SOME THOUGHTS ON TIME

 

 

                                SOME THOUGHTS ON TIME

 

                According to dictionaries time is that which is measured in minutes, hours, days, etc. A  famous  Islamic poet and philosopher Sir Muhammad  Iqbal (1877-1938)  said that time cannot be measured in terms of todays and tomorrows. It is an onward flowing stream, which is endless and eternal.

 

            The English poet Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962) compares time to an old gypsy man who is unstoppable. Last week, he was in Babylon and last night in Rome, then he was  in the crush under Paul’s dome; and under Paul’s dial he tightened his rein—he was  there  only for  a moment, and  was  off once again.    

                 For various day to day descriptive purposes, time is named as season,  period, , epoch, term. era, age, etc.

 

                       The antonym of all these words is eternity which time is.

Here are some valuable thoughts on time.  They are eye openers and mental illuminators.

 

*To choose time is to save time.

 

*As every thread of gold is valuable, so is every moment of time.

 

* There is time to be born, and a time to die, said Solomon, and it  is the memento of a truly wise man. However, there is an interval between these two times of infinite importance.

 

*Time is the greatest of all tyrants. As we go on toward age, he taxes our health, limbs, faculties, strength, and features.

 

*The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas, as those of a fool are by his passions.

 

*Remember that time is money.

*Time once lost cannot be regained.

 

*Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth.

 

*There is not a single moment in life that we can afford to lose.

 

*I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.-----William Shakespeare.

 

*Well- arranged time is the surest mark of all arranged mind.

                       

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

24 September 2026

TWO POEMS ON HAPPINESS

 

TWO POEMS ON HAPPINESS                 

 

                “Happiness” is defined as an emotional and mental state characterized by feelings of joy, contentment, and satisfaction.

 

            According to a famous dictionary: happiness is a state of well-being and contentment .

            Beyond a fleeting emotion, scientists and psychologists view it as an overall sense of subjective well-being.

 

            Emotional balance, satisfaction with one’s achievements and sound relationships with relatives and associates are important sources of happiness.

 

            Fixation of purpose, identification of one’s social and moral values, and choice of right goals are key factors in one’s state of happiness.  

 

                To put it briefly, happiness is not a gift of God. It is a result of one’s  faultless life style.       

 

            The English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) says in his poem The Quiet Life:

 

Happy the man, whose wish and care

   A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air,

                            In his own ground.

 

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,

   Whose flocks supply him with attire,

Whose trees in summer yield him shade,

                            In winter fire.

 

Blest, who can unconcernedly find

   Hours, days, and years slide soft away,

In health of body, peace of mind,

                            Quiet by day,

 

Sound sleep by night; study and ease,

   Together mixed; sweet recreation;

And innocence, which most does please,

                            With meditation.

 

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

   Thus unlamented let me die;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

                            Tell where I lie.

                                    -----

            To conclude, here are some tips that tell the readers how to be happy:

 

Just to be tender, just to be true;

Just to be glad the whole day through;

Just to be merciful, just to be mild;

Just to be trustful as a child:

Just to be gentle and kind and sweet;

Just to be helpful with willing feet;

Just to be cheery when things go wrong;

Just to drive sadness away with a song;

Whether the hour is dark or bright,

Just to be loyal to God and right !

                                    ********

G.R.Kanwal

23 September 2026

 

CONSCIENCE

 

                CONSCIENCE

            “Conscience” is defined as the part of your s mind that tells you whether our actions are right or wrong. It is conscience that gives you guilty feeling about something if you have done it wrongly. It also makes you guilty if you have not done what you were expected to do. Your guilty conscience may not blame you if you have done something wrong, evil, immoral, wicked, or undesirable. To kill your conscience is to clear your way for doing immoral acts.

            A conscientious person is scrupulous, principled, straightforward, uncorrupt, honourable,  faithful, truthful,  and morally sound. If he is not so, he is wicked, corrupt, profligate, hardened, shameless, vile, and mischievous.

              A person without conscience is a devil.

            If your conscience does not allow you to commit a sin, it means that you are ethically virtuous.

            All sinners have guilty conscience.

            Here are some popular thoughts on conscience:

*Man’s conscience is the oracle of God.---English poet Lord Byron.

*The truth is not so much that man has conscience, as that conscience has man. ----Dorner, German theologian.

* I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.  English poet and playwright William Shakespeare.

*A good conscience is a continual Christmas.---Franklin, American statesman.

*Conscience is a great ledger book in which all our offences are written and registered, and which time reveals to the sense and feeling of the offender,---Richard Burton, American author and professor of English.  

* He that is conscious of crime, however bold by nature, becomes a coward.---Menander, German dramatist.

* Conscience warns us as a friend before it punishes as a judge.-----Stanislas. King of Poland.

