sir
Rabindranath
Tagore -
and Genius
BY
K. 5, RAMASWAMi SA5T
PUBLISHERS
GANESH & CO,, MADRAS
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
RABINDRANATH TAQORE
All Rights Reserved.
SIR RABINDRANATH TAQORE
HIS LIFE, PERSONALITY AND GENIUS
BY
K- S. RAMASWAMI SASTRI. B.A., B-L-
GANESH & CO., PUBLISHERS, MADRAS
Printed by Thompson & Co., at the " Minerva " Press,
B3, Broadway, Madras,
PK
CONTENTS
. — « — >
PagEo.
The Foreword
i'
Author's Introduction
iil
Chapter I— Introductory
1
Chapter II — Gifanjali
IG.'S-
Chapter III— The Gardener
205-
Chapter IV — The Crescent Moon
244
Chapter V— Chitra ...
266
Chapter VI— The King of the Dark Chamber.
286
Chapter VII— The Post Office ...
325
Chapter VIII — Kabir's Poems ...
356
Chapter IX — Fiction
375
Chapter X — Sadhana
398
Chapter XI — Miscellaneous Writings
428-
Chapter XII — Conclusion
509
Bibliography .•• •••
52 f
Index.
164:iO,'59
FOREWORD.
Mr. Ramaswami Sastri's book meets a need
so general that there is little need of a " fore-
word." Upon the publication of Giianjali,
Rabindranath was immediately acclaimed in
England, and The Gardener,' with its more
secular loveliness, probably won a wider public.
But the tone of the one as of the other was
strange to English readers, and few even of
those most deeply moved by this poetry did not
desire an interpreter. For the full under-
standing of Rabindranath's work, very much
more is needed than the poems themselves.
Such biographical information as has already
been given in part by Mr. Ernest Rhys is quite
necessary ; but the great need is that we should
be enabled to identify ourselves with the poet
and cease to find strangeness in his ways of
emotion and of speech and particularly in his
symbolism. This is not easy for the average
reader, whether he be westerner or Indian.
We need the service of one whose mind bears
kinship with that of the poet, and who can inter-
pret his works from within. One doubts whether
ii FOREWORD.
it is possible for an English critic to perform this
service. The consciously nurtured spirituality
and the peculiar symbolism (to name two
matters only) of the lyrics are foreign to our
own poetry. The plays can scarcely be said
to belong to drama as we conceive it. Their
symbolism, besides distracting attention from
concrete character and action, produces, in The
King of the Dark Chamber particularly, an
obscurity that might seem fatal to drama.
Already, in several published articles,
Mr. Ramaswami Sastri has given vital help
towards the understanding of Rabindranath
and his religious, lyrical and dramatic concep-
tions, and now he has given us a comprehensive
study that is likely to be invaluable. For, this
poet is undoubtedly the noblest of those who,
in our time, have found utterance in English —
the clearest of vision, the most sublime in
thought and in speech, while at the same time
rooted and grounded in the love of all the
loveliness of earth.
M^Tofs 1 J- C- ROLLO.
May 1916. f ■'
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION.
I am sending this book into the wide world fully
alive to its many imperfections. To interpret to the
world, Sir Rabindranath Tagore's genius adequately
we must have a critic who is at the same time a great
poet, a passionate lover of India and India's immemo-
rial spiritual ideals, a practical humanitarian whose
interests are as varied as life and in whose heart love
for humanity forms with love of motherland and love
of God the holy trinity — which at the same time is a
unity— of his heart's adoration, and a saint who has
soared on the wings of love and wisdom to the very
Throne of Grace.
I have further laboured under the great disadvantage
of not knowing the great Bengali language in which
Tagore's greatest works are written. I have resolved
to learn it at least for having the joy of reading
his works in the original. I have, however, laboured
hard to collect and group and systematise all the
numerous translations of his songs, poems, stories, and
essays that have appeared in various magazines and
reviews from time to time. I shall feel obliged and
grateful to any one who vouchsafes supplementary
information to me on this matter. I have appended a
• • •
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
of this work. I thank also the editors of the Vedanta
Kesari^ the Madras Fortnightly, and the Literary Journal
for allowing me to use my articles on Tagore published
in these journals, though as a matter of fact this book
proceeds on new and original lines altogether.
India is yet the true home of beauty and romance,
and the infinite artistic and spiritual riches lying
neglected in our books and folklore and life require the
work of many men of genius of the type of Tagore to
reveal them in the fulness of their radiance to the world.
I shall deem it the highest reward for my work if I
get the blessings of my countrymen and of all lovers of
India to enable me to take a part, however humble it
may be, in the great and holy work of revealing the
Soul of India to the world.
VI
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE :
HIS LIFE, PERSONALITY AND GENIUS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
I. Proem.
Miss Evelyn Underbill says in her admirable Introduc-
tion to the Autobiography of Sir Rabindranaih Tagore s
father Maharshi Devendranath Tagore: '' As the poems
of Rabindranath Tagore are examples unique in our time,
rare in any time, of this synthetic mysticism, a whole
and balanced attitude to the infinite and intimate, trans-
cendent and immanent, reality of God, as they speak to
us out of life itself, yet not out of the thin and restless
plane of existence which we call by that august name ;
so that same depth and richness of view, which escapes
alike extreme absolutism and extreme immanentism,
which embraces the universal without ever losing touch
with the personal, is found to be the governing intui-
tion of his father's life." In his recent book on Rabindra-
nath Tagore, Mr. Ernest Rhys says : "On one occasion
in London, after the reading of the poet's play Chitra,
Mr. Montagu, the Under Secretary of State for India,
described how, when riding through an Indian forest
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
at night, he came upon a clearing where two or three
men sat round a fire. Not being certain of his road, he
was glad to dismount and rest his tired horse. Shortly
. after he had joined the group, a poor-looking, ill-clothed
lad came out of the forest and sat down also at the fire.
First one of the men sang a song and then another.
The boy's turn came, and he sang a song more beautiful
both in words and music than the rest. When asked
who had made the song, he said that he did not know ;
' they were singing these songs everywhere.' A while
after, Mr. Montagu heard the words and music again,
this time in a very different place, and when he asked
^ for the name of the maker of the song he heard for the
first time the name of Rabindranath Tagore."
II. Father and Son.
I have given these two quotations as an introduction
to this study, because they show the unique qualities of
Tagore's genius and reveal further the source of some
of the highest spiritual elements of his art. No sketch
of his life and works can be complete without a preh-
minary study of the life and spiritual attainment of his
father, the renowned Maharshi Devendranath Tagore.
It was from his father that the poet got his unique
spiritual vision, his sympathetic outlook on life, his love
for the poor, his burning patriotism, his love of solitude
and meditation, his quiet humour, his knowledge of men
and things, and his fine artistic sense and vigilance —
1
INTRODUCTORY
though in the purely poetic qualities he outshines his
father in the splendour of his gifts. Evelyn Underhill
well points out in her admirable Introduction to the
Maharshi's Autobiography the spotless purity and
spiritual intuitions of the Maharshi's nature— his mysti-
cal genius, his flaming vision, his enraptured heart, his
passion for poverty, his hatred of possessions and all
unreal objects of desire, " the perpetual effort to actua-
lise the infinite within the finite, to make of life a valid
sacrament in which, so far as human nature may accom-
plish it, a perpetually developing outward sign shall go
step by step with the perpetually developing inward
grace." His " first fine careless rapture " of mystical
vision was accompanied by mental searchings and
travail and ''rigorous moral efforts and re-adjustments."
" It is the rhythm of detachment, says Kabir, which
beats time to the music of love." The wlaharshi's in-
spiration came from the Upanishads which, in the words
of Evelyn Underhill, " crystallising intuitions long
growing beneath the surface, resolving the disharmonies
of his thought and feeling, and pointing the way to
peace, seemed to him " like a divine voice descending
from heaven." We see in him " that tendency to in-
voluntary dramatisation frequently present in genius of
this kind, which so commonly presents its intuitions to
the surface mind in a pictorial, musical, or allegorical
form." (Evelyn Underbill's Introduction to the Autobio-
graphy of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, page xxvi).
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Evelyn Underbill says in regard to his love of seclusion
and solitary meditation : " At some period of their lives-
the great contemplatives seem always to need such a
time of ' lonely dwelling ' with its wide spaces of silence^
its direct communion with Nature and God. Then as
Rolie the Hermit has it: 'In the wilderness the Be-
loved may speak to the heart of the lover, as it were a
bashful lover that his sweetheart before men entreats
nof
Thus I have laid stress Hrst on this aspect of the
Maharshi's genius, as we find in the poet this synthetic
mysticism and this " supreme unitive vision of God, as
at once transcendent and immanent, personal and cosmic,
the Inward, the Outward, the First and the Last,"
in combination with high poetic qualities. Devendra-
nath Tagore himself describes in many places in his
Autobiography his unique spiritual experiences. He
describes thus his first experience : " I was as if no
longer the same man. A strong aversion to wealth
arose within me. The coarse bamboo-mat on which I
sat seemed to be my fitting seat, carpets and costly
spreadings seemed hateful, in my mind was awakened
a joy unfelt before. I was then eighteen years old."
(Page 38 of his Auiobiograpliy). He records also a
unique experience of his later hfe : " With thriUing
heart I saw the eyes of God within that forest. Those
eyes were my guide in this difficult path ^
This gaze of His has become rooted indelibly in my heart.
4
INTRODUCTORY
Whenever I fall into trouble, I see those eyes of His"
(Page 260).
The Maharshi had an apostolic nature and a genius
for organisation and preaching. In his son these moods
have been softened by golden moods of poetic reverie
full of delicate charm. We see in him, however, all the
^reat spiritual qualities of his father — his mystic vision,
his sympathetic and loving outlook on life, his tender-
ness to the poor, his love of solitude and meditation, his
distaste for riches, and his high moral sense and sweet-
ness of ethical nature.
We must remember also the Maharshi's burning
patriotism when we come to study and realise Sir
Rabindranath Tagore's intense and glowing love of
this holy land. The Maharshi records in burning words
in his Autobiography how on hearing of the conversion to
Christianity of some Zenana ladies he began to organise
the forces of Hinduism. He says : " I went about in
a carriage every day from morning till evening to all
the leading and distinguished men in Calcutta, and
entreated them to adopt measures by which Hindu
children would no longer have to attend missionary
schools and might be educated in schools of our own."
(Page 100). Again, he says : " If I could preach the
Brahma Dharma as based upon the Vedanta, then all
India would have one religion, all dissensions would
come to an end, all would be united in a common
brotherhood, her former valour and power would be
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
revived, and finally she would regain her freedom.
Such were the lofty aspirations which my mind thea
entertained." (Page 102).
The Maharshi had the same quiet humour and irony
that we see also in the son. He says : " The Burmese
eat crocodiles. The Buddhist doctrine of Ahiinsa (non-
killing) is on their lips ; but crocodiles are inside their
stomachs." (Page 186). Again, he describes how the
temple pandas pursued him once for presents even after
he had left the temple. He describes in another place
the Prayag Pandas. " As soon as my boat touched the
shore, there was a regular invasion of pandas, who
boarded it." In another place in his Autohiography\.
we see his irony full of love and pity.
" Then again Akshaykumar Datta started a Friends*
Society, in which the nature of God was decided
upon by show of hands. For instance somebody
asked, ' Is God the personification of bliss or
not ? ' Those who believed in his blissfulness held
up their hatids. Thus the truth or otherwise of
God's attributes was decided by a majority of
votes ! Amongst many of those who surrounded
me, who were as my very limbs, I could no
longer see any signs of religious feeling or piety ;
each only pitted his own intellect and power
against the others." (Pages 203-4).
We see in Maharshi the power of artistic presenta-
tion, the grace of style, the eye for beauty, and the
INTRODUCTORY
ear for harmony that we see in a perfect form in the
poet. I shall give here a few examples from his Auto-
biography to show this.
•' This Taj is the taj (crown) of the world. Ascend-
ing a minaret, I saw the sun setting in the
western horizon, making it one mass of red.
Beneath was the blue Jumna. The pure white
Taj in the midst, with its halo of beauty, seemed
to have dropped on the earth from the moon,"
(Page 211). " On a cloudy evening I saw the pea-
cocks dancing,with wings raised above their heads.
What a wonderful sight ! if I could play the
Vina I would have done so, in tune to their
dancing." (Pages 219-220). '' I had never seen
such a beautiful flowering creeper before ; My
eyes were opened, and my heart expanded ; I
saw the universal Mother's hand resting on those
small white blossoms. Who was there in this
forest to inhale the scent of these flowers or see
their beauty ? Yet with what loving care had
she endowed them with sweet scent and love-
liness, moistened them with dew, and set them
upon the creeper ! Her mercy and tenderness
became manifest to me. Lord ! When such is
Thy compassion for these little flowers, what
must be the extent of Thy mercy for us ? "
(Page 240). " The mighty current of this stream
(Nagari) dashing against the huge elephantine
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
rocks contained in its bosom, becomes fierce and
foaming, and with a thundering sound rolls on
to meet the sea, by command of the Almighty.
From both its banks two mountains rise up
straight to a great height like immense walls,
and then incline backwards. The rays of the
sun do not find room enough to remain here long
....Only one man was living there with
his family in one room, which was not a room,
but a cave in the rocks. Here they cooked and
here they slept. I saw his wife dancing joyfully
with a baby on her back, and another child of
hers nmning about on a dangerous part of the
hill, and his father sowing potatoes in a small
field. God had provided everything necessary
for their happiness here. Kings sitting on their
thrones rarc^ly found such peace and happiness
as this." (Pages 243-244).
" In the evening I was walking alone on the
banks of this river, charmed with its beauty,
when I looked up suddenly, and found the hill was
lighted up with flames. As the evening wore
on and night advanced, the fires also began
to spread. Like arrows of fire, a hundred
thousand sparks fell swift as stars, and attacked
the trees below, down to the banks of the river.
By degrees every tree cast off its own form and
assumed the form of fire, and blind darkness
8
INTRODUCTORY
fled afar from the spot. As I looked upon this
wonderful form of fire, I felt the glory of
that Divinity who dwells in fire. Before this,
in many a wood, I had seen charred trees that
bore witness to forest fires, and in the night I
had seen the beauty of fires burning on the
distant hills; but here I was delighted to see for
myself the origin, spread, growth^ and arrest of a
forest fire. It went on burning all night ; when-
ever I woke up during the night, I saw its light.
When I got up in the morning I saw many
charred trees still smoking, and here and there
the all-devouring ravenous fire burning in a dim
and exhausted manner, like the lamps remaining in
the morning after a festive night." (Pages244-245).
We have thus been privileged to see the uncommon
possession of great and similar talents in the great father
and his greater son. Such instances have been seen
though rarely in life. The instances of Dumas pere
and Dumas fih^ and of Chatham and Pitt will occur
to the minds of all. We are thus able to realise from
the Maharshi's Aiilobiography whence were derived the
unique qualities of Sir Rabindranath Tagore's splendid
poetic genius.
III. Tagore's Artistic and Spiritual Ancestry.
It is a remarkable phenomenon that in India the
greatest poets have also been the greatest saints and
9
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
religious teachers of the land. If spirituality is the
dominant note in our life, it can be expected to be, and
is, the dominant note in our art which is only the
expression of the intenser, purer, and happier moments
of our life. The greatest architects, sculptors, painters^
poets, and singers of the Hindu race have been pro-
foundly spiritual and some of them are the greatest
sages, seers, and saints of India.
It is not my purpose here to trace the growth of art
and religion in India and to show their mutual influence
and interaction. That is a great task by itself, and will
have to be taken up separately, if it is to be properly
performed. The great Bhakti movement, which was
the most potent inspiring force in life and in art in
ancient and mediaeval India, which is active — if only
fitfully and sporadically — even now, and by the luminous
rejuvenescence of v/hich alone our national rebirth can
be accomplished, was neither new, nor due to outside
influences, in our land. It is as old as the Hindu race
itself, and there are in the Upanishadsnot merely modes
of worship and hymns of adoration of God but passages
full of the rapture of love and devotion bearing the soul
to His lotus feet in an ecstasy of happiness. Having re-
gard to the purpose of this work, I shall consider here
briefly only the great spiritual ideas of a few devotional
poets and singers of genius in mediaeval and modern
India to show how the art of Tagore has been influ-
enced and inspired by them. If his father helped ta.
1.0
INTRODUCTORY
mould his inner nature by the force of his personality^
they have been in an even larger measure responsible
for the beautiful manifestation and development of his-
supreme poetical development. To understand Tagore
without understanding them and their inspiring, purify-^
ing, and uphfting influence is an impossible task. He
has already translated one hundred poems of Kabir and
vi^e learn that he has further finished the English trans-
lation of the vi^orks of Vidyapathi and Chandidas.
Dr. A. K. Coomaraswami says : " Vaishnava art is
correspondingly humanistic, and it is from this school of
thought that the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore deri-
ves. In it are echoed the teaching of such prophets
as Sri Chaitanya nnd poets such as Jayadev and Chandi-
das, who sung of the religion of love." {Art ana
Swadesi\ p. 116).
The rehgion of Pre ma Bliakti (ecstasy of love) that
these great saints and poets taught centres mostly round
the divine personality of Krishna, though in some
locahties it centres round Rama and in Southern India
round Siva as well as Vishnu. Those who have heard
the inspiring and uplifting songs contained in the
Thevaram, Thirnvachagam, and Tiritvoimozhi in Southern
sindia will reahse that this religion of love has overflowed
the whole of India like a swelling tide from the ocean of
divine bliss and has inspired art and sweetened life in
this lovely and holy land. The spirit of ecstatic love
that breathes through the songs of saint Andal is the
11
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
•same as that which has inspired Mira Bai, Chandidas,
and Chaitanya. The love of theGopis and especially of
Radha — a miserably misunderstood episode in the life of
Sri Krishna — has kindled in them an endless ecstasy of
adoration. God is the Eternal Bridegroom and each
human soul is His bride. The spiritual union of God
and the soul solemnised before the Agni (Fire) of devo-
tion is the consummation and highest bliss of life. When
Mira Bai renounced her position as queen and went to
Brindavan to worship and meditate on Krishna, a great
devotee and ascetic, Rup Goswami, refused to see her
as she was a woman. She sent word to him : " Mira
knows that in Brindavan there is but one man Sri
Krishna. Many others live here, it is true, but as they
all dwell in His love they are all but the maids of Gokula.
If, therefore, by some mischance Rup Goswami, being a
man, has entered the abode of the maids of our Lord —
he should fly, for if found out he will be chastised." Then
he was surprised at her wisdom and devotion and
agreed to see her. It is said of Shri Krishna that he
showed his attribute of beauty and love at Brindavan,
his attribute of wisdom at Mathura, and his attributes
•of universal sovereignty, compassion, and service at
Dwaraka. To the lovers and devotees of Krishna, he
appears sweetest as Krishna of Brindavana. The songs
of Chandidas describe such love of God in rapturous
terms This heaven of love has been so near the earth
in India for many centuries, and it is no wonder that
12
INTRODUCTORY
life and art in India have been transfigured by the play
of the light of divine love. It was in India that God's._^ o
love for man and man's love for God were realised in a ^
' vivid, intense, and passionate form. God was recognised
and loved not merely as Father but as Mother, Child,
Friend, Lord, and Lover. To realise the beauty of this.
a vividness of inner vision and a mystical sense of the
divine presence brooding over everything are required.
God is the Father of the world in a mystical sense as
he is not the direct physical progenitor of any created
being. The Hindu mind has recognised that we have
to rise from plane to plane of love, relate each lower
form of love to the divine, and extend the boundaries
and deepen the depth of each form of love till we rise
to a practical realisation of the beauty and sweetness of
God and rise to the highest raptures of the love of God.
How difficult it is for an outsider to enter into this
paradise of the religion of love is apparent from the
recent book of Mr. Ernest Rhys on Tagore. He says :
*' To be sure, in the Indian mythology, Siva appears to
lie beyond the sphere of pleasure and pain ; the im-
movable amid the flux of things, eternity in the midst of
time . . . . ' Siva has a wife, Uma, but he is no
provident mate ; he is old and rascally, and so poor
that he is unable even to find a pair of shell-biacelets
for his bride, though she is the daughter of a King, and
that King is mount Himavathi Among the
true followers of Siva the form of Uma represents the
13
SIK RABINDRANATH TAGORE
lineness and delicacy of earthly life, and that of Siva the
lerror and grimness of death." If he had known the
supreme beauty and sweetness of the Siva leelas ?is read
and loved in Southern India— which rival the Rama
leelas and Krishna leelas in point of their overflowing
divine tenderness and their emotional appeal— and if he
had known the descriptions of Siva's beauty and bounty
and love in that perfect gem of devotional poetry— the
Tiruvachagam — and in the sweet Thevarams, he would
not have fallen into such a phenomenal error.
I vi^ish to deal here a little elaborately with Shri
Krishna Chaitanya, because his influence on the religion
of love, devotion, and mystical emotion, and on the
musical art of Bengal, has been of a unique character.
It is a pecuhar and even significant fact that Chandidas
and Chaitanya lived for sometime in villages near Bolpur.
Chaitanya was called Nimai in eariy life. His boyhood
was full of fun and frolic and gave little indication of
his coming greatness. But even then his beauty,
gentleness, sweetness, and love of Hari were remark-
able. Babu Shishir Kumar Ghose's Lord GauranPa and
Professor Jadunath Sircar's Chaitanya's Pilgrimages and
Teachings give us some of the idea of the artistic and
spiritual wealth lying in Chaitanya-Charitamrifa, Chai-
tanya Bhagavala^ Chaitanya Mangala^ and Chaitanya-
Chandroday a. NimM then became a great grammarian and
logician and was accepted as a Pandit of genius even
in intellectual Naddea (Nawadwipa). The illumination
1-i
INTRODUCTORY
of love filling him with an infinite gentleness and
tenderness and overthrowing all his assertive pride of
intellect came to him when he saw the foot-print of Shri
Krishna at Gaya. " The attention of everybody engaged
in the worship of the foot-print was directed on him.
They saw a young man of twenty -three, of herculean
proportions, graceful beyond comparison, with a skin
as fair as molten gold, and eyes luminous and soft as the
petals of the lotus flower, with which he looked on
the foot-print with a steadfast gaze, unconscious of the
presence of those who were watching him with such
intense interest." (Shishir Kumar Ghose's Lord Gau-
ranga, Vol. I, page 68).
From this time forward he was under divine influence
and Shri Krishna manifested himself in him, Chaitanya-
Bhagavata says :
'* A form, brighter than a thousand moons,
And fairer far than a thousand gods of love ;
The lord and his worshippers wrapped in light,
And everything besides."
The book referred to above says : " Nimai some-
times represented Shri Krishna and sometimes Radha.
When he sits on the sacred dais, he is Shri Krishna ;
when he weeps for Shri Krishna he is Radha. So
Lord Nimai had not only Radha's love for Shri Krishna,
but also Radha's love for human creatures." (Page
219). His Kirtanas and dancing won the hearts of
human beings and uplifted them into the heaven of
15
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Krishna's love. The Vaishnava songs of love are things
of beauty and kindle love and joy in our hearts. Here
is one of them quoted in the above said book.
" Ferry us over to the other bank, O beautiful Pilot !
We have come to your Ghat for that purpose.
We are poor and therefore cannot pay the ferry-toll.
And wherefore do we come to your ghat ?
Because we have been assured, you are merciful."
The following stanza from Prabhodananda's Chat-
tanya Chandramrita shows well what Chaitanya did for
the world.
(I adore as far as is possible to one of my limited
powers Lord Gauranga who made people mad with
the nectar of Hari's love and made them dance, sing,
and even roll on the ground in ecstasy, though
they had never had the sanctifying touch of Dharma
but lived in sin and had never been looked at by a
saint's compassionate eyes or lived in a holy place).
Tagore owes a great deal by way of inspiration to
Chandidas, Vidyapathi,Chaitanya,GarudaDas, Mukunda-
rama, Tulsidas, Hafichand, Mehr Das, Sur Das, Mira
Bai, Tukaram, and other poets and saints. Of course
no great poet ever borrows ideas or words from other
INTRODUCTORY
poets ; but the divine atmosphere that he breathes with
their aid makes their joys and ideals his own. I must
further point out that through Kabir and Nanak the
spirit of Sutiism also influenced him a great deal. Sufi- i
ism is the mystical blossoming of Islam under the '
transforming touch of the higher Hinduism, just as in
mediaeval India the influence of Islam led to certain
developments in Hinduism. The Sufis regarded the
existence of the soul as pre-natal and held that the full
perception of earthly beauty was the remembrance of
Supreme Beauty in the spiritual world and that in spite
of the veil of the body the soul could behold the Divine
Mysteries through love and ecstasy {Hal). Sufiism
regarded creation as a manifestation of Eternal Beauty.
Jami says in his poem Yusuf-u-Zulaykha :
" His beauty everywhere doth show itself,
And through the forms of earthly beauties shines
Obscured as through a veil
Where'er thou seest a veil.
Beneath that veil he hides. Whatever heart
Doth yield to love, He charms it. In His love
The heart hath life. Longing for Him, the soul
Hath victory."
Man was a divine emanation, and the Sufis held that
man's supreme desire was to be reunited with the Be-
loved. Jami, the great Sufi poet, says :
" Gaze, till Gazing out of Gazing
Grew to Being Her I Gaze on,
17
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
She and I no more, but in One
Undivided being blended.
All that is not One must ever
Suffer with the woimd of Absence ;
And whoever in Love's City
Enters, finds but Room for One,
And but in "Oneness Union."
Mr. Hadland Davis says : "We follow that invisible
figure from land to land, from heart to heart, from
death into life, on and on. When Love loves Love for
its own sake, we shall meet Him. We shall find the
Beloved to be the Perfection, the realisation of that
strong desire that made us lose ourselves in others.
The more we lose ourselves in God, the more we find
Him .... Love God's light in men and women
and not the lanterns through which It shines, for human
bodies must turn to dust ; human memories, human
desires, fade away. But the love of the All-Good, All-
Beautiful remains, and when such is found in earthly
love it is God finding Himself in you, and you in Him.
That is the supreme teaching of Sufiism, the religion of
Love." (Introduction to Jalaluddin Rumi, Wisdom of
the East Series). Abu Hashim, Rabia, Attar, Bayazid,
Al-Hallaj, Hafiz, Sadi, Jami, Rumi, and others made
Sufiism a powerful spiritual force. Mr. Davis says in
his introduction to Jami : " It is in silence, in the quiet
places of our hearts, rather than on the housetops of
much controversy, that we can hear the sweet call of
the Beloved and forget the clanging of the world in the
18
INTRODUCTORY
•Great Peace which He alone can give." In Kabir, ,
Nanak and others both streams of mystical emotion —
Indian and Sufi — ^met and mmgled into a mightier
stream. Tagore has recently translated one hundred
poems of Kabir and has been profoundly influenced by
him.
It must be further remembered that Tagore belongs
to the Brahmo Samaj, which has been influenced ia no
small measure by Christianity. Hence his mind bears -
traces of dislike of idolatry and of some of the social
ideals of Hinduism. But as his mind has ud intellectual
narrowness and as his heart is full of love, he has been
able to rise above all petty man-made barriers between
religion and religion. His mystical vision has enabled
him to see the inner spiritual signilicance of mach that
a hard-headed and hard-hearted man might brush aside
as idolatry or theology or metaphysics. In him it is
the Hindu gemus that is predominant and irradiates
everything else.
IV. THE INDIAN RENAISSANCE.
We can never understand Tagore aright if we do
not realise the new Indian Renaissance now going on
before our eyes. The movement is now as wide as life
and as deep as love and as high as heaven. Its manifest-
ations must be sought not in this sphere of activity or
that but everywhere. Of course in the lower forms of
activity it will be difficult to say whether what we see
19
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
is a growth from within or an ornamental and some-
times tawdry addition from without. But in the case of
literature, art, and religion which are securely rooted in
the race consciousness and are the finest flowers of
racial life, we see unmistakable signs of an overflowing
vitality that is bringing about a healthy growth and
expansion from within.
There is a vital point of difference between the Indian:
Renaissance and the movement known as the Renais-
sance in Europe. There the inspiration came from a
different land and a dead literature. Here it has come
from a living land and a living literature — and these
our own. The India of to — day is like the Phoenix
emerging bright from its own ashes after it becomes
old and desires to be born again. If the Renaissance in
Europe was a liberation of the human spirit per se, the
Indian Renaissance is a liberation of the human spirit
'\ ^that is in harmony with the divine. J. A. Symonds said
'v«y 1 in regard to the Renaissance in the west : " The history
of the Renissance is the history of the attainment of the
self-conscious freedom by the human spirit manifested
in the European races. What the word really means is
new birth to liberty, the spirit of mankind recovering,
consciousness and the spirit of self-determination, re-
cognising the beauty of the outer world and of the body
through art, liberating the reason in science, and the con-
science in religion, restoring culture to the intelligence
and establishing the principle of political freedom."'
20
INTRODUCTORY
All these great traits are seen to be integral manifesta-
'tions of the spirit of the Indian Renaissance also.
What shall we say about the blessed part that Eng-
land has been taking in the awakening? When the
humanity of the future records its impartial ideas as to
the unfolding of the human spirit, she will bless
England for the liberation of the human spirit that she
is achieving in India. No contemporary misrepresen-
tations, hatreds, or passions, will obscure the clarity of
her vision. Though the Indian Renaissance owes its
ultimate inspiration to India and her ever— living ideals,
the warm breath of spring that loosens the grip of the
dead hand of winter over the heart has come from
" That other Eden, semi-paradise,
That precious stone set in the silver sea."
England has been freeing the national spirit from its
ifetters in India ; but the unconquerable spirit was there
already and has been shining forth in the quenchless
fire of her eyes and the quenchless love in her heart
which made her
" To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite ;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night ;
To defy Power, which seems Omnipotent ;
To love, and bear ; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates ;
Neither to change, nor flatter, nor repent."
The two great divisions of the Aryan race have now
anet in this holy land for mutual uplift and inspiration
21
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
England — the champion of freedom, the emancipator of
slaves, the protector of small states and treaty obligations
— has brought to us the gift of a rational study of nature
and its problems, the historical method, national
spirit, lofty ideals of citizenship and patriotism,
constitutional government, and political geniuS;
India's power of imagination, emotional refine-
ment, spiritual insight and rapture, and meditative
passion is alive and in vigorous life, and England will
receive from her elder sister, her message of the unity
and divine purpose of life, of divine immanence, of the
sovereignty of love, of the spiritual kinship of all, of
ahinisa, of sanihi^ of universal toleration, and of the love
of God being the crowning glory of life. England will
teach India the art of citizenship ; India will convey
to her the art of life. England will instruct India in
the arts of outer peace in the realms of social and
political life ; India will convey to her the art of inner
peace in the heaven of the soul. The world waits in
expectation and eager longing for the time
"When East and West without a breath
Mix their dim lights like life and death
And broaden into boundless day.
Some people are of opinion that India's message was
one of quietism and that a life of activity has come into
existence here only after we heard the call of the East.
A more erroneous notion than this cannot be imagined.
To say this of a race that has given the Giia to the
22
INTRODUCTORY
world, that has lived a strenuous life, that has achieved
social peace and co-ordination and spiritual progress,
th.U has been pre-eminent in the fine arts and the indus-
trial arts, that has reverenced womanhood and vi^hose
women have been mothers of heroes, that spread over
the Eastern world in the course of its self-development,
that was supreme in commerce and was the richest
country in the world, and that was the mother of
philosophy and religion — a race that, in spite of fierce
assaults from without and dissensions within, has
been true to its Hght and has outlived other civilisations
and is now living "not in decay, not a mere antique, but
full of life and youthful vigour — '' is a gross libel and
argues an utter want of vision.
Yet we must recognise with gratitude and love, as
I have already stated, the liberation of the spirit that is
being achieved by England in India. It will be beyond
the scope of this book to describe this great task and
the adequate manner in which England is performing
it in India. The English language— that noble and
highly-evolved organ of thought — has become a portion
of our life and is the chief instrument of national up-
lift, though it is now being degraded to the position of
a fetish and once more illustrates the supreme truth of
Tennyson's warning to beware
" Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
England is fostering a spirit of scientific investigation
and research, and reviving the desire for interrogating
23
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
nature, the fruits of which once went through Arabia
from India into Europe and gave an impetus to scientific
development there. She has given us great ideals of civic
^ responsibility and civic freedom, which will in course of
time unify the warring sections of humanity in this land.
Some sceptics within and without have doubted
whether national life ever existed, or can exist in India.
But their scepticism is due to their inability to look
deep enough. They would deny unity even to the
human personality, because they find in it various ele-
ments— senses, intellect, emotion, and will. Sister
Nivedita says in her Revival ox Reform: " So far from
there being any color of truth in the statement that she
has been hopelessly divided and sub-divided for thousands
of years, the very reverse is the case. We do not
regard the garden as divided against itself, because the
flowers in it are of many different hues. Nor is India
divided ? She has, on the contrary, unfathomed depths
of potentiality for civic organization, for united corpo-
rate action." (Page 149, Select Essays^ published by
Messrs. Ganesh and Co.,). As has been well said, the
people of this sacred land find " in essentials unity, in
non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity." In his
valuable book on the Fundamental Unity of India Radha-
kumud Mookerji says: "The primary requisite! for the
birth and growth of a nation is the certainty, fixity, and
permanence of place, and when that is assured the
other formative forces will appear and make themselves
24
INTKODUCTORY
ielt in due course. A common fatherland is prelimi-
nary to all national development ; round that living
nucleus will naturally gather all those feelings, associa-
tions, traditions and other elements which go to make
up a people's language and literature, religion and
culture, and establish its separate existence
and individuality, , demanding its preserva-
tion and independent development as a valuable
cultural unit. The unifying influence of a common
country, of common natural surroundings, is indeed
irresistible, and the assertion may be safely made that
it will be effectively operative against other disintegra-
ting, disruptive forces and tendencies such as differences
in manners and customs, language and religion " (pages
5-4). The unity was recognised by the masterspirits of
the past who gave the whole land a single name, Bha-
ratavarsha. The popular phrase is Himavatsefuparyantam
A Sanscrit verse says : ^T^^^T^f^^ ^nt^f^ ^t^T^ '
(The mother and the motherland are more adorable
than heaven). The holy hills, streams, and shrines of
India make the entire land sacred and dear beyond ex-
pression. Kasi, Mathura, Dwaraka, Ayodhya, Kanchi ;
Himalayas, Vindhya, Satya, Malaya ; Sindhu, Ganga,
Yamuna, Saraswathi, Narmada, Godavari, Kaveri ;
Dandakaranya, Naimisaranya, etc.; the shrines of
Viswanatha, Jagannatha, Venkatesa, Ranganatha, and
Ramalinga: — what blessed, purifying, upHfting names are
here ! From Badari to Kanyakumari is holy land in the
25
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORE
eyes of all. The conception of a Sarvahhama king was
a familiar one. It seems to me that this sacramental
conception of the country is at the root of the whole
matter. If the sceptic has a luminious vision of the soul of
India,his scepticism will vanish altogether. Vincent Smith
says in his Early History of India : " India, encircled
as she is by seas and mountains, is indisputably a geo-
graphical unit, and, as such is rightly designated by one
name. Her type of civilisation, too, has many features
which differentiate it from that of all other regions of
the world; while they are common to the whole country,
or rather continent, in a degree sufficient to justify its
treatment as a unit in the history of human, social, and
intellectual development." (Page 5.)
In the same manner we should rise to the conception
of the unity of the Hindu race. Whatever may have
been the elements that went into the melting pot, the
race had emerged into being long before historic time.
The man that goes about moping in the museums of the
mind and comes out and shouts at the top of his voice
about Aryans and Dravidians, Bactrians and Mongols,
and what not, is an enemy of India and a dangerous
lunatic at large. The great significance of race is being
more and more recognised all over the world. The
divergence of racial types ought not to be a source of
discord, but should be a source of harmony.
" Shall ihe rose
Cry to the lotus ' No flower thou,' the palm
Call to the cypress ' 1 alone am fair ?''
(Tennyson's Akbar's Dream.jf
26
INTRODUCTORY
Lord Beaconsfield says: "Race is everything; there is
no other truth. And every race must fall which
carelessly suffers its blood to become mixed." Mr.
H. S. Chamberlain says in his great book on " The-
Foundations of the Nineteenth Century ." " Nothing is
so convincing as the consciousness of the possession of
race. The man who belongs to a distinct, pure race,
never loses the sense of it. ..Race lifts a man above (
himself." The distinctive traits of the Hindu race are /
its spirit of inwardness, its orderly social evolution, its
acceptance of the principle of co-ordination as the basis (
of social action, its power of realising divine immanence, '
its love of the spiritual aspects of beauty, its passion for '
peace, its emotional refinement, its spirit of unbounded
toleration and self-sacrifice, its reverence for life, its
longing for divine communion, and its luminous self-
poised rapture of contemplation and meditation and
devotion. We must beware of any individual or
national acts that will taint inner life of the race.
Mr. C. W. Saleeby says : '* There is no pubHc nor
private deed that may not affect, in ways unseen or
seen, the quality of a people — so sensitive and impres-
sionable is the life of a community, so great the conse-
quences which may flow from the smallest cause."
{The Methods of Race— Regeneration.) Sister Nivedita and
Dr. A.K. Coomaraswami say in a recent book: "A single
generation enamoured of foreign ways is almost enough
in history to risk the whole continuity of civilisation and
27 . ■ ,
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
learning Ages of accumulation are entrusted to
Ihe frail bark of each passing epoch by the hand of the
past, desiring to make over its treasures to the use of
the future. It takes a certain stubbornness, a doggedness
of loyalty, even a modicum of unreasonable conserva-
tism may be, to lose nothing in the long march of
the ages and even when confronted with great empires,
with a sudden extension of the idea of culture or with
1:he supreme temptation of a new religion, to hold fast
what we have, adding to it only as much as we can
healthfully and manfully carry".
Especially is the warning necessary in the case of
literature and art. The writer of an excellent article in
The Centemporary Review. (May, 1914) says: "An author
must reveal not only a living creation, must not only
make that creation instinct with his own personality,
but must also inspire it with his own national life.
There is no internationalism in literature, though the
interchange of literature is one of the best solvents of
national differences '. Dr. Coomaraswami, who is the
greatest champion of national art in modern India, says:
"There is no more searching test of the vitahty of a
people than the revelation in art— plastic, literary,
musical— of their inward being". Again, he says: "Have
you ever thought that India, politically and econo-
mically free, but subdued by Europe in her inmost soul,
is scarcely an ideal to be dreamt of, or to live or die
for ?" Again ; "But let us not love art because it will
28
INTRODUCTORY
bring to us prosperity ; rather because it is a high
function of our being, a door for thoughts to pass from
the unseen to the seen, the source of those high dreams
and the embodiment of that enduring vision that is to
be the Indian nation; not less, but more strong and
more beautiful than ever before, and the gracious
giver of beauty to all the nations of the earth."
Indian art is, as can well be expected from the genius
of the race, idealistic and religious. Mr. Havell says :
*'The inspiration of Vedic thought, which still
permeates the whole atmosphere of Indian life, as the
originating impulse of Indian art, and the influence
which links together all its historic phases ....
Throughout Indian art, and throughout the Christian
art of the middle ages, we find the same central idea
— that beauty is inherent in spirit, not in matter
It is bhakthi which now keeps Indian art alive ; it is the
lack of it which makes modern western art so lifeless.'^
{The Ideals of Indian Art.) Dr. Coomaraswami says in
his Essays in National IdeaUsm. " India is wont to
suggest the eternal and inexpressible infinities in terms
of sensuous beauty Life is not to be represented
for its own sake, but for the sake of the divine
expressed in and through it." (page 31.)
I have quoted freely above to bear out , the truth of
the view pleaded for here. The artistic and literary
awakening in Bengal and the artistic work of Ravi
Varma in South India show that India is beginning ta
29
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Tecognise the truth of this view vividly and passionately.
■It is in the intensification and practical unfoldment of
this new-born spirit that the salvation of India lies.
Sister Nivedita says: "Not only to utter India to the
world, but also, to voice India to herself, — this is the
mission of art, divine mother of the ideal, when it
descends to clothe itself in the forms of realism."
I must here say a few words on the vexed question
about the vernaculars. There are two kinds of faddists
who are both bent on kilHng them. One says that they
must all go and make room for the English language.
Another says that they are even now in a flourishing
condition and need no looking after. One wonders
whether they have any eyes that enable them to see
what is going on around us. If any one thinks that a
great and vital and enduring Hteratare can be built up
by Indians in the EngUsh tongue, he is a hopeless
dreamer. The uniform testimony of history is against
any such possibility. The English language has its
due place in our life to express the new-born forces in
the Indian world and to interpret India to England.
But the highest heaven of literature and art can be
reached by us only through the medium of
Sanscrit and the Vernaculars. The soul of a race
is in intimate and vital touch with the language or
languages of the race. If you kill the one, you kill
the other also. Victor Hugo says : " One idea
has never more than one form peculiarly its own.
30
INTRODUCTORY
Kill the form and you nearly always kill the ideal.*
As a matter of fact the elevation of English to the rank
of a fetish has killed the divine Sanscrit tongue and
the beautiful vernaculars to a large extent. English
should never be the medium of instruction till at least
the fourth form is reached in the school classes. I
should be glad to see it learnt as a second language up
to the entrance class. Further, the Sanscrit, a verna-
cular, and the Hindi tongue or the Bengali should be
learnt throughout the course. We shall then be in
touch with the past, handle our mother tongue with
power, know one language that will keep us in touch
with the whole India, and be able with the help of
English to enter the shrine of political growth, civic
progress, scientific and historical study, and rationalistic
attitude which England has thrown open to us. If, as
the present moment the vernaculars live, it is because of
the inherent vitality of the race. But systematic
.poisoning of the springs of life may kill even the
irrepressible vitality of the Hindu race. That vernaculars
have great potentialities and possibilities as vehicles of
progressive thought has been demonstrated to the whole
world by Bengal. A great and holy succession of poets
in mediaeval and modern India have demonstrated their
power as vehicles of religious emotion and artistic pre-
sentation of life. If our leaders through their love for
sonorous thunderings in English sacrifice the best inter-
ests of their land in their blindness of vision, the malady
31
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
will soon pass beyond the stage of cure and a great type
will disappear for ever. We must give up our insane
habit of speaking and writing in English except in the
case of subjects in regard to which the vernaculars are
not as yet sufficiently developed to express them well or
where we have to address mixed audiences. We must give
up our suicidal habit of writing letters — even marriage
invitation letters — in English, and diluting and even
adulterating our spoken language with EngUsh words.
Tagore's best work is in BengaU and he addresses Ben-
gali audiences only in the Bengali tongue. The modern
system of education is costly and examination-ridden
while the task of learning everything in English from
boyhood crushes all energy and originality out of
existence; it is rigid, there being no attempt to develop
individual aptitudes ; it does not train the mind of
young India in the fields of science and technical skill
properly ; it is regarded in a purely commercial spirit ^
it is divorced from religion, morality, and Indian culture
and art ; and it is not calculated to kindle in our hearts,
love for the past or enthusiasm for the future,love of India,
love of man, or love of God. Shall we be wise in time ?
The Bengali Renaissance is only a phase of the
general Renaissance in India. In literature and art
Bengal has produced great personalities, and the
achievements of Madhusudan Dutt, Toru Dutt, Bankim
Chunder Chatterjea, Swami Vivekananda, Tarak Nath
Ganguli,R.C.Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore,Abanindranath
32
INTRODUCTORY
Tagore, and other great men show how Bengal
has a conspicuous record of work to its credit.
Mr Rhys says of the Bengali language : " We have to
talk with one whose mother-tongue it is to appreciate
its full resource, and those elements and qualities in it
which have made it pliant under the lyric spell. We
test a language by its elasticity, its response to rhythm,
by the kindness with which it looks upon the figurative
desires of the child and the poet. In these essentials
Bengali proves its right to a place among the regene-
rative tongues of the world." In art as well as in litera-
ture, modern Bengal has been original as well as national
and has accomplished a great deal of admirable work.
In this renaissance Tagore has played a great part.
He has not merely interpreted the East to the West.
The Da?7;v 67xro«jc/<? said of him: "Others have been
dazzled by the mystery, the brightness, the immensity
of India; we have drunk deep of its colour. But Mr.
Tagore brings us its mind." He has done more than
this. He is the greatest modern national poet of
India.
Mr. S. K. Ratcliffe well says. "The life of India is
still favourable to the development of the poet who is
also thinker and man of affairs — although, we may be
quite sure, it will not prove to be so for the creative
genius of to-morrow. For Rabindranath Tagore, at any
rate, the lines have been laid in the pleasantest of
places. His songs are part of the popular culture o£
33
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Bengal. He has been a force in the Hterary renaissance
•of Modem India. Inheriting a fine intellectual tradi-
tion, he has been honoured as priest and teacher in
his own religious community, and as an intellectual
leader among the aspiring young adherents of Indian
Nationalism".
The Rev. Mr. C. F. Andrews said of him in his great
address at the Viceregal Lodge, at Simla in 1913 :
*' He is to day the national poet of Bengal in a sense
that Shakespeare was the national poet of England in
the days of Queen Elizabeth. Of all the poets Hving
in the world to-day there is none, as far as I am able
to judge, except Rabindranath, who holds this unique
position with regard to his own people, and it is this
which gives a freshness, a spontaneity, a width of
humanity to his work, which is altogether refreshing in
our own somewhat artificial age.'' The Viceroy whose
sympathy, insight, and. love in regard to the Indians is
well known described Tagore in his closing address as
"the Poet Laureate of Asia". Tagore has expressed in
the thirty-fifth poem in the Gitanjali which I have quo-
ted elsewhere his ideal of national patriotism. Not
only has he expressed a lofty ideal of patriotism ; not
only did he preside over the Provincial Conference at
Pabna in 1908; not only has he served India nobly and
well by songs and poems: but he has dedicated his life
to her; he is seeking by his Bolpur School and his
industrial and art school to uplift his countrymen into
34
INTRODUCTORY
fthat region of self-sacrificing service for the motherland
iin which he has achieved such great results; and the
master-passion of his life is this supreme desire to serve
India. His patriotic hymns deserve a more than passing
mention in this connection. He is India's greatest
^singer of national songs. One of them has been trans-
Jated thus :
Blessed is my birth, because I was born ia the
country, blessed is my life, mother, because I
have loved thee.
I do not know if thou hast wealth and riches like a
Queen. I know this much that my limbs are
cooled as soon as 1 stand in thy shade.
I know not in what grove blossom flowers that
madden the soul with such scents — I know not
the sky where the moon rises with such sweet
smiles.
My eyes were first opened in thy light, and they
will be closed, finally, upon that very light.
His Sonar Bangala is sung by even the most illiterate
•classes in Bengal. Thus his part in the Indian Renais-
sance is unique, and his greatness as a national poet of
India has not been equalled by any other poet in recent
•times.
V. His Life,
He was born in Calcutta in 1861. The Tagore
family is one of the most ancient and distinguished
ifamilies in Bengal. I have already referred to his father
35
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Maharshi Devendra Nath Tagore. The poet lost Hisi
mother early in his life. The child was early led to*
seek sympathy and love in the company of Mother
Nature. Mr. C. F. Andrews says in the lecture that I
have already referred to: "He told me first of all about*
his father, the great Mahnrshi, the reverence and awe
that he had for him in his childhood ; how all the
household became hushed and still, when he was
present in the house, anxious not to disturb his spiritual
meditations. He told me also how his mother died
when he was quite young, and as he saw her face, calm'
and peaceful in death, it awakened in him no childish:
terror or mysterious sorrow. It was only as he grew
older that he learnt death's meaning". The poet told
him about his early life as follows: —
*4 was very lovely — that was the chief feature of
my childhood — I was very, very lovely. I saw
my father but seldom, but his presence pervaded
the whole house, and was one of the deepest
unseen influences all through my life. I was
kept, almost like a prisoner, all day long, in^
charge of the servants, and I used to sit day after
day, in front of the window and picture to myself
what was going on in the outer world. Promt
the very first time I can remember I was pas-
sionately fond of Nature. Oh ! it used to make
me mad with joy when I saw the clouds come up'
in the sky one by one. I felt even in those very,
36
INTRODUCTORY
*
childish days that I was surrounded with a friend,
a companionship, very intense and very inti-
mate, though I did not know how to name it.
1 had such an exceeding love for nature, 1 cannot
find words to describe it to you ; nature was
a kind of companion, always with me, and
always revealing to me some fresh beauty."
Tagore's Jivan-smriihi (Autobiography) appeared in
tthe Prabasi. The Bengal Administration Report for
11912- 19i;-{ said of it : " The chief literary event of the
year was the appearance of the autobiography of the
(famous poet Rabindranath Tagore.'' It is not available
in English so far as I know. It and the book by
Tagore called Chinna-Palra (Torn Letters) are
very important works to understand the early unfolding
'Of Tagore's unique poetic genius. The following
ftranslation of a passage from Jivan-smrithi^ given in
-Mr. Andrew's lecture on Tagore, is beautiful.
'' In the morning of autumn I would run into the
garden the moment I got up from sleep. A scent
of leaves and grass, wet with dew, seemed to
embrace me, and the dawn, all tender and fresh
with the new-awakened rays of the sun, held
out her face to me to greet me beneath the tremble
ing vesture of palm leaves. Nature shut her
hands and laughingly asked every day, "what
have I got inside ? ' and nothing seemed impos-
^sible."
37
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The members of the Maharshi's family are all dis-
tinguished persons. The eldest son Dwijendranath
Tagore is a great philosopher who is so full of gentle-
ness and love, " that the squirrels come from the boughs,
and climb on to his knees and the birds alight upon
his hands." The second son was the first Indian to-
enter the Indian Civil Service. The poet's cousins
Gaganendranath Tagore and Abanindranath Tagore
are great artists. One of the Maharshi's daughters con-
ducts the Bharafhi magazine.
His schooldays were not happy and he always used*
to recall them with aversion. He used to speak of one
schoolmaster who treated him cruelly and made him.
stand bareheaded in the sun for hours. It is said that
in his boyhood owing to his dread of school life and its
rigid, unimaginative, loveless, and cruel ways he used to
soak his boots with water in order that he might
fall ill and be excused from going to school. His
father came to know of the unhappiness of
his school life and then put him in the charge of
private tutors. From these and from his brothers,
Tagore picked up knowledge with phenomenal quick-
ness. His natural passion for poetry, music, acting,
and art led him to master all that was connected with
them. Sweet Indian songs and beautiful Indian poetry
used to move him profoundly, and kindle poetical and:
musical expression in him very early in life. The
Daily News says : " There is one striking fact about the
88
INTRODUCTORY
award of the Nobel prize for literature to Mr. Rabindra-
nath Tagore. He is a unique example of an Indian
who has had nothing to do with a University. And he
is not a product of Lord Macaulay and British Govern-
ment education. This has already been dwelt on,
but if he had been to the University, the odds are
that he would have been steam-rollered by the curri-
culum of that institution into the semblance of a
pedagogue. A poet, we know, is born and not made,
but few poets have got over a University career. The
important thing, however, for India is to see that it is
possible to achieve something — for it is an achievement
to have obtained this award — without the imprimatur of
a B. A. People have always suspected this, now they
know it. Lord Stanhope used to say that ' education is
all paint, it does not alter the nature of the wood
underneath, but only improves its appearance,' and by
education he meant pedagogy and Directors of Public
Instruction."
Tagore's literary career began very early, his genius
having been kindled by the songs of Chandidas
and Vidyapathi. About the time of his real birth as a
poet Tagore himserlf related the following to Mr.
Andrews : —
" It was morning. I was watching the sunrise
in Free School Lane. A view was suddenly
drawn and everything I saw became glorious.
The whole world was one glorious music, one
39
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
wonderful rhythm. The houses in the street,
the men moving, the children playing, all
seemed parts of one glorious whole — inex-
pressibly glorious. The vision went on for seven
or eight days. Everyone — even those who
annoyed me — seemed to lose their outer barrier
of personality ; and I was full of gladness, full of
love, for every person and every tiniest thing.
Then I went to the Himalayas and looked for it
there and I lost it. That was one of the first
things which gave me the inner vision, and I
have tried to explain it in all my poems. I have
felt ever since that this was my goal, to express
the fulness of life, in its beauty, as perfection, — if
only the veil were withdrawn."
We have only to compare thia with the vision that
came to his father early in life — at the age of eighteen —
as narrated in his Autobiography. Tagore's vision
was of the beauty, love, and sweetness of the universe,
while his father's vision was of the unsubstantiality of
the world and the reality of God. The vision of each
was conditioned by the peculiar bent of his genius as
pointed out by me already.
Tagore accompanied his father when the latter
travelled in Northern India and went to the Himalayas.
He says in the javan-smrilhi : " When I reached the
Himalayas I thought I would have a fuller vision of
that which I had witnessed of the glory of nature in the
40
INTRODUCTORY
•crowded street. But that was my great mistake. Up
there the vision all departed. I thought I could get
at truth from the outside. But, however lofty and
imposing the Himalayas might be, they could not in that
way put anything ready into my hands, but God, the
great Giver of Himself, can open out the whole universe^
to our gaze in the narrow spice of a single hand."
The tour intensified in him the strong and ardent love
for nature that he had already in his heart.
Thus Nature, his father, and the Vaishnava poets
Vidyapathi and Chandidas led to an early blossoming
of his powers. His early poems written by him under
the name of Bhanu Simha were imitative and related to
conventional themes. But in Sandhya San^il (Songs
of Sunset) and Praval San^it (Songs of Sunrise) be
wrote original and romantic poems. Dr. Seal says :
"In these songs Bengali poetry rises to the height of
neo-romanticism." They are intensely subjective.
The following are the titles of some of the poems in
Sandhya Sangit — "Despair in Hope," "Suicide of a
Star," " Invocation to Sorrow," " The woman without
a Heart," " Hearts ' Monody," etc. The names of the
poems in Praval Sangit are " The Dream of the
Universe," The Eternity of Life," "Reunion with
Nature," " Desideria," " The Fountain awakened from
its Dream," etc. These poems effected a revolution in
Bengali poetry by their individual note and by bringing
into existence a greater suppleness and expressiveness
41
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
and a freer cadence and sweeter harmony in Bengali
verse. At the age of fourteen he produced a musical
opera called The Genius of Valmiki. I need not dwell
further on these early productions of Tagore's genius
here, as I am dealing with them in some detail in my
•eleventh Chapter.
At the age of seventeen he was sent to England and
there joined the University College, where he is said to
have studied English Literature for a time under Mr.
John (now Viscount) Morley. He returned to India after
a year, and subsequently went to England a second
time. The Daily Chronicle says : " In his early man-
hood he came to England to study law, but, finding
that that took him out of his element, he returned to
India to write those lyrics and verses which have made
his name known and loved throughout the length and
breadth of his native land.'*
The next stage of his literary career was from his
twenty-third year— the time of his marriage. The Maha-
rishi asked him to go down and manage the Shilaida
estate. Though Tagore did not like this enforced
seclusion at first, his art owes its highest and deepest
message to this portion of his life. He came to know
the peasant life intimately and became conversant with
the universal elements of joy and sorrow, longing and
emotion, in the human heart. A Bengali Doctor of
Medicine is quoted in Mr. Yeats' introduction to the
Gitanjali as having said : " From his twenty-fifth year
42
INTRODUCTORY
or so to his thirty-fifth perhaps, when he had a great
sorrow, he wrote the most beautiful love-poetry in our
language, words can never express what I owed at
seventeen to his love-poetry. After that his art grew
deeper, it became religious and philosophical ; all the
aspirations of mankind are in his hymns. He is the
first among our saints who has not refused to live, but
has spoken out of life itself, and that is why we give
him our love.'' He often lived a life of utter seclusion
and meditation during this period. He says: " Some-
times I would pass many months without speaking,
till even my own voice grew weak through lack of use."
He used to write from this period onwards stories of
the village Hfe that he had seen. This was his " Short
Story" period. Mr. Andrews says in his lecture above
referred to : " His unshaken faith in the genius of his
own country, its glorious past, and its still more glorious
future,received his strongest confirmation from what he
saw in the villages of Bengal. He spoke to me with
the greatest possible warmth and affection of his loved'
Bengali village people and of the many lessons he
owed to them, patience, simplicity, and human
sympathy."
' Then came what he called his Varsha sJiesha — the
close of a period. He apprehended some great change
in his life and desired to serve his Motherland even
more devotedly than before. Mr. Andrews says : "He
■Went to Calcutta to start a school. His own school life-
43
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
'had been, as he told me, an unhappy one— too wooden
and conventional. He longed to work out a new
■educational model which should bring the young into
closer touch with Nature and inspire them with nobler
ideals. This he accomplished later in his great school
at ' Shanti Niketan,' Bolpur." He was further in
(financial trouble then. He said to Mr. Andrews.
" I sold my books, my copyrights, everything I
had, in order to carry on the school. I cannot
tell you what struggle it was and what difficulties
I went through. At first my object was purely
patriotic, but later on it grew more and more
spiritual. Then in the midst of those outer diffi-
culties and trials an inner change came in my
own life."
He lost first his beloved wife; a few months after his
daughter died of consumption ; and then his youngest
son died of cholera. Mr. Andrews speaks reverently
about what the poet told him in regard to these
sorrows. Tagore told him :
" You know this death was a great blessing to me.
I had such a sense of fulness, as if nothing
were lost. I felt that even if an atom 'seemed' lost,
it ' could ' not be lost. It was not mere resig-
nation that came, but sense of a fuller life. I
know now, at last, what death was. It was per-
fection— nothing lost, nothing lost.'*
It was during this period that the Giianjdli was
44
INTRODUCTORY
written. The English translation contains a few
poems from other works written a little earlier — ■
Naivedya Sishu and Kheya. Mr. Andrews says in his
great lecture which must continue to be the source
of information and inspiration to all students and
lovers of the poet : "They mark the period of transi-
tion in his own life, during which the poet's national
and social longing became more and more spiritual and
merged in the universal, just as in the earlier periods
his passion for physical beauty and nature had become
more purely spiritual as life advanced. It is this
realization of the spiritual in and through the material —
the material, as it were, becoming refined and luminous
through life's experience — that appears to me the glory
and the wonder of the poet."
He then went to England both for his health and to
be with his son during his University career. He wrote
to Mr. Andrews: " As I crossed the Atlantic I realised
that a new stage in my life had begun, the stage of a
voyager. To the open road : To the emancipation of
self: To the realisation in love."
After going to England he has translated some of his
poems in the books so well-known to all : — Gitanjali,
the Gardener^ and the Crescent Moon. His English lectures
delivered in America and in England have been
collected under the name Sadhana. He says that in
the process of translation he had to strip his poems of
their glory of decoration. *' I found that I had to strip
45
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
them of all their gaudy ornaments and clothe them in
the simplest dress. " Mr. Andrews says : ' That
' simplest dress' has now been seen to represent a most
beautiful and rhythmic prose, which has actually
enriched and enlarged the bounds of English literature.
The triumph has been won (a triumph never before
achieved in literary history), of a poet transcribing his
• own work into a wholly new medium, and giving his
•own poetic message in perfect poetic form, as it
were, to two peoples speaking two different
tongues. Of the effect of the little book Gitanjali on
the mind of the thinking west it would be
difficult to speak in strong enough terms. It
has already been confidently declared by men of the
highest literary reputation that the event of its publica-
tion is likely to mark a new epoch in English litera-
ture." Mr. Yeats says in his beautiful Introduction to the
■Gitanjali: ''I have carried the manuscript of these trans-
lations about with me for days, reading it in railway
trains, or on the top of omnibuses and in restaurants,
and I have often had to close it, lest some stranger
would see how much it moved me. ..The work of a
supreme culture, they yet appear as much the growth
of the common soil as the grass and the rushes A
whole people, a whole civilization, immeasurably
strange to us, seems to have been taken up into this
imagination." Tagore's English admirers said in their
.address : " You have dedicated your genius, the gift
46
INTRODUCTORY
of God, to the purest ends, you have brought joy to the
heart, serenity to the mind, music to the ears, images
of beauty to the eyes, and to the soul the remembrance
of its divine origin."
The award of the Nobel Prize to Tagore is well-
known. It is awarded to the '' most distinguished
work of an ideaUstic tendency in the field of literature,"
and we know how worthy he is of the high honour.
