मौत से दोस्ती

 इन्सान सिर्फ़ मौत से बचने के लिए ही नहीं जीता। अगर वह ऐसा करता है , तो मेरी सलाह है कि वह ऐसा न करे।मेरी सलाह है कि वह मौत को अधिक नहीं तो कम से कम ज़िन्दगी जितना प्यार करना सीखे। कोई कह सकता है कि यह एक मुश्किल बात है और इस पर अमल करना भी मुश्किल है। मगर हर उचित काम मुश्किल तो होता ही है। चढ़ाई हमेशा मुश्किल होती है और उतराई आसान और अक्सर फिसलन  भरी होती है। ज़िन्दगी तभी तक जीने लायक़ होती है जबतक मौत को दुश्मन नहीं बल्कि दोस्त माना जाता है। ज़िन्दगी के प्रलोभनों को जीतने के लिए मौत की मदद लीजिए ।मौत को टालने के लिए एक कायर आदमी इज़्ज़त, पत्नी, पुत्री सब कुछ सौंप देता है।और एक बहादुर आदमी अपनी इज़्ज़त खोने के बजाय मौत को गले लगाना ज़्यादा पसन्द करता है।जब वक़्त आयेगा, जो कि आ सकता है, तब मैं अपनी सलाह लोगों की कल्पना के लिए नहीं छोड़ूँगा , बल्कि उसे ठोस शब्दों में व्यक्त करके दिखाऊँगा।

२३ नवंबर १९४७

महात्मा गांधी 

ईश्वर एक कविता है

 

ईश्वर एक कविता है

सुन्दर, अबूझ, आधुनिक कविता 

छन्दों में बँधा नहीं—मुक्त ।

 

सोच की जो सीमा है अपनी

उसी से आगे निकला  है वह असीम।

थामे है सृष्टि को 

हल्के हाथों से,

बहुत हल्के 

इतने कि 

अहसास ही नहीं 

उसकी छुअन का।

 

इसीलिए

जो होता है,

होने देता है;

जो नहीं होता

उसे भी यदा-कदा

होने देता है ।

 

दूर गगन में जो दृष्टि है

जाँचती-परखती है—

कसौटी अनजान है

अच्छा-बुरा शुभ-अशुभ 

उसकी मुस्कान है

प्रश्न चिह्न हमारे हैं— वह पूर्ण विराम है।

 

राजीव १०.१०.२०२०

 

 

From a letter of Mahatma Gandhi

 आपका पत्र मिला। मुझे पढ़ कर दु:ख हुआ ।…… आज हम कहाँ जा रहे हैं? मेरी समझ में यह बात नहीं आतीं कि हम ऐसा क्यों कहते हैं या मानते हैं कि हमारे देश में एक भी मुस्लिम नहीं रहना चाहिए? ऐसा करेंगे तो मैं आपको कहना चाहता हूँ कि आप फिर गुलाम बननेवाले हैं।  “आप” इसलिए लिखता हूँ कि मैं फिर से ग़ुलामी देखना नहीं चाहता हूँ । मेरी उम्मीद है कि वह दिन आएगा उसके पहले ईश्वर मुझे उठा लेगा।

आज हमारा नया साल है।ईश्वर हम सबको सन्मति दे और सही रास्ते पर ले जाए।

१३ नवंबर १९४७

दिल्हीमाँ गान्धीजी पृष्ठ २७०-२७१

God’s work

 What do I do when I want to change a bristle into a

cobbler's thread ?

How do I treat these articles ?

With the greatest attention, care, tenderness, almost

love.

What does the watchmaker do as he puts together a

watch, if he is a master and indeed knows how to make

a watch ?

All his fingers are busy : some of them hold a wheel;

others place an axle in position, and others again move up

a peg

All this he does softly, tenderly. He knows that

if he rudely sticks one thing into another, and even if he

presses a little too hard on one part, forgetting another

part, the whole will go to pieces, and that he had better

not attend to this matter, if he cannot devote all his forces

to it.

I say all this for this purpose:

At first people live not knowing why ; they live only

for their enjoyment, which takes the place of their question,

" What for ? " but later there comes a time for every

rational being, when it asks " What for ? " and receives

that answer which Christ gave and which we all know,

« To do God's work."

Is it possible God's work is less important, or less complicated,

than bristles or a watch ?

Is it possible God's work may be done at haphazard,

and all come out right ?

In a watch one cannot press too hard upon a part

needed ; but the defenders of the worldly life say, " What

is the use of being finical : if a thing does not fit in, bang

it with the hammer, and it will go in." It does not matter

to them that the rest will all be flattened. They do

not see this.

