Sumurai mentality!

For the sake of joking ' harakiri' is not such a bad word..... Is it!

Although, once or twice i had been to terrible frost and surprisingly i enormously enjoyed..... so it in other words i had gone through 'harakiri' thinking without any implementation.... :))

30-40 below freezing... this is something toooooo much for our part of world..... more suitable for 'harakiri' than to enjoy candle reading....

Sounds like you re not against harakiri in case it's imposible to bear something for example terrbile frost ;D

I do agree, we aren't robots and that's why more interesting and curious..... That's why we have such an enormous variety...... progress depends on deceptiveness and flaws, than through synthesis of these mistakes and shortcomings we make ourselves ahead of robots...:)) cant even imagine any curiosity without deception..... but we have to learn from each defeat and mistake than it can be helpful and rewarding....

P.s  Wow! reading in candle light, that's something interesting and lovely. someone told me once that reading in candle light make our concentration and focus more sharp and thus less distraction..... electricity itself create so much noise that its enough to distract oneself.... So, in this terms, load-shading could be transmuted into sometimes beneficial- during cold night, to enjoy oneself with reading... (30-40 below freezing... this is something toooooo much for our part of world..... more suitable for 'harakiri' than to enjoy candle reading.... hahaha)  

Anton Chekhov described  the state of self-deception  greatly!

but  a human is not a robot  . that s quite easy to lose your way and take fake ideas for true ones in such a huge and changeable world !

p.s I liked reading Checkov when I was a girl of twelve or thirteen. I remember one winter with incredible frost for our area 31-35 above zero. all electricity was out of order.  as you know in winter night crawls into your house very early. I enjoyed reading in the light of candles. I even don;t know what I like more candles or Chechov. I love them both.

Your selected lines are the epitome of full poem. It was difficult for me to comprehend self-deception to full extent. I was confused after looking deep into the meaning and the more i thought about it the more confused. Last night i was reading, Anton Chekhov's short stories and the first story i encountered was 'The bet', this story is so profound description of self-deception that now i feel these lines a bit...

Below is the link of 'The bet':

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Bet.shtml

Few inspirational lines from the story:

"You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don't want to understand you.
     "To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two million of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise.

The poem of Allama Iqbal is like  an ocean. You can bathe there for long time and find unexplored places. seems  would be better if I can bathe in  the Arabic language   reading the poem,,,, in that case I see the meaning and images much clearly

“Its self-deceptions are the essence of Life;”

Seems I am often in such kind of state like self-deception;)

Does it mean  that a person is a creator of  own eternal life?

Again i want to quote from the R.A Nicholson's translation of Allama Iqbal's poem, 'Israr-e-khudi':

The form of existence is an effect of the Self,
Whatsoever thou seest is a secret of the Self.
When the Self awoke to consciousness,
It revealed the universe of Thought.
A hundred worlds are hidden in its essence:
Self-affirmation brings Not-self to light.
By the Self the seed of hostility is sown in the world:
It imagines itself to be other than itself.

It makes from itself the forms of others
In order to multiply the pleasure of strife.
It is slaying by the strength of its arm
That it may become conscious of its own strength.
Its self-deceptions are the essence of Life;
Like the rose, it lives by bathing itself in blood.
For the sake of a single rose it destroys a hundred rose-gardens
And makes a hundred lamentations in quest of a single melody.
For one sky it produces a hundred new moons,
And for one word a hundred discourses.
The excuse for this wastefulness and cruelty
Is the shaping and perfecting of spiritual beauty.

The loveliness of *Shírín justifies the anguish of Farhád, 
The fragrant navel justifies a hundred musk-deer.
’Tis the fate of moths to consume in flame:
The suffering of moths is justified by the candle.
The pencil of the Self limned a hundred to-days
In order to achieve the dawn of a single morrow.
Its flames burned a hundred *Abrahams
That the lamp of one Mohammed might be lighted.
Subject, object, means, and causes—
They all exist for the purpose of action.

The Self rises, kindles, falls, glows, breathes,
Burns, shines, walks, and flies.
The spaciousness of Time is its arena,
Heaven is a billow of the dust on its road.
From its rose-planting the world abounds in roses;
Night is born of its sleep, day springs from its waking.
It divided its flame into sparks
And taught the understanding to worship particulars.
It dissolved itself and created the atoms,
It was scattered for a little while and created the sands.
Then it wearied of dispersion
And by re-uniting itself it became the mountains.
’Tis the nature of the Self to manifest itself:
In every atom slumbers the might of the Self. 

Power that is unexpressed and inert
Chains the faculties which lead to action.
Inasmuch as the life of the universe
comes from the strength of the Self,
Life is in proportion to this strength.
When a drop of water gets the Self's lesson by heart,
It makes its worthless existence a pearl.
Wine is formless because its self is weak;
It receives a form by favour of the cup.
Although the cup of wine assumes a form,
It is indebted to us for its motion.
When the mountain loses its self, it turns into sands
And complains that the sea surges over it;
But the wave, so long as it remains a wave in the sea's bosom,
Makes itself a rider on the sea's back.

