(370) My quoted Quotes in my Posts (7)

(92) “A nation is not lost as long as the women’s hearts are still high. Only when the women’s hearts are on the ground then all is finished, and the nation dies”. (An old Native American proverb)

(93) “In most of the countries of the world, ‘Honor killing’ is the burning issue. It is true that we may not be able to stop honor killings overnight, but it must be tried at all levels and we are sure to have the results to reduce them at least. People who are sincere, religious minded and believing in humanity may be good for them, but it is not enough. They should also think for others and not to turn blind eyes to such cruel practices in the society.” (Valibhai Musa)

(94) “Killing one person is the same as killing all humanity and saving one person is the same as saving all humanity.” (The Holy Qur’an)

# No honor in Honor-killing!

(95) “Torture is banned; but in two-thirds of the world’s countries, it is still being committed in secret. Too many Governments still allow wrongful imprisonment, murderunder the title of encounter or ‘disappearance” to be carried out by their officials with impunity”. (Peter Beneson)

(96) No doubt, everybody has to face the Day of Judgment as per most of the religions; but there will be punished only those confirmed sinners who might have committed unforgivable sins which may also be out of the God’s discretion for the sake of His promises for reward for good deeds and warning of punishment for evil deeds though He is Kind and Merciful.(Valibhai Musa)

(97) “What is in name?’ (A dialogue of Shakespeare’s Play)

(98) “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

(99) “Open your newspaper – any of the week – and you will find a reportfrom somewhere in the world of someone imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions are unacceptable to his government.” (Peter Beneson)

(100) “You canchain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body; but you will never imprison my mind” (Mahatma Gandhi)

(101) “Nobody in the history of the human kind has seen such atrocities as tragedy of Kerbala, the Martyrdom of Imam Hussein (a.s.) and post Ashura sufferings of women and children. (The renowned historian al-Biruni)

(102) “May God prevent our hands from committing oppressions; May He bestow on people with dignity and peace of mind; May He confer on prisoners throughout the world with repentance, understanding of turning away from sins, freedom and peace; May He bestow upon those who are ruling with justice and kindness; and May He favor those who are ruled with just treatment and good character. (A supplication that has been reported from The Twelfth Imam, Al-Qa’im Al-Mahdi -peace be upon him-, the renowned descendent of the Ahl al-bayt (a.s.), The Just Leader of Humanity, The Alive but Hidden – The Imam of the Age, according to the faith of the Shi’ite Muslims.)

# The Square World – I – II – III – IV

(103) “Our life is a long and strenuous quest of truth.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

# Mercy Killing or Merciful Death – A Debate

-Valibhai Musa

 

(364) My quoted Quotes in my Posts (5)

(59) An efficient horse-riding is only possible when both the horse and its rider are efficient. The efficiency of any single cannot bring the expected results. Same way, the soul is a rider and body the horse. Conclusion is that both soul and body must remain healthy. (Valibhai Musa)

(60) Prevention is better than cure. (A Saying)

(61) The slightest imbalance makes the body as well as soul sick. (Valibhai Musa)

(62) I think; therefore, I exist.  (Descartes)

(63) One hour’s contemplation is better than seventy years of adoration. (An Islamic Hadith)

# Soul – Its nourishment

(64) Human kind cannot bear very much reality. (T.S.Eliot)

(65) A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us, we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work, he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business, he is a part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him, he is doing us a favor by giving us opportunity to do so. (Mahatma Gandhi)

(66) When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life such when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. (A Saying)

(67) Surely, from the Almighty God we come and to Him shall we return. (A Qur’anic Verse)

# As if Mr. Jeff is alive!

(68) Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success. (Henry Ford)

(69) If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him, you will always remember. (Khalil Gibran)

# A Last Tribute

(70) Everybody is willing to go to Heaven, but nobody is prepared to die. (Valibhai Musa)

# A Challenging Puzzle (3 in 1)

(71) The world is weary of hate. We see the fatigue overcoming the Western nations. We see that this song of hate has not benefited humanity. Let it be the privilege of India to turn a new leaf and set a lesson to the world.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

(72) Human blood is sacred and in any case it cannot be spilled without justification. And if anyone violates this sanctity of human blood by killing a soul without justification, the Holy Quran equates it to the killing of entire mankind. [A Hadith of Prophet of Islam Hajarat Mohammed (P.B.U.H.)]

(73) A true Believer cannot hurt anybody using own hand or tongue. To write an unfair letter to hurt the feelings of the addressee is the double sin. While using this weapon of unfair writing, the writer uses his hand and tongue also. The tongue in the sense that the reader while reading feels that he is hearing the speech of the writer. (Peer Mashayakh Rehmatullah)

(74) Electronic and print material is like a speech and any imbalance, from the side of the orator or author, may bring man-made disasters to the world. (Valibhai Musa)

(75) Wherever any sensitive issue in the world arises, it becomes the prime and pious duty of media not to encourage the people towards violence. (Valibhai Musa)

(76) Just to prevent the mass violence, it should be noted that the actions of an individual or a small group do not necessarily represent the beliefs of a particular religion, nor is that religion is responsible for such actions. The media’s labeling such unfair events as Islamic, Christian, Judaist or Hindus is incorrect. Media should try to discourage the mass mind going towards the path of violence and encourage them to be initiative to support the authorities to bring peace and order. The people should be counseled by highlighting the ideology that there is neither bravery nor sacrifice in destroying life or property for any cause of either offence or defense. (Valibhai Musa)

(77) My faith is as strong as ever. There is no hope for the aching world except through the narrow and straight path of Non-violence. Millions like me may fail to prove the truth in their lives; that would be their failure, never of the eternal law.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

# International Non-violence Day

-Valibhai Musa

 

(349) My quoted Quotes in my Posts (4)

(41) “A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.” (Chanakya)

(42)“Laxmi (goddess of wealth) and Sarswati (goddess of education) cannot live together”. (By Author based on a line of a Gujarati poem)

(43)“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

(44) “Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.” (A dialogue from Shakespeare’s play)

 (45) “God is not in idols. Your feelings are your God and the soul is your temple.” (Chanakya)

(46) “Honest hearts produce honest actions.” (Brigham Young)

(47) The honest man thinks honestly, speaks honestly and works honestly. (Valibhai Musa)

(48) “The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”(Socrates)

# Honesty (August – 2007)  

(49) “The ultimate end of man is to find the One (God) which is in him, which is his truth, which is his soul, the key with which he opens the gate of the spiritual life, the heavenly kingdom.” (Rabindranath Tagore)

(50) “Whoever knew his soul, knew his Lord.” (Hajarat Imaam Ali)

(51)“In knowing Thee, O Wonder of the Cosmos, the mind is weakened all the while; Whenever my reason comes a span closer to Thee, it surely flees a mile.” (Unknown source)

(52) “Man has overcome steam and electricity; but he could not overcome his mind. He reached the planets, but could not reach his inner soul.” (By author based on a stanza of a Gujarati poet)

(53)“Say not, ‘I have found the truth’; but rather, ‘I have found a truth’.” (Khalil Gibran)

(54)“Soul made intention of leaving. I said, ‘Do not leave’. It said, ‘What can I do? The house is falling apart’.” (A poetic quote from an unknown source)

(55)  “Your own soul is nourished when you are kind, and it is destroyed when you are cruel.” (King Solomon)

(56)  “Kindness is the root of Dharma (Religion).” (Saint Tulsidas)

(57)“To overcome evil with good is good; to resist evil by evil is evil.” [Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)]

(58) “The uplifting of soul depends on uplifting of the character. We are now approaching a global economy, a global culture. Now let us globalize this mission of ‘Humanity’ to establish Universal Peace. Souls of individuals make the soul of a nation; and souls of the nations make the soul of the universe. To make the universe glorious, the individuals will have to promote their souls towards advancement and perfection.” (Valibhai Musa)

# Soul – A brief study (August – 2007)

-Valibhai Musa

 

 

 

Say ‘Live and Let Live’ with a humanly heart!

Click here to read in Gujarati

Open any news paper or switch on any news channel on TV or chat on your computer to read latest news and you will find a report that somewhere in the world some humans, either individually or in mass, have been killed under one or the other type of conflict. World religions unanimously agree on one point that human is the best creation of God among all creatures. But, it is equally true that when we hear of killing of humans by humans, we are compelled to believe in the naked truth that human is the worst of all creatures in the universe.