The award " was due to a distinguished Swedish
orientahst who had read the poems in Bengali before
they appeared in English." The Stockholm corres-
pondent to the r/wes wrote on the 14th November 1913:
" The Swedish poets Karfelt and Heidenstein and
the writer Hallstrom, who are all members of
the Academy (the Swedish Academy) have
expressed their satisfaction with the award, and
state that the Indian poet's works, although they
have only recently become known in the
western world, show an original poetic vein of
great depth and undoubted Hterary merit "
The Statesman said. " The honour now conferred
upon him sets the seal of international recognition
upon his poetic genius'' The Hindu stated . "The
award of the Nobel prize for literature to Rabindranath
Tagore is an honour so unique that it marks the ulti-
mate height of appreciation". The Englishman said :
"This is the first time that the Alfred Nobel prize has
come to the East, and a reference to the list of previous
47
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
winners is inspiring, for the Bengali muse is now to-
India what Maurice Maeterlinck is to Belgium, Paul
Heyse to Maunchen, Rudolf Eucken to Jena, or, to
come nearer home what Rudyard Kipling is to English
literature generally "' Tagore has devoted the entire
prize amount of .^8,000 to the Bolpur school, a step that
is in keeping with his deep patriotism, self-sacritice,
and unselfishness. The Calcutta University has con-
ferred the degree of Doctor of Literature on him
recently/, e. in December 1913. The full blossoming of
his genius was about his fortieth year, and since then
poems, songs, dramas, novels, stories, essays have been
coming from the pure Himalaya of his mind in a divine
Gangetic flood, 1 shall deal presently with his Bolpur
School. He sent a Sanskrit poem recently through the
Rev. C. F. Andrews to hearten the Indian heroes in
South Africa. A few months ago he has started under
the name of "Art House" a school for teaching arts and
industries. "He has given a building (a part of his
Calcutta residence) for the institution which has already
started work with a dozen students and nine teachers.
The school is open to both boys and girls, and the
students include some girls, both married and un-
married. Small cottage industries, useful arts of every
kind, and handicrafts of various descriptions are to form
the subject of teaching. The curriculum is to include
typewriting as well as shorthand. Sir Rabindranath
Tagore's eldest brother, Babu Dwijendranath Tagore»
48
INTKODUCTOKY
has brought out a system of BengaH shorthand which
will be a subject of study at the institution."
Thus his life has been one of practical achievement and
spiritual rapture, of activity and meditation, and he
has been a shining example of what the higher mind
of India can do to lift her up to her predestined place
among the nations of the world and to carry her
message of light and love to the ends of the earth.
VI. Tagore's Personality.
Tagore is a man of striking personal appearance. He
is described as having been a very handsome man in his
youth, and as having been a leader of fashion. A
correspondent to the Englishvuin wrote in 191^:
"Mr. Tagore looks a poet and is acknowledged to be a
handsome man. Although lie is now past his prime,
he is still a fit subject for the brush of any painter. In
his youth he was a leader of fashion in Bengal. He
introduced among the educated Bengalis the fashion
of keeping long wavy hair and what is known as the
Napoleon beard. One afternoon Mr. Tagore went to
lecture at a meeting, dressed all in white, that is, with
his coat, dhoti, ' chader,' shoes, and socks all white,
and carrying his manuscript (which was, of course,
white) with a white cloth cover. The following day
dressing in white became the craze among educated
Bengalis." Another observer has said : "His is an
aspect that fixes itself deeply in that uncertain medium,
49
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the retina of the memory. It is easy to call up
at any moment a mental picture of that tall
and graceful form in the long loose coat of grey-
brown ; the white sensitive hands, large serenely-ht
eyes, noble features, and curling hair and beard,
dark and lightly touched with grey. Above all, the
stately simplicity of his bearing struck me, for it implied
a spiritual quality that diffused itself about his presence.
The same thing helped to make him the kindest of
hosts and gentlest of guests. Add to these qualities a
certain incalculable gaiety ; and you will still fail to
understand his immense personal influence with his
own people." It is said : " He has the high forehead
of a thinker, a flowing beard, flashing eyes, and a dis-
tinguished appearance."
We have a number of personal touches in regard to
him that show the sweetness and unselfish charm of his
nature. His purity and deeply religious nature are well
known. Even his great domestic sorrows never soared
bis nature, but made his heart full of love and sympathy
for all. Whenever he falls ill, he bears his ailments with
great patience and uncomplainingly. He is of a very
obliging disposition. He is very regular in his corres-
pondence and replies to all his correspondents in his
own handwriting. An admirer of Tagore says: "It
is doubtful, however, in view of the recent increase in
correspondence on account of his sudden rise to fame
in Europe, whether the poet will be able to continue
50
INTRODUCTORY
'this practice, though greater and busier men, notably
Mr. Gladstone, carried it on to the very close of life."
He is an ideal landlord and his practical love for them
is one of the most fascinating traits of his life. The
work of the estate agents is strictly supervised and
unpopularity and harsh treatment of the ryots are visited
with dismissal. Remissions of rent are ungrudgingly
given when inability to pay rent is shown. Rs. 57,595
^vere remitted in fasli 1312. There are several primary
schools, one secondary English school, and a charitable
dispensary in the estate. There is also an agricultural
ibank. The Settlement Officer of Naogaon says : "' A
very favourable example of Estate Government is shown
in the property of the poet Dr. Rabindranath Tagore."
He is fond of swimming and rowing. But his chief
recreation is singing. It is said that though he is not an
>expert in music even musical experts recognise and
admit his instinct and genius for absolute music. It is
said: "Often he has been heard singing from early morn-
ing till late at night, with only a break ot an hour or so
for noonday meal." He has taken part as actor in the
staging of his dramas by his Shantiniketan boys. He is
a beloved and popular speaker. It is a rapture to hear
him read his own poetry. A correspondent wrote to
the Nation in June 1913: " I lately had the extreme
pleasure (if pleasure be the right word) of hearing Mr.
Tagore, the Bengali Poet and Teacher, read one of his
. * 51
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
dramas to a small company. I hardly knew what as-
tonished and moved me most— the beauty, gentleness,
and gravity of the reader's face, and his complete-
unconsciousness of his audience,, or the character of
what he read. I was prepared to find that this was
poetry of the highest order, and of a singular power to
kindle the imagination and to hold it by the charm of
expression and the sense of atmosphere. But it was
more than this. One could not but feel that here was
the voice of the East, after a silence of centuries, again^
speaking in parables and spiritual songs to tfie hard
and coarsened ear of the West."
But the chief joy of his life is his love of nature. In a.
letter to a friend he says : " I am writing to you sitting
in my room on the second floor of this house ; a swelling
sea of foliage is seen through the open doors all around'
me, quivering at the touch of the early winter's breath
and glistening in the sunshine." To him nature was a
fond mother gladdening the eyes of his soul with the
bright blossoms of beauty and nourishing his spirit with
the manna of sympathy and love. We may say of him
what Morley says of Wordsworth : "Wordsworth's
claim, his special gift, his lasting contribution, lies in the
extraordinary strenuousness, sincerity, and insight with
which he idealises and glorifies the vast universe
around us, and then makes of it, not a theatre on which
men play their parts, but an animate presence, inter-
mingling with our works, pouring its companionable:
52 * #
INTRODUCTORY
-spirit above us, and breathing grandeur upon the
very humblest face of human hfe "
His modesty is also very well-known and is a pleasing
trait in his nature. We know how he received the
deputation that waited on him at Shantinibetan to
express the reverence and love of India for him,
■headed by such great and distinguished men as
Mr. Justice Chaudhuri, Dr. J. C. Bose, and Dr.
Indumadhab Mullick. The deputation went by special
train. It is said : " The poet had arranged a reception
to the members of the deputation in a poetical manner.
He had the Rev. Mr. C. F. Andrews, a member of the
professoriate attached to the College at the *'Shanti-
niketcin, " in Bengali dress, dhoti and chadar, and a
number of young students belonging to the school, in
yellow garments waiting to receive the deputation at
the Railway Station. The road from the station to
Peace Cottage, a distance of more than a mile, was
beautifully decorated, mango leaves, lotus leaves,
'festoons, and flowers figuring largely in the decorative
scheme. The preponderance of mango leaves was
signihcant in view of the Hindu belief that of all ever-
greens, the leaves of the mango tree are propitious.
The way was strewn at intervals with cowries, coins,
garlands of flowers, and paddy grain." The further
details given are equally beautiful and win our hearts
by the love of Indian customs and the passionate love
'Of India that lie beneath it. " Some girls from the
53
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
poet's family sang a welcome song in Bengali, and blew
conch shells. A number of students of the Shanti-
niketan painted the foreheads of the guests, each and
all, with sandal paste." Babu Hirendra Nath Dutt's short
address on the occasion in Bengali is very sweet : " He
whose poetic flute, from the inarticulate music of the
infant heart in the dawn of life to the evening tune
brightened with the glow of spirituality, is playing, and
the rays of whose ever-growing genius have made the-
lives of Bengal's men and women so bright to-day ; who'
though particularly a Bengali poet has been installed on'
the sublime throne of honour among the poets of the
world by the cosmopolitan appraisers of quality; a
monarch of the kingdom, of thought and knowledge, the
mystic poet of the land, Srijut Rabindranath Tagore !
young and old and the women of Bengal welcome you'
with the sandal paste of love and regard." The Rev..
Mr. Milburn spoke in English praising the poet and
expressing love and regard on behalf of the Christian)
and European communities in India, and said that
some portions of '' Gitanjali " formed a part of the daily
prayer offered by Christian students in Bishop's
College. On behalf of the Muhammadan community
Moulvi Abdul Kasim spoke in praise of the poet. Maha-
mahopadhyaya Doctor Satis Chandra Vidyabhushaa
congratulated Tagore. Rai Bahadur Doctor ChunilaL
Bose praised him on behalf of " The Banjiya Sahityaa
Parishad", the great Literary Association of Bengal. Mr...
54
INTRODUCTORY
Holland said that the poet had demonstrated the un-
truth of the lines of Mr. Rudyard Kipling that
"East is east and West is west
And never the twain shall meet".
and remarked: "The meeting place is in the spirit
and in the temple of God, not made with hands.'*
Mr. Tagore was then presented with a beautiful painting
of the sun by Mr. S. Bhattacharya on behalf of the
artists of Bengal. Never before was there such a great
and historic occasion in the annals of poesy since the
crowning of Petrarch with the laurel leaf. What was
Tagore's reply ? I shall not mar it by any comment
and shall not stand between it and the reader. " He
was not worthy of the welcome they were according to
him on the occasion. He had never longed for fame.
His claim is to the heart. In olden times when honour-
ing a poet, a glass of wine used to be offered him and
the poet would touch the glass with his lips and not
drink the contents. He would also accept the cup of
honour they had offered by touching it with his lips
and would not let it spoil his heart."
His love of seclusion and meditation is also well-
known. It is by this constant retirement into the temple
of his heart in a spirit of prayerfulness, purity, and
ecstacy of love and surrender that he has been able to
keep up the sweetness of his nature and his unclouded
radiance of vision. He lives mostly at Shanti Niketan,
Bolpur. An admirer of his says . " Every morning at
55
SIR R^BINDKANATH TAGORK
three — I know, for I have seen it — he sits immoveable
in contemplation, and for two hours does not awake
from his reverie upon the nature of God. His father,
the Maharishi, would sometimes sit there all through
the next day; once, upon a river he fell into contem-
plation because of the beauty of the lanscape and the
rowers waited for eight hours before they could con-
tinue their journey." (Mr. Yeats Introduction to
Gitanjali.)
It is this contemplation of the beauty of nature
in her most glorious manifestations and this retirement
into the inner heaven that kindle poetic emotion. The
modern hurry and p re-occupation with life's care and
pleasure so characteristic of city life, have been fatal
to poetic inspiration and are the real reasons of modern
artistic sterility. Tagore's habits have been most help-
ful to him to keep in undimmed radiance the light of
poesy given to him by God.
VVe know how Tagore composes his verses. "He
hums his verses over to himself before setting them
down in black and white. He takes considerable
pains over composing the first line of a poem and the
rest seems to flow without any effort. He has no fixed
hours for composing verses. During the rainy season,
however, he finds his work more congenial than at
any other time of the year. Mr. Tagore writes a very
good hand and seldom corrects what he has once
written. When he cannot help making some correction,
INTRODUCTORY
he usually cuts the wrong word or sentence very
hghtly with a pencil or pen. Mr. Tagore is a most
prolific writer, and if all his manuscripts were put
together they would fill a small bookshelf." (A corres-
pondent to the Englishman).
I have already referred to his burning patriotism. In
his heart love of God and love of the motherland have
fed each other's flame till we see the splendour of his
love touching the night of our hearts with the glow of
unselfishness and love and service as the eastern sky is
touched with the crimson glories of the rising sun.
It has been well said of him : " Here is a saint who
is not afraid to be a saint, who dares to mingle with the
commonest things of the world, and a poet the very
closeness of whose contact with earth lifts him ever
nearer to heaven."
It is interesting to know his impressions of the West.
He was very much touched by the warmth of the
reception that he had there. He has made many ardent
and lasting friendships there. What impressed him most
both in England and America was the spirit of social
service. He said when interviewed by the Associated
Press : "It was an inspiration to me." He was, however,
pained to note that the English people knew very little
about India and her hopes and aspirations. He pointed
out how the devastating floods in Burdwan were hardly
referred to in the EngUsh papers. He was also dis-
satisfied with, and even felt repelled by, " the love of
57
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORE
luxury, the need of sensation, and craving for excite-
ment,'' the mad scramble for the good things of hfe, the
lack of repose, the glaring inequalities of wealth, and?
other evils afflicting the rich and progressive communi-
ties of the West. Mr. Rhys says: "When he spoke of the
forces in the v^^estern world which he thought must be-
come disruptive and lead to trouble, and stretched out
his hands, it might have been the moral map of Europe,,
with its teeming incontinent and restless atoms, that
lay spread out before him. The major energies, as he
viewed them, were not constructive; they did not make for
the world's commonwealth, and by their nature they
must come into conflict sooner or later. Now, as I recall
that afternoon not much more than a twelve-months ago
— it is impossible not to see in the present war the grim
realisation of those misgivings." It is the mission of
great souls like Tagore to spread the empire of God's
love and make us feel our common humanity and divi-
nity. Mr. Rhys says: " A poet like Rabindranath Tagore
is more powerful by his songs to-day than any would-be
world dictator in strengthening the intercourse between'
east and west and giving to India her part and her
voice in the commonality of nations." We may say to
this child of God what he has said to the child in The
Crescent Moon.
" They clamour and fight, they doubt and despair^
they know no end to their wranglings.
58
^
INTRODUCTORY
Let your life come amongst them like a flame of
light, my child, unflickering and pure, and
delight them into silence.
They are cruel in their greed and envy, their
words are like hidden knives thirsting for blood.
Go and stand amidst their scowling hearts, my
child, and let your gentle eyes fall upon them
like the forgiving peace of the evening over the
strife of the day.
Let them see your face, my child, and thus know
the meaning of all things; let them love you and'
thus love each other."
VII. Shantiniketan.
What shall we say of Shantiniketan where the great
poet-saint dreams his dearest, truest, and sweetest
dreams and serves his motherland in ways full of practi-
cal wisdom, insight, and love I The following song by
Tagore is sung in chorus in Bengali by the boys of the
Santiniketan school.
" Oh, The Shantiniketan, the darling of our hearts!
Our dreams are rocked in her arms,
Her face is fresh and fair to us for ever.
In the peace of her silent shadows we dwell, in the green
of her fields.
Her mornings come and her evenings bringing down the -
caress of the sky;
59
SIR RABINDRANATH T^GORE
The stillness of her shady paths is thrilled by the whisper
of the wood!
Heramalaki groves tremble with the rapture of rustling
leaves.
She is within us and around, however far we wander.
The strings of our love are strung in her own deep tunes.
She weaves our hearts in a song making us one in music.''
Shantiniketan is full of peace and loveliness and it
is said that "crowded with sal wood and far from the
maddening crowd as it is, Bolpur is pre-eminently a
poet's abode and a place of contemplation." The Rev_
Mr. C. F. Andrews's poem on The Palms at Shantini'
ketan contained in his small volume of Poems entitled The
Motherland and other Poems breathes the ver}' spirit of
the place.
" But when the low moon's rosy splendour
Rises along the darkling earth,
They wake to feel her lovelight tender
Stirring their leaves to new-born mirth.
Through the rapt hours they turn to greet her,
Queen of purple night above,
Straining their passionate arms to meet her
With the full ecstasy of love.
Faint, cold, and grey the lawn creeps o'er them.
Bathing with dew their fondage bare;
A white fog shrouds the land before them,
Ghost-like they stand in the still air
Sentinels set to watch the dawning
Silent and black against the sky.
60
INTRODUCTORY
Till the full blaze of golden morning
Circles with fire their foreheads high.
Now all on flame with arms up-lifted,
Surging above tbe sleeping world,
Proudly wave, through the night-clouds rifted.
Banners of dazzling light unfurled.
Then while the moon's enchantment holds them,
Hushed, and the morning breezes cease,
A glory of azure haze enfolds them
Veiled in a dream of endless peace.
Peace in the deep mid-air surrounding,
Peace in the sky from pole to pole.
Peace to the far horizon bounding,
Peace in the universal soul.
And peace at last to the restless longing,
Which swept my life with tumult vain,
And stirred each gust of memory thronging
Avenues dear of byegone pain.
Tossed to and fro I had sorely striven,
Seeking, and finding no release;
Here by the palm trees came God-given
Utter ineffable boundless peace."
But even more than its supreme outer loveliness, is
the intellectual, moral and spiritual beauty of the fair
fabric raised there by the loving hands of genius and
patriotism. Tagore's idealism is happily combined with a
keen vision for India's present and future needs and her
coming glorious destiny. His love — deep and spiritual
as it is — is made dynamic, focussed, and effective by
his wisdom and insight. His father used to meditate
under tvi^o chatim trees in Shantiniketan, and over
61
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the Maharshi's seat of meditation are lines in Bengali
meaning:
" He is
The comfort of my life,
The joy of my heait,
The peace of my soul."
His son has combined meditation and practical,
patriotic work there. The Maharshi created a lovely
garden there and built a house and a temple of coloured
glass, open to the light and air on all sides and paved
with white marble, and also a school called the "Brahma-
Vidyalaya." He directed that no image was to be
worshipped there, and that no religion was to be decried.
He gave it away as an endowment to all who desired to
live there for meditation and communion with God. No
animal food or spirituous liquors were to be taken in
the Asram. The Maharshi was overjoyed to learn that
Rabindranath Tagore was going to start a school at
Bolpur.
The school is a noble one and is the pioneer of the
schools which alone regenerated India is going to allow
mould the minds of her children in the near future.
There is a good deal of vain glory due to ignorance in
the way in which modern university education is vaunted
as a new and original thing in "India. Ancient India
knew much more about real university education, and
used to make it a real instrument of culture of the soul,
better than all the modern universities put together.
^2
INTRODUCTORY
It knew how to make nature co-operate with books and
teaching in the blossoming of the young and pure
human soul. It knew how to co-ordinate the courses of
•study so that the senses, the mind, the heart, the will,
and the spirit were efficiently and harmoniously trained.
The individual appeal in education was much more in
it than in the juvenile barracks of modern times. Love
played a greater and sweeter part in the relations bet-
ween teachers and students than in modern times. The
■element purely intellectual did not obtain the same pre-
jionderance that it has in these vain glorious days. The
forest universities (asramas) of the golden age of India,
the universities of Nalanda and Taxila in the Buddhist
age, the universities of Benares and Nuddea in the neo-
Hindu age, and others fulfilled the highest aims of
universities. Hioun Tsang thus describes the university
'Of Nalanda;
'' All around, pools of translucent water shone with
the open petal of blue lotus flowers. Here and
there the lovely Kanaka trees hung down their
red blossoms, and woods of dark mango trees,
spread their shade between them. In the different
courts the houses of the monks were each four
storeys in height. The pavilions had pillars orna-
mented with dragons and beams resplendant
with all the colours of the rainbow, rafters
richly carved, columns ornamented with jade,
painted red and richly chiselled, and balustrades
63
SIR RABIN DRANATH TAGORE
of carved open work. The towers and buildings
were built by six successive sovereigns. Through
the windows of the tower one could see the
waters of the Ganges. There were ten thousand
students and fifteen hundred and ten professors
at this university, receiving education, boarding,
and medicines gratis. There were rich endow-
ments to carry on this stupendous task. Arts
and religion, philosophy and logic, grammar and
literature, astronomy and medicine, and a host of
other sciences were taught at this university."
Tagore has said in a recent article in Bengali : " We
do not want nowadays temples of worship and outward
rites and ceremonies, what we really want is an asram.
We want a place where the beauty of nature and the
noblest pursuits of man are in a Svveet harmony. Our
temple of worship is there, where outward nature and
the human soul meet in union. Our only rites and cere-
monies are self-sacrificing good works." The divine
gift of educition has been all along prized in this
country.
(The gift of food is a supreme form of charity.
But the gift of knowledge is even higher. The
solace that food brings is fleeting : but the joy
of learning lasts through life).
64
INTRODUCTOKY
In some quarters a wrong view is held that in the
old asrams education was divorced from life. Mr. Rhys
whose recent book on Tagore shows an imperfect
sympathy with Indian ideals of art and life in many
places and misses the ultimate beauties of Tagore's art,
says : " Unlike the traditional guru or master of India's
earlier days, while he believes in aspiration, he believes
also that the will, purified in aspiring, should translate
its faculty into the material and actual." To make this
insinuation against those who watched the flame of
learning with a jealous love through the disturbed
centuries, who fostered and perfected the various arts
and sciences and philosophies of India, whose forest-
schools were not very far away from villages and
towns where the hrahniacharis had to beg for food, who
devised a rational scheme of life in their varnashrama
dharma by which the soul was slowly guided up the
golden ladder of self-evolution by student life, by a life
of social service as house- holder, by a life of self-disci-
pline, and by a life of renunciation and love of God-
argues an utter want of vision. No doubt the! methods
of education have to be altered from time to time con-
sistently with the course of human evolution. But any
one can see that the ideals of university education were
lofty and noble in India, that we in spite of our vaunted
greatness in these days have much to learn from it, and
that the India of the future will not tolerate the present
system — one-sided, inartistic, unhealthy, mercenary,
loveless, and irreligious,
65
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Tagore's own school lite was unhappy as pointed
out already. He has been working for a higher type
of teaching and a happier type of studentship. It
is said in tlie EiiglisJiman : " His object iu found-
ing the school at Bolpur was to educate children in as
agreeable a manner as possible." He desired that teach-
ers should recognise that the boy is an imaginative
being and had a soul. Mr. Havell says : " Perhaps the
greatest fault to be found with our educational
methods in India is in their lack of imagination. Fol-
lowing the traditions of the EngUsh public school, we
have always regarded the schoolboy as an animal in
which the imaginative faculties should be sternly
repressed. Build a barrack in the heart of a dirty,
overcrowded city, pack it with students, that is a col-
lege." {Essays on Indian Art^ Industry^ and Education).
He says again : " I'here is no precedent in Europe for
the squalid environment, the absence of all stimulus for
the spiritual side of human nature, and the neglect of
all that conduces to the brightness of school or col-
lege life such as we usually find about all Indian
universities." Tagore has abolished the barbarous
punishments of the older type of indigenous schools
in modern India and the unimaginativeness, rigidity,
irreligiousness, onesidedness, and lovelessness of the
newer type of schools in modern India. It has been
well said: ''While he is inspired by Nationalism,
he has not hesitated to turn to his purpose what he
66
INTRODUCTORY
regards the best in English methods of instruction, and
to profit by the experience of the West." Mr. S. K.
RatcHffe calls the Bolpur School " an example of
modern methods united with the ancient Indian spirit
of discipline and culture."
Tagore opened his School at Bolpur in 1901 with
two or three boys onl3^ In two years' time he had
eighteen boys, and in four years he had sixty boys.
There are now nearly two hundred boys at Shanti
Niketan. ' Trust the boy and let him grow' which is
the secret of the greatest of modern systems of edu-
cation— Montessori's and others — and which was the
secret of education in ancient India is Tagore's motto.
The Medium of instruction is Bengali. The school
routine is very interesting to learn. At 4-30 a.M'
"a choir of boys go round the school singing songs
and rouse the sleepers up into the beauty and calm
of early dawn." The boys then cl-ean their room
and are thus initiated early in life and in a practical
manner into the idea that manual work is in no way
undignified and that service is the sweetest thing in life,
if done in a spirit of renunciation and love of God.
They then go through physical exercises in the open
air, bathe, and meditate for a quarter of an hour. Then
the gong sounds, and the boys " go reverently in pro-
■cession into the school temple." The boys have classes
from 7 to 10 in the morning after breakfast, and 2 to 5
in the afternoon, and not during the unsuitable noon
67
SIK RABINDRANATH TAGORE •
hours as in modern schools. All classes are held under
the shade of trees when the weather is fine. The class
is generally limited to fifteen boys. The boys have
their dinner at 12 o'clock. The boys have games after
lunch. The time between the end of games and the
hour of evening meal is used to tell stories to boys
and to initiate them in acting and music. The elder
boys go to the neighbouring villages and hold evening,
classes there to teach the village lads. They do practi-
cal social service while in other places the students
hear lectures on social service by glib speakers with
cheap eloquence and form social service brotherhoods
and go to sleep over them. " After the day's work
they retire to bed at half-past nine, and a choir of
boys again goes round the school singing evening songSi
They begin their days with songs and they end them
with songs." It has been well said: " It is a Sight for
the gods to see how the teachers and the boys get
into ecstatic raptures when they repeat the songs of
the greatest of the Indian poets in praise of the mother-
land and the Shantiniketan."
I shall quote here ;_below the mantras that the
boys chant in unison in the morning and the even-
ing.
THE MANTRAS OF THE MORNING.
I. Thou art our Father. May we know Thee as our
Father. Strike us not. May we truly bow to
Thee.
68
INTRODUCTORY
II. O Lord ! O Father ! Take away all our sins
and give us that which is good.
We bow to Him in whom is the happiness.
We bow to Him in whom is the good.
We bow to Him from whom comes the happiness.
We bow to Him from whom comes the good.
We bow to Him who is the good.
We bow to Him who is the highest good.
Shantih ! Shantih ! Shantih ! Hari om.
THE MANTRA OF THE EVENING.
The God who is in fire, who is in water,
Who interpenetrates the whole world,
Who is in herbs, who is in trees, to that God
I bow down again and again.
The teachers are quite happy. There is no head-
master ; the teachers are placed on an equal footing and
divide the work among themselves. They elect a head
master once a year. They are on intimate and loving
■terms with the pupils. There is divine service twice a
week at the Mandir, and it is conducted by Tagore
when he is there and by the teachers in his absence.
Corporal punishment of any description is absolutely
forbidden. Discipline is enforced and punishment
meted out by captains and courts of school justice elected
and constituted every month by the boys. Further, in
this republic of boys there are no rewards or prizes.
During the holidays the teachers and the boys arrange
and go on excursions to various places. Tagore is
69
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
very fond of the boys. He says : " I am far happier
with them than anywhere else." It is said : " The
boys call him Gurudu, which means the revered
master. He takes no active part in the daily
routine of the school, although sometimes he takes
classes in literature and singing, and encourages
the boys to bring him their efforts at original work
in painting, drawing, and poetry. He often spoke to
them with enthusiasm and hopefulness of their original
work and of the pleasure he felt when they carried
their first-fruits to him. In every branch of art he is
their inspirer ; at the end of each term the boys in gene-
ral produce and act one of his plays. He himself joms
them and takes a part in the play, whatever it may be.
When lately the King of the Dark Cluunber was produced
by the school, he took the part of the king, and
his superb rendering of it will long be remembered by
those who acted with him and by those who witnessed
it." Mr. Bose says : " His great personality silently
permeates the whole atmosphere of the school and
inspires every member of the institution with the
divinity and nobility of his character." Again, besides
telling them the highest ideals of life and conduct once
a week in the Mandir, he holds special celebrations
there on the anniversary of the founding of the school,.
the New year's day, and the various Jayanthis
(anniversaries) in connection with the great spiritual
teachers of mankind. He called himself " a humble
70
INTRODUCTORY
schoolmaster " when the Calcutta citizens met to give
him a grand reception after his tour in the West.
The following description taken from the Jaina
Gazette for 1915 is valuable as dispelling some possible
doubts. " The cooks are all brahmins, the diet is
purely vegetarian, or lacto-vegetarian, as it may more
accurately speaking be called, and the meals are served
out in separate rows. Brahmoism is never preached
among the boys. The principles of religion acknow-
ledged by all sections of the Hindu community are
taught to the boys. Some of the sermons delivered by
Rabindranath Tagore have been collected together in
fourteen small volumes under the title of Shahtinike-
tan." Again, the boys are taught Sanscrit, Bengali,
English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography,
and Nature study and may be prepared for the Matricu-
lation Examination. Classes in agriculture and manual
work, such as carpentry, etc., are to be opened soon
there.
I cannot conclude this description of Shantiniketan
and the new formative forces working there for India's
uplift better than by quoting two passages from Mr. J.
Ramsay MacDodanald's description of the school
contributed to the Daily Chronicle.
" It is difficult to explain the feelings which possess
one who goes to such institutions. They have
nothing to do with Government ; their staff is
not official ; their system is not an enforced
71
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
mechanical routine. At the Shantiniketan they
complained that when their boys reached the
University Matriculation Standard, educational
methods had to be adopted which the teachers
regretted. These schools are native to the soil
like the trees which grow out of it. They are
therefore not incongruous, and a lack of incon-
gruity must surely be a test imposed upon every
national system of education. Here India leans
upon herself and issues from herself. There is
no attempt made to impose something foreign, to
uproot or to force, no necessity to guard alien
methods by alien instructors. The teachers are
Indian, Indian in their habits, in their sympathies,
in their dress. Government aid has been refus-
ed, because the conditions under which it would
be given could not be acceptable. ' They would
have made my boys sit on benches ' said
Mr. Tagore with a quiet smile, ' whereas, I think
it far better that they should sit on mats under
the trees.'. ..It (the school) has been kept at the
cost of much sacrifice. Into its exchequer
Mr. Tagore has put not only the Nobel prize, but
the royalties on his books."
" Moreover, the Shantiniketan is no mere seminary
for the education of boys. It is alive with the
life of India. It is aware of what is going on
outside. It shares in the larger Indian life. The
72
INTRODUCTORY
particular interest of the school at the moment is
the enlightenment of the masses. They asked
me to speak to the boys, and I inquired as to the
subjects. * Tell us ' they said, ' how the masses
maybe instructed.' They had really been answer-
ing me that question themselves and showing me
in practice how to do it. For under the trees
I had seen an interesting sight. The villages
around are inhabited by the original Santals and
the boys of the school go out sometimes with
football or bat and begin a game. When a
crowd has gathered the game is stopped and the
players talk of knowledge to the villagers. From
this an evening class is formed and the Shantini-
ketan boys go out and teach in it. The day I
was there about a dozen of these children had
' come in and were being taught under a tree.
They were lively imps with wide interested eyes
and so full of life that they could not keep still.
They were being shown the delights of the
stereoscope and were being taught to describe
accurately what they saw. Two boys were look-
ing after them. It was their tribute to India and
their services to the reincarnated motherland to
which all their youthful enthusiasm was devoted.
I left them sitting class by class on their little mats
under the 'chatim' trees, their books by Iheir
side, and their teachers in their midst. They
73
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
smiled and chatted as I passed. Everything
was peaceful, natural, happy. And I went
into another world where worthy and well-mean-
ing graduates from Oxford and Cambridge are
toiling and perspiring like blacksmiths with
heavy hammers to beat and bend the Indian
mind into strange forms on strange anvils, and
where there is unhappiness and sadness of heart,
timorous whispers instead of laughter, doubt
instead of hope".
VIII. Tagore's Insight into Indian Ideals.
I have said enough above to show what real and deep
insight Tagore has got into Indian ideals of the life of
art and the art of life. I shall deal more fully hereafter
with the fundamental traits of Tagore's art and shall
hence attempt here only to show how his highest ideas
are in harmony with the higliest Indian ideals. His
articles on My Interpretation of Indian History^ translated
from his Bengali articles and published in the August
and September issues of the Modern Review in 1913,
show how thoroughly he has realised India's funda-
mental ideal. He says there: "India always seeks for the
one amidst many; her endeavour is to concentrate the
diverse and scattered in one and not to diffuse herself
over many." He recognised how this deep spiritual
truth has been the inspiration of Indian life, poetry, and
art. The beautiful universe that we see is only an
74
INTRODUCTORY
imperfect manifestation of Him who is infinite beauty
and love. The search for the unity through the gates
of love and wisdom is the only true joy and duty of
each human soul. Tagore realised this great truth
which is the basis of all his other ideas. Art and litera-
ture should seek to symbolise and express this infinity'
and unity. The artist should portray the ideal world
of true and higher reality. Such are the leadings Indian
ideas in the realm of art. Burne- Jones has expressed
well his ideal of art and his words beautifully describe
the Indian ideals of art. "Reahsm ? Direct transcript
from Nature? I suppose by the time the 'photographic
artist' can give us all the colours as correctly as the
shapes, people will begin to find out that the realism
they talk about isn't art at all, but science; interesting,
no doubt, as a scientific achievement, but nothing more
Transcripts from Nature ? what do I want with
transcripts? I prefer her own signature; I don't want
forgeries more or less skilful It is the message,
the 'burden' of a picture that makes its real value." He
says again: ''You see, it is these things of the soul that
are real the only real things in the universe".
This is the reason why the greatest rhetorician of
India, Mammata, has said :
(The poet's speech creates a world which is not
75
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
fettered by the laws of destiny and which need not be a
mere counterpart or imitation of the created world,
which is of the very essence of joy, which is self-exis-
tent and not dependent on anything else, and which is
made beautiful by the nine rasas or emotions).
He then describes the pleasure produced by art in
•these eloquent terms :
(Pleasure, which is the crown and glory of life's
purposes, which is produced by the immediate enjoy-
ment of rasa, and which so fills the mind that for the
time being one is aware of nothing else).
The peculiar glory of India's thought is her combi-
nation of the doctrine of the Infinite Absolute
Godhead and that of Divine Incarnation, thus Unking
in one golden chain the Infinite and the Finite, God
and the Universe, — and her combination of the doctrines
of Karma and that of Moksha (liberation) thus linking
the past, present, and future and showing their inter-
dependence, while making us realise how the human
soul free in its nature can soar above all limitations and
dwell in the inner heaven of bliss for ever. Hence it is
that in Indian literature and art we see infinite re-
presentations of God in innumerable finite forms. In
Tagore's beautiful words : " The breach between the
finite and the infinite fills with love and overflows" —
76
INTRODUCTORY
(Tagore's Sadhana^ page 48). Okakura says : '' Any
Indian man or woman will worship at the feet of some
inspired wayfarer who tells them that there can be no
image of God, that the world itself is a limitation, and
go straightway, as the natural consequence, to pour
water ou the head of the Sivalingam." (Ideals of the
East, page 651). Image worship is recognised as a
golden ladder by which alone we can, and should,
ascend to the empyrean of Love. Hence in India art
suggests ideal forms in terms of the appearances of the
phenomenal word. It adopts symbolism to suggest the
inexpressible in terms of visible beauty in nature and in
the human form. Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy says :
" India is wont to suggest the eternal and inexpressible
in terms of sensuous beauty. The love of man for
woman or for nature is one with his love of God.
Nothing is common or unclean. All life is a sacra-
ment, no part of it more so than another , and there
is no part of it that may not symbolise eternal and
infinite things. In this great same-sightedness the
opportunity for art is great. But in this religious art it
must not be forgotten that life is not to be represented
for its own sake but for the sake of theDivine expressed
in and through it." Again, Indian art is not sombre
or pessimistic. It is essentially joyous. No fears of an
eternal hell or extinction or annihilation have tortured
the Indian mind and embittered the life of the soul.
Dispassion, detachment, wisdom, love, and union are
77
SIK RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the steps by which the Indian mind rose into the
raptures of the infinite love and beauty,
"The Light whose smile kindles the universe,
The Beauty in which all things live and move."
But Indian art, though it is essentially joyous, does not
lack seriousness.
" She comes like the hushed beatity of the night
That looks too deep for laughter ;
Her eyes are a reverberation and a light
From worlds before and after."
The literature and art that have lovingly portrayed
Krishna are perfect illustrations of what I have said
above. They depend for their appeal to the suggestions
of His infinite beauty and love ; they are essentially
joyous ; and they are serious in tone and treatment.
The medium of sex-love is adopted as a prism through
which the white light of God's love is refracted into
many-tinted glowing colours. Love is the divinest
thing in this imperfect hfe. Hence it is taken to
symbolise God's love. In the worship of Devi the
mother's love is taken as the symbol. Artistic imagina-
nation and spiritual rapture have always gone hand in
hand in India like lover and beloved united in a holy
wedlock to lay the offering of the flowers of the heart
before the holy shrine of God's love.
I have shown above the relation between India's
spiritual ideals and the arts of poetry, painting, and
sculpture. In the realm of the arts of architecture and
78
INTRODUCTORY
■music and dancing the same relation is visible equally
well. The gopurams of South India broad-based on the
earth and soaring into the sky in a passion of longing
and aspiration show this in a manner that does not
admit of doubt or dispute. The art of music is in
India in close relation to emotional states. Being free
from the trammels of canvas or marble or words and
having as its medium the wonderful human voice which
is capable of infinite modulations, it is the most
perfect instrument of self-expression. All the cha-
racteristics of Indian art in general are to be found
in it. Mrs. Mann says : " I am often told that all Indian
music is melancholy. How can I convey to you that
spirit which is sad yet without pain ? That is the
delicious melancholy of Indian music. Can a lover be
joyful away from his beloved ? Can a musician sing
joyfully, ' really ' joyfully, whilst he wanders on this
earth ? Would it not be sorrow if he forgot his
exile ? Is not the remembrance of the face of the
beloved more dear, though fraught with the pain of
separation ?'
The great Indian poet quoted by Srimathi Indira
Devi is said to have remarked :
" The world by day is like European Music, — a
flowing concourse of vast harmony, composed of
concord and discord, and many disconnected
fragments. And the night world is our Indian
music — one pure, deep, and tender " ragini"
79
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORli:
They both stir us, yet the two are contrary in
spirit. But that cannot be helped. At the root ^
nature is divided into day and night, unity
and variety, finite and infinite. We men of India
live in the realm of night - we are overpowered
by the sense of the One and Infinite. Our music
^^ ;, ^' ' / draws the listener away beyond the limits of
everyday human joys and sorrows, and takes us
to that lonely region of the soul which lies be-
yond the phenomenal universe, while European
music leads us a variegated dance through
the endless rise and fall of human grief and
• joy."
In the case of the much misunderstood and much
abused art of dancing also the same fundamental art-
ideas of India are clearly seen. Dancing is not mere
refined and graceful gesture or * the passionate postur-
ing born of a passing mood.' It is the idealisation of
love to express God's love, and it uses as instrument
not merely the hand or the voice or the mind of the
artist but all of them and also the human body which
becomes so expressive as to seem that it itself thinks
and feels and rejoices. The modern dislike of the art
being in the hands of dancing girls has been extended
to the art itself. But as a matter of fact it is the art
that has undergone a kind of vicarious punishment,
because the dancing girls are very much in evidence,
only dancing being dead. Thus every art in India
80
INTRODUCTORY
is permeated and transfigured and sublimated by the
highest spiritual conceptions of the Indian mind.
I siiall show below — and specially when dealing with
Giianjali, Gardener, and Sadhana how admirably Tagore
has realised and expressed the highest Indian ideals of
art as transtigured by the fundamental conception of
unity and infinity proclaimed by India to the world.
Tagore's insight mto Indian ideals of life and love is
no less deep than his insight into the Indian ideals of
art. Life is conceived of as a sacrament in India, ; life
should be praised and adored, not ^espised, because it
is through life that we can rise to God ; and the gift
of life by God to the souls waiting to reach His lotus
feet is regarded as an act of mercy to souls that other-
wise would remain in the hell of separation from Him,,
for what hell is deeper or more fearful than banish-
ment from the beauty of His face ? The seeming
pessimism in India is only an expression of impati-
ence at the slowness of the arrival of the dawn,
of God's love in our hearts and at the innumer-
able obstacles to its coming placed by our own innu-
merable evil acts in innumerable past lives. The
belief in the soul's infinite energies and in the infinite-
ness of God's mercy and love is shining like a rainbow
on the cloud of human sorrow^ — ^lit up in its magnifi-
cent opulence of colour and glory by the unseen sun o£
God's grace, reaching down almost to the earth of our
ordinary life, and looking like a heavenly bridge over
81
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGOKE
which we can pass away into the beyond, into peace,
into love, into joy.
The Indian ideal of love also is spiritualised by the
fundamental conception of the Indian mind. The
Indian poets describe not merely the early blossoming
of love in youth when love comes like a prince to his
throne in the human heart, but also the infinite tender-
ness and spirit of self-sacrifice that animates the human
soul and leads it even to lay down life if only it can win
for the beloved a moment's joy or save the beloved
from a moment's pain. The stories of Savitri, Sita,
Damayanthi, Droupadi, Radha, and others show this in
an immistakable manner, and have influenced art and
life in India in such a way that grace would depart from
life if we banish them from our hearts— nay, our exist-
ence as a great race would become impossible if they
do not act as a daily inspiration in our lives.
Tagore has shown his realisation of these ideals in
many of his works — especially in the Chitra, and the
Kin^ of the Dark Chamber. I shall deal with these later
on.. I shall quote here only one passage from his article
on Kalidasa the Moralist.
" The love that is self-controlled and friendly to
general society, which does not ignore any one,
great or small, kindred or stranger, around itself
— the love which, while placing the loved one in
its centre, diffuses its sweet graciousness within
the circle of the entire universe — has a permanence
^2
INTRODUCTORY
unassailable hy God or man. But the passioa
which asserts itself as the disturber of a hermit's
meditations, as the enemy of a householder's
■social duties, — such a passion always destroys
others like a whirlwind, but it also carries within
itself the seeds of its own destruction
Where two hearts are made one by virtue, there
love is not antagonistic to anything in the universe.
It is only when Cupid stirs up a revolt against
virtue that tumult begins , then love loses
constancy, and beauty loses peace. When love
occupies its proper place in subordination to
virtue, it contributes its special element towards
perfection, it does not destroy symmetry ; be-
cause virtue is nothing but harmony — it preserves
"beauty, it preserves goodness, and by wedding
the two together it gives a delicious completeness
to both."
IX. Tagoke's Conception of Art.
I have discussed this subject with considerable fulness
when deahng below with three of Tagore's greatest
works— Gitanjali, Gardener, and Sadhana. I shall hence
make here only a few introductory observations to show
what have been Tagore's leading conceptions as to art,
its place in hfe, its dignity, and its relation to God.
According to him love for God is the real glory of
life, and art is valuable as the gate of beauty, through
83
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
which we can enter the innermost shrine of the Infinite.
He says:
" My song has put off her adornments, she has no-
pride of dress or decoration. Ornaments would
mar our union ; they would come between thee
and me ; their jingling would drown thy
whispers.''
{Gitanjali^ page 6).
He is full of humility but yet he realises the greatness
and dignity of a poet's function in Ufe. He says :
" I touch by the edge of the far-spreading wing of
my song thy feet which I could never aspire to
reach.''
{Gitaujali, page 2).
At the same time, he says that a poet's dedicated life
is great, because it is acceptable to God and God's
grace is upon it.
" Thus, my songs share their seats in the heart of
the world with the music of the cloud and^
forests.
But, you man of riches, your wealth has no part in
the simple grandeur of the sun's glad gold and
the mellow gleam of the musing moon.
The blessing of the all-embracing sky is not shed
upon it.
And when death appears, it pales and withers and.
crumbles into dust."
(Gar^^n^r, page 129).
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INTRODUCTORY
Tagore has realised and said that art is the speaking
joi God's voice through our soul.
•' Thy word is weaving words in my mind and
Thy joy is adding music to them. Thou givest
Thyself to me in love and then feelest thine own
entire sweetness in me ."
{Gitanjaliy page 61).
Tagore's views on the dramatic art are well-known.
He is no admirer of the modern attempt at making
scenic representation usurp the place of imagination. Sir
Sidney Lee has said : "The deliberate pursuit of scenic
realism is antagonistic to the ultimate law of dramatic
art... .Dramatic illusion must ultimately spring from the
active and unrestricted exercise of the imaginative
faculty by author, actor, and audience in joint partner-
ship." {Shakesfearc and the Modern Stage.). Tagore
also says in his article on The Stage : " Any one of the
arts is only to be seen in her full glory when she is
-sole mistress We all act to ourselves as we read a
play, and the play which cannot be sufficiently inter-
preted by such invisible acting has never yet gained the
laurel for its author." The same idea is seen also in the
the footnote appearing in his ' Chitra.' He did not
like any art being corrupted by constantly trying to bor-
row unborrowable effects from otlier arts. Music over-
weighted with words, poetry merely melodious, over-
symbolical painting, and sculpture seeking to express
^movement, miss their true purpose and glory. He has
85
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
said in another place: " If the Hindu spectator has-
not been too far infected with the greed for realism
and the Hindu artist still has any respect for his craft
and his skill, the best thing they can do for themselves is
to regain their freedom by making a clean sweep of
the costly rubbish thut has accumulated round about
and is clogging the stage."
Tagore's views on music are equally beautiful. His-
passionate love of music is clear from Gitanjali and
Gardener. In the Chitra he says :
" A limitless life of glory can bloom and spend itself in a.
morning,
Like an endless meaning in the narrow span of a song.*'
Pandit Sita Nath Tatwabhushan says that Tagore " may \
be said to be the leading musical composer of the day" ""ii
{History of Brahmoism). That music is "a world ~
language" is clear to us when we see how four ot
Tagore's songs in Gitanjali have been set to music by
Landon Ronald, one of the foremost musicians of
England and Principal of the Guildhall School of music;
The four songs above said are the sixth, twenty-sixth,
thirty-eighth, and fifty-seventh songs in Gitanjali. We
learn also that selections from Gitanjali are to be found
in a book of songs composed by Mr. John Aldea
Carpenter.
\ Tagore points out how Indian music has the charm,
\ arestfulness, and peace of Infinity^ and is in intimate
86
INTRODUCTORY
alliance with religion and expresses the deepest aspira-
tions, longings, and raptures of the heart.
" European music is, so to speak, mixed with the
actualities of life. Our music, as it were, moves
- above the incidents of daily life, and because of
^. it is so full of detachment and tenderness — as if
jt^i it were appointed to reveal the beauty of the
I innermost and unutterable mystery of the human
heart and of the world."
Tagore's Music of East and West.
Again, ' Our songs speak of the early dawn and the
starry midnight sky of India. Our music breathes of
dripping rain, and the wordless ecstasy of the new
spring as it reaches the utmost depths of the forests."
He points out how European music is romantic and
says that " the European wants his truth concrete."
" The romantic tendencies are those of variety and
superfluity, the billows of the ocean of life, the
reflection of the conflict of light and shade over
restless movement, though in another direction
there is a broad expanse which has all the still-
ness of the blue of the sky, and is an intimation
of the infinite upon the far horizon It
(European music), translates the multifariousness
of human life into the sounds of music."
Tagore's Music of East and West
Tagore points out that the essential sweetness of a
song is in its evolution of sound and not in its words.
87
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
*' The art of music has its own nature and special
function. Though there are words in a song,
still they ought not to count for more than the
song itself ; they are only its vehicle. Song is
glorious in its own right ; why should it accept
the slavery of words ? Song begins where words
end. The inexplicable is the domain of music.
It can say what words cannot, so that the less
the words of the song disturb the song, the
better."
Tagore's Music of East and West
X. LEADING TRAITS OF TAGORE'S ART.
I am considering in the succeeding chapters at great
length and in considerable detail the traits of Tagore's
art as revealed in each of his works. I shall deal
here only with the general aspects of his art.
The first thing that we must bear in mind in regard
to Tagore's art is that he voices the East in a new,
powerful, and fascinating manner. The significance of
liis unparalleled reception in the West is unmistakable.
Mr. L. March Phillips said in the Morning Post in 1913 :
" The significance of this reception which an Eastern
mystic has received at our hands is that it shows, as so
many signs now-a days show, that the mind of Europe is
in touch with the mind of the East. Whenever that has
liappened before, the effect on Western thought has
INTRODUCTORY
always been considerable. In particular one effect which
this contact has always had has been to spiritualise,
so to speak, the Western consciousness and to render
susceptible to an order of ideas more abstract and
emotional than the matter of fact Western intelH-
,gence is usually willing to entertain." The Western
mind has been more practical and rationalistic than the
mind of the East, and it has elaborated a rationalistic
interpretation of the universe. Mr. March Phillips
says : " We cannot look to intellect to save us from
the tyranny of intellect. It is a question rather of
bringing another faculty into play, a faculty having for
its subject-matter that very order of ideas which intel-
lect is incapable of grappling with." Though he has
failed to understand how far Tagore is a faithful inter-
preter of the mind of India, he has well said : " Many
long centuries ago there woke in the heart of India the
thought she has been dreaming over ever since, the
thought that the spiritual being in a man, his soul as
we say, was no mere precious cargo to be safely
conveyed across the engulfing waves of time to the
harbour of eternity, but an inward source of perception
and knowledge, an active illuminating agent bringing
light and certitude into the mind, just as in Western
philosophy the reason brings light and certitude into
the mind. Hindu thought, in a word, sets up another
faculty against reason, a faculty whose function it is to
deal with spiritual things just as it is the function of
89
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
intellect to deal with material things." I shall discuss
this matter more fully below when dealing withTagore's
mysticism.
As I intend to deal in the next section at some
length with Tagore's style, I shall state here only the
leading traits of the matter of Tagore's art. The first
trait that we must never fail to realise and remember is
the fact that Tagore's poems have a conspicuous note
of individualism, idealism, and romanticism. The
expression of subjective moods in obedience to the
laws of poetic beauty and in a romantic spirits, is
the greatest and most abiding charm of his poems.
The words 'classical' and 'romantic' are often used
without their full import being known. ' Classic '
implies moderation, measure, balance, proportion,,
emotion used as means to an end, expression
of emotion according to fixed canons of art ' Romantic'
implies a divine unrest seeking a higher and heavenlier
peace, measureless aspiration, profusion of adornment
even at the risk of disobeying the laws of balance and
proportion, emotion being an end in itself, expression-
of emotion according to the laws of the soul as opposed
to outer canons of art. The peculiarities of the classical
spirit were partly due to the peculiar elements of the
Greek polity which regarded citizenship as the highest
function of life and laid no stress on the immense and
eternal value and destiny of each individual as soul. A*
regulated and self-controlled life in service of the state
90
INTRODl'CTORY
Cj was the Greek ideal. Cliristianity gave a wonderful exten-
\ sion and beauty to pre-existing conceptions of theindivi-
( dual soul by showing its divine origin and destiny and.
its immortality. Monsieur Royer-Coliard says : " Human,
societies are born, live and die, on the earth ; it is there
that their destinies are accomplished. . . • . . But
they contain not the whole man. After he has engaged
himself to society there remains to him the noblest part
of himself, those high faculties by which he elevates .
himself to God, to a future life, to unknown felicity in
an invisible v^orld. We, persons individual and identical, ,
veritable beings endowed with immortality, we have ai
different destiny from that of states." This ditTerence
of ideal resulted in a difference in the expression of the
ideal in art. Tiie Parthenon is as different from a.
Gothic Cathedral as the one ideal is from the other. The
regularity of design, the proportion of parts, and the
moderation of ornamentation in the one are as remark-
able as the sky-piercing spires, the stained-glass
windows, and the profusion of adornment in the other.
The Indian ideal has struck an even higher note of
^ individualism, ideaUsm, and romanticism. Tagore is ■
J one of its greatest voices for all times, and is certainly
' its greatest voice in this age. His immense popularity
in the west is due in a large measure to the fact that, in
a reahstic, prosaic, and critical age, his idealistic, poetic,
and creative note has come almost like a new revelation.
In the wonderful work of Tagore, tliere is anothet
91
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
great trait to be noted. His epoch corresponds in a
measure to the period of what has been called The
Renaiscence of wonder in England when Rossetti, Burne-
Jones, and others led the revolt against formalism and
went back to the age of beauty by jumping over what
they regarded as the dark ages in the history of art. In
India also the rules of art that were framed to direct and
regulate the flow of the stream of inspiration with true
fertilising power and effect eventually dammed up the
flow altogether. The canons that were meant to be the
guides of the spirit of Art became its gaolers. The great
Vaishnava saints and poets and musicians effected a
deliverance of the human spirit both in the religious and
artistic spheres. With the decay of the religion of love,
the reassertion of the reign of rules began. Tagore has
gone back to the age of the great Vaishnava movement
and has effected a revolution in the realm of taste by
so going back to the age of l">eauty, freedom, love, and
rapture. He has revived and re-kindled our sense of
the wonder of things, our perception of the beauty and
grace and love of God. We can have a full and adequate
conception of the great transformation only when the
work of the poets, singers, artists, philosophers, sages,
and saints of this era of the Renaiscence of wonder is
summed up once for all in luminous words by an
Indian Ruskin whose heart is full of purity and peace,
whose soul is full of love for his motherland and for
God, and whose lips have been touched by heavenly
92
INTRODUCTORY
fire and hence utter the highest truths in a golden
style for the greater joy of man and the greater glory
of God.
A third feature to be noticed in regard to Tagore's
Art is that it is thoroughly national. Literature and art
are the revelation and self-expression of the highest and
most distinctive elements of the genius of a race.
Dr. A. K. Cooniaraswami says : "There is no more
searching test of the vitaHty of a people than the reve-
lation in art— plastic, literary, musical, — of their inward
being. A national art is a self-revelation where no
concealment is possible." Posnett says in his valuable
book on Comparative Literature : '' National literature is
an outcome of national life, a spiritual bond of national
unity, such as no amount of eclectic study or cosmo-
politan science can supply. National literatures, then,
require a vigorous and continuous national life." Not
all paper imitations of all the most beautiful flowers
of the world can compare for a moment with a single
beautiful blossom rooted in the soil, lifting its fair face to
the sky, and sending the fragrance of its soul far and
wide. If there is one fact that is perfectly well de-
monstrated in the history of art, it is the failure of all
adapted styles. This is a truth which many of our
countrymen have not yet learnt. Their modern novels
and adaptations of western plays show in many cases
an utter lack of vision for the national genius. Time
with its relentless hand will sweep away all this rub-
93
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
bish as so much waste paper. To modify a great
passage of poetry,
" The sword of Time is not in haste to smite
Nor yet doth linger."
Mr. K. C. Chatterji says about Modern Bengali Fiction :
" The recent Bengali fiction has been more realistic
than romantic in its structure. But,.. .though the
possibilities of romance have increased, the Bengali
stand-point has changed, and the market is being daily
'flooded with fourth and tifth rate realistic novels."
In South India also the plays and poems and novels
published recently are either divorced from real hfe
altogether and have a thin emasculated existence, or
are crude adaptations of western works, or display a
hideous realism, or are written not to interpret hfe
• creatively but as a literary aid to the various platform
agitators who seek to change Hindu Society out of
shape. In Bengal the reaction from formalism was
Brahmoism which neither understood nor cared to
understand Hindu ideals of life and Hindu ideals of
art. Mr. Ajit Kumar Chakrabarti says: "But in its
extreme zeal, it cut itself away from the traditions and
culture of the Hindu race. Hence, its deprivation of
Hindu art and symbolism, Hindu catholicity and
■comprehension, was a serious loss." He says in regard
to both the old formalism and the new protestantism :
■" Both fail to give the fullest scope to the vital energies
of the soul. In the shade of their chilling and
94
INTRODUCTORY
cramping atmosphere, one cannot think that the flower
of an opening life, the Hfe of the child of the nation,
will expand. Its sunshine is robbed, its joy is robbed,
its very honey is robbed, and everywhere surrounding
its life there is the gloom of overhanging conventions,
which dictate, thou shalt do this and thou shalt not do
that. Soul-growth is impossible in such an environment
-of unnatural restraint." In South India also, the horrors
of the protestant movement in Bengal are being repeated
in the sphere of life and the sphere of art. The social
agitator holds the reins and society is invited to sit in
tiis car of foreign make and be whirled away God knows
■where. Literature and art are sought to be seduced by
him, and must necessarily soon lament their exile in the
Sahara of the new inner life. The greatness of Tagore
lies in the fact that his richly endowed mind so full of
love for the past, so full of practical wisdom in the
present, and so full of indomitable hopes for the
future, has effected a reconciliation between the great
creative and devotional age in the past and the critical
and lovelesss present age. He has avoided the Scylla
and the Charybdis of formalism and protestantism and
has emerged into the ocean of true national life
over which the sun of glory and the moon of
love shed their radiance and the balmy airs of
artistic inspiration blow bearing coolness and fra-
grance to the weary world. India has ever been famous
for her combination of idealism of vision and practi-
95
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORE
cal energy, Tagore has effected such a combination
in his life and his art. His style and art are a natural
development out of India's literary past, and this har-
mony is only a part of the unique harmony of the soul
and its faculties that is Tagore's most unique and admi-
rable inner endowment.
One of the chief and most charming traits of Tagores
art is his simplicity and spontaneity. There is a pecu-
liar bird-like quality in his music and a child-like
sweetness in his outlook upon life. Mr. Yeats says
in his introduction to Gilanjalt : '' An innocence, a
simplicity that one does not find elsewhere in literature
makes the birds and the leaves seem as near to him as
they are near to children, and the changes of the
seasons great events as before our thoughts had arisen
between them and us". It is in The Crescent Moon even
more than in his other poems that this rare quality
is seen in the fulness of its heavenly charm. The
Rev. Mr. Andrews says : "There is nothing probably
in the whole range of literature which tests more
searchingly the pure spontaneity of the poet than the
writing of the poetry of child-hood It must,
indeed, possess to the full this joyous rhythm of the
visible world with all its play of colour and light, of
music and dance and song. But it must also soar beyond
into the unseen silent abode of the spirit's birth. It
must be fresh with the dews of the first child-hood of
the world, but it must also be old with the mystery of
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INTRODUCTORY
life itself and tenderly touched by the passing shadow
of death." The poetry must express the deep wonder
that shines in the child's eyes, the dazzling play of
colour that it hkes, the realm of imagination where it
lives in endless delight, and the heaven of purity,,
innocence, trustfulness and love in its heart. As the
Rev. Mr. Andrews says : " Like a rainbow of many
colours the book shines. The dark purple of death is
blended with the golden beams of life. The playful
lisping of the child at school is made one with the silent
glory of the stars."
Another great trait of Tagore's poetry is his expres-
sion of the universal elements of life — life, child-hood,,
the raptures of love, death, the joy of nature, the destiny
of man, love of God — themes that are as old as the
world and as new as each day's golden dawn. The
Rev. Mr. C. F. Andrews says in his article on " With
Rabindra in England. " . " Just as the play of dazzhng
sunlight was a joy to him which he was never tired of
watching, so the dazzling variety of the play of human
life was to him an unending wonder and delight
Rabindra appears to arrive at the universal,
not like Shakespeare by many different roads, but al-
ways by the one pathway of simplicity. The simplest
human affections, the child-heart of the young and
innocent, the simplest domestic joys and sorrows, the
purest and simplest yearnings of the soul for god, —
these go to form the unity towards which Rabin-
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
dra's poetic utterance is striving." The dawn time
radiance of the child-nature is to be seen in the
Crescent Moon ; the noontide splendour of love in the
human heart u'ith its revelation of rapture and radiance
and its fruitful power is seen in the Gardener ; and "the
hues and harmonies of evening " and the overwhelming
solemnity and mystery of the night with God's gospel
writ in stars in the sapphire sky are seen in the Gitanjali.
The primary affections and emotions and joys and sor-
rows are depicted in the Short Stories. His plays suggest
divinely beautiful solutions of the problem of the soul
its nature, and its destiny.
We must note also another beautiful characteristic
of Tagore, his being a poet of the people. He has a
thinly veiled contempt for all pomp of authority and
glitter of power, as lohich deeply religious nature has not-
knowing as it all does that it rests in the Almighty, and
knowing also that.
" Man, proud man
Drest in a little brief authority, —
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, — like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven,
As make the angels weep."
(Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.)
Tagore knows that there is more . love, tenderness,
humanity, heroism, and piety in the so-called lower
9$
INTRODUCTORY
classes than the so-called higher classes. He makes us
realise how
"The mind's internal heaven will diffuse
The dews of inspiration on the humblest lay."
In his Short Stories the heroes and heroines are drawn
from humble life and their simple joys and griefs and
longings and ideals are presented to us with insight and
Jove. The same sweet note is heard in his poems also.
He sees the gracious presence of God amidst the toiling
millions who in their unknown heroism build up this
fair fabric of love that is known as human society. The
great cities and works of art that we see and admire are
not so much built of stones and wood as of life and love.
