IDLENESS IS A CURSE

 

IDLENESS IS A CURSE

            There is a famous proverb : An idle man’s  brain is a devil’s workshop. It means that “ a mind without productive work or purpose easily fills with negative, mischievous, or evil thoughts and ideas, becoming a breeding ground for trouble, much like the workshop where the devil can create havoc.”

            No organ of the body can maintain its healthiness without performing the task which is eternally destined  for it. The secret of life is continuous activity. Relaxation is reward of fulsome activity.

            A dictum says: No pain, no gain. Get your wages after doing your allotted labour most efficiently. Also remember the idiom : the effort is expended in labour, and the value is created thereby.

            Idleness being laziness, indolence, sloth, inertia, and slothfulness blunts human faculties which shine in use. So be up and doing. This phrase means that we should not sit idle or waste our time. Instead, we should always be active and busy doing something useful. This approach will keep us healthy, wealthy and wise. Idle people are invaded by illness, unhealthy thoughts, dreadful dreams and destructive pictures  of time.

            The English divine Richard Baxter (1615-91) wrote somewhere: Idleness is the hotbed of temptation, cradle of disease, the waster  of time, the canker-worm of felicity. To him that has no employment, life in a little while will have no novelty ; and when novelty is laid in the grave, the funeral of comfort will soon follow.  Idleness is a constant sin, and labour is a duty. Idleness is the devil’s home for temptation and for unprofitable , distracting musings; while labour profiteth others and ourselves.

            According to the English poet and writer Geoffery Chaucer (1340-1400)  idleness is the gate of all harms. An idle man is like a house that hath no walls; the devils may enter on every side.

            And finally this piece of advice by the English poet Christopher Smart (1722-71): Go to the ant, thou sluggard, learn to live, and live and by her busy ways, reform thine own.

                                                *****

G.R.Kanwal

!4 December 2o25

 

WHAT I READ TODAY

 

          WHAT I READ TODAY

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.

 

            Ref: These lines are  from “Motherland” a poem in Gitanjali  written by          the Indian poet, writer and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore (1861-         1941).

           

            Comment: It is unfortunate that what Tagore believed and pacticed is             missing in present day young and old persons. Most of them  are running             after   power and pelf.

 

2. Come, come, whoever you are ,

Wanderer, fire worshipper, lover of leaving.

This is not a caravan of despair.

It does not matter that you have broken your vow

A thousand times, still come,

And yet again come.

 

Ref: I have taken these lines from a book on Rumi which was not published long ago. But I had read the same lines in in another anthology of Persian poetry.

 

Comment: The world is full of sinners. They commit many types of sins in spite of knowing that they shall be punished by God. Each time they commit a new sin, they promise not to commit it again. They swear but their character is not stable. They are vagabonds, fire-worshippers and unfaithful.  They break their vows thousands of times. The poet advises them to reform themselves even after thousands of atonements.  God’s caravan is not of despair and disappointment. It is always accommodating and forgiving. So give up your vicious deeds even now after committing them repeatedly.

                                                *****

G.R.Kanwal

12 December 2025    

             

 

ABOUT A TRAVELLER’S ANGER

 

                 ABOUT A TRAVELLER’S ANGER

            Anger is known as a major sin and a door to hell in several religions.

            In Hinduism it is an enemy of wisdom, arising from thwarted desire and ego.

In Buddhism it is a destructive mental state caused by unmet expectations

            In Christianity it is included in seven deadly sins.

            Indignation, fury, outrage, annoyance, provocation, irritation and vexation are some of the common synonyms of anger.

             What follows is a traveller’s story quoted by the Indian mystic and philosopher Acharya  Rajneesh mostly  known as Osho (1931-1990) .

            A learned traveller came to see a celebrated fakir. He was upset probably due to hard travelling. He untied his shoelaces angrily, tossed the shoes aside in a  corner,  and pushed, opened the door with a heavy thud.

            Commenting on this behavior, Osho observes that a man in anger takes the shoes in a manner as if he is an enemy of the shoes; he even opens a door as if there is standing enmity between him and  the door.

            The traveller threw open the door, went in and offered his homage to the fakir who told him:  No, I do not accept your homage. First go and offer apologies to the door and the shoes.

            The traveller was amazed and said that these things are not beings. The fakir did not accept such arguments.  Ultimately, the traveller obeyed the enlightened fakir and wrote in his life history that after obeying  him  he felt very calm, very calm, very serene and peaceful.

            What one has to learn from this story is that one should  love not only human beings but also  everything else on this planet.  

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

10 December 2025

LET US NOT FORGET

 

LET US NOT FORGET

1, There is one Supreme God who has created this world; and there is one earth. one sun, and one moon.

2. 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 all shall lie in.

3. A place in the ranks awaits you, each man has some part to play. The past and the future are nothing in the face of the stern today.