Light has been a beggar since the eye first rolled
And moved to and fro in search of beauty;
But forasmuch as the grass found a
means of growth in its self,
Its aspiration clove the breast of the garden.
The candle too concatenated itself
And built itself out of atoms;
Then it made a practice of melting
itself away and fled from its self
Until at last it trickled down from its own eye, like tears.
If the bezel had been more self-secure by nature,
It would not have suffered wounds,
But since it derives its value from the superscription,
Its shoulder is galled by the burden of another's name.
Because the earth is firmly based on self-existence,

The captive moon goes round it perpetually.
The being of the sun is stronger than that of the earth:
Therefore is the earth bewitched by the sun's eye.
The glory of the plane fixes our gaze,
The mountains are enriched by its majesty:
Its raiment is woven of fire,
Its origin is one self-assertive seed.
When Life gathers strength from the Self,
The river of Life expands into an ocean.

Footnotes

* Shírín was loved by the Persian emperor Khusrau Parwíz. Farhád fell in love with her and cast himself down a precipice on hearing a false rumour of her death.

*Abraham is said to have been cast on a burning pile by order of Nimrod and miraculously preserved from harm.

but how can  a person  see if it's his strong pride only or self-hood. The difference between these two notions is subtle. 

The basic difference is in the mannerism itself. Strong pride is hollow, haughty, and formless. Strong prides generates agitation, hate, jealousy, and self appreciation. Strong pride rejects, denounce, and blame without any reason. Strong Pride creates all kinds of wars and troubles.  

While on the other hand self-hood is the realization of self with humble attitude.

I can only feel it.  your own pride is some kind of destructive quality for yourself  and others  . .. as for selfhood is true yourself and blessing that you should find in you and strenthen;)

that's lovely interpretation. ;) Thankyou!

"The system of the universe originates in the self, and that the continuation of the life of all individuals depends on strengthening the self"

Interesting! 

Does it mean  that a person is a creator of  own eternal life?

but how can  a person  see if it's his strong pride only or self-hood. The difference between these two notions is subtle. 

I can only feel it.  your own pride is some kind of destructive quality for yourself  and others  . .. as for selfhood is true yourself and blessing that you should find in you and strenthen;)

Yes, that's true 'harakiri' is the part of Samurai's code of conduct. But in the memoir of 'Geisha of Gion', the interpretation of Samurai is bit different. There is a subtle difference between pride and self-hood. Pride generates arrogance and over ambitiousness which leads towards egoistic pursuit and haugty behaviour.

While self-hood controls, restrains and tames cantankerous-pride into more useful set of etiquette. In the mentioned two aphorism, we might notice the nuance in the degree of intention and motivation.

In the words of Iqbal, "The system of universe originates in the self".

Yes, that's true that plugging a sword into the abdomen and slicing it left to right requires courage but the energy, intention, motivation and action derived out in mentioned scenario is cowardice. The cowardly-courageous act for safe-exit is the denial of self-hood principles. 

--------------------------------------------------------

"The system of the universe originates in the self, and that the continuation of the life of all individuals depends on strengthening the self" 

- Iqbal.

I agree with you entirely!

 to live in disgrace requires much more power than committing suicide.  and that' s for sure after going through adversity  with dignity a person can enrich his mind and soul and might  do incredible things ( like miracles)

I just mentioned  about harakiri  as you wrote the word Samurai in bold type. harakiri is the part of the life of samurai. that; s not usual suicide . 

  plunging a sword into the abdomen and moving the sword left to right in a slicing motion       requires some courage as well.

Dignity of death!', in the ritual of 'harakiri', is an imperfect notion, according to my understanding. I think, we have to face our mistakes, flaws and shortcomings in dignified mannerism. The real pain is to sustain the period of disgrace, and overcoming it by graceful way, through new realities and better improved mental programing.

Stepping out from code of conduct, can be temporary and could be tackle more productively and gracefully, could be counter boldly and patiently to recover lost dignity in a warrior way. Suicide on other hand is more easy solution than combating adversity face to face with real courage.

Was Jacob not sold into Egyptians market!

But Jacob son of Joseph (Peace be Upon him) traveled far and wide, in the chains of slavery, humiliation, and as a slave, but he countered adversity in a dignified, graceful manners and afterward becoming himself the ruler of ancient Egypt through his patience, grace and dignity.

Facing difficult period (even, disgraceful) in exemplary way like a real warrior is far more difficult than 'harakiri'.

 Moreover Jocob (PBUH) forgave his step-siblings - who were directly responsible for his disgrace.

What's about  ritual death (harakiri) for the sake of your dignity?

Mishima committed harakiri in 1970.

 "If we value so highly the dignity of life, how can we not also value the dignity of death? No death may be called futile.” ( Yukio Mishima)