A BUNCH OF THOUGHTS

 

                A BUNCH OF THOUGHTS

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. According to the Greek philosopher Plato (C.427-347 B.C) thinking is the talking of the soul.
3. Some synonyms of thought are: ideas, notions, beliefs, concepts, contemplations, impressions, reflections, opinions, views, considerations, presumptions, assumptions, perspectives, and attitudes.
4. Good   things come to those who wait.
5. You have a name for everything, but a name does not give knowledge.
6. A spoonful of tar spoils a barrel of honey.
7. A whole is that which has a beginning, a  middle and an end.
8. The hole is more than the sum of the parts.
9.  A quotation is one man’s wit and all men’s wisdom.
10.  God has a centre but no circumference.
11.  The wounds of love don’t need a doctor’s balm.
12.   A fighter fights alone.
13.    Mercy! Thy name is God.
14.    All good thoughts come from the heart.
15.    Learning without thought is labour lost.
16.    Choose a writer as you choose a friend.
17.     Opinions alter; characters do not change.
18.      The American poet and critic James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)  said: Children are God’s apostles, sent forth, day by day, to preach of love, and hope and peace.
19.      Every delay is hateful, but it brings wisdom.
20.       Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.

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G.R.Kanwal

31^st October 2025.             

 

 

ALL LIFE IS SACRED

 

                    ALL LIFE IS SACRED    

            The main theme of the poem “The Rime of Ancient Mariner” written by the English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)  is that all life is sacred.   

           

            The Ancient Mariner who was travelling with several companions  committed the sin of impulsively killing by shooting an albatross, a pious bird of the sea.

            He told a wedding guests whom he had detained to tell the story of his sin and retribution: “ With my cross-bow I shot the albatross.:  He also told him the dreadful  reaction of the sea. For example, the water was still everywhere but not a drop to drink.

 

             “With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, we could not laugh nor wail; through utter drought all dumb we stood!”

 

            Not only this: The many men on the ship, so beautiful, all lay dead, whereas he continued to  live like  thousands of slimy things of the sea.

 

            How the situation changed  after seeing appreciatively  the beautiful sea snakes  is described in the following stanzas:

 

            “O happy living things! no tongue/Their beauty might declare/A spring of love gushed from my heart,/And I blessed then unaware:/ Sure my kind saint took pity on me,/And I blessed them unware. The self-same moment I could pray;/And from my neck so free/The Albatross fell off, and sank/Like lead into the sea.

 

            The guilty mariner was now restful. He was able to sleep peacefully. He then contacted a hermit to hear his confession and forgive him.

 

            This great poem  about sacredness of all life ends with the following  lines:

 

Farewell, farewell! But this I tell

To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!

 

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.

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G.R.Kanwal

30 October 2025

 

 

 

EQUALITY

 

          EQUALITY

            Equality is defined as sameness. Some of its synonyms are: likeness, parity, similarity, equitability, evenness, comparability, justness, impartiality and egalitarianism.  

            According to the Greek philosopher Plato (427-348 BC) all men are by nature equal. They are made of the same earth and by the same Creator. The poor peasant is as dear to God as the mighty prince.

            In The Merchant of Venice, a play written by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) , Shylock says: I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions! fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?

                        If you prick us, do we not bleed?

                        If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

                        If you poison us, do we not die?

And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?             

 

                        In his poem “Death The Leveller”, the English poet and playwright James Shirley (1596-1666)  says:

 

“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.

 

                        In a secular democracy all citizens are equal before law. Here, equality is undeniable to any class of people, rich or poor, high or low according to their castes.

                        Finally this balanced  opinion of the French writer and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778):

 

            They who say all men are equal speak an undoubted truth, if they mean that all have an equal right to liberty, to their property, and to their protection of the laws. But they are mistaken if they think men are equal in their station and employments, since they are not so by their talents.

 

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G. R. Kanwal

29^th October 2025.

