SOLITUDE

Being alone is knowing

That in in this solitary splendour 

Solitude, stark and staring, 

Solitude, singing a lullaby

Solitude, singing a dirge 

Surrounded by so many sundry things; 

Things seen and unseen

Factors known and unknown

Solitude singing softly, chanting without ranting

Solitude’s songs that sing of solemn things

Silence singing golden songs

Silence healing ancient wrongs

If only silence could be

More than a memory

More than history

Silence can be more than words

Empty words echoing in an empty world

Echoing in empty valleys

Silence unspoken, unspoken, unbroken 

Transfixed by time

Attitude towards Life.

Three passions have governed my life:

The longings for love, the search for knowledge,

And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.

In the union of love I have seen

In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision

Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.

I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].

I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,

But always pity brought me back to earth;

Cries of pain reverberated in my heart

Of children in famine, of victims tortured

And of old people left helpless.

I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,

And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

adapted

BERTRAND RUSSELL:

Love

    Love 

When love beckons to you, follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams

as the north wind lays waste the garden. 

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. 

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. 

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. 

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love. 

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. 

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

On Love  by Kahlil Gibran

Neither Out Far Nor In Deep

The people along the sand                                             All turn and look one way.                                               They turn their back on the land.                                     They look at the sea all day.                                              As long as it takes to pass                                             A ship keeps raising its hull;                                      The wetter ground like glass                         Reflects a standing gull                                     The land may vary more;                                          But wherever the truth may be--                           The water comes ashore,                              And the people look at the sea.                           They cannot look out far.                           They cannot look in deep.                               Btu when was that ever a bar                        To any watch they keep? Robert Frost

Searching the ways of Soul.

Existence and it's relation with soul is one of the most complex terms in nature.Elevating and exalting the Soul from the level of limits,constraints and boundaries to the horizons of  Freedom,Liberty and Self Actualization has always been the  main objective for sanes among the human race.The pathway is always in ourselves,waiting to be explored and troddened by our footsteps.We surmize it later when the time displays it's vigour and truth of mortality comes before us in it's naked form.We should Give ourself the gift of time in coming to answers for our life and Soul that drives it…It takes time, and a lot of introspection and searching, to get clear about what our spirits really want to manifest in our life.In the end we will have to offer an outlet to our emotions and notions about life ,Dreams and realizations about Freedom,friendship and Self Actualization.That's the way to "Knowing Ourselves"


By Ghazanfar Javed

Spirit of Freedom

Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose.

C. WRIGHT MILLS

Liberation from Fear.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech