Inspiring Themes
Some inspiring themes to meditate on. These are from some of the greatest minds of the last century.
This is a work in progress, one that is by no means complete. I will continue to update this in the future.
Swami Vivekananda
Thy Love I Fear
This is Swami Vivekananda's translation of a Bengali song and it forms a part of a piece he wrote, titled, "The Story of the Boy Gopala". His guru, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, used to like this song very much. I will elaborate more on this in the future.
Thy knowledge, man! I value not,
It is thy love I fear;
It is thy love that shakes My throne,
Brings God to human tear.
For love, behold the Lord of all,
The formless, ever free,
Is made to take the human form
To play and live with thee.
What learning, they of Vrinda’s groves,
The herdsmen, ever got?
What science, girls that milked the kine?
They loved, and Me they bought.
Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi
Ninnai Charanadainthen! Kannamma! (I surrender to thee! Kannamma!)
This is a famous song by Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi. It forms part of one of his greatest works namely, Kannan Pattu (Krishna Songs). Its actually the 23rd poem titled, Kannamma, Enathu Kula Deivam (Kannamma, My God).
I have done by best to translate it as closely as possible. This one has deep philosophical cogitations and my translation is, at best, just a tiny window into his great mind. I will elaborate more on this in the future.
Kannan Pattu (Krishna Songs) - கண்ணன் பாட்டு:
Poem 23 - Kannamma, My God - கண்ணம்மா - எனது குலதெய்வம்:
Ninnai Charanadainthen! Kannamma! (I surrender to thee! Kannamma!) - நின்னை சரணடைந்தேன்! கண்ணம்மா!:
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!, கண்ணம்மா!
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!
I surrender to thee!, Kannamma (the ultimate truth)!,
I surrender to thee!
பொன்னை, உயர்வைப், புகழை விரும்பிடும்
என்னைக் கவலைகள் தின்னத் தகாதென்று
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!, கண்ணம்மா!
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!
This self that yearns for gold (riches), status and fame,
does not wish to be consumed by numerous worries caused by these worldly yearnings (for pleasure),
I surrender to thee!..(repeat)
மிடிமையும் அச்சமும் மேவியென் நெஞ்சில்
குடிமை புகுந்தன, கொன்றவைபோக் கென்று
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!, கண்ணம்மா!
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!
Want, affliction and fear spread in my heart and,
made it their home. To let these perish and permanently leave me,
I surrender to thee!..(repeat)
தன்செய லெண்ணித் தவிப்பது தீர்ந்திங்கு
நின்செயல் செய்து நிறைவு பெறும்வளம்
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!, கண்ணம்மா!
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!
May my anxiety and distress for actions i deem as mine (conceit and resentment arising from worldly attachments) end here and,
may i be content with fulfilling them as yours (remain detached and act as your instrument of good),
I surrender to thee!..(repeat)
துன்ப மினியில்லை, சோர்வில்லை, தோற்பில்லை,
அன்பு நெறியில் அறங்கள் வளர்த்திட
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!, கண்ணம்மா!
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!
No more sorrow, no more fatigue, no more failure and defeat,
To (nurture and) cultivate all noble virtues in me through the principle of love,
I surrender to thee!..(repeat)
நல்லது தீயது நாமறியோம்! அன்னை!
நல்லது நாட்டுக! தீமையை ஓட்டுக!
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!, கண்ணம்மா!
நின்னைச் சரணடைந்தேன்!
I (We) lack wisdom to differentiate good from evil! Oh Mother! (It is for you to tell us),
(you should) establish the good! and drive away the evil! (let good prevail and evil perish),
I surrender to thee!..(repeat)
Dr. Carl Sagan
A Pale Blue Dot
This excerpt from Dr. Sagan's book, Pale Blue Dot was inspired by an image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. As the spacecraft left our planetary neighborhood for the fringes of the solar system, engineers turned it around for one last look at its home planet.
Voyager 1 was about 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away, and approximately 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane, when it captured this portrait of our world.
Caught in the center of scattered light rays (a result of taking the picture so close to the Sun), Earth appears as a tiny point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size.
This image of Earth is one of 60 frames taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on February 14, 1990 from a distance of more than 6 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. In the image the Earth is a mere point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size. Our planet was caught in the center of one of the scattered light rays resulting from taking the image so close to the Sun. This image is part of Voyager 1's final photographic assignment which captured family portraits of the Sun and planets.
Below is the excerpt,
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us.
On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of,
every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.
The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions,
ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager,
every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization,
every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father,
hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician,
every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species,
lived there -- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood,
spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph,
they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel,
on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner,
how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another,
how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position, in the Universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity,
in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere,
to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else,
at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate.
Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience.
There is perhaps no better demonstration, of the folly of human conceits,
than this distant image of our tiny world.
To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another,
and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot,
the only home we've ever known.