#WingedWordsWindsday: 2022/08/10: Celebrating India's Independence Day on 08/15

 

WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 1, No. 41: August 10, 2022

 

 

Celebrating India’s Independence Day on August 15

“Asoka the Great: Emperor of India”

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

Reprinted (with Slight Revision) from the August 2014 Illinois Administrative Professionals Newsletter

                During the month of August, people of Indian heritage throughout the world celebrate India’s Independence Day. On August 15, 1947, India became an independent republic under the leadership of Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi. To commemorate the 75^th anniversary of India’s independence from the British Empire, here is a brief description of the reign of Asoka the Great (304-232 BCE), the exemplary Emperor of India (reigned 268-232 BCE), along with some quotations from his many edifying edicts, which are found throughout the country inscribed on rocks and pillars.

                Like every truly great leader in human history, King Asoka led by example and governed by per-suasion, which are still the most effective tools for leaders to use as they strive to exert a positive influence on the world around them. By “practicing what he preached,” Asoka was able to promote wholesome social reforms, provide health care for humans and animals, and encourage interfaith understanding throughout his empire.

 

Summary of King Asoka’s Life and Legacy

Condensed (and Slightly Revised by RHC) from H. G. Wells’ Outline of History (1920) and A Short History of the World (1922) – Public Domain

                Asoka (268 to 232 BCE), one of the great monarchs of history, whose dominions extended from Afghanistan to Madras, is the only military monarch on record who abandoned warfare after victory. He had invaded Kalinga (260 BCE), a country along the east coast of Madras, perhaps with some intention of completing the conquest of the tip of the Indian peninsula. The expedition was successful, but he was disgusted by what he saw of the cruelties and horrors of war. He declared, in certain inscriptions that still exist, that he would no longer seek conquest by war, but by religion, and the rest of his life was devoted to the spreading of Buddhism throughout the world. He seems to have ruled his vast empire in peace and with great ability. He was no mere religious fanatic.

                His reign for eight-and-twenty years was one of the brightest interludes in the troubled history of mankind. He organized a great digging of wells in India and the planting of trees for shade. He founded hospitals and public gardens and gardens for the growing of medicinal herbs. He created a ministry for the care of the aborigines and subject races of India. He made provision for the education of women. He made vast benefactions to the Buddhist teaching orders, and tried to stimulate them to a better and more energetic criticism of their own accumulated literature. Missionaries went from Asoka to Kashmir, to Persia, to Ceylon and Alexandria.

                Such was Asoka, greatest of kings. He was far in advance of his age. Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Asoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star. From the Volga to Japan his name is still honored. China, Tibet, and even India, though it has left his doctrine, preserve the tradition of his greatness. More living men cherish his memory today than have ever heard the names of Constantine or Charlemagne.

 

Passages from King Asoka’s Edicts (Excerpts)

Source: https://en.wikiquote.org

·         Dharma is good, but what constitutes Dharma? It includes little evil, much good, kindness, generosity, truthfulness, and purity.

·         Progress among the people through Dharma has been done by two means, by Dharma regulations and by persuasion. Of these, Dharma regulation is of little effect, while persuasion has much more effect.

·         [Asoka], Beloved-of-the-Gods, thinks that even those who do wrong should be forgiven where forgiveness is possible.

·         [Asoka], Beloved-of-the-Gods, speaks thus: Father and mother should be respected and so should elders, kindness to living beings should be made strong, and the truth should be spoken. In these ways, the Dharma should be promoted. Likewise, a teacher should be honored by his pupil and proper manners should be shown towards relations. This is an ancient rule that conduces to long life. Thus should one act.

·         Everywhere has Beloved-of-the-Gods, King [Asoka], made provision for two types of medical treatment: medical treatment for humans and medical treatment for animals. Wherever medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever medical roots or fruits are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Along roads I have had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals.

·         Beloved-of-the-Gods, King [Asoka], honors both ascetics and the householders of all religions, and he honors them with gifts and honors of various kinds. But Beloved-of-the-Gods, King [Asoka], does not value gifts and honors as much as he values this — that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. Growth in essentials can be done in different ways, but all of them have as their root restraint in speech, that is, not praising one’s own religion, or condemning the religion of others without good cause. And if there is cause for criticism, it should be done in a mild way. But it is better to honor other religions for this reason: By so doing, one’s own religion benefits, and so do other religions, while doing otherwise harms one’s own religion and the religions of others. Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought, “Let me glorify my own religion,” only harms his own religion. Therefore contact between religions is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. Beloved-of-the-Gods, King [Asoka], desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions.

 

The flag of the Republic of India, adopted in 1947, features the Asoka Chakra (a 24-spoked Wheel of the Dharma) at its center, in honor of King Asoka’s legacy. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

“Asoka”

By Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

 I

Gentle as fine rain falling from the night,

The first beams from the Indian Moon at full

Steal through the boughs, and brighter and more bright

Glide like a breath, a fragrance visible.

