TRULY GREAT

 

TRULY GREAT

My walls outside must have some flowers,

My walls within must have some books;

A house that’s small; a garden large,

And in it leafy nooks.

 

A little gold that’s sure each week ;

That comes not from my living kind,

But from a dead man in his grave,

Who cannot change his mind.

 

A lovely wife, and gentle too;

Contented that no eyes but mine

Can see her many charms, nor voice

To call her beauty fine.

 

Where she would in that stone cage live,

A self-made prisoner with me;

While many a wild bird sang around,

On gate, on bush, on tree.

 

And she sometimes to answer them,

In her  far sweeter voice than all ;

Till birds, that loved to look on leaves,

Will doat on a stone wall.

 

With this small house, this garden large,

This little gold, that lovely mate,

 With health in body, peace at heart---

Show me a man more great.

 

                        This is a short but great poem by the tramp English poet William Henry Davies (1871-1940) who with another remarkable poem LEISURE became very famous. Here, the poet says that greatness of a family does not lie in having a big house. A small house with some books, a large garden,  many flowers and birds, a small regular inflow of inherited income, and a perfectly loyal beautiful  wife whose sweet voice can enchant even proud songbirds make a man  and his family truly great.  Add to these limited  possessions a healthy body and a peaceful heart as true components of human greatness.

 

                                                            ********

G. R. Kanwal

8^th September 2023                                                   

                                                                       

HUMAN VALUES

 

          HUMAN VALUES

Values are codes of behaviour, principles, norms, standards, morals, ethics, etc.  Each department of life has its own values like business values, social values, commercial values, political values, religious values, etc. Values strengthen one’s moral behaviour in the stream of life in which one is professionally or otherwise engaged. Human values are multiple values and have its sources from various subjects.  Look at a little bit of their variety:

            Love, friendliness, fellow-feeling, good neighbourliness, sympathy, loyalty,  honesty, truth, gratitude,  tolerance, compassion, forgiveness, charity, nobleness, benevolence, patriotism,  philanthropy, Godliness, etc . These are some of the chosen values as  bring out  the fundamental goodness of human beings.

            Here is a description of LOVE  as a human value:

            LOVE is the purification of the heart from self; it strengthens and ennobles the character , gives a higher motive and a nobler aim to every action of life, and makes both man and woman strong, noble, and courageous; and the power to  love truly and devotedly is the noblest gift with which a human being can be endowed; but it is a sacred fire that must not be burned to idols.  English author Miss Jewsbury (1800-1833).  
                                                ********

G. R. Kanwal

7th September 2023        

 

 

NEW FACTS ABOUT TREES

 

NEW FACTS ABOUT TREES

            As told by Osho (Indian Godman, mystic and  philosopher) also known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931-1990), it has now been scientifically proved that even plants know who  are their friends and who are their enemies.

They have developed something like a cardiogram which is attached to the tree, and if a man comes with the idea to cut a branch of the tree or to uproot the tree ---he just has the idea ---suddenly the graph that is being made by the cardiogram on the tree starts trembling. It loses the rhythm it had and  you can see how fear has disturbed the peace of  the tree.    

            The tree has also telepathic sensitivity, so  when the gardener comes with his warmth and love, the graph takes no time to  become harmonious because now the tree is no longer fear-stricken.   

            Earlier Indian scientist Sir Jagadish Chndra Bose (1858-1937) had practically proved that plants have hearts, and metals have muscles. They ,too , are affected by  administration poisons and as remedies by antidotes.

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G. R. Kanwal

6^th September 2023                                                                                 

 

SOME VIEWS ABOUT TEACHERS

 

 

 

                             SOME VIEWS  ABOUT TEACHERS

1. Even a thousand teachers cannot take the place of a mother.
2. Great teachers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are now rare.
3. Teachers are nation builders; the real instruments of change.
4. The highest function of the teacher consists not so much in imparting knowledge as in stimulating the pupil in its love and pursuit.
5. The true aim of everyone who aspires to be a teacher should be, not to impart his own opinions , but to kindle minds.
6. The teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.
7. The best teacher is one who suggests rather than dogmatises , and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.
Let our teaching be full of ideas.  Hitherto it has been stuffed only with facts.