They represent so much expenditure of soul-force in a
passion of glad^giving for the sake of God. Communal
life is not mere juxtaposition of individuals for mutual
-convenience but is due to the unifying power of love.
Tagore says in Gitanjali: " Here is thy foot-stool and
there rest thy feet where live the poorest and lowliest
and lost. When I try to bow to thee, my obeisance can-
not reach down to the depth where thy feet rest among
the poorest, and lowliest, and lost. Pride can never
approach to where thou walkest in the clothes of the
humble among the poorest and lowliest, and lost. My
heart can never find its way to where thou keepest
company with the companionless among the poorest
the lowliest, and the lost." I have already referred to
the social service work of the Shantineketan boys.
99
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
It is said that in the enveloping and embosoming;
atmosphere of love at Shantiniketan even the so-called
*' impossible and hopeless " children grow into normal
human beings as they are found to do in Montessori's-
institution. It is the want of love and of realisation of
the divinity of life that wrecks all social service schemes
devised by the boastful social workers who launcb
such schemes having one eye on the leading newspapers^
of the day. Tagore's deep love of the poor, toihng,
dumb millions has achieved the double glory of the
sweetest artistic expression and practical fruitfulness^
and in this respect even more than in anything else he
is the king of the Indian Renaissance.
Tagore's combination of intense patriotism with his^
universal love is one of the most noteworthy traits in his-
genius. The patriotism that like the pseudo-patriotism
now prevalent in some western countries seeks to
advance the interests of the country any by means
fair or foul even if thereby other lands are ruined,
is a grave menace to refinement and true civilisation y.
while the '^ universal " love that talks glibly of
universal brotherhood while having no real feeUng,
that ignores the fact that different races have
peculiar gifts and functions, that seeks to reduce
all to one dull level of uniformity, and that dwells in a
fool's paradise of its own is an index of utter weak-
ness and imbecility. The fruits of each civilisation
and type of culture may be enjoyed by the-
100
INTRODUCTORY
whole world ; but the most fragrant native blossoni^
"of any type of culture cannot bear a moment's trans-
plantation and will die if we handle it roughly or re-
move it from the plant that gives it life. I have already
shown how Tagore has been one of the greatest form ative
influences of the new era, how he is the greatest singer
of India's national songs, how he is the greatest leader
and poet of the Indian Renaissance, how his potriotism
is bent on combining the glories of the past with the new'
-scientific and political ideals of the West, how he has
"given practical proofs of his patriotism and how at the
same time he feels and expresses the Indian's sense of
the spiritual significance of things, is full of universal love,
\ Hdealises and spiritualises and shows the divineness of
the ordinary phenomena and relations of life, and takes
i' '\%\s through the gate of beauty into the very shrine of
f ijLove where angels stand with praying lips and adoring
eyes before the Divine Presence.
We must pay special attention to Tagore's Nature-
poetry if we desire to know the full measure of his
genius. In the case of all poets the first sweet call of
Beauty to a higher life in her sweet service comes from
the sight of the beauty and sublimity of Nature, In
English literature nature poetry went through every
stages. At first nature was used as a background for
the expression of human emotions or as a thing which
was full of beauty though it had no spiritual message to
ithe soul. It was in the nineteenth century that love of
101
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Nature reached its most various and beautiful develop-
ments in English poetry. Nature has risen to as high a
position as humanity as a subject of art. The subbine-
poetry of Wordsworth and Shelley, and the golden
prose of Ruskin have achieved this great result. This-
transformation was due as much to the ideas of unity
and divine immanence that travelled westward after the
great Oriental scholars revealed the glories of Sanskrit
literature to the wondering world as to t'lie God-given
spiritual perception of the above said great souls. It
was Wordsworth that lifted this love of Nature for her
own sake into a worship, and taught in immortal: verse
that both Nature and man are alike from God and
exist together in God — a doctrine quite like the
Vaishnava doctrine that chil (conscious souls) and
achtt (Nature) are the body of Iswara (the Lord)^
While Wordsworth taught that the principle of thought
animated Nature, Shelley sang that the spirit of Love
animated it. His Prometheus Unbound is a marriage
hymn of the wedding of the spirit of love in Man and
the spirit of love in Nature. Ruskin says of Words-
worth : " His distinctive mark was a war with pomp'
and pretence, and a display of the majesty of simple
feelings and humble hearts, together with high reflec-
tive truth in his analysis of the courses of politics and'
ways of men ; without these his love of nature would
have been comparatively worthless." Tagore was-
naturally led by the genius of his race to realise botlb
102
INTRODUCTORY
Nature and Man as manifestations of Infinite Love and
Beauty and Wisdom, and his nature-poetry has all the
sublimity of Wordsworth's nature-poetry and sweetness
of Shelley's poetry together with a special spiritual and
emotional appeal due to his own mystical genius and the
genius of his race. We do not see in his poetry minute
observation of nature or portrait-painting of single
aspects of nature in leaf or bud or bloom or fruit
or hill or lake or stream or sea or sky, but we have
luminous descriptions of the spiritual appeal of nature,^
of her greater and more glorious manifestations,
and of the manner in which they cheer, inspire, uplift,
and gladden us and take us to the very presence o£
God. They fill our hearts with ineffable peace,
" Not Peace that grows by Lethe, scentless flower,
There in white langours to decline and ease,
But Peace whose names are also rapture, power.
Clear sight, and love ; tor these are parts of Peace."
(William Watson),
I am dealing with his nature-poetry in detail when
discussing his works. I shall quote here only a few
examples of his manner and his message.
" The repose of the sun-embroidered green gloom
slowly spread over my heart."
(Gilanjali^ page 41.)
"The light is shattered into gold on every cloud,
my darling, and it scatters gems in profusion.
Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling, and
103
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
gladness without measure. The heaven's river
has drowned its banks and the flood of joy is
abroad." (Gitanjati^ pages 52-53.)
*• There comes the morning with the golden basket
in her right hand bearing the wreath of beauty,
silently to crown the earth. And there comes
the evening over the lonely meadows deserted by
herds, through trackless paths, carrying cool
draughts of peace in her golden pitcher from the
western ocean of rest. But there, where spreads
the infinite sky for the soul to take her flight in,
reigns the stainless white radiance. There is no
day nor night nor form nor colour, and never,
never a word." {Gitanjali^ page 68.)
Tagore is further a master of the difficult art of
•commingling love of nature and human emotion,
" If you would be busy and fill your pitcher, come,
O come to my lake. The water will cling round
your feet and babble its secret The shadow
of the coming rain is on the sand and the clouds
hang low upon the blue lines of the trees like the
heavy hair above your eyebrows."
{Gardener^ page 27.)
*' It was mid-day when you went away. The dust
of the road was hot and the fields panting.
The doves cooed among the dense leaves. I
was alone in my balcony when you went away."
{Gardener^ page 95.)
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INTRODUCTORY
In short, Tagore has, to use the words of Coleridge,
" the original gift of spreading the atmosphere of the
ideal world over familiar forms and incidents," and re-
veals to us the deep and sweet affinities of things and
their infinite suggestion of divine immanence. In him
the senses are spiritualised; love is wedded to reason ;
knowledge is touched by emotion; and over all broods
a pure and spiritual imagination. We may well say of
him as Matthew Arnold said of Wordsworth:
" He found us when the age had bound
Our souls in its benumbing round :
He spoke, and loosed our heart in tears.
He laid us as we lay at birth,
On the cool flowery lap of earth,
Smiles broke from us, and we had ease.
The hills were round us. and the breeze,
Went o'er the sunlit fields again ;
Our foreheads felt the wind and rain ;
Our youth returned : for there was shed,
On spirits that had long been dead,
Spirits dried up and closely furled,
The freshness of the early world."
Tagore's love poetry is of wonderful charm and
attractiveness. I have considered it in all its fulness and
variety of charm when dealing with the Gardener. He
has depicted the morning radiance of love, its unselfish-
ness, its delight in self-sacrifice, its deathlessness in spite
of adverse influences, and its divineness. The idyll of
love in Chitra is as full of meaning as it is full of charm.
It shows that love is " a marriage of minds," that unions
based on a mere basis of physical attractions cloy at
105
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the close, and that the unselfish and pure love born of
affinity of soul is the sweetest and most lasting thing in-
the world. In The King of the Dark Chamber the soul is
shown in the course of purification to attain to the
highest raptures of love. Love attains to the highest
altitudes of rapture only when in alliance with law.
Tagore shows also that in every human love the real
quest of the soul is supernal beauty and divine love.
Tagore's prevailing mood is the lyric mood, and his
genius is essentially lyrical. This is partly due to the
subjective temper of the age and partly to his own
pecuHar poetical temperament. F. T. Palgrave says :
" A decided preference for lyrical poetry, — to which in-
all ages the perplexed or overburdened heart has fled
for relief and confession, has shown itself for sixty years
or more ; an impulse traceable in a large measure to
the increasingly subjective temper of the age, and indeed
already in different phases foreshown by Shelley and
by Wordsworth." Tagore's partiality for the lyric is
due in a large measure to his love of music and his
being a musician of genius. Mr. Yeats says : " Rabin-
dranath Tagore writes music for his words, and one
understands that he is so abundant, so spontaneous, so-
daring in his passion, so full of surprise, because he is
doing something which never seems strange, unnatural
or in need of defence." We must however remember
that though lyric poetry is intensely subjective, it is not
wanting in universal elements. The greatest lyric poets
106
INTRODUCTORY
in seeking full self-expression voice forth the most:
powerful and passionate feelings of the human heart.
They are Hfted by the power of song into the heaven of the
universal human heart. The lyrical expression becomes
perfect only when in the intensity of subjective self-
expression the self is forgotten in the expression.
Hence the universality of Tagore's lyric appeal. I have
already referred to Tagore's nature-lyrics and love-
lyrics. They are perfect in motive, in expression, in
suggestion. He has further perfected the religious
lyric. The beauty of his devotional lyrics deserves
special mention because India is a land in which in
both Sanscrit and the Vernaculars there is a large body
of the most moving devotional poetry and hence it is
next to impossible for any subsequent poet to achieve
signal praise for devotional poesy. Yet Tagore has
achieved the impossible. As has been well said, all the
aspirations of mankind are in his hymns. I have dis-
cussed his devotional poetry at great length in the
succeeding pages. He prays in Gitanjali ; " Let all my
songs gather together their diverse strains into a single
current and flow to a sea of silence in one salutation to
Thee." The lyrics of childhood in The Crescent Moon, the
lyrics of life and love in T/;^ Gardener, the lyrics of heaven-
ly beauty and heavenly love in Gilan']ali, and the inex-
pressibly beautiful lyrics scattered in his dramatic works
show how full of variety and beauty is Tagore's lyrical i
genius and how wonderful is his lyric achievement.
107
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Tagore's dramas also have this undercurrent of lyric
•clement in them. In fact in Indian dramas generally
there is more lyric element than in Western dramas.
So far as the popular stage is concerned the lyric ele-
ments have overshadowed the purely dramatic ele-
ments. This is partly due to the fact that the plays acted
were composed by men without dramatic genius and
partly to the fact that the actors were often drawn from
the lowest classes of society and were often men with-
out any real culture and could not properly express
emotion by words, tone, and gesture. It was due also
to the decline of taste in the dark ages of Indian history.
Some measure of the blame is attributable also to an
old inherent mental tendency by which verse overshad-
owed prose and music overshadowed verse. Prose has
its own cadences and harmonies ; and so has poetry
Neither need be ashamed of its sweet unborrowed
beauty. Music, " heavenly maid," being of perfect
attractiveness, prose and verse often chose to be her
slaves forgetting their own dignity and charm and love-
lines. In classical drama the lyric element enhances the
beauty without spoiling the purely dramatic elements.
In Tagore it must be said that in spite of the surpassing
'beauty of the plays the lyric and mystical elements are
not fully subordinated to the dramatic elements. In the
Indian classical drama the evolution of the dramatic
incidents without undue obtrusion of the lyric, musical,
and mystical elements has been achieved. Characteris-
108
INTRODUCTORY
ation, dialogue, progress of the narrative in a natural i
manner, and wealth of incident — which are all necessary-
elements for stage effect and lasting emotional appeal —
are well attended to by the great dramatists of India.
In Tagore's plays though characterisation and dialogue
are very good, there is no attempt at wealth of incident
or display of character in action or clash of personali-
ties or working towards a denouemeiil while keeping the
audience in suspense and breathless expectation. B(it
their naturalness, simplicity, lyric beauty, musical charm,
and subtle spiritual suggestion are remarkable, and we
owe to him a new and original dramatic format great
poetic beauty and spiritual elevation.
Those who have had the rare privilege and happiness
of hearing Tagore's songs especially as sung by him speak
in rapturous terms about them. Such musical perfec-
tion can be born only in a country where there is a great
musical tradition, a plastic and susceptible language,,
and a deep and widespread love of song in the people.
All these requirements are satisfied all over India and
especially in Bengal. The Harikatha and Sankirthana-
movements are still full of vitality and are making for
unity, purity, and piety among Indian humanity.
Human love and love of nature catch a new radiance
from God-love and shine with a deathless and heavenly,
glow which is not theirs in other lands, and musical emo-
tion kindled by them everywhere gets a new quickening,
and heightening by alliance with spiritual rapture. Even
109
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
■in the most passionate songs of human love, the song of
nature's beauty and the song of love of God interblend
in some subtle manner strangely sweet. Mr. Rhys
says : " So it is with the music of these songs : there is
a sighing cadence in some of the most passionate
stanzas, as if the music turned to the wind and the
streams to find an accompaniment for the rhythms of the
words, born of the desire of young lovers." One cannot
• emphasize too strongly this musical approach of Tagore's
•mind into the heart of things, for the blending of music,
mystery, and mental graces is the greatest charm and
most distinctive trait of his genuis.
Tagore's novels are discussed by me separately. In
them also the lyrical element and spiritual suggestive-
ness that we found m his plays are seen. They have
the magic of style, the naturalness and beauty of
dialogue, and the power of vivid character-painting in
a few strokes that his dramas have. They combine
reaUty and romance, truth to nature and suggestion of
the supernatural. But he seems to lose his foothold
when the lyric mood passes, and his long novels — e.g.,
Gora — are not said to be a success.
His miscellaneous prose writings- except Sadhana-hawe
not been collected. His sermons called " Shantiniketan'^
published in fourteen volumes are said to contain some of
his most beautiful thoughts. But Sadhana as well as the
miscellaneous prose writings translated in the pages of
-the Modern Review reveal his possession of a wonderful
110
INTRODUCTORY
prose style in which the graces of poetry adorn without
■weakening the simpHcity and directness of the prose. I
liave discussed his Sadhana in a later chapter and his
miscellaneous prose writings in the penultimate chapter.
They show how well he has understood Indian ideals,
how true is his vision as to the duty of Indians and the
destiny of India now and hereafter, how well he has
entered into the spirit of the greatest poets of our nation
—especially Kalidasa — and how Tagore is not only our
greatest poet but also the most far-sighted, patriotic,
and true-hearted lover and servant of India.
We may well- ask why Tagore has not excelled in
writing long narrative or epic poems. The glory of the
lyric art carries with it its own limitation. One pas-
sionate soaring into the highest empyrean of thought and
emotion, and then a quick descent — such is the nature
of the lyric mood. The narrative and epic poets do not
soar very high but
'• Sail with supreme dominion
Through the azure deep of air ''
and maintain their flight for a long time. Tagore has —
and cannot help having — the special merits and limita-
tions of his unique and wonderful poetic genius.
His art passed through three stages of development —
the first deaUng with the raptures of life and love ; the
second dealing with his motherland's duties, greatness,
mission, and destiny ; and the third dealing with the
highest longings and aspirations of mankind yearning
111
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
to see the Infinite Beauty and win His love as the
heart's highest and holiest dower.
After all the most beautiful and permanently valuable
trait of his genius is his mystical sense and his-
power of realising and making us realise the spiritual
significance of things. I am dealing with this trait at
some length in a later portion of this chapter. It is
this great power that has enabled him to bring healing
balm to the inner ailments of the time and to take the
purified and happy soul to the very Throne of Grace in
an attitude of glad and perfect love and adoration.
XI. Tagore's Style.
His Bengali style is recognised and admitted by all
to be perfect in beauty and power, to be "full of subtlety
of rhythm, of untranslateable delicacies of colour, of
metrical invention." The Bengali tongue possesses
great elasticity, rhythmic power and grace, and force of
figurative expression. Being a descendant of the
divine Sanscrit, it has the graces and stateliness of the
Sanscrit together with a suppleness and plastic power
born of manipulation by great literary and musical
geniuses in the middleages.
Tagore's English style is remarkable not only for its
beauty but also for the fact that it has discovered even
to the English genius new possibilities in the English
language. -The Rev. Mr. C. F. Andrews says : " The
English of to-day has filtered into literature from journa-
lism, advertisements, and popularised slang, and has
112
INTRODUCTORY
debased the King's coinage." Love of phrasing has be-
come a craze, and the search for the effective and jewell-
ed phrase has become such a preoccupation with Mr.
Chesterton and other leading prosewriters of to-day that
the older prose style — pure, lucid, full of sweet cadences
and harmonies — has almost disappeared. Tagore's
English is pure and simple and harmonious. As the
reviewer of Tagore's poems in the Quarterly Reviem
says, we see in them "an English style which combines
at once the feminine grace of poetry with the virile
power of prose." He well calls the Gitanjali "this
flower of English prose."
But the great significance of Tagore's works is of
course their being masterpieces of literature in the
Bengali language. I have already shown how
the existence of a number of great languages in
India — each with a great literature and great hterary
traditions — is no real menace to national unity. Even
they have innumerable beauties in common and have a
further bond of union in the common allegiance and
love they have for the divine Sanscrit. The modern
agitators who set up the English tongue against the
vernaculars and the Sanscrit, the Sanscrit against
the vernaculars, or the vernaculars against the
Sanscrit are traitors to the national cause, and they
are responsible for a great deal of the intellectual sterility
and social disunion that now disfigure this fair and
sacred land of ours. They are more in evidence in the
113
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Madras Presidency than elsewhere; but the nuisance is
a more or less general phenomenon in India. Rev. A.F.
Gardiner in his recent Conovcation address said: " The
enlistment of the vernaculars is an indispensable
element in national enlightenment. For, while on the
one hand, the function of English is to unite in one
•enhghtened body all those who participate directly in
the learning of the west, on the other hand, the
national assimilation of that more accurate information
and wider culture can be effected only by calling in
the aid of the vernaculars. ..It would be difficult to
determine how far the education of an Indian could be
<:onsidered in any sense complete without an adequate
acquaintance with one or other of the languages and
literatures which have sprung up in his native land or
Tiave become acclimatized to it." It is a pity that many
among us have not even this amount of perception as
to the national needs of India. Even if Tagore had
done nothing else, his having chosen his vernacular
as the vehicle of expression and having brought it to
a high state of perfection would by itself justify Indians
in offering him their tribute of admiration and love.
I must in this connection refer to the battle of styles
which has not yet ended in regard to the proper form
of the vernacular style. Some writers stand up for
the old classical style and others are for making the '
style of literature an echo of the spoken tongue. Both
are wrong and as visual in India, in social and other
114
INTRODUCTOKY
spheres of activity, empty discussions as to how to
begin take the place of loyal work. Educate the
people and place all your styles before them. We shall
then see the survival of the best and fittest style. Every
language grows with the growth of the race, and it is
absurd to decree that it shall not grow and change.
But to rush to the other extreme and discard all the
beautiful traditions of literature and art that have grown
and gathered during the ages, and to make the new
literary style an echo of the spoken tongue which has
become debased by literature having had no popular
appeal in the middle ages and having been in the hands
of literary coteries is an unpatriotic, shortsighted, and
suicidal act.
There is a complaint even in Bengal that though
Tagore's poetic genius and artistic vigilance have
enabled him, while handling the Bengali tongue in a
new manner and freeing it from its classical fetters, not
to cross the line that separates the laws of poetic
expression from license and slang, others who have
been his followers and imitators have crossed the line
and are murdering the language. There have been great
masters of the vernaculars in India till within a few^
decades ago, and our duty, while trying to achieve
directness and terseness of expression which is one of
the chief glories of the English language, is to study
the masterpieces of vernacular literature and follow not
in a spirit of slavish homage but in a spirit of love the
]15
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
laws that have been discoverd in India by great rhetori-
cians and poets in regard to poetic 'truth and poetic
beauty.
Tagore's views on Bengali prosody are valuable. Her
says : " In Bengali, on the other hand, one strong
syllable is followed by a whole series of atonic syllables
which glide over the ear so fast that it is difficult tO'
grasp their intonation. Is it not the image of one of our
joint Hindu families ? The head of the household is
easily recognised, but behind him is an undistinguish-
able and undistinguished crowd ! " (From a letter bj'
him to Mr. J. D. Anderson published in the Journal of
The Royal Asiatic Society). He decries the excessive use
of assonance and alliteration which take away the
attention of the poet and the reader from sense to sound
to an improper extent. He points out that in old
Bengali poetry there are not proper and harmonious
ascents and descents of accent, each akshara (letter,)
being counted as a separate matra, and that this defici-
ency was not felt as verse was chanted and not recited.
He says : " On the other hand, I firmly believe there
is an audible, a metrical, difference between syllables,
containing simple and compound consonants, respec-
tively. So convinced was I of this that, some years,
ago, I composed a book of verses entitled Manasi, which,
contains examples of metres in which syllables contain-
ing compound consonants do the work of two matras..
This device has now become a current usage." He
116
INTRODUCTORY
says again : " In the verses composed in my later
years I have striven to introduce the music of current
speech, simply because popular language runs freely
and gladly like a sparkling brook. Its wavelets dance
and babble naturally. The lines you quoted from my
Gitanjali are written to evoke the clash of consonants
in collision The tears in the eyes and the
smile on the lips of our own native muse have been
hidden behind the meretricious tinsel of a veil borrowed
from Sanskrit. We have forgotten how piercing and
significant is the glance of her dark eyes ! I have done
what I can to pull aside the encumbering garment.
Followers of convention may blame ; 1 care not a
whit. Let them, if they will, appraise the workmanship
of the veil and the price of its glistening embroidery.
What I want to see is the bright eyes behind it. In
them you will find a wealth of beauty not quoted in the
market rates of the bazaar's pedantry."
One of the beautiful traits of Tagore's style is its
simplicity, spontaneity, and freshness. It flows in its
limpid grace like a mountain brook beneath golden
sunshine. It is a real joy to watch this combination of
perfect grace of form and perfect simplicity. Further,
his instinct for the right word is also admirable. The
definition that prose is words in their best order and
that poetry is the best words in their best order seems
to be peculiarly applicable to Tagore's work. Again,
his sense of decoration and ornamentation is per feet.
117
S(R RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The art of poetics has been cultivated in India to aa
extent and to a height of perfection unattained any-
where else in the world. The Indian's subtle sense of
variations of literary decoration is as remarkable as his
subtle sense of poetic harmony. Tagore himself regretted
that he could not reveal in his English translation all
those decorative graces that his mother tongue enabled
him to give to his original compositions as a fitting and
royal apparel. We must further remember that the pecu-
liar charm of Tagore's poetic work is in a large measure
due to its musical inspiration. He himself describes this-
process in his inimitable manner; "I have felt this
again and again when composing songs. When I
began to write a line, humming —
Do not hide in your heart, O Sakhi, your secret word, —
then I saw that wherever the tune flew away with the
words, the words could not follow on foot. Then it
seemed to me as if the hidden word that I prayed to-
hear was lost in the gloom of the forest, it melted into the
still whiteness of the full moonlight, it was veiled in the
blue distance of the horizon — as if it were the innermost
secret word of the whole land and sea and sky. I heard
when I was very young the song ' Who dressed like a
foreigner ?' and that one line of the song painted such-
a strange picture in my mind .... I once tried to com-
pose a song myself under the spell of that line
my heart began to say, 'there is a stranger going to-
and fro in this world of ours — her house is on the fur-
118
INTRODUCTORY
ther shores of an ocean of mystery — Sometimes she is-
to be seen in the autumn morning, sometimes in the
flowery midnight, sometimes we receive an intimation-
of her in the depths of our heart — Sometimes I hear her
voice when I turn my ear to the sky.' The tune of my
song led me to the very door of that stranger who-
ensnares the universe and appears in it, and I said :
" Wandering over the world.
I come to thy land,
I am a guest at thy door, O stranger."
I give below a few salient examples of Tagore's goldea
felicities of style, though I know full well that to do the
work adequately within this limited compass is an^
impossibility. To appreciate his style fully the reader
must read Tagore often and realise his literary graces
with the aid of imagination and love.
Tagore has further a quiet humour of his own — in
which the element of irony is softened by love and by
sadness at the oddities and contradictions of human life
which is meant for better things but is allowed by us to
be soiled by the mire of sins and sorrows and hates
and lies.
'' Oh the vow of a man ! Surely thou knowest, thou
god of love, that unnumbered saints and sages
have surrendered the merits of their life-long
penance at the feet of a woman. "
{Chitra^ page 5).
119
SIR RABINPRANATH TAGORE
" Just fancy ! any one libelling me c^ be punish-
ed, while nobody can stop the mouth of any
rascal who chooses to slander the King. "
{The King of the Dark Chamber page 15).
" When people sought grants and presents from
him, he could not somehow discover an
auspicious day in the calendar ; though all days
were red-letter days when we had to pay our
taxes ! "
(Do. page 25).
'' When I had a meagre retinue at first every one
regarded me with suspicion, but now with the
increasing crowd, their doubts are waning and
dissolving. The crowd is being hypnotised
by its own magnitude."
o. P.vge 09?.
His plays and poems abound in those golden felicities
of style, that instinct for the right word, the eye for
beauty and the ear for melody and the readiness to
realise the suggestive associations brought by words in
their long travel down the centuries, the combination
of terseness and vividness — which mark the true poet
and artist, about whom Tennyson says :
"All the charm of all the muses often flowering in a
lonely word.'' and
" Jewels five words long, That on the stretched
forefinger of all time Sparkle for ever."
120
INTRODUCTORY
"I bind in bonds of pain and bliss the lives of
men and women."
^ (Chitra, page 1).
"*' Instantly he leapt up with straight tall Umbs, like
a sudden tongue of fire from a heap of ashes."
(Do. page 4).
" It seemed to me that the heart of the earth must
heave in joy under her bare white feet."
(Do. page 11).
•" She bared her bosom and looked at her arms, so
flawlessly modelled, and instinct with an
exquisite caress."
(Do. page 12).
"*' You alone are perfect ; you are the wealth of the
world, the end of all poverty, the goal of all
efforts, the one woman ! "
(Do. page 18).
*' A limitless life of glory can bloom and pend itself
in a morning : Like an endless meaning in the
narrow span of a song."
(Do. pages 20, 21).
*' Shame slipped to my feet like loosened clothes."
{Chitra, page 24).
" Come in the lisping leaves, in the youthful sur-
render of flowers ;
•Come in the flute songs and the wistful signs of the
the woodlands !"
{The King of the Dark Chamber page 7).
121
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGOKK
" The ferry of the light from the dawn to the dark
is done for the day,
The evening star is up.
Have you gathered your flowers, braided your hair,
And donned your white robe for the night ?"
(Do. page 49).
" The white, silver light of the full moon is flood-
ing the heavens and brimming over on every
side like the bubbling foam of wine".
(Do. page 81).
" The fairy mistress of dreams is coming towards
you, flying through the twilight sky."
{The Crescent Moon, page 10).
" I shall melt into the music of the flute and throb
in your heart all day ".
(Do. page 67).
" Let your gentle eyes fall upon them like the
forgiving peace of evening over the strife of the
day."
(Do. page 79)
I shall give below a few admirable illustrations of
Tagore's powers of vivid description in general : —
" I paced alone on the road across the field while
. the sunset was hiding its last gold like a miser.
The day light sank deeper and deeper into the
darkness, and the widowed land, whose harvest
had been reaped, lay silent.
122
INTRODUCTORY
Suddenly a boy's shrill voice rose into the sky. He
traversed the dark unseen, leaving the track of;
his song across the hush of the evening."
{The Crescent Moon^ page 1).
" The sea surges up with laughter, and pale gleams •
the smile of the sea-beach ...Tempest roams
in the pathless sky, ships are wrecked in the
trackless water, death is abroad and children •
play."
{The Crescent Moon, page 4).
" Out of the blank darkness cf our lampless meet-
ing-place used to stream forth strains and songs and
melodies, dancing and vibrating in endless succession
and overflowing profusion, like the passionate exuber-
ance cf a ceaseless fountain !" {The King of the Dark
Chamber, pages 144-145).
He has a wonderful faculty of giving faithful and.
beautiful descriptions of nature and life in India. His
love of natural beauty and his intimate realisation of
the joys and sorrows of men and women in our land
have given him a unique power of delineation of the
glories of earth and sea and sky in India and of the
lives of men and women. Only a few examples are
given below here, as I shall make an attempt in the
later portion of this book to interpret fully each great'
work of Tagore s genius.
•' His village home lay there at the end of the waste
land, beyond the sugar-cane field^ hidden among •;
123
SIR RABINDRAN'ATH TAGORE
the shadows of the banana and the slender areca
palm, the cocoa-nut and the dark green jack-
fruit trees." (The Crescent Moon^ page !)•
'' The shepherd boy has gone home early from the
pasture, and men have left their fields to sit on
mats under the eaves of their huts, watching the
scowling clouds." (Do. page 35).
■" The palm trees in a row by the lake are smiting
their heads against the dismal sky ; the crows
with their draggled wings are silent on the
tamarind branches, and the eastern bank of the
river is haunted by a deepening gloom ....
The sky seems to ride fast upon the madly-rushing
rain ; the water in the river is loud and impatient;
women have hastened home early from the
Ganges with their filled pitchers
The road to the market is desolate, the lane to
the river is slippery. The wind is roaring and
struggling among the bamboo branches like a
wild beast tangled in a net."
(Do. pages 86-7).
" They say there are strange pools hidden behind
that high bank.
Where flocks of wild ducks come when the rains
are over, and thick reeds grow round the margins
where water-birds lay their eggs ;
Where snipes with their dancing tails stamp their
tiny footprints upon the clean soft mud ;
124
INTRODUCTORY
Where in the evening the tall grassess crested with ^
white flowers invite the moonbeam to float upori
their waves."
{The Crescent Moon, pages 42-48).
" I have heard the liquid murmur of the river
through the darkness of midnight."
(Do. page 70).
" Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of a
road in the lonely waste, like a bride raising her
veil to accept her lover."
(Do. page 70).
"Sunlight danced on the ripples like restless tiny
shuttles weaving golden tapestry."
(Do. page 72).
"See, there where Auntie grinds lentils in the quirn,
the squirrel is sitting with his tail up and with
his wee hands he is picking up the broken grains
of lentils and crunching them."
{The Post Office, pages 10-11).
" Indeed, they (the parrots) live among the green
hills ; and in the time of the sunset when there is
a red glow on the hillside, all the birds with their
green wings go flocking to their nests !"
{The Crescent Moon, pages 62-63).
" Oh it (the waterfall) is like molten diamonds ;
and my dear ! what dances they have ! Don't
they make the pebbles sing as they rush over
them to the sea?" (Do. page 63).
125
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
A few examples may be given here of Tagore's
^/profound reflections on life here and hereafter,
earthly and divine — containing as they do the quintes-
sence of his philosophy of life which is both lofty and
"deep.
" Illusion is the first appearance of Truth. She
advances towards her lover in disguise. But a
time comes when she throws off her ornaments
and veils, and stands clothed in naked dignity.
I grope for that ultimate you, that bare simpli-
city of truth."
{Chitra page 52).
*' No littleness can keep us shut up in its walls of
untruth for aye. Were it not so, how could we
hope in our heart to meet him ? "
{The King of the Dark Chamber, pages 14-15)
*' Desire can never attain its object — it need never
attain it.''
(Do. page 83).
" M istakes are but the preludes to their own des-
truction."
(Do. page 154).
■" Do not grow impatient, King of Kanchi, sweet are
the fruits of delay."
{Chitra, page 158).
■" He only may chastise who loves."
{The CY£scent Movn, page 22.)
1^6
INTRODUCTORY
XII. Tagore's Mysticism.
In her admirable Introduction to the Translation of
^ne Hundred Poems by Kahir^ to which I have made
frequent reference in these pages, Evelyn Underhill
says : " The poetry of mysticism might be defined on
the one hand as a temperamental reaction to the vision
of Reality : on the other as a form of prophecy. As it is
the special vocation of the mystical consciousness to
mediate between the two orders, going out in loving
adoration towai-ds God and coming home to tell the
secrets of eternity to other men ; so the artistic self-
expression of this consciousness has also a double
character. It is love-poetry, but love -poetry which is
often written with a missionary intention This
willing acceptance of the here-and-now as a means of
representing supernal realities is a trait common to the
greatest mystics." She says again : " It is a marked
characteristic of mystical literature that the great
contemplatives, in their effort to convey to us the nature
of their communion with the supersensuous, are inevit-
ably driven to employ some form of sensuous imagery,
coarse and inaccurate as they know such imagery to be,
even at the best. Our normal human consciousness
is so completely committed to dependence on the
senses, that the fruits of intuition itself are instinctively
referred to them. In that intuition it seems to the
mystics that all the dim cravings and partial apprehen-
sions of sense find perfect fulfilment. Hence their
127
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
constant declaration that they see the uncreated light,,
they hear the celestial melody, they taste the sweetness-
of the Lord, they know an ineffable fragrance, they
feel the very contact of love These are excessive
dramatizations of the symbolism under which the
mystic tends instinctively to represent his spiritual'
intuition to the surface consciousness. Here, in the
special sense-perception which he feels to be most
expressive of Reahty, his pecuHar idiosyncrasies come-
out."
These two passages show in an admirable manner
what is the true glory of the mystical consciousness.
It is the function of poetry and music to reveal as far as
is possible for them the messages from the mystical
consciousness to man. As Shelley says : " Poetry is
the record of the best and happiest moments of the
best and happiest minds. It is, as it were, the interpret-
ation of a diviner nature through our own. It redeems
from decay the visitations of the divinity in man." The
dictionary meaning of a mystic as '' one who believes in
spiritual apprehension of truths beyond the understand-
ing" is followed by a remark; " whence mysticism
(often contempt)." Dr. Max Nordau goes the length
of regarding mysticism as a form of mental de-
generation. Others think that it has some alliance with
black magic and the realm of darkness. But a certain
amount of detachment, purity, and personal realisation
is necessary before one can know the truth about
128
INTRODUCTORY
mysticism. As Franz Hartmann says : " If our whole
time and attention be taken up by the illusions of sense,
we will lose the power to perceive that which is super-
sensuous ; the more we look at the surface, the less will
we know of the kernel ; the more we sink mto matter,
the more will we become unconscious of the spirit
which is tbe life of all things The eyes of a world
that stepped out from a night of bigotry into the light
of day, were dazzled and blinded for a while by the
vain glitter of a pile of rubbish and broken pots that
had been collected by the advocates of material science,
who palmed it off for diamonds and precious stones ;
but the world has recovered from the effect of the
glare, and realized the worthlessness of the rubbish,
and it again seeks for the less dazzHng but priceless light
of the truth." Indeed, as he says : '^ A person who
peremptorily denies the existence of anything which is
beyond the horizon of his understanding, because he
cannot make it harmonize with his accepted opinions,
is as credulous as he who beheves everything without
discrimination This power of spiritual perception,
potentially contained in every man, but developed in a
few, is almost unknown to the guardians of science in
modern civihzation, because learning is often separated
from wisdom, and the calculating intellect seeking for
worms in the dark caverns of the earth cannot see the
genius that floats towards the light and it cannot realize
his existence." (Introduction to Paracelsus). Not
129
/
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
only are detachment and purity necessary for mystical
perception, but strenuous inner effort storing up mysti-
cal experience is required to make the mystic vision
sure, wide, and deep. Further, a great mystic's ex-
perience can become real for us only when we have a
similar experience in our souls, though the heart can
apprehend in a slight degree the mystical radiance that
lights up dim-lit depths of soul in us. As Morley says
in his essay on Dante : " We accept a truth of science
so soon as it is demonstrated, are perfectly willing to
take it on authority, can appropriate whatever use there
may be in it without the least understanding of its
processes, as men send messages by the electric tele-
graph, but every truth of morals must be re-demons-
trated in the experience of the individual man before
he is capable of utilizing it as a constituent of character
or a guide in action."
Caroline F. E. Spurgeon says in her valuable book on
Mysticism in English Literature : " If a man has this
particular temperament, his mysticism is the very centre
of his being : it is the flame which feeds his whole
life ; and he is intensely and supremely happy just so
far as he',is steeped in it. Mysticism is, in-truth, a temper
rather than a doctrine, an atmosphere rather than a
system of philosophy." The reviewer of Tagore's works
in the Quarterly Review well says : " For the mystic the
note of the lute is the eternal lure of God's voice lead-
ing us cin to ever-new adventures in experience without
130
INTRODUCTORY
a thought of fear or regret for what we leave behind."
The mystic has a vivid and rapturous spiritual
perception of the unity that underlies all diversity.
Spiritual things have to be spiritually discerned, and to
scorn the aid of the mystical preception in the case of
the spiritual realm is like scorning the aid of eyes in try-
ing to realise the beauty of the sky. The mystic realises
'God not as an metaphysical abstraction, but as the
Divine Lover and Bridegroom, as the Infinite Beauty
that shines in the universe and yet transcends it. "The
mystic is somewhat in the position of a man who,
in a world of blind men, has suddenly been granted
sight, and who, gazing at the sunrise, and overwhelmed
by the glory of it, tries, however falteringly, to convey
to his fellows what he sees."
What is the nature of this spiritual faculty ? It has
the same revealing power as imagination has in regard
to the material and mental realms. Imagination is a
unifying force and reveals affinities, similarities, and
correspondences among things. The function of the in-
tellect is to apprehend, separate, and classify while that
-of the senses is to take cognizance of things in separation
bit by bit. Hence the mind has a higher unifying
power than the senses, and the imagination (not the wild
fancy that disports itself amidst the shows of things but
the serious faculty that sees into the heart of things) has
.a higher unifying power than the mind, fmagination is
.a far and swift traveller and is ever full of radiant sur-
131
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
prises for the mind. Shakespeare has well exclaimed: —
The poet's eye in a fire frenzy rolling
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.
When the poet gazes on the beloved's face and calls
it the full moon shining in the sky of his soul, we feel at
once how two beautiful things are brought together and
shown as one in joy. The picture calls into being in
our mind a number of accessory pictures. We imagine
the night of the heart where everything was dark and
dreary, the first red glow of the moonrise of love blush-
ing at its venturesomeness and coming hesitatingly-
above the horizon, and finally the calm silver radiance
of wedded love flooding the earth of our ordinary life
with its gentle and piarifying beams and leading our
minds gently and irresistibly (*l^dl<:iWcId"4(T as the
beautiful and terse Sanscrit word says) to the ever-full
Moon of Divine Love. Mysticism and spiritual vision go
even deeper than imagination, and reveal to us the Over-
soul and the deep spiritual affinities of things. This
supreme faculty of the soul has been called by various
names : " Transcendental feeling", " Mystic reason",
"cosmic consciousness", '' ecstacy", "vision ", etc. It
has been well described by Wordsworth thus :
" That serene and blessed mood
In which the breath of this corporeal frame,
And even the motion of our human blood,
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, aift become a living soul:
Whil« with an eye made quiet by the power
132
INTRODUCTORY
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things." Tint em Abbey.
This faculty is no chance gift but is the result of
purity of life, search for wisdom, and Godward love in
ihis birth or in previous births. The mystic having to
express the truths realised by him in terms of the mind
and the senses, for he has touch with the outer world
only through them, earthly relations and unions are
adopted as symbols of vividly-reaHsed spiritual unions.
It is only in this mystical sense that God is our Father,
The mystical Indian mind has reahsed God as Mother,
Beloved, Friend, and Child as well. The expression of
divine love in terms of human love is further possible
because there is on human love the shadow of the light
of divine joy cast by the tree of life. Nature becomes a
living Presence to the mystic, and no portion of it is
lower or higher than other portions in his eyes. The fall
of a yellow and sere leaf is as much an illustration of the
flux of things as the disappearance of a human life. It
has well been said : " In order to be a true symbol, a
thing must be partly the same as that which it symbo-
lises." Hence mystic symbolism is more than a figare
of speech ; it is the passionate expression of a really
and vividly felt fact of inner experience. Blake well
-describes this feeling thus :
" To see a world in a grain of sand
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."
133
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
I shall quote here only one perfect passage from Plato.
" He who under the influence of true love rising upward
from these begins to see that beauty, is not far from the
end. And the true order of going or being led by an-
other to the things of love, is to use the beauties of the
earth as steps along which he mounts upwards for the
sake of that other beauty, going from one to two, and
from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair
practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until
from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute
beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is
This ... is that life above all others
which man should live, in the contemplation of beauty
absolute."
[Syuiposiuin).
It is because the true mystics dwell habitually in the
inner realm where perfect Harmony, Beauty, Love and
Joy reign that even their physical sheaths become bright,
their utterance melodious, their minds clear and power-
ful, their moral sense keen and potent, and their heart
full of love. As Emerson says : " Only by the vision of
that wisdom can the horoscope of the ages be read, and.
by falling back on our better thoughts, by yielding tO'
the spirit of prophecy which is innate in every man, we
can know what it saith only itself can
inspire whom it will and behold ! their speech shall be
lyrical and sweet and universal as the rising of the
wind . . . When it breathes through his intellect
334
INTRODUCTORY
it is genius ; when it breathes through his will it is will,
it is virtue ; when it flows through his affection, it is
love."
{The Over soul).
Hence it is that the great mystics of the world become
great poets, musicians, prophets, geniuses, and leaders
of humanity without aiming at such a consummation.
All the evils of the world — lust, avarice, anger, ignorance
vanity, and hate — arise from our blindness of vision. By,
imagination we realise our vmity in a common humanity
and our brotherhood. By mystic vision we realise our
unity in God. All the wars of the world are due to the
tyranny of the senses and the mind. The senses crave
satisfaction and are separating forces. The good things
of life must be for me alone ; let me kill that man and
take his good things for my use, — that is the whisper of
the senses. If one heeds their siren voice he is spiritual-
ly lost. The mind is ever a vain thing. It says to the
soul : — -That is a barbarian, a man of low mind ; for
the sake of the mental uplift of the world let that 1o\t
type disappear; let me bear the burden ; kill off that
savage and let me, the civilised one capable of high men-
tation, live in proud glory under the sky without my eye
being vexed by the sight of that savage, This is the
whisper of the mind. If one heeds its siren voice he is
spiritually lost. Alas ! what has not the tyranny of the
mind and the senses to answer for at the bar of Love !
What unhappiness, deep agony, shattered homes and
135
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
bleeding hearts^ are due to hate — and to war, the worst
manifestation of hate. Can all the crowns of the world
soothe the cry of a single orphan or the mute agony of
a widow ? Imagination goes a small way towards unifi-
cation and brotherhood but not far. Hence it is that
western nations in spite of culture and imagination
have not freed themselves from the tyranny of the
senses and the mind. Coleridge has shown that not even
thousand French Revolutions can bring about true
freedom.
" The sensual and the dark rebel in vain,
Slaves by their own compulsion ! In mad game
They burst their manacles, and wear the name
Of freedom graven on a heavier chain !"
It is only when the mystical faculty is in " in widest
commonalty spread " that the higher state of human
enlightenment will dawn upon the suffering earth.
Christ was a great mystic and his use of nature —
symbolism is a remarkable fact. Oscar Wilde — after
the chastening of his wild spirit in the baptism of
suffering — says of Him : " One always thinks of him as
a young bridegroom with his companion as indeed he
somewhere describes himself ; as a shepherd straying
through a valley in search of green meadow or cool
stream ; as a singer trying to build out of music the
walls of the City of God ; or as a lover for whose love
the whole world was too small". In English Literature
also we have had great mystics. Caroline Spurgeon says
136
INTRODUCTORY
iruly that the great mystical writers in English can be
grouped according to the five main pathways by which
they have seen the vision — Love, Beauty, Nature,
Wisdom, Devotion. It is not possible to do more than
mention here a few great names. — Shelley, Words-
worth, Browning, Blake, Vaughan, Donne, Richard
Rolle and others have made us realise " discord
blending into harmony, difference merging into unity."
The most glorious and perfect manifestations of
the mystical vision are to be found in India. The
wonderful beauty and sublimity of Nature in India, the
existence of a race dowered with a rare faculty of in-
sight, and other favourable circumstances are responsible
for this wonderful and unique phenomenon. Ernest
Horrwitz says in his Short History of Indian Literature:
'' The ancients meant by theosophy intuitive wisdom
which shines in pure and selfless hearts. But the
modern teachings which are labelled theosophical,
though they have appropriated the venerable name and
the occult phraseology which has gathered round it,
have caught little of the hidden spirit, the soul's truest
and best. Far sounder is the teaching supplied by
Master Eckhart (1.300 A. D.) and Jacob Boehme (1600
A. D.) two German theosophists ; but what is the pale
light of their veiled utterances compared to the vivid
realisation and fearless language of the golden Upa-
nishads ?"
Tagore is a great mystic, poet, and saint. His is the
137
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGOKE
rare dower of mystical and spiritual vision. I have
already shown how in a large measure he is the spiritual
descendant of the Vaishnava and Sufi mystics. I shall
show in a later chapter the deep correspondences
between him and Kabir. But his spiritual vision has
got a beauty, power, and sweetness of its own — unique,
unequalled, original. To appreciate it to the full, one
must read him again and again with a devout, dedi-
cated, and pure heart, and in a spirit of deep thankful-
ness to God who in his love for this holy land is sending
great souls again and again to us, so that we may reach
the heaven of His Love. His mysticism is in alliance with
the true love of country, the true joys of love, the true
raptures of service, and the highest moral life. He
preaches not asceticism but renunciation of selfishness,
t y I not quiescence but radiant activity in the service of
^''■' '-^ ' love. He has made life heavenlier and sweeter and purer
by letting the light of love play on it, and he is one
of the greatest forces making for the reign of light and
love in the world.
It is very difficult to select illustrations of his wonder-
ful mystical genius when we see in his works an in-
exhaustible affluence of mystic thought and emotion ia
almost every page. The following are a few examples.
"He who plays his music to the stars is standing at
your window with his flute,"
{The Crescent Moon, page 11).
138
INTRODUCTORY
"When in girlhood my heart was opening its petals,,
you hovered as a fragrance about it."
( Do. page 16).
"At sunrise open and raise your heart like a
blossoming flower, and at sunset bend your head
and in silence complete the worship of the day."
( Do. page 80).
" My beloved is ever in my heart
That is why I see him everywhere
Come (o my heart and see his face in the tears of
my eyes !"
{The King of the Dark Chauibic, page 21).
"But me the wild winds of unscalable heights have
touched and kissed — Oh, I know not when or
where!" ( Do. page 38).
" The music of enchantment will pursue them and
pierce their hearts." ( Do. page 58).
" My sorrow is sweet to me in this spring night.
My pain smites at the chords of my love and.
softly sings.
Visions take birth from my yearning eyes and flit •
in the moonht sky.
The smells from the depths of the woodlands have
lost their way in my dreams.
Words come in whispers to my ears, I know not
from where,
And bells in my anklets tremble and jingle in tune
139
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
with my heart thrills." ( Do. page 82).
^' Let each separate moment of beauty come to me
like a bird of mystery from its unseen nest in the
dark bearing a message of music."
{Chilra^ page 53).
" Oh, how I wish — -I wish that I could wander rapt
and lovely in the thick woodland arbours of the
heart ?"
( The King of the Dark Chamber^ page 83).
**' It is thy love that feigns this neglect — thy caress-
ing arms are pushing me away — to draw me
back to thy arms again 1
( Do. pages 116-117).
" I am waiting with my all in the hope of losing
everything." ( Do. page 184).
^' My song will sit in the pupils of your eyes, and
will carry your sight into the heart of things."
(The Crescent Moon page 78).
*'Your feet are rosy-red with the glow of my heart's
desire, gleaner of my sunset songs."
{The Gardener^ page 58).
^' He came when the night was still ... he had
his harp in his hands, and my dreams became
resonant with its melodies."
{Gitanjali, page ^0).
'' Entering my heart unbidden even as one of the
common crowd, my king, thou didst press the
signet of eternity upon many a fleeting moment
INTRODUCTORY
of my life." {Gitanjali, page 35).
" What divine drink woulds't thou have, my God^.
from this overflowing cup of my life ?"
{Gitanjali, page 61).
Tagore has a rare and wonderful faculty of realising
and expressing the spiritual significance of things.
This faculty is overwhelmed in us by the surging tides
of worldliness, strife, and desire. But those who have
attained the inner heights of peace and love and
renunciation see things in the light of the soul
and realise the right relations of things. In trying.
to understand his style, we must bear this aspect in our
minds prominently. I give below a few examples of
this great faculty.
" It seems to me because the earth can't speak, it
raises its hands into the sky and beckons. And
those who live far off, and sit alone by their
windows can see the signal."
{The Post Office, pages 14-15).
" Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling, and
gladness without measure. The heaven's river
has drowned its banks and the flood of joy is
abroad." {Gitanjali, page 53).
XIII. Tagore's Religious Ideas.
Carlyle has called religion "the chief fact with
regard to man ;" and it is very interesting to know
Tagore's religious ideas, both because religion is the
most important element of a man's life, and because in
141
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the case of such a deeply spiritual mind as Tagore's,
the world may well expect a gospel of true wisdom
and real profundity of thought illumined by a vivid
inner realisation and experience. His ancestry, the
special bent of his genius, his habits of life, his tempera-
ment, and his studies have fitted him to be a spiriti&al
leader while being a poet and a practical patriot. It
is this combination of great gifts that more than any-
thing else that has endeared him to India and won for
him the reverence and love of the whole world.
Tagore's loftiest religious message is contained in his
Sadhana and his Gitanjali. I am dealing with these
.great works at length in later chapters. It is said that
his sermons called Shantinikelan contain some of his
loftiest and greatest religious thoughts. To express
Tagore's religious message adequately, one must have
something of the " vision and faculty divine," which he
possesses in such an ample measure. What I seek to
do here is merely to make a few remarks by way of
suggestions and hints, as I do not feel worthy to do
more. This vvork will have to be taken up for fuller
exposition by some one far fitter than myself or by
me when I become fitter to do it.
Tagore's great spiritual^gospel is the gospel that India
has been giving to the world during the immemorial
ages: — the gospel of spiritual unity and divine
I immanence.
" The same stream of life, that runs through my
142
INTRODUCTORY
veins night and day, runs through the world and
dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the
dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and
flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-
cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and inflow."
{Gitatijali, pages G4 and 65.)
He cries out exultingly: —
"In this play-house of infinite forms I have had my
play and here have I caught sight of him that is
formless." {Gitanjali, page 8^.)
Tagore teaches again and again in a convincing
■manner the immortality of the soul and its ascent
through many births to the lotus feet of God.
" Thou hast made me endless, such is thy plea-
sure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and
again, and fillest it ever with fresh life."
{Gitanjaliy page 1).
" The time that my journey takes is long and the
way of it long.
I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of
light, and pursued my voyage through the wild-
ernesses of worlds, leaving my track on many a
star and planet.
It is the most distant course that comes nearest to
thyself, and that training is the most intricate
which leads to the utter simplicity, of a tune."
143
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
{Giianjah\ page 10).
" Day by day thou art making me worthy of thy
full acceptance by refusing me ever and anon,
saving me from perils of weak, uncertain desire."
(Do. page 12).
Tagore's poems on death reveal the above ideal
vividly. Death is merely the preparation for a higher
and fuller life, if this life has been lived in love of
man and God and has been full of high purpose and
achievement.
" It is thou who drawest the veil of night upon the
tired eyes of the day to renew its sight in a
fresher gladness of awakening.
{Gitanjali, page 20),
" And because I love this life, I know that I shall
love death as well. The child cries out when
from the right breast the mother takes it away,^
in the very next moment to find in the left one
its consolation."
Gitanjali, page 87).
Tagore teaches that the real treasure of the soul is
God and that the highest joy of life is the attainment of
divine union. The soul is the bride that awaits the
consummation of her existence by meeting and loving,
the Eternal Bridegroom.
" She who ever had remained in the depth of my
being, in the twilight of gleams and of glimpses ;.
she who never opened her veils in the morning.
144
INTRODUCTORY
light, will be my last gift to thee, my God
folded in my final song
There was none in the world who ever saw her
face to face, and she remained in her loneliness
waiting for thy recognition."
{Gilanjali, pages 61, and 62).
" The flowers have been woven and the garland is
ready for the bridegroom. After the wedding
the bride shall leave her home and meet her
lord alone in the solitude of night."
(Gitanjali^ page 84).
Tagore teaches that the raptures of divine union caa
be attained only by love, renunciation, and utmost
simplicity and self-surrender.
" My song has put off her adornment. She has-
no pride of dress and decoration. Ornaments
would mar our union ; they would come between
thee and me ; their jingling would drown thy
whispers.
" My poet's vanity dies in shame before thy
sight. O master poet, I have sat down at thy
teet. Only let me make my hfe simple and
straight, like a flute of reed for thee to fill with,
music."
{Gitanjali^ page 6).
The highest teaching of Hindu thought is that it is-
by this Alma Nivedana (surrender of our self to Him
and substituting His will in the place of our will on the
145
10
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
throne of our heart) that the highest heaven of self-
reaHsation is attained.
Tagore teaches also that we have to rise to the heaven
of His love by loving and serving His creatures ; that
he who seeks realisation by abandoning the path of
unselfish work and limitless love is like one that longs
to fly in the air without wings ; and that what we
should aim at is not freedom /ro;;z action but freedom
in action. There are some critics in India who in their
excess of irrational love for everything foreign, have
gone the length of saying that Tagore is a mystic who
preaches the philosophy of quiescence. Tagore
says :
"O giver of thyself ! at the vision of thee as joy
let our souls flame up to thee as the fire, flow on
to thee as the river, permeate thy being as the
fragrance of the flower. Give us strength to love,
to love fully, our life in its joys and sorrows, in
its gains and losses, in its rise and fall. Let us
have strength enough fully to see and hear thy
universe, and to work with full vigour therein."
{Sadhana, pages 133, and 134).
Much more could be said about Tagore's great spirit-
ual teachings. But for reasons already given I content
myself now with the above exposition, hoping that I
have said enough to show how Tagore has thrown the
light of his pure soul on the ultimate problems of life
and the destiny of the human soul.
146
INTRODUCTORY
XIV. Tagore's Conception of Womanhood.
A great poet's conception of womanhood is always a
treal and sure test ot his art. If art is the revelation of
ibeauty and love, it must find the heaven of a woman's
heart to be its fittest shrine. There is sure to be some-
thing shallow and unworthy about the art which has
glitter and even power, but which takes a low view of
womanhood. Woman is the guardian of the emotional
and spiritual elements of the race ; she has the divine
^ifts of sympathy and intuition , and her heart soars on
ihe wings of sympathy and intuition over seemingly
insurmountable barriers separating man from man and
man from God. Women have not often been great spiri-
tual thinkers or leaders, but they have often lived lives
of perfect peace, love, and intuitive devotion to God.
Man owes to them the heaven of love, the sweet joys of
home, and the graces and charities and refinements of
life. It is said that women alone can describe women
adequately, and that a man's conception of womanhood
must ever be inadequate. But woman, in herself, is not
more important than woman in relation to man. The
flower that blossoms on the tree " enjoys the air it
breathes," and if its tongue were unloosened, can tell
us its life in words full of truth and beauty. But only
■the human soul can describe what the flower means to
it. As Tagore says: "In the sphere of nature the
€ower carries with it a certificate which recommends
iit as having immense capacity for doing useful work,
147
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORL
but it brings an altogether different lettei^ of introduc-
tion when it knocks at the door of our hearts.'^' Beauty-
becomes its own qualification. At one place it comes-
as a slave, and at another as a free thing."
{Sadhana^ page 101).
I have said that the greatest poets have interpreted-
the true graces of v^^omanhood with reverence and love
and in a spirit of gratitude to God for having given a
glimpse of His heaven in the heart of a woman. Shakes-
peare's gallery of portraits of women is famous for its-
tenderness and its true perception of the real glories of
womanhood. In Indian literature we have a wonderful
gallery of portraits of women in the great epics and in
Kalidasa. In regard to Kalidasa, Mr. A. W. Ryder has-
well said : " Kalidasa's women appeal more to the
moderns than his men The man is the more
variable phenomenon But the true woman is-
timeless, universal. I know of no poet, unless it be
Shakespeare, who has given the world a group of
heroines so individual yet universal, heroines as true,
as tender, as brave as are Indumati, Sita, Parvati, the
Yaksha's bride, and Sakuntala."
Hindu thinkers, who are supposed to be thorough-
going misogynists, have really taken a high and noble
view of womanhood. They attack the sex-love that keeps
man in the petty circuit of mere animal passion. The
passages so often culled by our revilers and exhibited;
with a smack of the hps to show that the Hindu
148
INTRODUCTORY
Ihas been a hater of woman, are of no force or real value
when taken out of their context. Indeed the flourishing
of isolated texts and passages taken out of context is
the favourite weapon of national enemies within and
abroad. Mr. Philip Gibbs says in his Fads and Ideas :
*' It (the worship of the female force) teaches them (the
Hindus) a reverence for womanhood, and, above all,
motherhood." The Hindu religion has taught that man
and woman form but one being and that both together
must engage in religious acts for the propitiation of
ancestors and for the worship of God, though it has not
shrunk from soaring above sex-love into the heaven of
God-love and proclaiming that in the attamment of the
final beatitude the human soul disciplined by dharma (per-
formance of duty), Upasana (devotion), Yoga (contempla-
tion), and Gnatia (wisdom) — must seek self-realisation and
attainment of the Supreme as a bride seeking the Eternal
Bridegroom — ' the Alone in search of the Alone ' as has
been beautifully said by a great mystical thinker.
Tagore's conception of womanhood is of wonderful
beauty. It is essentially Indian but over it he has shed
tlhe magical light of hi? mind, I have dealt at length
with his love-poetry in a later chapter. He shows love
in all its aspects — in its radiant dawn full of sweet
surprise, its rapture in selfless service, its strength to
save from sin, and its uplifting and purifying power.
Tagore shows how man finds the first sweet sugges-
tion of the divine on the brow of a woman and how she
ds to him a godward-leading angel.
149
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
" Is it then true that the mystery of the Infinite is-
written on this little forehead of mine ?"
(The Gardener^ page 62).
He teaches also that love is no accident, but is the-
fruition of ante-natal affinity and passion.
*' Is it true, Is it true, that your love has travelled
alone through ages i and worlds in search ot me?
That when you found me at last, your age-long:
desire found utter peace in my gentle speech
and my eyes and lips and flowing hair ?"
(The Gardener, page 61-62).
Lifejgets a new and diviner radiance from love and;
its meaning becomes clearer to our minds.
" Does the earth, like a harp, shiver into songs»
with the touch of my feet ?
Is it then true that the dew-drops fall from the-
eyes of night when I am seen, and the morning-
light is glad when it wraps my body round ?
Tagore shows also how a portion of the radiance
that surrounds a woman in the eyes of a man is the
light of his ov/n soul, and how the sex-division is a
divine dispensation for better realising the heaven ofc
love.
/"" O woman, you are not merely the handiwork ofe
God, but also of men ; these are ever endowing,
you with beauty from their hearts . . . . ^
The desire of men's hearts has shed its glory over
your youth.
150
I.
I
INTRODUCTORY
You are one half woman and one half dream."
(The Gardener, page 100).
As Mr. Chunilal Mukerji well says : " Woman has a
future of limitless possibilities and as the ideal of beauty
is speeding on in quest of an unattainable goal. Rabin-
dranath's ideal of womanhood shall ever like the blue
beautiful girdle of horizon lure us on into the endless
region where finitude is shut up and lost in an over-
whelming infinity."
Tagore is not content with merely suggesting the
mystery of woman's beauty and the mystery of love.
He shows in what manner love fulfils itself in her heart
and uplifts her and man through her into a higher state
of being. Tagore shows that love is not passion, but
the very soul of goodness. He gives his own dearest
ideal in thus describing Kalidasa's ideal of womanhood.
*' This ancient poet of India refuses to acknowledge
passion as the supreme glory of love, he pro-
claims goodness as the goal of love."
{Kalidasa, the Moralist).
" He (Kalidasa) shows Cupid vanquished and
burnt to ashes, and in Cupid's place he makes
triumphant a power that has no decoration, no
helper— a power thin with austerities, darkened
by sorrow." ( Do. )
Tagore shows how India has effected a holy har-
mony and reconciliation between a life in the world
and a life in search of God.