It is impossible to work over a watch without giving

it full attention and, so to speak, love for all its parts. Is

it possible that one may do God's work in such a way ?

It is all very well for a man to do God's work at haphazard

(that is, not to live in love with his brothers), if he

does not believe fully that his work is God's work. But

when he comes to believe that the meaning of his life

consists in nothing but cooperating for the union of men

he cannot help but abandon himself to Him whose work

he is doing ; he can no longer without attention, care, or

love treat all men with whom he comes in contact, because

all men are wheels, pegs, and cogs of God's work.

The difference between such a man and a watchmaker

is only this, that the watchmaker knows what will result

from all the parts ; but a man, in doing God's work, does

not know, does not see the external side of the work. A

man is rather an apprentice, who hands, cleans, oils, and

partly unites the component parts of the watch, which is

unknown to him in form, but known in its essence (the

good).

I want to say that a man who believes that his life is

the fulfilment of God's work ought to labour until he

gets seriousness, attention, care in his relations with men, —such caution as will make squeaking, force, breakage impossible, and all will always be soft and loving, not

for his own pleasure, but because this is the only condition

under which God's work is possible.

When this condition is wanting, one or the other is

necessary,— to attain this condition, or to throw up God's

work and stop deceiving oneself and others.

As the watchmaker stops his work the moment there

is some grating or squeaking, so also must a believer stop

as soon as there is an inimical relation to a man, and he

must know that, no matter how little important this man

may seem to him, there is nothing more important for

him than his relation to this man, so long as there is a

squeaking between them.

And this is so, because a man is an indispensable wheel

in God's work, and so long as he does not enter amicably

where he ought to enter the whole work comes to a

stop.

The relations among men make it obligatory upon

them to find in each of them and in themselves " the son

of man," to unite with him,— to evoke in themselves and

in him a desire to approach him, that is, love.

I shall be told, " this is hard to find."

All you have to do is to act like the watchmaker:

tenderly, carefully, not for yourself, but for the work, and

it will come to you naturally.

A disunion takes place for no other reason than that

I want by force to drive an axle into the wrong wheel.

If it does not fit one way or another, mend yourself:

there is a place for it,—it is necessary and will do the

work somewhere.

As you attain your aim and get the better of the work

in making boots or watches, not by a tension of strength,

but by care, by tenderness of treatment, so it is also with

the treatment of men. And not only is it so, but as

many times more so, as a man is more complex and more

delicate than a watch.

It is not possible to work one's feelers out sufficiently

well to treat people with them. And the longer and so

the thinner these feelers are, the more powerfully do they

move people.

I wish that a man who is near to me should not lead

an idle and luxurious life.

I can, with my rudeness, take away from him the possibility

of luxury and compel him to work. If I do so, I

shall not advance God's work one hair's breadth,—I shall

not move the man's soul.

If I extend my feelers more finely and farther out, I

shall prove logically and incontestably to him that he is

a dissipated and despised man. And with this I shall

not advance God's work, but shall only live with him in

communion, seeking out and strengthening everything

which unites us, and keeping away from everything which

is foreign to me. And if I myself do God's work and

live by it, I shall more certainly than death draw this

man to God and cause him to do God's work.

We have become so accustomed in the worldly life to

attain our aims by means of the stick of power, of authority,

or even by means of the stick of logical thought, that

we want to do the same in God's work.

But one stick jumps upon another.

But God's work is done with very delicate feelers, for

which there are no obstacles.

LEO TOLSTOY

Equilibrium in nature

 The whole day we wandered over the Charred Wood. At evening--the sunset had not yet begun to redden in the sky, but the shadows from the trees already lay long and motionless, and in the grass one could feel that chill that comes before the dew--I lay down by the roadside near the cart in which Kondrat, without haste, was harnessing the horses after their feed, and I recalled my cheerless reveries of the day before.