 POST SCRIPT

Today is 5^th day of September celebrated as Teacher’s day all over India in honour of the birthday of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (5^th September 1888 – 17^th April 1975). Dr. Radhakrishnan  was a great educationist, politician, statesman, philosopher and author.  His books like The Hindu View of Life, The Bhagavadgita, An Idealist View of life, East And West In Religion, Religion And Society,Recovery of Faith, The Principal Upanisads, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, etc., are masterpieces of world literature. He was President of India from 1962-1967. For his massive achievements in literature and statesmanship he won Bharat Ratna Award in 1954.

                                                            ******

G. R. Kanwal           

 

THE MOON

 

THE MOON

Here is a very short but exceedingly beautiful poem “The Moon” written by William Henry Davies, a Welsh poet and writer, who spent most of his life as a tramp or hobo in the United Kingdom and the United States.  This negative aspect of his life did not prevent him from becoming a popular poet of his time with such great poems as Leisure, Come, Let us Find, A Fleeting Passion, A Plain Life and Truly Great.

A tramp is a homeless person who goes from place to place and does no regular work; likewise a hobo is an unemployed worker who wanders from place to place.

Davies was born on July 3, 1871 at Newport, Wales and died on September 26, 1940, at Nailsworth, England.

            His poem “The Moon” reads as follows:

Thy beauty haunts me, heart and soul,

Oh thou fair Moon, so close and bright;

Thy beauty makes me like the child,

That cries aloud to own thy light :

The little child that lifts each arm,

To press thee to his bosom warm.

 

Though there are birds that sing this night

With thy white beams across their throats,

Let my deep silence speak for me

More than for them their sweetest notes :

Who worships thee till music fails

Is greater than thy nightingales.

                                                            *******

G. R. Kanwal

4th September 2023

 

 

HURTING CHILDREN

 

          HURTING CHILDREN

            Hurting children whether at home or at school has negative results. Children are very sensitive. They have self-esteem which gets wounded. and spoils the pious relationship between the children and their parents as well as between them and their teachers. 

It is possible that a child who is hurt by his mother or father may develop long-lasting anger or hatred and may not like to  stay with them in his adult life. His attachment with them may snap forever. So is the case with strict teachers who take resort to physical punishment.  They destroy their relationship with their students .

The old proverb spare the rod and spoil the child was never true nor will ever be. Such teachers as think that by beating children they can raise their intelligence and have better academic results  are gravely mistaken. Beating children can destroy intelligence, not raise it.

            There are even dangerous psychic effects of beating or hurting children.  These include pessimism, depression, isolation, escapism and even suicide.  Uncontrollable hatred between the child and the person who hurt him is a very serious life-long effect. Both parents and teachers should be affectionate, forgiving and inspiring. Their attitude should be that of making , not of breaking the child.  Minor, even major lapses of children are not crimes or sins justifying e physical or mental hurting. Here, let bygones and be bygones is the best policy.  This will result in everlasting love and unbreakable relationship.

                                    ******

G.R.Kanwal

3^rd August 2023    

 

MORE ABOUT HEALTH

 

MORE ABOUT HEALTH

            To define health is as difficult as to maintain it. It is deplorable that maintenance of health has become a problem all over the world. To provide health facilities has become a major responsibility of the State. In India a particular political party has opened even street clinics which shows the magnitude of illness among the citizens.  In such a condition, everybody has his own definition of health.

            According to Hazrat Inayat Khan, Indian Professor of musicology and Sufism as well as a  poet philosopher (1882-1927) people nowadays have lost the conception of normal health, for the standard of normal health is below the real conception of health.

To be healthy is not only to be muscular: to be really healthy is to be able to enjoy and appreciate life fully. To be healthy means to be thoughtful. The one who can feel deeply shows the sign of health. It is not surprising if a material person becomes ill, nor is it amazing if a spiritual person is unwell. The former becomes ill because he has lost his rhythm , the latter because he could not keep to a rhythm which is not his own.

            The learned Professor adds: whether one is spiritual or material , one has to live in the midst of the world , and so perforce one shares the conditions of  everyone, both far and near; and one is subjected to the influences all around, whether they are desirable or not.

            Since street clinics, dispensaries, small or big hospitals can give only medicines for symptomatic conditions of health, the best a citizen can do is to keep a careful watch against all that causes irregulariy, inharmony, and disorder, to be resigned to all one has to pass through, and to be courageous in order to overcome all that keeps back from health and perfection.

               Finally: a Sufi holds that the perfection of life lies in perfecting himself not only spiritually, but in all the various aspects of life.

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

 2^nd September 2023