FLASH FLOOD IN NEPAL

 

 FLASH FLOOD IN NEPAL

                        The current flash flood in Nepal is a natural calamity. The number of deaths of local inhabitants as well as  of the people of other states is horrifyingly large .

                        The mysterious question is why did God permit this disastrous calamity to happen.

                        The answer is in the Gita where Lord Krishna says that perishability of the body is insignificant. The real self of humans is their soul which is immortal.

                        Look at the following lines from chapter 2.22 of The Bhagavad  Gita –A  Revelation by Dilip Kumar Roy (1974):   

Even as a man discards his worn-out robe

For a new one, so a worn-out body is

Left by the Soul for a new one after death.

Weapons can never cleave nor fire burn

Water drench nor wind desiccate the Soul.

 

 

                                Another relevant quote here is the holy sonnet of the English poet John Donne (1572-1631). The title of the poem is Death Be Not Proud. It was originally published in1633.

 

The full text of this sonnet is as under:

 

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

 

 

                                                          **********

G.R.Kanwal

28 August 2026