*A disciplined conscience is a man’s best friend. It may not be his most amiable, but it his most faithful monitor----A. Phelps, American clergy.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

22 September 2026

TWENTY THOUGHTS FOR TODAY

 

                TWENTY THOUGHTS FOR TODAY

1.     Health is not luck; it is life style.

2.     Idleness is a sin; hard work is a virtue.

3.     Truth is also a source of boldness.

4.     Suffering makes us God-fearing.

5.     Wealth is useless at the time of death.

6.     Offensive words are unbecoming for a gentleman.

7.     Ugliness has no exact meaning. Black complexion is not really unattractive. .

8.     A black hen produces white eggs.

9.     Water is the best drink for a gentleman.

10.             One can be learned even without having formal education.

11.              The warmth of the sun is natural; better than that of any other source.

12.              The smile of a baby is miraculous.

13.               God never leaves us alone.

14.               Selfish love is transitory.

15.               One wonders at the speed and consciousness of an ant.

16.                Trees are more attractive than the buildings around them.

17.                 Thorns have their own qualities; they are not worthless.

18.                  Fiction is not without truth.

19.                  It needs great courage to become a fighter.

20.                        Poets like Shakespeare, Ghalib,  Rumi, Khayyam, Iqbal, Kabir, Tulsi,     Nanak, Hafiz, Khalil Gibran, and many more like them, teach us         what  world-famous text books cannot.                   

                                          *********

G..Kanwal

21 September 2026    

WISDOM

 

                WISDOM

          ‘Wisdom’ is defined as the ability to take sensible decision and give good advice to others because you have enough experience and knowledge with regard to their difficulties and problems.

          Some common synonyms of wisdom are: knowledge, intelligence, prudence, discretion, sagacity, erudition, learning, common sense, understanding, judgment, insight, experience, and discernment.

          It is okay to call potato a vegetable but not wisdom to place it among apples which are fruit.

          In his poem “Lord, Make A Regular Man Out Of Me , the British-born  American poet Edgar A. Guest (1881-1959) writes:

                   I would like to be –

                   Just a bit wiser because I am older,

                   Just a bit kinder to those I meet,

                   Just a bit manlier taking defeat;

                   …..just a bit quicker to stretch out my hand

                   Helping another who’s struggling to stand

                   ….I would like to be ---just a bit fairer,

                   Just a bit better, and just a bit squarer,

                   Not quite so ready to censure and blame,

                   Quicker to help every man in the game.

         

          Wisdom has a touch of friendliness, not of enmity. It helps the rivals and the needy, does not hinder or harm them. It is a blessing for those who approach it for guidance, for light in darkness, for knowledge in ignorance, and for experience in ignorance.

 

          Finally, this quote: Wisdom is to the mind what health is to the body.----French author Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680).

                                     ********

G.R.Kanwal

20 September 2026

                                     

 

            

ONE TITLE : TWO PRAYERS

 

                                ONE TITLE : TWO PRAYERS

            To pray is to request, entreat, supplicate, demand and petition. It also means to speak to God, especially to give thanks or ask for help.

            The title of both the prayers is the same and that is AN ANCIENT PRAYER. However , the  periods  of both the prayers are distant from each other.

            The text of the first one mentioned here is also available under the title The Lord’s Prayer. It is the most famous ancient Christian prayer, taught by Jesus to his disciples more than two thousand years ago. It reads as follows:

            *Our Father in heaven

            * May your name be kept holy

            *May your kingdom come soon

            *May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven

            *Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have             forgiven those who sin against us.

            *And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.     

            The text of the second prayer also mentions food as a human necessity.

            Its title “An Ancient Payer” is absolutely identical.

            It was written by the English poet , who was also a soldier, Thomas H.W.Webb. His authentic biographical facts are not available.  However, the full text of the poem mentioned above is found in “Web Documents”.

            Here is the full poem:

Give us a good digestion, Lord, and also something to digest;

Give me a healthy body, Lord , and sense to keep it at its best.

 Give me a healthy mind, good Lord, to keep the good and pure in sight,

Which, seeing sin. is not appalled, but finds a way to set It right.           

Give me a mind that is not bound, that does not whimper, whine or sigh.

Don’t let me worry overmuch about the fussy thing called I.

Give me a sense of humour, Lord; give me the grace to see a joke,

To get some happiness from life and pass it on to other folk.

                                                            ******

G.R.Kanwal

19 September 2026

S0ME THOUGHTS FROM MY MEMORY

 

                S0ME THOUGHTS FROM MY MEMORY

1. He who digs a pit for others himself falls into it.

2.  When you think of God, you think of this truth: If you take perfect from perfect, what will remain will be as perfect as before.

3. The man who claims that he knows, knows nothing.

4. Wealth cannot satisfy a man.

5. A man does not kill nor is he killed.

6. Everything owes life and movement to Spirit.

7. Matter is life.

8. Life is immorality.

9.  Blunderers, charlatans, weaklings cannot attain the Self. It is attained by the pure, daring and cautious man.

10. Om is Spirit. Everything is but Om.

11. Food is the chief of things. It is the universal medicine.

12. Food has three qualities ---the grossest becomes excrement; the finest mind, and whatever is midway becomes flesh.

13. Mind comes from food and life from water.

14.There  are six gods : Fire, earth, wind, air, sun,  and sky.    

