Life is a long lesson in humanity. Youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, old age a regret. Life is a complex cobweb of threads. In its glittering texture, one cannot deny the predominance of dark threads. Human destiny is essentially sad & gloomy. Even man's best laughter is tinged with pain, as he is always preoccupied with his ‘yesterdays’ and tomorrows’. Man is often gnawed by real and imaginary worries and fears. Dr. Samuel Johnson once said, "Human life is everywhere in a state in which much is to be endured & little to be enjoyed.
On the sands of time sorrow treads heavily, and leaves a print, time cannot wash away.We tell our triumphs to the crowd but our own heart is the sole confidant to our sorrow. This world of ours is a well of sufferings, an ocean of troubles, a river of sorrows, a lake of sorrows, a lake of despair, and a den of despondency. In the words of Thomas Hardy, "Happiness is but an occasional episode in our lives: which is a general drama of pain." Most of our pleasures, like flowers, when gathered, fade away and die.
The pail of life is filled with pain, pangs, passion and groans.The sad and bad events of life should be transformed into noble moods of thought. Sadness may be poignant in the beginning but it is ultimately remedial, purifying and exalting. The tragedies of life embolden us to put up a bold and stubborn struggle against the worries and flurries of life. Out of the grooves of pessimism, out of the abyss of fatalism, and out of the whirlpool of anguish, man rises to see the robust rays of optimism. The passion, pain, and pangs of life are the touchstone that testifies the integrity of character. They teach us unforgettable lessons. Out of man’s troubled, tantalised and tormented heart reverberate the songs – the sweetest songs conveying the saddest thought. The tragedy of longing, lingering, and languishing in love has resulted in the creation of chefs d’oeuvres of art. It is the poignancy of pain; it is the sting of remorse; and it is the blow on the heart that ennoble our mind and exalt our character. After the momentary excitement of rabble and babble, it is the still and sad music of humanity that gives us sensations sweet. This very melody is a balm to the perturbed mind; a solace to the broken heart. These songs make us contemplate, weep, and purify our character. When words weep, tears speak.
Out of the rocky layers of wild despair, grief, impotent rage, scorn, anguish and misery, a writer of tragedy digs out a precious treasure—the treasure of humanity. His forte is a sweet song telling the deepest thought.
The rebuff and throe sublimate our being. The whips of misery awaken the slumbering heart. The fire of flurries rekindles the extinguished candle of our emotions. Mozart’s music is immortal because it was the smoke, the flame and the ash of his heart, which had been flogged thoroughly by misery and adversity. His touching requiem came out of the state of starvation and privation. Adversity is the fountain out of which gushes the nectar of life. During his quest for light a genius acts, reacts, speaks and shrieks. He channelises his strong passion and emotion towards the creation of great works of art. It is for this reason that Kalidasa penned the outpourings of Abhigyanam Shakuntalam, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, blind Milton produced ‘Paradise Lost’; Ludwig Von Beethoven composed the celebrated ‘Choral Symphony’.
In his celebrated ode ‘To a Skylark’, Shelley compares and contrasts man’s lot to that of the blithe and rapturous skylark and reaches a painful conclusion "that our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." The significance of these words is very deep. Material prosperity is no remedy to the pains and anguish in life. Spiritual prosperity is what one actually needs to purify our mind and exalt our character. We must all make a sincere effort to put up a strong struggle against the miseries of life and rejuvenate ourselves spiritually by deriving lessons from misfortune and adversity.
Dhruv Malhotra is a thirteen years old from New Dehli, India.
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