THE STORY OF AN OPTIMIST

THE STORY OF AN OPTIMIST

Optimists do not look at the dark side of things. They are always hopeful.  They believe that every cloud has a silver lining. As such, they face their miseries and sorrows without losing a fast grip on their life.

            Here is the life-story of an American optimist Molly Fancher. She died at the age of 67 after dragging out an existence of long suffering on a sickbed.  She had a happy and healthy girlhood. It was in May 1864 when was just in her teens that she was thrown and badly hurt while riding a horse. A year later before she had fully recovered, she was seriously injured in an accident which most rapidly caused the loss of speech, sight and hearing. Not only this, she also became paralysed, and though she gradually recovered the ability to speak, to see, and to hear, some impact of paralysis continued to persist. In fact, up to the day she breathed her last she was almost helplessly bedridden.         

            The only bright side of her sickness was that her mind remained clear, and she had the use of her hands. Quite admirably, her biographers wrote that despite here terrible burden of suffering, she contrived to get through life cheerfully. To a newspaper reporter who visited her at her modest Brooklyn home, she said:

            “Yes, I am a little, old woman now. I have had my cross to bear. But there are others, and their crosses are heavier than mine.  I am not so badly off as some. Think of the poor people who are hungry, and without work. Why not pity them?”

            Bedridden and paralysed though she was, Molly Fancher knew how to look at life philosophically.

If a brave, cheerful attitude was possible to her, after half a century of unceasing invalidism, surely such an attitude is possible to all of us, no matter what our present circumstances may be.

            Molly Fancher discovered that pessimism was no cure for trouble and gloominess only made bad matters worse. During her period of blindness, deafness and dumbness, she did not allow worry and despair to overwhelm her. Consequently, her cheerfulness did not only enable her to endure the long years of illness, it became a positive factor in keeping her alive.

            She was always cheerful and never became idle. She continued to work. Her biographer recorded that lying on her bed of sickness, able to use only her hands, she had written thousands of letters, and done a vast amount of knitting, embroidery, and wax-work. Thus she kept her mind occupied, and by so doing kept herself from falling a victim to “in-growing thoughts. “  Not to brood, but to keep busy, that was Molly Fancher’s sickroom philosophy -------the philosophy of a wise woman.

5^th February 2020                                                  G. R. KANWAL    

What IS DHARMA?

                 What  IS  DHARMA?

Most of the religious practitioners believe that Dharma, like Karma, is one of the most complex conceptions that exists in Hinduism.  It has been used to mean duty, righteousness, law, order, right rules of conduct, justice, morality, religion and truth. In Sanskrit,  dhr--- means to hold, to establish, to formulate, to manifest, to sustain , to unite, etc. According to V.V. Merchant a great Sanskrit scholar and interpreter of Hinduism, Dharmas, which is the plural of Dharma, stands for the ordained or natural duties of life—whether religious, ethical, social, etc. As for Ma. this particle of the word Dharma refers to the universe, the cosmic mother principle which contains, supports, nurtures, nourishes and sustains the universe. 

            Indian seer Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950) describes the Indian conception of Dharma as not merely the good, the right, morality and justice and ethics, but the whole government of all relations of man with other beings, with Nature and God.  Dharma, according to him, is both that which we hold to and that which holds together our inner and outer activities, and in this primary sense, it connotes a fundamental law of our nature which secretly conditions all our activities. Dharma, he adds, is all that helps us to grow into the divine purity, largeness, light, freedom, power, strength, joy, love, good, unity and beauty.

            Sri Aurobindo believes that there is no ethical idea which the word Dharma has not stressed. Truth, honour, loyalty, fidelity, courage, chastity, love, long-suffering, self-sacrifice, harmlessness, forgiveness, compassion, benevolence, beneficence are all the common themes of Dharma.