15, Education is a preparation for life.

16. Some people praise ancient times. I admire the present.

17.Every thing appears  yellow to a jaundiced eye.

18. Lies have short legs but long wings.

19. Religion belongs to the higher mind of humanity.

20. Even in madness there is method.

                                    G.R.Kanwal

                                    16 September 2026

 

                                     

A BEST LOVED POEM

 

A BEST LOVED POEM

 

            The poem that is quoted below is one of the best-loved inspirational choices. It is written by the English poet and philanthropist Adelaide Anne Proctor (1825-864) . She had started writing invigorating  poetry when she was just a teenager.

 

            Unfortunately, she died young at the age of 30 years.

 

            Her poems were published in the English novelist Charles Dickens’s periodicals Household Words and All the Year Round. The subjects of these journals  were “homelessness, poverty, and fallen women among whom she performed philanthropic work.“

 

                        The  title of one of her famous poems , which is reproduced below,  is    Now.

 

                        The message  of the poem lies in these selected lines:

                        *Rise! For the day is passing

                         And you lie dreaming on.

                       

                        **Rise from your dreams of the Future---

                         Of gaining some hard-fought field.

                       

                         ***Rise ! if the Past detains you,

                          Her sunshine and storms forget.

                       

                        ****Stay not to sharpen your weapons,

                          Or the hour will strike at last,

                          When, from dreams of a coming battle,

                           You may wake to find it past!

                                                …..                                                                                                      The full text of the poem follows:                         

                               

 

RISE! for the day is passing,

And you lie dreaming on

The others have buckled their armor,

And forth to the fight are gone:

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 To-day.

 

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 honor (God grant it may!)

But your arm will never be stronger,

Or the need so great as To-day.

 

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.

 

Rise! for the day is passing;

The sound that you scarcely hear

Is the enemy marching to battle:

Arise! for the foe is here!

Stay not to sharpen your weapons,

Or the hour will strike at last,

When, from dreams of a coming battle,

You may wake to find it past!

 

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

15 September 2026

AN INSPIRATIONAL POEM

 

AN INSPIRATIONAL POEM

            To inspire a person is to encourage, animate, elevate, exalt, cheer. hearten, or invigorate him.

            A psalm is a hymn, sacred song, song of praise, religious song, or anthem.

            The title of the poem which is given below is ‘A PSALM OF LIFE.’ It  was written by the American poet and educator HENRY Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).

           

            The principal message of the poem is that it is unwise to treat life as an empty dream. Life is, on the contrary, a  hard reality. It has to be lived actively and fruitfully. There should be no pessimism about the purpose of life. To fill it  with enthusiasm and the intention to make it lofty, grand, elevated, dignified, glorious, magnificent, or superb, one should study the biographies of great men which remind the readers that they can make their lives sublime, and departing leave behind them footprints on the sands of time. These footprints dissolve pessimism, low spirits, and a feeling of inability.

 

            H. W. Longfellow tells the readers:

                        Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

                          Is our destined end or way:

                          But to act, that each tomorrow

                          Finds us farther than today.

 

            The text of the complete poem follows:

               

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.

 

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

   Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

   Find us farther than to-day.

 

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

   And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

   Funeral marches to the grave.

 

In the world’s broad field of battle,

   In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

   Be a hero in the strife!

 

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!

   Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,— act in the living Present!

   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

 

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.

 

Let us, then, be up and doing,

   With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

   Learn to labour and to wait.

                                    *********

G.R.Kanwal

13 September 2026

SOME VIEWS ON MAN

 

                    SOME VIEWS ON MAN

               The statesman and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom William Gladstone (1809-1898) said :  Man himself is the crowning wonder of creation; the study of his nature  the noblest study the world affords.

               According to the English romantic poet Lord Byron (17881824) : Man is half dust, half deity, alike unfit to sink or soar.

               The writer and former Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom  Edmund Burke (1729-1797) had this to say: How little man is; yet, in his own mind how great ! He is lord and master of all things, yet scarce can command anything. He is given a freedom of his will, but wherefore? Was it but to torment and perplex him the more? How little avails this freedom, if the objects he is to act upon be not so much disposed to obey as he is to command!

               The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) said in his play Hamlet, Ac 1, Sc.4:

               What a piece of work is man ! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty ! In form and moving how express and admirable ! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!

               The last view is by the English poet and translator Alexander Pope (1688-1744). It is extracted from his poem  An Essay on Man: Epistle II:

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;

The proper study of mankind is man.

Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,

A being darkly wise, and rudely great:

With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,

With too much weakness for the stoic’s pride,

He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest,

In doubt to deem himself a god or beast,

In doubt his mind or body to prefer,

Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;

Alike in ignorance, his reason such,

Whether he thinks too little or too much:

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;

Still by himself abused or disabused;

Created half to rise and half to fall,

Great lord of all things, but a prey to all;

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

 

                                                            *********

G.R.Kanwal

11 September 2026