Everything around was as still as the previous evening, but there was not the forest,stifling and weighing down the spirit. On the dry moss,
on the crimson grasses, on the soft dust of the road, on the slender stems and pure little leaves of the young birch-trees, lay the clear
soft light of the no longer scorching, sinking sun. Everything was resting, plunged in soothing coolness; nothing was yet asleep, but
everything was getting ready for the restoring slumber of evening and night-time. Everything seemed to be saying to man: 'Rest, brother of
ours; breathe lightly, and grieve not, thou too, at the sleep close before thee.' 
I raised my head and saw at the very end of a delicate twig one of those large flies with emerald head, long body, and four transparent wings, which the fanciful French call 'maidens,' while our guileless people has named them 'bucket-yokes.' For a long while, more than an hour, I did not take my eyes off her. Soaked through and through with sunshine, she did not stir, only from time to time turning her head from side to side and shaking her lifted wings ... that was all. Looking at her, it suddenly seemed to me that I understood the life of nature, understood its clear and unmistakable though, to many,
still mysterious significance. A subdued, quiet animation, an unhasting, restrained use of sensations and powers, an equilibrium of
health in each separate creature--there is her very basis, her unvarying law, that is what she stands upon and holds to. Everything
that goes beyond this level, above or below--it makes no difference--she flings away as worthless. Many insects die as soon as
they know the joys of love, which destroy the equilibrium. The sick beast plunges into the thicket and expires there alone: he seems to
feel that he no longer has the right to look upon the sun that is common to all, nor to breathe the open air; he has not the right to
live;--and the man who from his own fault or from the fault of others is faring ill in the world--ought, at least, to know how to keep
silence.


Turgenev (A Tour of the Forest)

Peace

 There are two kinds of peace. There is the peace `in one's bones' in oneself. This is the first priority, because at times a person has no peace in himself, as it is written: `There is no peace in

my bones because of my sin' (Psalms 38:4). When a person develops genuine fear of Heaven he can attain peace within himself. Through this he is able to pray. And prayer leads to the second kind of peace universal peace, when there is peace in all the worlds As peace spreads in the world the whole world can be drawn to serve God with one accord.

Moral purity leads to peace.

The real meaning of peace is to fit together two opposites. So you shouldn't be disturbed when you come across someone who is the exact opposite of yourself and thinks the exact opposite. Do not assume you will never be able to live amicably with him. And similarly if you see two people who are completely opposite types, you should not decide it is impossible to make peace between them. Quite the contrary! Perfect peace is achieved through the effort to
make peace between two opposites, just as God makes peace in His high places between Fire and Water, which are two opposites. The way to achieve peace is through complete self-sacrifice to
sanctify the name of God. Then it is possible to pray with genuine devotion . 

God always takes into account the good that people do. It may be that something not so good was mixed up with it, but God pays no attention to this. If this is God's way, how much more so
should we attempt to do the same. Never look for the bad side of other people or hunt out their shortcomings and weak points when it comes to religion. Look only for the good and always
search out the merit and worth in them. You will then be at peace with everybody.

R Nachman

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When we two first met

 

WHEN WE two first met my heart rang out in music, 

‘She who is eternally afar is beside you for ever.'

That music is silent, 

because I have grown to believe that my love is only near, 
and have forgotten that she is also far, far away.
 Music fills the infinite between two souls. 
This has been muffled by the mist of our daily habits.
 On shy summer nights, when the breeze brings a vast murmur out of the silence, I sit up in my bed and mourn the great loss of her who is beside me.
I ask myself, 'When shall I have another chance to whisper to her words with the rhythm of eternity in them?'
Wake up, my song, from thy languor, rend this screen of the familiar, and fly to my beloved there, in the endless surprise of our first meeting!

Rabindranath

Violence is temptation

 

Violence is a temptation because it frees us from the strain of 

attention,  from the work of reasoning: one must labour to undo a 

knot; to cut it, is shorter

Tolstoy (a Jounal entry, 1895)

Merciful heart will receive mercy

 

Just as a thought is made manifest through actions and words,

so is our future reward  through the impulses of the heart.

Thus a merciful heart will receive mercy,

while a merciless heart will receive the opposite.

St Mark The Ascetic

Self-rule

True worth of a man seems to me to consist in his capacity to  resist his surroundings. It is the measure of his self-realization. If we control ourselves we cannot be controlled by others, not even by our surroundings, not fashion, nor food, nor spectacles, nor games, nor company, nor hobbies. There is no true happiness without this real self-rule.

Gandhi (from a  LETTER TO HERMANN KALLENBACH dated 26-11-1915)

Knowing the truths that are most useful

 In order to be always disposed to judge well, it seems to

me, only two things are needed: •knowledge of the truth and
•a dependable practice of remembering and assenting to this
knowledge whenever the occasion demands. But because
nobody except God knows everything perfectly, we have to
settle for knowing the truths that are most useful to us.

(1) The first and chief of these is that there is a God
on whom all things depend, whose perfections are infinite,
whose power is immense and whose decrees are infallible.
This teaches us to accept with a good spirit everything that
happens to us, as expressly sent by God. Moreover, since the
true object of love is perfection, when we lift up our minds
to think about God as he is we find ourselves naturally so
inclined to love him that we even rejoice in our afflictions,
through the thought that he wills that they should come to
us.

