September 12, 2011
I came across a nice YouTube video that is an animation of Rudyard Kipling reading his famous poem IF.
The full text sourced from wikisource is below:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
I love this because the poem illustrates so many topics that Śrī Kṛṣṇa covers in the Geeta. Khushwant Singh is among those who believes that the poem is "the essence of the message of The Gita in English". For instance, the implication of the word समत्वम् or equanimity breaks through in the lines below:
सुखदुःखे समे कृत्वा लाभालाभौ जयाजयौ |
ततो युद्धाय युज्यस्व नैवं पापमवाप्स्यसि ||२-३८||
sukhaduHkhe same kR^itvaa laabhaalaabhau jayaajayau
tato yuddhaaya yujyasva naivaM paapamavaapsyasi .. 2-38
With even-mindedness to pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, engage in battle for the sake of battle; thus you shall not incur sin.
The lines that start with "IF you can make one heap of all your winnings" through to "never breath a word about your loss" seem to echo directly Śrī Kṛṣṇa's description of the स्थितप्रज्ञ the man of steady wisdom in Geeta 2-56.
दुःखेष्वनुद्विग्नमनाः सुखेषु विगतस्पृहः ||२-५६||
duHkheshhvanudvignamanaaH sukheshhu vigataspR^ihaH .2-56
He whose mind is not shaken by adversity, and who in prosperity does not hanker after pleasures
Pujya Gurudev summarized the Shankara Bhashya for this verse in the following words:
"Humility, अमानितवम् is the absence of exaggerated self-respect.
Being Unpretentious अदम्भित्वम् is the virtue of not proclaiming one's (own) greatness.
Uprightness अार्जवम् comes to those who harmonize thoughts, words and deeds and are always intent on right conduct."
See echose of the Geeta in any other literature. Would love to see examples.
Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post
I came across a nice YouTube video that is an animation of Rudyard Kipling reading his famous poem IF.
The full text sourced from wikisource is below:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
I love this because the poem illustrates so many topics that Śrī Kṛṣṇa covers in the Geeta. Khushwant Singh is among those who believes that the poem is "the essence of the message of The Gita in English". For instance, the implication of the word समत्वम् or equanimity breaks through in the lines below:
If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterIn fact, in 2-38, Śrī Kṛṣṇa declares that one who is even minded, does not incur sin.
And treat those two impostors just the same.
सुखदुःखे समे कृत्वा लाभालाभौ जयाजयौ |
ततो युद्धाय युज्यस्व नैवं पापमवाप्स्यसि ||२-३८||
sukhaduHkhe same kR^itvaa laabhaalaabhau jayaajayau
tato yuddhaaya yujyasva naivaM paapamavaapsyasi .. 2-38
With even-mindedness to pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, engage in battle for the sake of battle; thus you shall not incur sin.
The lines that start with "IF you can make one heap of all your winnings" through to "never breath a word about your loss" seem to echo directly Śrī Kṛṣṇa's description of the स्थितप्रज्ञ the man of steady wisdom in Geeta 2-56.
दुःखेष्वनुद्विग्नमनाः सुखेषु विगतस्पृहः ||२-५६||
duHkheshhvanudvignamanaaH sukheshhu vigataspR^ihaH .2-56
He whose mind is not shaken by adversity, and who in prosperity does not hanker after pleasures
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,The lines above bring to mind the essential values in the seeker (13-8) that lead to wisdom, specifically, अमानितवम् humility, अदम्भित्वम् unpretentious and अार्जवम् Uprightness.
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
Pujya Gurudev summarized the Shankara Bhashya for this verse in the following words:
"Humility, अमानितवम् is the absence of exaggerated self-respect.
Being Unpretentious अदम्भित्वम् is the virtue of not proclaiming one's (own) greatness.
Uprightness अार्जवम् comes to those who harmonize thoughts, words and deeds and are always intent on right conduct."
See echose of the Geeta in any other literature. Would love to see examples.
Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post
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