POEMS of JOSEPH NEDUMPARA
Dedicated to his Students
Published
by:
Nedumpara Family, Ramapuram, Pala Kottayam
Copyright to the publisher
First Published : December
2008
About Joseph Nedumpara
A note from children
Foreword
Words of Appreciation
About the poems
POEMS:
Mr. Joseph Nedumpara retired as a headmaster of Government High School, Pala almost three decades ago. He was educated at Union Christian College, Aluva, St. Berchamans’ College, Changanacherry and University Training College, Trivandrum. He has been regular contributor to Letter’s Column in the Indian Express News Paper. Mr. Joseph Nedumpara is an active farmer and a lover of nature and loves to spend his time in his agricultural fields even at his age.
The most apt description about Mr. JOSEPH NEDUMPARA, the author of Rambling Thoughts: Spiritual and Mundane, would be, “a great and selfless teacher who cared little about being known or famous”. His erudition and apparent mastery of letters may be obscure to many, but that does not concern him. In this work he recollects and reminisces some of the eternal truths about life and its spiritual elements reflected over many years of life, a great majority of which was spent in hardship while serving as a teacher and head master in the wilderness of some of the hilly and remote parts of his home state Kerala.
He started off penning his thoughts rather cursorily and the idea of preparing a collection never occurred to him or any one of us until the pages of scribbled verses grew into a sizeable volume of often touching and remarkably intense emotional thoughts. What is striking about this work is the natural flow of ideas which straddle the realm of mundane and the spiritual. He had no desire to see this work published or gain any literary fame. Rather, he kept on writing for his sheer pleasure. For him, being a teacher was more satisfying than anything else in life. Like any good teacher, he believes in sharing his ideas and thoughts for its own sake. But, it will be a grave mistake to deny the world, at least those who care about the surviving value of verse, to have a glimpse of this collection which is captured in some of the finest and beautiful rhymes.
This collection of verses rhymes so naturally and effortlessly and is often spontaneous. Nothing is contrived about any of part of its structure or contents. Living in a remote village, his musings were an output of winnowed wisdom and an understanding of life and its varied spiritual elements, not impeded by any of the distractions that surround our busy lives. Many of the poems express his heart’s desire to meet the Master face to face. The spiritual tones of the rhymes are overwhelming. But naturally he did not find many who could impel him to carry on, but Tresa, his wife often provided the sole inspiration from which he drew immense encouragement and interest to complete this work despite his advancing age and failing faculties.
This collection of verses covers topics like world peace, our nation, politics, religion, spirituality, Christianity, family life, education etc. Most of the verses provide practical wisdom for a successful life. Some are beautiful prayers of the heart like psalms and some are words of wisdom like proverbs. As an old father blesses his children and gives advice for a successful life, through these poems, Achayan opens his heart before us with love and blessings. It is our great pleasure to publish these poems.
By beloved children
In the introduction of the famous book ‘Conversation with God’ the author Neale Walsch writes ‘….. you are about to have an extra ordinary experience’. Yes, to those who are going to read this wonderful book of poems also, I may say the same, you are about to have an extra ordinary experience.
It is said, feeling is the language of the soul, and if so, we find in this book feelings most beautifully expressed, making any reader spell bound. Only with enviable admiration, genuine appreciation and literary delight, one can go through the pages of this book of poems written by one of the veteran teachers of our times, Mr. Joseph Nedumpara. No good poet ever pretends he is a poet. A teacher by profession and a poet by perception, Joseph Nedumpara proves himself by this single work as a literary gem, not unearthed till date.
These verses, told by the author as momentary reflections reflect a wonderful imagination, an emotional attachment and a unique treasure of vocabulary. Philosophic observations, Philanthropic advices, patriotic sentiments, parental love and affection-all find a place in the book. A firm belief in the creator of the universe, a staunch Christian faith, an undiluted trust in the words of Lord Jesus- all are catchingly seen in most of the poems written by this great Guru.
Just to quote a few:
“God is the creator of heaven and earth
We owe everything to Him from our very birth”
“The kingdom of God is ever lasting
But the kingdom of man is never lasting”
“In God’s arms we will not quiver
In God’s lap we will not shiver”
“Seek not things happen as you wish
Let things happen as per God’s wish”
etc etc tells us the philosophy of life as well the principles which inspired the poet.
Wisdom overflows when the poet quotes the age old proverbs. Most of the lines found in the poem “Light on the way “ are real light houses for anyone if he wishes to live wisely.
Gandhian thoughts also get reflected in many of the poems. For example the poet tells us:
“ Violence cannot be fought with violence,
It has to be fought with non violence”
The poet points his accusing finger to our contemporary politics when he says
“Tolerance is the only real test of civilization,
In politics avoid all criminalization”.
Terrorism, communalism, true patriotism- all find their due place in the poems of Nedumpara Master. A teacher and a poet, the author is no less fascinated by farming and agriculture. He sings with excitement
“We are born sons of the soil,
We are ever bound to toil”.
The poet is equally concerned about the environment. In one of the poems he says
“God covered the earth with green blades of grass,
Man has covered it with all kinds of dirty mass”.
And further, he warns about water by telling the reader
“ Water is a God given gift, use it with utmost thrift”.
Annoyed by the utter degradation of current day politics and corrupted politicians, the poet, otherwise so meek and mild, turns very stern and wild in the poem, “The political mind”. While dealing with politics we find in the poet a staunch social critic, He says
“ Tainted people some ministers are,
Painted as people’s servants they are,
Under a mask they move about,
Until they are finally chucked out”.
Last but not least, the real teacher cum educationalist in the poet is showing his noble appearance many a time in this celebrated book of poems. Most of the poems stand testimony to the poet’s insight, identity and ideology as also to his inimitable imagination. Congratulations seems a very mild word to convey our compliments to the author. Any reader of these poems get converted into an admirer of the poet .No doubt, this book of poems happens to be a beautiful gift of the author to all people of some literary taste. A serious reader will have a lot to learn from the poems and those interested in light reading will certainly enjoy them. Joseph Nedumpara Master surprises everyone by his poetic talents and his book is convincingly a treasure to be cherished by all fans of the Goddess of knowledge.
My pranams to the poet.
Dr.Cyriac Thomas
R.V House Former Vice-Chancellor,
Palai,Kerala Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam
Rambling Thoughts: An Appreciation
It was a pleasant experience to go through the gems of Rambling Thoughts that sprout from the spiritual conviction of a total ‘retreat’ into the lived reality of life. It lures the readers for a perfect reflection of their ‘mundane experience’ with a ‘spiritual outlook’ and helps them to sustain the heights of this transformed vision, throughout varied experiences of everyday life. As we proceed through these sweet musings of life, ‘written for pleasure and enjoyment of the posterity’ our heart begins to melt with a magic brought out by the simplicity of expression, felicity of language, clarity of vision seasoned by firmness of conviction.
I am happy to state that these poems are powerful enough to enthrall our minds like dew drops that spill from the heights of the soul, which melt into our thoughts and deeds so as to transform us into the love for goodness of human virtues. I am sure the ‘life’ that spill from and between the lines is the under current of a noble conscience and a pure heart. It is powerful enough to be a source book of human virtues and light house of hope for those who seek the way of peace and success.
Hearty congratulations to the noble teacher for being a guide to wise living. May this Rambling Thoughts help the readers to reach the spiritual shore safe across the slippery ground of everyday experience, by shedding light on their way.
Fr,Sebastain Elanjickal CMI
Provincial, CMI Provincial house,
P.B.No.648,Kottayam, 686501
An Appreciation
Mr.Joseph Nedumpara unfolds through his poems, rich experience of three quarters of a century of his life. Many of his poems are philosophic and have a theological content. Some of it is nature poetry and have mundane consideration. A religious life spent in prayers and also experiences of a teacher have added a sense of maturity in his observations.
In his poem Journeying Home he has brought in mystic impressions, where home is interpreted as heaven or life after life. He says:
“All of us have a distant home
For none of us is the world a home”
Here Mr.Nedumpara echoes the lines of Sr.Beninja in her poem on death. When he says: “The day of reckoning God does know”, the theory of predestination is described.
Mr.Nedumpara says:
We are pilgrims on this earth
From the very day of our birth.
Where do we aspire to reach
If not heaven’s beautiful beach?
Here, John Bunyan’s pilgrim progresses and the concept of human life as a pilgrimage is correctly portrayed. In the poem Watch and Pray, the modern psychology of psycho somatic illness comes out in the lines:
Your enemies are mostly not external,
Your real enemies are probably internal.
Your passions and your jealousies trouble you
More than your outside enemies threaten you.
These kinds of observations add color to the poem. A very good method of character formation is given in the poem Way of Success.
Good conduct is a matter of volition,
It cannot be guaranteed by admonition.
It is a good dictum. In the poem Wise living the stanza, “The road to hell is paved with good intensions” is an imagery from Dante’s Divine comedy. The Poet add the line “ But the road to heaven is paved with good actions” is a good observation from life’s experience. In the poem Ideas to Ponder, the poet unleashes a large number of ideas which give you food for thought.
The End of the Road is a very good farewell poem written in 1978, 30 years before. Like the farewell of Shakespeare in the drama ‘Tempest’ this poem has a very good farewell message.
These poems written in old age are full of wisdom. Experiences of life have taught him great lessons. Teaching, the glorious of all professions has endowed him with a message giving capacity which is reflected in these poems. I wish the poet all success in the endeavor.
Dr.Alexander Jacob IPS
Inspector General of Police & Director of Police Academy, Thrissur
A word of Appreciation
Joseph Nedumpara’s Rambling Thoughts is a remarkable book of poetry. It is his philosophy of life, his message to the world. He expresses his musings on the Word of God and spiritual life. Also expressed is the wisdom he has learnt from experience.
A man well settled in Palai, an esteemed Headmaster, a lover of English language and poetry, he is the beloved father of ten children, including Fr. Jose Nedumpara CMI and Sr.Ritty CMC. I have always seen him joyful, friendly and creative. An octogenarian, the experience of a whole full life, he reminisces in rambling rhymes which came spontaneously to him.
I wish to congratulate Mr.Joseph on his expression of the practical wisdom, deep piety and spontaneous poetry. May this Rambling Thoughts be a blessing to all who read it!