(2) The second thing we must know is the nature of
our soul: that it •doesn’t need the body in order to stay
in existence, •is much nobler than the body, and •is capable
of enjoying countless satisfactions that aren’t to be found
in this life. This prevents us from fearing death, and moves
us so far from caring about the things of this world that we
regard as negligible anything that fortune can do to us.

(3) We can be greatly helped towards this ·frame of mind
or condition of soul· by judging the works of God in the way
they deserve and by having the capacious idea of the extent
of the universe that I tried to make conceivable in the third
book of my Principles. For if we imagine that
•beyond the heavens there is nothing but imaginary
spaces, and that
•all the heavens are made only for the service of the
earth and
•the earth is made only for man,
this ·has three bad effects on us·. •It inclines us to think
that this earth is our principal home and that this life is the
best life we will have. •Instead of knowing the perfections
that we really do have, we get a sense of our perfections
by comparing ourselves with other creatures to which we
attribute imperfections that they don’t have. •With preposterous
self-importance we want to be in God’s confidence and
to join him in running the world—which causes an infinity
of pointless anxieties and frustrations.

(4) After acknowledging the goodness of God, the immortality
of our souls and the immensity of the universe, there is
one more truth that seems to me to be most useful to know,
namely this:
Although each of us is a person separate from others,
and therefore with interests that differ somewhat from
those of the rest of the world, each of us ought still
to think that he couldn’t survive on his own, and
that he is really one of the parts of the universe, and
more particularly a part of this earth, of this state,
of this society, of this family—to which he is joined
by where he lives, by his oath ·of allegiance·, by his
birth. And the interests of the whole of which he is a
part should always be put before his own individual
personal interests.
In a measured and thoughtful way, however; for •it would
be wrong for him to expose himself to a great evil in order to
procure only a slight benefit for his relatives or his country,
and •if he on his own is worth more than all the rest of his
city, it would be wrong for him to sacrifice himself to save
it. But someone who saw everything in relation to himself
wouldn’t shrink from greatly harming other men when he
believed that this would bring him some small benefit. Such
a person would have no true friendship, no fidelity—quite
generally no virtue. On the other hand, someone who
•considers himself a part of the community takes pleasure
in doing good to everyone, and isn’t afraid of even risking
his life in the service of others when the occasion demands;
indeed, he would be willing to lose his soul, if he could, to
save others. So this way of •considering oneself—·namely as
a part of something larger·—is the source and origin of all
the most heroic actions men do. ·But let us be careful about
what we identify as heroism·. Someone who risks death for
reasons of vanity (he hopes to be praised) or out of stupidity
(he doesn’t see the danger) is to be pitied more than prized.
Now think about someone who risks death because he thinks
it is his duty, or suffers some other harm in order to bring
good to others. It may be that when he thinks about it he
doesn’t think he did it because he owes more to the public
of which he is a part than to himself in particular, but
that is why he acted as he did, and this reason has become
confused in his mind. A person is naturally drawn to have
it—·i.e. this thought of being part of a larger whole·—when
he knows and loves God as he should. For then, abandoning
himself completely to God’s will, he strips himself of his own
interests and has only one passion—to do what he believes
would be agreeable to God. This brings him satisfactions of
the mind, contentments, that are worth incomparably more
than all the transient little joys that depend on the senses.

(5) In addition to these truths that generalize over all our
actions, we ought to know many other truths that concern
more particularly each individual action. The chief of these,
in my view, are the ones I mentioned in my last letter, namely:
•All our passions represent to us the goods that they
incite us to seek as being much greater than they
really are;
•The pleasures of the body are never as lasting as those
of the soul, or as great when we have them as they
appear when we are looking forward to them.
We should carefully take this in, so that •when we feel ourselves
moved by some passion we’ll suspend our judgment
until it calms down and •we won’t let ourselves easily be
deceived by the false appearance of the goods of this world.

(6) I have only this to add, that we ought to examine in
detail all the customs of the place where we are living, so as
to see how far they should be followed. Although we can’t
have certain demonstrations of everything, we ought to make
choices and (in matters of custom) embrace the opinions
that seem the most probable. Why? So that when there’s
a need for action we won’t be irresolute; because nothing
causes regret and repentance except irresolution.

