સૂરજ થવાને શમણે
ક્ષિતિજને શરણે
હું તો દોડુ
જેમ દોડુ તેમ અંતર વધતુ
વધતો ધબકાર હૈયે.
આકાશને આંબવા
પંખીની પાંખે
હું તો ઉડુ
જેમ ઉડુ તેમ અવકાશ વધતો
વધતો અરવ હૈયે.
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Fear v/s courage
Long lone dreary way,
Darkly covered, wind sway.
Canine, hyena howl deep,
From the sky only stars peep.
Cold biting bones. A solitary
Wizard; stride voluntary.
Buzzing wind, twittering leaves,
Hovering bat over the tree, heaves.
“Don’t dare go alone”, they say,
“When it strikes twelve; that way.”
Many offerings made to apease,
Yet the belligerent spirit not at ease.
Gathering the courage over mortality,
Mounted the mission, with a gesture of finality.
Both the hands hugged at the sharp dot,
Shivering stood I, prohibited and forsaken spot.
Hustling and bustling the rustic flock,
Rushed the spot, whispering sloak.
For, years old folklore he ripped,
The boy, now sure to be whipped
Alone I stood offering a solution
Stating, wasn’t that a faulty illusion?
The peasantry stood agape, still,
Facing the truth against their will.
FEAR when face with COURAGE,
It leaves within no coverage.
Faith always triumphs over fear,
And brings all reasons to cheer.
Navneet Parmar
Sunday, March 3, 2013
IDEA OR LIFE
A famous philosopher Decart says “I think, therefore I am.” It means the
very thought gives you existence. Not I am a soul and therefore I am. Now tell
me – a dog has a soul, a tree has a soul, even a donkey has a soul. None of the
mentioned being thinks that today I will eat pizza or today I will update my
face book profile.
The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him, and without
him not one thing came into being.” (John-1:1to3)
Words are the visible language code through which one not only expresses
one’s thoughts and ideas but can write in black and white also. Now the Bible clearly and emphatically speaks
aloud that word was with God and the word was God. The very idea of life was with
God and Life was God himself. Now God wanted to share the element of his own
being – life- which was sent forth into existence through words. God said, “Let
there be light and there was light.”
God did share his very breath with us Humans. And it is also so with
animals and birds. Now remember, God has not just given us life but FREEDOM,
INTELECT and WILL also. Hence we defer from all other beings on the earth.
At last I would like to conclude saying that though life puts us – human
beings- at a higher plateau and makes us shares in the life of God, a life
without an idea, thought and thinking ability is like, living life as a burden
of prey. A thought can make your life worth living and even after death you
will be remember for your thoughts. Hence a thought is more sublime than life.
Navneet
Parmar
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Man's search for Meaning
Introduction
Do we live in anthropocentric world? Who\what is considered as the center and summit of central focus? Human no more remains crown and compendium of creation. The religions, cultures, civilizations, arts, scientific discoveries and inventions which primarily meant to elevate human welfare, have made him\ her mere slave. Suffering has enveloped the entire global village. “Peace, justice, harmony” just remain black and bold letters on the placards and banners in march or rally.
Now the big question arises, what is human search? it remains a mystery.
From birth to death, human is in search, though he\she searches for many things, the ultimate search centers on ‘salvation’ as a Christian, ‘moksha’ as a Hindu, and ‘nirvana’ as a Buddhist. “We are made or you, o god, and oh, how weary we are till we rest in you!” St. Augustine
Search for safety and peace
The world is set ablaze with terrorism, wars, dire poverty, consumeristic and utilitarian values. Where are we marching towards?
In this unsafe and violation stemming world, what human looks for is peace and safety.
We are living in a land of poor. Of the 1 billion inhabitants of India
20th centaury is a hallmark in human history for producing great leaders, and creating human holocausts with two great world wars. Even today it has continued in different forms, terrorism, communal violence economic recession etc, has left human baffled and confused, worried and tensed. The inevitable uncertainty makes human perennially wretched and miserable. In these circumstances the desire for meaning almost dies away. What human needs as his primary need is peace and safety, assurance and security that tomorrow will be bright for him, he\she will be able to move around and able to earn the basic necessities of life. When the basic necessities are being fulfilled then human can think of the meaning of life, the ultimate search or goal of human life on this earth. Beside all these what human needs is the desire for meaning.
THE DESIRE FOR MEANING
Pounding in the breast of every man is an intense desire to lead a significant life. A man's most innate need is to find meaning and purpose. It is the underlying motivator of our behavior. It is what brings us joy, pleasure, peace, and contentment. How many times have you said or felt…
I want my life to count -- to make a difference!
I want to make a contribution in the lives of people around me.
I want to be useful, to do something with my life.