151
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
*' The two peculiar principles of India are the
beneficent tie of home life on the one hand and
the liberty of the soul abstracted from the world
on the other... ..Kalidasa has shown both in
Saknntala and Kumara Sambhava that there is a
harmony between these two principles, an easy
transition from the one to the other . . . . •
he has rescued the relation of the sexes from
the sway of lust and enthroned it on the holy
and pure seat of asceticism. In the sacred
books of the Hindus, the ordered relation of
the sexes has been defined by strict injunctions
and laws. Kalidasa has demonstrated that rela-
tion by means of the elements of beauty. The
Beauty that he adores is lit up by grace, modesty,
and goodness ; in its intensity it is true to me for
ever; in its range, it embraces the entire universe.
It is fulfilled by renunciation, gratified by sorrow,
and rendered eternal by religion. In the rriidst
of this beauty, the impetuous unruly love of man
and woman has restrained itself and attained to
a prefound peace, like a wild torrent merged in
the ocean of goodness. Therefore is such love
higher and more wonderful than wild and un-
restrained passion."
(Sakuntala . Its Inner Meaning).
Mr. Mukerji points out that Tagore's poem Manashi
(the mind-born) shows how the light of man's soul has
152
INTRODUCTORY
-contributed to the transfiguration of womanhood ; that
the poem on Vijayini (the victress) shows how the sweet
beauty of woman is more potent than all the flowery
darts of love ; that the poem on Priya (the wife) shows
how the light shed from the woman's heart on man's
soul saves it from darkness and degradation ; and that
the poem on Patita (the fallen woman) is full of
an infinite tenderness, and shows how when fallen
she is like an angel fallen, full of recollections of
heaven, and how by an inner effort she regains the
receding heaven.
Tagore teaches that love is really a spiritual attrac-
tion and that a man can never know it by merely seek-
ing the enjoyment of physical beauty.
" I hold her hands and press her to my breast.
I try to fill my arms with her loveUness, to plunder
her sweet smile with kisses, to drink her dark
glances with my eyes.
Ah, but, where is it ? Who can strain the blue
from the sky ?
I try to grasp the beauty ; it eludes me, leaving
only the body in my hands.
Baffled and weary I come back.
How can the body touch the flower which only the
spirit may touch ?
{The Gardener^ page 86).
Tagore shows that true love can never be in anta-
-gonism to true manhood and its duties in life.
153
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
" Free me from the bonds of your sweetness, my
love 1 No more of this wine of kisses.
This mist of heavy incense stifles my heart.
Open the doors, make room for the morning light.
I am lost in you, wrapped in the folds of your
caresses.
Free me from your spells, and give me back the
manhood to offer you my freed heart.
{The Gardener, page 85).
Tagore's plays and stories depict his ideals of woman-
hood in a wonderful manner. In Chitra he shows how
the radiance of the body is a fleeting thing, how the
light of the soul is eternal, and how the true beauty of
womanhood is the light of the woman's soul — " the
Goddess hidden within a golden image." Arjuna
cries out to Chitra :
" Illusion is the first appearance of truth. She
advances towards her lover in disguise. But a
time comes when she throws off her ornaments
and veils and stands clothed in naked dignity.
I grope for that ultimate you, that bare simplicity
of truth."
In the King of the Dark Chamber Queen Sudarshana
learns how she can look on the face of her Lover
and Lord only when she reaches the peaks of
humility, self-surrender, and measureless love and
devotion. In his stories Tagore brings love into rela-
tion with every-day life as apart from the realm o£
154
INTRODUCTORY
romance, and shows how it illumines life and makes it
pure and divine by self-sacrifice. The manner in
which woman — as girl, as sister, as bride, as wife, as
mother — makes a heaven of this earth of ours is most
beautifully described in Tagore's stories.
In this manner Tagore leads us from life to love and
from love to Love Infinite and Divine and leaves us
face to face with the Divine Beauty and Love.
"For love is the ultimate meaning of everything
around us. It is not a mere sentiment ; it is
truth; it is joy that is at the root of all creation."
(Tagore's Sadhana, page 107.)
XV. Tagore's Social Gospel.
Though Tagore being busy with higher and holier
things has not sailed often in the turbid waters of social,
progress, it is easy to see that such a patriot and true
lover of Indian humanity must have a great social
gospel. His message is one of unity and love. This is
the message that India has been teaching all along,
though some critics have been proclaiming that even the
true caste system is opposed to unity. Tagore's message
of love for India and work for her uplift deprecates all
internal dissensions and has in it no element of dislike
or hatred for any other race or country.
Tagore dislikes and dreads the modern theorists
who dig into origins and talk learnedly about non-
Aryans and Aryans and seek, while lost in wandering,
mazes of theories, to stir fresh forms of hatred and
155
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
disunion in the land. He shows that both Aryan and
non-Aryan elements are indistinguishable in the modern
Hindu race, and that to seek to separate them is as
futile as to seek to separate the waters of the Ganges and
the Jumna below Prayag. He says :
" Let none, however, imagine that the non-Aryans
have contributed nothing of value to Indian hfe.
The ancient Dravidians were, indeed, not defi-
cient in civilisation. Contact with them made
Hindu civilisation varied in aspect and deeper
in spirit. The Dravidian was no theologian, but
an expert in imagination, music, and construc-
tion. He excelled in the fine arts. The pure
spiritual knowledge of the Aryans, mingling with
the Dravidians ' emotional nature and power of
aesthetic creation, formed a marvellous com-
pound, which is neither entirely Aryan nor
entirely non-Aryan, but Hindu. The eternal
■ quest for the harmonising of these two opposite
elements has given to India a wondrous power.
She has learnt to perceive the eternal amidst the
temporal, to behold the great whole amidst all
the petty things of daily life. And wherever in
in India these two opposite elements are not
fully reconciled, there is no end to our ignorance
and superstition...wherever the opposite genuises
of the Aryan and the Dravidian have been har-
monised, beauty has leaped into life ; wherever
156
INTRODUCTORY
such union has failed, the moral ugliness is
repulsive."
Tagore's "My Interpretation of Indian History."
Tagore shows how while we must assimilate fruitful
ideas from other races we should never lose our in-
dividuality.
" We feel that India is eager to get back to her
Truth, her One, her Harmony, The stream of her
life had been dammed up ages ago ; its waters
had become stagnant ; but to-day the dam has
been breached somewhere ; we feel that our still
waters have again become connected with the
mighty ocean ; the tides of the free wide uni-
verse have begun to make themselves felt in our
midst At one impulse cosmopolitanism is
leading us out of home ; at the next, the sense of
nationality is bringing us back to our own commu-
nity,..Thus placed between two contending forces,
we shall mark out the middle path in our national
life ; we shall realise that only through the deve-
lopment of racial individuality can we truly attain
to universality, and only in the light of the spirit
of universality can we perfect individuality ; we
shall know of a verity that it is idle mendicancy
to discard our own and beg for the foreign, and
at the same time we shall feel that it is the extreme
abjectness of poverty to dwarf ourselves by reject-
ing the foreign."
157
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Tagore is never weary of repeating that India should
never fail to cling to the higher things of the spirit.
He says :
"The strength of a race is limited. It we nourish
the ignoble, we are bound to starve the noble."
If only our noisy social agitators remember these
wise words, how much unhappiness and wrong effort
would be saved !
Tagore has shown by precept and example that our
main work now is educational and industrial,^ and he
has no patience with the noisy few who believe that
the social millennium will be inaugurated by resolutions.,
at conferences. He says of these people : " All went
on well as long as its promoters sat in committee, but as
soon as they came down to the field of actual work it
became all confusion." If we bear Tagore's social mes-
sage in our heart and strive for unity in spirit and
endeavour and work with all our might for the spread
of enlightenment and prosperity in our land while
clinging passionately to our immemorial spiritual ideals,
then shall we be true children of Bharata Mata and win
the reverence and love of the whole world.
XVI. Tagore's Message : Conclusion.
Tagore has thus touched life at many points and is a
world-force while being Indian to the inmost core of
his being"." I have tried in the above pages to give a
brief review of his teachings and the great traits of his
art and shall try in the ensuing pages to deal at some
158
INTRODUCTORY
length with his best-known works. In this interpreta-
tion of Ta gore's mind and art the hmits of space as well
as the limitations of the interpreter are responsible
for whatever deficiencies may be found. Tagore's
genius is so many-sided and his achievement so cons-
picuous and multiform that a life-long study by many
loving scholars who will form a Tagore society is
necessary before results of lasting value and beauty can
be presented to the public.
I desire in this concluding portion of the introductory
chapter to lay stress once again on Tagore's great mes-
sage to the Indian mind to be itself and to be proud of
being itself, while assimilating all the highest elements
oTWestern culture. The worst foes of India have been
those who have imperfectly assimilated Western culture.
As Dr. A. K. Coomaraswami says : " The work of
Rabindranath is essentially Indian in sentiment and
form. It is at the same time modern. The literary revival
in Bengal, like the similar movement in Ireland, is
national, and therefore creative ; it is a reaction from
the barren eclecticism of the Universities. This reaction
is voiced, not by those who ignore or despise, but by
those who have most fully understood and assimilated
foreign influences. For it is not deep acquaintance
with European culture that denationahses men
in Asia, but an imperfect and servile apprehension
of it. Those who understand the culture of others
find in it a stimulus not to imitation but to creation.
159
SIK KABINDKANATH TAGORE
Those who do not understand become intellectuail
parasites."
Tagore's influence is bound to be permanent not only
over man in general, but over poets. He is indeed a
poet's poet. He dwells habitually in the heaven of
beauty and love, and his words have a wonderful grace
and charm. Each word has a paradise of beautifully
associated meanings and suggestions, and we shall soon
see how a new school of poets springs into existence
deriving inspiration from the genius of Tagore.
I have stated above that Tagore's great and supreme
teaching addressed to Indians as individuals and social
units is the message to be ourselves — our true selves.
In regard to our artistic, religious, and social progress
we must resent all foreign interference. Tagore's
message to the Westerns as individuals and social units
is to achieve a larger measure of repose, love, and
spirituality. He says :
"Man can destroy and plunder, earn and accumu-
late, invent and discover, but he is great because
his soul comprehends all. It is dire destruction,
for him when he envelops his soul in a dead
shell of callous habits, and when a blind fury of
works whirls round him like an eddying dust
storm, shutting out the horizon. That indeed
kills the very spirit of his being, which is the
spirit of comprehension. Essentially man is not
a slave either of himself or of the word, but he
160
INTRODUCTORY
is a lover. His freedom and fulfilment is in love,
which is another name for perfect comprehen-
sion."
(Tagor's Sadhana, page 15).
Tagore's greatest message is to the human
soul apart from all its accidents of caste or
creed or colour or country. He preaches the
fulfilment of the soul in love, in renunciation,
in self-sacrifice ; and he enforces this great
lesson not only in his religious lectures, but in
his poems, his stories, his dramas, nay, in his own life.
He says:
" Man's abiding happiness is not in getting anything
but in giving himself to idens which are larger
than his individual life — the idea of his country
— of humanity — of God."
(Tagore's Sadhana, page 152).
He finally leads the soul to the loftiest and sweetest
beatitudes of union with the infinite.
" In the region of nature which is the region of
diversity, we grow by acquisition ; in the spiritual
world, which is the region of unity, we grow by
losing ourselves, by uniting. Gaining a thing, as
we have said, is by its nature partial, it is limited
only to a particular want ; but being is complete,,
it belongs to our wholeness, it springs not from
any necessity but from our affinity with the in-
161
11
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGOKK
finite, which is the principle of perfection that we
have in our soul."
{Tagore's Sadhana page 155).
Even at the risk of repetition, I wish to lay stress
again on Tagore's practical patriotism and his
practical message to India. He yearns, as Swami
Vivekananda yearned, to achieve Man-making. He
has given the most precious of all gifts — himself — to
his work, and the school at Shantiniketan is the holy
spot from which the higher India of the future is
destined to rise. Mr. Rhys says truly in his work on
Tagore : " But now it was the soul of the world that
was to be made ; and to bring about such a renaissance,
there was needed, in his conception, a more humane
order, a finer science of life, and a spiritual republic
behind our world-politics. We may venture to enlarge
his hope as we think it over, and to connect it with that
other — the binding in one commonwealth of the United
States of the world. The union of nations, the destroy-
ing of caste, religious pride, race-hatred, and race-
prejudice — in a word, the ' making of Man ;' there lies
his human aim. ' It is ' he says, ' the one problem of
the present age, and we must be prepared to go through
the martyrdom of sufferings and humiliations till the
victory of God in man is achieved.' "
Tagore is indeed " the healer, the discerner and the
lyric poet " of our time. Though he is a great up-
lifting and spiritual force working for the whole world,
162
INTRODUCTORY
we take pride in the fact that he is ours, belongs to us.
in every way. His universal popularity in India has a
deep spiritual significance. Mr. C. F. Andrews says :
*' Three years ago I was staying at a village in the
heart of the Himalayas, as far from the poet's home as
London is from Constantinople. Some Indian music
was being sung in the village at the end of the day
and a little lad of twelve began to sing a poem of
Rabindra's whose theme was the mother-land. The
dialect of the song was difficult for the Hillsmen to
follow, but the drift of the words and the subdued
passion of the young singer were wholly intelhgible.
The audience swayed backwards and forwards, as if
moved by an enchanter's spell. Such is the power
of the poet's music and verse in India." This deep and
universal love for Tagore can be said to be real only if
iruitful, if we love our Holy land with something of his
love and work for her glory. Dr. A. K. Coomaraswami
observes : " Those love the poets who do their will
and whom their singing moves." Tagore has been, is,
and will ever be inexpressibly dear to us because
in his sweet accents it is our own Bharata Mata
that speaks to us, her beloved children ; he has
revealed to us the wondrous glory of the real
treasures of our race ; he has restored to us our
lost manhood and our true divinity ; and because
•of his immortal works, his self-sacrificing devotion
.to our beloved and holy land, and the shining example
163
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
of his life, a new day of glory — glory of dream and!
glory of achievement — is dawning over India, andl
we feel with an inexpressible vividness, passionateness^
and rapture that
" We arc ancients of the earth,
And in the morning of the times."
164
CHAPTER II.
GITANJALI.
This was the book that brought Tagore's genius and
art prominently before the gaze of the world. It has
-varied and peculiar excellences, and even though it is
couched in prose and hence loses all the melody and
poetic grace of the original, it charms and enraptures
and elevates the mind by the marvellous music of its
thoughts and by the grace and beauty of the English
prose which a learned critic has called " this flower
■of English prose." The same critic has said that " the
great mystics of the world have been the children of
the sun and the warm winds ot the South." It is this
note of high and synthetic mysticism that constitutes
the unique and wonderful charm of the Gitanjali. I have
■dealt in the Introductory Chapter with the significance
and value of mysticism and the mystical outlook on life,
and with Tagore's greatness as a poet of mysticism. A
•critical study of Gitanjali brings home to us in an inti-
mate and unique way the beauty and power of the
mystical interpretation of life and Tagore's pecuUar
■endowment of mind and heart which enables him to
see the divine presence in things which are dull and
meaningless in our eyes owing to our want of vision,
our being too much with them, our insufficient sense
•of beauty and our deficiency of love.
165
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
A recent critic has said that '* the poet is still the-
greatest of all national voices," that "Poetry needs both
philosophy and fact, but it can easily have too much of
either," and that " it is the businesss of poetry to give
a new life to life itself." These are wise words that
show very well the peculiar greatness of Tagore as a.
poet. The highest and loftiest aspirations of the Indian
mind have been voiced by Tagore in a manner un-
approached by any others in modern India. By his unerr-
ing artistic vigilance he has avoided the Scylla and the
Charybdis of philosophising and realism. His poetry
is too securely founded on life and the universal
emotions of the human heart to become a rainbow-
tinted unsubstantial palace of mystical dreams that
begin nowhere and end nowhere and are in spite of
their beauty unrelated to life. It is at the same time
inspired and aglow with love and mystical passion and
hence does not fall into the error of transcribing with
painful and uninforming and depressing accuracy the
hard facts and uglinesses of life. It lifts the veil of
commonplaceness from life and shows us the divine
foundations of life and thus gives " a new life to life
itself."
In his recent admirable book on Tagore, Mr. Ernest
Rhys points out wherein lay the unique fascination of
the Gitanjali for the Western mind. He says : " They
(the song-offerings) took up our half-formed wishes and
gave them a voice ; they rose inevitably from the life, the
166
GITANJAI.I
imagination, and the desires of him who wrote. They
were the vehicle of a great emotion that surprised its
imagery not only in the light that was like music, the
rhythm that was in the waves of sound itself and the
light-waves of the sun ; but in the rain, the wet road,
the lonely house, the great wall that shuts in the crea-
ture-self, the shroud of dust, the night black as black-
stone. It was an emotion so sure of itself that it made
no effort after novelty or originality, but took the things
tjiat occur to us all, and dwelt upon them, and made
them alive, and musical and significant. Their effect
on those who read them was curious ; one famous critic
expressed this effect half humorously when he said :
' I have met several people, not easily impressed, who
could not read that book without tears. As for me, I
read a few pages and then put it down, feeling it to be
too good for me. The rest of it I mean to read in the
next world.' "
The peculiar glory of Gitanjali is that in it the vision
of God and hunger for the infinite are in touch with
human life, do not scorn the passions and affections of
the heart, and are full of a heavenly tenderness for the
limitations of life. It is thoroughly universal yet
intensely individual. It shows by an intensity of reali-
sation what thin bounds divide life and nature, the
world of sense and the realm of supernal light, the
individual soul and God. The Gardener shows the
human soul lit with the morning radiance of human
167
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
love and rejoicing in its new-boni sensations of keen
delight in beauty of form and beauty of soul. In
Gitanjali we have the calm starlight of the deep mid-
night sky through which moves in full-orbed maiden
radiance the full moon of the Love of God — that blessed
love in which all the fragmentary radiances of human
love, love of art, and love of nature have been gathered
up into a full and divine radiance that includes and
transcends them in sweetness and in light.
I shall point out here the scheme oi. Gitanjali and
show how throughout these " song offerings " — separate
and disconnected as they might appear at first sight —
there runs a lofty purpose based on a true vision of the
scheme of things.
Mr. Yeats' introduction to Gitanjali is as full of beauty
as of insight and shows how one truly poetic mind can
enter into the heaven of another and greater poetic mind
with more fitness and better appreciation than ordinary
minds. The Bengali Doctor of Medicine referred to
in that noble Introduction says : " All the aspirations
of mankind are in his hymns. He is the first among
our saints who has not refused to live, but has spoken
of Life itself, and that is why we give him our love."
Mr. Yeats says : "These lyrics display in their
thought a world I have dreamed of all life long. The
work of a supreme culture, they yet appear as much the
growth of the common soil as the grass and the rushes.
A tradition, where poetry and religion are the same
168
GITANJALI
thing, has passed through the centuries, gathering from
learned and unlearned metaphor and emotion, and
carried back again to the multitude the thought of the
scholar and of the noble " This is a true
idea admirably expressed. In India Poetry has not
folded the singing robes about her in scorn of every-day
life and does not stand like
" An angel newly drest who wings for heaven." The
loftiest and grandest of our poems — the Ramayana, the
Mahabharata, and the Bhagawatba — are in intimate
touch with us, form and mould our lives, and are a
perpetual source of inspiration. Again, Mr. Yeats says :
" These verses will not lie in little well-printed books
upon ladies' tables, who turn the pages with indolent
hands that they may sigh over a life without meaning,
or be carried about by students at the University to be
laid aside when the work of life begins, but as the
generations pass, travellers will hum on the high-
way and men rowing upon rivers. Lovers, while they
await one another, shall find, in murmuring them,
this love of God a magic gulf wherein their own more
bitter passion may bathe and renew its youth. At
every moment the heart of this poet flows outward to
these without derogation or condescension, for it has
known what they will understand ;and it has filled itself
with the circumstance of their lives. The traveller in
the red brown clothes which he wears that dust may
not show upon him, the girl searching in her bed for the
169
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
petals fallen from the wreath of her royal lover, the
servant or the bride auraitingthe master's home-coming
in the empty houses, are images of the heart turning to
God. Flowers and rivers, the blowing of conch shells,
the heavy rain of the Indian July, or the parching heat^.
are images of the moods of that heart in union or in
separation ; and a man sitting in a boat upon a river
playing upon a lute, like one of those figures full of mys-
terious meaning in a Chinese picture, is God Himself.
A whole people, a whole civilisation, immeasurably
strange to us, seems to have been taken up into this
imagination ; and yet we are not moved because of its
strangeness, but because we have met our own image,
as though we had walked in Rossetti's willowwood,
or heard, perhaps for the first time in literature, our
voice as in a dream." Herein again we realise how
intuitively and wonderfully Mr. Yeats has entered into
the very soul of Indian art and Hterature. It is Tagore's
great -privilege to disclose the beauty and heavenly
significance lurking in the ordinary phenomena of outer
and human nature, and symbol after symbol becomes
transfigured in the radiance of the light of his soul. He
is in touch with the whole of life and yet he transfigures
it with the radiance of a higher and truer and diviner
life. The Gitanjali affords better evidence of this trait
than almost all his other works, Mr. Yeats points out
how alien this spirit is to the general spirit of western
literature. Indeed this feature explains Tagore's
170
GITANJALI
instantaneous yet lasting appeal to the West. Mr. Yeats^
says : " This is no longer the sanctity of the cell and of
the scourge ; being but a lifting up, as it were, into a
greater intensity of the mood of the painter, painting
the dust and the sunlight, and we go for a like voice to
St Francis and to WiUiam Blake who have seemed so •
alien in our violent history " la the West worship of
beauty and worship of holiness never joined hands. It
was reserved for India to join both in a higher worship
— that of Love of God, — to show the unity and beauty
and divinity of life, to combine the joy of duty and the
duty of joy, to lift our hearts and souls to that realm of
inner paradise where light and law and love are one.
Again, Mr. Yeats says : '' We write long books where
no page perhaps has any quality to make writing a
pleasure, being confident in some general design, just
as we fight and make money and fill our heads with
politics— all dull things in the doing— while Mr. Tagore,
like the Indian civilisation itself, has been content to
discover the soul and surrender himself to its spon-
taneity An innocence, a simplicity that one does
not find elsewhere in literature makes the birds and the
leaves seem as near to him as they are near to children,
and the changes of the seasons great events as before
our thoughts had arisen between them and us." In this
beautiful, passage the poet-critic brings home to us \
what perhaps is the most remarkable and loveable
feature in Tagores genins. Tagore brings near to us •
171
SIR RABINDRAN\TH TAGORE
what we h^ve put far from us in our eager desire for
possession, our many loves and hates, our unperceiving
blindness of vision, our growing callousness and pre-
occupation with worldly things. The rearrangement of
our inner perspective is a task more urgent and diffi-
cult now than before, because our narrowness and
pettiness and selfishness are now more than ever before.
Tagore embraces everything in his large and universal
love, reveals to us the divine ties among things, shows
the beauty and love of God shining forth everywhere,
enlarges our limited and narrow selves, and brings the
gift of peace and love and joy into our joyless, selfish,
worldly hearts.
In various places in the Gitanjali Tagore allows us to
have a glimpse into his ideal of poesy and his concep-
tion of a poet's function in life and his own peculiar
mission and place in the universe. I have dealt more
fully with these matters in my Introductory Chapter, and
shall hence confine my observations on them here to
the extent to which they bear on Gitanjali. He con-
ceives of poesy as the bride of Love and values his art
as a means of spiritual union with God. Though
he is full of humility, he recognises at the same
time how his art becomes beautiful and vital
when in touch with God. He recognises how
through his poetic intuition he has. been enabled to
see the beating of the very heart of the world.
The fifteenth and sixteenth poems in the Gitanjali
172
GITANJALI
show how he realises his mission in a spirit of
combined humility and dignity :
*' I am here to sing thee songs. In this hall of
thine I have a corner seat. In thy world I have
no work to do ; my useless life can only break
out in tunes without a purpose.
When the hour strikes for thy silent worship at
the dark temple of midnight, command me, my
master, to stand before thee to sing.
When in the morning air the golden harp is tuned,
honour me, commanding my presence."
(Page 13).
"I have had my invitation to this world's festival
and thus my life has been blessed. My eyes
have seen and my ears have heard.
It was my part at this feast to play upon my in-
strument, and I have done all I could.
Now, I ask, has the time come at last when I may
go in and see thy face and offer thee my silent
salutation ?"
(Pages 13 & 14).
He knows that the fruition of all poesy is the love of
God. He says : " From dawn till dusk I sit here before
my door, and I know that of a sudden the happy
moment will arrive when I shall see. In the meanwhile,
I smile and I sing all alone. In the meanwhie the air
is filling with the perfume of promise." (Page 86).
He says again.:
173
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
■" It was my songs that taught me all the lessons I
ever learnt ; they showed me secret paths, they
brought before my sight many a star on the hori-
zon of my heart.
They guided me all the day long to the mysteries
of the country of pleasure and pain, and at last,
to what palace gate have they brought me in the
evening at the end of my journey ?"
(Page 92).
He says again : " I put my tales of you into lasting
•songs. The secret gushes out from my heart."
Page 93).
Like a true poet he does not shut the gateway of
the senses, but allows the heavenly radiance of the
spirit to come in a flood through the senses. He says :
" Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the
embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight...
No. I will never shut the doors of my senses. The
delights of sight and hearing and touch will bear thy
delight. Yes, all my illusions will burn into illumina-
tions of joy, and all my desires ripen into fruits of love."
(Page 68).
Tagore feels and says that poesy must be full of true
and deep humility, and must not be enamoured
•of her robe of gold and her jewels and gems, because
these will prevent her enjoying the final glory of her
existence — communion with God. He says in the
seventh poem in the Gitanjali : —
174
GITANJAL!
*' My song has put off her adornments. She has no
pride of dress and decoration. Ornaments would
mar our union ; they would come between thee
and me; their jinglings would drown thy whispers.
My poet's vanity dies in shame before thy sight.
O master poet, I have sat down at thy feet. Only
let me make my life simple and straight, like a
flute of reed for thee to fill with music."
(Page 6).
It is in this spirit of divine humility and self -surrender
that he says : " I know thou takest pleasure in my sing-
ing. I know that only as a singer I come before thy
presence. I touch by the edge of the far-spreading wing
of my song thy feet which I could never aspire to reach.
Drunk with the joy of singing, I forget myself and call
thee friend who art my lord."
(Page 2).
He recognises how even the best poet is unable and
unworthy to convey to the world God's harmonies.
He says : " My heart longs to join in thy song, but
vainly struggles for a voice. I would speak, but speech
breaks not into song, and I cry out baffled." Tagore
points out how, when the poet-soul is surrendered to
God in an ectasy of measureless love, God's melodies
themselves sing through the soul.
*' All that is harsh and dissonant in me melts into
one sweet harmony , and my adoration spreads
wings Hke a^glad bird on its flight across the sea."
17.5
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
(Page 2).
" My poet, is it thy delight to see thy creatioa
through my eyes, and to stand at the portals of
my ears silently to listen to thine own eternal
harmony ?
" Thy world is weaving words in my mind, and thy
joy is adding music to them. Thou givest thy-
self to me in love, and then feelest thine own
entire sweetness in me."
(Page 61).
We may well expect how one who conceives so
worthily and loftily of life will be full of lofty resolve
and will lead a dedicated life. The following poem is
full of the fragrance of fervour of the resolution.
" Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body
pure, knowing that thy living touch i'J upor> all
my hmbs.
I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my
thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which
has kindled the light of reason in my mind.
I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my
heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that
thou bast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my
heart.
And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my
actions, knowing it is thy power gives me
strength to act.
(Pages 3 & 4).
176
GITANJALI
Tagore's spiritual nature knows well that the loftiest
resolutions do not take us very far in the path of achieve-
ment and of realisation of happiness without His grace.
Hence we find in the Gilanjali beautiful lyrical gems
shining with the radiant light of prayer for His love
and grace. The following poems are worth reading
and meditating upon every day:
" Let only that little be left of me whereby I may
name thee my all.
Let only that Httle be left of my will whereby I
may feel thee on every side, and come to thee in
everything, and offer to thee my love every
moment.
Let only that little be left of me whereby I may
never hide thee.
Let only that little of my fetters be left whereby I
am bound with thy will, and thy purpose is
carried out in my life — and that is the fetter of
.thy love." (Pages 26 & 27).
" This is my prayer to thee, my Lord — strike, strike
at the root of penury in my heart.
Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and
sorrows.
Give me the strength to make my love .fruitful in
service.
Give me the strength never to disown the poor or
bend my knees before insolent might.
177
12
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Give me the strength to raise my mind high above
daily trifles.
And give me the strength to surrender my strength
to thy will vj'ith love."
(Pages 28 & 29).
*' When the heart is hard and parched up, come
upon me with a shower of mercy.
When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of
song.
When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides
shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my
lord of silence, with thy peace and rest.
When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a
corner, break open the door, my King, and come
with the ceremony of a King.
When desire blinds the mind with delusion and
dust, O thou holy one, thou wakeful, come with
thy light and thunder."
(Pages 30 & 31).
This prayerfulness of Tagore is wonderful not only
for its sincerity, passion, and purity but is further
remarkable in that it is in aUiance with a lofty and pure
and rational patriotism, and is not merely bent on seek-
ing individual welfare but seeks to lift his beloved land
into the heaven of a higher and holier life. He says :
" Where the mind is without fear and the head is
held high ;
Where knowledge is free ;
178
GITANJALI
"Where the world has not been broken up into
fragments by narrow domestic walls ;
^here words come out from the depth of truth ;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards
perfection :
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its
way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit ;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-
widening thought and action —
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my
country awake."
(Pages 27 & 28).
This poem gives us an insight into the poet's heart
'where we find an intense, pure, and lofty patriotism in
rational combination with a burning love of humanity
and a deep and rapturous love of God. It is well
known that in ancient India when India occupied a
lofty place in the scale of nations both materially and
spiritually, such a combination existed. The divorce of
these two great passions of the human heart has
brought untold unhappiness on mankind both in India
and the West. Tagore's message is to bring about the
holy combination once again for the greater happiness
of man and the greater glory of God.
The supreme function of a poet who is at the same
time a saint and a philosopher is to put us in right
relation to things, to throw light on the deep and divine
inysteries of life and de^th, to reconcile and harmonise
179
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the seeming discords of life, to show to us the unity of
Truth, Beauty, and Love, and to lead our souls in an
ecstasy of adoration to the lotus feet of God. The most
enduringly beautiful portions of the Gitanjali are those
showing to us the poet's fundamental ideas on life and
death, the need for love of God, and the means of
attaining that goal. The very first poem in the
Gitanjali shows to us the meaning and value of life in a
beautiful and convincing manner, how the soul is im-
mortal and is dowered by God with many lives to make
it gather experience, become fitter for union with Him,,
and rise from partial perception and realisation of love
and beauty in the universe to rejoicing for ever in His
Infinite Beauty and Love. It says :
" Thou hast made me endless, such is thy plea-
sure. This frail vessel thou empti'^st again
and again, and fillest it ever with fresh
life.
This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over
hills and dales, and hast breathed through it
melodies eternally new.
At the immortal touch of thy hands my little
heart loses its limits in joy and gives birth to
utterance ineffable.
Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these
very small hands of mine. Ages pass, and
still thou pourest, and still there is room to-
fill." (Page 1).
3 80
GITANJALI
It is an uplifting and delightful task to study the ideals
of life as expressed in these thrilling poems of Tagore's,
both because they show the innermost essence of his
views of life, and because they bring home to us vividly
what are the best ideals of a life well lived with a true
perception of life's origin and destiny. As this is the most
valuable portion of this most valuable book of poems,
I shall deal with it at some length and with due
-elaboration, explaining Tagore's central ideas and
teachings in my own words, and quoting from the poems
(here and there to enable the reader to realise the pur-
pose of Tagore's great teachings.
In many places in this great book of poems, Tagore
^expresses in language full of the passion of Godward
aspiration his keen desire for God-vision, and conveys
to us the message that such, desire is the crown and
glory of life. All other aims are secondary, transitory,
and worthless in comparison with this supreme aim of
life. It is this lesson that the Upanishads teach again
and again in golden sentences. It is this lesson that the
great poets and saints and prophets of mankind have
•enforced from age to age. Sri Krishna says in the Gita :
'T^^'^ ^iq"^ ^vr TF^ 5TTf^^ ^WcT: I
(Having obtained which, the soul does not deem
anything else as a sweeter or higher gain, and resting in
which the soul is not shaken even by the deepest grief
:and sorrow).
181
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORE
The Swetaswetara Upanishad says :
(Let us know and see Him who is the Lord of Lords,
who is farther than the farthest and higher than the
highest, who is the Lord of the universe, and who is the
object of all adoration).
This deep desire for God-vision as the sweetest thing.
in life and as the glory of the soul is expressed
in many places in the Gitanjali. Tagore says :
" Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows
no rest nor respite, and my work becomes an
endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil ..••• Now
it is time to sit quiet, face to face with thee, and.
to sing dedication of life in this silent and over-
flowing leisure. " (Pages 4-5)
" If thou showetli me not thy face, if thou leavest
me wholly aside, I know not how I am to pass
these long, rainy hours,"
(Page 15).
" That I want thee, only thee,— let my heart repeat
without end. All desires that distract me day
and night, are false and empty to the core."
(Page 29).
*' Day after day, O lord of my life, shall I standi
before thee face to face ? With folded hands, O'
Lord of all worlds, shall I stand before thee face
to face ?'' (Page 70).
182
GITANJALI
Tagore points out how this crown of life is to be
won after a great deal of preparation of the inner life
and after fulness of experience is acquired sweetening
the soul and purifying the heart. He says : " The
traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to
his own, and one has to wonder through all the outer
worlds to reach the inner-most shrine at the
end." (Page 10).
Many an apparent failure has to be suffered in the
course of such an infinite compass of experience. This
feeling is exquisitely expressed in the ^following,
wonderful poem :
" The song that I came to sing remains unsung to
this day.
I have spent my days in stringing and unstringing.
my instrument.
The time has not come true, the words have not
been rightly set ; only there is the agony of wish-
ing in my heart.
The blossom has not opened ; only the wind is
sighing by.
I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his
voice ; only I have heard his gentle foot-steps
from the road before my house.
The live-long day has passed in spreading his seat
upon the lioor ; but the lamp has not been lit^
and I cannot ask him into my house.
I live in the hope of meeting with him ; but this
meeting is not yet." (Page 11).
183
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Tagore shows that there is a large and luminous
element of hope in such apparent failure. He says :
" Day by day thou art making me worthy of thy full
acceptance by refusing me ever and anon, saving
me from perils of weak, uncertain desire.
(Page 12).
There is also comfort and joy in the golden assurance
that God's grace will surely come. Tagore is never
weary of showing us this great truth. He says :
" The morning will surely come, the darkness will
vanish, and thy voice pour down in golden
streams breaking through the sky". (Page 16).
Again, he says :
" If I call not thee in my prayers, if I keep not thee
in my heart, thy love for me still waits for my
love." (Page 26).
He shows how God yearns to lead the human soul to
the heaven of his love. (See the 68th and 83rd poems).
In another poem, he says :
" From dawn till dusk I sit here before my door,
and I know that of a sudden the happy moment
will arrive when I shall see. la ihe meanwliile,
I smile and 1 sing all alone. In the meanwhile
the air is filling with the perfume of promise."
(Page 36).
Again,
" Have you not heard his silent steps ' He comes,
comes, ever comes." (Page 36).
184
GITANJALI
*' In sorrow after sorrow it is his steps that press
upon my heart, and it is the golden touch of his
feet that makes my joy to shine."
(Page 37).
3n another beautiful poem, he says :
" I know not from what distant time thou art
ever coming nearer to meet me. Thy sun and
stars can never keep thee hidden from me for
aye I know not why to-day my life is all astir,
and a feeling of tremulous joy is passing through
my heart. It is as if the time were come to
wind up my work, and I feel in the air a faint
smell of thy sweet presence." (Pages 37 & 38).
Again, he says :
"Time is endless in thy hands, my lor:l. At the
end ot the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be
shut ; but I find that yet there is time.'
(Page 76).
The sweetness born in the soul owing to the grace of
God is not something that comes to us from without,
but is only an inner fragrant blossoming. The poet
says :
" I knew not then that it was so near, that it was
mine, and that this perfect sweetness had
blossomed in the depth of my own heart."
(Page 17).
This meeting of God and man in the temple • of the
3ieart has a dual movement as its cause. On the one
185
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
hand the human sonl moves towards God yearningly
and gladly. The poet says :
'^At the end of the stony path, in the country of
virgin solitude, my friend is sitting all alone.
Deceive him not. Wake, oh awaken ! . . . .
Is there no joy in the deep of your heart ? At
every footfall of yours, will not the harp of the
road break out in sweet music of pain ?".
(Pages 50 & 51)-
On the other hand, God's love yearns for us and moves
towards us. The poet asks in the next poem :
" Thus it is that thy joy in me is full. Thus it is
that thou hast come down to me, O thou Lord
of all heavens, where would be thy love if I
were not ?" (Page 51).
A welknown verse in Sanskrit says ;
(If I had not been made to reincarnate by fate,
how couldst thou be called the Lord of Mercy ?
If there were no diseases, the birth of medicinal
plants would be futile).
We must be ever prepared for His coming. And
when He comes, what shall we give Him ? The least
that we give Him is honoured and made divine by
His acceptance. The poet says :
" I was confused and stood undecided, and then
186
GITANJALI
from my wallet I slowly took out the least little
grain of corn and gave it to thee. But how great;
my surprise when at the day's end I emptied my.
bag on the • floor to find a least Uttle grain of
gold among the poor heap. I bitterly wept and
wished that I had had the heart to give thee my
all.'
The poet thus shows that the human soul must give
up every thing in a passion of ecstasy and love when.
God's love which is life's crov.'n comes to it to gladden
and glorify it for ever.
This heavenly consummation of a human life in
loving God and having the vision of divine beauty as an.
abiding presence in the temple of the heart, can be had
only through the attainment of certain negative and
positive virtues, qualities, and faculties. The first quality
required is a certain detachment from earthly desires
(Vairagya). This virtue is hard to secure as a perma-
nent inner possession.
The poet says in a beautiful poem :
" Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches
when I try to break them.
Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I feel
ashamed.
I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee, and
that thou art my best friend, but I have not the
heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my.
room.
187
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and
death ; I hate it, yet hug it in love.
My debts are large, my failures great, my shame
secret and heavy ; yet when I come to ask for
my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be
granted." (Pages 22 & 23).
It is only through the Mercy and Grace of God that
the Heeting sense of detachment from low earthly
desires for our comfort and our pleasure becomes a
permanent possession. In the Vishnu Pur ana occurs
the following gem of a prayer.
(O Lord, ordain that from my heart may never
depart my deep love for you — love as deep and as
continuous as the love that the worldly persons
feel for the objects of worldly desire).
Tagore recognises how we persistently shut out
light and love and grace by increasing our desires and
■indulging in our passions. In poem after poem in
Giianjali we see this fact brought out in golden verses,
IHe says :
" He whom I enclose with my name is weeping in
this dungeon. I am ever busy building this
wall all round ; and as this wall goes up into the
sky day by day, I lose sight of my true being
in its dark shadow." (Page 23).
188
GITANJALl
" I thought I could outdo every body in the
world in wealth and power, and I amassed in
my own treasure-house the money due to my
king. When sleep overcame me I lay upon the
bed that was for my lord, and on waking up I
found I was a prisoner in my own treasure-
house." (Page 24).
" Thus night and day I worked at the chain with
huge fires and cruel hard strokes. When at last
the work was done and the links were complete
and unbreakable, I found that it held me in its
grip."
Another negative quality required is the avoidance
of too much mingling with the world. God-lovers
have to mingle with the world-lovers to save these and
uplift them into the radiance of the love of God, but
they will find themselves dragged down if they mingle
too much with the latter. The poet says of these,
" When it was day they came into my house and
said, ' we shall only take the smallest room here.'
They said, * we shall help you in the worship of
your God and humbly accept our own share
of his grace", and then they took their seat in a
corner and they sat quiet and meek.
But in the darkness of night I find they break into
my sacred shrine, strong and turbulent, and
snatch with untidy greed the offerings from
' God's altar." (Page 26).
189
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
Again,
" Where dost thou stand behind them all, my lover,
hiding thyself in the shadows ? They push
thee and pass thee by on the dusty road, taking
thee for naught. I wait here weary hours
spreading my offerings for thee, while passers-
by come and take my flowers, one by one, and
my basket is nearly empty."
(Page 32).
Another quality to be sedulously cultivated is the
feeling that worldly honour, riches, and joys when
they come are nothing, and that the only possession
worth having is the joy of the love of God. In the
.79th poem in the Gitanjali^ the poet prays :
" As my days pass in the crowded market of this
world and my hands grow full with the daily
profit, let me ever feel that I have gained
nothing — Ipt me not forget for a moment, let
me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams
and in my wakeful hours."
(Page 73).
*' When my rooms have been decked out and the
flutes sound and the laughter there is loud, let
me ever feel that I have not invited thee to my
house — let me not forget for a moment, let me
carry the pangs of this great sorrow in my
dreams and in my wakeful hours."
(Page 74).
1:90
GITANJALI
Such are some of the negative qualities and faculties
to be brought into existence to fit ourselves for the
.attainment of the true consummation of life. The
achievement of positive qualities and faculties is an
equally urgent and indispensable pre-requisite, and the
Gitanjali gives us precious truths on this matter also.
The first quality required is a kpen hunger and passion
ior God- vision. The poet says •.
" He came when the night was still ; he had his
harp in his hands, and my dreams became re-
sonant with its melodies.
Alas, why are my nights all thus lost ? Ah, why
do I ever miss his sight whose breath touches my
sleep ?" (Pages 20 and 21).
When partial vision comes to us, our craving for
■more light should become more, and our courage
in its pursuit more invincible. The poet cries out :
'* Light, Oh where is the light ? Kindle it with the
burning fire of desire ! ... A moment's flash of
lightning drags down a deeper gloom on my
sight, and my heart gropes for the path to where
the music of the night calls me Let not the
hours pass by in the dark. Kindle the lamp of
love with thy life." (Pages 21-22).
Another faculty to be acquired is the faculty of ser-
■vice of God. The poet says :
" Pluck this little flower and take it, delay not !
... Though its colour be not deep and its smell
191
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
be faint, use this flower in thy service and
pluck it while there is time." (Page 5).
The soul must acquire also an utter humility and
the joy of self-surrender. The seventh poem in the
Giianjali^ which has been quoted above, shows this
admirably. The poet says :
" Leave all the burdens on his hands who can
bear all, never look behind with regret." (Page 7).
Again, the soul must seek to serve God mt by flying
away from life, but by serving and loving His children.
The poet enforces this lesson again and again
" Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if
it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of
the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance
to the great fair of common human life."
(P.ge 7>.
" When I try to bow to thee, my obeisance cannot
reach down to the depth where thy feet rest
among the poorest, and lowliest, and lost "
(Page 8).
" Leave this chanting and singing and telli 'g of
beads ! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely
dark corner of temple with doors all shut ? Open
thine eyes and see thy God is not before
thee 1
He is there where the tiller is tiihng the hard
ground, and where the pathmaker is bre. iking
stones. He is with them in jsun and in showct^
192
GITANJALI
and his garment is covered with dust. Put off
thy holy mantle and even Uke him come down
on the dusty soil!
Deliverance 1 Where is this deliverance to be
found ? Our Master himself has joyfully taken
upon him the bonds of creation ; he is bound
with us all for ever."
(Pages 8 and 9).
In the thirtieth poem Tagore shows the need for a
life of spacious leisure and secluded meditation. Tagore
shows us further that we must feel ourselves to be the
children of God and regain the child-like qualities of
wonder, innocence, trustfulness, joy, and love if we are
to attain the kingdom of God that is in us. He
enforces the same lesson that Christ taught when he
said : " Verily I say unto you, except ye turn and be
come as little children, ye shall in nowise enter into the
kingdom of heaven." (John iii 3,5,8). Poems 60 to 62
in the Gitanjali are child-poems and are found also in
The Crescent Moon, and their inclusion in the Gitanjali
is to impress on our hearts the great truth above said.
Tagore shows us in verses full of beauty and spirit-
ual passion what raptures and powers come to us
when we become dowered with God's grace, the
attainment of which is the crown and glory of hfe. He
beautifully describes God's grace as the darkhued and
benignant cloud that sends down gracious showers of
joy and love to the arid parched-up heart. In the
193
13
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
fortieth poem he says : " Let the cloud of grace bend
low from above like the tearful look of the mother on
the day of the father's wrath." This is a simile which
occurs very often in Sanscrit devotional verses where
God is described as the Neela Megha (the dark rain-
cloud) lit up by the twin rainbows of mercy and grace
and pouring down showers of love. The poet realises
also another aspect of God-head. He shows us how we
are not merely passive recipients of His grace but are
to tight His battles in the world as His servants.
The true lover further beholds God's love and mercy
even in the punishments that God sends to him. The
poems in which Tagore shows these great truths to us
are full of a lofty and profound symbolism. He says :
" Ah me, what is it I find ? What token left of
thy love ? It is no flower, no spices, no vase of
perfumed water. It is thy mighty sword,
flashing as a flame, heavy as a bolt of thunder.
From now I leave off all petty decora-
tions thou hast given me thy sword for
• adornment "
(Pages 46-48). (See also pages 78 and 79)
The coming of God's grace is the theme of many of
a poem full of deep spiritual rapture. The poet says :
" Entering my heart unbidden even as one of the
common crowd, unknown to me, my king, thou
didst press the signet of eternity upon many a
fleeting moment of my life." (Page 35).
194
GITANJALI
*' At last, when I woke from my slumber and
opened my eyes, I saw thee standing by me,
flooding my sleep with thy smile."
(Page 41).
'^ I was singing all alone in a corner, and the
melody caught your ear. You came down and
stood at my cottage door."
(Page 42).
Such coming of God's grace is the true joy of life.
The following prayer of the poet is full of truth and
beauty.
" Let him appear before my sight as the first of all
lights and all forms. The first thrill of joy to
my awakened soul, let it come from his glance.
• And let my return to myself be immediate return
to him."
(Page 39).
When the human soul rests in Infinite Beauty it be-
comes full of peace, rapture, and harmony, and new
melodies of the scheme of things become revealed to it.
Emerson says ; " From within or from behind, a light
shines through us upon things, and makes us aware
that we are nothing, but the light is all when it
breathes through the intellect, it is genius ; when it
breathes through the will, it is virtue ; when it flows
through the affections, it is love. And the blindness of
the intellect begins, when it would be something of
195
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
itself. The weakness of the will begins, when the-
individual would be something of himself. All reform
aims, in some one particular, to let the soul have
its way through us ; in other words, to engage us to
obey." The poet describes in exquisite verses the
new faculties and joys that come to us when God's
grace becomes our heavenly dower :
" But I find that thy will knows no end in me.
And when old words die out on the tongue, new
melodies break forth from the heart ; and
where the old tracks are lost, new country is re-
vealed with its wonders."
(Page 29).
Through the love of God we attain the love of all, be-
cause the two loves are inseparable. The poet says :
" Thou hast made me known to friends whom I
knew not. Thou hast given me seats in homes
not my own. Thou hast brought the distant
near, and made a brother of the stranger
when one knows thee, then alien there is none,,
then no door is shut."
(Pages 58 and 59).
The poet shows us further that love of God leads us
to live a dedicated life. This is the idea pervading
the sixty-fourth poem. It is then that the soul rises on
the wings of its surrendered will to that close union
with God wherein it becomes divine itself. The poet,
asks in exultant rapture; :
196
GITANJALI
'" What divine drink wouldst thou have, my God,
from this overflowing cup of my life ?
My poet, is it thy delight to see thy creation
through my eyes and to stand at the portals of
my ears silently to listen to thine own eternal
harmony ?
Thy world is weaving words in my mind and thy
joy is adding music to them. Thou givest thyself
to me in love and thou feelest thine own entire
sweetness in me."
(Page6i).
Looking at the cosmic scheme of things from this
^iofty and divine standpoint, Tagore is able to perceive
:and reahse and communicate profound spiritual truths
;and to see and make us see the divine significance of
life and its myriad incidents which to ordinary worldly
'Cyes have no value or purpose. In the daily revelation
tof light, he sees the grace and love and joy of God
-manifested. He says.
'• The hght is scattered into gold on every cloud,
my darling, and it scatters gems in profusion.
Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling,
and gladness without measure. The heaven's
river has drowned its banks and the flood of joy
is abroad."
(Pages 52 and 58).
"The same truth is declared by the Upanishads :
197
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGOKE
C Verily from the everlasting joy do all objects have-
their birth)'. Another truth that the poet reaUses is.
about the character of the soul as the bride of God.
" She vv^ho ever had remained in the depth of my
being, in the twiUght of gleams and of glimpses ;.
she who never opened her veils in the morning,
light will be my last gift to thee, my God, folded
in my final song.... There was none in the
world who ever saw her face to face, and she
remained in her loneliness waiting for tliy
recognition."
(Pages 61 and 62).
Tagore makes us see also that the manifested beauty
of God in the universe is but a portion of his Infinite
Beauty.
' Thou art the sky and thou art the nest as well.
O thou beautiful, there in the nest it is thy love
that encloses the soul with colours, sounds
and odours
" But there, where spreads the infinite sky for the
soul to take her flight in, reigns the stainless white
radiance. There is no day nor night, nor form
nor colour, and never, never a word."
(Pages 62 and 68).
The prism of His love refracts His white glory into^
the paradise of colours known as the world, but whO'
can describe the white radiance of His glory ? The-
Upanishads declare :
198
GITANJALI
Tifrs^ f%^T^cnT% %n^FTnpt f^f^ ii
(A portion of Him is the universe: The remainder
is shining immortal beyond). Tagore teaches us
the unity of Hfe. He says : " The same stream
of Hfe that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic
measures." (Page 64),
Yet this unity is full of an infinite variety. He
teaches further how the soul is a part of the Divine
Being. The following passage is full of the deepest
spiritual truth : —
"Thousettest a barrier in thine own being and then
callest thy severed self in myriad notes. This
the self-separation has taken body in me
The great pageant of thee and me has overspread
the sky. With the tune of thee and me all the
air is vibrant, and all ages pass with the hiding
and seeking of thee and me."
(Pages 66 and G7).
God is the lord of life and the goal of life is to meet
the divine musician playing on the flute of the world.
The poet says :
" He it is who puts his enchantment upon these
eyes and joyfully plays on the chords of my
heart in varied cadence of pleasure and pam
., There, at the fording, in the little boat
the unknown man plays upon his lute."
Pages 67 and 69.)
199
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Everything serves and glorifies Him.
" Thy gifts to us, mortals, fulfil all our needs and
yet run back to thee undiminished."
(Page 69).
God is not only Lord and King of our souls, but is
our friend and lover and brother. He is to be reached
by loving our human brothers. The poet says :
" In pleasure and in pain I stand not by the side
of men and thus stand by thee. I shrink not to
give up my life, and thus do not plunge into the
great waters of life." (Pages 71 and 72).
Our sense of imperfection is only an illusion. " Un-
broken perfection is over all."
(Page 73^.
We reach the Infinite Beauty and Joy and Perfection
by self-surrender and love. " Thou hast taken every
moment of my life in thine own hands."
(Page 75).
'' Full many an hour have I spent in the strife of the
good and the evil, but now it is the pleasure of my play-
mate of the empty days to draw my heart on to him,"
(Pages 82 and 83)
Then is the true consummation of life reached and
the soul attains '' the peace that passeth all under-
standing."
Tagore not merely tells us the meaning and crown
and fruition of life, but throws the light of his pure
200
GITANJALI
soul on the mystery of death and shows us the true
meaning of death. The poems on death in the Gitanjali
are various and variously beautiful. In one poem he
says :
" If the day is done, if birds sing no more, if wind
has flagged tired, then draw the veil of darkness
thick upon me, even as thou hast wrapt the
earth with the coverlet of sleep and tenderly
closed the petals of the drooping lotus, at dusk."
(Page 19).
" Death, thy servant, is at my door I will
worship him with folded hands and with tears.
I will worship him placing at his feet the
treasure of my heart. '
(Page -79).
God's love sends death to us, so that when our senses
and faculties become incapacitated and unlit to bring
home to our souls divine messages to train them, we
may be gently divested of the worn-out garment of the
body and reclothed in a better and fitter frame. The
poet says :
" On the day when death will knock at thy door,
what wilt thou offer to him ?
Oh, I will set before my guest the full vessel of my
life^ — I will never let him go with empty hands."
(Page 83).
" The flowers have been woven and the garland is
ready for the bridegroom. After the wedding
201
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the bride shall leave her home and meet her
lord alone in the solitude of night."
(Page 84).
" I have got my leave. Bid me farewell, my
brothers ! I bow to you all, and take my
departure.
Here I give back the keys of my door — and I give
up all claims to my house. I only ask for last kind
words from you.
We were neighbours for long, but I received more
than I could give. Now the day has dawned
and the lamp that lit my dark corner is out. A
summons has come, and I am ready for my
journey.''
(Pages 85 and 86).
" The child cries out when from the right breast
the mother takes it away, in the very next mo-
ment to find in the left one its consolation."
(Page 87).
There is an exquisite quatrain of Landor's where he-
says :
I strove with none, for none was worth my strife ;
Nature 1 loved, and next to Nature, Art.
I warmed both hand's before the fire of life.
It sinks and I am ready to depart.
The 96th poem in the Gitanjali is equally exquisite
and deserves to be read again and again and shows
what our attitude should be towards life and death.
202
GITANJALI
" When I go from hence let this be my parting;
word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable.
I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus
that expands on the ocean of light, and thus am
I blessed — let this be my parting word. In this
play house of infinite forms I have had my play
and here have I caught sight of him that is
formless.
My whole body and my limbs have thrilled with
his touch, who is beyond, touch ; and if the end
comes here, let it come — let this be my parting
word.''
(Page 88).
I cannot conclude this all-too-brief and imperfect
study of this epoch-making book of poems better than
by putting side by side two wonderful poems — one by
Tennyson and the other by Tagore — two great poets
who are as great seers as they are singers, who have
touched life at all points without losing their view of
heaven, who have mingled service and meditation, who
have risen through sorrow into a divine peace, and
who have dowered us with a deeper vision of the.
scheme of things.
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me !
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
203
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
"When that which drew from out the boundless deep,
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark,
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark ;
For tho' from out the bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have to cross the bar.
Tennyson.
" Early in the day it was whispered that we
should sail in a boat, only thou and I, and never
a soul in the world would know of this our pil-
grimage, to no country and to no end.
In that shoreless ocean, at thy silently listening
smile my songs would swell in melodies, free as
waves, free from all bondage of words.
Is the time not come yet ? Are there works still
to do ? Lo, the evening has come down upon
the shore and in the fading light the sea-birds
come flying to their rests.
"Who knows when the chains will be off, and the
boat, like the last glimmer of sunset, vanish into
t he night ?"
(Tagore's Gitanjali, page 34).
204
CHAPTER m.
THE GARDENER.
This book of poems is full of varied beauty and
emotional appeal, and if the Gitanjali belongs to the
golden evening of life, the Gardener assuredly belongs
to its rosy dawn and its meridian splendour. It contains
exquisite love-poetry, beautiful nature-lyrics, and lofty
devotional poems, and is as remarkable for its simpli-
city, spontaneity, and freshness as for its fulness of
colour and melody. The poems contained in it were
written during Tagore's youth and manhood and were
published in three volumes — Sotiar Tari, Manasi, and
Chitra. They express in their passionate longing, their
ecstasy in the contemplation of the spiritual elements of
beauty, and their pure glow of feehng, mingling
human and divine love, the very soul of Indian music.
I have shown in the Introductory Chapter the close
union of poesy and music in the art of Tagore. In the'
Gardener even more than in other poems the musical
motif with its aids by way of refrains, rhythms, and
rapid movement lifts the poet on the wings of melody
to the loftiest summits of rapture. The poet cries out
in the fifth poem.
I am restless, I am athirst for far-away things,
My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirts
of the dim distance,
205
U T
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
O Great Beyond, O the keen call of thy flute !"
(Page 12).
The above-said qualities of this book of poems can
be understood in the fulness of their divine beauty
when we realise in what close spiritual kinship Tagore
stands to Chaitanya, Mira Bai, and other great souls who
were saints, musicians, poets, and lovers of God. I have
dealt with this aspect also fully in my Introductory
Chapter.
My method in studying this book of poems — marvel-
lous in its sweetness, its universality, its simplicity, and
its varied beauty — will be the same as that which I have
adopted in studying the Gilanjali — 'to express the
deepest and most fundamental ideas of Tagore in their
inner and logical sequence and connection, quoting
from the book here and there to illustrate the ideas.
The first group of poems to be studied with love and
insight is that dealing with poesy in itself, in relation
to life, in relation to love, and in relation to the divine
elements in life and love. They are of surpassing beauty
and profound symbolism, and are not rivalled any-
where in their truth to the deepest things of life, their
insight, and their loveliness of form. The first seven
poems especially deserve to be studied and pondered
over in an ecstasy of joyful tears, which spring to our
eyes unbidden at the revelation of beauty and grace and
love and joy in life. The very first poem strikes a lofty
note and shows the poetic beauty and appropriateness
206
THE GARDENER
of the name the Gardener. Every line in it is full of
inner significance. It will be impossible to expand
here the ideas contained in every sentence, though
such a task is delightful, uplifting, and worthy. I
shall do the work on a more suitable occasion if there
be any call for it. The very opening of the poem that
describes how the poet comes to the queen after all the
other servants are gone, shows how the attainment of
the divine joys of poesy is the last and highest thing to
which the spirit of man can attain. The servant {viz.^
the poet) tells the queen:
" When you have finished with others, that is my
time."
(Page 1).
What does he want to do ? How shall I express the
divine beauty of his request !
" Make me the gardener of your flower garden . . .
I will give up my other work. I throw my swords
and lances down in the dust. Do not send me
to distant courts : do not bid me undertake new
conquests. But make me the gardener of your
flower garden."
He desires only to dwell amid the heavenly fragrance
of divine thoughts and emotions. What further work
need he do ? The work of material progress, nay,
even the work of service of man in the lower fields of
activity — he has left far behind. He does not want to
be sent even in her service away from the sight of her
207
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
divine face and form. Why should he vex his soul with
further conquests over nature when he has transcended
that phase of being and has had a glimpse of her face
in her very throne ? The queen asks him what his
duties would be. He replies that he would " keep
fresh the grassy path where you walk in the morning,
where your feet will be greeted with praise at every. step by
the flowers eager for dealh^^* swing her in a swing, " re-
plenish with scented oil the lamp that burns by your
bedside," and "decorate your footstool with sandal and
saffron paste with wondrous designs." ■ Thus when the
human soul has come into the presence of her Eternal
Lover, what further duties has she except to serve Him
and rejoice in His joy ? The remaining portion of the
poem is equally beautiful.
" QUEEN.
What will you have for your reward ?
SERVANT.
To be allowed to hold your little fists like tender
lotus buds and slip flower-chains over your wrists ;
to tinge the soles of your feet with the red juice of
ashoka petals and kiss away the speck of dust that may
chance to linger there.
QUEEN.
Your prayers are granted, my servant, you will be
the gardener of my flower garden."
208
THE GARDENER
The second poem is full of the loftiest truths and
makes us see how a poet and lover of God, though he
has transcended the lower forms of work — W2., con-
quests over nature and service of man through lower
motives — serves his Goddess best by not merely re-
joicing in her worship, her beauty, and her love, but by
serving humanity unselfishly and through higher
motives, by voicing the sweetest human emotions and
conveying the messages of his Goddess to man, and by
seeking to lift up all to the inner paradise where he
lives and moves and has his being. I find it difficult
to resist the temptation to explain each sentence in
this poem, so full of deep inner meaning through-
out ; but I have to resist the temptation, having regard
to the limits of space and to the fitness of things ac-
cording to the scheme of this work. The poet should
not merely hear the music of the hereafter and be
dumb. He says :
" I watch if young straying hearts meet together,
and two pairs of eager eyes beg for music to
break their silence and speak for them.
Who is there to weave their passionate songs, if I
sit on the shore of life and contemplate death
and the beyond ?
• •••••
If some wanderer, leaving home, come here to
watch the night and with bowed head listen
to the murmur of the darkness, who is there to
209
14
SIK RABINDKANATH TAGORE
whisper the secrets of life into his ears if I, shutting
my doors, should try to free myself from mortal
bonds ?"
*' It is a trifle that my hair is turning gray.
