THIS WORLD IS NOT GODLESS

 

            THIS WORLD IS NOT GODLESS  

            Among the common attributes of God omnipresence is the most significant. He is present everywhere. He is watching you with his open eyes that can make no mistake. You cannot hide yourself from his observation. No curtain can make you invisible.

            God’s  other attributes include omniscience, omnipotence, eternity, immutability, and sovereignty.

            God wishes all human beings to be virtuous. Some cardinal virtues expected by Him are:

            Prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, humility, charity, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.

            The antonyms of virtues are :

            Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, revenge, and rebellion.   

            Some people think that God is all merciful. He overlooks our moral weaknesses, physical and mental aberrations, all sorts of sinful beaviour;  and we can therefore escape punishment. It is an incorrect conception.

            Remember: God sees the truth but waits.

His ways of punishing and forgiving us are mysterious. He does not retaliate but at the same time He does not quickly forgive. .

            Confession of your guilt, immoral actions, undue pride, arrogance, immoral and sinful behaviour and the promise to mend yourself at the earliest is the best way to please God.   

            Also remember: It is never too late to mend.

            Here is a poem about forgiveness and non-retaliation.  Its title is Yussouf and is written by the American poet and essayist James Russell Lowell (1819-1891). Its central idea is that forgiveness is the noblest form of revenge.

                                     Full Text of the Poem

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 shall 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.'

 

So Yussouf entertained his guest that night,

And, waking him ere day, said: 'Here is gold;

My swiftest horse is saddled for thy flight;

Depart before the prying day grow bold.'

As one lamp lights another, nor grows less,

So nobleness enkindleth nobleness.

 

That inward light the stranger's face made grand,

Which shines from all self-conquest; kneeling low,

He bowed his forehead upon Yussouf's hand,

Sobbing: 'O Sheik, I cannot leave thee so;

I will repay thee; all this thou hast done

Unto that Ibrahim who slew thy son!'

'Take thrice the gold,' said Yussouf 'for with thee

Into the desert, never to return,

My one black thought shall ride away from me;

First-born, for whom by day and night I yearn,

Balanced and just are all of God's decrees;

Thou art avenged, my first-born, sleep in peace!'

                                                            ******
G.R.Kanwal

11 June 2026

WHAT IS POETRY?

 

               

                                                                WHAT IS POETRY?

1.     Poetry is the language of the heart, the mind, and he soul. It expresses deep feelings and sublimest thoughts both realistically and imaginatively.  Its medium is metrically expressed music.   It covers all the scenes and sights of earthly and heavenly life in the best possible words.  Nothing is outside of its beautiful pale and panorama.  

2.     The English poet and playwtight William  Shakespeare (1564-1616) says in his play Midsummer Night’s Dream:      

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,

Are of imagination all compact:

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,

That is the madman; the lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:

The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

    

3.     The Greek philosopher Plato said: Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.

4.     According to the American journalist Gamallel  Bailey (1807-1859) : Poetry is itself a thing of God. He made his prophets poets and the more we feel of poesie do we become like God in love and power.

     

5.     Here are a few short definitions of poetry:

(a). Poetry is emotion put into measure,--English poet and novelist Thomas Hardy. (b). Poetry is the language of the imagination and passions.---English essayist William Hazlitt. (c). Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement. ---English poet and playwright Christopher Fry. (d). Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings : it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquility.---English poet William Wordsworth. (e). Poetry is what gets lost in translation.---American poet Robert Frost. (f) A good poem is a contribution to reality.---Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and writer. (g). Poetry is not turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion.---T. S. Eliot,  American poet and playwright .(h). Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.---English writer Samuel Johnson. (i). Poetry is the best words in the best order.---English poet S.T.Coleridge. (j). If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all.---English poet John Keats.

                                                                        *****

G.R.Kanwal

10 June 2026  

  

 

 

 

 

 

A FEW DON’TS

 

                          A FEW DON’TS

1.    Don’t tell a lie because it has no legs to stand upon.

2.    Don’t brood over the past. It is dead and to think of it is to waste your precious time of today.

3.    Trust no future however pleasant. Let the past bury its dead. Act,---act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’erhead!.

4.    Don’t think of taking revenge. Try to forget and forgive.

5.    Don’t indulge in gluttony. It destroys your health.

6.    Don’t be arrogant. Arrogance loses friends.  

7.    Don’t say “yes” to everything. Protect your energy by setting healthy boundaries and learning to decline without guilt.

8.    Don’t hate anybody. You will remain mentally disturbed so long as hatred is there. Replace it by love as soon as possible.

9.         Don’t be a spendthrift. Believe in simple living and high thinking.

10.            Don’t bottle up your emotions. Expression is better than repression.

11.Don’t burn your candle at both ends.

12.Don’t depend upon external approval for your actions.