Finally, just this: As I said before, if one is to be disposed
always to judge well, one needs not only •knowledge of the
truth but also •habit. ·Here is why·. Suppose that in the past
we have been convinced of some truth P by clear and evident
reasons; we can’t keep anything—·e.g. those reasons·— in
mind continually; so in the course of time we might be led
by false appearances to turn away from believing P; and our
protection against that is by long and frequent meditation
on P to imprint it in our mind so ·deeply· that it turns into a
•habit. In this sense the scholastics are right when they say
that virtues are habits; for our failings are indeed usually
due not to lack of •theoretical knowledge of what we should
do but to lack of practical knowledge—i.e. lack of a firm habit
of belief. 

Descartes

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Prayer

 

Father in heaven!

You hold all the good gifts in your gentle hand.

Your abundace is richer than can be grasped by human understanding. 

You are willing to give, and your goodness is beyond the understanding of a human heart, because you fulfill every prayer and give what we pray for 

or what is far better than what we pray for. 

Give everyone his allotted share as it is well pleasing to you, but also give everyone the assurance that everything comes from you , 

so that joy will not tear us away from you in the forgetfulness of pleasure,

so that sorrow will not seperate you from us,

but in joy we may go to you and in sorrow remain with you,

so that when our days are numbered and the outer being is wasting away, 

death may not come in its own name , cold and terrible,

but gentle and friendly, with greetings and news, with witness from you, 

our Father who is in heaven !Amen.

Soren Kierkegaard

Love will hide a multitude of sins

 Love is blind , declares an old proverb, and it does not thereby suggest an imperfection in the lover or an original condition in him, since only love had won a place in his soul , only then did he become blind and then became more and more blind as love became victorious within him. To the pure all things are pure , declares an old saying, and does not thereby suggest an imperfection in the one who is pure that should gradually disappear; on the contrary, the purer he becomes, the purer everything becomes for him.

It does not depend ,then, merely upon what one sees, but what one sees depends upon how one sees; all observation is not just a receiving , a discovering, but also a bringing forth, and insofar as it is that, how the observer himself is constituted is indeed decisive. When one person sees one thing and another sees something else in the same thing, then the one discovers what the other conceals.


The difference is not in the external but in the internal and everything that makes a person impure and his obsevation impure comes from within.The external eye does not matter, but an evil eye comes from within. But an evil eye discovers much that love does not see , since an evil eye even sees that the Lord acts unjustly when he is good. When evil lives in the heart , the eye sees offense , but when purity lives in the heart , the eye sees finger of God. The pure always see God, but he who does evil does not see god. 


A person's inner being, then, detemines what he discovers and what he hides. When an appetite for sin lives in the heart , the eye discovers the multiplicity of sin and makes it even more multiple, because the eye is the lamp of the body , but if the lamp that is in a person is dark, then how great is the darkness! When love lives in the heart the eye is shut and does not discover the open act of sin, to say nothing of the concealed act. When love lives in the heart. a person understands slowly and does not hear at all words said in haste and does not understand them when repeated because he assigns them a good position and a good meaning; he does not understand long angry or insulting verbal assault , because he is waitng for one more word that will give it meaning. ... When joy, peace, patience, gentleness, faithfulness,kindness,meekness,continence live in the heart no wonder then that a person , even if he stood in the multiplicity of sin , would become a stranger , a foreigner, who would understand only very little of the customs of the country; if an explanation were required of him , what a covering of a multitude of sins this would be.


Happy the person who saw the world in all its perfection when everything was still very good; happy the person who with God was witness to the glory of creation. More blessed the soul that was God's co-worker in love; blessed the love that hides a multitude of sins.


Soren Kierkegaard

Silently growing in God

 

From the very start, everything that is good in a person is silent, and just as it is essentially God's nature to live in secret, so also the good in a person lives in secret. Every resolution that is fundamentally good is silent, because it has God as its confidant and went to him in private; every holy feeling that is fundamentally good is silent and concealed by a modesty that is holier than a woman's: every pure sympathy for the human that is fundamentally good is silent, because it is hidden in God: every emotion of the heart is silent, since the lips are sealed and only the heart expanded. How dismal if people forget that when everything becomes silent, when no one mentions or relates what is occurring within, when silence grows around a person, that he then can be with God in secret!

Kierkegaard

Thoughts of Simone Weil

 

We do not have to understand new things, but by dint of patience, effort and method to come to understand with our whole self the truths which are evident.

We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will.

Attention taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love.

Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.

If we turn our mind towards the good, it is impossible that little by little the whole soul will not be attracted thereto in spite of itself.

Extreme attention is what constitutes the creative faculty in man and the only extreme attention is religious. 