I am ever as young or as old as the youngest and
the oldest of this village.
• •••••
They all have need for me, and I have no time to
brood over the after-life,"
(Pages 4—6).
The third poem is full of profound symbolism, and
it is with hesitation that I offer here a few hints about
it though I have meditated on it often. It seems to
show that poems though iridescent with fancy and
imagination are not valuable in the eyes of the Goddess,
even though humanity is fascinated by their beauty,
if they are born merely from the sea of the poet's own
imagination and are not the result of an inner struggle
with the lower elements of nature and are not in vital
touch with life and its aspirations and desires and joys.
The poet shows in the fourth poem how he cannot
keep away his brethren from the home of his heart even
if they have only imperfect sympathy for him and though
he would fain live on the lofty heights of meditative
rapture. At the same time the poet hears the imperious
call of the flute of the Great Beyond and his innermost
nature responds to the call with a sudden leap of the
spirit. It says.:
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THE GARDENER
^ Thy breath comes to me whispering an im-
possible hope.
Thy tongue is known to my heart as its very own.
-• * • • • «
I am Ustless, I am a wanderer in my heart ....
0 Farthest end, O the keen call of thy flute!
1 forget, I ever forget, that the gates are shut
ever more in the house where I dwell alone !"
(Pages 12-13).
In the sixth poem the poet shows by the simile of
the caged bird and the free bird, iiow the call of love
moves the soul imprisoned in matter, though the latter
bemoans its inability to escape from the cage and soar
wing to wing with the free bird viz., the Ever-Free,
Ever-Joyful World-Soul which is Love and yearns to
teach the caged spirit to soar into the pure empyrean
of love on the wings of peace and joy. In the seventh
poem the simile of the maiden and the prince shows
how poesy serves the God of Love for His sweet sake
whether he lifts his eyes to her in love or not. She
flings " the jewel from her breast" beneath his moving
car, not caring whether he or any one else knows her
utter self-surrender or not, and realising that such
ecstasy of devotion is an end in itself and is the
sweetest and truest thing in life. In another poem
Tagore shows how poetry should be rooted in the earth
though its finest blossoms may lift up their heads in the
serene air of love and light, rejoice in the sunshine-
211
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORL
of divine hope, and sweeten everything with their
fragrance. He says :
" Infinite wealth is not yours, my patient and dusky
mother dust !
The gift of gladness that you have for us is never-
perfect.
• • • • •
You cannot satisfy all our hungry hopes, but should'
I desert you for that ?
Your smile which is shadowed with pain is sweet
to my eyes.
Your love which knows not fulfilment is dear to my
heart.
• • • • •
Over your creations of beauty there is the mist of
tears.
I will pour my songs into your mute heart, and my
love into your love.
I will worship you with labour. I have seen your
tender face and I love your mournful dust,.
Mother Earth." (Pages 127-8).
I shall refer here to only two other poems that show
the attitude of the poet towards posterity. It shows that
a poet's highest reward is not fame or worldly possessions
but the perpetual rebirth of joy in the hearts of living
men and women of successive generations, Tagore says
in the last poem in the Gardener :
212
THE GARDENER
*' Who are you, reader, reading my poems an
hundred years hence ?
1 cannot send you one single flower from this wealth
of the spring,one single streak of gold from yonder
clouds.
• ••••••
In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy
that sang one spring morning, sending its glad
voice across an hundred years."
(Page 146).
Tagore recognises and proclaims the supreme dignity
^nd beauty of the poet's art in words full of beauty.
" In the world's audience hall, the simple blade of
grass sits on the same carpet with the sunbeam
and the stars of midnight.
Thus my songs share their seats in the heart of the
world with the music of clouds and forests.
But you, man of riches, your wealth has no part in
the simple grandeur of the sun's glad gold and
the mellow gleam of the musing moon.
The blessing of the all-embracing sky is not shed
upon it.
And when death appears, it pales and withers and
crumbles into dust."
(Page 129).
It is a natural transition from poesy to love, and we
cannot better study the wonderful love-poems in his
volume than by studying at the outset the poems descritv
213
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
ing the attitude of a poet towards love. The poet asks
the lover to reveal his heart to bim.
" Do not keep to yourself the secret of your hearty
my friend !
Say it to me, only to me, in secret. You who'
smile so gently, softly whisper, my heart will,
hear it, not my ears."
(Page 48).
" Youth, why do you stand so still under the shadow^
of the tree ?
My feet are languid with the burden of my heart
and I stand still in the shadow."
(Page 49).
The poems where the poet lays bare his soul to his
beloved are equally beautiful and disclose to us the true
relations of poesy and love. In one poem the poet asks
love to allow him to soar into the higher regions of
thought and emotion.
" My heart, the bird of the wilderness, has found
its sky in your eyes. They are the cradle of the
morning, they are the kingdom of the stars. My
songs are lost in their depths. Let me but soar
in that sky, in its lonely immensity.
Let me but cleave its clouds and spread wings in
its sunshine." (Page 60).
In another poem the poet tells his beloved that he
had given his love to the world and that it was too late
for him to concentrate it on one personality.
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THE GARDENER
" It is too late to ask my heart in return for yours.
There was a time when my life was like a bud, all
its perfume was stored in its core.
Now it is squandered far and wide. Who knows
the enchantment that can gather and shut it up
. again ?
My heart is not mine to give to one only, it is given
to the many."
(Page 68).
That is the note of the singer who has truly risen ta
the raptures of the love of All, the lover whose beloved
is the soul of the world. A poet who has not fully risen
to this beatitude must necessarily feel that love is more
than the joy of poesy or fame.
"My love, once upon a time your poet launched a
great epic in his mind.
Alas, I was not careful, and it struck your ringing
anklets and came to grief.
• • • • •
You must make this loss good to me, my love.
If my claims to immortal fame after death are shat-
tered, make me immortal while I live.
And I will not mourn for my loss nor blame you."
(Page 69).
Similarly did Byron say :
' O talk not to me of a name great in story ;
The days of our youth are the days of our glory ;
And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty
215
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Are worth all your laurels though ever so plenty.
• •••«•
Oh Fame !— If I e'er took delight in thy praises,
'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases,
Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover
The thought I was not unworthy to love her.
There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee-;
Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee;
When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my
story ,
I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory.',
Our poet realises how his art becomes voicelesss in
the sweetness of his love as a bee in the lotus.
" I try to sing a song, but in vain. A hidden smile
trembles on your lips ; ask of it the reason of rny
failure.
Let your smiling lips say on oath how my voice
lost itself in silence like a drunken bee in the
lotus."
(Page 70).
*' If you would have it so, I will end my singing."
(Page 84).
I shall first refer now to the sweet love-poems in
this volume dealing with love in its variety of charm,
and then to the poems particularly dealing with
Indian life and love, before I discuss the wonder-
ful poems dealing with love in its manifold relation
to Ufe and finally rising on the wings of truth and
joy into the highest heaven of divine love. The
216
THE GARDENER
general love-poems in this book are exquisite and per-
fect lyrical gems. The eighth poem describes how a
maiden's love is shy though deep. Another poem de-
scribes maidenly shyness shining in its fulness. of charm
even when love has triumphed over it.
" When my love comes and sits by my side, when
my body trembles, and my eyelids droop, the night
darkens, the wind blows out the lamp, and the
clouds draw veils over the stars.
It is the jewel at my breast that shines and gives
light. I do not know how to hide it."
(Pages 20-21).
The sixteenth poem shows the elemental nature of
love — its immediateness, its simplicity, and its touch
with life.
" It is a game of giving and withholding, revealing
and screening again ; some smiles and some
little shyness, and some sweet useless struggles.
This love between you and me is simple as a song.
No mystery beyond the present ; no striving for
the impossible ; no shadow behind the charm ;
no groping in the depth of the dark.
We have not crushed the joy to the utmost to
wring from it the wine of pain.
This love between you and me is simple as a
song."
(Pages 36-37).
217
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Another poem shows that love, the mendicant, in spite
of his seeming humiUty, begs for nothing less than the
whole of our personality.
" ' What comes from your willing hands I take. I
beg for nothing more.'
'Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant, you ask
for all that one has'."
(Page 51).
At the same time there is no doubt that this ecstasy of
perfect self-surrender in a passion of adoration is the
truest, highest, sweetest thing in life.
" The lotus blooms in the sight of the sun, and loses
all that it has. It would not remain in bud in
the eternal winter mist."
(Pages 53-4).
Another poem beautifully says :
" I love you, beloved ; forgive me, my love.
Ivike a bird losing its way I am caught.
When my heart was shaken it lost its veil and was
naked. Cover it with pity, beloved, and forgive
me, my love."
(Page 63).
The prayer of love for the ecstasy of possession can-
never be better expressed than it is in the thirty-
fourth poem.
" Could I but entangle your feet with my heart
and hold them fast to my breast !"
(Page 65).
218
THE GARDENER
A lover though he says that he will leave his beloved
will return to her feet with renewed rapture.
" When I say I leave you for all time, accept it as-
true, and let a mist of tears for one moment
deepen the dark rim of your eyes.
Then smile as archly as you like when I come
again."
(Pages 71-2).
The love-poems in this volume that depict love as
manifested in Indian life are of peculiar attractiveness
and charm. I must not omit to mention here one pecu-
liar feature frequently noticed in regard to Indian love-
poetry, viz., its exquisite setting amid the sweetest
natural scenes. As I have pointed out in my essay on
some characteristics of Sanskrit poetry : " Nature
plays an important part in Sanskrit lyrics : the lotus,
the moon, and the kokila, are met with frequently.
The love scenes are placed amidst the enchanting
spots in nature, in scenes lit up by bright blossoms
shining like many-coloured moons, where gentle winds
come laden with strange perfumes, vocal with the
sounds of tuneful-throated birds." The tenth poem
and the eleventh poem describe how a bashful
Indian bride is asked to go and meet the guest at the
gate and bring him in. The wonderful beauty of these
poems is their suggestiveness in which a diviner atmos-
phere seems somehow to interpenetrate the human,
universe.
219
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
*' Have no word with him if you are shy ; stand
aside by the door when you meet him.
• • • • •
Have you not put the red lucky mark at the part-
ing of your hair, and done your toilet for the
night ? O bride, do you hear, the guest has
come ? Let your work be !" (Pages 22-23.)
" Who can know that your eyelids have not been
touched with lamp-black ? For your eyes are
darker than rain-clouds.
• ft • • •
Come as you are, do not loiter over your toilet."
(Page 25).
These and other poems dealing with Indian life and
ilove bring home to us vividly and lovingly the heaven
of a happy woman's life and ways in India and the
heaven of nature shining all about her as a fitting
temple for love, the goddess of her heart. The twelfth
poem contains the song of the lake to the beloved and
shows these traits very well.
" If you would be busy and fill your pitcher, come,
O come to my lake.
The water will cling round your feet and babble
its secret
I know well the rhythm of your steps, they are
beating in my heart
Your thoughts will stray out of your dark eyes like
birds from their nests." (Pages 27 & 28).
220
THE GARDENER
The next poem brings before our eyes another sw eet
picture of Indian life and love.
" Under the banyan tree you were milking the cow
with your hands, tender and fresh as butter.
And I was standing still.
I did not say a word. It was the bird that sang
unseen from the thicket.
The mango tree was shedding its flowers upon the
village road, and the bees came humming one by
one." (Page 30).
The whole poem is so inexpressibly sweet that one
could imagine it sung by Krishna to Radha at Brinda-
vana. The next poem is equally fine.
" The prone shadows with their outstretched arms
clung to the feet of the hurrying light. . . .
Some one was busy with her work, and her bangles
made music in the corner. I stood before this
hut, I know not why." (Page 32).
The eighteenth, nineteenth, and twenty-third poems
describe the sweet and graceful ways of Indian maidens
with a simplicity that is charming.
" The two sisters glance at each other when they
come to this spot, and they smile.
There is a laughter in their swift-stepping feet,
which makes confusion in somebody's mind who
stands behind the trees whenever they go to
fetch water." (Page 41)..
221
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
*' You are hidden as a star behind the hills, and I
am a passer-by on the road. But why did
you stop for a moment and glance at my face
through your veil while you walked by the
riverside path with the full pitcher upon your
hip ?" (Pages 42 & 43).
" Why do you stir the water with your hands and
fitfully glance at the road for some one in mere
idle sport ?
" Fill your pitcher and come home." (Page 47).
The twentieth and twenty-first poems describe yet
another aspect of love. The following quotations speak
iov themselves.
" Day after day he comes and goes away. Go,
and give him a flower from my hair, my friend.
If he asks who was it that sent it, I entreat you, do
not tell him my name — for he only comes and
goes away."
(Page 44).
" Why did he choose to come to my door, the
wandering youth, when the day dawned ?
As I come in and out I pass by him every time,
and my eyes are caught by his face
He weaves his songs with fresh tunes every time.
1 turn from my work and my eyes till with the
mist. Why did he choose to come to my door ?"
(Page 45).
I shall quote one other sweet poem describing how
222
THE GARDENER
bashfulness is full of wild regret after the lover goes
away.
" He put a flower in my hair. I said, ' It is use-
less !' ; but he stood unmoved.
He took the garland from my neck and went
away. I weep and ask my heart, 'Why does he
not come back ?' "
(Page 67).
I shall now take up the poems dealing with love in its
manifold relation of life, as they are remarkable for
their insight into the human heart and knowledge of its
deepest impulses of pain and rapture. The poet shows
how the young heart hae a sudden blossoming of sweet-
ness in it in the springtime of love and how it is first
of all in love with love before it sees heaven realised in
one human face.
'' I run as a musk-deer in the shadow of the forest
mad with his own perfume
From my heart comes out and dances the image
of my own desire. The gleaming vision flits on.
I try to clasp it firmly, it eludes me and leads me
astray.
I seek what 1 cannot get, I get what I do not seek.''
(Page 35).
"You are the evening cloud floating in the sky of
my dreams.
I paint you and fashion you ever with my love
longings ; .; .: , .
223
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Your feet are red with the glow of my heart's-
desire, Gleaner of my sunset !
I have caught you and wrapt you, my love, in
the net of my music.
You are my own, my own, Dweller in my deathless
dreams ! " (Pages 58 & 59).
In the last poem above cited we have a divine com-
mingling of suggestions of love of lover, love of the be-
loved, and love of God. The poet shows how when
love comes to reign in the heart, there is the birth of
an inner spring
" That quickens the piilse of the morning to wonder
And hastens the seed of all beauty to birth,
That captures the heavens and conquers to blossom
The roots of delight in the heart of the earth r "
(Mrs. Sarojini Naidu's 'The Bird of Time.)*
The twenty-second poem describes this in verses full
of wonderful affluence of beauty.
" When she passed by me with quick-steps, the end
of her skirt touched me.
From the unknown island of a heart came a sudden
warm break of spring.
A flutter of a flitting touch brushed me and vanished
in a moment, like a torn flower petal blown in
the breeze.
It fell upon my heart like a sigh of her body and
whisper of her heart." (Page 46).
Tagore makes us realise further that the heart and
its realm are endless in range and variety.
224
THE GARDENER
" But it is a heart, my beloved. Where are its
shores and its bottom ? You know not the limit
of this Kingdom, still you are its queen. . . .
But it is love, my beloved. Its pleasure and pain
are boundless, and endless its want and wealth.
It is as near to you as your life, but you can
never wholly know it."
(Pages 55 & 56).
Tagore then shows us the deepest and truest elements
in love and makes us realise why it is that love draws
our souls irresistibly and leads us into its paradise. Love
overwhelms and enraptures us because it has in it the
mystery of the infinite and because it awakens sweet
suggestions of ante-natal union. The thirty second
poem is full oi faultless loveliness and I quote it in full.
" Tell me if this be all true, my lover, tell me if
this be true.
When these eyes flash their lightning, the dark
clouds in your breast make stormy answer. Is
it true that my lips are sweet like the opening
bud of the first conscious love? Do the memories
of the vanished months of May linger in my
limbs ?
Does the earth, like a harp, shiver into songs with
the touch of my feet ?
Is it then true that the dewdrops fall from the
eyes of night when I am seen, and the morning,
light is glad when it wraps my body round ?
225
15
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Is it true, is it true, that your love travelled alone
through ages and worlds in search of me ?
That when you found me at last, your age-long
desire found utter peace in my gentle speech and
my eyes and lips and flowing hair ?
Is it then true that the mystery of the Infinite is
written on this little forehead of mine ?
Tell me, my lover, if all this be true."
(Pages 61 & 62).
^'In the dusky path of a dream I went to seek the
love who was mine in a former life
She set her lamp down by the portal and stood
before me
Tears shone in her eyes. She held up her right
hand to me. I took it and stood silent.
Our lamp flickered in the evening breeze and
died." (Pages 103 & 104).
We see expressed here the same profound sentiment
that is expressed by D. G. Rossetti in The House of Life.
" O born with me somewhere that men forget
And though in years of sight and sound unmet
Known for my soul's birth-partner well enough."
Tagore shows another true and divine element in
love — the fact that it is really and in essence an attrac-
tion of the spirit.
" I hold her hands and press her to my breast. I
try to fill my arms with her loveliness, to plunder
226
THE GARDENER
her sweet smile with kisses, to drink her dark
glances with my eyes.
Ah, but, where is it ? Who can strain the blue
from the sky ?
I try to grasp the beauty ; it eludes me leaving
only the body in my hands.
Baffled and weary I come back.
How can the body touch the flower which only the
spirit may touch ? "
(Page 86).
Tagore shows further that the charm of woman's
beauty is in part due to the idealising tendency of
jnan's heart
" O woman, you are not merely the handiwork of
God, but also of men ; these are ever endowing
you with beauty from their hearts.
The desire of men's hearts has shed its glory over
your youth.
You are one half woman and one half dream."
(Page 100).
Beauty by itself is mute till Love gives it the gracious
gift of speech.
" Amidst the rush and roar of life, O Beauty,
carved in stone, you stand mute and still, alone
and aloof." (Page 101).
Beauty is most truly herself when love and service
light up her eyes and loosen her tongue and give grace
and divine helpfulness to her hands.
227
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
" The perfection of your arms would add glory tO'
kingly splendour with their touch.
But you use them to sweep away the dust, and ta
make clean your humble home, therefore, I am*
filled with awe."
(Page 137).
When love comes into life, the limits of Hfe seem to-
get a push and life becomes widened and is filled with,
more light. This is well-brought out in the long poenii
on page 142. The woman who ' worked and dreamed
daily to the tune of the bubbling stream ' is made cap-
tive by love and goes away from the village with the
lord of her soul. The villagers ask her when she
comes back how she felt in her new world. She says :
" ' Here is the same sky' she said, only free from<
the fencing hills, — this is the same stream grown
into a river, — the same earth widened into a
plain 1"
(Page 144).
Life without love is dreary, weary, and wasted.
" I am ihe guest of no one at the end of my day.
The long night is before me, and I am tired".
(Page 108).
Love when it comes brooks no rival sovereign in the
heart and dominates the soul.
" I leave behind my dreams, and I hasten to your
call."
(Page 110).
228
THE GARDENER
In the above poem there is also a suggestion Of the
call of Higher and Divine Love, which adds to the beauty
and mystery of the poem. The precious offering of love
is such that even the person offering it knows not its
•exceeding preciousness and rare loveliness. The simile
<^ the blind girl brings out this truth beautifully in the
ioUowing poem.
" One morning in the flower garden a blind girl
came to offer me a flower chain in the cover of
a lotus leaf.
I put it round my neck, and tears came to my eyes.
I kissed her and said, ' you are blind even as the
flowers are, you yourself know not how beauti-
ful is your gift!"
(Page 99).
The poet has not merely expressed the higher and
diviner moods of love, but also its lower, lighter, and
baser moods. One mood that is expressed with a
heartbreak in the soul and a sob choking utterance is
the recognition that death puts an end to the dreams of
love.
*' For we have made truce with death for once, and
only for a few fragrant hours we two have been
made immortal." ,
(Page 79).
Therefore how should we order this all-too-brief life
of ours, where death routs the fond dreams of love ?
229
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
" Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time
like dew on the tip of a leaf."
(Page 81)..
Not only does death strangle the joys of love but
even love is often faithless and fleeting.
" You left me and went on your way. I thought I
should mourn for you and set your solitary im-
age in my heart wrought in a golden song. . ..
But a fresh face peeps across my door and raises its;
eyes to my eyes. I cannot but wipe away my
tears and change the tune of my song.
For time is short." (Pages 82-88),
Sometimes love of the lower type goes often with
lack of insight and makes true love dumb with the
endured agony of suppressed tenderness.
" I long to speak the deepest words I have to say
to you ; but I dare not, for fear you should laugh.
That is why I laugh at myself, and shatter my
secret in jest. I make light of my pain, afraid'
you should do so." (Page 73).
The poet shows that a love that is too hungry for
bliss defeats its own object.
" Why did the flower fade ? I pressed it to my
heart with anxious love, that is why the flower
faded. Why did the stream dry up ? I put a.
dam across it to have it for my use, that is why
• the stream dried up.
230
THE GARDINER
Why did the harp-string break ? I tried to force a
note that was beyond its power, that is why the
harp-string is broken."
(Page 89).
The next poem describes love scorned and put to
shame,
" Why do you put me to shame with a look ?
I have not come as a beggar
Not a rose did I gather from your garden, not a
fruit did I pluck."
(Page 90).
Another poem describes how the love that fawns at
the feet of beauty drunk with the wine of bodily bliss
is but a low form of love, and how the higher form of
love is the homage of the liberated reason and the wor-
ship of a self-respecting and discerning manhood that
realises in a true woman's love the very crown of life.
" Free me from the bonds of your sweetness, my
love ! No more of this wine of kisses. This
mist of heavy incense stifles my heart.
Open the doors, make room for the morning light.
I am lost in you, wrapped in the folds of your
caresses.
Free me from your spells, and give me back the
manhood to offer you my freed heart."
(Page 85).
I have discussed above very briefly the love poems,
pure and simple, in this volume. The poet does not
231
SIR RABINDUANATH TAGORK
content himself merely with the sweet love of youth
and maid but shows how love broadens and deepens
through its touch with life as a whole, by its conflict
with death, and by its becoming fit after such baptism
of life and death to rise to the very Throne of Grace
and worship the Lotus Feet of God.
The seventy-seventh poem shows love lighting up
every home and shedding its radiance on the sweet
toils and charities of domestic life.
" She goes back home with the full pitcher poised
on her head, the shining brass pot in her left
hand, holding the child with her right — she the
tiny servant of her mother, grave with the weight
of the household cares." (Page 188).
This sweet bond of- love does not stop with human
beings but extends to the whole realm of life and makes
us realise the blissful unity of life.
" She took up her brother in one arm, and the
lamb in the other, and dividing her caresses be-
tween them bound in one bond of affection the
offspring of beast and man."
(Page 134).
" It was in May. The sultry noon seemed end-
lessly long. The dry earth gaped with thirst in
the heat. When I heard from the riverside a
voice calling, 'come, my darling ! '
I shut my book and opened the window to look
out.
232
THE GARDENER
I saw a big buffalo with mud-stained hide standing
near the river with placid, patient eyes ; and a
youth, knee-deep in water, calling it to its bath.
I smiled amused, and felt a touch of sweetness in
my heart." (Page 135).
" I often wonder where lie hidden the boundaries
of recognition between man and the beast whose
heart knows no spoken language. . . ... .
Yet suddenly in some wordless music the dim
memory wakes up and the beast gazes into the
man's face with a tender trust, and the man looks
down into its eyes with amused affection.
It seems that the two friends meet masked, and
vaguely know each other through the disguise."
(Page 136).
I will refer here to a few further aspects described
'by the poet. The forty-second poem glorifies a life of
'freedom as opposed to the life of conventions in which
we are living.
" I have wasted my days and nights in the company
of steady wise neighbours.
Much knowing has turned my hair grey, and much
watching has made my sight dim. .....
I let go my pride of learning and judgment of
right and wrong. I'll shatter memory's vessel,
scattering the last drop of tears. ......
I'll take the holy vow to be worthless, to be
drunken and go to the dogs." (Pages 75-77).
233
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The poet feels keenly the joy of life and invites us
to share in the rapture.
" Over the green and yellow rice-fields sweep the
shadows of the autumn clouds followed by the
swift-chasing sun.
The bees forget to sip their honey ; drunken with-
light they foolishly hover and hum.
The ducks in the islands of the river clamour in
joy for mere nothing.
Let none go back home, brothers, this morning,
let none go to work.
Let us take the blue sky by storm and plunder
space as we run.
Laughter floats in the air like foam on the flood.
Brothers, let us squander our morning in futile
songs."
(Page 145).
He shows how the true joy of life lies in love and in
living life to the very top of its fulness, and not in
barren asceticism.
" No, my friends, I shall never leave hearth and
home, and retire into the forest solitude, if rings
no merry laughter in its echoing shade and if the
end of no saffron mantle flutters in the wind ; if
its silence is not deepened by soft whispers.
I shall never be an ascetic."
(Page 78).
"God commanded, 'stop, fool, leave not thy
234
THE GARDENER
home/ but still he heard not. God sighed and
complained, ' Why does my servant wander to
seek me, forsaking me ?"
(Pages 130-131).
The poems dealing with life and love in relation to
death are full of the profoundest wisdom conveyed in
perfect words. I do not know if there is anything in
literature to match the perfect beauty of the sixty-first
poem.
" Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be
sweet.
' Let it not be a death but completeness.'
' Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.'
Let the flight through the sky end in the folding
of the wings over the nest.
Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the
flower of the night.
Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and
say your last words in silence.
I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on
your way." (Page 102).
The following also show to us what should be our
attitude towards death: —
" None lives for ever, brother, and nothing lasts for
long. Keep that in mind and rejoice. . . . ..
There must come a full pause to weave perfection
into music. Life droops towards its sunset to be
drowned in the golden shadows
&^
235
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Beauty is sweet to us, because she dances to the
same fleeting tune with our lives.
Knowledge is precious to us, because we shall
never have time to complete it.
All is done and finished in the eternal Heaven.
But earth's flowers of illusion are kept eternally
fresh by death.
Brother, keep that in mind and rejoice."
(Pages 116-8).
" Raise my veil, and look at my face proudly, O
Death, my Death !"
(Page 139).
Death makes us realise the sweetness of love in its
fulness.
" The push of death has swung her into life.
We are face to face and heart to heart, my bride
and I."
(Page 141).
We now come to the loftiest poems in the volume —
those wherein after love in its sweet radiance is born
in the heart and spreads its glory over the whole of life
and becomes pure and chastened after having looked
into the fathomless eyes of Death, soars on the wings
of truth and joy into the highest heaven of divine love.
In one poem the words are so skilfully chosen that it is
difficult to say whether it refers to human or divine
love.
236
THE GARDENER
" Lest I should confuse you with the crowd, you^
stand aside.
I know, I know your art,
You never walk the path you would."
(Page 66).
The human soul realises that it does not attain the
true end of existence but feels stifled if it tries to sur-
round itself with beautiful objects in a spirit of selfish
egoism and seeks to live in a palace of art and worship
love in an elaborately-designed shrine quite out of
touch with the life of man and nature.
" With days of hard travail I raised a temple. It
had no doors or windows, its walls were thickly
built with massive stones.
• • • • •
It was alwa^-s night inside, and lit by lamps of
perfumed oil
Sleepless, I carved on the walls fantastic figures in
mazy bewildering lines — winged horses, flowers
with human faces, women with limbs like ser-
pents.
No passage was left anywhere through which
could enter the song of birds, the murmur of
leaves, or hum of the busy village
I knew not how time passed till the thunderstone
struck the temple, and a pain stung me through
the heart.
The lamp looked pale and ashamed ; the carvings
237
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORE
on the walls like chained dreams, stared mean-
ingless in the light as they would fain hide them-
selves.
I looked at the image on the altar. I saw it smiling
and alive with the living touch of God. The
night I had imprisoned had spread its wingi and
vanished." (Pages 125-126).
It seems to me that in conception and expression this
jpoem is even finer than the beautiful poem of Tennyson
on The Palace of Art. There also the soul said :
" Trust me, in bliss I shall abide
In this great mansion, that is built for me,
So royal — rich and wide."
But soon she felt as
" A still salt pool, lock'd in with bars of sand,
Left on the shore ; that hears all night
The plunging seas draw backward from the land
Their moon-led waters white.
Throwing her royal robes away ;
' Make me a cottage in the vale,' she said,
Where I may mourn and pray.' "
The soul realises further that the. innermost soul of
ove cannot be seized by amorous arms and made
•captive to the body.
" Whom do I try to clasp in my arms ? Dreams
can never be made captive.
My eager hands press emptiness to my heart and
it bruises my breast."
(Page 88).
238
THE GARDENER
Having had a glimpse of the supernal beauty of Love
that is the soul of the universe, the soul has an irresist-
ible inner impulse to seek it and attain it.
" Traveller, must you go ?
The night is still and the darkness swoons upon the
forest.
The lamps are bright in our balcony, the flowers
all fresh, and the youthful eyes still awake. . .
What quenchless fire glows in your eyes ?
What restless fever runs in your blood ?
What call from the dark urges you ?
0 traveller, what sleepless spirit has touched you
from the heart of the midnight ?''
(Pages 105-6).
The flower of the world's delight can no longer
satisfy it as it has had a glimpse of a fairer, more
fragrant, and diviner flower, and as it has realised that
the flower of earthly life fades and leaves but the thorn
behind.
" I plucked your flower, O world.
1 pressed it to my heart and the thorn pricked.
When the day waned and it darkened, I found that
the flower had faded, but the pain remained."
(Page 98).
Though the quest is difficult, hope that is the sure
presage of attainment springs iji the soul.
'• The lone night lies along your path, the dawn
sleeps behind the shadowy hills.
239
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The stars hold their breath counting the hours, the:
feeble moon swims the deep night.
• ' • • • •
There is no home, no bed of rest.
There is only your own pair of wings, and the path-
less sky.
Bird, O my bird, Hsten to me, do not close your
wings." (Page 115).
" I hunt for the golden stag.
• • • • ■
You come and buy in the market and go back to
your homes laden with goods, but the spell of
the homeless winds has touched me. I know not
when and where.
I have no care in my heart ; all my belongings I
have left far behind me."
(Page 119).
The simile of the madman in the sixty-sixth poem
that describes the search for the touchstone is opposite
and beautiful.
" May be he now had no hope remaining, yet he
would not rest, for the search had become his
life,—
Just as the ocean for ever lifts its arms to the sky
for the unattainable — just as the stars go in
circles, yet seeking a goal that can never be
reached."
(Pages 111-112),
240
THE GARDENER
In such divine quest failure may often overtake the
soul that is slowly fitting itself with the aid of the two
great teachers — life and love — for the attainment of the
goal of life. Failure is nothing ; it means that the goal
is a little nearer than it was and that our faculties
have been more trained than before and will hence
serve us better during the next attempt. The simile of
the paper-boat which the poet floated in a ditch when
he was young and which was sunk by showers of rain,
shows how in our onward progress petty failures
should not hold us back anymore than the sinking of
the paper-boat.
(Pages 120-121).
I now come to the divinest portion of the poem where
the purified and perfected soul comes to the river of
death and crossing it, reaches its true home — the arms
of the Eternal Lover — and is pressed to His breast and
is full of peace and love and joy that pass understand-
ing. The seventy-first poem is full of the deepest sym-
bolism and deserves careful and loving study. The soul
comes to the river of death.
" The hushed water waits for the wind,
I hurry to cross the river before the night over-
takes me.
O ferryman ! you want your fee. Yes, brother, I
have still something left. My fate has not cheat-
ed me of everything."
(Pages 122-123)
241
16
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
After crossing the river, the soul hastens home with
empty hands. What further burden of earthly posses-
sions— fame, riches, power — should encumber it, when
it hastens to attain the lotus feet of God where adore
with folded palmsthe powers that rule the universe and
bestow the lower objects of desire on the human souls
that are full of attachment to the objects of the senses
and that have not yet had a glimpse of the beauty of
the countenance of God and of the heaven of His love ?
Yet it does not reach the Divine Presence quite empty,
because " much remains still," if not in the hands yet
still in the heart. Love and service and peace and joy
— the higher qualities of the soul which unlike the
material possessions are never lessened by increase in
the objects of bounty but grow by giving — remain as
pure gold in the heart and have further the power of
the golden touch and make whatever comes into con-
tact with them shining and precious gold.
" At midnight, I reach home. My hands are
empty.
You are waiting with anxious eyes at my door,
sleepless and silent.
Like a timorous bird you fly to my breast with
eager love.
Ay, ay, my God, much remains still. My fate has
not cheated me of everything."
. - -/ ' (Page 124).
I shall now leave the soul facejto face with God in the
242
THE GARDENER
pure and passionate words of the poet which I am
afraid of desecrating by any words of mine.
" Love, my heart longs day and night for the meet-
ing with you — for the meeting that is like all-
devouring death.
Sweep me away like a storm ; take everything I
have ; break open my sleep and plunder my
dreams. Rob me of my world.
In that devastation, in the utter nakedness of spirit,
let us become one in beauty.
Alas for my vain desire ! Where is this hope for
union except in thee, my God ? "
(Page 87).
24y
CHAPTER lY.
THE CRESCENT MOON.
Tbis work even more than other works of Tagore'si
reveals some great qualities of his genius — his childlike-
purity and simplicity and his deep insight into that
mysterious shrine of holiness and joy which is some-
times desecrated by trespassing passions and griefs and
sin and worldliness — the human heart. The poem — or
rather the series of poems — idealise childhood from'
various points of view. The poems show wherein the
true charm and spiritual power of childhood consist,
what a whole heaven and a whole earth of Loveliness lie
neglected and unnoticed about us— the heaven o£ the
child's heart made bright and beautiful by the sun and
the moon of purity and of love and by the stars of
golden poetic fancies, and the earth of the child's fair
frame which has the radiance and glory of the spring
;ind in which the sweetness and fragrance of all fair and
fragrant flowers reside — a heaven and an earth sweeter
far than the equally unnoticed sapphire sky with its daily
pageant of heavenly presences and the green-mantled
earth with its revolving seasons bringing unto it varie-
gated beauty, ht by laughing flowers, the sweet home
of life and love and joy. There is no one so tortured
by physical pain but finds relief from his agonies at the
sight of the fair fresh limbs and the laughing eyes of a
244
THE CRESCENT MOON
lovely child there is no one so overwheli«ed by
sorrow but does not soar above his grief and rise into
a paradise of peace and joy at the sight of the
buoyancy and gaiety of a child ; there is no one so
enslaved by passion and sin as not to feel a sudden
liberation of the spirit and a sweet access of purity and
heavenliness into his nature at the sight of the perfect
simplicity and goodness of a child. It was this great
truth that Christ brought out in an inimitable way as
original as it is sweet when he said : " Verily I say unlo
you, except ye be converted, and become as little
children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ;
suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid
them not ; for of such is the Kingdom of God." Children
keep the heaven of their heart undefiled because they
do not know the torment and tyranny of passion and
sin. It is through them that we are able to keep in our
hearts such elements of gentleness and love and peace
as sweeten and transfigure our existence.
Testimony to this fact has been borne by science,
by literature and art, and by religion. Science tells us
how the long and helpless infancy of the human
offspring led to lifelong marital unions between men
and women, sweetened our lives with love, dowered us
with the loftiest elements of civilisation, and raised us
from the level of the animal creation to the very ceat of
the Gods. Literature and art have never wearied of
showing how the child keeps the diviner elements alive
245
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
in our souls. The paintings of the Madonna and her
Child in the west, the beautiful story of Krishna's boy-
hood in Gokula, the description of Parvathi's girlhood
and Sri Subramanya's boyhood as found in Kalidasa's
Kumarasambhava, the delineation of Bharatha in
Kalidasa's Sakuntala, the description of the little child
in Silas Marner, and innumerable other instances will
occur to all. The inspired invocation to the child in
Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality is full
of beauty and truth :
'• Thou whose exterior semblance doth belie
Thy Soul's immensity ;
Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep
Thy heritage, thou Eye among the blind.
That, deaf and silent, readst the eternal deep,
Haunted for ever by the eternal mind —
Mighty prophet ! seer blest !
On whom those truths do rest
Which we are toiling all over lives to find,
In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave."
In our religion the realisation of the child's place in
our spiritual economy is vivid and full. A reUgion that
worships God as child in Vinayaka, Subramanya, and
Balakrishna cannot be charged with any lack of appre-
ciation of the beauty of the child-soul.
Tagore's The Cresent Moon marks a real epoch, just as
Blake's publication of "The Songs of Innocence" did in
his time. The note of love and idealism is as promi-
nent in it as the note of intuitive insight into the child-
soul, and we are grateful to the poet for a vivid and
246
THE CRESCENT MOON
joyful appreciation of all that the child-soul means
for us who go through life weighed down by work
and sin, and are allowed to have very few peeps into
the shrine of love and peace and rapture. A perusal of
the book is in fact a revelation of the sources of divine
joy lying so to say about our very feet, and soothes our
world-weariness and sustains and uplifts us, and trans-
figures our souls with a new spiritual illumination which
the poet brings to us in this wonderful poem which
in spite of the fact that it is only a prose rendering'from
the poet's Bengali poem, appeals in an intimate way to
our hearts not only by the beauty of the English prose
but by the poet's passionate sincerity of utterance which
speaks the language of the heart straight to our souls,
whatever be the medium chosen for conveying his pre-
cious sentiments and thoughts. I shall study the poem
intimately so as to get into the heaven of the poet's
soul and bear his message to the millions who go
through life full of grief and pain unaware of the love-
liness and gladness lying unnoticed about them.
The poet first brings home to us what a universal
source of happiness God has given us in our children,
how in every child God makes himself incarnate to us
and shows us what are the really godlike qualities, and
in what manner the children keep our hearts from
becoming worldly and miserable. The very first poem
shows how life is gladdened by children and how this
precious gift of joy is given by God to every human
247
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORfc-
being. The poet says : "I stopped for a moment in my
lonely way under the starlight, and saw spread before
me the darkened earth surrounding with her arms count-
less homes furnished with cradles and beds, mother's
hearts and evening lamps, and young lives glad with a
gladness that knows nothing of its value to the world."
(Pages 1-2).
In the last poem the poet shows how the love of the
child is dearer and more powerful than kingly power
or gold or even the smile of the beloved. In many
places in the poem the poet enforces the same lesson
with all the resources of art at his command.
We shall now try to ascertain how well the poet has
studied the child's mind and heart and soul and how he
is able to reveal to us the physical and mental graces of
children and their high moral and spiritual qualities.
He first shows how there is true greatness and heaven-
liness behind the simplicity of the child-life. The poet
says in the fourth poem :
"Baby knows all manner of wise words, though few
on earth can understand their meaning.
It is not for nothing that he never wants to speak.
The one thing he wants is to learn mother's words
from mother's lips. That is why he looks so innocent.
Baby had a heap of gold and pearls, yet he came like
a beggar on to this earth.
It is not for nothing he came in such a disguise.
This dear Httle naked mendicant pretends to be
248
THE CRESCENT MOON
utterly helpless, so that he may beg for mother's wealth
of love.
Baby was so free from every tie in the land of the
tiny crescent moon.
It was not for nothing he gave up his freedom.
He knows that there is room for endless joy in
mother's little corner of a heart, and it is sweeter tar
than liberty to be pressed in lier dear arms.
Baby never knew how to cry. He dwelt in the land
■of perfect bliss.
It is not for nothing he has chosen to shed tears.
Though with the smile of his dear face he draws
mother's yearning heart to him, yet his little cries over
liny troubles weave the double bond of pity and love."
(Pages 7-8).
There are many beautiful passages in this volume in
which the mystery of the child's coming is enshrined in
words of haunting beauty and melody. In one poem
the mother says to the child :
" You were hidden in my heart as its desire, my
darling.
You were in the dolls of my childhood's games ;
and when with clay I made the image of my
God every morning, I made and unmade you
then.
You were enshrined with our household deity, in
his worship I worshipped you.
When in girlhood my heart was opening its petals,
249
SIR KkBINDRANATH TAGORE ,
you hovered as a fragrance about it.
Your tender softness bloomed in my youthful limbs
like a glow in the sky before sunrise.
Heaven's first darling, twin-born with the morning
light, you have floated down the stream of the
world's life, and at last you have stranded on
my heart.
As I gaze on your face, mystery overwhelms me ;
you who belong to all have become mine.
For fear of losing you I hold you tight to my
breast. What magic has ensnared the world's
treasure in these slender arms of mine ?"
(Pages 15-16).
When studying thus Tagore's study of the child in it-
self, we must make prominent mention of his aliveness
to the beauty of the child's body — fresh, fair, and
fragrant like that of a flower. The golden loveliness of
its skin so soft to the touch and so enrapturing to
the sight ; the heart-stealing, innocent, and radiant
smile on the face of the child ; the pure, trustful, and
loving light in its bright black eyes; the sweet crescent of
its forehead ; the dimpled sweetness of its cheek and chin;
and the slender, supple, and lissome grace of its limbs
awaken in our hearts a feeling of deep thankfulness to
God for bringing to us through the gift of children
revelations of His beauty and rebirths of inner spring.
The poem called " The Source " brings out this senti-
ment in a beautiful manner.
250
THE CRESCENT MOON
" The sleep that flits on baby's eyes — does anybody
know from where it comes? Yes, there is a rumour
that it has its dwelling where, in the fairy village
among shadows of the forest dimly lit with glow-
worms, there hang two shy buds of enchantment.
From there it comes to kiss baby's eyes.
The smile that flickers on baby's Ups when he sleeps
— does anybody know where it was born? Yes, there is a
rumour that a young pale beam of a crescent moon touch-
ed the edge of a vanishing autumn cloud, and there the
smile was first born in the dream of a dew-washed
morning — the smile that flickers on baby's lips when
he sleeps.
The sweet, soft -freshness that blooms on baby's Hmbs
— does anybody knovir where it was hidden so long ?
Yes, when the mother was a young girl it lay pervad-
ing her heart in tender and silent mystery of love — the
sweet, soft freshness that has bloomed on baby's Hmbs."
(Pages 5-6).
In thus realising and expressing the beauty of a child,,
the poet recognises how even dirt in a child does not
take away its appeal and charm — so" full of true beauty
and fascination is the fair fresh frame of a child. At
page 20 the mother tells the child : " You have stained
your fingers and face with ink while writing — is that why
call you dirty ? O, lie I Would they dare to call the
full moon dirty, because it has smudged its face with
ink ? You tore your clothes
251
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
while playing — is that why call you untidy ? O, lie !
What would they call an autumn morning that smiles
through its ragged clouds ? " (Pages 20-21). The
very same idea that even what is unlovely becomes
beautiful and enhances beauty in the case of perfectly
lovely forms is conveyed in the immortal stanza of
Kalidasa :
(A lovely blossomed lotus flower, though surrounded
by moss, is still beautiful and fair ; the dark-spot in the
white orb of the full moon increases its attractiveness.
This fair maiden is all the fairer in her dark garments.
What does not become an ornament on the person of
sweet and perfect beauty ?)
No poet has brought more vividly before our heart the
irresistible appeal of the winsome ways of a child as
Tagore has done. The description of Krishna's child-
hood and of the sweet ways by which the Divine Child
made every one around him glad and willing slaves of
love that we read in stately and melodious verses in the
Bhagaivatha is not more beautiful than the exquisite
and intimate touches by which Tagore brings the child's
sweet and heavenly winsomeness before us. The child's
■disregard of limitations of time and space and its
252
THE CRESCENT MOON
perfect unconsciousness of the various artificial and often
annoying limitations and restrictions which we regard
as making up civilised life seem to lead us into a world
altogether new where the sense of possession and selfish
suspicion of others vanishes, and we feel like children
glad of the beauty and sunshine of life and glad of all
partaking of the same along with us. All true joy
results from self-poise and release from petty limitations
and restrictions, and wherefrom and how can we win
such self-poise and glad release if not from the word
of God and the equally sweet words of children, for
of such is the Kingdom of God ? Tagore well calls the
sweet ways of children as "the unheeded pageant."
The poem at page 9 is full of beauty and brings out this
aspect very vividly.
"Ah, who was it coloured that little frock, my
child, and covered your sweet limbs with that
little red tunic ?
You have come out in the morning to play in the
courtyard, tottering and tumbling as you run.
But who was it coloured that little frock, my child ?
What is it makes you laugh, my little life-bud ?
Mother smiles at you standing on the threshold-
She claps her hands and her bracelets jingle, and
you dance with your bamboo stick in your hand
like a tiny little shepherd.
But what is it makes you laugh, my little life-bud ?
253
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
O beggar, what do you beg for, clinging to your
mother's neck with both your hands ?
O greedy heart, shall I pluck the world like a fruit
from the sky to place it on your little rosy palm ?
O beggar, what are you begging for ? The wind
carries away in glee the tinkling of your anklet
bells.
The sun smiles and watches your toilet.
The sky watches over you when you sleep in your
mother's arms, and the morning comes tiptoe to
your bed and kisses your eyes.
The wind carries away in glee the tinkling of your
anklet bells," (Pages 9-10).
I shall now take up Tagore's loving analysis and
interpretation of the child's personality, because a great
poet's great glory is that he takes the common things
and makes us see their diviner aspects and expresses
the same in simple words that somehow take colour
and radiance and become full of a heavenly significance
wh'^-n irradiated by the light of his soul.
Tagore adverts again and again to the child's absolute
freedom from cares and its sportiveness and love of
play. He says:
"They build their houses with sand, and they play
with empty shells. With withered leaves they
weave their boats, and smilingly float them on the
vast deep. Children have their play on the sea-
shore of worlds.
254
THE CRESCENT MOON
They know not how to swim, they know not how
to cast nets. Pearl hshers dive for pearls, mer-
chants sail in their ships, while children gather
pebbles and scatter them. They seek not for hid-
den treasures, they know not how to cast nets.
• • • • •
On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.
Tempest roams in the pathless sky, ships are
wrecked in the trackless water, death is abroad
and children play on the seashore of endless
worlds in the great meeting of children."
(Pages 3-4).
Besides this general description Tagore brings home
to our hearts intimately the games that Indian boys love
and the appeal of such games to our souls. He says:
"I launch my paper boats and look up into the sky
and see the little clouds setting their white bulg-
ing sails.
I know not what play mate of mine in the sky sends
them down the air to race with my boats!"
(Page 38).
Tagore then brings vividly before us the child's
exquisite delight in beautiful objects that appeal to our
senses. First and foremost is its love of flowers which
is as deep and sweet as our maturer passion for the
shining wealth of light in the morning, the mysterious
beauty of forests in the night, and the majestic rivers
that bear the gift of life to all. He says:
255
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
*'Ah! these jasmines, these white jasmines ! I seem
to remember the first day when I filled my hands
with these jasmines.
I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green
earth ;
I have heard the liquid murmur of the river
through the darkness of midnight.
Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of a
road in the lonely waste, like a bride raising her
veil to accept her lover.
Yet my memory is still sweet with the first white ..
jasmines that I held in my hand when I was a
child." (Page 70).
Tagore's interpretation of the child-mind is equally
beautiful. He deeply desires to enter into the child's
mind. He says :
"I wish I could travel by the road that crosses
baby's mind, and out beyond all bounds ;
Where messengers run errands for no cause be-
tween the kingdoms of kings of no history ;
Where Reason makes kites of her laws and flies
them, and Truth sets fact free from its fetters."
He describes admirably the child's love of song, its
love of stories, its supreme gift of imagination, and its
desire to play the man. Wordsworth has described
this aspect of the child's personality in a beautiful
stanza.
" Behold the Child among his new born blesses,
A six year's Darling of a pigmy size!
256
THE CRESCENT MOON
See, where' mid work of his own hand he lies,
Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses,
With light upon him from his father's eyes!
See at his feet, some little plan or chart,
Some fragment from his dream of human life,
Shaped by himself with newly learned art;
A wedding or a festival,
A mourning or a funeral,
And this hath now his heart.
And unto this he frames his song:
Then will he fit his tongue
To dialogues of business, love or strife;
But it will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside,
And with joy and pride
The little actor cons another part;
Filling from time to time his 'humorous stage'
With all the persons, down to palised Age,
That Life brings with her in her equipage;
As if his whole vocation
Were endless imitation."
The following description by Tagore of a boy's song
is full of beauty:
"Suddenly a boy's shrill voice rose into the sky. He
traversed the dark unseen, leaving the track o£
his song across the hush of the evening."
His poem 'The Land of the Exile' and other poems
show the child's love of stories. The child's wonderful
imagination is described again and again in these poems.
It is difficult to choose illustrations when there are so
many of them. I give a few below.
257
17
SIR RABINDRAN\TH TAGORE
^'I shall be the cloud and you the moon. I shall
cover you with both my hands, aud our house-
top will be the blue sky."
• • • • •
I will be the waves and you will be a strange shore.
I shall roll on and on, and break upon your lap
with laughter.
And no one in the world will know where we both
are." (Pages 27-8).
"Supposing I been me z champ a flower, just for
fun, and grew on a branch high up that tree,
and shook in the wind with laughter and danced
upon the newly budded leaves, would you know
me, mother ?
You would call, ' Baby, where are you ?' and I
should laugh to myself and keep quite quiet.
1 should shyly open my petals and watch you at
your work." (Page 29).
•' The princess lies sleeping on the far away shore
of the seven impassable seas.
There is none in the world who can find her but
myself.
She has bracelets on her arms and pearl drops in
her ears ; her hair sweeps down upon the floor.
She will wake when I touch her with my magic
wand, and jewels will fall from her lips when
she smiles.
But let me whisper in your ear, mother ; she is
258
THE CRESCENT MOON
there in the corner of our terrace where the pot
of the tulsi plant stands". (Pages 31-32).
" I can imagine how, on just such a cloudy day,
the young son of the king is riding alone on a
grey horse through the desert, in search of the
princess who lies imprisoned in the giants' palace
across that unknown water." (Page 34)»
The child's love of adventure and high achievement
is equally beautifully described in his poems. He de-
sires to " cross the seven seas and the thirteen rivers of
fairy land" (page 40), to ' ride abroad redressing human
wrongs', and to bring relief to those in distress (pages
62-4). He desires to play the man and take part in the
work of the world. (Page 42, page 50).
Tagore's insight unto the child's heart is equally ad-
mirable. He shows how full of love for the mother
the child is, and how to it she is the dearest thing in
the world.
" Mother, do you want heaps and heaps of gold ?
There, by the banks of golden streams, fields are
full of golden harvest.
And in the shade of the forest path the golden
champa flowers drop on the ground.
I will gather them all for you in many hundred
baskets." (Page 47).
^' What nice stories, mother, you can tell us ! Why
can't father write like that, I wonder ?"
I Page 58).
259
SIK RABINDKANATH TAGORE
" I shall become a delicate draught of air and
caress you ; and I shall be ripples in the water
when you bathe, and kiss you and kiss you
again." (Page 66).
The child's purity, trustfulness, innocence, and love
for all — in fact the whole paradise of the child's moral
nature is beautifully revealed to us in these poems.
And what shall we say of his description of the child
-soul ? " Heaven lies about us in our infancy." Tagore
.says:
" The fairy mistress of dreams is coming towards.
you, flying through the twilight sky.
The world-mother keeps her seat by you in your
mother's heart.
He who plays his music to the stars is standing at
your window with his flute.
And the fairy mistress of dreams is coming to-
wards you, flying through the twilight sky".
(Pages 10-11).
I shall now consider Tagore's loving study of the
exquisite relationship between adult life and child-life
and of all that the child means for us and does for us.
First and foremost he makes us feel how we are " but
children of a larger growth".
" I am busy with my accounts, adding up figures
by the hour
I seek out costly playthings, and gather lumps o£
gold and silver.
260
THE CRESCENT MOON
With whatever you find you create your glad
games; I spend both my time and my strength
over things I never can obtain.
In my frail canoe I struggle to cross the sea of de-
sire, and forget that I too am playing a game".
(Pages 23-24).
The mother's deep love for the child — that most
"wonderful and divine thing to which there is no
parallel this side of heaven — ^is well described by the
poet.
" I do not love him because he is good, but be-
cause he is my little child
I alone have the right to blame and punish, for he
only may chastise who loves". (Page 22).
The supreme value of the child to us for our inner
growth is well described by the poet. It is through
the child that we are kept from becoming of the earth,
earthy. The divine elements of life — pity, self-sacrifice,
love, eagerness to serve, joy, — are kept alive, in us by
the child's regenerative influence. Tagore says :
•' Bless this Httle heart, this white soul that has
won the kiss of heaven for our earth.
He loves the light of the sun, he loves the sight of
his mother's face.
He has not learned to despise the dust, and to
hanker after gold.
Clasp him to your heart and bless him.
261
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
He will follow you, laughing and talking, and not
a doubt in his heart.
Keep his trust, lead him straight and bless him.
• • • • •
Forget him not in your hurry, let him come to your
heart and bless him." (Page 74-75).
The poem called " The Child-Angel" shows this even
more clearly.
" They clamour and fight, they doubt and despair^
they know no end to her wranglings.
Let your life come amongst them hke a flame of
light, my child, unflinching and pure, and delight
them into silence.
They are cruel in their greed and their envy, their
words are like hidden knives thirsting for blood.
Go and stand amidst their scowling hearts, my
child, and let your gentle eyes fall upon them
like the forgiving peace of the evening over the
strife of the day.
Let them see your face, my child, ' and thus know
the meaning of all things ; let them love you and
thus love each other.
Come and take your seat in the bosom of the limit-
less, my child. At sunrise open and raise your
heart like a blossoming flower, and at sunset
bend your head and in silence complete the
worship of the day." (Pages 79-80).
Indeed, life itself becomes full of meaning for us and
262
THE CRESCENT MOON
we realise its significance through the contemplation of
the child-nature. For are we not all children of God
who takes delight in our delight? As Christ says ;
" Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask
for bread, will he give him a stone ?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent ?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children, how much more shall your
Father which is in heaven give good things to
them that ask him "
Tagore's poem When and Why says :
" When I bring you coloured toys, my child, I
understand why there is such a play of colours on
clouds, on water, and why flowers are painted
in tints, — when I give coloured toys to you, my
child.
When I sing to make you dance, I truly know why
there is music in leaves, and why waves send
their chorus of voices to the heart of the listening
earth — when I sing to make you dance.
When I bring sweet things to your greedy hands,
I know why there is honey in the cup of the
flower, and why fruits are secretly filled with
sweet juice — when I bring sweet things to your
greedy hands.
When I kiss your face to make you smile, my
darhng, T surely understand what pleasure
streams from the sky in morning light, and what
263
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
delight the summer breeze brings to my body —
when I kiss you to make you smile."
(Pages 18-19).
What can we give to the child in return for all this ?
What can be a fit recompepse for love ? What but love
itself ? We must embosom their lives in love so that
our memory will ever remain in their hearts like a
blessing, and their love will make the heaven where we
shall go a heavenlier place as it made a heaven of the
earth where we were. Two poems of Tagore's teach us
this in words of faultless beauty and I shall quote
them. One is called The Gift.
" I want to give you something, my child, for we
are drifting in the stream of the world.
Our lives will be carried apart, and our love for-
gotten.
But I am not so foolish as to hope that I could buy
your heart with my gifts.
Young is your life, your path long, and you drink
the love we bring at one draught and turn and
run away from us.
You have your play and your playmates. What
harm is there if you have no time or thought
for us?
We, indeed, have leisure enough in old age to
count the days that are past, to cherish in our
hearts what our hands have lost for ever.
The river runs swift with a song breaking through
264
THE CRESCENT MOON
all barriers. But the mountain stays and re-
members, and follows her with his love."
(Pages 76-77).
The next poem is entitled " My Song."
"This song of mine will wind its music around you,
my child, like the fond arms of love.
This song of mine will touch your forehead like a
kiss of blessing.
When you are alone it will sit by your side and
whisper in your ear, when you are in the crowd
it will fence you about with aloofness.
My song will be like a pair of wings to your dreams,
it will transport your heart to the verse of the
unknown.
It will be like the faithful star overhead when dark
night is over your road.
My song will sit in the pupils of your eyes and will
carry your sight into the heart of things. When
my voice is silent in death, my song will speak in
your living heart." (Page 78).
Thus this poem is full of wonderful beauty and
heavenly sweetness of suggestion. In the divine magi-
cal mirror of the poet's heart the crescent moon is
reflected, but in the reflection has become by some
mysterious process a full-orbed moon of art, stainless,
radiant, full of calm and steadfast rapture, carrying
our thoughts far away from earthiness and strife into
the paradise of love and joy and peace.
265
CHAPTER y.
CHITRA.
In this play we have not the same affluence of mysti-^
cal thought and emotion as in other works by Tagore.
But we have in it a realisation of the diviner elements
of life and love, a heavenly message to the human soul
as to what is the meaning of love in the truest sense of
the term.
The play is not only a thing of beauty in itself but
reveals to us what artistic possibilities lie in our
Puranas if only we have in us the selective and creative
genius of great poets like Kalidasa and Tagore and
learn the message of the Puranic stories aright and seek
to steep them in the hght of our imagination and re-
veal them to the world for its uplift and delight. The
great peculiarity in the case of stories of India is that
they are still a living force m the hearts of men ; that
the persons dealt within them are still our ideals who
dominate and direct our lives and our thoughts ; and
that a new interpretation of such stories in a vivid ^
manner that will bring out the great dreams of our race
loyally will be a great national work for which unborn i
generations will be grateful to us, because it will help
to unify and intensify our national life and make our
land full of dynamic love and achievement, a p ■ \ ..)
■ 2«6 ^1Ul
W^ » ^
CHITRA
The message of the play is the idea so beautifully
expressed in Carew's poem on True Beauty :
" He that loves a rosy cheek
Or a coral lip admires
Or from star-like love doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires ;
As old Time maketh these decay,
So his flames must waste away.
But a smooth and steadfast mind,
Gentle thoughts and calm desires,
Hearts with equal love combined
Kindle never dying fires : —
Where these are not, I despise
Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes !''.
The poet teaches us that the love that is founded on'
beauty of body alone is built on insecure foundations.
Beauty in human face and form is like the glow of sun-
set on evening clouds, " like hues and harmonies of
evening" — glorious, fleeting, mysterious. To the man
with true vision the beauty, grace, and charm that en-
raptures the lover in his beloved's face is but a dim re-
flection, an imperfect revelation, of the wondrous vision
— the light of the soul behind the veil of the mortal
flesh. The beauty of the soul is immortal as the soul
is immortal. Love built on the beauty of the soul is
built on a rock and endures for ever.
To understand aright the play before us we must re-
member one great characteristic of Indian love-poetry.
Though Indian poets have sung in rapturous terms
267
,\
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
about love at first sight, the sudden blossoming of true
and loyal and measureless affection and devotion for
another in the garden of the heart, the transfiguration
of the soul and the universe in the morning radi-
ance of new-born love, they dwell even more lovingly
and rapturously on the deep and heavenly joys of love
after marriage with the sweet charities of home life, on
the calm mid-day splendour of love's sun which, if it
has less pomp and variety of colour, has a loftier height,
a more universal outlook, a more fruitful power. The
European literary artists dwell more upon the former
aspect of love than on the latter aspect. Our literary
artists dwell on both but dwell with more love and joy
upon the latter than on the former aspect. Ernst Horn-
witz in his Short History of Indian Literature says :
" Conjugal fidelity takes a prominent place amongst
Hindu virtues, and gems many a page of Sanscrit
Literature." Wilson says : " The loose gallantry of
modern comedy is unknown to the Hindus, and they
are equally strangers to the professed adoration of
chivalric poetry ; but their passion is neither tame
nor undignified. It is sufficiently impassioned not
to degrade the object of the passion ; while at the
same time the place that woman holds in society
is too rationally defined for her to assume an influence
foreign to her nature, and the estimate in which human
life is held is too humble for a writer to elevate any
mortal to the honours of divinity."
268
CHITRA
«
That this is true about our world of art is indisput-
able. The dawn of love before marriage is exquisitely
described in verses full of true delicacy of feeling and
wonderful insight in the stories of Sakuntala, Damayan- d^
thi, Malathi, and others. Even in such stories the poets
take us to the riper and higher lives of these women, and fe«W
show their measureless devotion, love, and self-efface-
ment after their marriage. The literary artists of India
however produce their subtlest and sweetest literary
effect in bringing out the heaven of the sentiment of
love after marriage. In fact many of the greatest love-
stories of India take up the lives of the herohies of ^
India after their marriage. The instance of the
Yaksha's wife in Kalidasa's MeghaSandesa is not a c^
unique instance, though his great poetic genius has t^
enabled him to lift his theme fo the loftiest heights of
achievement. The stories of Sita, Savitri, Droupathi, f'^
and other heroines, human and divine, show this truth ^.j^/,
very well. Sir Monier Williams says in his book on,
Indian Wisdom : " Indeed, in depicting scenes of
domestic affection, and expressing those universal
feelings and emotions which belong to human nature,
Sanskrit epic poetry is unrivalled even by the Greek
epos." Again he says: "It must be admitted, however,
that in exhibiting pictures of domestic life and manners
the Sanskrit epics are even more true and real than the
Greek and Roman .... Indeed, Hindu wives
are generally perfect patterns of conjugal fidelity : non
269
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORli
can it be doubted that in these delightful portraits of
the Fativrata (devoted wife) we have true representa-
tions of the purity and simplicity of Hindu domestic
manners in early times." I shall quote here only one
exquisite passage from the great poet Bhavabhuthi's
Vttara Rama Charita^ where Rama describes in one per-
fect stanza the calm rapture, the utter selflesness, the
faithfulness unto death and beyond death, and the pure
and passionate perfection of the wedded love of himself
and Sita.
