SOMETHING WORTH READING
` In
his famous essay Of Studies, Francis
Bacon (1561-1626) explained that “reading builds knowledge, conversation makes
us quick-witted, and writing makes us precise.“ He advised that we must read to weigh and
consider rather than to just argue or blindly believe. He also said : Taste some books (read parts),
swallow others (read without deep focus), and chew and digest a few (read
completely with heavy attention).
There is no reason whatsoever
to disagree with Francis Bacon. He was an English philosopher and statesman,
and master of the English language. In a 1592 letter to his uncle Lord Burghley
he wrote: “I have taken all knowledge to be my province.”
Given below are two most readable extracts by
world-famous great writers.
1.
From the chapter on CRIME in The
Prophet by Khalil Gibran, the Labanese-American writer and poet (1883-1931).
Oftentimes have I
heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you,
but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world. But I say that even as the holy and righteous
cannot rise beyond the highest, which is in each of you, so the wicked and the
weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with
the silent knowledge of the whole tree, so the wrong-doer cannot do wrong
without the hidden will of you.
2.
A poem by
Indian mystic and poet Kabir (1398-1518) translated by the Indian poet and
author Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).
All things are
created by the Om; The Love-form is His body. He is without form, without
quality, without decay: Seek thou union with Him.
But that formless
God takes a thousand forms in the eyes of His creatures.
He is pure and
indestructible, His form is infinite and fathomless, He dances in rapture, and
waves of form arise from His dance. The body and the mind cannot contain
themselves, when they are touched by His great joy. He is immersed in all
consciousness, all joys, and all sorrows; He has no beginning and no end; He
holds all within His bliss.
******
G.R.Kanwal
5 August 2026
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