What the world is thinking of us, Often makes us miss the bus; Our futile concern, Often gives us heartburn, If only we knew there is no fuss.
Very few people actually care, Even a thought for us to spare; No one gives a damn, It is merely a sham, The world was, is and will be unfair.
Image courtesy: https://thegill.co.uk/opinion/60
The reason is because of the nature of the Man, It has been like this since Mankind began; Even for his survival, He had to plan against the rival, And thus increase his lifespan.
Even when we are dead and gone, Life and world will still go on; The sooner we realise, And make ourselves wise, The faster from these notions we can be withdrawn.
The main function of our Mind is to record, And when asked for or otherwise to recall; Most often it does it of its own accord, And it does for all things rare or banal. The fact is that although it is much maligned, It supports the progression of the mankind.
Its functioning ensures our very survival, With its ability to reproduce data that’s stored; All other artificial means to it are no rival, Its suggestions shouldn’t normally be ignored. It never sleeps even when we sleep, It generally looks after its own upkeep.
Then, what are the things that make it go wrong? One is that it has to be kept from wandering, The other is that our heart makes it less strong, And many times don’t listen to mind’s pondering. Wandering Mind is really out of control, It can go at great speed but miss the goal.
Being ruled by heart is not such a bad thing, Our Mind doesn’t mind when it is ignored; But we have to somehow keep it from wandering, Its wantonly roaming we can really ill afford. The moment we learn to control our Mind, Life’s true pleasures we can easily find.
It is to record and recall and be under our control.
Yes and No are the smallest replies, But pack the world between them; Their correct use makes one wise, Incorrectly they can cause mayhem. Both can spell hope and positivity, Both can spell gloom and negativity.
Say Yes to Love, Mercy, and Life, And you usher in rays of sunshine; Say No to Lies, Violence and Strife; And you extend someone lifeline. The trick is in the manner of their use, Both can be praise, both can be abuse.
Sometimes, we are not too sure, A better response perhaps is ‘Maybe’; For ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ it may be premature, ‘Maybe’ is for some time to ‘let it be’. ‘Maybe’ secretly asks for His intervention, Before you can decide own intention.
Life gives you many an occasion, When you can’t decide ‘No’ or ‘Yes’; It is not an exercise in evasion, When you ask God decision to bless. Given time, He’d show a clear way, And then you can have your final say.
What if you were born very rich, Would all your wishes have come true? Would your lifestyle you’d switch, To one more suited to the wealthy you? God made each one of us rich at birth, Many of us don’t realise our true worth.
God gave us richness we were to find within, But, we kept looking for it outside and beyond; Many of us even thought one day we’d win, If only He’d be kind to wield a magic wand. God made each one of us rich at birth, Many of us don’t realise our true worth.
We fritter away our diamond life, said poet Kabir, And exchange it for a kaudi, worthless and cheap; From being amir we are then cursed to die a fakir, Because we let richness at birth decay and sleep. God made each one of us rich at birth, Many of us don’t realise our true worth.
From 4th Jan 19 I started doing something different. In addition to my own inspirational poems everyday, I started giving you, on every Friday, a song or poem that has inspired me. Today is the third one and it is a hymn in English called ‘Morning Has Broken’.
‘Morning Has Broken’, a popular Christian hymn, was first published in 1931. Its lyrics are by the English author Eleanor Farjeon. Its original Scottish Gaelic tune Bubessan was the same as that of the 19th century Christmas Carol ‘Child In The Manger’.
I listened to it for the first time when Cat Stevens sang it in 1971 and it took my fancy.
Lets first go through my own poem about God’s Creation:
Imagine the first life on earth, The first cry of a child, of mirth, The first star, No matter how far, And the first time an idea took birth.
One is filled with wonder and awe,
At what the first man ever saw;
“Thank you, God”,
” I can’t help applaud”,
” Your world is without a single flaw.”
After eons it is still as inviting,
Every moment is still new and exciting;
Every new day,
Has something to say,
And not just colours, hues and lighting.
The winds lovingly caress your face,
Soon of the darkness there is no trace,
Like the first man,
Every one of us can,
Get a glimpse of God’s loving grace.
…. like the first morning.”
And now please read and listen to Cat Stevens sing: ‘Morning Has Broken’:
Morning has broken like the first morning Blackbird has spoken like the first bird Praise for the singing Praise for the morning Praise for them springing fresh from the world
Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven Like the first dew Fall on the first grass Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
Mine is the sunlight Mine is the morning Born of the one light Eden saw play Praise with elation, praise ev’ry morning God’s recreation of the new day
Morning has broken like the first morning Blackbird has spoken like the first bird Praise for the singing Praise for the morning Praise for them springing fresh from the world
Only God knows all the truth and all the facts, We don’t know whys and hows of all our acts; We’re all ignorant in various degrees, We simply don’t have the expertise, To gauge our partial truths and their impacts.
