This too shall pass...

Here's a short fable mentioned by Abraham Lincoln in one of his famous speeches:

An Eastern monarch charged his wise men to invent a sentence to be ever in view and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away!". How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

The lines - this too shall pass - have often consoled me during trying times. Repeating it to myself over and over again has brought out the strengths hidden somewhere deep within myself.

So too has it helped me to tide over what I perceived as overwhelming successes. And indeed, many of the occasions where I have puffed over in pride have unfailingly led to a deflated ego before long.

In the same vein is a fragment of a poem by Shankar Shailendra - an unparalleled comfort during dark times:

ये ग़म के और चार दिन, सितम के और चार दिन, 

ये दिन भी जायेंगे गुज़र, गुज़र गए हज़ार दिन।

कभी तो होगी इस चमन पे भी बहार की नजर,

अगर कहीं है स्वर्ग तो उतार ला ज़मीन पर।

Four more days of grief, four more days of torture;
they shall pass, like a thousand days have before them.
Some day Spring shall beam down on this garden too,
If there are heavens somewhere, bring them down to the earth...

The thought 'This too shall pass' can surely make turbulent communities more of a paradise...



Refer http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/fair.htm for the entire speech by Abraham Lincoln.
Refer http://aidindia.org/main/content/view/872/373/ for the entire poem - Tu Zinda hai.

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Varsha