It is quite obvious that the most difficult conflicts to be resolved are ethnic conflicts. They are the most violent and the highest numbers of civilian casualties are seen there. If we, calmly in peace of mind, ponder over such internal conflicts among our human race, we are surely to come to the conclusion that such sinful acts of shedding blood of innocents is not only cowardice but foolish also. To clear this point in the minds of my Readers, I would like to give below an exemplary humorous parable somewhere heard locally. It is as follows:

“In some remote rural areas of the country, the marriage procession of a bridegroom was going to the other village, the venue of marriage. The participants of the procession were traveling by bullock-carts. They all were young and had avoided old hand people to join with them just to enjoy marriage ceremony freely. The carts were passing through narrow farm-way one after another.

The very first cart stopped and the riders of the rest carts jumped down to see what had happened. To their surprise, they saw that an iguana (a kind or species of lizard, large, strong and flat) was lying in the middle of the narrow-way. They already knew that it was an innocent and non-poisonous creature and by making slight noise of hitting sticks on ground, it might run away.

One of them was cruel and tried to rush in and kill it, but the rest stopped him to do so. Someone told that they should make a peaceful dialogue with it to leave the way and if it does not agree with them they might kill it.

A young man was just like an improvisator (a poet who can form spot poems) and he instantly made out a couplet in his native language addressing to the iguana. Its summarized translation was as “Iguana ‘O’ iguana of Timbatuda (imaginary village name), please move here or there; otherwise five-ten members from your side or five-ten members from our side will die or get injured if we mutually fight. What is to be gained with this bloody conflict for a very minor cause?”

The iguana did not move from its place and those youngsters decided to start a fight with it. But, one so called wise man took the side of the iguana and said, “There is no justice to fight with the weak. The iguana itself is alone on its side and we are many. Should we the half of us not be the part of its side?”

All agreed with the proposal and they divided themselves into two parts and a terrible fight with long and strong sticks began. All were stained with blood and some were seriously injured in heads, jaws, eyes, arms and legs. Meanwhile, the iguana was frightened with the noise of hitting of sticks and loud cries and ran away. As soon as the iguana cleared the way, the fight stopped and the winners shouted loudly, “The iguana group is defeated, the iguana group is defeated! Shame … Shame! Iguana, your Chief, left away the battle field.”

The above episode may look to be exaggerative, but we should not forget that it is merely a parable. What it may be, but it teaches us a moral lesson that to fight internally for a big or small cause is senseless and foolish also.

Mankind’s insecurity is not from the outside, but from inside. No any enemies from other planets attack on us and suppose that they exist somewhere they need not. Their task is being fulfilled by us. With man-made disasters, we would die together but we would not live together. What any other human tragedy might be more serious than this suicidal tragedy by humans themselves! Human race is passing through hanging swords over heads. There is no surety of safe return of anybody stepping out of the thresh-hold of own home. Sometimes human is not safe even in own home also. Mahatma Gandhi has rightly said, “The world is weary of hate. We see that this song of hate has not benefited humanity.” He further added, “My faith is as strong as ever. There is no hope for the aching world except through the narrow and straight path of Non-violence.”

Summing up, the splitting or joining of the world or society depends on understanding of human being. No any religion is superior to religion of humanity. No any religion teaches its followers to harm or hate others. Religion of humanity is not a new religion or it is not a new name of any religion. This religion of humanity already exists in all religions. Any religion is multifaceted by nature and to limit it to certain aspects of own interpretations is not just.

Let us all propagate and make popular these meritorious words “Live and Let Live” globally for creation of the peaceful world.

Thanks.

– Valibhai Musa

 

A thoughtful thought! – ‘Seldom’ such Posts (1)

Click here to read in Gujarati

Some years ago, I had read in some Gujarati News Paper the news that an International Conference on ‘Attitudes of Parents towards Childhood Disciplinary Behaviors’ was held at Istanbul (Turkey). One of the participants in debate had suggested that the children should not be physically punished but instead of that the pillows should be thrashed with fists or sticks in fit of anger. My Readers will smile gently as I also do, but there is a portion of little bit truth in the suggestion. It is a middle way between expressing anger and protecting child-respect. Remedy is interesting, but foolish also. The naughty child will show its teeth with smile when we hit to the pillow as punishment.