^^ ^ g'H^^'T ^«w:^^ f|^rc5rr:?T% 11
(It is hard to win — and happy and unrivalled is he
who wins — that supreme and blessed and true love of
a good and loving woman which knows no change in
grief and in joy, which is faithful in all moods and
conditions, whereon the heart reposes amidst the trials
of life, the sweetness of which never decays with the
decay of bodily vigour, and which becomes as time goes
on the very quintessence of fond affection owing to the
removal of all barriers to its perfect and blissful self-
expression). ,
Tagore is a true child of his great poetic ancestors.
He has recognised and expressed the true glory of love
in his works. His insight into Indian ideals and
270
CHITRA
■conceptions of love is very well shown in fhe essays that
he has written interpreting the genius of Kalidasa.
He says: "The poet has shown here, as in.
Ktimarasambhava^ that the Beauty that goes hand in
hand with Moral law is eternal, that the calm,
controlled, and beneficent form of Love is its best form,
that Beauty is truly charming under restraint and decays |,
quickly when it gets wild and unfettered. This ancient 1
poet of India refuses to recognise love as its own high-
est glory; he proclaims that goodness is the final goal
of love. He teaches us that the love of man and woman
is not beautiful, not lasting, not fruitful, — so long as it is
self-centred, so long as it does not beget goodness, so
long as it does not diffuse itself in society over son and
daughter, guests and neighbours. The two peculiar
principles of India are the beneficent tie of home-life
on the one hand, and the liberty of the soul abstracted
from the world on the other. In the world India is
variously connected with many races and many creeds;
she cannot reject any of them. But on the altar of
•devotion {tapasya) India sits alone. Kalidasa has shown,
both in Sakuntala and Kumar asatnbhava, that there is a
harmony between these two principles, an easy transition
from the one to the other. In his hermitage human boys
play with lion cubs, and the hermit — spirit is reconciled
with the spirit of the householder. On the foundation
of the hermitage of recluses Kalidas has built the home
of the householder. He has rescued the relation of the
271
SIK RABINDRANATH TAGORE
sexes from the sway of lust and enthroned it on the
holy and pure seat of asceticism. In the sacred books
of the Hindus the ordered relation of the sexes has been
defined by strict injunctions and laws. Kalidas has
demonstrated that relation by means of the elements oi
of Beauty. The Beauty that he adores is lit up by
grace, modesty, and goodness; in its intensity it is true
to one for ever ; in its range it embraces the whole uni-
verse. It is fulfilled by renunciation, ratified by sorrow,
and rendered eternal by religion. In the midst of this
Beauty, the impetueous unruly love of man and woman
has restrained itself and attained to a profound peace
like a wild torrent merged in the ocean of Goodness.
Therefore is such love higher and more wonderful than
wild and unrestrained Passion." (See Ganesh and Co'&
The Indian Nation- Builders, Volume III pages 337-338).
The story of the drama is very slight, and the beauty
of the play lies rather in its presentation audits message
than in the story. Chitra is the only daughter of
Chitravahana who has however no son. She is brought
up to be the ruler of a kingdom, and is trained to be-^
come a beneficent ruler and military chieftain. She has
all through her young life cherished a fond passion for
Arjuna, the chivalrous prince and the ideal man, whom
she has however never seen. Arjuna, in the course of
his pilgrimage, meets her wearing her usual masculine
attire, and on learning who he is the woman in her
wakes up. She describes this meeting thus:
272
CHITRA
"One day in search of game I roved alone to the
forest on the bank of the Parna river. Tying
my horse to a tree trunk 1 entered a dense thick-
et on the track of a deer. I found a narrow
sinuous path meandering through the dusk of the
entangled boughs, the foliage vibrated with the
chirping of crickets, when of a sudden I came
upon a man lying on a bed of dried leaves across
my path. I asked him haughtily to move aside,but
he heeded not. Then with the sharp end of my
bow I pricked him in contempt. Instantly he leapt
up with straight, tall limbs, like a sudden tongue
of fire from a heap of ashes. An amused smile
flickered round the corners of his mouth, perhaps
at the sight of my boyish countenance. Then for
the first time in my Ufe I felt myself a woman, and
knew that a man was before me." (Pages 4-5).
She then dons feminine garments and meets him.
But she is of an unattractive plainness of face and has
no seductiveness of form and figure, and has never
cultivated those feminine graces that have the most
potent charm and power in their apparent weakness.
He puts her off with the statement that he has taken a
vow of celibacy for twelve years.
She then meets Madana (the God of love) who "binds
in bonds of pain and bliss the lives of men and women,"
and Vasanta (the God of Spring) who is " Eternal
Youth." She tells Madana ;
273
18
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
"I know no feminine wiles for winning hearts.
My hands are strong to bend the bow, but I have
never learnt Cupid's archery, the play of eyes
Oh, the vow of a man ! Surely thou knowest,
thou god of love that unnumbered saints and
sages have surrendered the merits of their life-
long penance at the feet of a woman. ....
O Love, God Love, thou hast laid low in the dust
the vain pride of my manlike strength ; and all
my man's training lies crushed under thy feet.
Now teach me thy lessons ; give me the power
of the weak, and the weapon of the unarmed
hand For a single day make
me superbly beautiful, even as beautiful as was
the sudden blooming of love in my heart. Give
■ me but one brief day of perfect beauty, and I will
answer for the days that follow."
(Pages 3, 7, 8, 9, 10).
Madana then says : " Lady, I grant thy prayer."
Vasanta adds : " Not for the short span of a day, but
for one whole year the charm of spring blossoms shall
nestle round thy limbs."
Arjuna then meets this superb beauty seated by a lake
looking at the image of her newborn heavenly loveli-
ness glassed in nature's mirror. Love blossoms in his
heart at once. The following marvellous description
deserves our loving perusal.
" Was I dreaming or was what I saw by the lake
374
CHITRA
truly there ? Sitting on the mossy turf, I mused
over by-gone years in the sloping shadows of the
evening, when slowly there came out from the
folding darkness of foliage an apparition of
beauty in the perfect form of a woman, and stood
on a white slab of stone at the water's brink. It
seemed that the heart of the earth must heave in
joy under her bare white feet — methought the
vague veilings of her body should melt in ecstacy
into air as the golden mist of dawn melts from o^
the snowy peak of the eastern hill. She bowed
herself above the shining mirror of the lake and
saw the reflection of her face. She started up
in awe and stood still ; then smiled, and with a
careless sweep of her left arm unloosed her hair
and let it trail on the earth at her feet. She
bared her bosom and looked at her arms, so
flawlessly modelled, and instinct with an exquisite
caress. Bending her head she saw the sweet
blossoming ot her youth and the tender bloom
and blush of her skin. She beamed with a glad
surprise. So, if the white lotus bud on opening
her eyes in the morning were to arch her neck
and see her shadow in the water, would she
wonder at herself the live-long . day. But .a
moment after the smile passed from her face,
and a shade of sadness crept into her eyes. She
bound up her tresses, drew her veil over her
275
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
arms, and sighing slowly, walked away like a
beauteous evening fading into the night. To me
the supreme fulfilment of a desire seemed to
have been revealed in a flash and then to have
vanished." (Pages 12-13).
Chitra surrenders herself to him. There is a delicate
touch of irony in the following dialogue.
" Chitra — Then it is not true that Arjuna has taken
a vow of chastity for twelve long years ?
Arjuna — But you have dissolved my vow even as
the moon dissolves the night's vow of obscurity.""
Though full of deep love for him she grieves at his^
homage to her borrowed beauty of body and tells him
by hints — and that however could not convey the truth
— about her beauty being a temporary gift.
^* Chitra — Surely this cannot be love, this is not
man's homage to woman ! alas, that this frail
disguise, the body, should make one blind to the
light of the deathless spirit !
• • • • •
Arjuna — Ah, I feel how vain is fame, the pride of •
prowess ! Everything seems to me a dream. You.
alone are perfect ; you are the wealth of the
world, the end of all poverty, the goal of all
efforts, the one woman ! Others there are who
can be but slowly known. While to see you for
a moment is to see perfect completeness once
and for ever.
276
CHITRA
•Chitra — Alas, it is not I, not I, Arjuna ! It is the
deceit of a God. Go, go, my hero, go. Woo not
falsehood. Offer not your great heart to am
illusion. Go." (Pages 18-19).
But she surrenders to the passionate call of his love
•out of her exceeding love for him. After her first night
of supreme happiness, she goes back to Madana and
'Vasanta and passionately beseeches them to take back
their gift — the beauty that the Gods had thrown about
"her like a golden raiment woven of the radiance of sun-
rise and sunset and moonUght and night and flowers
and everything else wherein the spirit of beauty dwells.
Vasanta says to her :
" A limitless life of glory can bloom and spend
itself in a morning."
(Page 22).
Madana says :
*' Like an endless meaning in the narrow span of a
song." (Page 23).
She replies :
" But when I woke in the morning from my dream
I found that my body had become my own rival.
It is my hateful task to deck her every day, to
send her to my beloved, and see her caressed by
him. O God, take back the boon !"
(Page 27).
Then Vasanta tells her :
" Listen to my advice. When with the advent of
277
SIR RAKLNDKANATH TAGORE
■ ' autumn the flowering season is over, then comes-
■' the triumph of fruitage. A time will come of
itself when the heat-cloyed bloom of the body will
• droop and Arjuna will gladly accept the abiding
^^ ? fruitful truth in thee ! O child, go back to thy
mad festival."
She then goes back and the year of perfect happiness
i^ drawing to a close. Arjuna tells her that he wishes td
take her home as his bride. There is a genuine cry of
the heart in her reply.
" Home ! But this love is not for a home. . . .
That which was meant for idle days should
never outlive them. Joy turns into pain when
the door by which it should depart is shut
against it. Take it and keep it as long as it lasts.
Let not the satiety of your evening claim more
than the desire of your morning could earn. . .
The day is done. Put this garland on. I am
tired. Take me in your arms, my love. Let all
vain bickerings of discontent die away at the
sweet meeting of our lips."
(Pages 80-1)..
What is Arjuna's reply ?
" Hush ! Listen, my beloved, the sound of prayer-
bells from the distant village temple steals upon,
• • the evening air across the silent trees !"
(Page 31).
These words suggest in a wonderful way more than^
2-78
CHITRA
express words can do that love is a benediction coming
from God and not a mere empty day's dalliance with
the fleeting fairness of the body's flower.
Arjuna yeirns more and more to get nearer to her
soul. He yearns also to go back to his kingly work of
love and helpfulness to his subjects though his love of
Chitra in the forest is still the dominant passion of his
heart. He says to her :
" I woke in the morning and found that my dreams
had distilled a gem. I have no casket to enclose
it, no king's crown whereon to iix it, no chain
from which to hang it, and yet have not the
heart to throw it away. My Kshatriya's right
arm idly occupied in holding it forgets its
duties The restless spirit is on me.
I long to go hunting."
(Pages 35-36).
Chitra replies :
" First run down the quarry you are now following.
Are you quite certain that the enchanted deer
you pursue must needs be caught ? No, not yet.
Like a dream the wild creature eludes you when
it seems most nearly yours. Look how the wind
is chased by the mad rain that discharges a thou-
sand arrows after it. Yet it goes free and un-
conquered. Our sport is like that, my love !
You give chase to the fleet-footed spirit of
beauty, aiming at her every dart you have in
279
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
your hands. Yet this magic deer runs ever free
and untouched". (Page 37).
Arjuna says in reply to this :
" Come closer to me, unattainable one ! Surrender
yourself to the bonds of name and home and
parentage. Let my heart feel you on all sides
and live with you in the peaceful security of
love Mistress mine, do not hope to
pacify love with airy nothings. Give me some-
thing to clasp, something that can last longer
than pleasure, that can endure even through
suffering." (Page 39).
It is thus clear that he has thus risen into a higher
plane of love and has become enamoured of the beauty
of her sou). But she could not then reveal herself as
she is, as the gift of the Gods is still on her in all its
splendour, and the God-given garment of glory en-
wraps her in a sheath of physical radiance.
Then comes the last night. Vasanta tells her :
" The lovehness of your body will return to-morrow
to the inexhaustible stores of the spring. The
ruddy tint of thy lips, freed from the memory of
Arjuna's kisses, will bud anew as a pair of fresh
asoka leaves, and the soft, white glow of thy skin
v^ill be born again in a hundred fragrant jasmine
flowers." (Page 41).
Chitra then asks :
" O Gods, grant me this last prayer ! To-night, in
280
CHITRA
its last hour let my beauty flash its brightest,
like the final flicker of a dying flame.''
(Pages 41-2).
Madana replies :
" Thou shalt have thy wish."
(Page 42).
Meantime the villagers come to Arjuna for protec-
tion as their beloved sovereign and protector had
gone on a pilgrimage. He hears from them about
Chitra's purity, tenderness, nobility, and dignity of soul,
ability and wish to serve, and heavenly sweetness of
heart. He becomes deeply enamoured of her and asks
his beloved to tell him about Chitra. Arjuna says to
his beloved :
" They say that in valour she is a man and a
woman in tenderness." (Page 45).
Chitra replies :
" That, indeed, is her greatest misfortune. When
a woman is merely a woman ; when she winds
herself round and round men's hearts with her
smiles and sobs and services and caressing en-
dearments, then she is happy. Of what use to
her are learning and great achievements ?"
(Page 45).
Arjuna yearns to go to protect the villagers and says;
" With new glory I will ennoble this idle arm, and
make of it pillow more worthy of your head."
(Page 47)..
28r
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGOKK
Arjuna confesses that his heart had gone out to
Chitra. Chitra says again :
" Her very quahties are as prison walls, shutting:
her woman's heart in a farewell. She is ob-
scured, she is unfulfilled. Her womanly love
must content itself dressed in rags ; beauty is de-
nied her. She is like the spirit of a cheerless
morning, sitting upon the stony mountain peak,
all her light blotted out by dark clouds. Do not
ask me of her life. It will never sound sweet to
man's ear." (Page 48)»
But Arj Una's heart has been moved by the stories
that he has heard of Chitra's purity, goodness, and
charm of soul. He longs to meet her and says :
" I seem to see her, in my mind's eye, riding on a
white horse, proudly holding the reins in her
left hand, and like the Goddess of Victory dis-
pensing glad hope around her. Like a watch-
ful lioness she protects the litter at her dugs
with a fierce love. Woman's arms, though
adorned with naught but unfettered strength, are
beautiful!"
(Pages 49-50).
Chitra then hesitatingly asks him :
" Arjuna, tell me true, if now at once, by some
magic, I could shake myself free from this volup-
tuous softness, this timid bloom of beauty
shrinking from the rude and healthy touch of the
282
CHITRA
world, and fling it away from my body like
borrowed clothes, would you be able to bear it ?
. . . . . . Would it please your heroic
soul if the playmate of the night aspired to be
the helpmate of the day, if the left arm learnt to
share the burden of the proud right arm ?"
(Pages 50-1).
Arjuna raphes ;
"I never seem to know you aright. You seem to
me like a goddess hidden in a golden image. I
cannot touch you, I cannot pay you my dues in
return for your priceless gifts. Thus my love is
incomplete. Sometimes in the enigmatic depth
of your sad look, in your playful words mocking
at their own meaning, I gain glimpses of a being
trying to rend asunder the langorous grace of her
body, to emerge in a chaste fire of pain through a
vaporous veil of smiles. Illusion is the first
appearance of Truth. She advances towards her
lover in disguise. But a time comes when she
throws off her ornaments and veils and stands
clothed in naked dignity. 1 grope for that ultimate
yoii^ that-bare simplicity of truth.
Why these tears, my love ? Why cover your face
with your hands 't Have I pained you, my dar-
hng? Forget what I said. I will be content with
the present. Let each separate moment of beauty
come to me like a bird of mystery from its unseen
283
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
nest in the dark bearing a message of music
Let me for ever sit with my hope on the brink of
its realization, and thus end my days."
(Pages 52-3)
Such is the conversion of Arjuna's heart, his rise
from the early frail rapture of the senses — born of the
blossomed face, the golden statuesque beauty of form
and figure, the silken softness of the limbs, the fluting
tones full of love's richest music, the fragrance of dark
tresses crowned with flowers, and the sweetness that
dwells in the ruby cup of the lips — to the steadfast
heavenly joy of the soul to which the body is the
revelation of the soul and which seeks the never-
dying and ever-new raptures of the heart born of union
through the elective affinity of two personalities consum-
mating ^heir individual lives by a supreme rebirth in the
heaven of love. Chitra herself — her borrowed garment
of beauty gone- comes cloaked to Arjuna and says :
" I brought from the garden of heaven flowers of
incomparable beauty with which to worship you,
God of my heart. If the rites are over, if the
flowers have faded, let me throw them out of the
temple {unveiling in her original male attire). Now,
look at your worshipper with gracious eyes."
(Page 55).
She then tells him her story of her innate love and her
borrowed radiance and offers her heart at his feet. She
-says:
284:
CHITRA
"I am not beautifully perfect as the flowers with
which I worshipped. I have many flaws and
blemishes :
The gift that I proudly bring to you is the heart
of a woman. Here have all pains and joys been
gathered, the hopes and fears and shames of a
daughter of the dust; here love springs up strug-
gling toward immortal life. Herein lies an
imperfection which yet is noble and grand. If
the flower-service is finished, my master, afpept
this, as your servant for the days to come ! . . .
If you deign to keep me by your side in the path
of danger and daring, if you allow me to share the
great duties of your life, then you will know my
true self. If your babe, whom I am nourishing
in my womb, be born a son, I shall myself teach
him to be a second Arjuna, and send him to you
when the time comes, and then at last you will
truly know me. To-day I can only offer Chitra,
the daughter of a king."
Arjuna's reply is brief but perfect. The poet's wonder-
ful art and his power of conveying " an endless world
of meaning in the narrow span" of a sentence (to use
his own words in the play) are seen in that wonderful
reply of Arjuna:
"Beloved, my life is full."
285
CHAPTER YI.
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER.
The drama that I now proceed to study critically is
one that commands our homage alike by its literary
beauty and its spiritual message. The method that I
shall adopt is the narration of the story in the poet's
owi|jwvords, only interposing a few words and ideas of
my own to bring out the full significance of the situa-
tion and the dialogue. The translation of the drama
by Mr. Kshitish Chandra Sen deserves every commend-
ation for its beauty and charm of style, though it is far
below Tagore's own translations in "Gitanjali " and
"Gardener" in point of beauty and melody of style.
Who is the King of the Dark Chamber ? He is God.
For is He not felt and seen and realised and adored in
the chamber of the heart — the Daharakasa ? A few
wayfarers go into the Kingdom of the King of the
Dark Chamber from the ordinary earthly Kingdoms.
The wonderful art of the poet is seen in the way in
which he has contrasted the earthly Kingdoms with the
Kingdom of God. The ways of the earth are crooked
and perilous. But the Kings there, however, are very
much given to pomp and vainglorious display though
their wisdom and their power for good are very limited.
They merely regulate and curb the beast in man to
286
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
some extent by all sorts of crooked regulations but are
unable to set free the angel in man. But the King of
the Universe is not visible in his Kingdom. His
country is, however, full of wondrous beauty ; the ways
■therein are open and broad and smooth, and there is
absolute liberty given to all. The wayfarers are, how-
ever, bewildered by this new state of affairs. One of
them named Janardan says :
"As for roads in our country — well, they areas
good as non-existent ; narrow and crooked lanes,
a labyrinth of ruts and tracks. Our King does
not believe in open thoroughfares ; he thinks
that streets are just so many openings for his
subjects to fly away from his kingdom. It is quite
the contrary here ; nobody stands in your way,
nobody objects to your going elsewhere if you
like to ; and yet the people are far from desert-
ing this Kingdom. With such streets our coun-
try would certainly have been depopulated in no
time." •
Another reproves him for his crooked views. A
third says :
" One can't help feeling that life becomes a burden
in this country ; one misses the joys of privacy
in these streets."
The poet's gift of subtle satire is shown in the reply
given by a third wayfarer.
2§7
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORK
" And it is Janardan who persuaded us to come to
this precious country ! We never had any second
person like him in our family. You knew my
father, of course ; he was a great man, a pious
man if ever there was one. He spent his whole
life within a circle of a radius of 49 cubits drawn
with a rigid adherence to the injunctions of the
scriptures, and never for a single day did he
cross this circle. After his death a serious
difficulty arose — how cremate him within the
limits of the 49 cubits and yet outside the house ?
At length the priests decided that though we
could not go beyond the scriptural number, the
only way out of the difficulty was to reverse the
figure and make it 94 cubits ; only thus could
we cremate him outside the house without violat-
ing the sacred books. My word, that was strict
observance ! Ours is indeed no common
country.''
*We cannot come across a more scathing indictment
of the meaningless and disastrous addiction of many of
our countrymen to the letter that killeth, and the poet
points out how^ even in such mischievous adherence to
the letter there is infidelity in regard to their vaunted
homage to the scriptures. The attack upon adherence to
the letter that killeth is, of course, not with reference to
our community alone but with reference to all communi-
ties that swear by pet phrases and shibboleths — as for
288
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
instance the theories of the overman and of master-
morality that are now endangering the safety of nations
and the peaceful evolution of humanity — and ruin them-
selves and the world irreparably by such addiction to
evil ways.
As soon as this band of wayfarers comes into the
new kingdom, whom do they meet first ? The poet's
admirable art must be noted here. The wayfarers see
a grandfather with a band of boys. The grandfather
represents the Guru — the teacher whose feet are gladly
and firmly set on the path leading to God, who con-
fers on all by his presence and by his teaching the joy
that irradiates his heart, who is as happy as the day is
long, and who in his heavenly wisdom puts to shame
by the simplicity and truth of his ideas the elaborate
sophistries of others. He comes leading a band of
boys, for, in the words of Jesus Christ, " of such is the
kingdom of heaven." Sri Shankaracharya says :
(The yogi whose mind is bent on seeking union with
the Lord rejoices like a boy and like one who has lost
his senses). The song that the grandmother and the
boys sing is full of the rapture of spring. The play
thus opens with the glory and joy of springtime.
" The Southern gate is unbarred. Come, my spring,
come !
Thou wilt swing at the swing of my heart, come, my
spring, come !
289
19
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Come in the lisping leaves, in the youthful surrender of
flowets ;
Come in the flute songs and the wistful sighs of the wood
lands !
Let your unfastened robe wildly flap in the drunken
wind !
Come, my spring, coriie !"
Then the wayfarers meet some citizens of the new
kingdom. These, not having seen their King, say that
he must be either non-existent or ugly, as otherwise he
would not refuse to appear before his subjects during
the great spring festival. The dialogue among them
contains many beautiful natural touches — one of them
Virupaksha by name has come to the conclusion that
the king mnst be dreadfully ugly and he is dying to com-
municate the secret to all. The grandfather comes into
this group and tells them ;
" We are all Kings in the Kingdom of our King.
Were it not so, how could we hope in our hearts to
meet hira !
We do what we like, yet we do what he likes :
We are not bound with the chain of fear at the feet of a
slave-owning Kmg.
Were it not so, how could we hope in our heart to meet
him !
Our King honours each one of us, thus honours his own
very self.
No littleness can keep us shut in its walls of untruth for
aye.
Were it not so, how could we hope in our heart to meet
him !
We struggle and dig our own path, thus reach his path
at the end.
290
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
We can never get lost in the abyss of dark night. ,
Were it not so, how could we hope in our heart to
meet him !
We may well pause here and try to understand the
great spiritual truths contained in this song. We are
all kings, i.e.^ pure spirits. Else how could divine com-
munion or union be ]")ossible ? The line "we do. what
we like, yet we do what he likes " gives us a more con-
vincing solution of the problems of free will and pre-
destination than is given by many volumes of crabbed
and dull philosophy. We are under the reign of Mercy,
and hence for each step that we take forward His
Mercy takes ten steps towards us and renders our sal-
vation possible. We cannot be in the prison of sorrow
and fear for ever. We struggle towards light and in
realising ourselves realise Him.
The following dialogue between one of the citizens
and the grandfather is as full of truth as it is beautiful.
^^Firsl citizen — Just fancy! Any one libelling me can be
punished, while nobody can stop the mouth of any
rascal who chooses to slander the King.
Grand-father — 'The slander cannot touch the King.
With a mere breath you can blow out the flame which
a lamp inherits from the sun, but if all the world blow
upon the sun itself its effulgence remains undimmed
and unimpaired as before."
This simile enables us to realise vividly how the
unquenchable radiance of God's mercy and love is ever
291
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
illumining us whether we open our eyes to its beauty
and saving power or not and whether we give it the
homage of our hearts or revile it in our hardness of
heart and blindness of vision.
Then re-enter the party of foreigners with whom the
play opens. Janardan tries to convince them that the
order and regularity and harmony existing in the King-
dom presupposes the existence of a King but the others
would not believe him as he had not seen the King
himself.
The following song that now occurs in this play is
admirably conceived and expressed.
"My beloved is ever in my heart,
That is why I see him everywhere,
He is in the pupils of my eyes
That is why I see him everywhere.
I went far away to hear his own words,
But, ah, it was vain!
When I came back I heard them
In my own songs.
Who are you to seek him like a
beggar from door to door!
Come to my heart and see his face in
the tears of my eyes !"
This poem is full of high and sweet spiritual ideas
God is near to those who seek Him within themselves
through the golden pathway of love and meditation.
The Laltta sahasranama says of the Universal Mother:
292
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
(Who is capable of approach and worship by one who
■seeks Her by means of meditation and inward striving,
and who is hard to reach by mere outside search and
■external forms of worship). If our heart is full of God
we can then see the divine radiance everywhere. We
need not go far to hear His voice. In the stillness of
our meditation and in the rapturous outpourings of
our love we hear his magical flute. We need not seek
Him from place to place. Let us go to the true devotee
who yearns for God's love and whose heart is pure. In
the temple of the pure heart and in the tears that spring
to the eyes when we realise our unworthiness to receive
His love, we can see the radiance of His face.
Now comes the episode of the false King. He has
the flag and the paraphernalia of the true King; but he
is a miserable counterfeit, though he is very beautiful
to see. The citizens are overjoyed when they learn
from the heralds that the King is coming. One of them,
Kumbha by name, tells the others that once he paid
homage to a false King and was disappointed in his
expectations. He says :
"It is only the other day that a King came and
paraded the streets, with as many titles in front
of him as the drums that made the town hideous
by their din What did I not do to
serve and please him! I rained presents on him, I
hung about him like a beggar — and in the end I
found the strain on my resources too hard to
293
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORE
bear. But what was the end of all that pomp
and majesty ? When people sought grants and
presents from him, he could not somehow dis-
cover an auspicious day in the Calendar: though
all days were red-letter days when we had to pay
our taxes !"
But no one pays any heed to his words. One of them
Madhav cries out as soon as he sees the false king :
" Look ! There comes the king ! Oh, a king in-
deed ! What a figure, what a face ! Whoever
saw such beauty — lily-white, creamysoft ! ►
... He looks as if he were moulded and
carved for kingship, a figure too exquisite and
delicate for the common light of day."
Such is the popular conception of kingship ! Every
one pays homage to the false king while bitterly
reviling others for their knee-crooking and baseness of
soul. Then Kumbha brings the grandfather in, who-
tries to disabuse his mind of the delusion of the popu-
lace. The grandfather says :
" Whenever has our king set out to dazzle the eyes
of the people by pomp and pageantry ? . . .
If my king chose to make himself shown, your
' eyes would not have noticed him. He would
not stand out like that amongst others — he is.
one of the people, he mingles with the common
populace."
294
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
Such is the mystery of the Divine Being. Tennyson
has said in The Higher Pantheism :
" Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands
and feet." Out of His infinite compassion, He comes
among the sons of men to lead them to the paradise
of His love. Kumbha says :
" But did I not tell you I savir his banner ?
Grandfather : — What did you display on his
banner ?
Kumbha : — It had a red Kimshuk flower painted on
it — the bright and glittering scarlet dazzled my
eyes.
Grandfather : — My king has a thunderbolt within a
lotus painted on his flag."
Thus the pseudo-king has mere empty glitter and
parade. Such is the nature of all false faiths. But
the true God has a thunderbolt within a lotus painted
on his flag. The thunderbolt stands for Law and the
lotus for Love and Beauty. Hence He is Law and
Love and Beauty. Tennyson says in the poem above
referred to :
" God is law, say the wise ; O Soul, let us rejoice,
For if He thunder by law the thunder is yet His voice."
The further dialogue between Kumbha and the
Grandfather is equally full of spiritual truth.
Kumbha : — So none can recognise him in his in-
cognito, it seems.
Grandfather : — Perhaps there are a few that can.
295
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Kumbha : — And those that can recognise him —
does the king grant them whatever they ask for ?
Grandfather : — But they never ask for anything.
No beggar will ever know the king."
How true and beautiful this is ! Those who get a
glimpse of the beauty of God's countenance beg for no
earthly blessings. They live in the heaven of His love
and want nothing else. Now comes the Mad Friend
whose song is full of beauty. He typitics the soul that
is mad after God, and who in his divine madness is
wiser than the sane worldly fools. Swami Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa has said :
" This world is a huge Lunatic Asylum where all
men are mad, some after money, some after
women, some after name or fame, and a few after
God. I prefer to be mad after God.'
I shall quote here a portion of the Mad Friend's
song :
" Do you smile, my friends ? Do you laugh, my
brothers ? I roam in search of the golden stag !
Ah yes, the fleet-foot vision that ever eludes me !
You all come to buy in the market
place and go back to your houses laden with
goods and provisions : but me the wild winds of
unscalable heights have touched and kissed — Oh,
I know not when or where ! I have parted with
my all to get what never has become mine !
And you think my meanings and my tears are
296
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
for the things I thus have lost ! With a laugh
and a song in my heart I have left all sorrow
and grief far behind me : Oh, I roam and
wander through woods and fields and nameless
lands — never caring to turn my vagabond's
back !"
The next scene introduces us to Queen Sudarshana
and her maid of honour Surangama. The Queen typi-
fies thejiva (the individual soul) and Surangama seems
to typify self-surrender and peace (Prapathi and San-
thi). The king mqets and loves and dowers with divine
joy Queen Sudarshana but only in the Dark Cham-
ber of the Palace. The first ghmpse of God is in the
Dark Chamber of the heart. Sudarshana yearns to see
Him in the universe in open daylight and rebels when
this wish is not granted.
Sudarshana : — But why should this room be kept
dark?
Surangama : — Because otherwise you would know
neither light nor darkness.
• • • • *
Sudarshana : — No, no — I cannot Hve without light —
I am restless in this stifling dark. Surangama,
if you can bring a light into this room, I shall
give you this necklace of mine.
Surangama : — It is not in my power, O Queen.
How can I bring light to a place which He would
have kept always dark ! "
297
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGOKE
The soul wants to bre*a[k the divine law that the first
sight of God shall be only through faith and love that
do not adopt an attitude of doubt or question or
challenge or negation but adopt a humble attitude of
reverent yearning. It wants the light of mental percep-
tion to be brought into this chamber of Faith and Love
where in silence and stillness and darkness the first
glimpse of the Divine is had in the heart. But this may
not be, though when the sense of God-immanence is-
developed, God may be seen in light and in darkness,
in the outside world and in the Chamber of the Heart.
Surangama tells the process of the conversion of her
soul from an attitude of rebellion to one of utter and
reverent self- surrender.
'' A day came when ail the rebel in me knew itself
beaten, and then my whole nature bowed down
in humble resignation on the dust of the earth.
And then I saw I saw that he was-
as matchless in beauty as in terror. Oh, I was
saved, I was rescued.''
The following dialogue has a whole heaven of spirit-
ual suggestiveness in it.
" Surangama :— Do you not feel a faint breeze blow-
ing ?
Sudarshana : — A breeze ? Where ?
Surangama : — Do you not smell a soft perfume ?
Sudarshana : — No, I don't.
298
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
Surangama : — The large door has opened. . . .
he is coming ; my king is coming in.
Sudarshana : — How can you perceive when he
comes ?
Surangama : — I cannot say ; I seem to hear his foot-
steps in my own heart. Being his servant of this
dark chamber, I have developed a sense — I can
know and feel without seeing.
Sudarshana : — Would that I had this sense too,
Surangama !
. Surangama : — You will have it, O Queen
this sense will awaken in you one day. Your
longing to have a sight of him makes you restless,
and therefore all your mind is strained and
warped in that direction. When you are past
this state of feverish restlessness, everything will
become quite easy."
The power to recognise God's Beauty and the heart
to love it come out of humility and reverence and self-
surrender. The King now comes to meet Sudarshana
in the Dark Chamber. His song requesting her to
open the door is full of the music of inner melodies.
" Open your door. I am waiting.
The ferry of the light from the dawn to the dark is
done for the day,
The evening star is up.
Have you gathered your flowers, braided your hair,.
And donned your white robe for the night ?
299
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The cattle have come to their folds and birds to
their nests.
The cross paths that run to all quarters have
merged into one in the dark.
Open your door. I am waiting."
Even the radiance of God cannot illumine the house
•of our heart until we open the door and let the light
come in. Surangama asks Sudarshana to open the door.
"Then do you go, O Queen, and open the door for
him : he will not enter otherwise.
Sudarshana: — I do not see anything distinctly in the
dark — I do not know where the doors are. You
know everything here — go and open the doors
for me."
The soul in its attitude of rebellion and reliance on
reason does not even know where the hindrance to
light is. Surangama opens the door and goes out.
The King comes in. Sudarshana insists on seeing Him
in the open day-light. What marvels of thought and
■vision are compressed in the following dialogue ? —
" Sudarshana : — But tell me, can you see me in the
dark?
King : — Yes, I can.
Sudarshana : — What do you see ?
King : — I see that the darkness of the infinite hea-
vens, whirled into life and being by the power of
my love, has drawn the light of a myriad stars
into itself, and incarnated in a form of flesh and
'1
300
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMRER
blood. And in that form, what aeons of thought
and striving, untold yearnings of limitless skies,
the countless gifts of unnumbered seasons!
Sudarshana: — Am I so wonderful, so beautiful? When
I hear you speak so, my heart swells with glad-
ness and pride. But how can I believe the won-
derful things you tell me ? I cannot find them in
myself !
King: — Your own mirror will not reflect them — it
4essens you, limits you, makes you look small and
insignificant. But could you see yourself mirrored
in my own mind, how grand would you appear!
In my own heart you are no longer the daily
individual which you think you are. You are
verily my second self.
Sudarshana: — Oh, do show me for an instant now to
see with your eyes ! Is there nothing at all like
darkness to you? I am afraid when I think of this.
This darkness which is to me real and strong as
death — is this simply nothing to you ?"
This soul of ours is perfect in its beauty, being the
flower of the entire cosmic life ; and yet in the mirror of
mind this beauty is not seen in full. God's perfect vision
realises its beauty in full. The soul gathers exprience
through the ages ; and only after it realises its nature fully
can its first glimpse of God in the heart become a steady
realisation of Him everywhere. Sudarshana insists on
being allowed to see the King in open daylight. The
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
King says that he will appear in the full radiance of day-
light, but that she will have to recognise him for herself.
Sudarshana says:
" I shall know you; I shall recognise you.
I shall find you out among a million men.
I cannot be mistaken."
The King then tells her and Surangama that he can
be seen at the festival of the Spring,
" Where the music will play at its sweetest, where
there the air will be heavy with the dust of flowers
— there in the pleasure grove of silver light and
mellow gloom."
Surangama deprecates the Queen's curiosity and says:
'* Curiosity will have to come back baffled in tears !" The
song with which the scene concludes expresses the same
truth in beautiful and melodious and suggestive words :
" Ah, they would fly away, the restless vagrant
eyes, the wild birds of the forest!
But the time of their surrender will come, their
flights hither and thither will be ended when
The music of enchantment will pursue them and
pierce their hearts.
Alas, the wild birds would fly to the wilderness!"
The scene now changes to where various kings of the
earth — Kings of Kanchi, Avanti, Koshala, and other
Kingdoms— have come to the Kingdom of the King. They
seem to typify the mind and the senses. They speak
with scorn of the access allowed to the common people
302
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
to witness the festival and are angry at a separate place
not having been set apart for them. They frankly say
that they have come for the sake of Sudarshana. They
are met at the very outset by the Grandfather and the
boys who tell them that they are " the Jolly Band of
Have-Nothings." They resent the approach of these
Jolly Beggars. Then they meet the counterfeit king.
The King of Kanchi who typifies the mind sees through
the hoax, for what false faith on God can stand the day-
light of reason ? But the other kings who typify the
senses are more dense and are attracted by his outside
show. The impure Mind, however, does not discard the
false king but seeks to gain Sudarshana with his help.
The King of Kanchi calls on the false king to do him
homage which the latter obsequiously does after a little
bluster. How much bitter and melancholy truth sum-
ming up a million movements since the world began
is expressed in the following dialogue ! The King of
Kanchi asks the false king :
" Have you got any following ?
The false "king'' repUes:
" I have. Every one who sees me in the streets
flocks after me. When I had a meagre retinue at
first every one regarded me with suspicion, but
now with increasing crowd their doubts are
waning and dissolving. The crowd is being
hypnotised by its magnitude. I have not got to
do anything now."
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
In our country itself many movements have been born
and live in which the increasing crou^d has got hypo-
notised by its own magnitude, and people who joined
them for the fun of the thing or for other purposes have
become blind to their falseness and hoUowness, and
'faith unfaithful keeps them falsely true.' The kings
promise to help him to become king in fact, and he
promises to bring Sudarshana to them.
The citizens of the kingdom now come in a state of
anger and loudly abuse the king as this man lost his
child, that man lost his fortune, and another man is
striken with disease. Do we not all blame God for what
is due to onr own sin? The Grandfather says to them :
"I have lost all my five children one after another.
Third citizen : — What do you say now ?
Grandfather : — What then ? Shall I lose my king
too because I have lost my children ? Don't
take me for such a big fool as that."
The five children seem to typify the five senses who
have ceased to be worldly and are hence said to be
dead. The citizens do not heed his words and depart
in a state of anger and revolt.
The scene now changes to the royal palace whence
Sudarshana is looking out to find the king in open day-
light. Sudarshana is not with her but Rohini is with
her. How can Surangama (self-surrender and peace) be
by her side in her state of pride and passionateness ?
Rohini has naturally a deep aversion for Surangama.
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THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
She seems to typify the soul's lower nature and its love
of pleasure. In Sanskrit mythology Rohini is the be-
loved consort of Chandra (the moon) who is the God of
passion and pleasure. Sudarshana sees the false king
from her tower and falls in love with his beauty of person
and sends Rohini with flowers to the false King. The
song of the boys whom she calls in to sing to her is
very sweet.
" My sorrow is sweet to me in this spring night.
My pain smites at the chords of my love and softly
sings.
Visions take forth from my yearning eyes and flit in the
moonlight sky.
The smells from the depths of the woodlands have lost
their way in my dreams.
Words come in whispers to my ears, I know not from
where,
And bells in my anklets tremble and jingle in time with
my heart-thrills."
How vividly it calls to mind the equally beautiful
song in Tennyson's Princess :
♦' Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes
In looking on the happy autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more,"
and the equally melodious stanza in Kahdasa's Saifeun^a/a,
^?TTi% 3ft^ TT^rtaj f^^fr^^^rs^q;
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
(The reason why even a happy man is filled with a
vague longing and melancholy when he sees
lovely things and hears melodious sounds is that
he remembers, without clearly realising, antenatal
love and passion which remain iixed in the soul
without rising to the surface of consciousness.)
When the false King sees the present of flowers — the
flowers of thought and emotion — sent by the Jiva^ he
is unable to respond to the call of the love of the
Queen. For which false faith can satisfy the hunger of
the soul ? The King of Kanchi, who is at the side of
the false King, accepts the flowers for the " King " and
gives a necklace of jewels as a present to Rohini, as
he has a game of his own to pursue. Sudarshana's
pride is now shattered to atoms by this, and yet she is
unable to banish from her mind the delicate attractive--
ness of the false " King's" person. She even gets the
necklace from Rohini and finds pleasure in putting it
round her neck.
The scene now shifts to where the people throw red
powder on each other as a sign of merriment during
the spring festival. The translator has the following
note : " In this play this red powder has been taken to
be the symbol of the passion of love." The Kings, how-
ever, would have none of the red powder on their robes.
The Grandfather tells the citizens about those Kings :
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THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
" Well done, friends — always keep them at a dis-
tance. They are the exiles of the Earth — and
we have got to keep them so."
Then follow two marvellous songs both worth quot-
ing in full.
" All blacks and whites have lost the distinction
And have become red — red as the tinge of your feet.
Red is my bodice and red are my dreams,
My heart sways and trembles like a red lotus."
" With you is my game, love, my love !
My heart is mad, it will never own defeat,
Do you think you will escape stainless yourself redden-
ing me with red powder ?
Could I not colour yotir robe with the red pollens of the
blossom of my heart ?"
When shall the ancient hatreds of the earth— colour
bars, race animosities, religious persecutions, and other
machinations of the devil — be washed out of existence
by this deluge of red — the red of love, of peace, of uni-
versal brotherhood ? ■
Then the false " King" and the various earthly Kings
enter the palace gardens. Th'=^ ^^^2 of Knnchi coun-
sels the false " King" to set fire to the palace gardens
and to take advantage of the bustle and confusion to
accomplish his object. Meantime he himself has an
idea of seizing the kingdom also in addition to having
Sudarshana. The King of Kanchi and " the false King"
leave the other Kings in the lurch, and these are in a
stiate of consternation and suspicion — -as they are not
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SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
shrewd enough and do not know what to do and they^
reahse further that the King of Kanchi is trying to de-
ceive them and take everything for himself. The
gardeners and the pet animals in the garden hurry
away. A sudden conflagration envelops the garden .
The King of Kanchi fired only a portion of the garden
and finds the flames leaping up all round and destroy-
ing everything. Such is reason. It can never stop-
half-way, but must go the full length of the process of
logical analysis, though it is surprised at the reasoning
process taking it to conclusions for which it was un-
prepared. In such a baptism of lire, the false " King"
loses the few shreds of dignity that he had and col-
lapses in terror. The King of Kanchi pulls him out of
the conflagration more dead than alive. Sudarshana
runs up and asks the false " King" to save her from the
fire. He cries out that he is a fraud and that he is not
the King at all and runs out with the King of Kanchi..
She is overpowered by shame and cries out:
"No King! He is not the King? Then, O thou God of
lire, burn me, reduce me to ashes! I shall throw
myself into thy hands, O thou great purifier,,
burn to ashes my shame, my longing, my desire."
Then she re-enters her burning chambers seeking the
bath of fire to wash off her sins.
There she meets the true " King " who assures her
that fire will not reach that room. She says that she is
burnt by the fire of shame. She confesses that she is .
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THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
-wearing the false King's necklace. How beautiful and
iuU of qieaning is the King's reply.
" That garland, too, is mine, — how else could he get
it ? He stole it from my room."
This shows how the elements of truth and beauty
that exist in lower faiths are come from God. Sudar-
shana says that the surrounding flames showed the King
to her for a minute; that he is "black as the threaten-
ing storm-cloud, black as the shoreless sea"; and that
she cannot bear the sight of his form. He tells her:
"Have I not told you before that one cannot bear
my sight unless one is already prepared for
me ? That is why I wanted to reveal myself to
you slowly and gradually, not all too sudden."
Such is the vision of God that we get in the light of
the lire of reason! We see him black and awful — as he is
the Law by which the whole universe is controlled and.
guided. Sudarshana says that she is under the spell and
glamour of the false "King's" beauty and wants to leave
him. The King says:
" You have the utmost liberty to do as you like . .
. . . you can go as free as the broken storm-
cloud driven by the tempest."
She then rushes out. Then enters Surangama who
sings a song that shows how God's love deals with our
soul that frets and fumes like a froward child.
" What will of thine is this that sends me afar I
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Again shall I come back at thy feet from all my
wanderings.
It is thy love that feigns neglect— thy caressing
hands are pushing me away — to draw me back to
thy arms again! O my King, what is this game
that thod art playing throughout thy Kingdom ?"
, Sudarshana comes back but finds that the King is
gone. She asks Surangama :
" Tell me if he has punished the prisoners with
death.
Sw'angama— Death} my King never punishes with
death.
Sudarshana — 'What has he done to them, eh ?
Surangama — He has set them at liberty. Kanchi
has acknowledged his defeat and gone back to
his kingdom."
''''■ This dialogue contains some of the loftiest. lessons o£
•the loftiest religion. No one can be alien to God's love,
or banished from his grace, for ever. No one is utterly
destroyed but each is allowed to work up his way to
His love. Surangama then asks Sudarshana's leave to go
with her. The Queen is surprised and touched by this
as Rohini deserted her refusing to go with her.
They then go to the house of Sudarshana's father —
the King of Kanya Kubja. But he would not treat her
with affection, and says: "When woman swerves from
the right path, then she appears fraught with the direst
calamity." Sudarshana is depressed by none showing
310
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
the least sympathy for her in her misfortune. Her mind
is still running on the false " King " and his beauty. She
thinks that he fired the palace to seize her and reverts
fondly to his passion and boldness. But Surangama
informs her that the daring act was that of the King of
Kanchi and not that of the false " King" who is well-
named SuvarnUy i.e.^ the man with a bright exterior.
Sudarshana piqued at the true " King's" fancied neglect
of her praises Suvarna and tries to argue herself into a
passion for him.
The King of Kanchi now turns up to carry off Sudar-
shana by force. The other kings — of Avanti, Koshala,
Kalinga and other places — also turn up with their
armies. Suvarna pleads to be left out of the battle but
the King of Kanchi would not allow this. The King of
Kanya Kubja is beaten in battle and rtiade prisoner, and
the arrangement is that from among the kings he whom
Sudarshana chooses is to wed her. The a.rt of the poet
is seen in its fulness in making the false King
hold the umbrella of the King of Kanchi in the
Suvayamvara hall. The King of Kanchi compels him
to hold the umbrella as Sudarshana looked on the latter
with favour and he thinks that she will admire him and
love him when she iinds that the man whom she
admired was but the umbrella-bearer of a greater
King. A false religion is used for temporal purposes
by designing monarchs. Woe unto the world if there
be such an unholy alliance of civil and ecclesiastical
311
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
power ! Sudarshana feels humiliated when she sees in
the hall Suvarna whose beauty had attracted her hold
the umbrella of the King of Kanchi. Surangama com-
forts her by saying : " Mistakes are but the preludes
to their own destruction." Sudarshana prepares to go
into the hall with a dagger in her bosom to kill herself.
The following soliloquy of Sudarshana is full of
beauty and is further valuable as showing what the poet
has understood by the Dark Chamber.
" O King, my only King ! You have left me alone,
and you have been but just in doing so. But
' will you not know the inmost truth within my
soul ? {Taking out a dagger from within her bosom).
This body of man has received a stain — I shall
make a sacrifice of it to-day in the dust of the
hall, before all these princes ! But shall I never
be able to tell you that I know of no stain of
faithlessness within the hidden chambers of my
heart ? That Dark Chamber where you would
come to meet me lies cold and empty within my
bosom to-day — but, O my Lord ! none has
opened its doors, none has entered it but you,
O King ! Will you never come again to open
those doors ? Then, let death come, for it is
dark like yourself, and its features are beautiful
as yours. It is you — it is yourself, O King."
The assembled princes await the arrival of Sudar-
shana. Some of them have a presentiment of coming
312
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
trouble but the King of Kanchi ridicules such fears.
He says :
" I never take the unseen into account till it has
become * seen.' "
That is the power and the weakness of mind. The
grandfather now turns up and announces that the King
has come. Then most of the princes who had coveted
Sudarshana quietly sneak away. The King of Kanchi,
however, says :
" I too am going — but not to do him homage. I go
to fight him on the battle-ground.
Grandfather : — You will meet my King in the field
of battle ; that is no mean place for your recep-
tion."
When the other Kings find him resolved to fight,
they join him lest he should carry off the prize. All get
beaten but the King does not come to claim Sudar-
shana.
Sudarshana waits for his coming but is unable to
bend her heart in humihty before him. She is deeply
annoyed at his neglect. The Grandfather then turns up,
and she then bows to him. It is the first step in the
ladder of spiritual progress. He typifies the Guru,
and she first bends low before him. She says :
"I have heard that you are my King's friend, so
accept my obeisance and give your blessings."
According to the Hindu religion, when the soul is
sincere in its yearning to see God, the Guru will come
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
at the right moment. But when Sudarshana sees that
after the great battle the victorious King went away
without seeking her, she again sets her mind against
him. This episode shows well the alternations and
fluctuations of faith and unfaith in a sincere soul. The
Grandfather then tells her :
" You are young still — you can aftord to wait for
him ; but to me, an old man, a moment's loss is
a week. I must set out to seek him whether I
succeed or not."
The Grandfather after thus setting out meets the King
of Kanchi on the road leading to the palace of the true
King. The following dialogue contains many great
spiritual truths.
" Grandfather : — What Prince of Kanchi, you here I
Kanchi : — Your king has sent me on the road.
Grandfather : — That is a settled habit with him.
Kanchi : — And now, no one can get a glimpse of
f/; him. #
Grandfather : — That too is one of his amusements.
Kanchi :• — But how long more will he elude me
hke this ? When nothing could make me ac-
knowledge him as my King, he came all of a
sudden like a terrific tempest — God knows from
where — and scattered my men and horses in one
wild tumult ; but now, when I am seeking the
ends of the earth to pay him my humble hom-
age, he is nowhere to be seen.
3U
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
Grandfather : — But however big an Emperor he
may be, he has to submit to him that yields."
The King ceaselessly inspires all to seek His love and
sends them on the road leading to Him, though many
wander off into other paths on the way and others
stand still owing to faintness of heart. It is not easy
to get a glimpse of the radiance of His face. Our atti-
tude of negation and dehance makes Him show His
terrific aspect but we cannot see His Saumya (or
benign aspect) unless love become humble, reverential,
full of love and adoration. But, however great He may
be, he yields to love.
^^^ ^ ^^^J JU^^: ^W^^ \k^\i^ I
(In this way — by peerless and steadfast devotion
alone — can one know me, realise me, and attain union
with me). (Ch. XI — Gila).
The King of Kanchi has, however, not attained utter
humility of soul and is hence unfit to see God. He
travels by night to avoid being laughed at for his going
a walking to pay homage to another. He says to the
Grandfather :
" I still cannot get rid of the feeling of a secret
dread of being laughed at by people when they
see me meekly doing homage . to your King,
ackr^owledging my defeat."
The reasoning mind is not prepared to surrender
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
■everything but wants to preserve its dignity. Having
been accustomed to command and govern, it finds it
strange to love and obey. Far different is the attitude
of the grandfather {guru) who typifies faith and who is
prepared to lose everything for God. He says :
" I am waiting with my all in the hope of losing every-
thing*
I am watching at the roadside for him who turns one
out into the open road,
Who hides himself and sees, who loves you unknown to
you,
I have given my heart in secret love to him,
I am waiting with my all in the hope of losing every-
thing."
On the same road travels Sudarshana also, humble
and contrite, hearing the sweet and resistless call
of the Infinite. She says to her inseparable
companion Surangama :
" What a relief, Surangama, what freedom ! It is
my defeat that has brought me freedom. Oh
what an iron pride was mine ! Nothing could
move it or soften it. My darkened mind could
not in any way be brought to see the plain truth
that it was not the king who was to come, it
was I who ought to have gone to him."
The poet's spiritual insight is seen in his making her
say that after the transfiguration of reason by love she
heard again those beautiful magical melodies of God's
Vina that she used to hear seated by the window of the
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THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
Dark Chamber in her days of unwavering faith before
the period of her intellectual revolt Surangama says :
"But it is just to hear that same Vina^s music that I
am always by your side. It is for this call of
music which I knew would one day come to dis-
solve all the barriers of love that I have all along
been listening with an eager ear."
All the minor faculties of the soul find their ultimate
fulness of perfection when the soul begins to hear and
enjoy God's melodies, the hearing of which is the ama-
ranthine crown of the life of the soul. Sudarshana now
meets the King of Kanchi who is going on the same road.
Sudarshana : — King of Kanchi !
Surangama : — Don't be afraid, my Queen !
Sudarshana : — Afraid ! Why should I be afraid ?
The days of fear are gone for ever from me !
So long as the soul relied on its strength and was in
a state of opposition to God, it was beset by fears and
dangers. Now that it had — in the beautiful words of
the Gitanjali — "the strength to surrender its strength to
His will with love," it felt fear no more. The dialogue
between the King of Kanchi and Sudarshana is full of
the loftiest symbolism.
" Kanchi : — (entering) Queen-mother, I see you too
on this road ! I am a traveller of the same path
as yourself. Have no fear of me, O Queen 1
Sudarshana : — " It is well, King of Kanchi, that we
should be going together, side by side — this is
317
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
but right. I came on your way when I first left my
home, and now I meet you again on my way back."
The very change in the form of address and salutation
is noteworthy. Hitherto Sudarshana was called by
him Queen or Queen Sudarshana. He now calls her
"Queen- Mother." The mind thus realises its real rela-
tion to the soul. It reverences and adores what it sought
to possess and dominate. As long as the soul turned
its face away from God, it followed the vagrant rush-
light of the mind. As soon as the soul turned back to-
wards the Light, the mind even went in advance as a
servant and ceased to be a domineering master. It is well
that the soul and the mind should go together in joy
and good-fellowship towards God. Nay, Kanchi says
that Sudarshana should not walk and that he would get
her a chariot. Sudarshana says :
" Oh, do not say so : I shall never be happy if I
could not on my way back home tread on the
dust of the road that led me away from my king.
I would be deceiving myself if I were now to go
in a chariot."
Surangama says :
" King, you too are walking in the dust to-day: this
road has never known anybody driving his horse
or chariot over it."
Going to reach the lotus feet of God is going home
and we must reach home full of deep humility, thank-
fulness, love, and joy.
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THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
It is necessary to have the utmost humility through-
out our spiritual life. Every feeling of pride is a great
set-back. Surangama says then:
" Look, my Queen, there on the eastern horizon
comes the dawn. We have not long to walk. I
see the spires of the golden turrets of the king's
palace."
Which faculty of the soul can have the first sight of
God's Palace if not love and self-surrender, or can have
the privilege of directing the soul's vision there ?
■ The grandfather then enters and announces : My
child, it is dawn— at last !" Here again the change in the
form of the address shows the poet's wondrous art and
insight. The grandfather was calling her ' Queen ' be-
fore, but now calls her child. Sudarshana says :
" Your benedictions have given me God-speed,
and her I am, at last."
So long as sdie felt that she was Queen, he went his
•way. Only by becoming a spiritual child of the Guru
did she get true vision. The Lord says in Chapter IV
of the GUa :
(Hence seek the knowers and realisers of God and
humbly seek illumination by humility, by asking for
light, and by service. They will give you illumination).
The remaining portion of the dialogue is unutterably
319
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
beautiful and full of spiritual meaning. I shall quote it
here,
" Grandfather : — But do you see how ill-mannered
our king is ? He has sent no chariot, no music
band, nothing splendid or grand.
Stidarshana : — Nothing grand, did you say ? Look,
the sky is rosy and crimson from end to end, the
air is full of the welcome of the scent of flowers.
Grandfather : — Yes, but however cruel our king may
be, we cannot seek to emulate him: I cannot help
feeling pain at seeing you in this state, my child.
How can we bear to see you going to the king's
palace attired in this poor and wretched attire ?
Wait a little — I am running to fetch you your
Queen's garments.
Stidarshana: — Oh no, no, no! He has taken away those
regal robes from me for ever — he has attired me
in a servant's dress before the eyes of the whole
world ; what a relief this has been to me! / am
his servant now^ no longer his Queen. To-day I stand
at the feet of all those who can claim any relationship
with him.
Grandfather : — ^Bul your enemies will laugh at you
now : how can you bear their derision ?
Shudarshana : — Let their laughter and derision be
immortal-let them throw dust at me in the streets :
this dust will to-day be the powder with which
I shall deck myself before meeting my lord.
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THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
Grandfather :— After this, we shall say nothing. Now
let us play the last game of our Spring festival —
instead of the pollen of flowers let the south
breeze blow and scatter dust of lowliness in every
direction ! We shall go to the lord clad in the
common grey of the dust. And we shall find him
too covered with dust all over. For do you think
the people spare him ? Even he canaot escape
from their soiled and dusty hands, and he does
not even care to brush the dirt off his garments.
Kanchi : — Grandfather, do not forget me in this
game of yours! I also will have to get this royal
garment of mine soiled till it is beyond all
recognition.
Grandfather — That will not take long, my brother [
Now that you have come down so far — you will
change your colour in no time. Just look at our
Queen — she got into a temper with herself and
thought that she could spoil her matchless
beauty by flinging away all her ornaments : but
this insult to her beauty has made it shine forth
in tenfold radiance, and now it is in its unadorned
perfection. We hear that our king is all innocent
of beauty — that is why he loves all his manifold
beauty of form which shines as the very orna-
ment of his breast. And that beauty has to-day
taken off its veil and cloak of pride and vanity !
What could I not give to be allowed to hear the
321
21
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
wonderful music and song that has filled my
king's palace today ?
Surangama : — Lo, there rises the Sun !
This dialogue reveals how when humiUty and love
are evolved in the soul, its power of realising beauty is
heightened and its utterance becomes musical and sweet.
Then the beauty of the dawn and the fragrance of
flowersiare realised by the soul as more attractive than
any display of human pomp. The soul recognises that
true joy lies in service — not only in service of God but
also in service of all lovers and servants of God. Even
the mind desires to have its royal garment full of the
common dust of the earth. Humility and self-surrender
have but increased the beauty of the soul. Finally,
Surangama who pointed to the dawn nov/ points to the
coming of the golden orb of the sun. Indeed when in
utter humility of spirit the soul seeks God with passion-
ate determination, the sun of illumination shines forth
and the long night of sin and sorrow is lost in light.
Who can show this sun if not Surangama {Prapathi and
Bhakthi) ? Even though the Guru helps us, it is our own
Prapathi and Bhakthi that could show us the beauty of
the face of God.
Now we come to the wonderful last scene when the
human soul is face to face with the Eternal Lover and
Bridegroom in the Dark Chamber of the Heart and sees
His radiance flooding the heart with love and light.
Sudarshana : — Lord, do not give me back the
322
THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER
honour which you once did turn away from me !
I am the servant of your feet — I only seek the
privilege of serving you.
ICing : — Will you be able to bear me now ?
Siidarshana : — Oh yes, yes, I shall. Your sight re-
pelled me because I had sought to find you in
the pleasure-garden, in my Queen's chambers :
there even your meanest servant looks hand-
somer than you. That fever of longing has left
my eyes for ever. You are not beautiful, my
lord — you stand beyond all comparisons !
King : — That which can be comparable with rae
lies within yourself.
.Siidarshana : — If this be so, then that too is beyond
comparison. Your love lies in me — you are
mirrored in that love, and you see your face re-
flected in me : nothing of this mine, it is all
yours, O Lord !
King : — I open the doors of this dark room to-day
— the game is finished here ! Come, come with
me now, come outside — into the light !
Sudarshana : — Before I go, let me bow at the feet
of my lord of darkness, my cruel, my terrible,
my peerless one !
Thus God leads the soul into the light, as it is now
fit to realise and enjoy Him both in the dark chamber
of the heart and in the universe as a whole.
Thus ends this wonderful drama of the soul. It is
323
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
peerless in its spiritual beauty and depth of vision. It
is even more beautiful than Krishna Misra's Prahhoda-
chandrodaya — a drama where, in noble and musical
Sanskrit, the life of the soul is depicted in allegory. We-
may quote here a stanza from it as it well describes the
state of exaltation attained by the Mind and the Soul in
Tagore's play. It is uttered by the human soul.
