Honesty is Hindrance to worldly success

Honesty is the best policy is a very well known saying. In ancient India we had a highly valued tradition of honesty. Indian spiritualism played an important role in inculcating this virtue among the people. This dictum gradually attained at the status of a religious sanction. For a very long period of our history we find that honesty continued to be the main feature of Indian social life. A number of examples may be quoted to show that people cherished the idealism of honesty and they sacrificed every thing for it. For them it was the most valuable jam of character. no worldly gains could lure them to forsake their dear ideals. Indian tradition of religion and spiritualism believed that real happiness comes from leading a pure, simple, truthful and honest life. The worldly pleasures, according to it, are false and temporary. They may satisfy one's body and mind but not the soul, the real being.

But things have undergone a sea change. This dictum is no longer regarded as a valuable asset in life. Worldly wise people consider it as a useless and dead corpse. Even the staunchest followers of honesty have deviated from this path. The causes are evident. Gone are the days of religion, spiritualism, honesty and God. We live in an age of materialism, and perhaps, materialism lives in us. The economic stress and strain has increased our materialistic demands. Everybody is after ease, comfort, luxury and enjoyment in life. There is often a gap left which everybody wants to fill by all means legal or illegal and moral or immoral. The lure of materialism has developed a deep sense of attachment to worldly gains, achievements and success.

Where There is a Will There is a Way

Where there is a will, there is way, is a well known saying. It means that everything is possible in the world, provided one has the necessary will power and determination to do it. In other words nothing is impossible in this world provided it is backed by a strong will, constant efforts and unshakable faith.

Man is different from other living beings. His desires are innumerable and ever increasing. He undertakes a number of activities in order to satisfy his desires. But in our practical life we see that all our desires are not fulfilled. One proper analysis we would discover that most of our unfulfilled desires were just wishes. A close examination will reveal that we did not make sustained efforts to fulfill those wishes. There is no reason why one should not succeed if one works with full determination for achieving one's cherished objective. It is said that God helps those who help themselves.

Let us understand that 'Will' does not mean a 'Wish'. We wish so many things. But when it comes to giving practical shape to our wishes, we find lack of determination and will power. A wish can be described as a will only if it is supported by strong determination and will power. Will is a strong desire. It is backed by firmness of purpose and resolution. Means are not so important in the fulfillment of strong desire. What  is relevant and of basic value is the unflinching determination to reach the goal or achieve the objective.  Fulfillment of will presupposes hurdles and also sacrifices to tide them over or face them undaunted. Without such firm resolution and unshakable determination to achieve the objective and also the preparedness to suffer and make sacrifices, the will remains a simple desire or wish.

Rome Was Not Built in a Day Complete Topic

There were things in the world which take a considerably long time to mature. It is the nature of a task that determines the length of time it would take to be accomplished. Some people are in the habit of getting impatient, when a task takes a little too long to complete. They do not understand or rather conveniently forget the nature of the task and start losing heart. This idiom is used to tell the impatient people that great things are not done or accomplished overnight. Such things required long time, patience and continuous effort.

Rome is the name of city in Italy. At one time it was the capital of the Roman Empire. It was the citadel of the Roman Catholic Church. It was Roman Emperor Augustas who is considered to be the real builder of Rome. Rome consisted of only a few hamlets when Augustas came to the throne. It look about 40 years for him to transform the face of Rome into a metropolis, adorned with beautiful mansions, theaters, temples, public baths and many other public buildings. It took a long time for the city to develop into a grand city of the world. In the same way every important task takes some time to be completed. There are two aspects of the matter. First, all big or important things take time to be accomplished. Secondly, one should never grow impatient if some work takes a long time. What is required is perseverance and not haste.

Beauty is Truth and Truth beauty That is All ye know on Earth and All ye Need know

Beauty to Rabindra Nath Tagore is that which gives joy without any sense of utility. It is disembodied joy. In the experience of ordinary delight there is the satisfaction of getting something, realisation of some fulfillment. But there may be some desire or want also associated with the delight of beauty. Herbet Read considers beauty as unity of formal relation among our sense-perception. It is a very fluctuating phenomenon, which finds diverse expression at different places and different times. Its consciousness conveys rhythm, unity and harmony. Spirituality, man abhors chaos, disorder and ugliness. In his heart burns a deathless desire for perfection. Thus beauty feeds the soul of man. It brings the soul in contact with a world of new dimensions-a world of Truth.