Dr.Sr.Cleopatra,CMC
Professor of English (Retd.)
Vice-Postulator
St.Mary’s Convent
Ollur,Thrissur
24-07-2008
Words of Appreciation
Mr.Joseph Nedumpara’s Rambling Thoughts : Spiritual and Mundane is a collection of instructional verses in the tradition of gnomic poetry. It is true that Mr.Nedumpara’s poem are a little too loquacious to fit into the category of gnomic poetry( which insists on sententiousness and condensation of ideas) but they are very much near that, style –wise as well as content wise. The moral vision of an octogenarian poet precipitates here into a shower of percepts which instructs, cautions, forewarns, comforts and encourages the reader and it is worth getting drenched in this gentle rain.
Spiritual poetry as it is commonly understood, is poetry that deals with the soul, the mind, the higher faculties, or the relationship between God and the Soul. Mundane thoughts are worldly thoughts providing counsel on how one might go about the business of life. There are as the title shows, thoughts of either variety in Mr. Nedumpara’s book but the overall tone of the book is spiritual rather than mundane. The poet has clothed his thoughts in grace and beauty so that they remain far from the platitudes they could easily degenerate into in less skilled hands.
The following lines which are quite brief and remarkably pithy are typical of the vast majority of the quatrains in this book. “In words we have to be honest/ In action we have to earnest/And faithful to some worthy cause/ That we are proud to espouse.” Equally interesting are the lines “Respect is love in plain clothes/Adulation is praise in grand clothes.” Moralistic thoughts gain a rare beauty when they are clothed in imagery drawn from nature. “Many people profess to favour freedom/But few are willing to agitate for freedom/ Without thunder and lightening can there be rain?/Seldom do we have any such rain.
The poet’s environmental concern finds expression in the quatrain: God covered the earth with green blades of grass/Man has covered it with all kinds of dirty mass/What right has he to sully the face of the earth/Which he is occupying as a right of birth? Among the thoughts expressed are profound truths like the following: A mother years for her children’s love/ A child years for its parent’s love/ A lover years for his sweet heart’s love/Love is nourished by nothing but love.” One finds interspersed with these thoughts a sprinkling of questions like the following: “Why blame the candle if it is put out / By a whiff of wind that blows it out? /You could close the door beforehand/ In life too that precaution will stand.”
These poems concern our life closely and provoke us to think profoundly on the soul’s relationship with God. They gently remind us of life’s paradoxes and yet assure us of an underlying unity behind apparent contradictions. “Wise living is judicious forgetting/ Wise saving is careful spending/Wise cultivation is timely harvesting/ Wise production is least wasting. These seem to be what his vision of life boils down to.
Dr.Mathew Joseph
Retd.Prof & Head ,Dept.of English,
St.Thomas College,Pala
The Preface sparkles with innocence and wisdom to become a perfect prelude to the ‘rambling ‘yet natural flow of thoughts that are chiseled into poems. The poem “Proverbs” underline the main strand of this unique bouquet of wisdom-the inward vision blending with the outward ‘look’ to achieve a total experience of life.
The whole gamut of life-experience is spelt out with utter grace and felicity of diction. The poems offer a kaleidoscopic vision of life, overlooking the narrow boundaries of prejudice and custom. The ‘sad music of humanity’ haunts each and every poetic vision.
Dr. KrishnaKumari M.P
Prof. of English
Vimala College,Thrissur.
*******
These poems are outpourings of the loving mind of a grandfather at the twilight of his lifetime. The wisdom of a long well-lived life is condensed in them. They are the heritage of the past generation handed over to the next generation.
K.V.Baby
Prof. of English.
St.Thomas College,Thrissur
Mr.Joseph Nedumpara, Sr.Ritty (CMC) Nedumpara’s Achayan as I know him, is a man of deep spiritual insight, academic caliber and of upright living. I happened to chance on him once or twice. But he made a deep impression on me as a parent of several children and also as a teacher who proved to be the guide and guardian of the students who crossed his path. Now as Sr.Ritty requested me to introduce Mr. Joseph Nedumpara’s poems to the reader, I felt privileged to do it, specially because I was there to sense his anguish, dedication and surrender to God when Ritty Nedumpara was about to leave her home after graduation to join Carmel to make a total surrender of her life to Jesus Christ in whom she found the priceless pearl and the One Companion of her endless life. So with rejoicing let me introduce these poems to the public.
The first poem “Journeying Home” alone suffices to introduce the poet and the quality of his poem. The language and the content synchronize so well that it is even difficult to separate the two strands. The poem begins with a definition of home in paradoxical texture:
“Think not home is where the hearth is;
Think that home is where the heart is.
All of us have a distant home
For none of us is the world a home”.
New horizons, newer spiritual perceptions open before the reader as we journey from stanza to stanza till we reach the closing prayer of surrender and praise.
“ Listen O Lord, I am calling,
Wait, O Lord, I am coming,
Bless, O Lord, I am kneeling
I thank thee, Lord, for everything”.
The visual and auditory images, the kinetic and kinesthetic images, the spiritual and mundane plains, the end rhymes, all mingle and merge to create a unique poetic texture which impresses on the reader the hard core of the meaning.
‘Happy Home’ specially depicts in delicate shades a ‘paternal heart’ and a blessed family:
“ Happy is the home where God abides,
Happy is the home where peace resides,
Happy is the home where love ever blooms.’
Happy is the home where hatred never booms”.
The following stanzas describe beautifully the simple joys and the daily anxieties of a caring father”. Lights on the Way” belongs to the category of didactic poems or wisdom sayings. We feel as we listen to the poet we are reading the Wisdom Literature from the Holy Bible.
“The bend in the road is not the end of the road;
You have to take the turn at the bend of the road.
Straight roads are few and far between;
In life too there are similarities umpteen.
Some people build castles in the air,
Some others build monuments with flair.
The former vanishes in no time
The latter will stand the test of time.”
(Stanzas 14 &15 )
“The Master’s ways”, “Righteous Heart”, “Way of Peace” , “Watch and Pray” , shall I say march into our hearts to stay there the full length of our lives!
“ When you invest in the spiritual field
God will ensure you a proper yield.
The good things you do in God’s name
Are not intended to earn fame.”
(“ The Master’s ways” Stanza 3)
“Wrong is wrong whoever does it,
Right is right whoever snubs it.
It is not a question of the person concerned,
It is a question of the morality concerned.”
(“Righteous Heart” Stanza 5)
“Tolerance is the only real test of civilization,
Humanization is also a part of civilization.
In politics avoid all criminalization,
It may take a long time for its realization.”
(“Way of Peace” stanza 7)
“Hope springs eternally in the human breast
Deceit springs occasionally in the human crest.
Malice darkens perennially the human spirit;
Sins of man are the work of the evil spirit.”
( Watch and pray “ stanza 13)
Let me leave the rest of the poems for the persual and enjoyment and appreciation of the readers. The author touches on various subjects and communicates in various intensities. He deals with all aspects of life and covers a wide range of topics like home, world peace, war, government, business, agriculture, religions, spirituality, christianity family life, education, politics etc., etc.
I do hope that these poems will evoke nobler thoughts and effect persuasion for a life of higher quality and greater intensity. May God be blessed and glorified in the spiritual channels of these poetic strands and people as they rejoice in the domestic cadence feel the spiritual moorings of these daily flights into the eternal. The runways, the airways and the waterways link the mundane and the eternal in the sublimity of the poetic mind. Praise God.
Sr.Dr.Chrisologa CMC
Vicar Provincial
Nirmala Province
Thrissur
I am an octogenarian now and have spent the prime of my life as a teacher. I had a predilection for teaching English language, particularly English poetry. I had also a penchant for writing English verses occasionally.
I began writing the present rhymed verses during an annual retreat in my parish church. At first they were spiritual in content. When I continued writing, many of the verses happened to be mundane. I wrote on the spur of the moment. The thoughts were random – just rambling. There was no continuity or coherence between them. Therefore to segregate the verses into two parts –spiritual and mundane – is artificial and unnatural. Let them remain intermixed as they are.
I wrote these verses for my own pleasure and for the enjoyment of my posterity. I had no idea of getting them published. If my children want to do so, well and good, my blessings will go with them.
Joseph Nedumpara
Think not home is where the hearth is;
Think that home is where the heart is.
All of us have a distant home
For none of us is the world a home.
Days come and go, months come and go,
The day of reckoning God does know.
How shall we prepare for the day?
How shall we dispel all our dismay?
Forget not the earth is just a haven;
By no means it is a heaven.
The pleasures of this world we may miss
If it all leads to heavenly bliss.
When we see the end of our race,
When we see God face to face,
When we are called to eternal bliss-
That is the day we should never miss.
Wonderful are the ways of God,
Inscrutable are the secrets of God,
Everlasting is the peace of heaven,
Never- changing is the happiness of heaven.
We are pilgrims on this earth
From the very day of our birth.
Where do we aspire to reach
If not heaven’s beautiful beach?
In God’s arms we will not quiver,
In God’s lap we will not shiver.
How good a Father we do have!
How strong a Protector we do have!
Sing O my soul, dear God’s praises,
Thank O my heart, dear Lord’s graces.
So long as I live in this world
Let me work for the sake of my God.
O Lord, enlighten me I pray,
So that the powers of darkness never may
Cloud my vision and hide from me
Thy truth and glory I want to see.
Listen, O Lord, I am calling,
Wait, O Lord, I am coming,
Bless, O Lord, I am kneeling,
I thank thee, Lord, for everything.
Happy is the home where God abides,
Happy is the home where peace resides,
Happy is the home where love ever blooms,
Happy is the home where hatred never booms.
Sweet are loving children’s kisses,
Sweet are the smiling children’s faces,
Sweet are the chanting children’s voices,
Harsh are quarrelling children’s noises.
The little games babies play
The little words babies say
Make them all dear
To all who are near.
We have moved together through thick and thin,
We have hugged each other in stress and strain.
How long shall we trail with our faltering gait!
We are waiting for our children with an open gate.
How committed we were to our children’s nurture!
How concerned we are about their future!
How anxious we are about their spiritual health!
Less anxious we are about their material wealth.
