ARE WE HAPPIER THAN OUR FOREFATHERS

ARE WE HAPPIER THAN OUR FOREFATHERS

Outline:-

1.   Happiness depends on what one desires. The man with simple wants is likely to be happy.

2.  We have all the inventions of science, we have modern improvements. We are not always happy.

3.      Our forefathers had not those things, but were happy.

4.      Happiness depends on the mind, not on outside things.

In our modern age, we have comfortable homes, fine schools, railways for fast travel, motor-cars telephones and cinemas, books and medical services. Yet it cannot be said that we are always happy. In fact, modern life is a hard competition with much mental strain and worry since man became a city-dweller. The fight is harder, the jealousy between nations has increased since communications brought us into touch with other people. Never have doctors had so many cases of nervous strain to cure; never was there more fear of war. How is it that, with increase of material comfort, there has not been increase of happiness?

Our forefathers lived in villages. They knew none of the fine things mentioned in the preceding paragraph, but were engaged in tilling the soil for a living. In the evenings they sat in quiet talk with their friends, interested only in the affairs of the life in their own village or small town. They went to bed by the light of little lamps, not caring what might be going on hundreds or thousands of miles away, and slept peacefully and in contentment. They did not feel the need of the fine things which we have come to look upon as necessary for life Contentment is real happiness.

This should not be a new truth. The old teachers of this religions preached simplicity. Socrates, Diogenes, and the Holy Prophet all taught that the man who could keep his personal desire and needs as few and simple as possible had the greatest chance of being contented. Yet we are slow to learn this lesson even after their teachings. The average man is not contented with one promotion and one salary rise, but longs for the next. He longs first for a bicycle, then for a motor car. We live in an age when men admire riches more than spiritual power, and long for luxury of the body rather than the peace of mind. This age of materialism will never be happy till men pay more attention to the ancient teachings. 

Our Holy Prophet (SAW) spent his life in teaching this and in illustrating it by his personal example of simplicity and service. Let us all learn to keep the things which science has given us in their proper place. Those things should be our servants; many of us have made them our masters. True happiness is a state of the mind, and can better be attained in the cottage than in the kings’ palace.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN OLD COAT

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN OLD COAT

Outline:-

1.      High class tweed, made in a mill at Hudderfield.

2.      Exported to Pakistan, sold by an expensive tailor to a rich man. Worm by him in the cold months.

3.      Passed to the rich man’s gardener, and worn for years.

4.      Still affording warmth to the old sweeper.

I am made of the cloth that is called tweed, because wool was first woven into this warm type of cloth around the banks of the river Tweed is Scotland. But I was women on the loom of a mill in the Yorkshire town of Huddersfield, of differently coloured yarns. My trade description was “brown and gray check.” Finally I was shipped to Pakistan in a consignment of expensive woolen cloths intended for the garments of the richer classes. 

I caught the eye of a rich businessman, Mr. Latif, who was in the tailor’s shop to select a suit. He liked to spend his winter holidays in Murree hills, and sometimes felt rather cold. So he wanted a really warm coat, and I was selected. After careful measurements the tailor turned me out to his satisfaction. I cost him seventy-five rupees, a large, sum than a man ears to support his wife and family for a month. But my master did not grumble. In fact, he was proud of me and sometimes I was put on for his evening drives over the Mall,  or his evenings in the clum. But on the whole, it was not often that the evenings were cold enough in Murree to justify putting me on. So, although I was much admired. I was put aside for that winger holiday. How I enjoyed those visits to the hills? The road around our bungalon ran through thick woods, jumbeul and other trees on every side. Now and then, as my master strode along, a jungle fowl would fly over our heads. In the evenings, I was able really and truly to keep him warm. 

I served him well for five years, and I can honestly say that I was as good as ever. But there was a stain in front, made by the ink of his fountain pen leaking, and the cleaners were not able to remove it altogether. So to my sorrow he handed me over to his butler one day. However, I reflected that, as a democratic cost, I could serve the butler just as well as I had served the master, and I did this well and honestly for five more years. By this time, holes were beginning in my elbows and my collar was becoming rather shapeless. So the butler passed me the old sweeper, who received me with joy. In fact, if the high opinion of the wearer is to be considered, he is the best of the lot, and I am still serving him faithfully, though both of us are showing signs of age and wear.

