Invictus:-The-Unconquerable by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
      I am the captain of my soul.

______________________________________

This oft anthologized, oft quoted, oft hated poem is
sometimes published with the first line as title and so it is listed here in that fashion.
It is also sometimes known as I. T. R M. Hamilton Bruce since, after Bruce's death, Henley had those words added to subsequent publications of this poem.
'Invicitus' is sweeping; passionate; larger than life in a way that few modern poems can get away with. It is also an oft quoted poem, lines of it having almost passed into the language. While these are invariably the ones that involve hurling defiance into the teeth of the storm, note that the  poem itself hinges just as strongly on the 'storm' itself. It is the tension  between the strongly contrastive elements that raises 'Invicitus' from a series of platitudes to a great poem. © by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes

https://allpoetry.com/Invictus:-The-Unconquerable

Let my country awake.

Amazing thoughts... Amazing way to express them... Amazing translation as well...

પ્રભાત પ્રગટે પ્રભુ એવું

ભય ભૂતાવળ ભાગે શિર ઉઠે સૌના શાનમાં
પ્રભાત પ્રગટે પ્રભુ એવું આ દેશના આભમાં

જ્ઞાન ગંગા મુક્ત વહે
એ ધારા અવરોધાય ના
જ્ઞાન તૃષા સૌની બૂઝે
તરસ્યું કો રહી જાય ના

પ્રભાત પ્રગટે પ્રભુ એવું આ દેશના આભમાં

જગ અખિલાઈ કેરા
ટૂકડે ટૂકડા થાય ના
ઘર દિવાલો સાંકડીમાં
વિશ્વ વહેંચાઈ જાય ના

પ્રભાત પ્રગટે પ્રભુ એવું આ દેશના આભમાં

સત્ય તળથી શબ્દ સંચરે
વાણી છીછરી થાય ના
પરિપૂર્ણતા પ્રાપ્તિ પ્રયાસ
અમથી ઓછા થાય ના

પ્રભાત પ્રગટે પ્રભુ એવું આ દેશના આભમાં

સદ વિવેકનું નિર્મળ ઝરણ
મૃત આદત રણે સમેટાય ના
સદા વિસ્તરે અમ ચિંતન સીમા
ને એના અમલથી પાછું હટાય ના

સ્વર્ગ ખરી મુક્તિ તણું ખિલે ભારત ભાગ્યમાં
પ્રભાત પ્રગટે પ્રભુ એવું આ દેશના આભમાં
-રવીન્દ્રનાથ ટાગોર (ભાવાનુવાદ : માવજીભાઈ)


મૂળ અંગ્રેજી કાવ્ય (Original English Poem)

Where The Mind is Without Fear

WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore


Source: http://www.mavjibhai.com/kavita%20files/prabhat.htm

Social Authoritarianism

An extract from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's Wings of Fire.

A characteristic feature of the social authoritarianism is its insidious ability to addict people to the endless pursuit of external rewards, wealth, prestige, position, promotion, approval of ones lifestyle by others, ceremonial honors, and status symbols of all kinds.

To successfully pursue these goals they have to learn elaborate rules of etiquette and familiarize themselves with customs, traditions, protocols and the like. The youth of today must delearn this self defeating way of living life. The culture of working for materials possessions of rewards must be discarded.

How do some people feel so secure without anything to fall back upon? They took sustenance from within. They relied more on inner signals and less on the external cues, that is mentioned above. Are you aware of inner signals of yours? Do you trust them? Do you have the focus of control over your life in your own hands? Take this, the more decisions you make avoiding external pressures, which will constantly try to manipulate and immobilize you, the better your life will be. The better your society will become. The entire nation will benefit by having strong inner directed people as their leaders. A citizenry that thinks for itself and country in which people know and trust themselves as individuals would be virtually immune to manipulation by any unscrupulous authority or vested interest.

Your willingness to use your own inner resources to invest your life, especially your imagination will bring you success, when you undertake a task from your own uniquely individual standpoint, you will become a person to reckon with.

You me everyone on this planet is sent free by him to cultivate all the creative potential within us and live at peace with our own conscience. We differ in the way we make our choices and evolve our destiny. Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done.

About this blog...

I am here for about one quarter of a century. I have come across many people during this period... some of them influencing, others part of the crowd. This blog is for the influencing ones...

Many of the influencing people I have come across are not aware of their own capability or have long since forgotten it. and with that has slipped away their morality... their integrity... their passion... their inner feeling to be good... to do good... to be alive. This blog is an attempt to find more of such people and make them aware about themselves... make them alive to enjoy their life... make them awakened to make the world a better place to live.