We each have an inbred, intuitive sense that we are created to make a difference. We are not frustrated because we think significance cannot be found. Rather, we are sure it can be found, and our frustration is that we have not yet taken hold of it.
Meaning gives the will the power to survive. As self determining beings, man is able to change the situation, at best himself; even he has the highest potentialities. Whether his potentialities are actualized or not, depends on his determination, decision and involvement. Existing is meaningless unless it is “existing for others”, because, as we said earlier, man’s existing is always pro-existence. Therefore, by meaning of life one has to take up responsibilities by doing something useful and meaningful for others.
What is required is a sense of mission. And for this, only a change of attitude is required. We can be optimistic. We can succeed; it is never too late. We can be another. We may not be able to change a particular situation. But we can change ourselves our attitude. To have meaning in life a sense of mission is demanded, which means involvement in something worth doing, somebody worth living for (family, wife, children). Remember Nietzsche’s dictum: “he who has a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’ in life.
Man is basically oriented to meaning, i.e., to be what he should be. Man finds a constant tension between what he is and what he should be. To find a meaning in a particular situation is a capacity which is distinctively human. He who has that capacity can transcend any predicament. Only he has to be helped to discover the meaning of existence. Meaning of existence can not be given by one person to another. It is up to each one to find out the purpose of his life and to discover the meaning of his own life.
Meaning of life[2] (purpose)
What constitutes this “inner hold”[3]? A man who could not see the end of his provisional existence is not able to aim at an ultimate goal in life. He ceases to live for the future in contrast to a man without an aim in moral life. The unemployed worker is in similar situation. He does not have future or aim. He suffers from a peculiar sort of time. –Inner time- which is the result of their unemployed state. Prisoner suffers from this strange ‘time experience’ paradoxical is time experience. Larger time seems passing very quickly and smaller time passes very slowly. Time has to do with one’s time of purpose at any given moment. Purpose or intention is something that is alive. It therefore exists in the present and can be experienced only by being presently active, like hunger and thirst. Otherwise it is not intention but only memory of one or memories or perhaps the dream of having one later. “There are no memories or dreams without present intention,” Sartre. Purposeful time is therefore present time oriented toward the future. I can only intend toward the future. Only by knowing myself as presently tending to go forward in time, can I have ay purpose whatever. Time without purpose is boredom. Boredom makes a prisoner loose his ‘hold on life. Everything becomes pointless. Such a person forgets that often it is just such an exceptionally difficult external situation, which gives hi the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself.
Hope precedes meaning
We must always give others inner strength by pointing out them a future goal to which they could look forward. It is a peculiarity of man that he only can live by looking to the future. If we loose our faith in future, we are doomed. We loose then the spiritual world. Sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect. Never give up hope. Hope is a rare gift. By hope man draws the future into this present and lives already by it. In hope man opens himself to the future. Hope alters man; draws him out of the cocoon of his life, because it shows him new possibilities. This hope makes him ready to come out of himself and to place himself in love beside the other person. No one can foretell the impossible can happen. Probably may never happen above all, that new up hope. Even the most desperate situation, health, family, happiness, professional abilities, fortune, position, in society- all these are things that could be achieved again or restored. Future, no man knows. What the future would bring no man knows. Chances can open up quite suddenly. Therefore always hope. The striving to find meaning is alive. Man is able to live and even die for his ideals and values. Man needs something for the sake of which to live. Will to meaning is a fact. What is implicitly referred to, is the fact that there is always freedom to make his choice between accepting or rejecting an offer, i.e.., to fulfill a meaning or potentiality or else to forfeit it.
Supra meaning
Man’s world is not over here. There is a world in which the question of an ultimate meaning of human would find an answer. His ultimate meaning necessarily exceeds and surpasses the finite, intellectual capacity of man. This is supra meaning[4] to life especially when suffering afflicts our lives. Human being is not freedom from conditions. Man is not fully determined but determines himself. Whether he gives in to condition or stand up to them depends on his freedom. Man is self transcendent. In concentration camp some behaved like swine, while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself, which one he realizes, depends on decisions; not on conditions. Man is the being who has invented the gas chambers those of Auschwitz , but he is also the being who entered those gas chambers upright with “lord’s prayers” on his lips.
Love the ultimate goal.
"Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire....The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved." [5]
Love[6] is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By the spiritual act of love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him; which is not yet actualised but yet ought to be actualised. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualise these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.
In logo therapy[7], love is not interpreted as a mere epiphenomenon of sexual drives and instincts in these of a so –called sublimation. Love is s primary a phenomenon as sex. Normally, sex is a mode but only as long as, it is a vehicle of love. Thus love is not understood as a mere side-effect of sex but a way of expressing the experience of that ultimate togetherness which is called love. Human finds his meaning of life in love.[8] Love becomes the ultimate source of will and power to lead life for others. Among faith, hope and love, love is the superior of all.