4. 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.   

5. The cure for all the ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows , and the crimes of humanity, all lie in that one word “love.”

6. A life of pleasure makes even the strongest mind frivolous at last.

7. We rise in glory as we sink in pride.

8.We cannot control the evil tongues of others ; but a good life enables us to disregard  them.

9. The way to be nothing is to do nothing.

10. There is not a moment without some duty.

11. Every day is a little life, and our whole life is but a day repeated. Therefore live everyday as if it would be the last.

12. One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the bystanders cruel.

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

9^th December 2025

 

 

SOME QUOTES OF OSCAR WILDE

 

          SOME QUOTES OF OSCAR WILDE

            Oscar Wilde , whose full name was Oscar Fingal O’Ffllahertie Wills Wilde, was an Irish author, poet, playwright and wit.

            He was born on 16 October 1854 in Dublin , Ireland, and passed away  in Paris, France,  on 30 November 1900.    

            He gained huge literary fame due to his works like The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, An Ideal Husband, and Lady Windermere’s Fan . His style which was full of epigrams also added to his vast popularity. A book carrying  his great many quotations is also included in his literary works.

            Quotes are short, memorable phrases from speeches, prose, poetry, history. fiction,  philosophy, folk tales, or religious scriptures.

            Given below are some famous quotes mostly of Oscar Wilde:

1.     To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

2.     There are no mistakes in life, only lessons,

3.     From struggle comes strength . Even pain can be a wonderful teacher.

4.     Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear

5.     The unexamined life is not worth living.

6.     You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.

7.     Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eight. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind yong.

8.     Confine yourself to the present.

9.     It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

10.                        In the world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

                                    ****

G.R.Kanwal

 

8^th December 2025.           

MORARJI DESAI ON THE GITA

 

                MORARJI DESAI ON THE GITA

                 Morarji Desai was an Indian politician and Independence activisit. He served as the Prime Minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party.

            According to his biography titled the Story of My Life he was born on 29 February 1896 in Bhadeli. A small village in the present State of Gujarat. He died in Mumbai (then Bombay) on April 10, 1995 at the age of 99, making him the world’s oldest former head of government at the time of his passing away. He was conferred with India’s highest civilian honour. the Bharat Ratna.  

            During his life time he held many official positions and was always known for his moral uprightness.

            Given below is his permanent approach to anger after reading  the Hindu sacred book the Gita. He says that by reading the following verses he was convinced that a man lost his temper only when he had no argument left and that, if he had done something wrong, he tried to suppress the fact by getting angry instead of accepting his fault.

            The four verses of the Gita which he cited were:

            By becoming angry, you confuse your mind. By confusing your mind, you forget the lesson of experience. By forgetting experience, you lose discrimination; and by losing discrimination, you miss life’s only purpose.

             “The Gita, says Morarji Desai, is essentially a book of religion for all human beings. It is relevant and useful in all times and situations and for all human societies and individuals. I was convinced that the mind could find peace in any difficulty from the Gita. It is such a wonderful book. It was from this study that I could get better control over my temper.”

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

7^th December 2025

 

 

MORE THAN A FRIEND

 

                MORE THAN A FRIEND

            Friendship is defined as deep, reciprocal bond built on mutual trust, unconditional support, acceptance and loyalty,  consistently present between two persons without expecting anything in return.

            Some synonyms of friendship are companionship, intimacy, affinity, fellowship, attachment, alliance and comradeship.

            Friendship diminishes grief, sorrow, loneliness, feebleness of many kinds. It  also keeps away the disadvantages of loneliness.

            Swiss theologian John Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) said: He that hath no friend, and no enemy, is one of the vulgar, without talents, powers or energy.              

                According to the English orator and courtier Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield (1694-1773) “ Real friendship is a slow grower, and never thrives unless engrafted upon a stock of known and reciprocal merit.   

            There are several unique examples of reciprocal friendship in the poetry of world literature. One such is between the Persian poet Maulana Jalaludin Rumi (1207-1273)  and  the other Persian poet Shams Tabrizi (1185-1248) . “They had a profound spiritual and platonic relationship where Shams Tabrizi was the spiritual master and Rumi was the devoted disciple. Their connection was transformative for Rumi, shifting him from a learned scholar to a  passionate mystic.  

               Given below is a poem titled The Friend by Rumi.

            “There is a being who is drunk without wine, full without food, and buried in a ruin, someone not made of earth, air, fire, or water. a rain out of the clear blue, hundreds of nightskies and suns, one who is given wisdom directly, not from books, one beyond any religion, or right and wrong, one with wonderful friends, one who does not exist, a hidden glory of Shams . There is no need to look anywhere for this one. Who is your whole life.

Note: The word Shams in Persian means Sun.                                 

 

G.R.Kanwal

6 December 2025

 

 

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