude to an unknown woman.
4.   The mission of an observer should be to record impressions, not convictions.          
5.  Let us agree with the Indian philosopher and mystic Acharya  Rajneesh (1930-1990)  popularly known as Osho that your heaven is in your heart and your hell is in your head.

 

6. A spoonful of tar spoils a barrel of honey.
7. Let us be silent to hear the whispers of gods.
8.  A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle and an end.
9. A quotation is one man’s wit and all men’s wisdom.
10. Good things come to those who wait.
11. You have a name for every thing. But a name does not give knowledge.
12. The wounds of love don’t need a doctor’s balm.
13. A fighter fights alone.
14. Mercy! Thy name is God.
15.  Ideas are more powerful than weapons.
16. A good man does good merely by living.
17.  A fools heart is in his tongue.
18. Never reason from what you do not know.
19.  Life has no limitation
20.  Only those who forgive others deserve to be forgiven when they commit a wrong.  

G.R.Kanwal                                     *******

25 November 2025.         

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUTY MERCY

 

                SOME THOUGHTS ABOUTY MERCY

            “Mercy” is the quality of those weak  or powerful persons who believe in compassion, pity, charity, forgiveness, kindness, sympathy, tolerance and generosity.  

            Most of the powerful persons believe in revenge.

            Punishment is common in the laws of all the countries.

            Many parents are not tolerant  and soft-hearted.

            There was a time when school teachers punished their students mercilessly even for minor acts of disobedience or misbehavior.

            Human beings , as children of benevolent God,  expect mercy and forgiveness .  They think  that mercy is one of the greatest attributes of God Almighty.  God in their view is an immensely kind-hearted Father.

            Many social reformers believe that punishment for crimes and offences is not so effective as a gift of mercy and forgiveness.

            Some religions propagate several acts of mercy; for example: giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, hospitality to the homeless strangers, clothes to the naked, care to the sick, inspirational visits to the prisoners.

            Note that forgiveness is a cardinal virtue in almost every religion, like  Christianity and Buddhism.   

            To conclude , here is a sonnet from the play Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Sc1, written by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) .

The quality of mercy is not strain”d.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,

Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

‘T is mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown;

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptred sway,

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings.

It is an attribute to God himself,

An earthly power doth then show likest God’s

When mercy seasons justice.                                                    

                                                ************

G.R. Kanwal

24 November 2025

RUMI ON LOVE

 

                                RUMI ON LOVE

                        Jalal al-Din Muhammad  Rumi was a Persian poet. He was born on 30 September 1207 in Balkh, Afghanistan, and passed away on 17 December 1273 in Konya, Turkiye. He was the most famous poet in the Persian language and literature. He was deeply influenced by Shams Tabrizi, Attar of Nishapur.

                        Rumi was famous for his mysticism in Persian poetry. His lyrics which are thoroughly didactic in nature are available in his epic Masnavi-yi Manavi.  All the lyrics that Rumi composed can be called  as spiritual couplets.

                       Rumi’s poetry is very popular. It has been translated into many languages.  These days the English version of his poetry is quite famous in the United States of America.

                        Given below is an extract from “The Life and Work of Jalaluddin Rumi” written by Afzal Iqbal and  published by Pakistan National Council Of The Arts, Islamabad .

                             According to the above-mentioned author: Love for Rumi is both a beginning and an end; ‘It is the cure of all ills.’ A kind of mania which music helps to create and sublimate. The rapture and ecstasy caused by music enable man to have a glimpse of life and reality.”

                        This author finds Rumi’s ghazals  (lyrics) immensely ecstatic. Look at the following lines from a love lyric:

Come, O lover! Come O lover! Let me assuage your suffering

Let me be your friend and then make your condition better.

Come, O lover! Come, O lover! Surrender to me your heart,

That I may teach you how to win love and make you a beloved like myself.

Come, O lover! Come, O lover! Sacrifice yourself for me

That I may give you my life and make your life happier.

I came again, yet again. Such is lover’s mania.

Like a falcon I came. Such is lover’s mania

My divine world became a mortal world, my mortal world divine.

My God’s cup became my food. Such is lover’s mania.

                                                            ******

G. R. Kanwal

23 November 2025

                       

                         

   

BEST QUTOES FROM POETS

 

                BEST QUTOES FROM POETS

1.John Keats (1795-1821): “ A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” “ Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” “ The universe is indifferent to our fates.” “ Heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter. “

2. P. B. Shelly( 1792-1822): “Poets are the un-acknowledged legislators. “ “ We look before and after and pine for what is not. Our sweetest laughter with some pain is fraught. “  

3. Lord Byron (17881824: “ In solitude we are least alone. “ “ ‘Tis strange –but true, for truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.” “ There is no instinct like that of the heart.” “ Friendship is love without wings.” “ Adversity is the first path to truth.” “ Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.”