Oh my children, are you full of fancy,
Haven’t you passed the stage of infancy?
You have to think of something real;
Hard work at your desk is ideal.
We have no hard nut to crack,
We have no heavy stone to break.
The problems that our children have
May God help them to easily solve.
At home in summer’s heat,
At home in my paternal heart,
Withers the hope of a get-together
Of all my children I wish to gather.
How much we yearn for our children’s call!
By no means would it on deaf ears fall.
How much we share their joys and sorrows!
How helpless we feel about their cares and worries!
I haven’t much of an old man’s wisdom,
I have a lot of an old man’s boredom.
What can I do in my languishing age?
Who can make me a venerable sage?
The flesh is weak though the spirit is willing,
The work is urgent but the tools need repairing,
The book is interesting but the print is too small,
How can I read with poor vision and finish it all.
You may have ever so many friends,
But you mustn’t follow all their trends.
Pick and choose the right friend you need
Who will always be your friend indeed.
As you sow, so you reap,
As you gather, so you heap,
As you earn, so rich you grow,
As you learn, so wise you grow.
Are you seeking a paradise on earth?
You can never find it from birth to death
You will rather find a hell on earth
Where nobody wants to find a berth.
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,
Saving a life is a pride for ever,
Saving a soul will earn a prize for ever,
From God who will forget it never.
If you want to live in peace with,
If you want to live in harmony with
All the neighbors around you,
Extend a hand of friendship, mind you.
Work is worship when done in the name of God,
Work is useful when aim is good,
Work is heavy when the mind is tired,
Work is light when the spirit is fired.
Make hay while the sun is hot,
Make bread while the oven is hot,
Make fortune when the times are good,
Lay by something for future food.
Where your home is, there your heart is,
Where your wealth is, there your mind is,
Where your goal is, there your effort is,
Where your success is, there your fulfilment is.
Tillers of soil all of us are,
Fillers of granaries few of us are.
What can be wrong with our soil?
What can be wrong with our toil?
What are the pleasures of this world?
What are the treasures of this world?
The former will vanish all in a moment,
The latter will remain true to its content.
An idle man’s mind is the workshop of the devil,
A wicked man’s mind is the furnace of the devil.
Give some good work to the former,
And keep a distance from the latter.
Too many cooks spoil the broth,
Too many medicines spoil the health,
Too many corrections spoil the book,
Too many cosmetics spoil the looks.
Know the waters before you venture,
Know the enemy you want to capture,
Know the pit before you leap,
Know the treasure you want to keep.
The bend in the road is not the end of the road;
You have to take the turn at the bend of the road.
Straight roads are few and far between;
In life too there are similarities umpteen
The sea is stormy, the waves are rolling,
The boat is rocking, the heart is breaking,
When will we reach our shore safely?
When can we unload our catch smoothly?
We are workers in God’s vineyard,
How will we earn a worthy reward?
We cannot question God’s measure,
We will have to earn His pleasure.
When you invest in the spiritual field
God will ensure you a proper yield.
The good things you do in God’s name
Are not intended to earn fame.
Should we let the weeds grow on the ground?
Or should we plough them out of the ground?
If we want new crops to grow
We can’t let the weeds too grow.
O God, the great sower that thou art,
Let not thy seeds fall on the barren part
Of the earth where they will not grow,
But may become food for the hungry crow.
You can’t serve God and mammon in the same way,
Either you serve God and keep mammon away,
Or you serve mammon and keep God away,
Beware; it all depends on your own chosen way.
Why should God allow saints to suffer
And sinners to unreasonably prosper?
In patient suffering God is glorified,
In ill –achieved prosperity God is defied.
The approach to heaven is not through a pavilion,
The pleasures of this world will have to sink into oblivion.
The way to heaven is biblically narrow,
The teaching of Christ we have to follow.
Man takes more than he gives
God takes less than He gives.
How much more should we give God?
How much more should we praise God?
God will be on your side
If you have no sin to hide.
Let not wealth be your pride,
Let truth and justice be your guide.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord
Even if you bear a heavy load.
God will help you all the way,
Never think of throwing it away.
As long as I live on this earth
I will sing the Lord’s song full of mirth.
“Blessed is thy name, dear Lord,
Blessed is the womb that gave thee birth”.
Forcible ways make not an end of evil,
They hold in check for sometime the devil.
Change of heart and mind is the only solution,
For that there should be a strong resolution.
Man and woman are born equal.
Who on earth can make them unequal?
Woman is not at man’s mercy,
Woman is often the fountain of mercy.
If everything can be done with money,
Then anything can be done for money.
This is nothing but a perverted notion;
Man has to think of it with utmost caution.
There is enough in the world for everyone’s need,
But there is not enough for everyone’s greed.
So you have to limit your desires to your need
And shun those meant to satisfy your greed.
Wrong is wrong whoever does it,
Right is right whoever snubs it.
It is not a question of the person concerned,
It is a question of the morality concerned.
Opulent people often look corpulent,
But the corpulent are not often very competent.
For they are not very agile in action
Corpulence may even lead to inaction.
Those who have a desire for excellence
Will readily praise others having some excellence.
Such people have an ability to realize it
Because they make others models for realizing it.
There are people making fabulous fortunes on earth,
And there are people making priceless treasures on earth.
The former at their children’s hands to perish,
And the latter for their progeny to cherish.
Some don’t hesitate to give up essential liberty,
For they want to obtain a little temporary safety.
They deserve neither liberty nor safety,
For they have no proper sense of priority.
Might is right is the order of the day,
The weak are subdued by the mighty to-day.
Moral values are terribly under decay;
The trend is causing much dismay.
Some people vainly boast of aristocracy
But it all becomes sheer hypocrisy.
When high social standard has been misused
And false claims for glory are being raised.
Some people build castles in the air
Some others build monuments with flair.
The former vanishes in no time
The latter will stand the test of time.
There are war-mongers full of ill will,
There are peace-makers full of good will .
Who will succeed in their venture?
On that depends the world’s future.
Democracy is a system of self –determination
But it sometimes is a system of wrong determination.
Because some unworthy people get into the system
And some worthy people are thrown out of the system.
Heated controversy would generate too little light;
Cool fact-finding would shed more light
For facilitating resolution of a dispute
To which all concerned parties should contribute.
In disputes’ settlement some are for mediation,
Some others stand for facilitation,
Still others have a bit of hesitation
On what to do in a difficult situation.
People are speaking of dialogue as a means
Of settling disputes for want of any other means.
Dialogue with diplomacy is likely to work,
Dialogue with good will is more likely to work.
We can’t get rid of evil by forcible means;
We have to do so by peaceful means.
Use of force will leave hatred behind,
Peaceful approach can make change of mind.
Tolerance is the only real test of civilization,
Humanization is also a part of civilization.
In politics avoid all criminalization,
It may take a long time for its realization.
The weak supporting the strong in administration
Will end up in their own marginalization.
The strong have really no admiration
For the weak who suffer exploitation.
If there are rags –to-riches stories,
There are also riches- to -rags stories.
The former are instances of good fortune,
The latter are instances of misfortune.
Too many people are thinking of security,
They are not thinking so much of opportunity.
Security, of course, is needed for preservation of life;
But opportunity is needed for advancement of life.
There are peaceful revolutions
As well as violent revolutions.
Peaceful ones may turn things better
Violent ones will make things bitter.
Violence cannot be fought with violence;
It has to be fought with non-violence.
The spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation
Is what we want for peace and its consolidation.
The emphasis on urban industrialization
With the resulting marginalization
Of villages which have no development
Impairs the country’s total advancement.
Alcoholism is a very dangerous habit;
Is alcohol something you can prohibit?
The state and the public have a good share
In promoting alcoholism without any care.
Some people are interested in tourism
Because they have a bit of hedonism.
By tourism you get a better view of the world
Than by living in your narrow little world.
Your enemies are mostly not external,
Your real enemies are probably internal.
Your passions and your jealousies trouble you
More than your outside enemies threaten you.
Thoughts good or evil run through one’s mind;
It is one’s duty to control one’s mind.
One has also to control one’s senses,
For one’s thoughts are influenced by one’s senses.
Life is a mixture of success and failure;
Few are those who bemoan total failure.
‘Nothing succeeds like success’ is the saying,
Success follows effort needs no gainsaying.
Can you be a good Samaritan?
Yes, if you are not a mere Spartan.
You must have the resources to help
As well as the good will to help.
At home should begin real charity,
Do not misspend money in the name of charity.
Helping undeserving people is no charity;
Giving one’s dues too is no charity.
To lead a good life you need no rule-book,
Even though a lawyer needs a law book.
Follow some good moral principles
And then you will care no obstacle.
There are people who have an open vision of life,
And there are people who have a tunnel -vision of life.
The former will see things in broad daylight,
The latter will see things in narrow search light.
Some wicked men pretend God to be on their side
And claim that they have nothing to hide.
Man can be cheated, but can God be cheated?
The schemes of the wicked will surely be defeated.
There are good people doing good things,
There are evil people doing evil things.
Can religion fully convert evil people?
Can it also partially divert good people?
Christians want crosses to wear,
Hindus want tridents to bear.
What purpose can these symbols serve
If there is no true faith to serve?
Man’s covetousness may lead him into bottomless pit
From which he cannot escape without much gambit.
Work hard and be content with what you earnestly earn
This is a way of life that you must carefully learn.
What is done for personal good dies with the person;
What is done for common good outlives the person.
The former is aggrandizement without self-denial;
The latter needs much sacrifice and self-denial.
Hope springs eternally in the human breast
Deceit springs occasionally in the human crest.
Malice darkens perennially the human spirit;
Sins of man are the work of the evil spirit
You have to walk carefully on slippery ground;
That is equally true on spiritual ground.
You have to blame yourself if you fall,
Nobody is likely to care for your call.
One who runs half the race and leaves the track
Has no reason to stop and look back.
For every runner winning or losing the race
Is at the end and not in the middle of the race.
‘Give the devil his due,’ is the saying,
Mind the dues, not the recipient, while giving.
Justice is to be done to whoever deserves it,
He may be your enemy, but do not mind it.
In disputes there should be a compromise
Which can to some extent minimise
The heat of the controversy at its worst
And bring it to a settlement at its best.
