Celebrities Remember Nothing Lasts Forever
Living in the limelight is exciting, but it is fraught with the liability of losing all that a celebrity has got accustomed to, and perhaps learnt to expect as his right. Call it the law of opposites or the law of physics, the fact is that what goes up has to come down. And so, while a man is at the peak of his period of glory, he should remember that this period will not last forever; a time will come when he will be confronted with his vulnerability and his inability to sustain this acme of fame and good fortune. This moment may arrive when he feels that he did not deserve this, or perhaps he may not find the objectivity to realise that he does, but the fact is that the "moving finger" will one day write and relentlessly move on, giving no opportunity to wipe out its decree. A celebrity will certainly have to confront the fact that the mass adulation and publicity which raised him to the Heavens, will one day discover his clay feet and drop him from the pedestal and soon forget about him. Robert Browning understood the fickleness of public opinion and expressed it in his poem, "The Patriot". The poem opens with the patriot recalling how it was "roses, roses, all the way, with myrtle mixed in my path like mad... a year ago on this very day". In the first two stanzas, Browning describes the patriot's moments of glory, and the subsequent ones outline his fall from grace. The fifth verse: "I go in the rain, and, more than needs,/ A rope cuts both my wrists behind,/ and I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds,/ for they fling, whoever has a mind,/ Stones at me for my year's misdeeds". Browning, who suffered on account of the public's hostile misunder standing or misplaced admira tion of the dramatic nature of his work, ends "The Patriot" with the character finding comfort in cultivating a level of detachment and leaving everything to God. Rudyard Kipling understood and expressed the need for detachment in the poem: "If" The poem is steeped in philosophy, and the lines that have become memorable for sportspersons are the ones that are etched at the entrance to Wimbledon, "To meet triumph and disaster and treat the two impostors the same" The Vipasana meditation programme explains the need for detachment when stu dents are asked to chant the message of impermanence, "Anicca, anicca, anicca" at the end of every round of meditation. The Gita embodies this message throughout, with Krishna explaining to Arjuna that change is the law of life. "What have you lost, that you are weeping? What have you brought, that you have lost? What have you made, that has been destroyed? You brought nothing. What you have, you got from here. What was given was given here. You have come empty-handed and shall go empty-handed. What is yours today was somebody else's in the past and will be somebody else's in the future You think it is yours and are deeply engrossed in it" And just like the patriot in Browning's poem, Krishna exhorts Arjuna to surrender unto the Lord, as He is the Ultimate Support. "He who experiences this is completely free from fear, worry and despair".
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are MELANIE P KUMAR and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: MELANIE P KUMAR and Speaking Tree,Times of India
Celebrities Remember Nothing Lasts Forever
Living in the limelight is exciting, but it is fraught with the liability of losing all that a celebrity has got accustomed to, and perhaps learnt to expect as his right. Call it the law of opposites or the law of physics, the fact is that what goes up has to come down. And so, while a man is at the peak of his period of glory, he should remember that this period will not last forever; a time will come when he will be confronted with his vulnerability and his inability to sustain this acme of fame and good fortune. This moment may arrive when he feels that he did not deserve this, or perhaps he may not find the objectivity to realise that he does, but the fact is that the "moving finger" will one day write and relentlessly move on, giving no opportunity to wipe out its decree. A celebrity will certainly have to confront the fact that the mass adulation and publicity which raised him to the Heavens, will one day discover his clay feet and drop him from the pedestal and soon forget about him. Robert Browning understood the fickleness of public opinion and expressed it in his poem, "The Patriot". The poem opens with the patriot recalling how it was "roses, roses, all the way, with myrtle mixed in my path like mad... a year ago on this very day". In the first two stanzas, Browning describes the patriot's moments of glory, and the subsequent ones outline his fall from grace. The fifth verse: "I go in the rain, and, more than needs,/ A rope cuts both my wrists behind,/ and I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds,/ for they fling, whoever has a mind,/ Stones at me for my year's misdeeds". Browning, who suffered on account of the public's hostile misunder standing or misplaced admira tion of the dramatic nature of his work, ends "The Patriot" with the character finding comfort in cultivating a level of detachment and leaving everything to God. Rudyard Kipling understood and expressed the need for detachment in the poem: "If" The poem is steeped in philosophy, and the lines that have become memorable for sportspersons are the ones that are etched at the entrance to Wimbledon, "To meet triumph and disaster and treat the two impostors the same" The Vipasana meditation programme explains the need for detachment when stu dents are asked to chant the message of impermanence, "Anicca, anicca, anicca" at the end of every round of meditation. The Gita embodies this message throughout, with Krishna explaining to Arjuna that change is the law of life. "What have you lost, that you are weeping? What have you brought, that you have lost? What have you made, that has been destroyed? You brought nothing. What you have, you got from here. What was given was given here. You have come empty-handed and shall go empty-handed. What is yours today was somebody else's in the past and will be somebody else's in the future You think it is yours and are deeply engrossed in it" And just like the patriot in Browning's poem, Krishna exhorts Arjuna to surrender unto the Lord, as He is the Ultimate Support. "He who experiences this is completely free from fear, worry and despair".
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are MELANIE P KUMAR and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: MELANIE P KUMAR and Speaking Tree,Times of India