4. William Wordsworth (1770-1850):  “Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark.” “ The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.” “ The world is too much with us , late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” “ The mind of man is a thousand times more beautiful than the earth on which he dwells.” “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.” “ Come forth into the light of things , let nature be your teacher. “ “The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away, than what it leaves behind.” “ Our life is but a sleep and a forgetting . Not in entire forgetfulness, but trailing clouds do we come.”

S.T.Coleridge  (1772-1834):  “Advice is like snow ---the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.” “ He prayeth best, who loveth best / All things both great and small,;/ For the dear God who loveth us,/ He made and loveth all.”  “I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry, that is, prose = words in their best order, poetry = the best words in their best order.”  “All thoughts , all passions, all delights, /Whatever stirs this mortal frame, /All are but ministers of L.ove ,/ And feed his sacred flame. “

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

22 November 2025

 

A NEW POEM ON TAJ MAHAL

 

                A NEW POEM ON TAJ MAHAL

            According to an overview : The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum in Agra, India, by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

            Commissioned in 1632 and completed in 1648 , it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the Seven Wonders of the World, celebrated for its symmetrical Indo-Islam architecture, intricate marble inlay work, and status as a symbol of love. The complex includes a mosque, guest house, and formal gardens.

            Many poets have expressed their views on its beauty and the inspiration which led to its construction. It is visited by thousands of tourists every day.

            Some of the quotes about this mausoleum are:

“A love poem written in marble.” Not a piece of architecture…but the passions of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones. ---Edwin Arnold.” “ A tear drop on the cheek of eternity.---The Indian poet and Author Rabindranath Tagore.”

            “It is a monument built out of love, where every stone speaks of a promised kept. ‘

             What follows is a new poem which I had never seen before. Its title is Taj Mahal. The name of the poetess who composed it is Lu Gam and it is included in her anthology “Flute Note And Other Poems.” It was published in 1959. There is no biographical sketch available about this poetess. As for her poem TAJ MAHAL one cannot help but admire  it.  

            Mumtaz, do you arise and wander here

And touch this carved stone, this graven wall,

And does your heart, long dust, recall

When you were his beloved wife

In that forgotten state which we call life?

This tranquil beauty, languor which we feel,

Is it your beauty that these halls reveal?

Is it your touch upon this place,

Your unseen self, your time veiled face

That cast the spell and lay the ageless hold?

Do your dark eyes, long turned to stone.

Evoke strange wonders in this room,

As looking out from your sealed tomb

The kiss the chiseled lotus buds

And count the jewels an emperor brought

And with exquisite care had wrought

To immortalize your name.

 

Mumtaz

Vaporous dreams surround this bier.

Are they your mellow memories musing here

Within the marble halls, beneath the dome?

Is it your voice, whispering where you lie

To share with you a love that shall not die,

That speaks in quiet from your earthly home?

                                                *****

G.R. Kanwal

21 November 2025

UNFORGETTABLE THOUGHTS

 

UNFORGETTABLE THOUGHTS           

            Thoughts are defined as “the mental process of thinking, creating ideas, beliefs, and opinions, and the products of that process.”

 

            Thoughts are both great and small, high and low, deep and shallow.

           

            Great thoughts which come from great thinkers, philosophers, saints, sages  and poets get recorded in the minds  of all and sundry. They shape their actions, emotions, perceptions, decisions, critical thinking , meaningful interpretation, right behaviour  and the ways of living a successful   life.

  

            Given below are a few unforgettable thoughts.

 

1.     Ability is a poor man’s wealth.

2.     When anger rises, think of the consequences.

3.     A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counsellor, a multitude of counsellors.

4.     Brevity is the soul of wit.

5.     Character is higher than intellect.

6.     The dew of compassion is a tear.

7.     Doubt is an incentive to search for truth.

8.     There is not a moment without some duty.

9.     Speech is the body; thought the soul, and suitable action the life of eloquence.

10.                         Example is the school of mankind.

11.                         Your face is a book, where men may read strange matters.

12.                         Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman.

13.                         Good humour is the health of the soul; sadness is its poison.

14.                         The first day a guest; the second, burden; the third, a pest.

15.                         What is history but a fable agreed upon?

16.                         One may smile and smile and be a villain still.

17.                        The influence of individual character extends from generation to generation. The world is molded by it.

18.                         Hell is paved with good intentions

19.                         Joy is more divine than sorrow, for joy is bread and sorrow is medicine.

20.                         What we know here is very little, but what we are ignorant of is immense.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

20 November 2025