13.Don’t harbour grudges. Holding onto anger is to punish yourself rather than anybody else.

14. Don’t let clutter build up. It creates mental chaos and disallows you to  relax.

15. Don’t commit any offence because it will rob you of your tranquility.

16. Don’t run after wealth. It is better to be contented than to be greedy.

17. Don’t forget that character is higher than intellect.

18. Don’t have a false face anywhere.

19. Don’t speak ill of the dead.

20. Don’t trust anyone blindly.

21. Don’t indulge in violence.

22. Don’t be disloyal.

23. Don’t lose patience in any explosive situation.

24. Don’t love the body more than the soul.

25. Don’t blow your own trumpet.

                                                     *******

G.R. Kanwal

9^th June 2026

 

 

MORAL VALUES

 

MORAL VALUES

            Values are defined as those fundamental beliefs, principles, or standards  which approve  individuals or their groups’  judgment, behaviour, and choices. They tell what is right, wrong, important, desirable, or virtuous in life.

            Remember that what is valuable is good, worthy, respectable, appreciable , helpful, and upright, etc.

            That which is not valuable is worthless, base, harmful, offensive,  useless,  injurious, and unrespectable.

            The word moral means : good, right, just, virtuous, ethical, honourable, religiously sound, sacred, honest, just, devout, decent, chaste,  proper, fit, pure, and blameless.

            A short but important list of moral values  consists of:

Honesty, truth, loyalty, faithfulness, sincerity, patience, forgiveness, tolerance, love, affection, sympathy, empathy, charity, patriotism, righteousness, impartiality, pity, mercy. helpfulness, compassion, integrity, gratitude, humility, justice, co-operation, and companionship,

            According to the English polymath and writer John Ruskin  (1819-1900)  :

            “Value is the life-giving power of anything”.

            A great and spiritually sound country must continue to embrace moral values in all walks of life.

            The French writer and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) said:

            “All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.”

            According to the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882 ) :

            “Morality without religion is only a kind of dead-reckoning ---- an endeavour to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.”

            E. H. Chapin, the American preacher and editor (1814-1880) , said:

            “Morality is the vestibule of religion.”

            To conclude, here are a few valuable words of the  Scottish divine Ralph Wardlaw (1779-1853): 

            “Morality is religion in practice; religion is morality in principle.”

                                                *******

       G.R.Kanwal

       8^th June 2026  

 

VICES AND VIRTUES

 

                   VICES AND VIRTUES

            Good health depends on shunning vices and embracing virtues.

            A vice is defined as immoral or wicked behaviour.  It is a form of un-ethicalness. It has harmful effects on one’s body, mind, and soul.

            The antonym of vice is virtue. Its synonyms are – wrongdoing, wickedness, badness, evil-doing, frailty, evilness, crime, offence, scandal, and sin.

            The synonyms of virtue are : uprightness, goodness, probity, integrity, morality,  excellence, righteousness, incorruptibility, rectitude, grace, merit, and excellence,

            What are some of the vices?

            There are at least ten vices which one must shun. They are: greed, envy, gluttony, pride, sloth, wrath, malice, slander, filthy language and lies.            

            Virtues keep a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. They keep him happy, calm, peaceful, safe, contented, patient, fearless, friendly, loving, and affectionate,

            A vicious person loses sleep. A virtuous person enjoys  a long peaceful sleep even in a dangerous situation.

            Vices destroy health and happiness. For example, anger can be fatal.  Vices affect one’s digestion and make him seriously sick.

            Virtues make you brave, patient, robust, glad, cheerful, contented, and worthy of public respect and populariy.

            A vicious person is unreliable; a virtuous one is trustworthy.

            Hell awaits a person who has lived a vicious life.  Heaven is wide open and ready to welcome a virtuous man.

            A vicious man is irreligious.   A virtuous one s a spiritualist. He is concerned with the purity of his soul; whereas the vicious person is a slave of his unhealthy materialistic desires.

To conclude, here are two memorable quotes:

1.     Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbour, and let every new year find you a better man.

2.     It is easier to be vile together than to be virtuous alone. Be noble like the sun; let even those who resent you for shining benefit from your warmth. True virtue is knowing the self not by intellectual knowledge but by pure silence.  When truth looks in the mirror, virtue looks out.

                                    *******

G.R.Kanwal

7th June 2026

A BIT OF GREAT POETRY

 

                A BIT OF GREAT POETRY

1.     John Keats (1795---1821)

       A thing of beauty is a joy for ever

It loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full  of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

                                    ******

Beauty is Truth, truth beauty, ----that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

                                    *******

Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies

Where but to think is to be full of sorrow,

And leaden-eyed despairs;

Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,

Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow

                                    *******

2.     Lord Byron (1788—1824)

Eternal spirit of the Chainless Mind!