There are wages, reasonable and unreasonable,
There are workers, reliable and unreliable,
There are problems tractable and intractable,
In business take up schemes only workable.
In religions the alliance of dogmas and passions
Has to take up no pious missions.
This alliance is called fanaticism
Which invites good people’s criticism.
In your speech there should be sobriety,
In your actions there should be propriety.
These are characteristics of good behaviour
Which will in complications be your saviour.
There are habits good and bad;
As the saying goes, old habits die hard.
Do not cultivate habits that are bad;
They may die only on your death-bed.
“Sweet are the uses of adversity”,
Sweet art the fruits of generosity,
Bitter are the fruits of a sinful life,
Bitter are the memories of a wasted life.
Simple things can be done in simple ways;
Hard things too can be done in simple ways;
But it requires an inventive brain
And can be done without much strain.
When means are mindlessly vitiated,
Ends are also bound to be affected.
The quality of means and ends must coincide;
Then only the quality of action we can decide.
For those who cannot make both ends meet
Life itself becomes a challenging feat.
If they end up in pitiable penury,
They become victims of money lenders’ usury.
Some dangers are by predestination,
Some others can be prevented by premonition;
Good conduct is a matter of volition,
It cannot be guaranteed by admonition.
Support anybody whose stand is right,
Continue support while he is standing right.
Part with him when he goes wrong;
That requires a mind that is strong.
Truth is at first seldom accepted,
It is first questioned, second ridiculed,
Third it is violently opposed,
And last of all it is accepted.
Standing together we stand firm together
Or sometimes we pitiably fall together.
The former is because we stand on firm ground;
The latter is because we stand on slippery ground.
If yesterday’s vice becomes today’s virtue,
It is a shift of stand which has no virtue.
Vice is vice whatever be the time,
And virtue is virtue irrespective of the time.
In words we have to be honest,
In actions we have to be earnest
And faithful to some noble cause
That we are proud to espouse.
‘Suppressio veri suggestio falsi’ is crookedness.
Why should truth be suppressed?
Why should falsehood be suggested?
This is a policy that needs people’s alertness.
Good for life is adventure,
But beware of misadventure.
The former aims at achievable things,
The latter aims at unachievable things.
Concern should drive us into action,
Not into a state of depression
Because action has a positive effect,
Depression has only a negative effect.
Respect is love in plain clothes,
Adulation is praise in grand robes.
The former has to be deservingly earned
The latter is often selfishly showered.
Evil has to be resisted by the power of love
Though it may not be returned by so much love.
It is better to be the recipient of violence
Than to be the inflicter of violence.
Success is not measured by what you accomplish
But by the opposition that you try to vanquish
And the courage with which you maintain
The struggle from which you cannot refrain.
Can men ever find a solution for world peace?
Is there any technique to find it with ease ?
If it happens it would be a reversal of history,
One wouldn’t be able to hear a better story.
Peace would come from an evolutionary process;
It cannot from a revolutionary process.
Evolution is a slow and mild process,
Revolution is a quick and rash process.
If ever man found a solution for world peace,
It would be a token of a great increase
In his disposition for justice and benevolence
Both of which should have a coincidence.
Give and take is the hallmark of a peace process;
Some would like to take and give nothing,
A few would prefer to give and take nothing.
The latter is the noblest part of a peace process.
Fighting is the result of a thought process
From which there is no progress.
In most people’s minds the thought of victory
Coincides with the thought of lost things’ recovery.
A country that revolts against itself
Is on the path of destroying itself.
National security is based on internal security;
Every nation has to fight all kinds of insecurity.
War is no solution to any problem
War can only worsen existing problem.
Peaceful steps can solve every problem,
Want of patience is the only problem.
When a war is fought by a mercenary
Who is the real beneficiary?
The warrior gets some pecuniary benefit;
The war lord reaps much profit.
A good quality indeed is patriotism;
But it shouldn’t be at the expense of altruism.
It is harmless protecting your country’s interest,
But don’t disregard other country’s interests.
Some can make you believe absurdities;
They can also make you commit atrocities.
Terrorists are being trained in this manner,
They cannot be reformed in an easy manner.
Terrorism is a worldwide problem
No country is immune to this problem.
How painful it is that innocents suffer most!
Who will answer for the precious lives lost?
Terrorism is to be fought in certain exigencies;
Fighting it also involves some expediencies.
The former requires on the spot action,
The latter requires calculated action.
Terrorists attack not only military targets
But also entirely innocent civilian targets.
Their only aim is to create terror
In which, sadly, they find no error.
Some people have just a knee-jerk reaction
To international terrorist action.
The world peace will be very much at stake
If stringent action against it we don’t take.
Nowhere in the world at this moment
We can live without any lament.
Terror with all its wrath
Is striking man on every path.
Many people profess to favour freedom,
But few are willing to agitate for freedom.
Without thunder and lightning can there be rain?
Seldom do we have any such rain.
An eye for an eye is no solution
For world peace or a path to its evolution.
A hand of friendship for a similar hand
Is better for making a solution at hand.
Disaster looks in the face of every nation,
Be it earth quake or volcanic eruption,
We can do nothing to prevent such disaster
For it comes like a devouring monster.
Evil will make an easy win
When good men lie down and grin.
Evil’s victory is due to good men’s inaction
And want of sufficient precaution.
A criminal action is abduction,
But it is going on without any reduction
In some states in our motherland
Because it couldn’t be prevented beforehand.
If all the money spent on war and destruction
Were spent on health care and construction
Of houses for the homeless and the destitute
A noble cause it would constitute.
One either changes the policy to suit the environment
Or to suit the policy, changes the environment.
This proposition may be politically correct,
But by no means is it morally correct.
There is no happiness without security;
What is security if not safety
From all attacks on our own liberty
And all attacks on our life and property?
Blessed are those who are meek and humble of hearts,
Blessed are those with pure and loving hearts,
Blessed are those with true and clean conscience,
And walk on risky roads under God’s guidance.
In spiritual matters it is the spirit that matters
And not the effort that matters;
In temporal matters it may be the other way round,
But for idleness it is no reasonable ground.
What is the best service of God?
It is to work for the greater glory of God.
All earthly dreams would vanish
When that work you want to finish.
What is the be-all and end-all of our existence?
To lead a virtuous life with God’s assistance.
Life on earth is just a sojourn
Life after death we cannot adjourn.
Seek not things to happen as you wish;
Let things happen as per God’s wish,
That will give you peace of mind,
And lost things will not disturb your mind.
To serve and not to be served must be our yearning
That is what Christ has given us for our learning
In a world full of woe and suffering
We can give God no better offering.
God covered the earth with green blades of grass,
Man has covered it with all kinds of dirty mass.
What right has he to sully the face of the earth
Which he is occupying as a right of birth?
Power in the hands of men will sometimes be abused,
The supreme power of God will then be used
To prevent all such blatant abuse;
But still there will be some misuse.
Materialism and spirituality cannot go together;
In content they are different altogether.
The former concerns things that are worldly,
The latter concerns things that are other-worldly.
No pains, no gains is universally true;
All pains, all gains is not equality true.
Some pains may fetch some fruit,
Some others may go without any fruit.
Truth in words, truth in action
May not earn everyone’s adulation;
People who have something to hide
May such conduct sometimes deride.
In success we rejoice, in failure we bewail.
Bewailing failure is of no avail.
This is a part of human nature,
Ensuring success gives better future.
Is sudden death better than a slow death?
In whatever manner, death is death.
Everybody would like to live in health;
Life should not be taken away by stealth.
When two people are joined by strong ties of friendship
They cannot be separated by any kind of hardship.
They will rise to each other’s need,
No profit or loss they will heed.
Love thy neighbour as thyself is the law;
If this law is kept without any flaw,
Peace in the world would prevail
And any attempt against it would fail.
What is wrong with our world?
It is that love is not valued as gold.
What does it want to hold
But power and pelf untold?
Married life is a life of sharing-
Pleasures and sorrows of life sharing;
Of children’s love too there is sharing,
Of their care there’s no need mentioning.
No relationship is more lovely than marriage,
No communion or company is better than marriage.
What is more, God’s blessings go with it
Lest powers of darkness may ruin it.
A mother yearns for her children’s love,
A child yearns for its parents’ love,
A lover yearns for his sweetheart’s love,
Love is nourished by nothing but love.
Loss of faith in the ballot
Forces some people to rely on bullets
Which can only pierce the hearts
And not in any way reunite the hearts.
There are two classes of people from the point of money-
Those who cannot keep in their own hands their money
And those who cannot keep from others’ hands their money.
For all these people money will flow away like lost honey.
It is no matter where a man resides,
But he should not live in a fool’s paradise,
Nor should he his existence jeopardize,
A sensible man would need this advice.
Donations are said to skyrocket.
Who knows they come from which rocket
And go into which pocket ?
Sorry to say, for this there is no docket.
Freedom cannot be bestowed,
It must truly be achieved.
That is how India became free;
It has to continue to be free.
The less men think the more they talk,
The more they talk the less they walk
To the end they want to reach
Which they may perhaps fail to reach.
Let us first think of our own infirmities
And then we can tolerate others’ proclivities.
It is far better to be accommodative
Than it is to be provocative.
It is easy to understand a truth once discovered;
The point is how it can be discovered.
People are hunting for hidden truths;
They are sure to fail to discover all the truths.
Men in uniform are the worst sufferers now.
To whom should they abjectly bow-
To the Government who is their master
Or to the mob which is a monster?
Debate in parliament is a mud-slinging exercise,
No malignant demon can it exorcise
What a deplorable wastage of time and money!
Nobody enjoys it like sweet honey.
Some people resort to sycophancy
In order to continue their occupancy
Of the chair that they retain
With peoples’ favour that they maintain.
Truth is confirmed by inspection and reasoning;
Falsehood is accepted in haste and assuming
That what is apparent is wholly true,
But the whole thing will finally be proved untrue
“Religion is the opium of the people” said Karl Marx.
This remark will miss the mark,
For religion can cure many an ill
If with faith in God man’s soul will fill.
Some actions of great men are epoch-making;
Some others are path-breaking.
They will remain in the annals of history
Sometimes for searching posterity’s discovery.
