LEARNING FROM GREAT MEN (PART I)

 

                LEARNING FROM GREAT MEN (PART I)

            To read the biographies of great men is to discover how they became great and what were the magnificent thoughts which made them so.

            The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) says in his poem A Psalm of Life :

            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, hen be up and doing,

            With a heart for any fate ;

            Still achieving, still pursuing,

            Learn to labour and to wait.

           

            From the life of Siddhartha Gautama, universally  known as Lord Buddha  who was born a prince in Lumbini (modern Nepal) in  (c.480 BCE)   and lived about 80 years, we learn the Four Noble Truths :

 

            1. Life involves pain, dissatisfaction, imperfection, and impermanence. 2. Suffering stems from craving, selfish desire, and attachment tied to ignorance. 3. Suffering ends when you let go of craving and attain liberation, known as Nirvana. 4. The practical way to end suffering  is the Noble Eightfold Path.

           

            The details of The Noble Eightfold Path are:

 

Right understanding; Right Thinking; Right Speaking; Right Action i.e. abstaining from killing, stealing, harmful sexual misconduct; Right Livelihood i.e. earning a living without harming others; Right Effort i.e. adopting healthy mental tendencies; Right Mindfulness i.e. maintaining steady consciousness of body, feelings, and mind; Right Concentration, i.e. developing deep mental focus and tranquility trough meditation.      

 

            Lord Buddha is just one of the great men in history. In this blog, here is one more example. It is of Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian spiritualist  and follower of non-violence  (1869-1948).  This is what he says about the issue of revenge:

            Let us dismiss all thought of revenge from our hearts. Revenge is not the way of peace. It is not humanity. The Hindu scripture teach forgiveness as the highest virtue, Forgiveness becomes a brave man. ---(Source: Harijan : November 17, 1946).

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G.R. .Kanwal

17 August 2026