That makes every person untrue at some stage, That includes many a saint and many a sage; So can anyone honestly claim, Without doubt and shame, That he or she never told a lie at any age?
Is this one of the sins that Christ asked God to forgive, For men not knowing what they do as long as they live? Did he talk about all the mankind, Or had only his persecutors in mind? I wish someone’d give me evidence that is corroborative.
Meanwhile I can stick to only that truth I know, Until a better one you can tell me or show. We can only be partially honest, Yes, all those who are modest, There is no way of the untruths we can let go.
They tell us Heaven is above the seven skies, With our good deeds on earth we can get there; And that only after a man or woman dies, Can he or she the pleasures of the heaven share. But what if Earth is the Promised Paradise, Of our good deeds in our previous lives?
The entire universe in any case is a myth, So what’s wrong with this very bright theory? What about the this one that we are stuck with, Isn’t it somewhat strange, implausible and eerie? Let’s just think of Earth as the Promised Paradise, Of our good deeds in our previous lives?
Alright, let’s pretend Heaven is actually on Earth,
And of our previous good deeds a reward;
We got here from the time of our birth,
This is the best place ever we can afford.
It is indeed our Promised Paradise,
Of our good deeds in our previous lives.
If that’s the case we unnecessarily worry, About the results of our deeds on earth here; That also explains why we aren’t in a hurry, To let the gift of life on earth to disappear. We are here on the Promised Paradise, Of our good deeds in our previous lives.
Imagine if God made all of us alike, And gave each of us similar thoughts; Do you know what the world’d feel like, With people moving around as robots?
Then why do we envy another’s situation, Knowing his pluses and minuses are unique; His having more is no cause for frustration, His having less is also totally his streak.
Similar is the case with our own fate, We too have unique positives and negatives; Let’s be satisfied with what’s on our own plate, Rather than envy those of friends and relatives.
We may not be responsible for our situation, We are always responsible for our reaction to it; Our destiny may not be our own creation, But how we respond, I believe, hasn’t been writ.
Don’t compare but make your response better, And see what is that unique plus God gave you; Rather than copying you can be a trendsetter, Standing at the very head of your own queue.
….when He gave us less of something, He also gave us more of something else.
It appears to be running down faster in old age, The grains of sand in our life’s hourglass; At one stage when we were in our teenage, It didn’t look like it’d come to this impasse. Wasted hours were as important then as now, But we thought these won’t matter somehow.
How nice it’d be if we could go through life, With the wisdom of today and energy of the past; We could have avoided all the unwanted strife, And could have loads of satisfaction in contrast. Wasted hours were as important then as now, But we thought these won’t matter somehow.
Wisdom doesn’t have to visit us when we are old, We can call it our friend even when we are young; But most of us don’t like ourselves to be controlled, And remain in our youth reckless and highly strung. Wasted hours were as important then as now, But we thought these won’t matter somehow.
Wisdom lies in not relearning those things, That have been passed on by those before; The wasp of wasted time actually stings, When there is not much time left in store. Wasted hours were as important then as now, But we thought these won’t matter somehow.
A double century today and still batting, Since we took up crease on the first of June; I have enjoyed, with you, my daily chatting, I hope you’ll, from this station, never untune. Thank you for your encouraging reception, That brought me to this stage since inception.
From light ditties to God and philosophy, It was a journey we enjoyed together; Forgive me if inadvertently or consciously, I made you pass through some heavy weather. I assure you we have a long way to go, Before the final bugle I decide to blow.
I thank God for making me write about, So many diverse subjects under the sun; Of new ideas there has been no drought, Hence, we’ve had, together, lots of fun. Each one would’ve had varied gain, I hope the exercise wan’t totally in vain.
For future, if you want some specific subjects, Please don’t hesitate to write in the comments; I shall try my best to make these less complex, We shall collectively make of these some sense. Let me hear from you once in a while, I assure you that would make me smile.
You and I together for the last few days, Are looking at various attributes of God; We know we haven’t explored all the ways, All or some of our theories may be flawed.
All we know is that all of us put together, Can’t imagine how large is the divinity; And that’s the time we start thinking whether, We should actually imagine God as Infinity.
Now lets give our imagination wings to fly, And think of Infinite in infinite dimensions; Oh, now we have already reached sky high, And still not gone far in all possible directions.
Now imagine Him with infinite virtues and powers, Lets just take two (since we are finite): mercy and love; And now lets imagine Him beyond years, days and hours, We shall probably get to a minuscule part of God above.
How often we deal with Infinity in our routine? I would say the answer is “close to never”; It is, truly, not even the realm of the foreseen, To imagine someone who goes on forever.
Hence, each one of us only ends up defining, What we can imagine with our finite mind; In our own constraints we end up confining, Him and us and remain to both almost blind.
….we need to go beyond our finite thinking to see Him.