After trouble there is often normalcy;
But normalcy should not lead to complacency,
For trouble may start again
If vigilance we do not maintain.
Many a splendid thing have men achieved
Because they strongly believed
That something inside them was the root cause
And circumstances did not make them pause.
Treating the symptom and not the cause is not the remedy;
It is equally true in spiritual malady.
The symptom may subside for the moment
But the cause will remain permanent.
A bird that soars to the skies
May boast to be the king of the skies;
But a man on a mission to the moon
Can consider it no more than a boon.
To the offender justice is always violent
For in his own eyes he is innocent;
He can fool others by such thinking
If of proof there is no inkling.
It requires a strong attitude
Rather than a mere aptitude
To reach your ultimate altitude
With the maximum certitude.
The flotsam and jetsam of society
Are wandering with a lot of anxiety
In a world that has no care for them
And may, as a nuisance, despise them.
A sorrowing mind is fixed on the past
And broods over things that have been lost.
A hopeful mind looks forward to the future
And all the good things that it can capture.
If you are fighting for a cause
Impediments will not make you pause,
For the cause is more precious to you
Than the profit or loss that comes to you.
“Justice delayed is justice denied”,
Justice denied is the citizen’s hope belied.
When the court fails to deliver justice,
Where else can he go for getting justice?
Be not be a judge and be in the dock;
He is a person that people shouldn’t mock
Better be a lawyer and make a gain
Than be a crook of a judge and earn disdain.
Can religion make us love each other
Or can it just make us hate each other?
If religion is followed in its true spirit
We cannot succumb to an evil spirit.
We must learn to live as brothers-
A maxim about which nobody bothers
When neighbours fight with each other
And increase enmity and gain no other.
Ambition has nothing but one aim-
It is a little power and a transient fame;
But it results in a fading name
And it is the end of the game.
Lament not if you fail;
Every failure you have to hail
As a fore-runner of victory
Which is from failure a recovery.
To so many adventurists sky is the limit;
To materialists maximum power and pelf are the limit,
To pure spirituals heaven is the limit;
To all and sundry nothing has any limit.
“There is many a slip between the cup and the lip;
There is many a fall between the touch and the grip.
In life failure is a possibility
But success at the end is a necessity.
Good deeds are the seeds
That produce what everyone needs:
Good will and perfect harmony
Which all enjoy like sweet honey.
Age may write wrinkles on our fore-heads,
But let them not be written on our hearts.
Effect of age on the body may be adverse,
But its effect on the spirit must be the converse.
The blind leading the blind is a dangerous act;
It can by no means be a generous act.
Both of them will fall into the same pit
And they will have to mourn not a bit.
Sharper brains aren’t the need of the hour;
More open minds have the power
To bring out all the hidden lies
And to develop between men close ties.
Why blame the candle if it is put out
By a whiff of wind that blows it out?
You could close the door beforehand;
In life too that precaution will stand.
Time and tide wait for no man;
Within the time at hand achieve what you can.
It is no good bemoaning chances lost;
Such losers are not a few but a host.
Let not the fire in you go out;
Let not the hero in you die out.
Check your road before you proceed,
Then no hurdle in your way you will heed.
14. Children- Promises of Tomorrow
Children are the future of our nation,
Childrens’ Day celebration isn’t just a fashion.
Let us not deny our children the opportunity
To develop into a good Community.
On the way children now learn
Depends the way they in future earn.
Good luck is not the way to success;
Effort is the only way to success.
As for children there is a limit to our desires
We cannot fashion them as we aspire.
We must grow them and love them as God desires-
This is what the wise will admire.
Children are living jewels dropped from heaven;
They have to be polished and returned to heaven.
It is the parents’ duty to safeguard them from evil
And to protect them from all kinds of peril.
When children are too much pampered
Their growth is very much hampered.
They have to grow in body and soul,
Otherwise the growth is faulty on the whole.
Teachers should help students not to be demoralised,
They should see in them moral values crystallized
This can be done by setting good example
And seeing that they follow such example.
Students ask from teachers not any charity
But for their teachings some clarity.
Teachers are responsible for students’ advancement
Which indeed is their own achievement.
When teachers are over-indulgent,
The pupils become too negligent,
When the former do their duties well
They can over the latter cast a spell.
If the weak are to become strong,
And the strong are to remain strong,
The former have to be nourished,
And the latter have to be sustained.
Education gives the masses ability to read
But not the ability to decide what to read
Reading injudiciously will not refine the mind
Such reading is apt to corrupt the mind.
Wise learning is judicious forgetting,
Wise saving is careful spending,
Wise cultivation is timely harvesting,
Wise production is least wasting.
Education without cultivation of morality
Has nothing but self- serving utility.
All corruption is due to lack of integrity,
The value of education has lost its validity.
Better it is to dare mighty things in high spirits
Than to take rank with those poor spirits
Who dare not much out of fear of failure
And make no gain by bewaring of failure.
All men are equal is a proposition
Which in real terms has opposition
From all those who want discrimination
On all counts like religion and denomination.
Merit should be the sole criterion for a reward;
Otherwise it would be an unworthy award,
There are many hunters for a transient fame;
If it is earned by foul means, it is a shame.
Ambition is bad in a field
Which no ground will yield
To a contender for a position
Without facing much opposition.
“The minority must live at the mercy of the majority”;
This precept has what authority?
The minority has equal rights as the majority;
Let them live together without any animosity.
There are truths, pleasant and unpleasant;
Speak not truths that are unpleasant.
This is nothing but diplomacy;
It has absolutely no legitimacy.
In modern society profit is the only motive
That prompts men in any field to be active.
Values and dignity have no place;
Obsession with consumerism is common-place
Wastage is wastage, let it be money or grain;
Use your resources to make a gain.
Forget not things wasted are things lost
And the loss may be at a great cost.
Lose not your future for the pleasures of the present,
From the present you have to make an ascent.
This may require sacrifices on the way
But don’t be deterred when you are just half-way.
There are educated youth on a job-hunt,
There are policemen on a man- hunt,
There are scientists on a discovery –hunt,
And there are negotiators on a peace-hunt.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”,
But the road to heaven is paved with good actions.
Good intentions may vaporize themselves
Whereas good actions will consolidate themselves.
While many are trying to make both ends meet,
A few privileged are making a feat
To amass wealth and enjoy luxury
Leaving the have-nots to live in penury.
Every religion has many a precept
That all others may not accept.
But to the believer they are sacred;
To pooh-pooh them will cause hatred.
“An honest man is the noblest work of God”;
A dishonest man has to answer to God.
Honesty will pay much dividend,
Even otherwise it is in itself an end.
Where there is no river, why look for a bridge?
When there is no food to keep, why look for a fridge?
Where there are no pupils, why look for a teacher?
Where there are no animals, why look for a hunter?
Sitting on top of a precipice
Will give no man mental peace.
It is better to sit on level ground
And to coolly and calmly look around.
For job seekers there is a racket
Which is in the employment market.
What can they offer from their empty pockets
To fill the job-givers’ bottomless pockets!
Predominance of men is not desirable,
Nor is predominance of women acceptable.
Equality of both is the threshold
On which mankind has to gain a foot-hold.
To find a means to an end is the proper way
And not to look aghast on the way.
There is no smooth going on many a problem;
We must find the best means to solve any problem.
Do not use a hatchet
Just to remove a wicket.
Easy things must be easily done;
Hard things should be cleverly done.
Let us not be mired in worrying,
Let us have advance thinking
And a bit of advance planning
To ensure a future that is shining
To tell the plain truth is an easy thing;
To tell a clever lie is a difficult thing
The truth will ever shine amidst the gloom;
The lie will ever lie hidden in the gloom.
The end doesn’t justify the means is morally correct;
But this motto is not kept by those who are corrupt.
The end for them is the most important thing;
The means for them count for just a farthing.
Distance doesn’t keep hearts away;
Malice only keeps them away.
Nourish good thoughts and sentiments,
That will bring cheer and contentment.
An insult cannot be compensated
Whereas a wrong can be compensated.
An insult causes to the mind an injury
Which can be healed by a soft apology.
Some people keep idle their patrimony
And display a lot of parsimony.
If they leave it to their progeny,
It may be wasted by too many.
Action or renunciation of action-which is better?
The answer is that action is by far better.
We cannot dismiss the world as an illusion
And stop every action for our problems’ solution.
Try to be as cool as a cucumber
When awkward situations encumber.
That requires immense presence of mind
And intensity of purpose of the rarest kind.
Better watch the birds in the house of a pigeon
Than watch the men locked in a dungeon.
The birds are ever free to fly,
But the men are only free to cry.
If you watch a small bird making a nest,
You will marvel at God’s zest
For making it have its own shelter
And a home for its little ones thereafter.
People speaking the same language have a oneness;
Those speaking different languages have an otherness,
Language is a bond that unites people,
Languages can also separate people.
Doctors treat patients not out of generosity
But for their professional prosperity.
Patients expect from their ailments some relief
And doctors must strive to fulfill their belief.
The poor have the reason to fight
For which they do not have the might.
So they succumb to their miserable plight
And do not have an end of it in their sight.
Laws cannot guarantee freedom of expression;
We want freedom to speak without fear of suppression.
The underlying thing is the spirit of tolerance;
We must all try for its furtherance
Peace is not just an absence of war.
It is a virtue that does not bar
A disposition for benevolence,
Justice, trust and confidence.
Man by nature has some ambition
Which often finds an inhibition,
For too many obstacles stand in the way
Which cannot easily be swept away.
Some people have a vision,
Some others have a mission.
When both these miserably fail,
Others cannot make of it head or tail.
In human evolution there is a triumph of brain over brawn,
But there should be triumph of the spirit over brain.
The brain helps man to work wonders
But the spirit helps man to see the Wonder of wonders.
In pre-monsoon rains God gives us a share,
It begins from afar and comes up so far
That we too get a reasonable share
And we close our doors, not leaving them ajar.
How many precious lives are lost in calamities!
How many innocents fall victims to cruelties!
We cannot blame it all on Providence;
We have to take care for their avoidance.
“Discretion is the better part of valour;”
Without discretion we raise a clamour
For assailing the unassailable
And end up in a situation not enviable.