             Gandhiji (1869-1948) believed that according to the scriptures that is Dharma which is enjoined by the holy books, followed by the sages, interpreted by the learned and which appeals to the heart. The first three conditions must be fulfilled before the fourth comes into operation. Above all, Gandhiji wanted Dharma to be practiced in everyday life.  He did not share the view that the end of Dharma is to acquire merit after death.  He observed: “If it has no practical use in this life, it has none for me in the next. “

4^th February 2020                                                      G. R. KANWAL        

           

THREE SENSIBLE DON’TS

          THREE SENSIBLE DON’TS

1.     Never make anybody feel ignorant.  Reason: Such a feeling hurts the listener’s psyche.  It even humiliates him or her.  The person whom you call ignorant is not completely so.  He/she may be lacking specific information about something, but may be he/she is having more overall knowledge about it.   The fact is that nobody in this world is completely ignorant.  Even those people who are uneducated are not ignorant.  Some of them are rather more knowledgeable than the educated ones because they have learnt their lessons in the practical school of life.  Unschooled men and women have studied life directly.  They are not book worms, yet they do not lack the wisdom which they need to run their affairs efficiently.   Quite possible that those whom we call ignorant are wiser than those whom we call intellectuals. If the word` ignorant’ is used in the sense of rude or ill-mannered, it will be discourteous use of the word and will betray lack of etiquette on the part of the speaker.

2.      Never make anybody feel inferior. Remember that in the eyes of God and the laws of many countries all human beings are equal.  None is inferior or superior. It is egotistic to feel yourself f superior to the person before you.  Moreover, inferior as well as superior is a relative term. One who is inferior in one area may not be so in another.  So where is the question of calling anybody inferior? In a dialogue between the mountain and the squirrel, it was the mountain who had to feel ashamed because it was very big, regarded itself superior but could not break even a small nut which the squirrel could do so naturally.    

3.     Be respectful even to those who do not agree with you. We live in a diverse world.  Every human being is unique.  There can be no uniform thinking among the millions of people who inhabit this world.  Each person has his/her own way of thinking, acting, judging and liking or disliking.  Agreement on every point is unimaginable.  Disagreement is more natural and should be acceptable.  To show disrespect to those who do not agree with you is to show that you do not believe in the individuality of other men and women. Moreover, remember that if respect breeds respect, disrespect breeds disrespect.  

31^st January 2020                                                  G. R. KANWAL

      

GANDHIJI’S CONCEPT OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

    

 GANDHIJI’S CONCEPT OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

In common parlance, crime in an unlawful, illegal act.  It is wrong-doing, misdeed or trespass or immoral action which is punishable according to the law of the land where it is committed.

It is rare that a society tries to find out the compulsive causes which turn a normal citizen into a criminal. To detect criminals mechanically and inflict punishment upon them on the basis the prevailing laws is not the best approach.  

According to Gandhiji all crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such. Like any other malady, it is a product of the prevalent social system. No one commits crime for the fun of it. It is a sign of diseased mind and as such the cause of a particular disease should be investigated and removed.  He suggests: “All criminals should be treated as patients, and the jails should be hospitals admitting these kinds of patients for treatment and cure.”

Gandhiji believed that criminals, sinners, evildoers, offenders, and mischievous persons are actually ignoramuses. They commit their acts unconsciously. What they need for cure is not penal reaction but enlightenment. Punishment, said he, does not purify; if anything, it hardens.

It is not strange if Gandhiji often decided to forgive criminals and sinners. His ideology stood for hating the crime, not the criminal; the sin, not the sinner. He exemplified his stand by referring to God who looks at our acts, and any breach of His Law carries with it, not its vindictive, but its purifying, compelling punishment

As regards capital punishment, he could not, in all conscience, agree to anyone being sent to the gallows because once a man is killed the punishment is beyond recall or reparation. God alone can take life, because He alone gives it.

               30^th January 2020                                                      G.R.KANWAL

PESSIMISM

                PESSIMISM

            Pessimism is literally defined as gloominess, lack of hope, cynicism, despair, depression, distrust and even fatalism. A pessimist is therefore a cynic, a prophet of doom, a gloom merchant or fatalist.