 

My pondering over above suggestion inspires me to modify it in a way that instead of punishing the pillow in lieu of the child, we should hit the pillow to the child provided it should be soft to avoid any injury. Parents will be satisfied and the child will think that it has been punished. Thus, the pillow will work as a non-violent weapon like Mahatma Gandhi’s practice of ‘Satyagraha’, a non-violent weapon. Shouldn’t Educational Institutions also provide pillows to the teachers for punishment to the pupils along with educational equipments? There is no need of any special provision for parents as the pillows are always available at their hand-reach in their households.

Though pillow-hurling is a light, safe, non-violent and effective punishment, we cannot deny the fact that there is a tender hardness and disguise bitter feeling of hatred in it. Psychologists of education and parenthood will not approve this method and thus there remains only one option of ‘Forgive and forget’. In Sanskrit, there is a slogan as “Forgiveness is the ornament of the brave.” But, such tendency is not possible for a common man and therefore they may implement direct or indirect pillow-hitting or pillow-hurling punishment to the children.

Now, my mobile thinking enters the world of corrupt politicians and dishonest bureaucrats spread over world-wide in little or more proportion. I see no any difference among innocent playful children, those politics-playing politicians and termite (white ants)-like Government servants boring holes within country’s economic progress. They also do some blunders (Passive violence) like misappropriation of money, mismanagement in administrative system and hundreds of non-ethical practices repeatedly like those children. But, we should not put any blame upon them as they themselves are not responsible as persons for their unfair acts. All blames should go to their chairs; and if we wish to punish them, we should break the legs of their chairs instead of their own legs. Their chairs are the root causes of their intoxicated state of power.

While proceeding further, I recall my memory of having read some Articles on ‘Co-ordination of Science and Philosophy’. In light of scientific definition, the pillows and chairs are inanimate objects; but children and politicians as well as bureaucrats are sentient humans. Parents and public should be careful to honor the feelings of both children and band of those poor rogues. They should be given indirect punishments as thrashing pillows or breaking chairs. Here, like self-proved geometrical theorem, if we have to give any priority for punishment, we should prefer first inanimate rather than sentient.

At this juncture, one more sub-question arises. While giving preference between inanimate and sentient, if we find both inanimate, what should we do then? In case of a politician or bureaucrat and the chair, it is obvious that chair is inanimate; but suppose that if the politician or bureaucrat is also inanimate, then what to do! In my opinion, the answer of the question is quite straight. We should judge who is more inanimate whether the chair or its user and we should punish accordingly. In botanical science, the plant of cotton and a tree are considered as sentient as long as they are live. But, as soon as they get dry, they become inanimate. Logical argument will be as a sentient will turn into an inanimate when it loses its life or sensation. Those cheats, by adopting the skin and tears of a crocodile, have lost their sensation and therefore they are liable to be punished directly.

For honest governance of a nation, the top-level cleanliness is necessary. Gandhiji’s one of the movements was cleanliness in streets as the part of hygienic care of people. A nation can be economically healthy only when its politics is clean. Just to remove political pollution in our country of India, the provision of Clause 49-0 of Election Rules must be made effective with some amendments. The voter must have the right of ‘No vote to any candidate’ in case of not a single candidate is found deserving. For this very purpose, the Election Commission should provide an extra box for ‘No Vote’ in Ballot Paper. It is very interesting to know that if number of ‘No Vote’ is higher than number of winning candidate, the Election of the respective constituency will be null and void. Further, in Re-polling situation, none of the former candidates can be participant for the second time. Thus, all Political Parties also can be taught a good lesson for issuing tickets to only deserving persons for candidateship to contest elections. Thus, the honest State and Central Governments would be able to clean up the Bureaucratic, Corporate and all types of civic dirt by making the Anti Corruption Bureau more active and Judiciary system quick.

Summing up, I have pleasure to announce that I have started a new series of Articles titled as – ‘Seldom’ such Posts. Above is the very first post of its kind; and, I’ll publish such in future, not regularly but seldom as and when my mood hits me.

A line in response to my endeavor of putting my thoughts in this post will highly be appreciated.

With best regards,

– Valibhai Musa