  

 

 

 

SOME GREAT LINES FROM THE BIBLE

 

          SOME GREAT LINES FROM THE BIBLE  

            Secular knowledge is inadequate for living an ideal  life on this earth. One must study holy books like the Bible (Christianity), the Bhagavad Gita and Vedas (Hinduism), the Quran (Islam), the Tripitaka (Buddhism), and the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikhism).  To these may also be added the study of the holy books of other existing faiths.

            What is this world?; who is its creator?; how should we live this life according to the expectations of the Supreme Lord  are some of the vital questions to which we find adequately satisfactory answers in most of the holy books.    

 

             What follows in this short script today are some great lines from the holy Bible.

1.     “ Once, in a certain place, Jesus was at prayer. When he ceased, one of his disciples said. ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John (one of Jesus’s Twelve Apostles) taught his disciples .’

 

He answered. ‘When you pray, say,

           

            “Father, thy name be hallowed;

            Thy kingdom come,

            Give us each day our daily bread.

            And forgive us our sins,

            For we too forgive all who have done us wrong.

            And do not bring us to the test.”

 

   2. Jesus’s  The Sermon on The Mount.  

            It comprises eight important teachings called the Beautitues, i.e., supreme blessednesses.

 

(i)                Blessed are the poor in spirit (meaning humble); for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

(ii)               Blessed are they that mourn losses or trials ; for they shall be comforted through God’s messengers.

(iii)            Blessed are the meek (i.e. gentle, kind, patient and tolerant, not proud, mighty and conceited) for they submit themselves to the will of God and are appreciated by Him.  

(iv)            Blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness of knowledge. Their desire will be fulfilled.

(v)              Blessed are the merciful. They shall obtain mercy as they show forgiveness and mercy to others. According to Luke 23.34 even when Jesus was suffering at the cross, he said: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

(vi)            Blessed are those who are pure in heart because they will be entitled to see God.

(vii)          Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. The idea here is that God  will be happy with those who live together harmoniously.  

(viii)        Blessed are they who face criticism from their critics for the wrongs done by them and decide to readopt the principles of God.

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G.R.Kanwal

28 October 2025.

 

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KNOWLEDGE IS UNLIMITED

 

KNOWLEDGE IS UNLIMITED

            No encyclopedia of world history has been written and will ever be written with the complete knowledge from the beginning and the end of this world when it will cease to exist with all its material and existential contents.

            The current position is that knowledge is growing moment after moment and human beings are exhorted to update themselves actively. Unnecessary rest is undesirable. The concept of a learning society which came into vogue a few years back will remain valid eternally.

            The English poet Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-92) wrote two contrasting poems The Lotus Eaters and Ulysses. The former describes idlers but the latter whose pursuit of experience and knowledge is un-satiable. For our purpose here is what Ulysses, the hero of the poem has to say about the infinity of knowledge:

“It little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags

Match’d with an aged wife, I meet and dole

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and knownot me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink

Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy’d

Greatly, have suffer’d greatly bot with those

That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when

Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known; citizens of men

And manners, climates, councils, governments,

Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’

Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades

For ever and forever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!

As tho’ to breathe were Life! Life piled on life

   Were all too little, and of one to me

   Little remains: but every hour is saved

   From that eternal silence, something more,

   A bringer of new things; and vile it were

   For some three suns to store and hoard myself,

   And this gray spirit yearning in desire

   To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

   Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

 

                                 ……..           

                Re-read , remember and make the following lines your religious belief for ever:

                      How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

                      To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!

                                 

                                    **********

G.R.Kanwal

27 Ocober 2025                         

 

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GREAT LINES FROM GREAT POEMS (PART TEN)

 

 

                   GREAT LINES FROM GREAT POEMS

                                      (PART  TEN)

1. 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.-----James Shirley

 

2. Stern daughter of the voice of God ;

 O Duty! If that name thou love

Who art a light to guide, a rod

To check the erring, and reprove ;

Thou who art victory and law

When empty terrors overawe ;

From vain temptations dost set free ;

And calm’st the weary strife of frail humanity.

There are who ask not if thine eye

Be on them; who, in love and truth,

Where no misgiving is, rely

Upon the genial sense of youth ;

Glad hearts ! without reproach or blot ;

Who do thy work, and know it not;

May joy be theirs while life shall last !