THE EVILS OF DRINKING AND GAMBLING

THE EVILS OF DRINKING AND GAMBLING

Outline:-

1.   Drinking too much and gambling are old sins of mankind. They are on record for more than two thousand years.

2.      Alcohol confuses the judgment, re-flames the passions.

3.      Drinking and gambling are expensive, as a rule.

Men have always known hot to produce alcoholic drinks from the fruits and vegetables of the earth. The old prophets in the Bible and the holy Prophet Muhammad, all denounced the sin of drunkenness. In Islam, gambling too is listed as a sin, but not mentioned in the Bible, so presumably Jews were not addicted to that vice. In early India, we have little reference to either, and it is hard to say how old the “today” habit is. 

Wine, beer, or other fermented drinks all contain alcohol. This substance first stimulates the body, then, gradually confuses the thinking powers. A drunkard will gravely proceed to do something which seems to him quite sensible thought in this sober moments he would see that it is nonsense. Continued drinking dulls his thinking and mental processes. Intelligence tests have shown that even a small amount of alcohol affects jovial with his so called friends, but, in the hour of need, he loses the reasoning powers unfavourably. The drunkard is noisy and finds that they are not friends. They are only drinking companions. His nerves and stomach are in course of time impaired he requires ever more and more of his favourite drink to satisfy him, and becomes an old man before his time. His wife and children grow up in want, unless he be a rich man, for the money which should buy them food and clothing is being spent in the toddy shop or hotel. 

The gambler is often a drinker too, and he is a man who wants a little cheap excitement. He does not really thirst for the money of his companions, but he wants the seeming “thrill” of the game. At the race-course, you will see men with a good salary rushing about in excitement to make a bet of five or ten rupees. It is just their idea of getting a little adventure out of a dull life. But someone has to lose and mostly it is the inexperienced and rash fellow who cannot afford to lose the money. And, thinks he will make his fortune by continuing to win, or he has lost and is trying to win his money back again. In either case, the final result is usually loss. It is not only loss of money but also time and self-respect. No employer will ever engage one reputed to be a drunkard or a gambler.        

THE BELIEF IN ASTROLOGY

THE BELIEF IN ASTROLOGY

Outline:-

1.      Not only the poor, but even rich men believe.

2.      The science dates from very ancient times.

3.      Shakespeare’s works have many allusions to this.

4.      But science does not admit any force in it.

It is usually the custom, among a section of Hindus to have the horoscope of a child drawn up at birth by an astrologer. In the large cities, many profess this old art, and advertise claims  in the local press to foretell the future and to give advice regarding business, love affairs, and such things. While the uneducated people are the greatest believers, even well-to-do citizens are not above going to such men for their guidance. Reliable or otherwise, it is a scientific study on regular lines, and the training of an astrologer is long and thorough. 

It is know, from old writings and inscriptions on pillars, that the ancient Egyptians and the Chaldees practiced the cult of astrology. They studied the phases of the planets, and left charts with the different signs of the Zodiac. A man’s life was thought to be strongly influenced for good or ill by the particular planet that happened to be predominant in the heavens at the time of his birth.

These practices spread to the western nations. In Scott’s novel Guy Mannerring, a child is born in Chapyer 1 and at once an astrologer draws up a horoscope for the lad, the events of which are wonderfully fulfilled. In Shakespeare, there are frequent references to the power of the stars over men. Shakespeare himself does not appear to have believed in this science. In the play, Julius Caesar, Cassius says to Brutus:

“The fault; dear Brutus, is not in our stars

But in ourselves, that we are underlings”.

and educated men, beginning to pry more and more deeply into the secrets of Nature, could not find that the stars exerted any influence other than the attraction of gravity, on the affairs of our world. 

Even in advanced Europe, the cult is by no means dead. Scores of professed astrologers advertise in certain papers, and the credulous and simple among the people go to them and pay high fees for advice. But the educated sections of the people do not believe any longer, and hold that science has proved that there can be no sound reason for such beliefs. There will always be some, however, who believe that there is a mysterious and powerful sphere into which science cannot probe, and who will continue to rely on the supernatural.