From 4th Jan 19 I started doing something different. In addition to my own inspirational poems everyday, I started giving you, on every Friday, a song or poem that has inspired me. Today is the second one and it is a hymn in Punjabi.
This hymn was written, composed and sung by the tenth guru of the Sikhs: Guru Gobind Singh.
Guru Gobind Singh was the finest example of scholar-warrior in the Indian history. The Gurus were spiritual leaders but, when a war was imposed on them by the cruelties of the mughals, they took up sword to fight for the just cause. When he was told that the mughals outnumbered the Guru’s warriors, he came up with the slogan that each one of his warriors is equivalent to ‘sawa lakh‘ (1.25 lakhs). A few years later, in the Battle of Saragarhi (acknowledged by the UN as one of the bravest battles ever fought in the world (see Wikipedia), his disciples, just 21 in number fought against 10000 Afghans without accepting defeat).
How was this leadership possible? Simple, by setting a personal and familial example. Guru ji let go of all his personal comforts and fought like any of his other warriors, accepting hardships, accepting despondency and moving on (this is not mythological; this is recorded history). He sacrificed his four sons at tender ages: Jujhar Singh (b. 1691), Zorawar Singh (b. 1696) and Fateh Singh (b. 1699) and Ajit Singh ((b. 1687) in the battle. They were so young when they achieved martyrdom that when I was small, I used to listen to this poem:
“Nanhe nanhe bachche chine’ gaye deewaron mein, Muskraahat bhi na jinaki chheen paaya tha zamaana, Laal aise hi hamaari veer mitti ne jamen hain, Sar kataana theek hai jinake liye galat gardan jhukaana.” (Small, tender children were paved in the walls, The world had not yet stolen their smiles, Lads like that our brave soil had produced, For them it was right to get their heads severed but wrong to bend the neck (in slavery).
And when their mother (an equal partner in this leadership) was told about their sacrifice, she had this to say:
“Chaar muye to kyaa huya Jeevat kayi hazaar“ (So what I lost four sons, I have thousands more)
The martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh’s youngest sons (Image courtesy: https://epilogue.in/2018/12/27/country-cannot-forget-martyrdom-of-guru-gobind-singhs-sons/)
I am inspired by this hymn because suddenly whilst listening to this I am raised to that level whence I realise that God as a friend is beyond despondency, beyond all worldly pleasures. He calls you to do your duty (as Lord Krishna directed Arjuna in the Battle of Mahabharat) and not to worry about the results since He would take care of them. Interim trials and tribulations should never shake your faith.
This beautiful hymn by Guru Gobind Singh, was recited in the Machhivara forest when he was separated from everyone after leading them in the Battle of Chamkaur; not everyone because the connection to the Lord remained strong as always.
Here is my small introduction followed by the hymn in Punjabi, its transliteration in English and finally its translation in English:
Guru Gobind’s faith in God was resolute, Even when he was rendered alone in battle, His fortitude and praise of God did not dilute, Even after his sons were martyred like cattle.
Mitr piyaare nu haal mureeda da kehnaa ॥ Tudh bin rog rajaaeeaan da oudhan naag nivaasa de rehna ॥ Sool suraahi khanjar piyaala bing kasaaeeaan da sehna ॥ Yaararre da saanoo saathhar changaa bhathh khaerriaa da rehna ॥
Tell the beloved friend (the Lord) the plight of his disciples. Without You rich blankets are a disease and the comfort of the house is like living with snakes. Our water pitchers are like stakes of torture and our cups have edges like daggers. Without You we are like animals at the hands of butchers. Our Beloved Lord’s straw bed is more pleasing to us than living in costly mansions.
When you see a wrong, does it concern you? Do you feel that something you have to do? Or do you ask how can I be the only one, Thinking that something needs to be done? Do you often look yourself in the eye, And to set it right do actually give it a try?
The difference between Why Me and Why Not Me, Defines the person you would like to be. Would you like to be one in a crowd, Or would you want to stand tall and proud? Do you imitate that universal substance, That takes the path of least resistance?
There are occasions when you must stand alone, And show people how you’d like to be known. The Sikhs, for example, recognised a brave doer, As the one who fought for the sake of the poor. Do you want to live like that brave? Or are you smug about being a slave?
“O Shiva, give me this boon* May I never ever shirk from doing good deeds That I shall not fear when I go into combat. And with determination I will be victorious. That I may teach myself this greed alone, To speak only of thy praises (O Lord). And when the last day of my life come, I may die fighting (righteously) in the battlefield.”
It concerns us all.
*Deh Shiva Bar Mohe Eha (ਦੇਹ ਸ਼ਿਵਾ ਬਰ ਮੋਹੇ ਈਹੇ) is a popular hymn by Guru Gobind Singh, taken from Chandi Charitar Ukati Bilas composition of Dasam Granth.