CONCLUSION
Frankl concludes that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living; life never ceases to have meaning, even in suffering and death. Every human will find meaning in his own way. It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
§ Desbruslais, Cyril S.J. The Philosophy Of The Human Person. Ed - Kuruvilla Pandikattu S.J. Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune, 1997.
§ Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search For Meaning. St. Paul Publication, Bombay
§ Solovyv, Vladimir. The Meaning Of Love. Geoffry Bles: The Centenary Press, London
§ Therukattil, George. Becoming Human, ‘A Study In Philosophical Anthropology’. JIP Publication, Jeevalaya Institute of Philosophy, Bangalore
ARTICLE
§ O’Brien, Dermont, “Love.” The Month, Vol – 25, june, 1992, P.211.
§ Santani , Saurabh, Meaning Of Life And Happiness In Wittgenstein. Journal of the Indian Academy
[1] Cyril Desbruslais s.j., The Philosophy Of the Human Person, ed - kuruvilla pandikattu s.j. jnana deepa vidyapeeth, Pune, 1997, p.9.
[2] Saurabh Santani, Meaning Of Life And Happiness In Wittgenstein, Journal Of The Indian Academy
[3] George Therukattil, Becoming Human, ‘A study in philosophical Anthropology’, JIP Publication, Jeevalaya Institute of Philosophy, Bangalore
[5] Viktor E. Frankl, Op.Cit, P. 101
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Christian youth called to challenges.
‘Three Idiots’, Is there any one who has not watched the movie? Life is all about listening to your heart and chasing your dreams. Is that all? Don’t we require people whose dreams encompass larger good of the society and nation?
I would like to be straight forward and ask the Christian community who solely encourages their children to become doctors, engineers, managers, MBA, teachers. We do require them. But here is my question, how many of us encourage our children to become IAS officers, or inspire them to appear for the civil services examinations such as GPSC, UPSC, IPS, IFS etc? If we see percentage wise then its not even 1% that we have our people in the first or second class civil services offices.
It is fact that our youth is not equal to the task of clearing the civil services examinations. We usually attribute this failure to the Government policy. Oh! The exams papers are so tough. My observation has led me to the conclusion that our youth lack motivation, self-confidence, expression, proper planning, and habits of reading and hard work. They have also lacked professional guidance and encouragement either from parents or teachers.
By the time our youth acquire graduate degree, they still remain weak in having mastery over Gujarati or English languages. They remain devoid of reading habits and logical thinking. Hence they fall short of required standard of achievement at the civil services examination.
We have unintentionally fulfilled their materialistic demands and eroded self-confidence, abilities and potentialities. Right from the moment the children enter the school, we cajole them to be engineers or doctors as though that these professions only bring social prestige.
What is needed for smooth sailing is planning one’s selections of subjects at the graduate level and cultivating reading habit at the earlier stage. If one is able to master at least two or three subjects by the end of ones degree, then it will not be hard of offering same for civil services examinations. Both at school and college, youngsters must be encourage and trained to participate in debates and public speaking and reading news papers and magazines with critical mind, which will provide them a wide spectrum of world of knowledge and learning. Their reading habit and getting familiar with the current affairs should be so aroused that automatically they become veracious readers and hard workers – leading to a quick grasp of the subjects. This will not only help them acquiring their own dreams but potential and capable to face any matter that call on to them.
I have not come across parents who trying to encourage children to take up such examinations. We have to provide a solid foundation so that our presence is felt at international spectrum. And in the bargain even if we deviate or fail, the capacity and sustained efforts will lead to healthy habits of studiousness, reading habit with interest and retention with ease.
Today christen youth is called to take up this challenges of preparing one self for the civil services. Thus serving society for its good and giving committed and trusted government servants for the larger good.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
A role of a teacher in human rights.
In the modern society the importance of education has not only increased but has become the means to fight against the injustice and oppression done in any form. In this awaken society a teacher is called upon to perform more challenging role along with the impartation of knowledge.
BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS:
Right to food
Right to work
Right to culture
Right to livelihood
Right to information
Right to participation
Right to development
Freedom of movement
Freedom of expression
Right to self-determination
Right to a safe environment
Right to privacy and family life
Right to public goods and services
Right to an adequate standard of living
Right to gender equality/women’s rights
Right to just and favourable conditions of work
Freedom from torture, cruel and inhuman treatment.
2. The development of sympathy for those who are ill-treated and empathy based on understanding of others’ emotions and feelings.
6. The use of a thinking skills structure, Think-Pair-Share, to reinforce empathy toward the unfortunate students. In essence, the reduction of prejudice begins in our own thoughts and feelings.
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