Brightest in dungeons, Liberty ! thou art

For there thy habitation is the heart—

The heart which love of thee alone can bind;

And when thy sons to fetters are consigned---

Their country conquers with their martyrdom,

And Freedom’s fame finds wings on every wind.

                                    ******

3.     Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Let knowledge grow from more to more

But more of reverence in us dwell

That mind and soul, according well,

May make one music as before.

                        *****

4.     .Chrisina Rossetti (1830-1894)

When I am dead, my dearest

Sing no sad songs for me

Plant thou no roses at my head

Nor, shady cypress tree

But the green grass above me

With showers and dewdrops wet:

And if thou wilt, remember

And if thou wilt, forget.

                        *****

5.Willim Wordsworth (1770---1850)

Thanks to the human heart by which we live

Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears,

To me the meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

                                    **********

G.R.Kanwal

6^th June 2026  

CRITICISING OTHERS

 

                CRITICISING OTHERS

            A famous quote says: People that critise other people are just unhappy about something in their lives and they take the most pathetic measures to make themselves feel better.   

            Another famous quote about criticism says: Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn --- and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.

            The proverb :  Think before you speak,  warns us about the cruel  or kind effect of words.

             Words chosen by a speaker or writer can be as sweet as honey or as bitter as poison. They can heal or harm.  Remember the oldest saying : Tongue cuts deeper than sword.

            Such criticism as defames others is condemnable. If one evaluates a person’s work and deeds sympathetically, he acts like a judge, not an enemy.

            Enemies find faults even where they do not exist. Their intention is to defame even by telling lies. To them their adversary’s merits, are his faults. They have selfish interest in criticism. Fair criticism is an asset both for the critic and the person who is criticized.

            Look at the following  thoughts:

*Criticism is meant as a standard of judging well.

*It is easy to criticize a person, but difficult to appreciate him.

* Silence is sometimes the severest criticism.

*It is a barren kind of criticism which tells you what a thing is not.

*There are three things that ought to be considered before some things are                          spoken,----the manner, the place, and the time.

*Learn the art of making friends and influencing people.

* What you say about others doesn’t define them it defines you.

                                                           

            To conclude. here is a memorable quote:

            “The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism         without resentment.”

G.R.Kanwal

5^th June 2026

                                                           

 

 

 

 

SOME SAYINGS AND A POEM

 

SOME SAYINGS AND A POEM

            A saying is defined as a well-k-known phrase or sentence that expresses common truth, piece of advice, or cultural wisdom about human life and experience.

            Sayings are also called short, memorable expressions that convey wisdom, advice, or a general truth.

            Sayings can be as good as proverbial statements.

            Here are some examples:

*Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

            *Truth fears no examination.

            *It takes two to make a quarrel.

            *All is well that ends well.

            *A stitch in time saves nine.

            *Lay by something against a rainy day.

            *Rome was not built in a day.

            *The early bird catches the worm.

            *Where there is a will, there is way.

            *Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.

            *There is many a slip between the cup and the lip.

            *Look before you leap; think before you speak.

            *Every cloud has a silver lining.

            *Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

            *Barking dogs seldom bite.

            *Love begets love.

            *A bid in hand is worth two in the bush.

Here is a saying on loyalty; it’s  followed by a poem from As You Like IT a play written by the English poet-dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

 

SAYING: Loyalty is hard to find. Trust is easy to lose. Actions speak louder than words.

 

  

            POEM:           Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

                                    Thou art not 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 remember’d not.

                                    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.

                                                                        ********   

                                   

G.R.Kanwal

4 June 2026                                                            

 

 

 

ALL HINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

 

                ALL HINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

            In the beginning of his mythological poem Endymion, the English poet

John Keats (1795--1821)  says;

 

             “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,

            Its loveliness increases; it will never

            Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

            A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

            Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

           

            In her-above-mentioned poem the Anglo-Irish poetess and hymnwriter Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895) says:

 

            All things bright and beautiful,

             All creatures great and small,

             All things wise and beautiful,

             The Lord God made them all.

 

            She is right the whole creation consists of big and small beautiful things. We  have the sun and the moon, as also glowworms and sparks of fire. If there

 are huge elephants and camels, lions and tigers, there  are also tiny sparrows and ants.

 

            If a tree is fruitfully beautiful, a rose is wonderfully small and colourfull.

 

            What about a dewdrop, a small petal of any lovely flower, a  big star in rhe sky and a small lamp in a cottage on earth.

 

            Cecil  Francis Alexander says:

           

            The cold wind in the winter,

            The pleasant summer sun,

            The ripe fruits in the garden,

            He made them every one.

This whole poem is like a hymn. It praises God for creating all bright and beautiful things for mankind.

            The poem ends with the following most appropriate stanza:

                        He gave us eyes to see them,

                        And lips that we might tell

                        How great is God Almighty.

                        Who has made all things well,

 

                                                ****

G.R.Kanwal

3^rd June 2026