The capacity to drive a thought away once and for all is the gateway to eternity. The infinite in an instant.

As regards temptations, we must follow the example of the truly chaste woman who, when the seducer speaks to her, makes no answer and pretends not to hear him.

The attention turned with love towards God ( or in a lesser degree towards anything which is truly beautiful) makes certain things impossible for us. Such is the non-acting action of prayer in the soul. There are ways of behaviour which would veil such attention should they be indulged in and which, reciprocally, this attention puts out of question.

As soon as we have a point of eternity in the soul, we have nothing more to do but to take care of it, for it will grow of itself like a seed. 

We can only know one thing about God- that he is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image of this. The more we contemplate it, the more we contemplate him.

Sin is nothing else but the failure to recognise human wretchedness.

The recognition of human wretchedness is difficult for whoever is rich and powerful because he is almost invincibly led to believe that he is something. It is equally difficult for the man in miserable circumstances because he is almost invincibly led to believe that the rich and powerful man is someting.

Purity is the power to contemplate defilement.

Prayer and attention

 Prayer is made of attention. It is the direction towards God of all the attention that the soul is capable of. The quality of the attention makes for much of the quality of the prayer. It cannot be replaced by the heart's warmth. Only the highest part of the attention comes into contact with God, when the prayer is intense and pure enough for such a contact to occur; but all the attention is directed towards God

Although today this seems unknown, the training of the faculty of attention is the true goal and almost only value of all study. Most school exercises have a certain intrinsic value, but this is secondary. All exercises that require the same power of attention are of interest, almost equally so.

There is never a case when an effort of attention is lost. It will always be spiritually effective, and, also in the long run, effective on the inferior level of intelligence, for any spiritual light illuminates intelligence.

If one seeks the solution to a geometry problem with real attention, and if, after an hour, one has made no progress whatsoever, one has nevertheless progressed during each minute of this hour, in another more mysterious dimension. Without feeling it or knowing it, this apparently sterile and fruitless effort has put more light into the soul. The fruit will be found one day, later, in prayer. .. this much is certain, of this there is no doubt.

Simone Weil

Compassion

 There are only three fundamental springs of human conduct, and all possible motives arise from one or other of these. They are:

[Pg 172]

(a) Egoism; which desires the weal of the self, and is limitless.

(b) Malice; which desires the woe of others, and may develop to the utmost cruelty.

(c) Compassion; which desires the weal of others, and may rise to nobleness and magnanimity.

......when the ultimate incentive for doing something, or leaving it undone, is precisely and exclusively centred in the weal and woe of some one else, who plays a passive part; that is to say, when the person on the active side, by what he does, or omits to do, simply and solely regards the weal and woe of another, and has absolutely no other object than to benefit him, by keeping harm from his door, or, it may be, even by affording help, assistance, and relief. It is this aim alone that gives to what is done, or left undone, the stamp of moral worth; which is thus seen to depend exclusively on the circumstance that the act is carried out, or omitted, purely for the benefit and advantage[Pg 169] of another. If and when this is not so, then the question of weal and woe which incites to, or deters from, every action contemplated, can only relate to the agent himself; whence its performance, or non-performance is entirely egoistic, and without moral value.

Schopenhauer

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A daily prayer

 O Lord, grant unto me that with Thy peace I may greet all that this day is to bring. 

Grant unto me grace to surrender myself completely to Thy holy will.

In every hour of this day instruct and guide me in all things. Whatever tidings I may receive during this day, do Thou teach me to accept tranquilly in the firm belief that Thy holy will governs all. 

Govern Thou my thoughts and feelings in all I do and say. 

When unforseen things occur, let me not forget that all is sent by Thee.

Teach me to behave sincerely and reasonably toward everyone, that I may bring confusion and sorrow to no one. 

Bestow on me, O Lord, strength to endure the fatigue of the day and to bear my part in its events.

Guide Thou my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to suffer, to forgive, and to love.

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by one of Optina Elders

For whom are you working

 In Roptchitz, the town where Rabbi Naftali lived, it was the custom for the  rich people whose houses stood isolated or at the far end of the town to hire men to watch over their property by night. Late one evening when Rabbi Naftali was skirting the woods which circled the city, he met such a watchman walking up and down. "For whom are you working ?" he asked. The man told him and then inquired in his turn : "And for whom are you working, Rabbi?"

The words struck the zaddik like a shaft. "I am not working for anybody just yet." he barely managed to say. Then he walked up and down beside the man for a long time. "Will you be my servant?" the rabbi finally asked. "For what purpose?" the man inquired. "To remind me." said Rabbi Naftali, "to remind me that I am working for God."

