WHAT IS DESTINY?

 

WHAT IS DESTINY?

            Destiny is religiously defined as fate, luck, fortune, kismet, karma, divine decree, etc.

There are professionals who offer themselves to  write your horoscope with full details of your destiny if you tell them your date of birth and some other details.

There are also palmists who read the lines of your hand to predict your future.

Some others claim that your destiny is written on your forehead and they can read it correctly.  

            Religiously,  fate is the result of your actions performed by you  n your pervious birth or births.  Good actions then make good fortune in the present birth.

            The beliefs of science are different from those of religion. A scientist may tell you that you are the architect of your fate. God has nothing to do with it.  

            English novelist Edward George Lytton Bulwer (1703-73) says destiny is but a phase of the weak human heart --- the dark analogy for every error--The strong and virtuous admit no destiny,---On earth conscience guides; in heaven God watches.---And destiny is what the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.

            Here is another logical quotation by American theologian Tyron Edwards (1809-94): Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.

            To conclude, it is true that we have reap what we sow, and it is our character which is the main basis of our fate.

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G.R.Kanwal

7^th May 2024

 

THE PERFECT LIFE

 

THE PERFECT LIFE

‘The Perfect Life’ is the title of a short poem written by the English poet-

playwright Ben Jonson. He was born in June 1572 and died in August 1937 and

was , in a way, a contemporary of Shakespeare.

 

              In the poem which is given below, he says that to be perfect life does not need long years. As an example, he compares the short  but perfect life of a lily flower with that of the imperfect long life of an oak tree. A lily blooms only for one day and exhibits all its   beauty. An oak stands on earth for three hundred years but ultimately falls like a mere log ‘dry, bald, and sere.’

 

Here is the complete poem:

 

It is not growing like a tree

In bulk, doth make Man better be;

Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,

To fall a log at last dry, bald, and sere.

A lily of a day

Is fairer far in May,

Although it fall and die that night---

It was the plant and flower of Light.

In small proportions we just beauties see

And in short measures life may perfect be.

 

 

 

G.R. Kanwal

6^TH May 2024

 

 

 

WORK IS WORSHIP

 

                WORK IS WORSHIP

“Work Is Worship” is a proverb which is mostly  attributed to Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)  who wanted to instill the importance of hard work in the people of India for getting great results.

Many other spiritual leaders like Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) believed that God wants man’s creative work not mere rituals  as his duty towards Him.  

The Urdu poet Dr. Sir Mohammad  Iqbal (1877-1938)  thinks action, not contemplation, is the real approach to life.  

Given below is an extract from a song by the Indian poet-philosopher  Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) . Its theme is  the same as ‘ Work is Worship.’  It is taken from his anthology Gitanjali for which he was awarded  Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.

“Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path-maker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!

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G.R.Kanwal

5^th April 2024

 

LET ME SAY

 

          LET ME SAY

      1.  A lie has no legs to stand upon. 2. Truth is ever green.  3. The face is an index of the mind. 4. He that blows in the dust fills his own eyes.5 Work is worship.  6. The life a mosquito is short but active. 7. Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds. 8. A blind man is no judge of colours. 9. Charity begins at home. 9. Great boast small roast. 10. Better alone than in bad company. 11. A closed mouth catches no flies. 12. From a bad pay master get what you can. 12. Make hay while the sun shines. 13. Empty vessels make much noise. 14. No rose without a thorn. 15. A guilty conscience needs no accuser. 16. He that has been bitten by a snake dreads a rope. 17. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. 18. A good name is better than riches. 19. Time blunts the edge of grief. 20. Ill got , ill spent. 21. Excess of everything is bad. 22. Be just and fear not.23.Kindness is better than revenge. 24. Light and lust are deadly enemies. 25. Hasty marriage seldom proveth well.

G.R.Kanwal

4^th May 2024

 

DUALITY

 

                                DUALITY

As an English word ‘‘duality” expresses the quality or condition of being dual. It also stands for opposition and contrast or two aspects of something such as life / death, good/bad, high/ low, sweet/bitter, strange/ familiar.

Given below is a short poem on freedom from duality by a Kashmiri metaphysical poet Lal Ded. She was born in 1320 and died in 1392. She was originally named Lalleshwari and was a mystic of the Shaivism school of Hindu philosophy. Her poems are still loved by all sorts of readers and are included in modern Kashmiri poetry.

The title of her poem  is : A MIND FREE FROM DUALITY

“He who hath deemed another and himself as the same,

He who hath deemed the day (of joy) and the night (of sorrow} to be alike,

He whose mind hath become free from duality,

He, and he alone, hath seen the Lord of the chiefest of the gods.

 

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G.R.Kanwal

3^rd May 2024

A QUOTATION EACH ON POETS AND POETRY

 

          A QUOTATION EACH ON POETS AND POETRY             

The best quotation on poets comes from the English poet-dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616). It reads as follows:

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, that is the madman; the lover, all as lunatic, sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt; the poet’s eye in a fine frenzy rolling doeth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; and, as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name. ---- Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Sc,1.

On poetry one of the best quotations is by the American clergy William Ellery Channing  (1780-1842}.  According to him : Poetry reveals to us the loveliness of nature, brings back the freshness of youthful feeling, revives the relish of simple pleasures, keeps unquenched the enthusiasm which warmed the springtime of our being, refines youthful love, strengthens our interest in human nature by vivid delineations of its tenderest and softest feelings, and through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on the future life.     

   To conclude, eminent  poets utter great and wise things and the best poetry is universal.

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G.R.Kanwal

2^nd May 2024

 

WHO IS A GENTLEMAN?

 

          WHO IS A GENTLEMAN?

            A gentleman is gentle in his behavior, manners, etiquette, speech, writings, arguments, opinions, views, thoughts, ideas, questions, answers, counter-arguments, etc.

            He is learned, intelligent, wise, courageous, far-sighted, affectionate, sweet-tempered, loving, helpful and inspiring.

            He is confident but not over-bearing; competes with his rivals but does insult or disgrace them. He thanks others; shows his gratitude for any service rendered to him; and lends a helping hand whoever needs it.

            He never hurts anybody’s feelings. He always acts as a balmy person to the injured.

            The words ‘hate’ and ‘discouragement’ are not found in his dictionary. He is friendly and generous to everybody. His personality is attractive and his dictums are sweet, polite and charming.

            He is kind, tender-hearted, humane, tranquil, sympathetic, empathetic, compassionate, forgiving and merciful.

            Finally, a few relevant words of the American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) ---“We sometimes meet an original gentleman, who, if manners had not existed, would have invented them.”

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G. R. Kanwal

1^st MAY 2024