A Happy Man by Edwin Arlington Robinson is a poem with an unusual title considering the theme is death of a person.
Then the poet writes from the perspective of total contentment and preparedness for the final journey. So beautiful indeed. When the innings end, one should be able to take a bow and depart with grace as done in plays or music concerts.
When these graven lines you see,
Traveller, do not pity me;
Though I be among the dead,
Let no mournful word be said.
Children that I leave behind,
And their children, all were kind;
Near to them and to my wife,
I was happy all my life.
My three sons I married right,
And their sons I rocked at night;
Death nor sorrow never brought
Cause for one unhappy thought.
Now, and with no need of tears,
Here they leave me, full of years,--
Leave me to my quiet rest
In the region of the blest.
How the death strikes none can predict -its time,
manner and the victims. There is no discrimination in regard to age, sex, religion,
position etc., when it comes to make the final call.
In the last 15 days many unnatural deaths have
happened in the world.
·
The saddest was due to the
capsizing of a barge near the ONGC oil rig. Some 71 persons lost their lives,
without any warning.
·
The other was from the
Israel- Palestine conflict where some 260 are reported to have died. Final
figure is yet to come. The injured are in thousands. But then it was part of a long-standing
conflict with periodical escalations. The outcome is not unknown, but who all
will suffer is uncertain. Many kids even lost lives. When thousands of rockets are showered day and night for some
10 plus days, what else one expects?
· Let me not digress. In both the cases precious lives were lost.
First was due to cyclone- nature's fury, the second was War, due to mans’ fury.As people from all
religions have perished in both the tragedies, related Gods are neutral and
mere observers from Heaven or places of their abode.
· Whom one can blame
for these events. Creator of course. Both are done by his creations only. Hinduism,
states, the World-Prapancha- is created by God (vide Purusha Suktam).Will that
give any solace to victims and their families?
The
point for pondering is how to develop contentment ,as cited in the poem at each moment of life ,when
the life on this earth is highly fragile and uncertain.
Worth pondering.
Be happy. Be safe.
Dear Balaji,
ReplyDeleteVarious events of destructions narrated in the passage all over the world is the result of human errors by going against the nature n mother Earth.
AMMA always strictly advise all to keep/maintain balance of life with the nature. Inotherwords,develope love for all animate n inanimate beings in the world without any difference because creator n creation r one as AMMA always says.If one seriously think over it then it will bring ever contentment in life.
Topic is good n one can keep on discussion.
Thanks
Mohan Salian