William B Silverman

Learning from birds

 --> As I walked outside, I saw birds flying, and I realized how similar we are to the birds. If we want, we have the power to rise higher and higher. We learn from the birds, though, that to remain high, the bird must constantly flap its wings. The human, too, has to be constantly engaged in maintaining the level he has reached in yiras Shamayim (fear of Heaven). If he stops trying any time, he will plunge downward to the earth.

R' Yisrael Salanter 

Like card players

 --> When I was a young boy I observed a number of people playing cards. After watching them for a while, I learned that if a person has a bad hand of cards, he tries to get rid of it as fast as possible, while if a person has a good hand, he holds on to it as much as possible and conceals it from all other players.

From this I learned two important rules in serving Hashem (God). First, if a person has any evil traits , he must strive to get rid of them as fast as possible. Second, if he has any good qualities, he should keep them to himself and not show them to anyone else.

Rebbe of Gostynin

Rabbi and the calf

 Rabbi Judah the Prince was seated teaching the Torah amidst the great congregation of Babylon, in Zipori, when a calf that was being led to the slaughter escaped, came up to him and cried, as if to say: "Save me." He said to it: "What can I do for thee? For this thou wast formed."

And for thirteen years from that day our great Rabbi was punished by suffering agony with his teeth. . . . At the end of this period, a little reptile was, one day, passing in front of Rabbi Judah's daughter and she wished to kill it, but the Rabbi said to her: "My daughter, let it alone; for it is written (Ps. cxiv.), 'His mercies are over all His works. . . .'" Then Elijah the Prophet appeared in a vision unto Rabbi Judah, wearing the appearance of Rabbi Chyia (a rabbi with whom Rabbi Judah had not been on friendly terms), and laid his hand on the teeth, which were immediately healed.

Henceforth Rabbi Judah was exceedingly friendly with Rabbi Chyia, and showed him great honour.

from Talmud

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The adult is too clever

 The adult is too clever. Utility is his guiding light. The experience of God is not a businesslike affair. Only the child can breach the boundaries that segregate the finite from the infinite. Only the child with his simple faith and fiery enthusiasm can make the miraculous leap into the bosom of God... The giants of Torah - when it came to faith, became little children, with all their ingenuousness, gracefulness, simplicity, their tremors of fear, the vivid sense of experience to which they are devoted.

Fav Soloveichik 

Remove crookedness of your heart

 And joy is mainly in the heart, as is written (Ps. 4): "You gave joy in my heart." And it is impossible for the heart to rejoice, until he removes the crookedness in his heart, that he should have straightness of heart, and then he will merit to simchah (joy), as is written (Ps. 97): "And gladness for the streaight of heart."

R Nachman (Likutei Moharan 5.3)

Rebbe Mikhal

 Rebbe Mikhal of Zlotchev was asked an embarrassing question: “You are poor, Rebbe. And yet everyday you thank God for taking care of your needs. Isn’t that a lie?”

“Not at all. You see, for me poverty is a need.”

.............

One of his prayers: “I have but one request; may I never use my reason against truth.”

......

Like all of the Ball Shem’s disciples he dreaded pride. He said: “When I shall meet my Maker, I will be asked why I didn’t learn all that man can and must learn during his passage on earth. I shall reply: Don’t blame me. I wasn’t intelligent enough, that is hardly my fault.”

“ Then why didn’t you give up earthly pleasures and devote yourself to serving the Lord?” —— “You must not blame me, I shall say, I lacked the physical strength for that. Then the court will examine my humanitarian activities and I shall be forced to admit that here too I failed to do my duty. My excuse? That I myself led a destitute existence. In the end, I can foresee it, one of the judges, unable to restrain his anger, will cry out : “One thing I cannot understand. You neither lived nor prayed as you should have, why then you are so proud?” And to that” said Rebbe Mikhal , “ to that argument I shall have no answer.”

Elie Wiesel

from Souls on Fire

Rebbe Wolfe

 One day his (Rebbe Wolfe’s) wife quarrelled with their servant in his presence. Seeing the two women leave for the rabbinical court, he got up, put on his Shabbat clothes and followed them there.

“Why did you take the trouble?” asked his wife, “I don’t need your help.”

“You don’t, but the servant does. You, they know; but she is a poor orphan. No one will help her, no one will plead her cause.”

Elie Wiesel

from Souls on Fire

Put some order into your life

 Once upon a time, somewhere in a Lithuanian village, a certain Eliezer Lipman, known for his wealth and generosity, meets a beggar on the way to the village. He stops his carriage and invites him to get in.