Asoka round him sees

The gloom ebb into glories half--espied

Of glimmering bowers through wavering traceries:

Pale as a rose by magical degrees

Opening, the air breaks into beauty wide,

And yields a mystic sweet;

And shapes of leaves shadow the pathway side

Around Asoka's feet.

 

O happy prince! From his own court he steals;

Weary of words is he, weary of throngs.

How this wide ecstasy of stillness heals

His heart of flatteries and the tale of wrongs!

Unseen he climbs the hill,

Unheard he brushes with his cloak the dew,

While the young moonbeams every hollow fill

With hovering flowers, so gradual and so still

As if a joy brimmed where that radiance grew,

Discovering pale gold

Of spikenard balls and champak buds that new

Upon the air unfold.

 

He gains the ridge. Wide open rolls the night!

Airs from an infinite horizon blow

Down holy Ganges, floating vast and bright

Through old Magadha's forests. Far below

He hears the cool wave fret

On rocky islands; soft as moths asleep

Come moonlit sails; there on a parapet

Of ruined marble, where the moss gleams wet

And from black cedars a lone peacock cries,

Uncloaking rests Asoka, bathing deep

In silence, and his eyes

Of his own realm the wondrous prospect reap;

At last aloud he sighs.

 

II

``How ennobling it is to taste

Of the breath of a living power!

The shepherd boy on the waste

Whose converse, hour by hour,

Is alone with the stars and the Sun,

His days are glorified!

And the steersman floating on

Down this great Ganges tide,

He is blest to be companion of the might

Of waters and unwearied winds that run

With him, by day, by night:

He knows not whence they come, but they his path provide.

 

``But O more noble far

From the heart of power to proceed

As the beam flows forth from the star,

As the flower unfolds on the reed.

It is not we that are strong

But the cause, the divine desire,

The longing wherewith we long.

O flame far-springing from the eternal fire,

Feed, feed upon my heart till thou consume

These bonds that do me wrong

Of time and chance and doom,

And I into thy radiance grow and glow entire!

 

``For he who his own strength trusts,

And by violence hungers to tame

Men and the Earth to his lusts,

Though mighty, he falls in shame;

As a great fell tiger, whose sound

The small beasts quake to hear,

When he stretches his throat to the shuddering ground

And roars for blood; yet a trembling deer

Brings him at last to his end.

In a winter torrent falls his murderous bound!

His raging claws the unheeding waters rend;

Down crags they toss him sheer,

With sheep ignobly drowned,

And his fierce heart is burst with fury of its fear.

 

III

``Not so ye deal,

Immortal Powers, with him

Who in his weak hour hath made haste to kneel

Where your divine springs out of mystery brim,

And carries thence through the world's uproar rude

A clear-eyed fortitude;

As the poor diver on the Arabian strand

From the scorched rocky ledges plunging deep,

Glides down the rough dark brine with questing hand

Until he feels upleap

Founts of fresh water, and his goatskin swells

And bears him upward on those buoyant wells

Back with a cool boon for his thirsting land.

 

``I also thirst,

O living springs, for you:

Would that I might drink now, as when at first

Life shone about me glorious and all true,

And I abounded in your strength indeed,

Which now I sorely need.

You have not failed, 'tis I! Yet this abhorred

Necessity to hate and to despise –

'Twas not for this my youthful longing soared,

Not thus would I grow wise!

Keep my heart tender still, that still is set

To love without foreboding or regret,

Even as this tender moonlight is outpoured.

 

``Now, now, even now,

Sleep doth the sad world take

To peace it knows not. Radiant Sleep, wilt thou

Unveil thy wonder for me too, who wake?

O my soul melts into immensity,

And yet 'tis I, 'tis I!

A wave upon a silent ocean, thrilled

Up from its deepest deeps without a sound,

Without a shore to break on, or a bound,

Until the world be filled.

O mystery of peace, O more profound

Than pain or joy, upbuoy me on thy power!

Stay, stay, adorèd hour,

I am lost, I am found again:

My soul is as a fountain springing in the rain.''

 

Long, long upon that cedarn-shadowed height

Musing, Asoka mingled with the night.

At last the Moon sank o'er the forest wide.

Within his soul those fountains welled no more,

Yet breathed a balm still, fresh as fallen dew:

The mist coiled upward over Ganges shore;

And he arose and sighed,

And gathered his cloak round him, and anew

Threaded the deep woods to his palace door.

The Cartwheel Galaxy, located 500 million light-years from Earth, as photographed by the James Webb Space Telescope. The Jedi padawan Ahsoka, named after King Asoka, is a major character in the Star Wars legendarium, which is set “in a galaxy far, far away,” like this one -- which resembles the Asoka Chakra. (Image Credit: NASA – Public Domain)