Truth is not fact. It is more generalised fact. Moulton saya, "The opposite of truth is false and that of fact is another fact. Facts are raw material which by generalisation can be manufactured into truth". Artistic truth is the emotional apprehension of fact. Ultimate truth is eternal immutable and final. It is true to all times and all ages. Realisation of  truth is the perception of higher reality behind appearances, behind the changes which are outward and superficial.

Beauty is Truth and Truth beauty That is All ye know on Earth and All ye Need know Part 2

C.M Bowra explains the relation thus: Truth is another name for ultimate reality and is discovered not by the reasoning mind but by the imagination. The imagination has a special insight into the true nature of things and Keats accepts its discoveries because they agree with his senses, resolve disagreeable discords and overwhelm him by their intensity. He is convinced that anything so discovered is true in a sense that the conclusions of philosophy are not. Keats calls this reality "beauty" because of its overpowering and all-absorbing effect on him.

In fact he substitutes the discovery of beauty through imagination for the discovery of facts through the reason and asserts that it is a more satisfactory and more certain way of piercing to the heart of things since inspired insight sees more than abstract ratiocination ever can. Keats' concern is with the imagination in a special sense, and he is not far from Coleridge in his view of it.

It is Better to Build Castles in The Air Than to Build on The Ground

The monuments of architectural skill, the symbols of human ingenuity- the Taj in India, Pyramids of Egypt, Hanging Gardens of babylon and the leaning Tower of Pisa-are subject to decay. Either the inevitable and inexorable time writers their epitaphs or man, blinded by the halo of this glory or consumed by the fiery passion for power, spells doom for them. For them, there is an impending catastrophe, may be slow, smouldering and withering into Hades or may sweep like an avalanche, or molten lava to drag to the shores of Lethe. Building with stone is not enough if man becomes stony, no use fabricating steel structures if it goes into our heart. 

Till man learns, an Ruskin opines, to build well, not with stone but with flesh, not with cold white marble but with the warm and crimson blood, till he learns that temples are not made with bricks but are riveted with hearts, his magnificence will be meaningless. Are the 'castles in the air' eternal? Are such conceptions not deceptive, empty of content and meaning? Will not one, while blundering in the smokescreen of vague visions, be lost earthly castles are destroyed once in centuries, visions can be demolished any time. T.S. Eliot's prufrock with a sense of satisfaction considers a single moment sufficient to undo his decision.  

It is Better to Build Castles in The Air Than to Build on The Ground Part 3

Imagination is generally considered a help to escape the bitterness of life. Keats in one of his poems calls it a deceiving "elf". Still it cannot be called bad in any sense of the word. Many a time we want to be deceived because we are too weak to stand realities, we want to escape because life becomes dull and mechanical routine, imagination can make us to forget the worries of life and to smile at the crushing cares. It takes us into the regions where we feel comfortable, happy and satisfied. 

Getting happiness in life has been one of the great enigmas for the philosophers. The Buddha may recommend spiritual, meditation for getting happiness. Stoics may ask you 'Drink and be merry'. When imagination can afford a solution for such an enigmatic problem, we should consider it one of the best activities of mind.

It is Better to Build Castles in The Air Than to Build on The Ground Part 2

When we build castles in the air our imagination works at white heat. Imagination is purer form of men activity. It needs detachment from personal emotions an personal
prejudices. Imagination widens outlook and endows us with the faculty to judge correctly. Intuition is perhaps the purest form of imagination that is spiritual imagination. We can include even prophecy and spiritual enlightenment within its fold. They colour the feelings, which serve as the driving force in life. 

Visions, when they get relevance in the context of life, become thoughts and thoughts and feelings cannot recognise a common frontier - as one discovers no common frontier between an ugly, fashionable woman and the scent that she has used. These 'castles' help us in balancing intuition and reason into a technique by which we can evaluate the world of facts.