There's something that I can write about why the URL for my blog is http://morelightplease.blogspot.com/, so I might as well do it.
I wanted the URL http://morelight.blogspot.com/, but someone who has not put a single post as yet is squatting on it. So, I had no option but to add a 'please' at the end - not out of politeness, but out of necessity!
"More light!" were apparently the famous last words of the German poet Goethe. Frankly, I don't know much about Goethe except that he is the author of Faust, which I have never read. However, I probably must have read of this in some article/feature about the last words of famous people. It has remained in my head, because I would always think what a luminous life this person must have strived to live - he was imploring God to give him more light even at the moment of his death! It turns out now that I have been a bit mistaken. He was merely asking some disciple or a servant to open the second shutter of his window so that more light would come in. :-) You can read a short account of Goethe's death here.
But seriously, I do believe that it behoves each thoughtful human being to keep striving to lead an illumined life. The prime concern of all genuine philosophers has always been self-knowledge, and one can quote them endlessly regarding this. What separtes an attentive person from the common herd is this constant endeavor to reach something higher. It is certainly not something easy; it demands a lot of energy and is arduous.
I think of individuals, past and present, who were/are enlightened, not as 'great people' but as the true friends of humanity. By considering them 'great' one is attempting to put them at a distance and/or install them upon a pedestal - as though they were so great that they were not human beings at all, and that we cannot even hope to reach the heights that they did. And thus we fall into the trap of being satisfied with a more or less petty and average humanity. Like most, I too am guilty of this to an extent.
Enough gyan. Go find yourself now. :-)
I wanted the URL http://morelight.blogspot.com/, but someone who has not put a single post as yet is squatting on it. So, I had no option but to add a 'please' at the end - not out of politeness, but out of necessity!
"More light!" were apparently the famous last words of the German poet Goethe. Frankly, I don't know much about Goethe except that he is the author of Faust, which I have never read. However, I probably must have read of this in some article/feature about the last words of famous people. It has remained in my head, because I would always think what a luminous life this person must have strived to live - he was imploring God to give him more light even at the moment of his death! It turns out now that I have been a bit mistaken. He was merely asking some disciple or a servant to open the second shutter of his window so that more light would come in. :-) You can read a short account of Goethe's death here.
But seriously, I do believe that it behoves each thoughtful human being to keep striving to lead an illumined life. The prime concern of all genuine philosophers has always been self-knowledge, and one can quote them endlessly regarding this. What separtes an attentive person from the common herd is this constant endeavor to reach something higher. It is certainly not something easy; it demands a lot of energy and is arduous.
I think of individuals, past and present, who were/are enlightened, not as 'great people' but as the true friends of humanity. By considering them 'great' one is attempting to put them at a distance and/or install them upon a pedestal - as though they were so great that they were not human beings at all, and that we cannot even hope to reach the heights that they did. And thus we fall into the trap of being satisfied with a more or less petty and average humanity. Like most, I too am guilty of this to an extent.
Enough gyan. Go find yourself now. :-)
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