[My faculty of discrimination has attained the ful-
ness of its power by all its manifold enemies
being laid low : and 1 have been dowered with
the state of endless spiritual rapture free from all
taint of pride and sin].
324
CHAPTER YII.
THE POST OFFICE.
It is man's proud privilege — while at the same time
it is his most perplexing problem — to seek to solve the
mystery of life and death. After all is said and done,
after glorious achievement and measureless aspiration,
we cannot but realise the shadow of death over every-
thing human, the inevitableness of the hour when lips
most sweet of song shall be hushed in death and hands
strong to serve and save shall lie in helpless and relax-
ed weakness for ever. Every parting brings tears to
the eyes and agony to the heart, and makes us cry out :
" Is this the end ? Is this the end ?" The most per-
fectly true and beautiful representation of this mood is
found in the famous lines occurring in Shakespeare's
Tempest :
" We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
The same idea occurs in the Bhagawad-Gita :
^oijThMV:Hl^c( rRrchlMfi^^^T II {Chap. II.)
(The secrets of birth are unrevealed to our gaze ; we
but know the brief moments of life ; the secrets of
325
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
death are equally unrevealed to our gaze. What is the
use of despair and lamentation ?)
When the grief of parting is most acute, what strikes
the mind is the desolation wrought by the cruel hand
of death. The evanescence of life and the gloom that
the contemplation of this casts over the loving heart
are more often described by poets than the higher
truths of life, because death is a cruel fact that cannot
be ignored, while the intimations that we get of the
soul's immortal life are few and fitful and are insuffi-
cient to allay our sorrow or irradiate our inner gloom
with the dawn of assured conviction. English poetry
contains innumerable beautiful passages descriptive of
the fleeting character of human life and of death being,
of the very constitution of things. Shirley sings :
" The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things ;
There is ao armour against fate ;
Death lays his icy hand on kings."
Gray says in a famous stanza :
" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour : —
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
Moore's poem ' the world is all a fleeting show' con-
tains the following sorrowful lines :
" Poor wanderers of a stormy day,
From wave to wave we are driven,
And fancy's flash and reason's ray
Serve but to light the troubled way."
326
THE POST OFFICE. ,
As can well be expected we find this mood as well
as the higher buoyant and triumphant moods expressed
in most melodious verse in Tennyson's In MeiM)riam.
Sometimes poets have treated this evanescence of
life and the mystery of life and death in a light, grace-
ful fashion that hardly hides the heartbreak in the
assumed gaiety of tone. One of the most beautiful
instances of this is the following poem by Mrs. Barbauld:
" Life ! I know not what thou art,
But know that thou and I must part;
And when, or how, or where we met
I own to me's a secret yet.
Life! we've been long together
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;
Tis hard to part when friends are dear —
Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear;
— Then steal away, give little warning.
Choose thine own time ;
Say not Good Night, — ^but in some brighter clime
Bid me Good Morning."
The higher and more hopeful view of life and of the
immortality of the soul is won by the human heart
through the revelations of religion, the analysis of the
philosopher, and the intuitions of the poet. It is not my
purpose here to elaborate these aspects. But we must
remember that the method of the poet .in intuitively
realising the higher truths and communicating them to
the world is quite different from that of the saint or of the
philosopher. The faculty of imagination is closely allied
327
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
to that of spiritual perception, and the poet who is
dowered with supreme imagination realises intuitively
the truths of the spirit. His imaginative faculty leads
him to express the relations between the seen and the
unseen and the deep facts of the life of the soul in terms
of human relations and observed facts of nature.
Hence it is that he convinces and uplifts our minds in
a more direct and immediate and effective way than the
saint or the philosopher. His magic of melody adds
beauty and vividness to his concrete method, and we go
from his presence with a new light in our faces, a new
clarity in our minds, and a new rapture in our hearts,
though the golden declarations of religion are more
positive and the conclusions of the philosopher are more
logically demonstrated. Mr. W. B. Yeats in his admi-
rable introduction to Tagors's Gitanjali describes the
manner in which the facts of life and nature become
full of deep spiritual meaning and appeal to the mystical
poet : "The traveller in the red-brown clothes that he
wears that dust may not show upon him, the girl search-
ing in her bed for the petals fallen from the wreath
of her royal lover, the servant or the bride awaiting the
master's home-coming in the empty house, are images
of the heart turning to God. Flowers and rivers, the
blowing of conch-shells, the heavy rain of the Indian
July, or the parching heat, are images of the moods of
that heart in union or in separation; and a man sitting
in a boat upon a river playing upon a lute, like one of
328
THE POST OFFICE.
those figures full of mysterious meaning in a Chinese
picture, is God Himself." One of the most perfect in-
stances of such poetic method and intuition is the
famous poem of Crossing the Bar by Tennyson. It is full
of the most faultless beauty of thought and word, and
displays the poetic mood par excellence at its highest
point of perfection.
" Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me !
And may there be no moaning of the bsr,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep.
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Draws again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark !
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark ;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar. "
Tke Post Office is more full of this beautiful sym-
iDolism than any other writing of his except The King of
the Dark Chamber. Mr. Yeats no doubt says in his pre-
face to it : "When this little play was performed in
London a year ago by the Irish players, some friends of
mine discovered much detailed allegory, the Headman
being one principle of social life, the Curdseller or
329
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Gaffer another, but the meaning is less intellectual, more
emotional and simple. The deliverance sought and won
by the dying child is the same deliverance which rose
before his imagination, Mr. Tagore has said, when once
in the early dawn he heard, amid the noise of a crowd
returning from some festival, this line out of an old vil-
lage song, " Ferryman, take me to the other shore of
the river." It may come at any moment of life, though
the child discovers it in death, for it always comes at
the moment when the ' I ' seeking no longer for gains
that cannot be ' assimilated with its spirit,' is able to-
say, ' All my work is thine.' {Sadhana^ pp. 162-3). On
the stage the little play shows that it is very perfectly
constructed, and conveys to the right audience an emo*
tion of gentleness and peace." Undoubtedly no one but
a great poet has the right of entry irjto the innermost
heart of another great poet; and hence we must treat
the above interpretation with all the respect that it
deserves so amply and well. But we must see that there
are certain special and unique differentia of the Indian
genius that make it possible for an Indian to enter into
the spirit of an Indian's wisdom in a manner beyond
the powers of any outside student, however sympathetic,
talented, and endowed he may be. I have already-
stated in my general sketch of Tagore's genius how
mysticism of the higher and diviner order is of the very
essence of his conception of life. The child in the play
is not merely a warm, living, and true-hearted child but,
330
THE POST OFFICE.
is much more, though even treating the play as
Mr. Yeats has done we arrive at truths of great
beauty. We must try to understand the poet
vi^ith the help of the hint that he has given as above-
said in Mr. Yeats' preface: " The deliverance sought and.
won by the dying child is the same deliverance which
rose before imagination, Mr. Tagore has said, when
once in the early dawn he heard, amid the noise of a
crowd returning from some festival, this line out of an
old village song, "Ferryman, take me to the other shore
of the river.' " An ordinary, worldly mind would, and
could, see nothing in this. But to the mystical poet to
whom the divine aspect of things is a radiant reality, the
effect is marvellous. Amidst the noises and distractions
of life, the golden call of God's voice to go to the far-
ther shore of the river of life and live in the light of
His love for ever is borne in on our minds and hearts
by the line ' Ferryman, take me to the other shore of
the river,' being wafted to our ears unexpectedly. SrL
Sankara's Mohamudgara says :
" ^^f^ ^1^1^ IFT'TT qf^ Tiff 5^R I ■'
(O God, lead me through Thy Mercy to the farther
shore of this river of wordly life which I am unable to
cross, however much I try).
God is called the Tharaka Brahma (^R^ STil)— He
who helps us to cross. The same high symbolism is
found in all this as in Tennyson's Crossing the Bar.
Though the study of the play as it is without attempting..
331 •
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
any study of its inner meaning is interesting, and though
the study of it in a spirit of ordinary symbolism treating
Amal as a boy attaining deliverance through death
yields us valuable results, yet the subtlest and most
delicate and fascinating elements of beaiaty in the play
and its most uplifting lessons and ideas will be realised
by us only if we understand the play in the light of the
higher symbolism.
I shall here adopt the method of narrating the story
of the play interpreting the characters and the dialogue
in the light of the higher symbolism as above said. I
shall, however, as I go on dwell also on the other two
aspects also, so that the reader may at the same time
realise the full beauty of this remarkable play. Before
I proceed to do this work, I wish to say that the trans-
lator Mr. Devabrata Mukerjea has done his work very
well on the whole. It is always difficult to give in
translation a colloquial and natural air to dramatic
dialogue. But the translator must remember that no one
will take his work seriously as an original work, and
hence he must guard against a too frequent and injudici-
ous introduction of conversational forms current in the
tongue into which the play is translated. This defect is
noticeable in some places in this translation, and I wish
that the translator had avoided it and had placed the
work before the poet himself whose powers in the art of
English prose composition are remarkable and whose
,prose has been desci-ibed by the Quarterly Review as
332
THE POST OFFICE.
" this flower of English Prose." Such phrases as " By
Jove," " I'm jiggered." " There'll be a great to-do,"
"That's him," etc., ought not to be allowed to mar the
beauty of this marvellous play.
Madhav, a rich man who had prospered in the world
by his thorough worldliness unredeemed by any spiritnal
effort or aspiration, is childless. He brings up as his
foster-son a beautiful boy named Amal. The very names
are significant. Madhav means 'lord of worldly pros-
perity.' Amal means ' the pure and stainless one.' The
poet displays the most wonderful insight and art in
making Amal the foster-son of Madhav. Madhav
symbolises the worldly life, and Amal symbolises the
pure spiritual life. In not making Amal the natural-
born son of Madhav the poet shows how the pure
spiritual life can never be born of the merely worldly
life. Surely the poet meant something by making Amal
the foster-son of Madhav. So far as the mere story is
concerned, and even in regard to the meaning and
underlying idea hinted in Mr. Yeats' preface, it was
enough to make Amal the natural-born son of Madhav.
We must pause and see why the poet did otherwise.
Again, by making Madhav adopt this beautiful boy, the
poet shows how the only chance of redemption for the
worldly man is by seeking intimate alliance with the
spiritual life. He merely loves it in a blind way at first
but through its contact he begins to lose his old love of
wealth for its own sake ; he sees the ice of his frigid
333
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
feelings melt beneath the warmth of the golden sun-
shine of love; and he comes into contact with the higher
truths and presences of life. But more of this la.ter on.
Amal is very ill, and Madhav is in reality uplifted all
the more and purified and spiritualised by this baptism
of suffering, though he feels heartbroken at the coming
loss of the one real joy that came into his life late and
was leaving it so soon. He says :
" What a state I am in ! Before he came, nothing
mattered ; I felt so free. But now that he has
come, goodness knows from where, my heart is
filled with his dear self, and my home will be no
home to me when he leaves."
The art of the poet is seen further in making Amal
the son of a man who was Madhav's wife's brother by
village ties. The poet seems to suggest that even in
the case of two worldly natures — ^as those of Madhav
and his wife — the woman is more emotional and spiritual
than the man, and that, woman's nature being more
refined and pure and transparent than that of man, the
light of the spirit shines on him through her. The
way in which the baser worldly passions of Madhav
became purified by the advent of Amal is described by
Madhav himself thus :
" Formerly, earning was a sort of passion with me ;
I simply couldn't help working for money.
Now, I make money, and as I know it is all for
this dear boy, earning becomes a joy to me. "
334
THE POST OFFICE.
He is very anxious th^t Amal should live and be
the light of his life and home. The physician that he
calls in advises that the boy should be strictly kept
■within doors. The poet makes fun of the physician's
pedantry which is as great as his healing power is
slight. The physician seems to represent the sum of
physical and worldly sciences that seek to keep with-
in the bondage of* the senses the spirit struggling to live
in freedom beneath the overarching love and grace and
mercy of God.
As soon as the physician gives his strict injunction
to keep Amal indoors, he goes away. Then enters Gaffer
by whom Tagore symbolises the poet. Naturally the
poet is the truest and dearest ally of the spiritual life.
Madhav says that Gaffer ought not to try to take the
boy out of doors into the autumn wind and sun. Gaffer
replies :
" God bless my soul ! So I'm already as bad as
autumn wind and sun, Oh 1
But, friend, I know something, too, of the game of
keeping them indoors. When my day's work is
over, I am coming in to make friends with this
child of yours."
Amal then enters and pleads hard with Madhav to
be let out. The following passage shows what a
wonderful faculty of keen observation and vivid and
natural description Tagore has. Amal says :
" See, there where Auntie grinds lentils in the
335
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
quvin, the squirrel is sitting with his tail op and
with his wee hands he's picking up the broken
grains of lentils and crunching them. Can't I run
up there ? "
Madhav says that this could not be done as the doctor
had forbidden it. The following dialogue is full of
keen irony and shows how the poet has deep contempt
for the so-called learning which merely consists in book-
knowledge out of touch with the deep fundamental
facts of life.
Madhav : — Doctor says it's bad for you to be out.
Amal : — How can the doctor know ?
Madhav : — What a thing to say ! The doctor can't
know and he reads such huge books !
Amal : — Does his book-learning tell him every-
thing ?
Madhav : — Of course, don't you know !
Amal {with a sigh) : — Ah, I am so stupid ? I don't
read books.
Madhav : — Now, think of it , very, very learned
people are all like you ; they are never out of
doors.
Amal : — 'Are'nt they really ?
Madhav : — No, how can they ? Early and late they
toil and moil at their books, and they've eyes for
nothing else."
Thus the poet shows how worthless mere blind
book-learning is and how it is as much of an obstacle
336
THE POST OFFICE
to the higher life as the selfish 'worldly mammon-
worshipping life. Madhav asks Amal to be a learned
man, but Amal declines the honour and says that he
prefers to go about and see God's world. The follow-
ing dialogue is full of profound symboUsm : — •
Amal : — " See that far-away hill from our window —
I often long to go beyond those hills and right
away.
Madhav : — Oh, you silly ! As if there's nothing
more to be done but just get up to the top of
that hill and away ! Eh ! You don't talk sense,
my boy. Now listen, since that hill stands there
upright as a barrier, it means you can't get be*
yond it. Else, what was the use in heaping up
so many large stones to make such a big affair of
it, eh ?
Amal : — Uncle, do you think it is meant to pre-
vent us crossing over ? It seems to me because
the earth can't speak, it raises its hands to the
sky and beckons. And those who live far off,
and sit alone by their windows, can see the sig-
nal."
One cannot but call to mind here the marvellous
Hymn before sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni by Coleridge.
'• O dread and silent Mount ! I gazed upon thee,
Till thou, still present to the bodily sense,
Didst vanish from my thought : entranced in prayer
I worshipped the Invisible alone.
337
22
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGOKE
Thou, too, hoarlMount ! with thy sky-pointing peaks,
Oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard,
Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene,
Into the depth of clouds that veil thy breast —
Thou too again, stupendous Mountain ! thou
That as I raise my head, awhile bowt d low
In adoration, upward from thy base
Slow|travelling with dim eyes suffused with tears,
.:)olemtily seen^est like a vapoury cloud
To rise before me —Rise, oh, ever rise,
Rise like a cloud of incense from the Karth !
Thou kingly spirit throned among the hills,
Thou dread ambassador from Earth to Heaven,
Great Hierarch ! tell thou the silent sky,
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun,
Jtarth, with htr thousand voices, praises God."
The poet's many sided genius is seen in his exquisite
pictures of the child's mind and heart in this play —
though the finest expression of this aspect of his inner
endowment is to be found in The Crescent Moon. They
are scattered in profusion throughout the play and
show the exquisite play of the child's imagination which
brings into focus things far and near in space and time
and sheds over them the unfamiliar yet beautiful and
radiant hght of its soul. Amal longs to go over the hills
and far away. The mountain seems to him the uplift-
ed arm of the earth beckoning to the sky. Here is
another exquisite touch which brings back to each of us
his happy childhood.
Amal: — "Oil, I will ualkon, crossing so many
33S
THE POST OFFICE
streams, wading through water. Everybody will
be asleep with their doors shut in the heat of
the day and I will tramp on and on seeking work
far, very far."
Again, he would like to take curds from the village
by the red road near the old banyan tree and hawk the
curds from cottage to cottage. He would like to be the
King's Postman with '• a lantern in his left hand and
on his back a bag of letters," going through the sugar-
cane field into the narrow lane to deUver the letters.
He would like even to be kidnapped for the joy and
romance and freedom of it. He loves to hear travellers'
tales and poetic descriptions of the Parrots Isle which
is a land of wonders
" Opening on the foam
Of perilous seas in fairy lands forlorn,"
where there men exist but parrots in all their
beauty of form and wings fly and rest and where
waterfalls come dancing down the slopes of hills and
fall like molten diamonds and then make the pebbles
sing as they rush over them to the sea. An even
sweeter fancy of his is his dream of a " lovely little
bride with a pair of pearl drops in her ears and dress-
ed in a lovely red saree,'" and his deep desire to serve
Sudha and get for her '' some flowers from the very
topmost branches right out of sight," Perhaps the
loftiest and sublimest of the fancies is his determination
;to ask the king to show him the Polar Star.
339
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
But I am anticipating much of what is to come here-
after in my eager desire to reveal the wonderful art of
the greatest poet of modern India in all its fulness.
Amal, in obedience to the doctor's injunction and his
foster-father's wishes, stops within doors by the side of
the window opening on the roadside. This gives the
poet the opportunity to unroll before our gaze the
wonderful panorama of colour and fragrance and
sweetness that make up the sum of Indian life. It
helps him also to show the evolution of the spiritual
life by reason of its intimate touch with God's creation.
The pictures chosen show the poet's never failing in-
stinct for what is at the same time artistically charming
and spiritually uphfting. I shall briefly describe the
drama of outer life as it is played on the world's stage
before the eyes of Amal seated by the window open-
ing on the street.
First comes the curdseller. He is somewhat rough
when the child stops him but is unable to buy the curds-
for want of money. The art of the poet is seen in
making the curdseller lose his anger in a sudden
access of pity and love by ' one touch of nature that
makes the whole world kin." '
" Amal : — I would go with you if I could.
Dairyman : — With me ?
Amal :— Yes, I seem to feel homesick when I hear,
you call from far down the road.
340
THE POST OFFICE
Dairyman : — (lowering his yoke-pole). Whatever
are you doing here, my child ? "
To the man coarsened by hard work and loveless
looks from persons who treat him as one born to minis-
ter to their comforts the loving accents from the pure,
fresh lips of the child come as a revelation of gentle-
ness and love and bring out the godUke elements in
him. The following dialogue speaks for itself : —
" Dairyman : — Dear child, will you have some
curds? Yes, do.
Amal : — But I have no money.
Dairyman . — -No, no, no, don't talk of money !
You'll be so happy if you take some curds from me.
Amal : — Say, have I kept you too long ?
Dairyman : — Not a bit ; it has been no loss to me
at all ; you have taught me how to be happy
selling curds."
Words fail me to describe how deeply I admire the
insight and art shown in this. The dairyman to whom
life was a mere affair of selling curds and making
money and to whom man was a mere buying agent is
uplifted into a higher realm of emotion. He is made
to feel real joy in his work. I call to mind here the
iamous passage in the Gita which says:
(The wise man should not unsettle the minds of
341
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
those who are unaware of the higher verities and are-
attached to their work in life. He should make them
do their work with joy, by himself doing life's work in
a spirit of non-attachment and of surrender of the fruit
o£ the work to God and as an act of worship of God).
Hence it is that the dairyman goes back from Amal's
spiritual presence a transformed being, uplifted by love,,
and taking real j oy in his life's work h umble though i t be.
Then comes the village watchman. He is astonished
at the boy's not being afraid of him. When he says that
he will march the boy to the king, the boy says that
that is just what he wants. The following dialogue
between him and Amal is full of profound symbolism.
" Anial : — Won't you sound the gong, Watchman ?
Watchman : — Time has not yet come.
Amal : — How curious ! Some say time has not yet
come, and some say time has gone by ! But surely
your time will coaie the moment you strike the
gong !
Watchman : — -That's cot possible ; I strike up the
gong only when it is time."
This brings to mind the famous Sanskrit verses
quoted below.
^TTJfrqr ^«T^ ^^T ^^W\ 2r^f%?cTTT: I
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cpnr: sFtv:T^ ^m?s ^t T%sf^cr rr^^n: i
(Thy mother will not be with thee for ever ; nor thy
father nor thy brother nor other relatives ; nor thy
wealth nor thy house. Therefore awake, awake.
The world is overcoaie by desire, by ceaseless work,
and by anxious thought for the future. It knows not
how life is slipping away. Therefore awake, awake.
In thy frame there lurk thieves — Desire, Passion,
and Avarice — to steal the jewel of thy wisdom. There-
fore awake, awake.
Life is pain ; decay is pain ; the worldly life is pain ;
and a ceaseless round of worldly lives is pain. There-
fore awake, awake !)
Such were the verses sung by the beater of the
drum during the four watches of the night. The
dialogue between Amal and the Watchman then pro-
ceeds :
" Amal : — Tell me why does your gong sound ?
Watchman : — My gong sounds to tell the people
Time waits for none, but goes on for ever.
Amal : — 'Where, to what land ?
Watchman : — That none knows.
Amal : — Then I suppose no one has ever been
843
SIK RABINDKANATH TAGORE
there ! Oh, I do wish to fly with the time to that
land of which no one knows anything.
Watchman : — All of us have to get there one day,
my child.
Atnal : — Have I too ?
Watchman : — Yes, you too.
Amal : — But doctor won't let me out.
Watchman : — One greater than he comes and lets us
free.
The symbolism herein is as beautiful as it is
apparent. Where does Time go ? The river
of Time flows into the sea of Eternity whither
the spiritual life longs to fly but whither it can
go only through Divine Grace. If we were to
know the value of Time aright, how well-ordered
our lives would be ? The following sonnet that
occurs in D. G. Rossetti's The House of Life may
well be remembered in this connection :
" The lost days of my life until to-day,
What were they could I see them on the street
Lie as they fell ? Would they be ears of wheat
Sown once for f<iod but trodden into clay ?
Or golden coins squandered and still to pay ?
Or drops of blood dabbling the guilty feet ?
Or such spilt water as in dreams must cheat
The undying throats of Hell, athirst alway ?
I do not see them here ; but after death
God knows I know the faces I shall see,
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THE POST OFFICE
Each one a murdered self, with low last breath.
' I am thyself, — what hast thou done to me ?
And I — and I — thyself, (lo ! each one saith)
And thou thouself to all eternity 1' "
It is the watchman that tells Amal about the King's
Post Office. What does the Post Office stand for ?
The Post Office is the one means by which the village
^ets into touch with the great world. In the play it
represents the agency by which our petty life gets
into touch with the infinite universe of God's love and
grace. Each postman represents the bearer of God's
blessed gospel to the world. Amal cries out : " I'll be
the King's postman when I grow up." The poet's
subtle and ironical humour comes out well in the
following dialogue.
Watchman : — " Ha ! ha ! Postman, indeed ! Rain
or shine, rich or poor, from house to house
delivering letters — that's very great work."
He evidently thinks highly of his own petty work in
the village and despises the postman. Amal's reply is
full of beauty.
" That's what — I'd like best. What makes you smile
so ? Oh, yes, your work is great too."
Immediately afterwards the watchman who was so
proud of his work catches sight of the village headman
and runs away. Such is temporal authority which in
all cases is afraid of some other authority somewhere or
other, and is a slave unto the strong while it is a tyrant
345
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
unto the weak. The art of the poet is seen very well"
in the following dialogue:
Amal : — ■" I suppose the King's made him our head-
man here.
Watchman : — Made him ? Oh, no ! A fussy busy-
body ! He knows so many ways of making
himself unpleasant that everybody is afraid of
him. It's just a game for the hkes of him,
making trouble for everybody."
This shows very well indeed how all tem'poral autho-
rity is treated in its absence, and how the heart's homage
is never won but by love.
Amal then calls the Headman. The combination of
ignorance, self-importance, contempt for others, and
thorough worldliness in the Headman, who seems
to symbolise temporal authority generally, is very
amusing to see. Has not Shakespeare said : — •
" But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority.
Most ignorant of what he's most assured, —
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic trick i before high Heaven
.A.3 make the an^^els weep."
Measure for Measure.
How in all temporal authority vanity goes along with
eagerness for flattery is well-brought out in the fol-
lowing dialogue.
Headman : — Who is yelling after me on the high
way ? Oh it's you, is it, you wretched monkey ?
346
THE POST OFFICE
Atnal : — You're the headman. Everybody minds you.
Headman : — (looking pleased). Yes, oh yes, they do!
They must !
Atnal: — Do the King's postmen listen to you?
Headman : — The've got to. By Jove, I'd like to
see " —
The Headman is tickled by Amal's expectation of a
letter from the king, and his anger turns on Madhav by
some curious mental deflection. He says :
'• Madhav is a devilisli swell nowadays. He
made a little pile ; and so kings and padishas
are every day talk with his people. Let me find
him once and I'll make him dance. Oh you, — •
you snipper snapper ! 1 11 get the King's letter
sent to your house — indeed I will !"
Then comes a girl, and this is one of the loveliest
portions of the play. The poet's art and insight
deserve the highest praise here. He has brought out
in a few words the entire nature of womanhood — its
grace, its emotior.al sweetness, and its pre-occupation
with the actual work of life while shedding on it the
radiance of love. The girl's name is Sudha and she
is the daughter of a flower-seller. The name means
" nectar " — and a more admirable name for a girl can
hardly be imagined. The following dialogue between
the girl and the boy is very fine :
" Girl : — You make me think of some late star of
the morning ! Whatever's the matter with you ?
847
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Amal : — I don't know; the doctor : won't let me out.
Girl : — Ah me ! Don't go then ! Should listen to
the doctor. . . . Let me close the window
a bit tor you."
How well this shows that in spite of her grace and
emotional refinement woman always stands up for the
established order ! But this is because of her love. It
is her love for Amal and her desire to save him from
getting worse that make her think of closing the win-
dow. The poet seems to hint also that woman's nature
is on the whole less dreamy and more practical than
man's. When Amal says that he would blossom into a
Champa flower and asks if she would be his sister Parul,
she replies :
" You are silly ! How can I be sister Parul when
I am Sudha and my mother is Sasi, the flower-
seller ? I have to weave so many garlands
a day."
She then goes away promising to bring him a flower.
I shall refer later on to the last scene in the poem
wherein Sudha brings the promised flower.
Then enter a troop of boys bent on play. Amal
persuades them to play in front of the window with his
toys. He then asks them to bring one of the king's
postmen so that the latter may come to know him, and
they promise to do so. Who but pure-hearted children
are beloved of the bearer of God's gospel, for has not
Christ said : " Of such is the kingdom of heaven," and
348
THE POST OFFICE
" Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted, and'
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven ? ' This is the real reason why
Tagore has made Amal a little boy.
In Act II Amal is show^n as confined to his bed. The
Gaffer enters as a Fakir and tells him about the Parrots'
Isle and reawakens Amal's longing for release. I have
already referred to the description of the Parrots' Isle.
The following bit of description is also worth remem-
bering :
" Indeed, they (the parrots) live among the green
hills ; and in the time of the sunset when there is
a red glow on the hillside, all the birds with their
green wings go flocking to their nests."
Amal then asks Gaffer if the King's letter is coming.
Gaffer says that the letter is coming. There is a slight
element of satire in the poet's description of Gaffer which
ought not to be ignored. The ordinary poet, though
dowered with imagination and hence able to get glimp-
ses of the truths of the spirit, does not fully believe in
his intuitions. After Amal describes to him the coming
of the postman, he says : '
" My eyes are not young, but you make me see all
the same."
The following dialogue is full of the de epe&t and
truest symbolism.
Amal : — " Say, Fakir, do you know the King who-
has this Post Office ?
349
SIR RABIN DRANATH TAGORE
Gaffer : — I do ; I go to him for my alms every day.
Amal : — Good ! When I get well, I must have my
alms from him, may n't I ?
Gaffer : — You v^ron't need to ask, my dear, he'll
give it to you of his own accord.
Amal . — No, 1 will go to his gate and cry ' Victory
to thee, O King !' and dancing to the tabor's
sound, ask for alms. Won't it be nice ?
Gaff^er'. — It will be splendid, and if you're with me,
I shall have my full share."
What a suggestion is here as to the hierarchy of
values even in the higher life ! Even though the poet
gets his dower of insight and vision through Divine
grace, it is the man of spiritual life on whom the
fulness of Divine love falls, and it is through him that
even the poet gets his full dower of higher joy. A poet's
vision of spiritual things is like a pure bubbling
fountain but the vision of a saint living a truly spiritual
life is like the Ganges bearing its refreshing waters far
and wide.
Madhav then comes and says that Gaffer and Amal
have got him into trouble by saying that the king was
going to send messages to them and that the village
headman has had the king informed of the fact anony-
mously. Gaffer then tells Amal not to be anxious as the
king will not be cross at all. Then the Doctor enters and
asks even the window to be shut. The headman enters
after this and says that a letter has come from the
350
THK POST OFFICE
King for Anial and gives a blank slip of paper. Gaffer
says that the letter announces that he is coming with
the Stale physician to see Amal. Though the village
headman has done all this in a spirit of cruel fun, the
King has willed that Gaffer's words come true. The
King's herald announces that the king has sent his
greatest physician to attend on his young friend, and
will himself come in the night.
The state physician then comes and feels Amal's
body and orders all the doors and windows to be
opened.
State Physician : — "What's this ? How close it is
here ! Open wide all the doors and windows.
(Feeling Amal's body.) How do you feel, my
child ?
Amal : — I feel very well,- Doctor, very well. All
pain is gone. How fresh and open ! I can see
all the stars now twinkling from the other side
of the dark."
The state physician represent the Grace of God — the
universal healer of all suffering from sin and sorrow.
He overrules the earthly doctor's injunction about
•shutting out God's light and air and opens all the
avenues of light to irradiate the soul struggling to be
iree. He asks Amal ;
"Will you feel well enough to leave your bed when
the king comes in the middle watches of the
night?" ,.
351
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Amal replies :
" Of course, I'm dying to be about for ever so long.
rU ask the king to find me the polar star. I must
have seen it often, but I don't know exactly
which it is."
The spiritual truths contained in these few simple-
seeming words are many and profound. The Polar
star represents the highest peace and radiance of spiri-
tual rapture — unchanged amidst the changing lesser
lights. The poet hints a great deal in saying that Amal
must have seen it often already though he cannot locate
it now. All religions say that spiritual rapture is a
re-attainment ; that it is not a thing to be newly got,,
for what is born in time must die and perish ; and that
it has existed for ever and has to be realised by us.
The State Physician objects to the headman being in
Amal's room, for what place has temporal authority in
the regions of the higher life ?. But at Amal's intercession
he allows the headman to remain. The following
dialogue is full of beauty and truth :
Madhav (whispering into Amal's ear). " My child,
the king loves you. He is coming himself.
Beg for a gift from him. You know our humble
circumstances.
Amal : — Don't you worry, uncle — I've made up my
mind about it.
Madhav : — What is it, my child ?
Amal : — I shall ask him to make mc one of his
«
352
THE POST OFFICE
postmen that 1 may wander far and wide, deli-
vering his message from door to door.
, Madhav (slapping his forehead). Alas, is that all ?"
Thus even in the presence of God the giver of every
bounty, and allied to Amal the pure spiritual nature,
the worldly soul is not able to rise to a realisation of
higher joys or pray for a higher gift than the gift of
more worldly prosperity. Amal, on the other hand,
yearns to be one of the many bearers of His message
to the worlds.
The following conversation is equally beautiful and
pregnant with meaning :
'^ Physician : — Now, be quiet all of you. Sleep is
coming over him. I'll sit by his pillow ; he's
dropping asleep. Blow out the oil-lamp. Only
let the star-light stream in. Hush, he sleeps.
Madhav (addressing Gaffer). What are you stand-
ing there for like a statue, folding your palms ?
I am nervous. — Say, are there good omens ?
Why are they darkening the room ? How will
star-light help ?
Gaffer : — "Silence, unbeliever." Madhav thinks that
the smoking oil-lamps of the world give more
helpful light than the serene radiance of God's
stars. We get here another beautiful picture of
Gaffer standing like a statue folding his palms.
The poet, being attuned to love and other diviner
353
23
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
elements of life, realises the divine presence and
is full of the spirit of prayer.
Now enters Sudha, and gives the play a heavenly
ambrosial close. I wish to quote the entire scene here.
" Sudha : — Amal !
Physician : — He's asleep.
Sudha : — I have some flowers for him. May'nt I
give them into his own hand ?
Physician : — Yes, you may.
Sudha : — When will he be awake ?
Physician . — Directly He comes and calls him.
Sudha : — -Will you whisper a word for me in his
ear ?
Physician : — What shall I say ?
Sudha : — Tell him Sudha has not forgotten him.
Thus comes release from earthly bondage to the soul
struggling to be free — diffusing happiness and joy all
round, giving to all workers a new joy in their work
and a new love for all, uplifting even souls immersed in
worldliness, and last but not least crowned with the
garland of the love of pure and true womanhood.
Such is the play and such are the ideas contained in
it. A great poet's work is Uke shot silk full of many
glancing and shimmering colours; and now one heaven-
ly tint seems to be prominent and now another. I do
not claim for the above interpretation any degree of
finality or thoroughness. But I only claim that there is
ample warrant for the interpretation. In any event there
354
THE POST OFFICE
is no doubt that the play is full of deep spiritual mean-
ing and that the poet has employed in it the resources
of the highest symbolism which is his unique and price-
less gift, and hence it is our duty to try to realise the
great spiritual truths hinted and enforced in this
ivonderful play.
355
CHAPTER YIII.
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS
OF KABIR.
I have already dealt with Tagore's mystical genius in
my introductory chapter and shown how in order to
understand him aright we must know the true inward-
ness of the great Bhakti movement in this holy land, the
beauty of the songs and poems of Kabir, Chaitanya,.
and others, and the gracious significance and emotional
appeal of the Sufi doctrines.
Evelyn Underhill, who has helped Tagore ia
' translating one hundred poems of Kabir, has written an
admirable introduction to the work. She speaks of
" that mystical religion of love which everywhere
makes its appearance at a certain level of spiritual
culture, and which creeds and philosophies are power-
less to kill." Kabir was a disciple of Ramananda and
realised the unity of the doctrines of the Bhakti cult
and of Sufism. He was not only a great saint but also
a great mystical poet and musician whose poems and
songs are " the spontaneous expressions of his vision and
his love." He was a weaver and earned his living by
working at the loom. As Evelyn Underhill well says :
" He knew how to combine vision and industry ; the
work of ihis hands helped rather than hindered the
356
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABIK
impassioned meditation of his heart It was from out
of the heart of the common Hfe that he sang his raptur-
ous lyrics of divine love." He disliked and denounced all
formalism, empty and loveless asceticism, pride of birth
and caste and rank, and worldUness, which are the
worst foes of light. Above all, his utmost simplicity of
emotional appeal combined with the richness of mysti-
cal apprehension of Truth and Beauty makes his poems
a perpetual source of delight and spiritual uplift. By
the most universal and elementary facts and relations
of life he brings home to us the higher joys and affini-
ties of the life divine. As Evelyn Underhill says: "There
are in his universe no fences between the ' natural ' and
■'supernatural' worlds; everything is a part of the
creative play of God, and therefore — even in its humblest
details — capable of revealing the player's mind All
aspects of the universe possess equal authority as sacra-
mental declarations of the presence of God. " The
introduction brings out also two other very great traits
of Kabir's genius. *' Movement, rhythm, perpetual
change, forms an integral part of Kabir's vision of
Reality. Though the Eternal and Absolute is ever pre-
sent to his consciousness, yet his concept of the Divine
Nature is essentially dynamic." Again, " the constant
insistence in simplicity and directness, the hatred
of all abstractions and philosophizings, the ruthless
criticism of external religion ; these are amongst his
most marked characteristics."
357
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
My object is not to expound here the great beauties
of Kabir's songs but to show the divinely beautiful par-
allelism of sentiment and style between Kabir and
Tagore — both thoroughly Indian, full of true and lofty
mystical genius, and dowered with golden beauty of
style. I wish to do so both for purpose of showing the
true poetic and spiritual descent of Tagore and of mak-
ing my readers recognise how though the mortals speak
many tongues the immortals speak but one. Both are
dowered with that keen and luminous inner vision be-
fore which the shams and lies of life flee away and life
is seen in all its fulness and beauty ; both have an utter-
most simplicity of emotional appeal and describe
truly and transfigure with the divine radiance of
love the universal elements in life ; both are great
musicians and poets in whose hands words and sounds
become consecrated by dedication to God ; both de-
nounce in deathless words formalism, blind and unfruit-
ful asceticism, pride and narrowness of vision and world-
liness which bar us as with triple steel from the shrine
of Truth and Love; both teach us how love and renunci-
ation and service are the best and loftiest and sweetest
things in life ; and both have entered the sacred inner-
most shrine of God's love with praying lips and adoring
hearts, have seen the blessed vision, have become full of
love's ecstasy, and have realised God's love in myraid
ways, and communicate to the world what they have
been privileged to see.
358
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABIR
Both of them teach us that we must get rid of our
formalism, our adhesion to the letter forgetting and
even disclaiming the spirit. Christ has told us how the
letter killeth while the spirit giveth life. Formalism
makes us feel self- satisfied and hardens the heart, and
thus banishes from within us the divine elements of self-
surrender, self-sacrifice, humility, and love. Kabir says:
" There is nothing but water at the holy bathing
places ; and I know that they are useless, for
I have bathed in them.
The images are all Ufeless, they cannot speak j
I know, for I have cried aloud to them.
The Purana and the Koran are mere words ; lifting
up the curtain, I have seen.
Kabir gives utterance to the words of experience ;
and he knows very well, that all other things are
untrue. " (Pages 49-50).
" The yogi dyes his garments, instead of dyeing his
mind in the colours of love :
He sits within the temple of the Lord, leaving
Brahma to worship a stone.
He pierces holes in his ears, he has a great beard
and matted locks, he looks like a goat :
He goes forth into the wilderness, killing all his
desires, and turns himself into aneunuch.
He shaves his head and dyes his garments ; he
reads the Gita and becomes a mighty talker.
359
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Kabir says : 'You are going to the doors of death,
bound hand and foot P "
(Pages 69-70).
" O servant, where dost thou seek me ? Lo ! I am
beside thee.
I am neither in temple nor in mosque : I am
neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash : Neither am I
in rites and ceremonies, nor in yoga and renuncia-
tion.
If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see
Me : thou shalt meet me in a moment of time.
Kabir says : " O Sadhu ! God is the breath of all
breath."
(Page 1).
Tagore says in the Gitanjali :
" Leave this chanting and singing and telling of
beads ! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely
dark corner of a temple with doors all shut ?
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before
these !
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard
ground and where the pathmaker is breaking
stones. He is with them in sun and in showeri
and his garment is covered with dust. Put off
thy holy mantle and even like him come down
on the dusty soil !
Deliverance ? Where is this deliverance to be
found ? Our master himself has joyfully taken
360
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABIR
upon him the bonds of creation ; he is bound
with us all for ever.
Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy
flowers and incense ! What harm is there if thy
clothes become tattered and stained ! Meet him
and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy
brow."
(Pages 8-9).
Kabir and Tagore condemn further the vain, arrogant,
self-sufficient, self-satisfied and fruitless asceticism that
thinks highly of itself, runs away from all spheres of
love and service, and seeks the God of Love and Mercy
through self-mortification and loveless self-discipline.
Kabir says :
" Because he lives in solitude, therefore the yogi
says that his home is far away.
Your Lord is near ; yet you are climbing the palm-
tree to seek Him."
(Page 28).
" Dance, my heart ! dance to-day with joy.
The strains of love fill the days and the nights
with music, and the world is listening to its
melodies.
Mad with joy, life and death dance to the rhythm
of this music. The hills and the sea and the
earth dance. The world of man dances in laugh-
ter and tears.
361
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Why put on the robe of the monk, and live aloof
from the world in lonely pride ?
Behold ! my heart dances in the delight of a hun-
dred arts, and the Creator is well pleased."
(Page 38-39).
" It is not austerities that mortify the flesh which
are pleasing to the Lord,
When you leave off your clothes and kill your
senses, you do not please the Lord :
The man who is kind and who practises righteous-
ness, who remains passive amidst the affairs of
the world, who considers all creatures on earth
a» his own self,
He attains the Immortal Being, the true God is
ever with him, Kabir says : " He attains the true
name whose words are pure, and who is free
from pride and conceit." (Page 69)
Tagore also gives us the same great gospel in his
poems. Indeed his unique glory consists in his harmo-
nising the conflict of ideals in our land due to the
commingling of the civilisations of the West and of the
East. He leads us to that radiant region where work
and service thrive in joy side by side with thought and
contemplation beneath the overarching skies of love lit
by the sun of poesy and the full moon of song. This
was our immemorial Indian ideal though during the
dark ages of Indian history we fell away from ideals oi
362
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABIR
patriotic work and service- The greatness of Tagore's
work consists in the harmony abovesaid and in leading
us to retain the spirit of our great civilisation while
catching the spirit of modern enlightenment and pro-
gress and national service. That he has had the same
appeal in Japan also is clear from Professor Hirose's
article in The Journal of the Indo-Japanese Association.
Professor Hirose says : " Since the opening of inter-
course with the Western countries and the introduction
of advanced Western civilisation, our thinking world
has been invaded by Western thoughts and apparently
we have gradually lost some of the traditional traits of
old Japan. Of late we have awakened to the inadvisa-
bility of discarding our own ways and manners in our
zeal to take good things from other nations. It is a
matter for congratulation that the thoughts of Tagore
have found their way to the minds of thinking Japanese,
who have begun to awake from their exclusive adora-
tion of Western civilisation, and have aroused within
them a spirit to love and respect the old traditions of
their own country. In that respect, I think, our nation
is greatly indebted to Mr, Tagore." Tagore himself
has said : " Our ancient civilisation was really complete
in all its parts and was not a spiritual shade devoid of
a material body." I shall quote here the following
beautiful poem embodying his ideals of work and
serjdce,--^ " — — — _— .
" Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. — I feel
363
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of
delight.
Thou ever pourest for me the fresh draught of thy
wine of various colours and fragrance, filling this
earthen vessel to the brim.
My world will light its hundred different lamps
with thy flame and place them before the altar
of thy temple. ^
No, I will never shut the doors of my senses. The
delights of sight and hearing and touch will bear
thy delight.
Yes, all my illusions will burn into illumination of
joy, and all my desires ripen into fruits of love."
{Gitanjali^ page 68).
*' God commanded, 'stop, fool, leave not thy home,'
but still he heard not.
God sighed and complained, ' why does my servant
wander to seek me, forsaking me ? " '
{The Gardener, pages 130-131).
" No, my friends, I shall never leave my hearth
and home, and retire into the forest solitude, if
rings no merry laughter in its echoing shade, and
if the end of no saffron mantle flutters in the
wind ; if its silence is not deepened by soft
whispers.
I shall never be an ascetic."
{The Gardener^ page 78).
Both these great poets recognise at the same time that
364
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABIR
the crown and fruition of work and service is love and
realisation. Kabir says :
" So long as man clamours for the I and the Mine,
his works are as naught :
When all love of the I and the Mine is dead, then
the work of the Lord is done.
For work has no other aim than the getting of
knowledge.
When that comes, then work is put away.
The flower blooms for the fruit : when the fruit
comes, the flower withers.
The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within
itself ; it wanders in quest of grass."
(Pages 5-6).
Tagore sings :
" Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows
no rest or respite, and my work becomes an end-
less toil in a shoreless sea of toil. To-day the
summer has come at my window with its signs
and murmurs ; and the bees are flying their
minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove.
Now it is time to sit quiet, face to face with thee,
and to sing dedication of life in this silent and
overflowing leisure."
{Gitanjalij pages 4-5).
Both poets bring home to our minds again and again
the great truth which Christ proclaimed by saying : "The
Kingdom of Heaven is within you," and that our holy
365
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
scriptures teach by the blessed sayings Tat twatn asi
and Ahani Brahmasmi. Salvation is not a process of
attaining with painful exertions what is not ours. It is
a realisation of our Divine Nature, our union with the
Divine. Kabir says :
" The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not with-
in itself : it wanders in quest of grass." (Page 6).
" Do not go to the garden of flowers ! O friend !
go not there ;
In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your
seat on the thousand petals of the lotus and there
gaze on the Infinite Beauty." (Pages 3-4).
Tagore sings :
" Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and
I started up from my dream and felt a sweet
trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind.
That vague sweetness made my heart ache with long-
ing, and it seemed to me that it was the eager
breath of summer seeking for its completion.
I knew not then it was so near, that it was mine,
and that this perfect sweetness had blossomed in
the depth of my own heart."
{Gitanjali, pages 16-17).
Again and again both poets make us realise the
melody of God's voice heard by the soul in nature and
in the dark but pure chamber of the heart. Kabir says :
The melody of love swells forth, and the rhythm.
of love's detachment beats the time.
866
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KAB IR
Day and night, the chorus of music fills the
heavens." (Page 17).
"There the whole sky is filled with sound, and
there that music is made without fingers and
without strings."
(Page 22).
" There the sky is filled with music,
There it rains nectar :
There the harp-strings jingle, and there the drums
beat." (Page 23).
" I hear the melody of His flute, and I cannot con-
tain myself where the rhythm of
the world rises and falls, thither my heart has
reached." (Page 71).
Tagore sings:
*' I know not how thou singest, my master! I ever
listen in silent amazement.
The light of thy music illumines the world. The
life breath of thy music runs from sky to sky.
The holy streams of thy music breaks through
all stony obstacles and rushes on.
My heart longs to join in thy song, but vainly
struggles for a voice. I would speak, but speech
breaks not into song, I cry out baffled. Ah, thou
hast made my heart captive in the endless meshes
of thy music, my master !" (Page 3).
Both poets teach us that God is to be realised in
creation, that the whole world is the lila or sport of God,
367
SIR RABINDHANATH TAGORE
and that we must know and love Gods's infinite play of
forms known as the universe. Kabir says:
" His form is infinite and fathomless,
He dances in rapture, and waves of form arise from
His dance." (Page 33).
" His play the land and water, the whole universe !
His play the earth and the sky !
In play is the Creation spread out, in play it is
established. The whole world, says Kabir, rests
in his play,yet still the player remains unknown."
(Page 89>.
Tagore says :
" In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had
my play and here have I caught sight of him
that is formless." (Page 88).
Both poets make us realise that God is Joy (Ananda).
Kabir says :
" He dances in rapture, and waves of form arise
from His dance.
The body and the mind cannot contain themselves,,
when they are touched by His great joy.
He holds all within His bliss."
(Page 38).
" The Creator brought into being the Game of Joy:
and from the word ' Om ' the creation sprang.
The Earth is His joy ; His joy is the sky ;
His joy is the flashing of the sun and the moon ;.
368
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABIR
His joy is the beginning, the middle, and the end ;
His joy is eyes, darkness, and light.
Ocean and waves are his joy : His joy the Saras-
wati, the Jumna, and the Ganges.
The Guru is One ; and life and death, imion and
separation, are all His plays of joy !"
(Pages 88-89).
Tagore sings :
" Light, my light, the world-filling light, the eye-
kissing light, heart-sweetening light !
Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the centre of
my life ; the light strikes, my darling, the chords
of my love ; the sky opens, the wind runs wild,
laughter passes over the earth.
The butterflies spread their sails on the sea of
light. Lilies and jasmines surge up on the crest
of the waves of light.
The light is shattered into gold on every cloud,
and it scatters gems in profusion.
Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling, and
gladness without measure. The heaven's river
has drowned its banks and the flood of joy is
abroad."
{Gitanjali^ pages 52-58).
Both poets tell us in a divinely convincing way how
God yearns to save us and take us into the paradise of
His love. Kabir says :
" To Thee Thou hast drawn my love, O Fakir !
369
24
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
I was sleeping in my own chamber, and Thou didst
awaken me ; striking me with Thy voice, O
Fakir !
I was drowning in the deeps of the ocean of this
world, and Thou didst save me : upholding me
with Thine arm, O Fakir !
Only one word and no second — and Thou hast made
me tear off all my bonds, O Fakir 1
Kabir says, Thou hast united Thy heart to my
heart, O Fakir." '
(Page 10).
Tagore sings:
" By all means they try to hold me secure who love
me in this world. But it is otherwise with thy
love which is greater than theirs, and thou keep-
est me free.
Lest I forget them they never venture to leave me
alone. But day passes after day and thou art
not seen.
If I call not to thee in my prayers, if I keep not
thee in my heart, thy love for me still waits for
my love." {Gitanjali^ pages 25-26).
Both poets describe ecstatically the joys of divine
communion and tell us how we can attain them only
by renunciation and love. Kabir says:
" I played day and night with my comrades, and
now I am greatly afraid.
So high is my Lord's palace, my heart trembles to
370
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABIR
mount its stairs, yet I must not be shy if I would
enjoy His love. '
My heart must cleave to my Lover; I must with-
draw my veil, and meet him with all my body:
Mine eyes must perform the ceremony of the lamps
of love." (Page 11).
Tagore sings :
"My song has put off her adornments. She has no
pride of dress and decoration. Ornaments would
mar our union; they would come between thee
and me; their jingling would drown thy whispers.
My poet's vanity dies in shame before thy sight. O
master poet, I have sat down at thy feet. Only
let me make my life simple and straight, like a
flute of reed for thee to fill with music."
{Gitanjali^ page 6).
Both poets give us very true and vivid and consoling
pictures and ideas as to the true significance of the
mysterious phenomena of life and death. Kabirsays:
"Look upon life and death ; there is no separation
between them,
The right hand and the left hand are one and the
same." ' (Page 20).
Tagore sings in one of the most beautiful poems in
the Gitanjali.
" I was not aware of the moment when I first cross-
ed the threshold of this life.
What was the power that made me open out into
371
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORE
this vast mystery like a bud in the forest at mid-
night.
When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt
in a moment that I was no stranger in this world^
that the inscrutable without name and form had
taken me in its arms in the form of my own
mother.
Even so, in death the same unknown will appear
as ever known to me. And because I love this
life, I know I shall love death as well. The child
cries out when from the right breast the mother
takes it away, in the very next moment to
find in the left one its consolation."
[Gitanjali^ page 87)^
Each poet brings out very clearly what is the first
duty of Hfe and what ought to be the prayer of each
soul. Kabir sings in an exquisite poem :
" Hang up the swing of love to-day ! Hang the
body and the mind between the arms of the
Beloved, in the ecstasy of love's joy :
Bring the tearful streams of the rainy clouds to
your eyes, and cover your hearts with the shadow
of darkness :
Bring your face nearer to His ear, and speak of
the deepest longings of your heart. Kabir says :
" Listen to me, brother ! bring the vision of the
Beloved in your heart !."
(Page 105).
372
TRANSLATION OF ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABIR
Tagore voices forth the pure and perfect and
passionate prayer of the soul in the following poem :
" Let only that little be left of me whereby I may
name thee my all.
Let only that little be left of my will whereby I
may feel thee on every side, and come to thee
in everything, and offer to thee my love every
moment.
Let only that little be left of me whereby I may
never hide thee.
Let only that little of my fetters be left whereby
I am bound with thy will, and thy purpose is
carried out in my life — and that is the fetter of
thy love."
Such are a few of the divine resemblances of style
and thought and emotion between these two great
poets. I shall conclude this chapter by giving below a
few other exquisite quotations from this translation of
Kabir's poems by Tagore.
" O Friend ! hope for Him whilst you live, know
whilst you live, understand whilst you live ;
for in life deliverance abides. "
(Page 2).
" So from beyond the Infinite, the Infinite comes ;
and from the Infinite, the finite extends."
(Page 6).
" The devout seeker is he who mingles in his heart
the double currents of love and detachment,
373
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
like the mingling of the streams of the Ganges
and the Jumna " (Page 18).
" You have slept for unnumbered ages : this
morning will you not awake ?"
(Page 26),
" The truth-seeker's battle goes on day and nighty
as long as life lasts it never ceases."
(Page 45).
" The lock of error shuts the gate, open it with the
key of love : Thus, by opening the door, thou
shalt wake the Beloved."
(Page 45).
" O Man, if thou dost not know thine own Lord,^
whereof art thou so proud ?"
(Page 64).
"The jewel is lost in the mud, and all are seeking
for it ;
Some look for it in the east, and some in the west ;
some in the water and some amongst stones.
But the servant Kabir has appraised it at its true
value, and has wrapped it vi^ith care in the end
of the mantle of his heart."
(Page 75).
374
CHAPTER IX.
FICTION.*
Some of the poet's best work is to be found in his
short stories and novels and romances. But we must
know and state at the very outset his limitations as a
story-teller, though some extravagant admirers have
gone the length of claiming him to be a great genius in
the realm of creative fiction. The chief characteristics
of the novel and the romance as a literary form is that
interest of plot, incident, and character should be its
chief aim and charm. The novel, however, differs from
the romance in that the incidents in the former are
probable and of normal occurrence while in the latter
we have a certain degree of ideality of incident. In
Tagore's novels even more than in his dramas we see
that his approach to the heart of the subject is a poetic
approach. He does not throw himself heart and soul
into the characters and the scenery ; the subjective,
introspective, reflective side of his nature peeps out
though in a form full of beauty and takes its place along
with the characters ; the atmosphere of the story and
the drama becomes charged and electrical with poetic
suggestion ; the tendency to take the beauty or the
pathos of each great situation as the central theme and
to regard the incidents as accessories thereto leads to
375
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the simplification of the incidents, so that the artist may
avoid any crowding of the canvas and prevent the
details or the interest of the story drawing our gaze
away from the overwhelming pathos or rapture of a
psychological situation ; and the language too fakes
colour from the outlook and is full of a heavenly beauty
of suggestiveness that draws our attention to the fact
that more is meant than is said. Tagore being a
poet to the inmost core of his being cannot but feel
deeply the poetic aspect of every great situation in
inner and outer life. We must not forget this circum-
stance when trying to estimate his achievement as a
story-teller.
It follows from the above discussion that Tagore
would naturally choose the short story as his favourite
literary form in prose. It enables him to describe
beautiful or happy or pathetic situations and moments
in the lives of individuals without undue elaboration
of incident or attention to interest of plot and character.
The lyric mood is as brief as it is intense ; and one so
liberally dowered as Tagore with it will hardly be able
to bring to bear upon his creations that combination of
epic and dramatic gifts and that objectivity of tempera-
ment without which the great masterpieces of fiction
conceived and executed on a large scale can never be
written.
It seems to me that Tagore's having chosen the short
story as a literary form is in the main due to the fact
376
FICTION
that every Hindu is owing to tradition and environment
a born story-teller. The fables of Hitopadesa and
Panchaiantra have travelled all over the world. The
Bhagavatha movement by its popular appeal and by its
method of extempore improvisation of stories helped to
bring into existence a rare literary form in which direct-
ness of narration, emphasis on the universal elements and
joys and sorrows of human nature, and a high tone of
, moral and rehgious fervour contribute to the beauty
and power of the Kathas. The art of oral narration led
also to the exclusion of all but the important incidents.
The artist when he works with the pen in the secluded
studio of the imagination can deal with the lives and
characters of many characters ; each little rill of inci-
dent will flow into the mighty stream of the central
story till at last the majestic river sweeps like the
Ganges towards the close. But the oral narrator has
his audience from him ; if he loses the threads of his
narrative the spell would be broken ; an audience
hearing a story will necessarily bestow less attention
on it than a reader sitting at a book with his imagina-
tion alone by his side as his beloved spouse ; and the
imperious need of arresting and keeping attention over-
rides all other considerations. On the other hand, he
can piay on the heart as a musician plays on the flute.
He can intersperse his narration with apposite moral
reflections and devotional songs ; there is the direct con-
tact of soul and soul ; and the immediateness and direct-
377
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
ness of the appeal gives him an immense advantage over
the writer. He has as his aids the expressive language
of the eyes, the manifestation of emotion by the mobile
face, the various and limitless inflections of the human
voice, and the varied grace of gestures. Indeed the
whole human frame charged with the electricity of
emotion is at his service. This advantage over cold
print and distance more than counterbalances the few
advantages that the writer of an elaborate story has in,
his favour. The modern developments of the art, how-
ever, at least in Southern India, shows a great deal of
degradation ; vividness and naturalness of story telling
arc as conspicuous by their absence as true dcvolional
spirit ; while the introduction of mixed and composite
musicial styles and of low farcial elements for the sake
of pandering to the public taste has torn into shreds
the few elements of dignity that decorated the art in the
course of its long travel along the road of time.
Thus Tagore's short stories owe their peculiar charm
to the special glories and limitations of his genius and
to the special peculiarities of the Indian story-telling art.
We must also bear in mind that Tagore has been a lov-
ing student of the best literatures of the West and that
hence his art has acquired a new grace and power by
such study, which has enabled him to take up life as it
is around us and bring out its heights and depths before
our eyes without that over-idealising tendency and ob-
trusion of the supernatural elements which were the
378
FICTION
chief defects of Indian fiction in the past. He is certain-
ly not a realist, because the microscopic examination of
the moral evils and material uglinesses of life that has
of late blinded some of the greatest of the world's crea-
tive artists in the West to the elements of beauty, joy,,
and divinity in life and human nature is not possible to
one who is essentially a poet and hence habitually
dwells in a heaven of beauty, love, and joy. He takes the
realities of life and shows their inner significance in the
light of his soul. The supernatural element also comes
into his stories almost naturally, because both the natu-
ral and supernatural realms own a common allegiance
to the sway of imagination and claim and realise kinship
when kneeling before the sovereign's throne.
It is thus clear that the chief charm of Tagore's short
stories is the revelation of the hearts of men and women.
The incidents in them are few and are chosen more for
the light that they throw on human hearts than for keep-
ing up the interest of the reader by wealth and variety
of incident. Another beautiful trait in them is the
frequency of beautiful natural descriptions. These
are introduced not for their own sake but to show
the common bond of sympathy that exists
though unperceived between the soul of man and
the soul of nature. Here again the poetic outlook
on life is responsible for these wonderful literary effects.
The stories reveal further how the poet's dower of ima-
gination has enabled, him to enter into the life of all
879
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
classes of men and women in his land, and depict their
daily tasks and joys and sorrows in a spirit of observant,
large-hearted, divine sympathy. Everywhere the poet
pleads for more sympathy, more love, more simpli-
city, a better ordering of life, a higher serenity, a sweeter
submission to the divine will, and an increasing reaUsa-
tion of the divine foundations of life. Another charac-
teristic of the stories is the living touch that they have
with the new aspirations of united and national life that
are surging through the heart of young India under the
benign and uplifting sway of the British Crown, Last but
not least must be mentioned the insight that he has into
woman's heart. It has been well-said: "The man is
the more variable phenomenon But the
true woman is timeless, universal." The delineation of
womanhood in Indian literature exposes the libel so
often hurled by blind outsiders as well as bHnd critics
within at the Hindus in regard to their alleged want
of chivalry and reverence for womanhood. Mr. A. W.
Ryder says about Kalidasa: '' I know of no poet, unless
it be Shakespeare, who has given the world a group of
heroines so individual yet so universal, heroines as true,
as tender, as brave as are Indumathi, Sita, Parvathi, the
Yakha's bride, and Sakuntala" Tagore shows in many
of his stories his realisation of the tenderness, love, and
heroism of the Hindu wife, and his gallery of portraits
of Indian womanhood is admirable for its truth and its
charm. He describes womanhood in all the various
380
FICTION
phases and stages of its beauty, its fascination, its emo-
tional refinement, its delight in self-sacrifice, and its divine
rapture of love and tenderness. The little girl Minnie
in the Fruit-seller who flits hither and thither like a gay
butterfly basking in the sunshine of life and takes
leave of us as a young bashful bride bright with the
coming glow of love's moon though yet knowing not its
radiant sweetness, just as the sky is beautifully bright
with the coming glow of moonrise while the moon is
yet behind the hill and unrevealed to our expectant
eyes ; the little girl Souravt, who has chosen in her
heart as her bridegroom the fickle Rasik who marries
into a rich family for the sake of money ; the Dumb
Girl who is treated tenderly by all and is in dumb con-
verse with nature and all created beings though denied
the power of speech ; the girl Charushashi^ petted, play-
ful, and wilful and yet full of an indefinable and irre-
sistible charm ; the Hindu wife Chandara whom the joy
of self-sacrifice sustains and gladdens though she
belongs to a poor and uneducated family and has to
lose her life by her confession made to screen her hus-
band's brother who had committed a murder ; the
Hindu wife Bindhya Bhashini who owns her husband's
guilt to save him from dishonour and loves him as the
idol of her heart though he returns from England a veri-
table snob with a foreigner as his wife ; the girl-widow
in A Study In Anatomy who is carried away by irresisti-
ble passion to kill herself ; and the man that she loves
381
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the girl-widow Kusiim who in a spirit of utter self
control and self-sacrifice goes gladly to her death in the
waters of the Ganges when the Sanyasi to whom she
lost her pure heart unknown to him and even to herself
asks her to forget him ; the matronly widow Jaikali
Devi, who in spite of the stern austerity of her life,
Iceeps her heart sweet by love of God and love of living
creatures in distress, and goes through life passionless
and pure : — these and other characters form a glorious
group of heroines whose heroism in real — and in many
cases in humble — life discloses to us the beauty and
purity and loftiness of Tagore's conception of woman-
hood and his insight into the human heart.
