COUNT THAT DAY LOST

 

COUNT THAT DAY LOST

Is a poem written by the famous British novelist and poet George Eliot (1819-1880) whose real name was Mary Ann Evans. She is more famous as a writer of novels like Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda. These novels show the psychological depth of her characters and her profound  knowledge of British rural life.

            “Count That Day Lost” is an inspirational poem. It inspires the readers to do something good everyday for others, otherwise treat that day as worse than lost. Elsewhere she says it is never too late to be what you might have been and asks : What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?”

            Here is the full text of the poem:

If you sit down at set of sun

And count the acts that you have done,

And, counting find

One self-denying deed, one word

That eased the heart of him who heard;

That fell like sunshine where it went---

Then you may count that day well spent.

 

But if, through all the livelong day,

You’ve cheered no heart, by yea or nay---

If, through it all

You’ve nothing done that you can trace

That brought the sunshine to one face----

No act most small

That helped some soul and nothing cost----

Then count that day as worse than lost.

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G.R.Kanwal

24^th November 2023

 

 

NOTHING IS PERMANENT

 

NOTHING IS PERMANENT

            Acharya Rajneesh, later known as Osho, was Indian godman and philosopher (1931-1990).  According to him nothing is permanent. “For example, every child has been told in a thousand and one ways that love is eternal, once you love a person, you love the person always. If you love a person later on you feel that you don’t love, it only means you never loved the person in the first place. Now this is a very dangerous idea, It is giving you an idea of a permanent love and in life nothing is permanent… the flowers blossom in the morning and by the evening  they are gone.  Life is a continuous flux; everything is changing, moving. Nothing is static, nothing is permanent.”

Isn’t it true? Can it bear contradiction? Isn’t everything changing continuously as a law of eternal nature?

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G.R.Kanwal

23 November 2923   

 

GOD IS EVERYWHERE

 

                GOD IS  EVERYWHERE

The following lines under the title “God Is Everywhere” have been extracted by me from a long poem “Song of Myself” written by the American poet and essayist Walt Whitman (1819-1892).

            “Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,/In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,/I find letters from God dropt in the street , and every one is sign’d by God’s name,/And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoev’er I go, others will punctually come for ever and ever.“

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G.R.Kanwal

22^nd November 2023

 

 

ONENESS OF GOD

 

          ONENESS OF GOD

GOD is one but He has many names. Some of them are: Almighty, Allah, Bhagwan, Ishwar, Parmeshwar, Brahma, Creator, Deity, Divine Being, Lord God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Supreme Being, Holy One, the First Cause, etc.

According to Gandhiji,  there is only one God for us all, whether we find Him through Quran, Bible, Zend Avesta. Talmud or Gita, and He is the God of Truth and Love.

God is certainly one. He has no second. He is unfathomable, unknowable, and unknown to the vast majority of mankind. He is everywhere. He sees without eyes, and hears without ears. He is formless and indivisible. He is uncreate, has no father, mother or child, and yet He allows Himself to be worshipped as father, mother, wife and child. He allows Himself even to be worshipped as stock and stone, although He is none of these things. (Source: Young India: September 25, 1924.

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G.R.Kanwal

19^th November 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LITTLE THINGS

 

                   LITTLE THINGS

“LITTLE THINGS” is a small, indeed a very small, inspirational  poem, by  an American educator, poet, author and editor (1823-1908).  She wrote many small poems for children and got them published. They are all inspirational. Little Things reads as follows:

Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,   

Make the mighty ocean

And the pleasant land.

 

Thus the little minutes,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of eternity.

          The poem shows the greatness of small things. One little drop of water may not mean much but many drops of water mean a big ocean. One grain of sand may be nothing but many grains of sand added together make a land. Bigness is a multiplication of smallness.

 

          One small act of kindness when repeated becomes a great act of kindness. Thus, smallness has the potentiality of greatness. In fact, greatness is impossible without the enlargement of littleness.  So let us go on doing small acts of kindness as frequently as possible.

 

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G. R. Kanwal

18^th November 2023   

 

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU SAID

 

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU SAID

“One of the principles which Gandhiji taught us is the unity of the people of India, whether they live in different States, or whether they follow different religions, or whether they speak different languages.

            Sitting here I see you have put up an illuminated representation of a Hindu temple, a Muslim mosque and a Christian church ---all together. That is a symbol of religious unity, and I congratulate you on having put up this symbol here. We have laid down that every citizen, whether he is a Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Jew or Jain or Buddhist or whether he has no religion at all, has equal rights. In the political sphere we are the citizens of India and we have to work together. Any person who creates difficulties in the name of State or religion or language does an ill-service to India and  he does an ill-service to his own State or religion or language,

            “Remember that everything that separates us or creates conflict amongst us is bad. Everything that unites us and brings us together is good. Apply that test to whatever problem you have. It is a good test.”

            The above-quoted speech, according to Thoughts of Jawahalal Nehru, a 1989 centenary publication, was delivered at Dindigul, on 8 December 1957. I believe that its socio-political validity is eternal.

            Jawaharlal Nehru, a freedom-fighter, and later the first Prime Minister of free India from 1947 to 1964, was born on 14 November 1989 at Allahabad, now  renamed as Prayagraj. He died in New Delhi on 27 May 1964 . To put it very briefly, he was a world statesman, a  secular humanist and also a great writer.

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G.R.Kanwal

15^th November 2023

 

SOME QUOTES ON LIGHT

 

 

 

                             SOME QUOTES ON LIGHT

1.     As one lamp lights another, nor grows less, so nobleness enkindleth nobleness. American poet James Russell Lowell (1819-18910)

2.     Hail! Holy light , of heaven, first born! English poet John Milton (1608-1674).

3.     The first creation of God, in the works of the days, was the light of sense; the last was the light of reason; and his Sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of the spirit. English writer Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

4.     Light is the symbol of truth.  Scottish poet (1700-1748)

5.     Light is the shadow of God. Greek philosopher Plato (5^th century BCE)

6.     Walk boldly and wisely in the light thou hast; there is a hand above will help thee on. American journalist Gamaliel Bailey (1807-1859)

G.R.Kanwal

12^th November 2023