And thou, if they should totter, teach

          them to stand fast ! --------------------William Wordsworth.

 

3. There’s a good time coming, boys,

A good time coming;

War in all men’s eyes shall be

A monster of iniquity,

In the good time coming.

Nations shall not quarrel then,

To prove which is the stronger,

Nor slaughter men for glory’s sake---

Wait a little longer.--------------------------Charles Mackay

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Complier: G.R.Kanwal

26 October 2025.

 

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GREAT LINES FROM GREAT POEMS (PART NINE)

 

 

                   GREAT LINES FROM GREAT POEMS

                                       (PART  NINE)

1.     Blessed am I that I am born to this land and that I had the luck to love her.

What care I if queenly treasure is not in her store but precious enough is for me the living wealth of her love.

The best gift of fragrance to my heart is from her

Own flowers and I know not where else

Shines the moon that can flood my being

With such loveliness. ----- Rabindranath Tagore.      

 

2.     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 today.----------A. A. Procter.

 

3.     Let us remember, whenever we are told,

To hate our brothers, it is ourselves

That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.

Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.-----James Kirkup.

 

4.     “Ah! Lady, we receive but what we give

And  in our life alone does nature live.” ---

S. T. Coleridge to William Wordswworth’s sister.

 

5.“I would drink life to the lees”. ----Ulysses in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem of that title.

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Compiler: G.R.Kanwal

25 October 2025

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GREAT LINS FROM GRAT POEM (PART EIGHT)

 

GREAT LINS FROM GRAT POEM

                                      (PART  EIGHT)

1.“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismay’d?

Not tho’ the soldier knew

Someone had blunder’d:

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.---------Alfred Tennyson.

 

2. The woods are lovely dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.-------Robert Frost.

 

3. Riches I hold in light esteem,

And Love I laugh to scorn;

And lust of fame was but a dream

That vanished with the morn

And if I pray, the only prayer

That moves my lips for me

Is. “Leave the heart that now I bear

And give me liberty.-------Emily Bronte.  

 

4. Oh, sweet content, that turns the labourer’s sweat

To tears of joy, and shines the roughest face :

How often have I sought you high and low,

And found you still in some lone quiet place.------William Henry Davies.

 

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,

For the bright hopes left behind me,

And the good that I can do.-------G. L. BANKS.

                                    ******

Compiler: G. R. Kanwal

24 October 2025

 

 

 

 

 

GREAT LINES FROM GREAT POEMS (PART SEVEN}

 

                    GREAT LINES FROM GREAT POEMS      

                                                (PART SEVEN}     

1.The mountain and the squirrel

Had a quarrel,

And the former called the latter: Little Prig”;

Bun replied,

“You are doubtless very big;

But all sorts of things and weather

Must be taken together,

To make up a year

And  a sphere.

And I think it no disgrace

To occupy my place.

If I’m not so large as you,

You are not so small as I,

And not half so spry.

I’ll not deny you make

A very pretty squirrel track;

Talents differ, all is wisely put;

If I cannot carry forests on my back,

Neither can you crack a nut.”--------Ralph Waldo Emerson.

 

2. A wise old owl lived in an  oak;

The more he saw the less he spoke;

The less he spoke the more  he heard:

Why can’t we all be like that bird? -----Edward Hersey Richards.

 

3. Ladies, to this advice give heed---

In controlling men:

If at first you don’t succeed,

Why, cry, try again. ------Anonymous.

 

4. A stranger came one night to Yussouf’s tent,

Saying, “Behold one outcast and in dread,

Against whose life the bow of power is bent,

Who flies, and hath not where to lay his head;

I come to thee for shelter and for food,

To Yussouf , called through all our tribes “The Good.”

 

“This tent is mine,” said Yussouf. “but no more

Than it is God’s; come in, and be at peace;

Freely shalt thou partake of all my store

As I of His who buildeth over these

Our tents his glorious roof of night and day,

And at whose door none ever yet heard Nay.”----James Russell Lowell

 

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Compiler: G.R.Kanwal

23 October 2025

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