            Long back I read an article by Thomas Scott Lowden who described pessimism as mental, moral, or physical health or all.  According to him pessimism inevitably leads to some form of ill health, and ill health is an open way to pessimism.

            For the pessimists, says Lowden, there is no life-expansive process. The life movement is ever contracting.  They lack the spirit of elasticity and accommodation, experience no spontaneous outbursts of joy, exhilaration, exuberance of the life current issuing from surplus strength, overflowing vivacity, and euphoric buoyancy. They are never conscious of a background feeling of naïve, animal life. They consume themselves in snaps, snarls and bites.

            For them t here are no sunny days, green fields, meadows, clear skies, cool streams, shady forests, and songs of birds. They think the past was is dark, the present is miserable, and the future will be gloomy.

             Not only this, so long as pessimists allow themselves to feel discouraged and depressed, life continues to go wrong with them. Their pessimism drives away their from them their friends, kith and kin, because they find themselves unable to endure their sour faces and crabbed words.  Their behavior can even become a handicap in their business, professional or social life because everybody prefers to traffic with people who are of cheerful nature , rather than with those who continue to pull long faces.

                It is possible that pessimists themselves are puzzled and do not  understand          why they are not cheerful.  In such a case, let us recall the description of pessimism given by Lowden.  According to him ill-health is an open way to pessimism. Somewhere in the body of a  pessimist, there may be a faulty condition that has caused a faulty mental attitude. The trouble may be in the stomach or in any other part of the body. So it is advisable to go to a medical  expert and give him/her a chance t to discover what is wrong.

       

28^th January 2020                                      G. R. KANWAL

KIPLING’S POEM TO HIS SON

KIPLING’S POEM TO HIS SON

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in India but educated in England. He started his career as a journalist but with the passage of time became a great poet, short story writer and novelist. He was A to Z supporter of British imperialism in India.  However, his writings were based on the first-hand experience of the life of the innumerable people both around him and inside the officialdom.    

             The poem that follows is one of his best compositions.  It is titled “IF’ and is addressed to his son.  As the readers will note, the poem is a sort of complete  mantra for a young man’s all-round development and the resultant happiness. success and prosperity in this world.

“If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream --- not make dreams your ma ser;

If you can thing ---and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

           

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings ---nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor losing friends can hurt;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run ---

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And ---which is more ----you’ll be a Man, my son! “

            Though addressed to his own young son, Kipling has unconsciously succeeded in making it an everlasting inspiring poem for all sorts of people anywhere in the world.  

26^th January 2020                                          G. R. KANWAL   

ABIDE WITH ME

ABIDE WITH ME

‘Abide With Me’ is one of the most popular hymns which believers in the constant support of God recite in their places of worship or even in their homes when the day comes to an end and the night with all its gloom and horrors is about to set in and the much-needed balmy sleep seems to be dodging the eyes of many a human being.

            The complete text of the hymn which is copied below is both a praise and a prayer. 

Literally, a hymn has a handful of synonyms like psalm, anthem, carol, religious song, song of praise and spiritual chant.

            The title of the hymn is a part of its last line which runs as: In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

            Henry Francis Lyte who wrote this hymn was born at the village Ednam, in United Kingdom on 1^st June 1793.  He breathed his last at Nice in France on 20^th November 1847. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin.  He was a Scottish-born Anglican minister who wrote poetry and a number of hymns that have been included in a number of anthologies.

            It is worth mentioning here that ‘Abide With Me’ was one of the favourite hymns of Mahatma Gandhi. The word ‘abide’ in the context of this hymn means stay, dwell.

            “ABIDE with me: fast falls the eventide;

            The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:

When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs our life’s little day;

Earth’s joys  grow dim, its glories pass away,

Change and decay in all around I see;

O thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need thy presence every passing hour;

What but by thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?

             Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

           

              I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless:

              Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.

  Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?

   I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

    Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes:

    Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies:

    Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee:

     In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.”

23^rd January 2020.                                                            G. R. KANWAL