For drinking water men dig many a well,
But few of them do with water fill
Water is a God-given gift,
Use it with the utmost thrift.
The British gave us freedom not out of generosity
But out of their own sagacity.
They had a vision of the end of colonial rule
And they gave an end to their misrule:
Man can walk safely in outer space
But not so in his city’s inner space.
Should we, therefore, increase our space research
Or on public morality do some research?
Businessmen spend lakhs for advertising
Which from their consumers they are realizing.
Businessmen are free to fix the price,
But the consumers cannot question the price.
Farmers market their produce in distress sale
When all prospects of any profit fail.
They are the backbone of the nation;
To give them cheap praise is just a fashion.
“Democracy is a form of religion”, says a big jurist,
“It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.”
Are these words coming from just a satirist
Or from a genuine leader of the masses?
Partners in a treaty have certain terms to keep,
Partners in a marriage have certain vows to keep,
Players in a team have its spirit to keep,
Followers of a religion have its precepts to keep.
Some are unwilling to share their prosperity,
Many others are willing to share their poverty.
In the sharing of wealth and woes
Avoid discrimination between friends and foes.
God’s mercy outweighs His power;
If not, this world will not subsist for an hour.
Whether we deserve that mercy we must ponder
And in false hope we should not wander.
What a variety in God’s creation
It is all beyond description.
God’s hand makes the world a wonderland;
How small and feeble is the human hand!
When we see the wonders of the sky,
When we see the birds that fly,
Our thoughts are lifted from the mundane
To roam for a moment in God’s domain.
The moon is shining, the stars are twinkling,
The thin and woolly clouds are floating.
How beautiful the night sky is!
How wonderful God’s creation is!
God is the creator of heaven and earth;
We owe every thing to Him from our very birth.
We have to serve Him till our last breath.
And share His glory after our death.
Christ had no hidden agenda
Nor did He think of pure propaganda.
His message was for redemption
Of mankind from all perdition.
In Christ’s steps we must follow;
His words will never be hollow.
He said, “I am resurrection and life;”
Without Him we will have no eternal life.
God, the creator, is omnipresent,
He has no future, past and present,
He reigns over the whole universe
And blesses all those who are not averse.
To God we must give adoration,
To elders we must show veneration.
Both require a certain disposition
Which hardly comes from acquisition.
The kingdom of God is everlasting,
But the kingdom of man is never lasting.
Kings change and the boundaries change,
But for the kingdom of God there is no change.
How terrible death will be to a man
Whose vision ends in the earth’s domain!
Nothing that he has earned will be his own,
And he will have to leave this world all alone.
Christ’s love for men is immeasurable,
His mercy for sinners is unspeakable,
His sacrifice for mankind’s redemption
Is by all means beyond description.
By God’s grace sinners can become saints,
God will remove all their stains.
We must pray for their conversion,
And for sinners we should have no aversion.
“The children of this Age are cleverer than the children of Light,”
Their crookedness Jesus has put it right.
It is not they that enter heaven;
They are in a way worse than heathen.
Playing good Samaritan is an act of charity
For which Christ has given good clarity
By His well-known parable
Which is a matchless example.
Christ is the Good Shepherd
Whose voice is sadly unheard
By many a sheep whose fate
Is to listen to the call too late.
O Jesus, who is life and resurrection to us
Who is the fountain of all graces to us
Lead us to paradise not on earth
But in heaven which is far beyond the earth.
Christ taught His gospel during His life;
His disciples have been doing it after His life,
The faithful see in Him a living Christ
Who is never for them a departed Christ.
Christians believe in the Holy Creed,
No other creed do they need.
Christ came to teach us one gospel;
Let all people come under its spell.
Wonderful it is that Christ has a bride
The holy church is His beloved bride.
For us Christians she is our pride;
Being believers, we have nothing to hide.
When we read a dead man’s obituary,
He may be lying in a mortuary.
We want to see him in his departed life
As we had seen him in his real life.
For whom will heaven open
But for those whose hearts open
To the call of the Eternal Father
Who wants all His children to gather?
O, God the good shepherd that you are
Keep all your flock with kindly care.
Let not one of them go astray
That is what we humbly pray.
Faith in God is the supreme virtue,
Denial of God is the vice of not a few.
God is the fountain of all graces,
God will save man from all the dangers he faces.
Never again will I forget thee, Lord,
Never again will I wound thee, Lord.
Let me ever be in thy grace,
Let me ever be in thy embrace.
Coming together is access;
Staying together is steadiness,
Working together is progress
And achieving together is success.
Down will come all that goes up.
This doesn’t forbid your going up.
Life doesn’t follow Newton’s law;
Perseverance negates that natural law.
There is nothing more futile when you take stock
Than to be searching for a needle in a hay stack.
It is better to keep your things in place
Than to search for things thrown out of place.
Vox populi –vox dei is a proverb
Who cares for this proverb?
The voice of the people is the voice of God;
Ignoring the first is equal to ignoring God.
It is one thing not to forget the past;
It is quite another thing to be prisoners of the past.
From the former we learn some good lessons;
But from the latter we learn no lessons.
Optimism is good, but it can be misplaced,
Pessimism is bad, but it can be displaced.
Both have no relation to reality
Which we have to face with placidity.
Winds of change across the world blow,
Whether good or bad it is hard to know,
Better it is to change than to be stagnant,
But the pains of change may be poignant.
To see wonders man flies into space,
But he finds there no living space.
He has to return to his terrestrial home
And prepare for a journey to his eternal home.
Believe it or not, life is a gamble
For those who do nothing but ramble.
Life should have a purpose and an aim
Without which it is just an idle game.
Of the by-gone days some have nostalgia,
Of the coming day some others make a utopia.
The former happens in a pensive mood;
The latter happens in a hopeful mood.
Forget and forgive is the essence of reconciliation
By which healing of wounds has a facilitation.
Thus we can make the world a good habitation
Even if it requires some mortification.
Some people speak lies out of mendacity;
Some others speak the truth out of veracity.
The former quality has to be eradicated;
The latter quality has to be cultivated.
Goodness is intrinsic in the heart;
Of human nature it is a part.
Goodness flowers into charity;
Between the two there is some parity.
You cannot legislate for virtue
Vices unchecked will continue.
The source of virtue is the inner spirit;
Enforcement of virtue has no merit.
Grief cannot be shared for all time;
It may be shared for a short time
For the rest of it one carries it alone
And feels burdened and forlorn.
Jealousy and baldness have no prescription;
Both of them grow with no inhibition.
But the two are not of the same kin,
One is a sin and the other is not a sin.
The workers have to work and the managers have to watch;
Between their wages there is no match.
This causes to the workers some worry
But they should not stop work in a hurry.
When the spring time of life is running out
And the hopes and aspirations of life are fading out,
We have to be doubly careful to preserve
What fire and spirit we can conserve.
The glow-worms twinkle like the stars,
But they flit about unlike the stars.
They come from nowhere and go nowhere
Even as man’s dreams come and get him nowhere.
Crime takes a moment for its commission,
But it takes years of pennance for its remission.
Who knows whether you will be punished
Before your pennance you have finished?
There is pepper garbled and ungarbled,
There are floors marbled and unmarbled.
The quality is different in the former case,
The shine is different in the latter case.
In a country that is shining are starvation deaths possible?
Deaths are horrible, but starvation deaths are more horrible.
Can the government prevent such types of death?
Yes, with more care for poor men’s food and health.
How many poor men are marginalised!
How many defenceless are victimised!
How many orphans are unprotected!
How many crimes are undetected!
To the extent that corruption grows
To that extent the number of laws grows.
For corruption laws are no obstruction,
Morality alone can help its prevention.
Some farmers leave their farms a wasteland,
For they cannot afford to cultivate the land.
The cost of cultivation is too high
And cheap labour cannot be had nearby.
In festival season people are in a spending spree
Not because all of them are from deft free.
What is life without any enjoyment
Even for those having no employment?
Spies need no visa to cross borders;
They have to obey no orders.
Once caught, they will crawl
And not raise a hand for a brawl.
Honest and upright men have become a rarity;
Of scandal-mongers there is much variety.
Truth seekers will be traversing a blind alley,
They will seldom find on their way a good ally.
Public memory is proverbially short,
But hot things, unless cooled, will remain hot.
This cooling will not come by surprise
But through talk and some compromise.
If you have no merit to win,
Trying devious means is a sin,
Of elections of all kinds it is true;
But such principle is kept only by a few.
Public opinion about you need not always be kind;
Hearing only pleasant things will make a pillow of the mind
Check up the reasons for adverse opinion
And find a way for earning people’s appreciation.
Most people speak of social maladies,
But few people speak of proper remedies.
Some find fault with the on-going system;
Some others blame the people handling the system.
To be back to square one is a futility
The levers of power have no utility
If all the gains made in a forward march
Are sadly lost in a reverse march.
Jobs should be given according to eligibility;
In this regard there should be no flexibility.
Otherwise it leads to favouritism
Which invites much criticism
If you are walking on the right path,
You need not worry about anybody’s wrath.
If you are walking on forbidden land
You have to be wary about the danger at hand.
In the scientific field people scale new heights;
In the tourist world people view new sights.
The former is really an achievement;
The latter is purely an enjoyment.
Hot heads serve to boil problems,
Cold hearts cannot either cool problems.
Problems in this world are ever present
Since the spirit to solve them is absent.
If doves alone come to a peace-process
And the hawks are denied any access,
The process will never be conducive
To dispute-settlement which is elusive.
Loving your neighbour is a good thing,
But pulling down your hedge is not a wise thing.
On your compound he may do some poaching,
But he will not be available for your catching.
What do plagiarists do in a book?
They copiously copy from a book.
They do it for getting fame,
But it is a matter of utter shame.
No man can for long wear to himself one face
And to the people at large another face.
The people will finally be bewildered
As to which face has to be considered.
If there is no ambiguity, there is no guessing;
If evidence is fool-proof, there is no dithering;
If facts are not available, they need searching,
And if available, they need analysing.
Judicial system becomes futile
When witnesses turn hostile.
Judges can virtually do nothing
When true evidence is not forth coming.
Better talk to people when they approach you
Than when they are approached by you.
