Tagore's Philosophy: Liberation In Light And Love
M N Kundu
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Rabindranath Tagore's all-time relevant religion of self-expanding love sourced from the innermost core of our being in realisation of cosmic inter-relatedness not through intellectual knowing but in our being is relevant even today . The poet said, “Everyone has something special called `my religion'... which is his religion?
The one that lies hidden in his heart and keeps on creating him.“ Religion is the deep driving creative impulse in man that constantly keeps him engrossed in discovery of life in the context of creation, cosmos, time and eternity.The subject is quite complex as the poet was born in a Brahmo family propagating monotheistic concept of the formless Absolute. But his natural attraction adhered him to the dualistic mystics of the medieval Bhakti-cult, and his boundless poetic temperament was incompatible with any belief system imposed from the outside. Hence, like his songs, his religion flowered from within and through his intimate engagement with nature, love, humanity and aspiration for something beyond the sphere of imprisoned finitudes.
The process involved can be appropriately termed as discovery of life.Seized by a sense of utmost limitation of our psychophysical existence the poet periodically experienced expansion of consciousness. In childhood he read, “Jal pare pata nare.“ (It rains, leaves tremble).Immediately he glimpsed the interconnectedness of the universe and the inherent rhythm in creation. Later on he felt he was one with people moving in the street, the sun shine and vibrant life all around which was expressed through his Awakening of the Waterfall'.` When we say the Supreme is in the inner realm of the spirit or He is manifested in creation we do not fully realise the truth. Truth is in unity and therefore freedom is in its realisation inside, expressed outside, in the mystery of the unknown and unknowable creation and Creator. Poetic appreciation of this enigma enables us to glimpse and engage with that. Scientific knowledge about a lotus can take us nowhere near the feeling, “I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus that expands on the ocean of light, and thus am I blessed.“
Lack of freedom is in the sense of alienation. Liberation lies in realisation of unity with the cosmos with our body , mind and life force as products of endless assimilation and aspiration or evolution. Hu man tragedy lies in missing the truth that leads us to compromise values. Ascent is easily possible through an inward process of losing ourselves in self-effacing love and realisation of One manifested as many . Human bondage has stronghold within and not in the outside world. So he sings, “Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in thousand bonds of delight... all my illusions will turn into illumination of joy , and all my desires will ripen into fruits of love“ not in dimming consciousness but in total being.
Human superiority lies not in transient possessions but in the power of union with the rest of creation.Intense suffering of mundane life enables us to transform our pain into joyful sublimation with the light of consciousness that exists in unbroken continuity with the cosmos. To be in eternal peace we have to surrender our individual existence to its cosmic counterpart, “Let all my life take its voyage to its eternal home in one salutation to thee.“
Tagore's poetic religion of light and love is based on realisation of creative unity and beauty expressed as truth amid universal mystery deciphered through his discovery of life. (May 8 is Tagore's birth anniversary).
The one that lies hidden in his heart and keeps on creating him.“ Religion is the deep driving creative impulse in man that constantly keeps him engrossed in discovery of life in the context of creation, cosmos, time and eternity.The subject is quite complex as the poet was born in a Brahmo family propagating monotheistic concept of the formless Absolute. But his natural attraction adhered him to the dualistic mystics of the medieval Bhakti-cult, and his boundless poetic temperament was incompatible with any belief system imposed from the outside. Hence, like his songs, his religion flowered from within and through his intimate engagement with nature, love, humanity and aspiration for something beyond the sphere of imprisoned finitudes.
The process involved can be appropriately termed as discovery of life.Seized by a sense of utmost limitation of our psychophysical existence the poet periodically experienced expansion of consciousness. In childhood he read, “Jal pare pata nare.“ (It rains, leaves tremble).Immediately he glimpsed the interconnectedness of the universe and the inherent rhythm in creation. Later on he felt he was one with people moving in the street, the sun shine and vibrant life all around which was expressed through his Awakening of the Waterfall'.` When we say the Supreme is in the inner realm of the spirit or He is manifested in creation we do not fully realise the truth. Truth is in unity and therefore freedom is in its realisation inside, expressed outside, in the mystery of the unknown and unknowable creation and Creator. Poetic appreciation of this enigma enables us to glimpse and engage with that. Scientific knowledge about a lotus can take us nowhere near the feeling, “I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus that expands on the ocean of light, and thus am I blessed.“
Lack of freedom is in the sense of alienation. Liberation lies in realisation of unity with the cosmos with our body , mind and life force as products of endless assimilation and aspiration or evolution. Hu man tragedy lies in missing the truth that leads us to compromise values. Ascent is easily possible through an inward process of losing ourselves in self-effacing love and realisation of One manifested as many . Human bondage has stronghold within and not in the outside world. So he sings, “Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in thousand bonds of delight... all my illusions will turn into illumination of joy , and all my desires will ripen into fruits of love“ not in dimming consciousness but in total being.
Human superiority lies not in transient possessions but in the power of union with the rest of creation.Intense suffering of mundane life enables us to transform our pain into joyful sublimation with the light of consciousness that exists in unbroken continuity with the cosmos. To be in eternal peace we have to surrender our individual existence to its cosmic counterpart, “Let all my life take its voyage to its eternal home in one salutation to thee.“
Tagore's poetic religion of light and love is based on realisation of creative unity and beauty expressed as truth amid universal mystery deciphered through his discovery of life. (May 8 is Tagore's birth anniversary).
