Category: Philosophy

What knowledge and rituals are required to get to God?

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #209‘.

Good Morning Friends,

The world’s knowledge increases as the world ages,
That means when mankind evolved we had least wordly knowledge.
So, let’s get back, in history book, to the first few pages,
And get to the nursery from now being in college.
So when to God the first time man prayed,
Little or no knowledge such a man displayed.

No languages would have evolved at that time,
Nor would people have known rituals and hymns.
No practices could have been called sublime,
People won’t have yet learnt to use fancies and whims.
And yet His children would have been to Him as dear,
As those now who to strict religious practices adhere.

Can we then easily and safely conclude,
That knowledge and rituals are not compulsory to get God;
With today’s standards those people praying must have looked crude,
Something that we would now hold as flawed.
I think there would have been only one demand of God above,
That you turn towards Him with heart full of love.

I think after eons it is still the same,
God doesn’t require for us to pray in complex ways,
All that we need to know is to call Him by His name,
And He’d respond to our loving devotion always.
God is not a reward for passing some skill test,
Those who love Him are to Him the nearest.

I don’t suppose any since nil are required for a child to get to his/her mother.

What’s the main function of our Mind or Brain?

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #207‘.

Good Morning Friends,

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 or No?

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #206‘.

Good Morning Friends,

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.

Maybe God would show the way.

What if we were born very rich….

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #205‘.

Good Morning Friends,

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.

….the reality is that each one of us was!

I have doubts too….

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #203‘.

Good Morning Friends,

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.

….can you provide me the clue?

God made all of us unique and different….

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #201‘.

Good Morning Friends,

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.

If only we could hold time….

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #200‘.

Good morning Friends,

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.

….but we can’t and must learn to make use of it.

A double century today….

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 are still at the crease!

If God is indeed infinite….

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #198‘.

Good Morning Friends,

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.

Mitr piyaare nu haal mureedan da kehna…..

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was:’Good Morning Message #197‘.

Good Morning Friends,

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)

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.

ਮਿੱਤਰ ਪਿਆਰੇ ਨੂੰ ਹਾਲ ਮੁਰੀਦਾ ਦਾ ਕਹਿਣਾ ॥
ਤੁਧੁ ਬਿਨੁ ਰੋਗੁ ਰਜਾਈਆ ਦਾ ਓਢਣ ਨਾਗ ਨਿਵਾਸਾ ਦੇ ਹਹਿਣਾ ॥
ਸੂਲ ਸੁਰਾਹੀ ਖੰਜਰ ਪਿਆਲਾ ਬਿੰਗ ਕਸਾਈਆਂ ਦਾ ਸਹਿਣਾ ॥
ਯਾਰੜੇ ਦਾ ਸਾਨੂੰ ਸੱਥਰੁ ਚੰਗਾ ਭਠ ਖੇੜਿਆ ਦਾ ਰਹਿਣਾ ॥

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.

रोज़ करते हैं हम साफ इस तन को,
कब करेंगे हम साफ इस मन को?

बुझ जाती है आसान होंठों की प्यास,
कैसे बुझाएं अपने अंदर की अग्न को?

प्रभु का नाम वो औषधी है यारो,
सब दुख भूल जाते हैं उसमें मग्न हो।

हर किसी को हासिल है ये तोहफा,
जिसको दिल से प्रभु की लग्न हो।

बाहर और अंदर का अंधेरा मिटा दे,
नमन कीजिये इस कुदरती किरण को।

दुख सुख में कभी न भूलिये, दोस्तो,
जगाओ अपने मन में उस परम पिता भगवन को।

“एक ओमकार सतनाम करता पुरख निरभौ निरवैर अकाल मूरत अजूनी सैभं गुर प्रसाद जप,
आद सच, जुगाद सच, है भी सच, नानक होसी भी सच।”

Sweetness in words is more important than in food.

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was: ‘Good Morning Message #118‘.

Good morning Friends,

We are so particular about food we serve and eat,
It should really have good aroma and taste;
It should be soft, it should be sweet,
And nothing of it should ever go waste.

It shouldn’t be pungent, it shouldn’t be bitter,
It should never make our eyes cry;
It shouldn’t make one unintended spitter,
It should be pleasant to tongue and eye.

Alas, none of these apply to words we use,
And we use them without a thought;
We don’t mind if these are hot and loose,
Or make our listeners completely distraught.

Blessed are those who have the fine art,
Of conveying disagreements with a smile,
Their utterances are never taken to heart,
Carrying everyone with them is their style.

May you be blessed with such a nature,
So that sweetness and smiles you spread;
May your speech add to your stature,
As a person of warm heart and level head.

May your day be nice and pleasant,
Even with those who don’t agree with you;
May peace and sanity be always present,
In everything you decide to say or do.

Choose Sweetness over Bitterness.

Take a break before you break down.

From the first of June, 2018, I started writing Good Morning messages in the form of poems (Please read: ‘Good Morning Message #1‘).

The last such message was: ‘Good Morning Message #114‘.

Good morning Friends,

If you live in a crowded city or a town,
And you rarely allow Nature to come near;
Chances are that from sunrise to sundown,
You live a life of constant anxiety and fear.

“Will I reach my office on time today?”
“Will my boss be annoyed or happy?”
“I hope friends will let me have my way,
Rather than telling me to make it snappy.”

“The traffic is killing, the noise is a roar,
Everywhere I go I am never alone;
This one is annoying, that one is a bore,
What really have I got of my own?”

Take a trip to the green hills or plains,
And let Nature work its magic on you,
Walk in the clear air, be drenched by the rains,
Look at the flowers red, white, yellow and blue.

Enjoy your own company for a change,
Or share it with your partner, birds and butterflies,
Lo and behold you can, your life, rearrange,
Happiness soars and anxiety dies.

Believe me it doesn’t cost much to be rejuvenated,
It’s not money, you’ve got to spare time,
But, do it before you’re completely saturated,
With daily chores for which no one gives a dime.

Let me wish you a day and life today,
Wherein you do things for your own sake,
Where you allow Nature to have its say,
And tell yourself, “I deserve a break.”