The former is easier and more effective;
The latter is more difficult and less effective.
Hit and run is the game of the day;
But who will for the damages pay?
The killing-spree must come to and end
For which the laws shall not bend.
Acceptance of all agreeable terms is negotiation;
Acceptance of all disagreeable terms is capitulation.
The former is a dignified process;
The latter is a humiliating process.
Everyman has certain causes for lamentation
Or certain moments of dejection
But to dwell on them is unproductive;
To clear them you have to be mentally active.
It is a poor heart that never rejoices;
A strong heart rejoices when occasion arises.
But occasions do not come in cheap
Nor do they come in a heap.
Why should you think of a hell beyond this world?
If you have eye to see, it is already here in this world.
It is so filled with cruelty and torture
That it is a replica of Hell, be it a miniature.
To be moulded you want pliability;
To be believed you want credibility;
To be depended upon, you want reliability;
To be loved you want amiability.
Physical pain may be relieved by a balm
Which has to be applied by the palm.
Mental pain can be soothed by reading a psalm.
Which will make your mind calm.
In words let there be no ambiguity;
In actions let there be no incongruity;
In progress let there be continuity;
In faith let there be perpetuity.
Married life begins with a wedlock;
It should be built on a bed-rock.
What is this bed-rock but mutual love and trust
Without which the pleasures of life will turn to dust?
Birthdays come and go
Leaving memories of long ago,
Of chances lost, of unfinished tasks
And achievements made of which nobody asks.
The world will come to an end sooner or later;
But the spirit will not end, it has to go to its master.
Hence we have to concentrate on spiritual progress
Rather than we do on material progress.
We all like to live in tranquility
And to be free from all calamity.
This we can do with God’s help;
Nobody is sure to come to our help
“Much ado about nothing” is very true
Of the fuss that a man makes, giving no clue
As to what silly things trouble his mind
The reason for which it is hard for others to find.
People in authority hold power;
It is not always blessings that they shower.
Poor people have to suffer in silence;
They are unable to resist violence.
It is less painful to lead a life of melancholy
Than to lead a life of agony.
The former is only depressing;
The latter is really excruciating.
Life has its own vicissitudes;
For long-term prosperity there is no certitude.
One has to face the ups and downs of fortune
From which nobody in the world is immune.
Many people are afflicted by poverty;
Some others are earners of property.
For the former the condition is bitter;
For the latter it does not matter.
What do the media zealously convey
But all the things we want to keep away-
Sex scandals, suicides and all the rest
That infest our minds like a pest?
What with cancer ,AIDS and SARS
Bright are not mankind’s stars.
Who can ever make them bright,
If man is blind to see the Light?
To be in sack cloth and ashes is a token of penitence;
To be in silk cloth and jewellery is a token of affluence.
Dress is the token of many a thing,
But nakedness is a shameful thing.
It is far better to be an optimist
Than to be a down-right pessimist.
Optimism helps us to go forward;
Pessimism makes us only to go backward.
On earth there is no security;
There is only opportunity
Which is for overcoming insecurity
That may come in all its severity.
In a dispute one party may show ebullience
And the other party may show reticence.
The former is due to daringness
And the latter is due to wariness.
We would always like to hear a symphony
And turn our ears away from cacophony.
Sometimes we will have something dreadful to hear,
But it is no use closing our ears out of fear.
Nero went on harping
While Rome went on burning.
This kind of approach from a ruler
Can never in the world be crueler.
Carrot and stick are good tools
To make the unwary fools.
The former serves to attract
And the latter serves to distract.
Accidents often come out of negligence
These can be kept out by vigilance.
There is no use mourning after the accident
Which to the unaffected is a mere incident.
Misfortunes sometimes come like an avalanche
Against which a strike you cannot launch
Your plans and dreams come hurtling down
And you cannot in any way trace them down.
Corruption is in a way worse than prostitution.
The latter endangers an individual’s morals;
The former endangers a nation’s morals.
To root out corruption can we start an institution?
Our responsibility ends not with what we say
But it extends to what we do not say
Certain unpleasant truths have to be told
When such information we cannot withhold.
India had a green revolution
And now it has a white revolution.
The former was to avert poverty and starvation;
The latter is to increase vitality and nutrition.
Survival of the fittest is natural law,
But let it not be practised as a common law.
The less fit should be given a chance
By which they may their fitness enhance.
A scandal is always embarrassing;
Sometimes it may be job-threatening.
If it is a sex scandal, it is all the more humiliating;
Who knows whether it will not be life-wrecking?
Friendship is not a one way street;
If you are truly discreet,
You will extend cooperation to the other party
And receive cooperation from the same party.
How many orphans suffer in this world!
How many bereaved live in a void!
Who will come to their relief?
Whom will they approach in full belief?
Sweet music makes the heart melt;
Such joy can never be felt
As when you hear a sweet song-
So sweet as a nightingale’s song.
Twins born together do not die together;
God determines when to gather
His children to His Eternal Home
If they do not shun the Home.
If two people agree on everything,
One of them is doing the thinking.
For differences are bound to occur
When two working brains cannot concur.
Not to take a decision is itself a decision-
This is a lame excuse for indecision.
For men required to take action it is no tribute
Whatever reasons they may attribute.
Splendid indeed is the earth’s contour,
But if into the interior you could make a detour,
What a boiling inferno would it be
That you would shudder to see!
When nature kills a vast number
Why should man add to the number?
Death and destruction are heart-rending;
Let us hear less of things harrowing.
People sometimes donate to earn a name.
This is not a laudable aim.
Donations are for helping the needy;
A part of it sometimes goes to the greedy.
When we hear of sufferings galore
We from our hearts deplore
The fate of the victims that are helpless
But, by God’s grace, are not hopeless.
The peacock dances gloriously in the forest,
But nobody’s attention can it arrest.
Brilliance should come out into the open
And should never happen to be hidden.
Virtue is born in the human heart;
Of one’s character it is a part.
Virtue should always be appreciated
Whereas vice has to be deprecated.
In many places the sea has washed off the land;
What can be done by the human hand?
If God does not provide succour,
No improvement in life can occur.
Beware of making an island
Your much cherished home-land
Tsunami may hit you by surprise
And you may not see the next sunrise.
For every earthly show
There is a common flaw.
It doesn’t last for all time;
It ends in a short time.
Evening shadows on earth fall
And then comes the night fall.
But let not the spirit fall
When for prayer comes a call.
Some are by nature chicken-hearted;
Some others become broken-hearted
When woes and sufferings engulf them
And they have no strength to withstand them.
If one makes rules for others to obey
And oneself those rules disobey,
Rule-making becomes ironical;
Some may call it farcical.
Thousands gather at places of worship
For which they find no hardship.
But hundreds sometimes die in a stamped
Which no miracle helps to impede.
Bad indeed is victimisation;
Worse still is brutalisation.
A man may be killed in a shoot-out;
But why should his vitals be pulled out?
Some people are known to have heaps of wealth
Much of which may have been earned by stealth.
Wealth is not meant for accumulation
But for proper utilisation.
Some people are good at conceptualisation
But poor or weak in execution.
To concepts we should have no allergy
But they should be fulfilled with energy.
One law in the world never does change
What is that but all things change?
Rapid change in the world to-day
Is bewildering every one to –day
Some people gain from a windfall;
Some others suffer from a snow fall;
Many people gain from a rainfall.
None of these come when they call.
Life should be for good deeds a depository;
It should not for good thoughts be a dormitory.
Only from good thoughts can good deeds flow
And only with good deeds life will glow.
To lead a life of ideals,
To walk the path of ordeals,
To make sacrifices for common good
Are for thought a proper food.
Idealism must be the realism of tomorrow;
If not, idealism is just hollow.
Idealism can more be preached than practised;
This is the bane that is often witnessed.
The lonlier you are, the more pensive you are;
The healthier you are, the stronger you are;
The more religious you are, the less secular you are;
The more angry you are, the less patient you are.
I stood beside the India Gate.
How majestic is that gate!
It is a symbol of India’s pride,
So open, it has nothing to hide.
I saw Qutab Minar in its towering height
To which many a pigeon made a flight.
Notable it is for its Islamic construction
And for its fine geometric ornamentation.
The wonder of wonders the Taj Mahal is,
How magnificent its central dome is!
How symmetrical its architecture is!
How gorgeous its ornamentation is!
The Muslim rulers have bequeathed our country
A rich heritage of artistic beauty.
The antique symmetry of every monument
Is that beauty’s chief constituent
How wonderful the Mughal Gardens are !
How fragrant their flowers are !
How resplendent their colours are!
You cannot forget what they are.
Every country has its own borders;
But no good can come from closing the borders.
People across the borders must be intimate;
Then only good relationship they can cultivate.
What do the poor in this world share?
How much do the rich for them care?
Charity is more preached than given;
Denying charity will never be forgiven.
Governments make laws and laws
And they have flaws and flaws.
Which lead to much litigation;
Avoiding it is government’s obligation.
Wars evoke dreadful memories in every one’s mind;
Can we ever dream of a world of a different kind?
It depends on how much peace you can nurture
For the good of the generations of the future.
Governments promise people many a boon;
But their real face will come to light too soon.
People cannot be fooled for all the time;
It may be done for a short time.
Tainted people some ministers are;
Painted as people’s servants they are.
Under a mask they move about
Until they are finally chucked out.
A minister should not rule under a cloud
When people against him speak aloud.
If he is in a crime falsely implicated,
He must try soon to be vindicated.
Many people prefer to live in a foreign clime;
To return home they find little time.
Let them not forget where their roots are,
However great their fortunes are.
After colonialism we are not in a thicket;
We are in the midst of cricket.
This game is of Common Wealth tradition;
Many of us have to it an addiction.
There are people who are real traitors;
There are others who glorify traitors.
Both are traitors in one sense;
To shun both is commonsense.
There are power-hungry politicians
And there are peace-loving civilians.
If the former cannot keep the peace
The latter will be ill-at-ease.
Man-made bombs killed people in olden times;
Human bombs kill people in modern times,
So devilish has become man to commit suicide
In order to perpetrate large scale homicide.
No wall can be stronger than its defenders;
With a weak defence up will come the offenders.
This is nothing but worldly wisdom;
Without it no king can hold his kingdom.
