Two Goals drive our
lives. One is to know our roots - the Source of our creation - which is simply
not parents but a greater Cause. The other is to reach Perfection.
My aim to read books is to find an answer to those
nagging questions from the heap of knowledge accumulated by Man since the time
immemorial. It is not theorizing the knowledge gained, but pragmatic on the
issue of Perfection for higher elevation.
Why to reach Perfection ? The reason behind
this lofty goal is perennial Joy, free from Pain, Sorrow and Ignorance.
In the process of digging deep into what our Wisdom Masters said on the
subject, I come across this superb poem of 20th
century's Lebanese poet and philosopher Kahlil Gibran, which is
soul-lifting !
You ask me, my brother,
when will man reach perfection.
Hear my answer:
Man approaches perfection when he
feels that he is an infinite space and a sea
without a shore,
An everlasting fire, an unquenchable
light,
A calm wind or a raging tempest, a thundering
sky or a rainy heaven,
A singing brook or a wailing rivulet, a tree abloom
in Spring, or a naked sapling
in Autumn.
A rising mountain or a descending valley,
A fertile plain or a desert.
When man feels all these, he has already
reached halfway to perfection. To attain his goal
he must then perceive
that he is a child dependent upon his mother,
a father responsible for his family,
A youth lost in love,
An ancient wrestling against his past,
A worshipper in his temple, a criminal in
his prison,
A scholar amidst his parchments,
An ignorant soul stumbling between the darkness of his
night and the obscurity of his day,
A nun suffering between the flowers of her faith and
the thistles of her loneliness,
A prostitute caught between the fangs of her
weakness and the claws of her needs,
A poor man trapped between his bitterness and his
submission,
A rich man between his greed and his conscience,
A poet between the mist of his twilight and the
rays of his dawn.
Who can experience, see, and understand
these things can reach perfection and
become a shadow of God’s Shadow
No comments:
Post a Comment