SOME THOUGHTS FOR TODAY

 

                 SOME THOUGHTS FOR TODAY

1. Thoughts, ideas and images that dwell in our minds become a part of us notwithstanding the fact that they spring from a country or place we do not belong to or have not even visited.
2. A great thought holds the attention and stirs the blood of the listener.
3. A man should rather sever his tongue than risk being rude to an unknown woman.
4.   The mission of an observer should be to record impressions, not convictions.          
5.  Let us agree with the Indian philosopher and mystic Acharya  Rajneesh (1930-1990)  popularly known as Osho that your heaven is in your heart and your hell is in your head.

 

6. A spoonful of tar spoils a barrel of honey.
7. Let us be silent to hear the whispers of gods.
8.  A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle and an end.
9. A quotation is one man’s wit and all men’s wisdom.
10. Good things come to those who wait.
11. You have a name for every thing. But a name does not give knowledge.
12. The wounds of love don’t need a doctor’s balm.
13. A fighter fights alone.
14. Mercy! Thy name is God.
15.  Ideas are more powerful than weapons.
16. A good man does good merely by living.
17.  A fools heart is in his tongue.
18. Never reason from what you do not know.
19.  Life has no limitation
20.  Only those who forgive others deserve to be forgiven when they commit a wrong.  

G.R.Kanwal                                     *******

25 November 2025.         

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUTY MERCY

 

                SOME THOUGHTS ABOUTY MERCY

            “Mercy” is the quality of those weak  or powerful persons who believe in compassion, pity, charity, forgiveness, kindness, sympathy, tolerance and generosity.  

            Most of the powerful persons believe in revenge.

            Punishment is common in the laws of all the countries.

            Many parents are not tolerant  and soft-hearted.

            There was a time when school teachers punished their students mercilessly even for minor acts of disobedience or misbehavior.

            Human beings , as children of benevolent God,  expect mercy and forgiveness .  They think  that mercy is one of the greatest attributes of God Almighty.  God in their view is an immensely kind-hearted Father.

            Many social reformers believe that punishment for crimes and offences is not so effective as a gift of mercy and forgiveness.

            Some religions propagate several acts of mercy; for example: giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, hospitality to the homeless strangers, clothes to the naked, care to the sick, inspirational visits to the prisoners.

            Note that forgiveness is a cardinal virtue in almost every religion, like  Christianity and Buddhism.   

            To conclude , here is a sonnet from the play Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Sc1, written by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) .

The quality of mercy is not strain”d.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,

Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

‘T is mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown;

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptred sway,

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings.

It is an attribute to God himself,

An earthly power doth then show likest God’s

When mercy seasons justice.                                                    

                                                ************

G.R. Kanwal

24 November 2025

RUMI ON LOVE

 

                                RUMI ON LOVE

                        Jalal al-Din Muhammad  Rumi was a Persian poet. He was born on 30 September 1207 in Balkh, Afghanistan, and passed away on 17 December 1273 in Konya, Turkiye. He was the most famous poet in the Persian language and literature. He was deeply influenced by Shams Tabrizi, Attar of Nishapur.

                        Rumi was famous for his mysticism in Persian poetry. His lyrics which are thoroughly didactic in nature are available in his epic Masnavi-yi Manavi.  All the lyrics that Rumi composed can be called  as spiritual couplets.

                       Rumi’s poetry is very popular. It has been translated into many languages.  These days the English version of his poetry is quite famous in the United States of America.

                        Given below is an extract from “The Life and Work of Jalaluddin Rumi” written by Afzal Iqbal and  published by Pakistan National Council Of The Arts, Islamabad .

                             According to the above-mentioned author: Love for Rumi is both a beginning and an end; ‘It is the cure of all ills.’ A kind of mania which music helps to create and sublimate. The rapture and ecstasy caused by music enable man to have a glimpse of life and reality.”

                        This author finds Rumi’s ghazals  (lyrics) immensely ecstatic. Look at the following lines from a love lyric:

Come, O lover! Come O lover! Let me assuage your suffering

Let me be your friend and then make your condition better.

Come, O lover! Come, O lover! Surrender to me your heart,

That I may teach you how to win love and make you a beloved like myself.

Come, O lover! Come, O lover! Sacrifice yourself for me

That I may give you my life and make your life happier.

I came again, yet again. Such is lover’s mania.

Like a falcon I came. Such is lover’s mania

My divine world became a mortal world, my mortal world divine.

My God’s cup became my food. Such is lover’s mania.

                                                            ******

G. R. Kanwal

23 November 2025

                       

                         

   

BEST QUTOES FROM POETS

 

                BEST QUTOES FROM POETS

1.John Keats (1795-1821): “ A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” “ Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” “ The universe is indifferent to our fates.” “ Heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter. “

2. P. B. Shelly( 1792-1822): “Poets are the un-acknowledged legislators. “ “ We look before and after and pine for what is not. Our sweetest laughter with some pain is fraught. “  

3. Lord Byron (17881824: “ In solitude we are least alone. “ “ ‘Tis strange –but true, for truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.” “ There is no instinct like that of the heart.” “ Friendship is love without wings.” “ Adversity is the first path to truth.” “ Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.”

4. William Wordsworth (1770-1850):  “Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark.” “ The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.” “ The world is too much with us , late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” “ The mind of man is a thousand times more beautiful than the earth on which he dwells.” “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.” “ Come forth into the light of things , let nature be your teacher. “ “The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away, than what it leaves behind.” “ Our life is but a sleep and a forgetting . Not in entire forgetfulness, but trailing clouds do we come.”

S.T.Coleridge  (1772-1834):  “Advice is like snow ---the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.” “ He prayeth best, who loveth best / All things both great and small,;/ For the dear God who loveth us,/ He made and loveth all.”  “I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry, that is, prose = words in their best order, poetry = the best words in their best order.”  “All thoughts , all passions, all delights, /Whatever stirs this mortal frame, /All are but ministers of L.ove ,/ And feed his sacred flame. “

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

22 November 2025

 

A NEW POEM ON TAJ MAHAL

 

                A NEW POEM ON TAJ MAHAL

            According to an overview : The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum in Agra, India, by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

            Commissioned in 1632 and completed in 1648 , it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the Seven Wonders of the World, celebrated for its symmetrical Indo-Islam architecture, intricate marble inlay work, and status as a symbol of love. The complex includes a mosque, guest house, and formal gardens.

            Many poets have expressed their views on its beauty and the inspiration which led to its construction. It is visited by thousands of tourists every day.

            Some of the quotes about this mausoleum are:

“A love poem written in marble.” Not a piece of architecture…but the passions of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones. ---Edwin Arnold.” “ A tear drop on the cheek of eternity.---The Indian poet and Author Rabindranath Tagore.”

            “It is a monument built out of love, where every stone speaks of a promised kept. ‘

             What follows is a new poem which I had never seen before. Its title is Taj Mahal. The name of the poetess who composed it is Lu Gam and it is included in her anthology “Flute Note And Other Poems.” It was published in 1959. There is no biographical sketch available about this poetess. As for her poem TAJ MAHAL one cannot help but admire  it.  

            Mumtaz, do you arise and wander here

And touch this carved stone, this graven wall,

And does your heart, long dust, recall

When you were his beloved wife

In that forgotten state which we call life?

This tranquil beauty, languor which we feel,

Is it your beauty that these halls reveal?

Is it your touch upon this place,

Your unseen self, your time veiled face

That cast the spell and lay the ageless hold?

Do your dark eyes, long turned to stone.

Evoke strange wonders in this room,

As looking out from your sealed tomb

The kiss the chiseled lotus buds

And count the jewels an emperor brought

And with exquisite care had wrought

To immortalize your name.

 

Mumtaz

Vaporous dreams surround this bier.

Are they your mellow memories musing here

Within the marble halls, beneath the dome?

Is it your voice, whispering where you lie

To share with you a love that shall not die,

That speaks in quiet from your earthly home?

                                                *****

G.R. Kanwal

21 November 2025

UNFORGETTABLE THOUGHTS

 

UNFORGETTABLE THOUGHTS           

            Thoughts are defined as “the mental process of thinking, creating ideas, beliefs, and opinions, and the products of that process.”

 

            Thoughts are both great and small, high and low, deep and shallow.

           

            Great thoughts which come from great thinkers, philosophers, saints, sages  and poets get recorded in the minds  of all and sundry. They shape their actions, emotions, perceptions, decisions, critical thinking , meaningful interpretation, right behaviour  and the ways of living a successful   life.

  

            Given below are a few unforgettable thoughts.

 

1.     Ability is a poor man’s wealth.

2.     When anger rises, think of the consequences.

3.     A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counsellor, a multitude of counsellors.

4.     Brevity is the soul of wit.

5.     Character is higher than intellect.

6.     The dew of compassion is a tear.

7.     Doubt is an incentive to search for truth.

8.     There is not a moment without some duty.

9.     Speech is the body; thought the soul, and suitable action the life of eloquence.

10.                         Example is the school of mankind.

11.                         Your face is a book, where men may read strange matters.

12.                         Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman.

13.                         Good humour is the health of the soul; sadness is its poison.

14.                         The first day a guest; the second, burden; the third, a pest.

15.                         What is history but a fable agreed upon?

16.                         One may smile and smile and be a villain still.

17.                        The influence of individual character extends from generation to generation. The world is molded by it.

18.                         Hell is paved with good intentions

19.                         Joy is more divine than sorrow, for joy is bread and sorrow is medicine.

20.                         What we know here is very little, but what we are ignorant of is immense.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

20 November 2025

 

TWO POEMS: SPEAK GENTLY AND HAPPINESS

 

                TWO POEMS: SPEAK GENTLY AND HAPPINESS           

            Some poets are also teachers. This fact is obvious from the two anonymous poems given below. The fist one is about speaking gently and the second about happiness.

 

            SPEAK GENTLY

Speak gently; it is better far

To rule by love than fear.

Speak gently; let no harsh word mar

The good we may do here.

 

Speak gently to the little child;

Its love be  sure to gain;

Teach it in accents soft and mild,

It may not long remain.

            *********

 

            HAPPINESS

Just to be tender, just to be true;

Just to be glad the whole day through;

Just o be merciful, just to be mild;

Just to be trustful as a child;

Just to be gentle and kind and sweet;

Just to be helpful with willing feet;

Just to be cheery when things go wrong;

Just to drive sadness away with a song;

Whether the hour is dark or bright,

Just to be loyal to God and right  !

                        **********

G.R.Kanwal

19 November 2025.