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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.