The beggar refuses: “I still have not earned anything all day.”

“How much could you possibly earn?”

“A lot. Twenty five ducats, Maybe”

“I will give them to you, come along.”

“No” says the stubborn beggar, “I can’t “

“Why not? Since you won’t lose anything!”

“True- but money is not everything. I must think of the people who regularly, once a week, open their doors and hearts to me. If they don’t see me today, they’ll worry.”

“Don’t let that worry you, I’ll go myself—I’ll go from door to door—to reassure them on your behalf. But do come along— I can’t bear to see you walk so far”

Dropping his mask, the beggar—a messenger in disguise— congratulates Eliezer on passing the test. “As a reward, you may look into your future. The fact is, you have only one year to live. I tell you this to you so that you use the time to good advantage and put some order into your life.”

Eliezer gave up his business and devoted himself so completely and exclusively to serving God, that he was granted a twenty year reprieve.

And five children including Zusia and Elimelekh.

Elie Wiesel 

from Souls on Fire 

Elimelekh and Zusia

 One night while the brothers were still leading a deliberately anonymous and restless existence, they were stranded at a village inn where a wedding was being celebrated.

Excited by the wine and noise, a band of ruffians, eager for new distractions, decided to have some fun with the two uninvited guests huddled in a dark corner behind the hearth. For no particular reason , Zusia was the one they grabbed. They made him twirl and stumble and let the blows rain on him before letting him go. An hour later they started all over. And so it went until late into night.

“Why does it have to be you, always you?” whispered Elimelekh.

“Such is the will of God” Zusia groaned weakly.

“I have an idea. Let us change places. They are too drunk to notice. You’ll see, next time they’ll take me- you’ll be able to rest.”

He was wrong. For at this very moment one of the drunkards cried out, “But there are two of them! And it is always the same we honour with our company! That is not good, that’s not right! Let’s take a look at his friend....”

Later, Zusia told his brother; “You see? It isn’t up to us; we are powerless. Everything is written.”

*

All his life Elimelekh aspired to fulfill himself through suffering, which taunted him by eluding him. Whereas Zusia, constantly beaten by life and tormented by Him who gives life, considered himself to be the happiest of men.

*

 

“Zusia, how can you thank the Lord? What about your suffering?”

“My suffering?” asked Zusia amazed, “Who is suffering? Not I. I am happy. Zusia is happy to live in the world that God blessed be He, created. Zusia lacks nothing, needs nothing. Everything he wants , Zusia has, and his heart is filled with gratitude.”

He had not even understood the question. On another occasion he nevertheless felt it necessary to explain the problem of good and evil, and he did it in his inimitable way: “True, suffering exists. Like everything it too comes from God. Why does it exist? I’ll tell you: man is too weak to accept or absorb divine charity, which is absolute. For that reason, and that reason alone, does God cover it with the veil that is pain.”

In his extreme naïveté, he simply could not conceive of anything in creation not testifying to God’s mercy. Unhappiness he dismissed as a figment of the mind. Wounds were opened only to be healed. When his own wife made his life miserable , he showed her his pillow, drenched with tears, and she repented and became good. No tear is in vain, no prayer goes unheard. If woman can be moved, would God remain inflexible? Man has no reason to complain.

*

He came to an inn and noticed birds in a cage Naturally he freed them. And naturally the innkeeper thought otherwise—and gave him a lesson without words. No matter , here was Zusia, back on the road, his body aching but his spirits high, carefree and deliriously happy. Man is made to be happy, even when his tormented flesh cries out in pain.

Elie Wiesel 

from Souls on Fire 

Bitter, not bad

 When a person suffers, he shouldn’t say that things are bad. Rather, he should say that the situation is bitter. The Almighty does nothing bad. Just as medicine, although it might be bitter, is beneficial, so too events are always beneficial even if they are bitter.

Rabbi Moshe of Kobrin

quoted in Gateway to Happiness 

It would hurt

 The Chofetz Chayim once asked someone how his financial situation was. The person replied, “It wouldn’t hurt if it would be a little better.” 

“It would hurt,” the Chofetz Chayim told him. “What the Almighty does for you is for your best interests.”

from Gateway to Happiness 

Refined through prayer

 It is the nature of gold and silver that they are refined through the heat of fire.

If we, after we have prayed, do not feel that we have been refined and improved then maybe the reason is that we are made of a baser metal or our prayer was not filled with enough fire.

Rabbi Phineas Shapiro, the Koretzer Rebbe