People will judge you by your actions
And not by your good intensions.
The way to hell is paved with many a good intension,
Who on earth will seek such a destination?
Woe unto those who curse
Every wound that they should rather nurse.
Patient suffering is a virtue
That would make no wound any issue.
A tussle for leadership is everywhere
Which may lead the parties nowhere;
When the contenders are mutually berated,
The competition will remain unabated
To forget and forgive is indeed a virtue;
The greater the suffering the greater is the virtue.
To be preached how easy it is!
To be practised how difficult it is!
When afraid you are of facing enmity,
Blamed you are for pussilanimity
Courage you must have to face opposition
When convinced you are of your position.
A hurricane causes wide-spread destruction
As people cannot give it an obstruction.
It takes hundreds of lives away.
The Almighty alone can control its sway.
Where hurricane is a horror,
Looting is equally a terror.
How can man be so devilish
If he is not too selfish?
What do we count in a battle field deserted,
If not the dead, the half-dead and the wounded?
What can gladden the heart of the winner?
The innocent will consider him the worst sinner.
Persons living in glasshouses shouldn’t pelt stones,
For they will be pelted back with the same stones.
What is more, the glass-panes will be shattered
And with the splintered glass their bodies will be battered.
India has two faces, one being cruel, violent and intolerant,
The other being calm, magnanimous and tolerant.
We want to see the second face in its full glory,
Otherwise the fate of India will be a different story.
A man is not to be judged by his birth;
He should be judged by his worth.
He may earn by birth a title
The value of which is too little.
God’s message may not come through a messenger
It may even come through a frail old passenger
Who offers his seat to a disabled person
And stands all the way to his destination.
“One stable and one shepherd” was Christ’s desire;
How can we help fulfil that desire?
All Christian churches must come together;
For that we must all pray together.
Jesus became subservient to the law
To redeem those who came under the law.
This is too much of a condescension
To be within our comprehension.
Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world,
Lamp in darkness that brightens the world,
How much do we owe thee for our purification
And for our own final salvation!
“The children of this Age are cleverer than the children of Light,”
Their crookedness Jesus has put it right.
It is not they that enter heaven;
They are in a way worse than heathen.
God’s love for man is immeasurable,
His sacrifice for man is unspeakable;
How can we return this love
While He is watching us from above.
Jesus took upon himself all our iniquities;
Are we not adding to those iniquities?
Who will bear them again on earth;
Jesus will come only to judge us on earth .
Christ suffered because He was forthright;
In darkness He was a sparkling light.
His disciples were His torch-bearers;
They were not simple way-farers.
Spiritual strength is what you need
To be from temptations freed.
Who can protect you from satan’s snare
If you do not depend upon God’s care?
Whom on earth could I lambast
When I have nothing for bombast?
Whom on earth could I follow
When every claim for greatness is hollow.
O Lord, I am waiting for thy streams of grace
To flow into my heart and on to my face.
How long shall I have to wait for it?
My impatience ,I am afraid, will delay it.
29. At the End of Life Journey
An old man’s life is a barren land;
Who can make it a fertile land?
There is nothing to sow, nothing to reap;
All that remains is a waste in a heap
A man whose days are numbered
Continues life on lease borrowed.
God is the benevolent lease-giver
And man is the dependent lease-holder
A man whose hopes are shattered
And whose mind is always battered
By problems that he cannot solve
May in the end lose all his resolve.
Birth and death are the two events
In man’s life which is a non event.
If life is wasted or ruined
And is never going to be regained.
We are born sons of the soil,
We are ever bound to toil.
Our sweat is not going to be wasted,
Our reward will finally be tasted.
World is the dream of a waking man,
Heaven is the dream of a dying man;
For there his agonies would ever cease;
There his soul would rest in peace.
Some old people suffer from amnesia,
Some others suffer from insomnia.
Both of these make them weaklings.
What on earth can make them darlings?
There are old men who are in distress
And are very anxious about its redress.
They may have no children in their vicinity
Or may have children with no affinity.
To live in this world more or to leave it sooner-
This is the thought of many a long-sufferer.
What do they gain by more suffering
If they can’t make it to God an offering?
There are multitudes bemoaning the passing away
Of big men who in their own days held sway
Over the minds and hearts of ordinary men;
But this bemoaning ends as the day passes away.
Life on earth is not one of perpetuity;
It is a life of continuity.
The next passage is to eternity
Where we enjoy God’s paternity
Death comes to all at the destined moment,
But great achievements remain as a monument
When time passes and all the rest are forgotten,
Not to say anything of the ill-gotten.
The best quality for a political entity
Is nothing but honesty and integrity.
The wayward path of duping and corruption
Will then be shunned and require no correction.
Politics is a very dangerous battle-field;
To all kinds of pressures you have to yield.
Courage of conviction at a heavy cost-
That is what you need to the utmost.
To politicians power is a gift;
Let them make pelf by shift.
If there is permanence of power,
They will soon reach the tower.
Leadership requires intelligence and trustworthiness;
It also needs humaneness, courage and sternness.
These qualities are essential for a political leader,
If he is to shine as an exemplary ruler.
In democracy one party tries to prove
That the other party cannot improve
The people’s lot and therefore must quit
Leaving power to the other outfit.
Law has little effect in a world
Where crooked men have a hold
On levers of power and can manipulate
Ruler s whose greed they can stimulate.
Men in power have their sycophants
Who may try to become their chairs’ occupants.
Thus the ruler may become the ruled,
This is a law that cannot be ridiculed.
Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind;
This exactly is what we find
When politicians unleash communal forces
For making electoral gains from all sources.
Unity in diversity is a very good proposition,
But unity without discipline is an untenable proposition,
Be it a matter of a political community
Or be it a matter of any other community.
Better dwell in the hearts of men
Than rule over the heads of men.
This is what rulers must learn
If peoples’ esteem they want to earn.
On monsoon depends India’s ‘feel-good factor’
Of which God alone is the creator.
Why should politicians take pride in it
And make a shameless buzz-word of it?
If you want to root out corruption from politics
You will have to sound the death-knell of politics.
Politics and corruption go hand in hand;
There can be no exception in our own hand.
Social issues cannot be put on the back burner
If a politician wants to be vote-earner.
People want to improve their social status;
Between the rich and the poor there should be no hiatus.
India is said to have a ‘feel-good’ factor
For which one party claims to be the main actor;
But this is purely an elusive factor
For which there can be no real actor.
Gandhiji suffered much in the struggle for freedom
And he ended up in his glorious martyrdom:
Both of them will remain in the annals of history,
But some people make of them a different story.
Politics was a field where the gentry wanted no entry;
Now it is different in any part of the country,
The high brow and the well-heeled come into the field
Because it promises a very good yield.
Politicians are corrupt is a generalisation,
But it makes of democracy a trivialization.
Politics is a field any rogue can access,
But good politicians make democracy a success.
Politicians are notorious for duplicity;
They do what suits the opportunity.
They will have something to say
Which the next moment they gainsay.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew;
What you cannot eat, it is better to eschew.
Attempting too much will not lead to success;
Try to get where you can gain access.
Some do not put all their eggs in one basket,
Some do the opposite and watch the basket.
The former is a precaution to avoid total loss,
The latter is a care to prevent any loss
By outward vision we can study the external world;
By inward vision we see the spiritual world.
Both visions are necessary for man
To live in both worlds as long as he can.
Success naturally encourages competition
And defeat naturally causes dejection.
In life we experience both;
But that is no reason for sloth.
Do not make much fuss
About something you can only guess.
Let the reality come to light
And then keep your cool you might.
A great healer indeed is time;
Old wounds will heal in course of time.
But scratching them will delay the healing process;
Healing is a natural and unhindered process.
There are wolves in sheep’s clothing
And there are sheep in sheep’s clothing.
The former are cunning offenders;
The latter are real non-offenders.
When your harvest others reap,
In their den they will heap.
You will have nothing to keep
And your sorrow will be very deep.
A crime indeed is homicide;
No less a crime is suicide.
Life has to be preserved in every way;
No man has a right to take life away.
There is truly no pill for every ill;
This may some people with agony fill.
Learn endurance to fight the invincible
For which some training is desirable.
A rainy day comes after a sunny day;
A dooms day may happen after a happy day.
Every thing changes from day to day;
So, be prepared to face what comes to-day.
You cannot have a moment of relief
If in God you have no belief
When pains and sufferings engulf you
And no one’s assistance comes to you.
Every wounded man needs healing,
Every bereaved man needs consoling,
Every separated couple needs reunion,
And every orphan child needs adoption.
Some reap what they do not sow,
Some have masters to whom they do not bow,
Some have whistles that they do not blow,
And some have homes where they do not go.
Sup not with the devil however delicious the menu is,
He will carry you wherever his pleasure is.
From God’s lap you will fall into his trap
And no angel will come to save you from the trap.
32. The Ghost of Lasting Peace
( A Sonnet)
Cross across her breast she lay,
A martyr in full bloom of life.
A red cloth was her mocking shroud
With sickle and hammer sewn thereon.
The Red Guards with their clenching fists
Have rushed the virgins off their cells.
Satan stalks the streets of Peking
With fire and brimstone for a blast.
From surging fire and swirling smoke
Will rise the ghost of lasting peace.
The scorching flames will char to death
Man and bird and beast alike.
Oh, for the waving olive branch!
Oh, for the soaring pigeon white!
(Written at the time of persecution of Christians
by Mao tse Tung )
I have fulfilled my life’s mission;
I haven’t worked without a vision.
When I left the portals of my school
I felt my mind was never so cool.
To be a teacher and to be retired
Is the end of a mission, a service not hired,
Through thick and thin have I served
The youth of my land, never unnerved.
I find before me the end of my road;
For a well-earned rest I put down my load.
Where shall be my haven, if not my home,
There shall I rest and no more roam .
To be with children- that was a pleasure,
To be with books- that was a treasure,
The thoughts of them will linger in my mind,
Nothing sad, nothing cruel will lurk behind.
O children, O brethren, adieu to you,
Your company have I missed for nothing new;
Oft in vacant or in pensive mood,
My soul will yearn to fill that solitude.
(Written in 1978 at the time of retirement)