Tag: Virtue

The Pagan philosophers teach that by cultivating goodness…

The Pagan philosophers teach that by cultivating goodness we can purify ourselves of our selfishness. This breaks the chains that bind us to our illusionary ego-self, freeing us to experience our true divine nature. Central to the Pagan path is accepting whatever life brings us as our divinely decreed fate; surrendering the illusion of personal power and recognising ourselves as ‘puppets of God’. This is not passive resignation, but actively engaging with the things as they are by being a willing vehicle of God’s unfolding purpose in the universe.

Tim Freke

Last Curtain by Rabindranath Tagore

I know that the day will come
when my sight of this earth shall be lost,
and life will take its leave in silence,
drawing the last curtain over my eyes.

Yet stars will watch at night,
and morning rise as before,
and hours heave like sea waves
casting up pleasures and pains.

When I think of this end of my moments,
the barrier of the moments breaks
and I see by the light of death
thy world with its careless treasures.

Rare is its lowliest seat,
rare is its meanest of lives.
Things that I longed for in vain
and things that I got
—let them pass.
Let me but truly possess
the things that I ever spurned
and overlooked.

The poem ‘Last Curtain’ explains the vulnerability one feels at the time of death. The actual treasures one can take to the grave are none but his deeds of good. The poem conveys the message that the things that matter the most at death, are those virtues that are considered as least important by many men during their lives.