Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Sleeping Beauty

We must have read the story of the princess, called the Sleeping Beauty. The sleeping princess came to life once again when the charming prince came along and provided the enchanted kiss.

I believe, there are sleeping beauties in all of us. We only need the kiss of enchantment to awaken those sleeping beauties. Man is good by nature, but to bring about that goodness into play, all we need is the proper stimulus. But the questions are how do we get it? And how do we provide it to others? Chandasoka, the cruel prince became the noblest ruler the world has ever known. He was called CHANDA because he was ruthless and cruel. It is said he killed all his brothers to gain his father’s throne. But, the horrible spectacle and experiences of the war of Kalinga stirred up the noble man in him. And so was born Ashoka the Great.

Abdul Qadir, the little boy from Persia, would not tell a lie and, therefore, he told the robbers that he had money sewn into his clothes. And what was the effect of this simple act of truthfulness? The robbers abandoned their wicked path and became good men. The example of Damon and Pythias, the friends who did not hesitate to bet one’s life for the other softened even a very cruel king into forgiving them. Not only that, the King gave up the path of cruelty after that incident. The great sense of justice of King Prahlad not only won him praise but also the life of his son Virochana when he decided a case in favour of another, even when his son’s life was at stake. General Washington’s small act of helping two young soldiers to lift and roll a log changed the whole outlook of the officers of his army.

These and the many things we read about the goodness of man and the finer points of human character are the enchanted kisses, the enchanted kisses that awaken the goodness which lies in us all.

It is not that anyone lacks goodness. Everyone has it, only one has to be made aware of it and the realization that by being good, what a fine person one can be.

It is said that man is the product of his environment. The way one behaves and acts may be the result of what one has seen and experienced in the surroundings that one lives in. but we cannot call a person a man of strong character if he adopts both the good and the evil. A person with a strong character resists what is evil and prompts what is good not only in himself, but in his surroundings, too. So while man may be said to be the product of his environment, he is also the maker of his environment. Now, shall we be just what our environment makes us or shall we be the ones who make our own surroundings? Shall we be the ones who need the enchanted kiss to awaken the goodness in us or shall we be the ones who provide that enchanted kiss to awaken the goodness that lies inside everyone around us?

That is for we have to decide, and to act accordingly.

Let us not judge the people by their acts, deeds and uttering. Let us think why a person or a people act and talk in a particular way or mood. How is it that a certain person is kind and considerate and another cruel and self-centered? Is it due to what he has absorbed from his surroundings or is it due to certain circumstances? It may be due to one or both. But as an anonymous poet wrote:-

“There is so much good in the worst of us,

And so much bad in the best of us,

That hardly becomes any of us

To talk about the rest of us.”

We can talk about others only when we have gathered more good in us and when we have made ourselves such as to be able to discern good from bad. Think of kindness in our way through life. We realize that many people lack kindness. As Julia Carney said in a poem Little Things:-

“Little drops of water, little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land.

Little deeds of kindness, little words of love,

Help to make earth happy like the heaven above.”

It is no use telling people that they are cruel or unkind. It is by setting an example and doing kind deeds that make the other people realize what kindness is. If they can see in our acts what they themselves lack, they will certainly be aroused to that sense of kindness, compassion and love which they have so far been wanting, because they had not had the experience to arouse it. That is the magic kiss we can provide.

If we notice a mechanic at work, we can see that he does not rail at the engine or hammer away at it for not working properly. Instead, he set about locating the fault, or the source of it.

A little tightening here, a little screwing up there and some oiling here and there helps the engine burst into life again and the mechanic sings out in happiness. It is so with us too.

Finding faults with others is to make people into an enemy for if we tell them in their face what their faults are, they will immediately retort and may even say unkind words to us. Let us abide time and wait for an opportunity. As Prior said in his poem, “An English Padlock”:

“Be to her virtues very kind.

Be to her faults a little blind.”

Blind, of course, to an certain extent, but not totally blind. Note the faults but do not discredit the other for these. Instead, think and act pleasantly to abolish them.

Use praise, and use it lavishly, whatever you find that someone, even though he may not be a very good person, has done something good. For praise often opens the gates to goodness and once a person enters those gates, we can be sure that he is on the right path.

Failures, or the inability to attain what we describe for, often make many of us dejected and defeated in life that we give up all hope, and resign to fate. We tend to look at the worst aspect of things and take life as it comes. Such an attitude towards life will not take any of us anywhere. For such people, the magic touch is provided by a message of hope, by a message of faith in GOD and right action; for although one may lose hope; one should not cease to act. The story of Robert Bruce of Scotland is an example of what the action of even a small insect like a spider can do to one who loses hope. And as John Gay said,” While there is a life, there is a hope.” So what we should do is, to make the dejected ones, the ones who dwell in hopelessness, realize that there is still hope, provided they act, act in right earnest and in the right direction. But at the same time, we too have to realize that it is we who are to serve as the example.

Lack of hope is lack of ambition – the ambition to live, the ambition to live well, the ambition to rise, the ambition to do great things, the ambition to lessen the burden of others and so on. Read the biographies of great men and fire people’s imagination. Infuse in yourself and in others the ambition which we may lack. That would be the magic kiss for all.

Let us look around ourselves with an open mind. Let us provide the magic kiss, the enchanted kiss, to rouse the sleeping beauty in those around us as well as take that kiss from others to arouse the sleeping beauty in our own selves...

6 comments:

Neha :-) said...

Nice thought.

Indrajit said...

Bah Bah!!

Congrats hey Babaji... :)

Aaro lekho..

Likeh jao....

Maa mongol korun..
:)

Krishnendu Mitra said...

Bhalo Likhechhis ..!!Baba koto gobesona korechhis re ..!!

Dipayan Kundu said...

Well written...Nice thoughts....Expressed beautifully...
Keep carry with the good work....

Dipayan Kundu said...

Well written...Nice thoughts....Expressed beautifully...
Keep carry with the good work....

Unknown said...

Impeccable... I admire the way you intertwined Sleeping Beauty's enchanted kiss with the stimulus to bring forth the hidden goodness . Extensive and significant research, continue your good work and do write often.