I shall describe briefly a few of Tagore's short stories
below." The Fruit-seller describes the girl Minnie. The
Kabtili Rahamat becomes her friend in spite of great
disparity of age, as her sight brings into his memory
the vision of his own young daughter in his far-off home.
He is convicted for stabbing a man and when he comes
out of prison he learns that it was Minnie's bridal-day.
He desires to see her before he goes away. Her father
objects but yields when Rahamat speaks of his little
daughter and says that he grew to love Mitmie out of
remembrance of his own pretty child and shows the
the imprint of his girl's tiny palm upon a piece of
paper that he has been keeping next to his heart.
" I saw an imprint of a tiny palm upon the paper.
282
FICTION
It was not a photo, nor an oil-painting, but only
a mark obtained by smearing the palm with some
lamp-black. With this souvenir of his child
nearest to his bosom does Rahamat come every
year to sell fruits in the Calcutta streets — as if
the soft touch of the child's tiny palm fills his
great heart labouring under the pangs of separa-
tion and suffuses it with ambrosial nectar."
[Page 13 of Rajani Ranjan Sen's Glimpses of
Bengal Life containing a translation of Tagore's
stories.]
The second story describes how a schoolboy misses
his mother's love when in his aunt's house. The third
story called A Resolve Accomplished strikes a higher
note and gives us a beautiful glimpse of heroism in
humble life. Bansi, the elder brother of Rasik, fore-
goes the pleasures of married life and toUs beyond his
strength to place his brother in a position of comfort
and have the lineage perpetuated through him. But
Rasik flees away from the life of drudgery, marries into
a rich family for the sake of money ignoring the girl
Souravi who has been his playmate and has been look-
ing up to him as her future lord, and finds on coming
back that his brother had died leaving to him the
money that he had put by for his dear brother's sake.
Bansi was a weaver and the poet describes sym-
pathetically how the weaver's art in India — where
Dacca muslins have been described as woven of wind
383
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
and in regard to whose perfection in the art of weaving
James Mill said that ' of the exquisite degree of per-
fection to which the Hindus have carried the produc-
tions of the loom it would be idle to offer any descrip-
tion'— has been ruined by competition with the
machine-made cloth imported from the West.
" A pack of evil spirits, however, advanced from
over the sea and hurled missiles of fire upon the
inoffensive loom. They set the demon of hunger
in the poor weaver's homes, and the whistling
of steam sounded like frequent blasts from their
horns of victory."
(Pages 27-28).
Tagore shows us how people praise others if these
work for them and do not want payment but show no
kindness if the question of payment comes in.
" Upon going to work, he found that works done
without remuneration carried favour and appre-
ciation— which had ever been his own, — but that
in the case of works of need there was no pity
and no appreciation." (Pages 48-49).
We have to be grateful to Tagore for showing us
how the modern industrial movement which consists of
resolutions at conferences, is followed by no practical
wisdom, and merely exhausts energies that could be used
for good work and further retards progress by filling
our hearts with a glow of self-satisfaction which is a
poor substitute for the glow of self-sacrifice that must
384
FICTION
be there, shining in a steady flame like a sacred fire on
an altar.
" All went on well so long as its promoters sat in
committee, but as soon as they came down to the
field of actual work it became all confusion.
From various countries they imported various
kinds of looms and at last wove such a tangled
mesh of worthless trash that committee after com-
rrittre in their protracted sittings could not
ascertain as to which pool of refuse the whole
thing was to be thrown into.''
(Pages 62-58).
In the fourth story {The Dumb Girl) the poet describes
how a dumb girl was given in marriage without her
defect being disclosed and how the only tenderness
that she knew came to her from Nature and from the
mute love of her kine.
"Subhahad no language, but she had a pair of
large dark eyes with long-drawn eye-lids, and
her lips would tre'mble like tender leaves upon
the slightest touch of emotion But
the large dark eyes have nothing to translate —
the mind casts its spontaneous shadow upon
them and impressions expand or contract there-
in of themselves." (Page 64).
" She looked all round — could find no language
nor see those ever-familiar faces that understood
the language of the dumb. An endless,
385
25
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGOKE
inexplicable wailing rang in the girl's ever-silent
heart — none but One but who knew the heart
could hear it." (Page 74).
There is something infinitely pathetic in this dumb
agony of the human heart that is denied all possibility
of self-expression. Pain is unavoidable so long as
man has not risen to the supreme paradise of love of
God ; and so long as he performs punya and papa (good
acts and sinful acts) he must reap the inevitable harvest
of his actions. The pity of it all becomes insupportably
keen and oppressive when a simple, sweet, and lovable
nature \t denied the solace of pouring out its sorrows
into sympathetic cars and receiving words of love, con-
solation, and encouragement from loving lips. Tagore
ha» seized and expressed the pathetic situation with a
poetic insight peculiarly his own.
The next story about the Wandering Guest has con-
siderable poetic attractiveness. The boy Tarapad
therein is quite as attractive a figure as Alastor could
be expected to be if met with in ordinary life. His is a
poetical nature that flits from joy to joy but would
feel crushed by the load of ordinary life. He is
brought up by a rich man whose wayward girl Charu
shashilikes the boy and is of a lovable though imperious
nature. The boy, however, is drowned in a flood and
the poet suggests that that was the fittest close to the
life of such a dear and free and joyful child of nature
to whom the trammels of common life would have been
3«6
FICTION
I
■
an intolerable agony. The following description of
the boy is very fine :
" A fine boy he was, large-eyed and of fair
complexion, and a delicate sweetness played
about his pleasant smiling face and lips. The
cloth he wore was not very clean. His bare
frame was devoid of all manner of superfluities,
as if some skilful artist had fashioned it with
considerable care and rounded it off quite fault-
lessly. He looked as though he had been a
hermit boy in his previous birth, and asceticism
undefiled having considerably reduced the
proportions of his body a chastened Brahma nic
beauty had now been beaming all about him."
(Pages 75-76).
The Look Auspicious is a story of considerable charm.
Kanti Chunder came across a beautiful girl and sought
her in marriage. The following description of the
girl is full of delicate beauty :
" That girl's beauty was extremely fresh, as if the
Artificer of the world had let her off just after
modelling her. It was hard to ascertain her
age. Her body had developed but her face was
so very immature that the least touch of world-
liness was not perceptible there. The news of
her stepping into the confines of youth did not
seem to have yet reached herself."
(Page 106).
387
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
She was unfortunately deaf and dumb and insane^,
though the insanity was of a harmless type. Not
knowing this and not knowing that she had a sister, he
sought her father and asked him to give his girl in
marriage. He did not want to see the girl as he thought
that he had seen the girl whom the father was prepared
to give to him in wedlock. During the marriage
ceremony when the bridegroom and the bride have
the first auspicious look at each other he found out the
error. But he became reconciled lo the change when
he learnt the truth and when he realised how gentle
and modest and good and fair his bride was.' Tagore
realises and expresses the supreme charm of the Hindu
custom about the auspicious look in these beautiful words.
" This really was the look auspicious. All obstruc-
tions tore away from before the eye of the mind
hidden behind that of the flesh. All the bright-
ness from the lamps as well as his heart now
radiated and centred upon a single soft and
gentle face. Kanti saw an amiable countenance
and a chastened tranquil beauty suffusing that
face."
(Page 114).
The secret of the happiness of Hindu marriages
from the time of the marriage of Rama and Sita
is disclosed to us in these precious and beautiful
words.
In A Study in Anatomy we have a description of how
388
FICTION
a girl-widow grew in beauty and loved Sashi Shekar
and poisoned him and herself when she learnt how
though loving her he resolved to marry another for the
sake of money and social advancehient. The following
description by herself of her bloosomed beauty is very
brightly written :
*' I could myself well understand that like glisten-
ing shoots of light from a piece of diamond
when it is moved, the waves of my beauty would
ripple all around at every movement of my
frame in a variety of undulations as I walked. I
would sometimes gaze upon the pair of my
hands for long — such hands that could rein the
mouths of the whole world's stubborn manhood
and hold it in sweet subjection. When Subhadra
bending proudly in her car of victory sped away
with Arjuna through the three worlds plunged in
wonder, perhaps she had a pair of such round
not very plump arms and rosy palms and
tapering fingers like flames of beauty."
(Pages 119-120).
The story called The Landing Stairway is one of the
•finest of Tagore's stories and brings out the supreme
beauty of his poetic endowments very well. Tagore
has the rare power of realising and making us realise
the psychical elements in seemingly inert matter. In
this story a river-stair up and down whose steps
millions of feet — hard, soft, proud, humble, clean, dirty,
389
)
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
beautiful, ugly, pure, sinful, — had passed and which has
felt the footfalls through the hastening centuries turns
story-teller. The Ghat's reminiscences are narrated
with imagination and insight.
" The Ganges had been full — only four of my steps
had been lying bare above the water. Land and
water seemed to be locked in a loving embrace,
The sunshine of the autumn
morn lighting upon the full breast of the Ganges
had taken the hue of molten gold or of the yellow
champaka flower — at no other time of the year
is this same colour of the sunbeams to be seen I
The light of my days and the
shadow of my nights fall daily upon the Ganges
and are daily wiped away again from her surface
and they leave no mark anywhere. Thus it is
that my heart is ever young though I look very
old."
(Pages 129-131),
The Ghat then narrates the story of the young widow
Kusum, who unknown to herself falls in love- a lovt
that had no physical taint in it — with a young Sanyasi
(ascetic), and at his bidding to forget him steps into
the Ganges as into a bridal chamber and dies. The
following description of the Sanyasi with his pure soul
in communion with Nature in her solemn beauty is
wonderful.
'^ When the hermit w£)uld at early dawn every day
390
FICTION
immerse in the water of the Ganges before sun-
rise, facing the morning star, and say his morning
prayers in a calm solemn voice, I could then
hardly hear the noise of the flowing stream.
While listening to his voice, the sky towards the
eastern bank would every day assume a ruddy
hue, streaks of crimson would dye the fringes of
the clouds, darkness would break and drop
down on every side hkc the covering of the
flower-bud about to bloom, and the red tint of
the blooming Dawn would gradually come out in
the celestial expanse. Tht tops of trees would by
degrees manifest themselves against the sky, the
wind would wake up, the colour of the sky would
grow white, and at lait from inside, from behind
the line of trees, the sun would gently rise step
by step in the heateni above cleansed after its
morning bath. It would seem to me that as this
saintly personage standing there in the water of
the GauRCS and looking towards the east uttered
some potent incantations, at each word as it was
uttered the spell of the night broke away, the
moon and the stars sunk down in the west, the
sun ascended the eastern sky, and the scenic
outlook of the earth underwent a wondrous
transformation 1 Who is this magician ? When
after his bath the ascetic would raise from out
of the water his fair holy frame shining like a
391
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
flame of the sacrificial fire, drops of water would
then trickle out of his matted hair and the young
sunHght reflect itself from all parts of his
body." (Page 138).
I shall quote here only one more bit of heavenly de-
scription— now of an inner paradise as the quotation
above was the description of an outer paradise.
" The shade of sadness that was upon her calm
face passed away and she looked pure and holy
like a consecrated flower bathe 1 in dew — so
much so that when she fell upon the hermit's
feet with supreme veneration every morning,
she looked like a flower dedicated to the wor-
ship of a god." (Page 142).
Mr. Rhys in his recent book well says : " In this
story Rabindranath Tagore reveals the heart of Kusum
by the slight interrogative touches which he often uses
to give reaHty to his spiritual portraits of woman. He
is one of the very few tale-tellers who can interpret
women by intuitive art. The devotion and heroism of
the Hinduism he paints are of a kind to explain to us
that though the mortal rite of Sati is ended, the
spirit that led to it is not at all extinct. It lives re-
embodied in a thousand acts of sacrifice, and in many
a delivering up of the creature-self, and its pride of
life and womanly desire." Sir Edwin Arnold says
beautifully in his Easl and West . " This was the basis
of the heroic though tragical custom of ' Sati ' or
392
FICTION '
widow-burning, one of the grandest defiances ever
flung by human faith and love at the face of the doc-
trine of annihilation."
I have already stated above what the story of The
Sentence is about. It shows how in spite of the crudi-
ties, deadening drudgery, and unhappiness in the home
of poverty there is a great deal of heroism in humble
life in India, and how the divine elements in the souls of
men and women shine forth even in a cottage and irra-
diate it with the beams of love and renunciation. In The
Expiation the pure souled, meek, and gentle wife Bin-
dhyabhashini takes the guilt of her husband on her
head, though he rilles her father's iror^safe and goes
with the stolen money to En.i^land, is called to the bar,
and comes out to India a worthless snob with a Euro-
pean wife. In The Golden Mirage we see described an
unsympathetic wife who does not understand her
dreamy husband and drives him to commit suicide to
escape the slow torture of her want of sympathy. In
The Trespass we have a sweet touch of nature that makes
the whole world kin. An austere widow to whom her
temple is everything in life allows a pig meant to be
sacrificed elsewhere to find shelter in her sanctum
sanctorum and rejoices in saving its life. Tagore says :
" This little event pleased the great Lord of all
living beings of the whole universe, but the little
god of this small village named society became
very much agitated." (P«ige 218).
393
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
I wish to describe in greater detail the remarkable
last story in the volume. It is entitled The Hungry
Stones^ and reveals a wonderful power of romance. A
modern worldly man goes to dwell in a palace of marble
where an emperor and his harem ( 'f beauties had lived
and loved and died. He discovers every night ghost
figures repeating their ancient tasks and loves and joys.
" From the mouth of the fountain set in its bath
jets of rose- scented water used to spirit upwards,
and in this sequestered room, cooled by the
perfumed spray, youthful Persian girls would
rest upon the cold rocky seats decked with tine
marble, ^nd setting their tresses loose for ablu-
tion they would stretch their soft uncovered
blossom-like feet in the limpid water of the
reservoir and with sitars upon their knees sing
the gazal songs of the vi«ejards." (Page 221).
An Iranian slave-girl, a lierce African-Eunuch, and
other figures flit about as in real life. He cries aloud to
the beautiful girl :
"O Beauty celestial, in the lap of what-creature o£
the desert, on the bank of what cool fountain
under the date-palms, did you take birth ?
What Bedouin robber tore yon away from your
mother's breast like a flower-bud from a wild
creeper, and rode with you upon a steed of
electric pace and cross the burning sandy
expanse ? The music o£
394
FICTION
the sarangi^ the clinking of the anklets, the gleam
of the knife through the golden wine of Shiraz,.
the smarting poison, the smiting glance !"
(Page 235).
He then learns that Meher AH who haunts the palace
ruins crying " keep away, keep away ! all false, all
false 1" had become mad after living sometime in the
palace and moving with the passionate, beautiful, and
impulsive ghostly figures, and then leaves the palace for
ever where he heard
'' Voices sweet
Wooing him unto wild tempestuous lusts " (Ste-
phen Phillips' The New Injerno), and felt as he
would be whirled into a life of mad and tempes-
tuous passion and sin.
I shall refer here to one other novel called The Eyesore-
translated recently in the pages of The Modern Review'
by Surendranath Tagore. There Tagore attempts a
longer story than usual but the traits already pointed
out are there just as in the short tales above said,
Mahendra and Vihari are friends and more like brothers
than friends. Mahendra marries Asha and lives happily
with her. His mother Rajalakshmi and his aunt
Annapurna are devoted to him. The imperious yet
loving nature of Rajalakshmi and the sweet, submissive,.
and self-sacrificing nature of Annapurna are well
delineated. Into this family comes Binodini whom
Rajalakshmi had originally intended for Mahendra, who
395
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Avas married to some one else afterwards, and who
became a widow. Asha loves her fondly and gives her
the pet name of Eyesore in sport. But slowly Binodini
displaces Asha in Mahendra's heart. She does so at
first out of pleasure in the realisation of the power of
her beauty. The girls, however, continue to be good
friends ?s unsuspicious Asha has no idea of the coming
tragedy. They arrange a picnic and are quite merry.
" The artless merriment of the girls seemed to
infect and gladden the rustling leaves and waving
blossoms, the changing lights and shadows of
the groves, and the rippling wavelets."
Vihari condemns Binodini's action and she slowly
le itns to love him and his noble nature. Mahendra
finding his life and Binodini's life intolerable at home,
goes away with her to another house, leaving Raja-
laksmi and Asha to grieve and pine. But Binodini in
her new-born pure love for Vihari has had a rebirth of
the soul, Rajalakshmi now falls very ill and is on her
death-bed. Her, death effects a reconciliation and a
purification. Vihari offers to marry Binodini. But she
upborne by a lofty spirit of renunciation refuses to drag
him down by such a marriage, and goes with Anna-
purna to Benares to attain the joys of dispassion and
devotion. I cannot help comparing the art of Tagore
in this story which is a precious human document with
that of R. C. Dutt in his Lake of Palms. Sudha in the
iatter is finely drawn but one cannot help feeling that
396
FICTION
the author has not learnt to subdue his reformer's zeal
to his art. In Bankim Chunder Chatterjee and Tagore,.
the artist and student of the human heart sees life
steadily and sees it whole and makes us reahse the
glory and the pathos of human life, Bankim Chunder
is a great novelist of genius ; Tagore, though his great-
est work is not in fiction, and is not as great a novelist
as Bankim Chunder, has vitalised the short story by
breathing into it the divine breath of poetry and given
us '' a thing of beauty which is a joy for ever."
397
CHAPTER X.
SADHANA.
I have taken up Sadhana last as it is a noble and
beautiful summing up of Tagore's profoundest ideas on
life here and hereafter, and as all his other works lead
up to it. All other works of his seem to be like beautiful
individual notes while the Sadhana is like the sweet tune
running through them all. In all other works the lyric
genius, the dramatic talent, and the story-telling skill
seem to be like so many prisms resolving the white light
of the poet's soul into a beautiful symphony of colours,
while in the Sadhana we have the white light in its calm
noonday radiance. Even here the all-pervasive lyric
mood is present like the all-embracing infinite blue sky,
but even that mood is lit up and irradiated by the white
light of the soul even as the sky looks bluer and more
radiant in the enveloping white light of the day.
The Sadhana consists of lectures delivered in America
and again in England. Those who had the privilege of
hearing them speak of the wonderful spell exercised by
Tagore on his hearers, and say that much of the force
and the charm of the addresses is lost in the book. The
book even in its present form i*s a precious spiritual
document to which we must turn again and again for
consolation, inspiration, and illumination. ^
398
SADHANA
Tagore says in his preface that what he has attempt-
ed is not a philosophical treatment but to bring his
readers " into touch with the ancient spirit of India as
revealed in our sacred texts and manifested in the life
of to-day." He further points out that " all the great
utterances of man have to be judged not by the letter
but by the spirit — the spirit which unfolds itself with
the growth of life in history." He says further : '' The
meaning of the living words that come out of the
experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by
any one system of logical interpretation. They have
to be endlessly explained by the commentaries of
individual lives, and they gain an added mystery in
each new sevelation."
In the Sadhana vre find the most fundamental ideas,
aspirations, and joys of the Indian mind. I have already
shown in the introductory chapter that Tagore has the
most perfect insight into the Indian ideals of life and
art, and is a perfect embodiment of the Indian type of
culture. In the 'Sadhana we find revealed to us the
deepest and innermost ideas of one who is a poet as
well as a saint — who has seen and heard and enjoyed
the panorama of life and the music of things and at the
same time has seen in the heart the supernal beauty of
tlie face of God.
I shall try to give here some of the deepest and most
beautiful ideas in the book, leaving the reader to study
the book for himself fully and lovingly because every
399
SIK KABINDKANATH TAGORE
sentence in it is precious and valuable and the book is
a veritable mine of spiritual gold.
At the very beginning of the book and throughout
the work we find Tagore emphasising the difference
between the Indian outlook on life and the Western
outlook on life.
" Civilisation is a kind of mould that each nation is
busy making for itself to shape its men and women
according to its best ideal. All its institutions^
its legislature, its standai'd of approbation and
condemnation, its conscious and unconscious
teachings tend towards that object. The modern
civilisation of the West, by all its organised
efforts, is trying to turn out men f)erfect in
physical, intellectual, and moral efficiency.
There the vast energies of the nations are
employed in extending man's power over his
surroundings, and people are combining and
straining every faculty to possess and to turn to
account all that they can lay their hands upon,
to overcome every obstacle on their path of
conquest. They are ever disciphning themselves
to fight nature and other races, their armaments
are getting more and more stupendous every
day ; their machines, their appliances, their or-
ganisations go on multiplying at an amazing rate.
This is a splendid achievement, no doubt, and a
wonderful manifestation of man's masterfulness
400
SADHANA
which knows no obstacle, and which has for its
^ object the supremacy of himself over everything
else. The ancient civilisation of India had its
own ideal of perfection towards which its efforts
were directed Yet, this also was a
sublime achievement, — it was a supreme
manifestation of that human aspiration which
knows no limit and which has for its object
nothing less than the reaUsation of the Infinite."
(Pages 13-14).
We can well see how Tagore's ideas on this matter
are in agreement with those of another great son of
India in modern times — 'Swami Vivekananda. Tagore
is thankful that both the great types have been in exist-
ence for the better growth of man and the greater glory
of God. He recognises how each type possesses also
the defects of its virtues. In the West the soul of man
is ceaselessly extending outwards and finds no rest or
peace or rapture because of its partial vision. In India
when India was most truly herself there was perfect vision
but in mediaeval and modern India there was and is a
tendency to ignore " the claims of action in the external
universe " (see pages 125-127). Tagore pleads for the
recognition of man as spirit who has at the same time
to climb to Godhead through right action, right know-
ledge, and love. He points out how man loses his true
value where cannibalism prevails, and by elaborating that
idea in an original and striking way, he makes us realise
401
26
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
that to the extent to which we lower the value of man
and degrade his true nature and dignity, we are all
cannibals. No more scathing condemnation of this
cheapening of the soul which prevails in the West and
is now beginning to prevail here also can be had than
that which occurs in the following passage :
'' In countries higher in the scale of civilisation we
find sometimes man looked upon as a mere body,
and he is bought and sold by the price of his
flesh only. And sometimes he gets his sole value
from being useful; he is made into a machine, and
is traded upon by the man of money to acquire
for him more money. Thus our lust, our greed,
our love of comfort result in cheapening man to
his lowest value It produces
ugly sores in the body of civilisation, gives rise to
its hovels and brothels, its vindictive penal codes,
its cruel prison systems, its organised method of
exploiting foreign races to the extent of perma-
nently injuring them by depriving them of the
discipline of self-government and means of self-
defence." (Pages 108-109).
How true this is, is well borne out by the following
passage in B. Alderson's Andrew Carnegie.
" The American employer looks upon his work-peo-
ple as being literally hands; he cares little about
their bodies, and still less about their souls."
Mr. Carnegie himself says :
402
SADHANA
•" I remember how after Vandy and I had gone
round the world, and were walking the streets of
Pittsburg, we decided that the Americans were
the saddest-looking race we had ever seen. Life
is so terribly earnest here. Ambition urges all on,
from him who handles a spade to him who em-
ploys thousands. We know no rest."
J. S. Mill says:
" It is questionable whether all the labour-saving
machinery has yet lightened the day's labour of
a single human being."
Hence it is that Tagore points out:
"Civilisation can never sustain itself upon cannibal-
ism of any form. For that by which alone man
is true can only be nourished by love and justice.
(Page 112).
Tagore points out further wherein lies the speciality
of the Indian type of culture and civilisation.
" The practice of realising and affirming the pre-
sence of the infinite in all things has been its con-
stant inspiration." (Page 66).
The Indian sages " greeted the world with the glad
recognition of kindred." Tagore tries to analyse what
this was due to. He points out that while in the West
civilisation was born in cities where each man put a
wall between himself and his neighbour and a roof be-
tween him and the overarching sky, in India it was born
in the bosom of nature, — in forests. " To realise this
403
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
'^eat harmony between man's spirit and the spirit of the
world was the endeavour of the forest-dwelUng sages-
of ancient India." (Page 4).
" The West seems to take a pride in thinking that it
is subduing nature; as if we are Hving in a hostile
world where we have to wrest everything we
want from an unwilling and alien arrangement oi
things. This sentiment is the product of the city-
wall habit and training of mind. For in the
city life man naturally directs the concentrated
light of his mental vision upon his own life and
works, and this creates an artificial dissociation
between himself and the universal nature within
whose bosom he lies." (Page 5).
" But in India the point of view was different; it in-
cluded the world with the man as one great truth.
India put all her emphasis on the harmony that
exists between the individual and the universal .
With meditation and service, with a
regulation of her life, she cultivated her conscious-
ness in such a way that everything had a spiritual
meaning to her." (Pages 5-7).
Tagore then proceeds to explain the Indian idea of
places of pilgrimage and of absention from animal food.
" Therefore India chose her places of pilgrimage
wherever there was in nature some special gran-
deur or beauty, so that her mind could come out
of its world of narrow necessities and realise its
404
SADHANA
place in the infinite. This was the reason why in
India a whole people who once were meat-eaters
gave up taking animal food to cultivate the senti-
ment of universal sympathy for life, an event
unique in the history of mankind."
(Page 9).
He ridicules and exposes the untruth of the idea that
this realisation of the infinite meant the annihilation of
the self.
" In the typical thought of India it is held that the
true deliverance of man is the deliverance from
avidya, from ignorance. It is not in destroying
anything that is positive ;ind real, for that can-
not be possible, but that which is negative,
which obstructs our vision of truth. When this
obstruction, which is ignorance, is removed,
then only is the eyelid drawn up which is no
loss to the eye." (fage 72).
I shall now deal with the chief spiritual ideas of
Tagore in the book and then deal with a few practical
applications of them by him to life and art. He points
out that the mystery of life has been in no way lessen-
'Cd by the work of science :
" Curiously enough, there are men who lose that
feeling of mystery, which is at the root of all de-
lights, when they discover the uniformity of law
among the diversity of nature. As if gravitation
is not more of a mystery than the fall of an
405
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
apple, as if the evolution from one scale of
being to the other is not something which is
even more shy of explanation than a succes-
sion of creations. The trouble is that we verjr
often stop at such a law as if it were the final
end of our search, and then we find that it does
not even begin to emancipate our spirit. It only
gives satisfaction to our intellect, and as it does
not appeal to our whole being it only deadens in
us the sense of the infinite." (Pages 97-98).
The eternal though ever-changing universe is full of
mystery :
"The play of life and death we see everywhere —
this transmutation of the old into the new. The
day comes to us every morning, naked and
white, fresh as a flovi^er. But we know it is old.
It is age itself. It is that very ancient day which
took up the new-born earth in its arms, covered
it with its white mantle of light, and sent it forth
on its pilgrimage among the stars. Yet its feet
are untired and its eyes undimmed. It carries-
the golden amulet of ageless eternity, at whose
touch all wrinkles vanish from the forehead of
creation. In the very core of the world's heart
stands immortal youth. Death and decay cast
over its face momentary shadows and passion ;.
they leave no marks of their steps — and truth
remains fresh and young." (Page 88).
406
SADHANA
The highest joy and duty of man is the realisation of
his oneness with the infinite. This perception of the
soul by the soul may not lead to power but leads to
joy.
" Thus the text of our every- day meditation is the
Gayatriy a verse which is considered to be the
epitome of all the Vedas. By its help we try
to reaUse the essential unity of the world with
the conscious soul of man ; we learn to perceive
the unity held together by the one Eternal
Spirit, whose power creates the earth, the sky,
and the stars, and at the same time irradiates
our minds with the light of a consciousness that
moves and exists in unbroken continuity with
the outer world." (^'age 9).
" For a man who has realised his soul there is a
determinate centre of the universe around which
all else can find its proper place, and from
thence only can he draw and enjoy the blessed-
ness of a harmonious life." (P^ge 34).
It is only then that the inner chaos is resolved into a
beautiful cosmos with God as its sovereign, its vivifying
force, and its ultimate meaning.
" But when we find our centre in our soul by the
power of self-restraint, by the force that har-
monises all warring elements and unifies those
that are apart, then all our isolated impressions
reduce themselves to wisdom, and all our momen-
407
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORE
tary impulses of heart iind their completion in
love ; then all the petty details of our life re-
veal an infinite purpose, and all our thoughts and
deeds unite themselves inseparably in an internal
harmony."
(Page 35).
I shall quote one other passage here as this idea is
the grand central idea which has inspired all other
ideas of Tagore about life and art :
" We seem to watch the Master in the very act of
creation of a new world when a man's soul
draws her heavy curtain of self aside, when her
veil is lifted and she is face to face with her
eternal lover.
But what is this state ? It is Hke a morning of
spring, varied in its life and beauty, yet one and
entire. When a man's life rescued from dis-
tractions finds its unity in the soul, then the con-
sciousness of the infinite becomes at once direct
and natural to it as the light is to the flame. All the
conflicts and contradictions of life are reconcil-
ed ; knowledge, love, and action are harmoniz-
ed ; pleasure and pain become one in beauty,
enjoyment and renunciation equal in goodness ;
the breach between the finite and the infinite
fills with love and overflows ; every moment
carries its message of the eternal ; the formless
appears to us in the form of the flower, of the
408
SADHANA
fruit ; the boundless takes us up in his arms as a
father and walks by our side as a friend."
(Page 43).
It follows from this central idea that just as we have
■our physical body, so we have our social body and our
universal body. " The emancipation of our physical
nature is in attaining health, of our social being in
attaining goodness, and of our self in attaining love."
(Page 83).
Taeore shows us also how man's impulse to realise the
laws of the universe, his search for system, is really a
search for unity, for synthesis, for the Infinite.
His views as to Avidya (ignorance) and sin are a
logical outcome of his great central idea and are full of
convincing wisdom and golden beauty. Avidya is but
man's spiritual sleep, the non-realisation of his oneness
and harmony with the Infinite. ^'■Avidya is the ignorance
that darkens our consciousness, and tends to limit it
within the boundaries of the personal self." (Page 32).
Sin is only the same defect from another point of view.
Ignorance, viewed in its moral aspect, is sin. '^ For in
sin man takes part with the finite against the infinite
that is in him. It is the defeat of his soul by his self.
In sin we lust after pleasures, not because
they are truly desirable, but because the red light of
■our passion makes them appear desirable."
(Pages 38-39).
From the same central idea follows also the truth of
409
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
the supreme freedom of consciousness and its attain-
ment of its goal by achieving union with God by service^
knowledge, and love,— which is preached by Sri
Krishna in the Gita and has been taught to us by all our
great spiritual teachers.
" This is the noble heritage from our forefathers
waiting to be claimed by us as our own, this
ideal of the supreme freedom of consciousness.
It is not merely intellectual or emotional, it has an
ethical basis, and it must be translated into
action. In the Upanishad, it is said, The Supreme
Being is all-pervading^ therefore he is the innate
good in all. (^^S'^TTqr't ^ VfTr^T^ ^JTiqr ^IT?T 1
T^^ •)• To be truly united in knowledge, love,
and service with all beings, and thus to realise
one's self in the all-pervading God is the essence
of goodness, and this is the keynote of the
teachings of the Upanishads." (Pages 21-22).
Tagore has done a great service in emphasising the
need for right action to emancipate the soul from the
tyranny of self, though I cannot agree with those who
in their ignorance of the deepest ideas of Tagore and
the fundamental truths of our scriptures assert that
Tagore proclaimed action as the goal of life. He says:
" As joy expresses itself in law, so the soul finds its
freedom in action." Freedom in action, and not freedom
from action, is tb-e goal. This is the Gita ideal of Nish-
410
SADHANA
katna Karma in another form. " This is the Karmayogof
of the Gita, the way to become one with the iniinite
activity by the exercise of the activity of disinterested
goodness." (Page 58).
Tagore says again :
" When man cuts down the pestilential jungle and
makes unto himself a garden, the beauty that he
thus sets free from its enclosure of ugliness is
the beauty of his own soul. Without giving it
this freedom outside, he cannot make it free
within. When he implants law and order in the
midst of the waywardness of society, the good
which he sets free from the obstruction of the
bad is the goodness of his own soul : without
being thus made free outside it cannot find
freedom within." (Page 121).
"As for ourselves, it is only when we wholly
submit to the bonds of truth, that we fully gain,
the joy of freedom. And how ? As does the
string that is bound to the harp. When ther
harp is truly strung, when there is not the slightest
laxity in the strength of the bond, then only does
music result ; and the string transcending itself
in its melody finds at every chord its true
freedom." (Page 128).
While admiring this gospel of self-consecration by
action, I cannot but think that Tagore has erred by
over-statement in his appeal to the Sanyasin as a mans:
411
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
running away from the world. (Pages 129-130). Our
sages declare that every man must begin his spiritual
progress by service of humanity ; that the attainment of
illumination by renunciation, knowledge, and love is an
end in itself ; and that even after illumination the wise
man should do his duties in a spirit of detachment
and dispassion so that others might not be led astray
by the wise men giving up the performance of duties.
They declare further that in the case of the very few
who have risen to the highest raptures of love and
wisdom and are immersed in bliss no worldly action
can be expected. What action do the votaries of the
gospel of work ask them to do ? If they pass through a
place they spread a paradise of love about them, and
whoever is fortunate enough to breathe for a moment
in the divine and luminous atmosphere that they carry
about them feels a sudden conversion of the heart. A
compassionate glance from their eyes is worth a thou-
sand religious lectures. How few, how very few, can be
such souls ? In the case of those who are only travellers
on the path towards the light performance of duties is
exacted by the sacred law, though they will do their
duties in a spirit of detachment and dispassion and as
an act of worship of the Lord saying and feeling Sri
Xrishnarpanam asthu Q^l^^m^^ ^T^) — I dedicate it
to Sri Krishna. Through law the soul rises to wisdom
and love, and through wisdom and love it rises to the
IBliss of the Lord.
412
SADHANA
Tagore lays emphasis again and again on the gospel:
of love above referred to. He says : '' Essentially man
is not a slave either of himself or of the world ; but he
is a lover. His freedom and fulfilment is in love,
which is another name for perfect comprehension."
(Page 15).
What is this love? It is the joyous attainment and
realisation of a larger self. " Our soul can realise itself
truly only by denying itself." (Page 19).
The object of love is recognised as our own soul.
Tagore thus explains the meaning of a famous passage
in the Upanishads :
" The meaning of this is, that whomsoever we love,
in him we find our own soul in the highest
sense. The final truth of our existence lies in
this. ParamaUna, the supreme soul, is in me, as
well as in my son, and my joy in my son is the
realisation of this truth. It has become quite a
commonplace fact, yet it is wonderful to think
upon, that the joys and sorrows of our loved
ones are joys and sorrows to us — nay, they are
more. Why so? Because in them we have grown
larger, in them we have touched that great
truth which comprehends the whole universe."
(Page 29)..
413
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
'' Therefore is love the highest bUss that man can
attain to, for through it alone he truly knows
that he is more than himself, and that he is at
one with the All." (Page 28).
What is the nature of love ? Swami Vivekananda
•says : " The first test of love is that it knows no bar-
gaining ; it always gives. Love takes on itself the stand
of a giver, and never that of a taker." Tagore says :
" Love spontaneously gives itself in endless gifts."
(Page 107). He points out again : "Working for love
is freedom in action. This is the meaning of the teach-
ing of disinterested work in the Gita." (Page 78).
We can now realise Tagore's great ideas about
God, Nature, and Man. Nature is God expressed and
manifested as Law. In man we have a spark of the
divine ; and he can rise to the raptures of union with
God through love.
" If God assumes his role of omnipotence, then
his creation is at an end and his power loses all
its meaning. For power to be a power must act
within limits. God's water must be water, his
earth can n'sver be other than earth. The law
that has made them earth and water is his own
law by which he has separated the play from the
player, for therein the joy of the player consists.
As by the limits of law nature is separated from
God, so it is the limits of its egoism which
separates the self from Him Our
414
SADHANA
life, like a river, strikes its banks not to find
itself closed in by them, but to realise anew
every moment that it has its unending opening
towards the sea. It is as a poem that strikes its
metre at every step not to be silenced by its rigid
regulations, but to give expression every moment
to the inner freedom of its harmony."
(Pages 86-90).
Thus creation is law as well as love.
" Waves rise, each to its individual height, in a
seeming attitude of unrelenting competition, but
only up to a certain point ; and thus we know of
the great repose of the sea to which they are all
related, and to which they must all return in a
rhythm which is marvellously beautiful.
In fact, these undulations and vibrations, these
risings and fallings, are not due to the erratic
contortions of disparate bodies, they are a rhyth-
mic dance. Rhythm can never be born of the
haphazard struggle of combat. Its underlying
principle must be unity, not opposition."
(Pages 96-97).
We now come to the consummation of life as under-
stood and taught by Tagore. All the abovesaid ideas
lead up to this great idea. Attaining God and union
with Him are the consummation of the life of the soul.
" It is the end of our self to seek that union. It must
bend its head low in love and meekness and take
415
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
its stand where great and small all meet. It has
to gain by its loss and rise by its surrender. His
games would be a horror to the child if he could
not come back to his mother, and our pride of
personality will be a curse to us if we cannot give
it up in love. We must know that it is only the
revelation of the InHnite which is endlessly new
and eternally beautiful in us, and which gives
the only meaning to our self."
(Page 91).
" So our daily worship oi God is not really the pro-
cess of gradual acquisition of Him, but the daily
process ot surrendering ourselves, removing all
obstacles to union and extending our conscious-
ness of Him in devotion and service, in goodness
and in love." (Page 149).
The above are the leading spiritual ideas in Sadhana.
I shall refer now very brieliy to his solution of some
great spiritual problems that have been agitating the
mind of man from the dawn of time. His treatment of
the problem of the freedom of the will is original and
convincing. ^
" Therefore, it is the self of man which the great
king of the universe has not shadowed with his
throne — he has left it free. In his physical and
mental organism, where man is related with
nature, he has to acknowledge the rule of king,
but in his self he is free to disown him. There
416
SADHANA
our God must win his entrance. There he comes
as a guest, not as a king, and therefore he has to
wait till he is invited. It is the man's self from
which God has withdrawn his commands, for
there he comes to court our love. His armed
force, the laws of nature, stand outside its gate,
and only beauty, the messenger of his will, finds
admission within its precincts."
(Page 41).
He says again :
" Our will has freedom in order that it may find
out that its true course is towards goodness and
love. For goodness and love are infinite, and only
in the infinite is the perfect realisation of free-
dom possible."
(Page 84).
One of the discourses is devoted to the problem of evil.
Tagore points out that pain is not an end in itself like
joy ; that it is negative and hence transient ; and that
through the discipline of death and pain we rise to the
heaven of immortality and bHss. Of course this does
not explain why pain originated in the universe. It
may be argued that God could discipline the soul
through happiness to bliss. Indeed, the only rational
explanation of the problem of evil is to be found in the
Hindu theory of Karma. But Tagore's views are quite
true and beautiful so far as they go. He says :
" When science collects facts to illustrate the
417
27
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
struggle for existence that is going on in the
kingdom of life, it raises a picture in our minds of
'nature red in tooth and claw.' But in these men-
tal pictures we give a fixity to colours and forms
which are really cTanescent. It is like calcul-
lating the weight of the air on each square inch of
our body to prove that it must be crushingly
heavy for us. With every weight, however, there
is an adjustment, and we lightly bear our burden.
"With the struggle for existence in nature there is
reciprocity. There is the love for children amd
tor comrades; there is the sacrifice of self, which
springs from love ; and this love is the positive
element in life." (Pages 49-50).
Tagore says of death :
" But the truth is, death is not the ultimate reality.
It looks black, as the sky looks blue ; but it does
not blacken existence, just as the sky does not
leave its stain on the wings of the bird."
(Page 50).
He decries pessimism as an unreal and erroneous
mood.
** Pessimism is a form of mental dipsomania, it dis-
dains healthy nourishment, indulges in the strong
drink of denunciation, and creates an artificial
dejection which thirsts for a stronger draught."
(Page 58).
What is good, then, as opposed to evil ? " Good is
418
SADHANA
that which is desirable for our greater self." (Page 54).
Animals are unmoral whereas man can be immoral or
moral.
"To the man who Hves for an idea, for his coi^ntry,
for the good of humanity, life has an extensive
meaning, and to that extent pain becomes less
important to him." (Page 56),
Tagore then takes up the problem of self— a problem
which is hard to solve because here the mind has to
work on itself. Tagore is a behever in the creed that the
human personality is distinct and separate though it
must realise and merge in the infinite. Here we must
wade through metaphysical depths and I forbear to do
so because this is hardly the occasion for that task.
Whether the ego reaches its consummation by merging
itself in the All or whether it does so by maintaining its
separateness and communing with the Infinite through
love is a problem which cannot be settled by us who
are in the position of men who standing at the base of
the Himalayas debate which is their topmost peak.
Tagore says :
" It is our joy of the infinite in us that gives our joy
in ourselves." (Page 70).
The attainment of the infinite by the self is pictured
by Tagore in many ways with true poetic vision. It is
like the lamp surrendering its oil to light the flame, like
•" the tree's surrender of the ripe fruit," like the river
419
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
that moves, never hasting, never resting, to meet and
mingle with the Infinite Ocean.
I shall nov^ deal brietly with Tagore's ideas on the
message and meaning of nature and art. They
flow naturally out of his central ideas as to tlie truth of
things. One great truth that he has given us is that
though nature is full of activity and strife without, yet
she is all silence and peace within, and that the beauty
of nature, though it has an active aspect and is ever
undergoing transformation, becomes a messenger of
peace and joy to the human heart in which the elements
of love and joy in nature remain beautiful and change-
less for all time.
' The colour and smell of the flower are all for some
purpose therefore; no sooner is it fertilized by the
bee, and the time of its fruition arrives, than it
sheds its exquisite petals and a cruel economy
compels it to give up its sweet perfume. It has
no time to flaunt its finery, for it is busy beyond
measure But when this same
flower enters the hearts of men, its aspect of
busy practicability is gone and it becomes the very
emblem of leisure and repose .... A flower,
therefore, has not its only function in nature, but
has another great function to exercise in the
mind of man They bring a
love-letter to the heart written in many-coloured
inks Outwardly nature is busy and
420 *
SADHANA
restless, inwardly she is all silence and peace.
You see her bondage only when
you see her from without, but within her heart
is a hmitless beauty."
(Pages 99, 100, 101, 103).
Similarly art is outwardly iajitative of the world of
man and the world of nature but her soul is beauty, love,
peace, and joy. The artist objectities his idea to realise
its beauty and its elements of love, joy and peace.
" The artist who has a joy in the fullness of his
artistic idea objectities it and thus gains it more
fully by holding it afar. It is joy which detaches
ourselves from us, and then gives it form in
creations of love in order to make it more per-
fectly our own. Hence there must be this sepa-
ration, not a separation of repulsion but a
separation of love."
(Page 79).
Art is the expression of the j ay of the soul, just as
■creation is the expression of the joy and love of God.
WR?T^-^ ^a^^^mrf^ ^cTTR^Tiq?^, ?rr^$ t ^rrmf^
(From joy does spring all this creation, by joy is it
maintained, towards joy does it progress, and into joy
does it enter). Tagore says :
" It is the nature of this abounding joy to realise
itself in form which is law. The joy, which is
421
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
without form, must create, must translate itself
into forms. The joy of the singer is expressed
in the form of a song, that of the poet in the
form of a poem. Man in his role of a creator is^
ever creating forms, and they come out of his
abounding joy."
(Page 104).
" A thing is only completely our own when it is a
thing of joy to us." (Page 137).
If we contemplate things for a time we realise how
what is merely useful comes into merely temporary
relation to us and ranishes out of the fields of memory ^
but beauty and joy are infinite and immortal ; and the
few moments when we hare had a vision of true
beauty and enjoyed true rapture shine out as stars in
the sky of the soul. Beauty is omnipresent like joy ;.
and ugliness results when we set our self against the
Infinite.
"In the same manner there is ugliness in the dis-
torted expression of beauty in cur life and in
our art which comes from our imperfect realisa-
tion of Truth."
(Pages 140-141).
Hence we can now realise what is false iEsthetics
and what is true zesthetics. The attempt to see beauty
only in what is remote, infrequent, or unusual is wrong.
" In some stage of our growth, in some period of
our history, we try to set up a special cult of
422
SADHANA
beauty, and pare it down to a narrow circuit, so
as to make it a matter of pride for a chosen
few." (Page 189).
The aesthetic emancipation comes when we free our-
selves from such narrovrness of rision, when we see the
■nperceived joy and loYelincss in cyen common things,
"when the apparent discords are resolved into modu-
lations of rhythm." (Page 119). We then realise the
rapture, repose, and radiance that are omnipresent in
nature and in humanity, and become true artists, and
are filled with joy, peace, lore, and beauty.
Hence work must be the outcome of love and joy if it
is to be of permanent value and beneficence; and the
artist, while expressing love and joy, must obey the laws
of art because joy expresses itself in law and Hnds full
freedom in such expression.
" The beauty of a poem is bound by strict laws, yet
it transcends them. The laws are its wings,
they do not keep it weighed down, they carry it
to freedom. Its form is in law but its spirit is in
beauty. Law is the first step towards freedom,
and beauty is the complete liberation which
stands on the pedestal of law. Beauty har-
monises in itself the limit and the beyond,
the law and the liberty." (Pages 98, 99).
Similarly in the world-poem also we have to rise to
the perception of law and then to rise yet higher into
the realisation of love and joy.
423
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
" In the world-poem, the discovery of the law of its
rhythms, the measurement of its expansion and
contraction, movement and pause, the pursuit
of its evolution of forms and characters, are true
achievements of the mind ; but we cannot stop
there. It is like a railway station ; but the sta-
tion platform is not our home. Only he has at-
tained the final truth who knows that the whole
world is n creation of joy." (Page 99).
The poet must share his joy with all.
" A poet is a true poet when he can make his
personal idea joyful to all men, which he could
not do if he had not a medium common to all his
audience. This common language has its own
law which the poet must discover and follow,
by doing which he becomes true and attains
poetical immortality." (Page 60).
Tagore then shows how music is the purest form of
art.
" Music is the purest form of art, and therefore the
most direct expression of beauty, with a form
and spirit which is one and simple, and least
encumbered with anything extraneous. . . .
Therefore the true poets, they, who are seers
seek to express the universe in terms of music.
. . . . What is more, music and the musician
are inseparable. When the singer departs, his
singing dies with him ; it is in eternal union with
424
SADHANA
the life and joy of the master. This world-song
is never for a moment separated from its singer.
It is not fashioned from any outward material.
It is his joy its-ilf taking never-ending form."
(Pages 141 to 143).
I have dealt with Tagore's application of his great
central ideas to art. I shall now say a few words about
his application of tliem to life. He shows that the
attainment of our true nature by self-sacritice and love
is the fulfilment of life — a precious truth which, if it is
the " master-light of our being,' will lead us to the
lotus feet of God.
*" Our revelatory men have always been those who
have lived the life of self-sacrifice. The higher
nature in man always seeks for something which
transcends itself and yet is its deepest truth ;
which claims all its sacrifice, yet makes this sa-
crifice its own recompense. This is man's DAanwa,
man's religion, and man's self is the vessel which
is to carry this sacrifice to the altur."
(Pages 75-76).
Life becomes a failure and tragedy when we try to
raise our fleeting possessions to the dignity and
sacredness of God- head.
" Our physical pleasures leave no margin for the
unrealised In all our intellectual
pleasures, the margin is broader, the limit is far
off The tragedy of human life
425
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
consists in our vain attempts to stretch the limits
of things which can never become unhmited — to
reach the Infinite by absurdly adding to the
rungs of the ladder of the finite."
(Pages 150-151).
Hence love and renunciation are the deepest truths
of the soul, and it is through love and service that we
attain the lotus feet of God.
" We see everywhere in the history of man that
the spirit of renunciation is the deepest rcaUty of
the human soul Man's abiding
happiness is not in getting anything but in
giving himself up to what is greater than himself,
to ideas which are larger than his individual
life, the idea of his country, of humanity, of God."
(Pages 151-152).
I shall conclude this study reverently by quoting the
following devotional gem: —
" O giver of thyself ! at the vision of thee as joy
let our souls flame up to thee as the fire^
flow on to thee as the river, permeate
thy being as the fragrance of the flower.
Give us strength to love, to love fully, our
life in its joys and sorrows, in its gains and
losses, in its rise and fall. Let us have strength
enough fully to see and hear thy universe, and to
work with full vigour therein. Let us fully live
the Hfe thou hast given us, let us bravely take
426
SADHANA
and bravely give. This is our prayer to thee^
Let us once for all dislodge from our minds the
feeble fancy that would make out thy joy to be
a thing apart from action, thin, formless, and
unsustained. Wherever the peasant tills the
hard earth, there does thy joy gush out in the
green of the corn, wherever roan places the
entangled forest, smootlis the stony ground, and
clears for himself a homestead, there does thy joy
enfold it in orderliness and peace.
O worker of the universe ! We would pray to thee
to let the irresistible current of thy universal
energy come like the impetuous south wind of
spring, let it come rushing over the vast field of
the life of man, let it bring the scent of many
flowers, the murmurings of many woodlands,
let it make sweet and vocal the lifelessness of our
dried-up soul-life. Let our newly awakened
powers cry out for unlimited fulfilment in leaf
and flower and fruit."
(Pages 133-134)„
427
CHAPTER XL
TAGOHE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
AND SPEECHES.
I. Introductory.
Some of Tagore's most valuable work is yet untrans-
lated. As Mr. Rhys says : " The copy of his collected
poems — a curious, attractive-looking large quarto,
bound in plain crimson boards without adornment,
printed with the cursive Bengali type in double
columns, and published at Calcutta — serves as a very
tantalising reminder of the amount of his verse that is
still untranslated. It must in all contain about ten
times as much matter as we have in the present English
books, of which The Gardener is first in order of time."
The Rev. Mr. C. F. Andrews wrote to me in a letter :
■*' He has also written sermons called ' Shantiniketan '
containing some of his most beautiful thoughts." My
present ignorance of the Bengali language prevents
me from reading all the poet's untranslated works.
One of the gentlemen in Bengal to whom I wrote for
information about them advised me to read Bengali
and confined his information to that advice. I had
.already made up my mind to read Bengali for reading
Tagore in the original if for nothing else. Another
428
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
Bengali gentleman to whom I applied for information
about the poet's untranslated works and for personal
impressions of Tagore the man, referred me to
Mr. Rhys's recent book. The main portion of my work
had been written before Mr. Rhys's book appeared, and
my correspondent's view that first-hand information
about the poet's ways and views and his untranslnted
works could be had by me from a book by a distant
English admirer is certainly remarkable for its original-
ity. I have resolved to learn the beautiful Bengali
language and hence shall before long be able to enter
into the heaven of Tagore's art by the royal road of the
language in which his w^ork is enshrined for ever.
I shall in this chapter refer to such of his miscella-
neous songs, poems, essays and other prose writings,
lectures, and letters as are available to the general
public in English. It is gratifying to note that many
of them have been translated and published in The
Modern Review and elsewhere, though the task of col-
lecting them and bringing them together has been a
difficult one. I do not pretend to have achieved any
degree of completeness in performing this task, and
can only hope to perform it in a manner worthy of it
on a future occasion. I shall also deal with the form
and substance of Tagore's untranslated works as far as
I have been able to get satisfactory information about
them, leaving this task also to be done in a fitting man-
ner on a subsequent occasion.
42y
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
II. Tagore's Miscellaneous Songs.
Though Tagore is not an expert musician, he has an
instinct and genius for absolute music, and he is a
musician by the royal prerogative of the heavenly
harmony of his inner nature. His songs have stirred
Bengal profoundly by their love of motherland
and love of God, and have become a unique and
great national asset. The highest homage is
paid to a poet or musician when his poems or
songs become a part of the inner wealth of all the
people of his land and not merely the proud possession
of a small and exclusive literary coterie. In India we
have had many great geniuses whose very names are
unknown and whose wonderful conquests in the realm
of Beauty have become a national possession. The
■great merits of Tagore's music are their popular appeal,
their patriotism, their instinct for beauty, and their
-devotional rapture. Tagore's songs have a unique com-
bination of melt^dy and message and are faithful to the
highest Hindu ideals of music. The basis of Indian
music is the Raga which may be described as a melody-
mould, the informing soul of the song which determines
the particular type of beauty that the song is to have
as its dower. Improvisation for expressing what is
-called Manodharma (musical imagination) is allowed
within the limits of the Raga. The words are set to
music, and not music to words. These are the main
points of difference between European and Indiaa
430
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
music, because while Indian music has the abovesaid
unique and beautiful traits, the music of Europe has not
got them. Rasa is the soul of all art according to Hindu
artists, and each art can be fully enjoyed only by a
rasika (one who has a natural bent for it and a cultivated
taste as well). This is the reason why Indian music,
when expressed in staff notation, retains only the form
of Indian music but misses its true glory, its perfume,
its soul. It is a great thing that in spite of the abolition
of artistic education in schools, the general apathy and
imdifference in regard to matters of art, and the
increasing love of European musical instruments and
methods even. among the few who interest themselves in
matters of art, the blessing of Saraswathi over this dearly
loved land of hers continues unabated, and that great
genuises and saints and lovers of God who have
attained perfect self-expression through the art of music
have been born in this land. We in Southern India
remember with pride and joy the great names of
Tyagayyar and Dixitar whose songs are among the
most powerful forces making for unity, faith, and divine
love. It is only in art and religion that the scattered
atoms of humanity in India have found and will find
the compulsive harmony that will make them live
a new life and realise their unity and fall into their
proper places in a large scheme of national regenerative
work and become a new shining cosmos instead of a
dead chaos which they are now.
431
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
" When Nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay
And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
Arise, ye more than dead !
Then cold and hot and moist and- dry
In order to their stations leap
And Music's power obey."
(Dryden's Song for St. Cecilia's Day.)
The various atoms of Indian humanity that are now
more than dead have been trodden under foot by many
conquering races, and it is only after the British
occupation that peace broods over the land like a
descended dove. It is only now possible to hoar
the compulsive music of art and religion and emerge
as a cosmos into the heaven of racial greatness,
because for many centuries past the din of battles and
the groans of the oppresssd were so loud and ear-pierciilg
and heart-rending that the music of art and rehgion had
no chance of being heard. But even now we have to
contend against battle cries of another type if we want
to hear the divine melody of art and music in India.
The social shibboleths j^houted from the housetops by
a noi3y set of " friends of India" playing at achieving
reform and unity through platform eloquence, the
disregard of art in schools, and the increasing
Europeanisation of our ways and tastes are even worse
than the deafening battle cries of old. Mr. A. H. Fox-
strangways says in his excellent book on Indian Music :
432
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
*' If the rulers of Native States realised what a death-
blow they were dealing at their own art by supporting
or even allowing a brass band, if the clerk in a Govern-
ment office understood the indignity he was putting on
a song by buying the gramophone which grinds it out
to him after his days' labour, if the Mahomedan ' star'-
singer knew that the harmonium with which he accom-
panies himself was ruining his chief asset, his musical
ear, and if the girl who learns the pianoforte could see
that all the progress she made was as sure a step
towards her own denationalisation as if she crossed the
black water and never returned — they would pause
before they laid such sacrilegious hands on Saraswathi."
Captain Day says: " In future years it is hoped. . . .
that the study of the national music of the country will
occupy, as it should, a foremost place in all Indian
schools." Some of us live in that sweet hope — a hope,
alas ! that does not seem near fulfilment. The Ganga of
musical and artistic genius in the land fed with the Ufa-
giving waters of grace coming down from the heaven-
kissing altitudes of Bhakti has not run dry as yet. Shall
we choke it with the dust of modern shibboleths and
Western ways, or shall we remove the obstruction of
snobbery and vulgarity and indifference and make it
flow in a life-giving stream and kiss reverently the white
robes of this Ganga of the soul come from the heaven
of God's love to our lovely land ?
Thus the most powerful element of emotional appeal
433
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
and fascination in Tagore's songs and lyrics consists in
its being thoroughly personal and national while having
those universal elements of beauty that are the bed-rock
of widespread fame and permanence of charm. All
genuine art is personal, suggestive, national, creative.
Form is its beautiful body and the creative idea is its
soul. Art is ethical not by set purpose and intention
but because the true, the good, and the beautiful
converge from different directions, and meet, and
are lost in light. This is the real significance
of the oft-quoted and entirely misunderstood saying
that there is no morality in Art. It is a most hopeful
sign of the times that in spite of the innumerable dis-
couragements and obstacles that daunt the soul and
weary the holy feet of Art, India has been given an
artist of Tagore's supreme vision and faculty divine.
Art in India has now to encounter the apathy born of
poverty and ignorance, the vulgarisation and Euro-
peanisation of taste among the rich, the increasing
commercialism and preoccupation with politics over
the whole universe, the bringing up of generation after
generation of students in ignorance of the ideals and
methods of Indian art in schools which are systematically
mismanaged by men who have themselves been brought
up in phenomenal ignorance of the same, the general
ignorance of the meaning and value and beauty of
Indian symbolism which was the pedestal on which the
Goddess of Art stood smiling in our splendid past to
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TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
feceive the homage of her worshippers who stood be-
fore her presence with pure hearts and folded palms
and praying eyes and tuneful throats, and the modern
spirit of Puritanism and social experimentation which
is a sworn foe of joy while full of inner defilements and
is leading us to the verge of the bottomless pit of
national perdition. In Tagore's songs and lyrics we
see how the highest and best ideals of our art have
attained perfect expression in spite of the spirit of the
age, and they hold out to us a glad promise of the great
future that Indian art is to have in our beloved land.
Sir Rabindra Nath Tagore's songs are many and
various. One of them is quoted below.
"The more they tighten their bands, the more
will our bands snap ; the more their eyes redden,
the more will our eyes open.
Now it is time for you to work and not to dream
sweet dreams; and the more they roar, the quicker
and better will our sleepiness be cured."
The following is a translation of Tagore's popular
song, "Tumi Kon Kananer Ful, Tumi Kon Gaganer
Tara."
" What a flower thou, in what bower born ?
Or thou a star, dost some far heaven adorn!
Yet I've seen thee, aye, I did, somewhere !
The vision of a dream though it were 1
Meseems thou didst sing to me too,
435
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Whilst those thine eyes mine did woo :
But the day I cannot guess ;
Alone in my heart's recess
The orbs of those eyes shine !
O speak not, prithee, no :
Only looking at me thy way dost go,
And in this moonlight even flow
Melted thyself in smiles divine.
And' toxicate with slumber,
My soul all sweeten'd over,
As I gaze at the moon yonder,
May from the skies sublime,
Of the stars a pair, like those orbs fair.
Pour in a stream, their serene beam,
On me wond' ring supine."
(Bhavendra Nath Dey's translation.)
I shall quote here one song more.
" O thou, who art the world's delight,
Motherland of our ancestors
Whose lands with solar rays are bright !
Thy feet the blue sea waters lave,
Thy verdant robes the breezes wave,
Thy brow Himalaya mount
Crown'd with its snows of purest white.
The day first dawns within thy skies.
The vedic hymns first here took rise.
Poesy, wisdom, stories, creeds
In thy woodlands first saw the light.
Everlasting is thy renown
Who feed'st the world and feed'st thy own.
The Jumna and the Ganga sweet
Carry thy mercy day and night."
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TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
III. Miscellaneous Poems.
I have already shown in my review of Tagore's chief
poems how they are instinct with the very spirit of
poesy and show that India's soul is still hers — radiant
puissant, unconquered. Well has Blake said; " Nations
are destroyed and flourish in proportion as their poetry,
painting, and music are destroyed or flourish." It is
through the arts that we attain a wider self — the
raptures of a higher, fuller, diviner Hfe. Tagore well
says that literature is well called Sahitya^ " because by it
men after overflowing the limit of their own absolute
necessity widen their heart to be in communion with
humanity and universal nature." A poet is not merely a
worshipper of beauty, a lover of the true, the beautiful,
and the good which form a unity in trinity, and a soul
dowered with creative energy ; he is the revealer of the
soul of his people. So long as the artist is loyal to the
soul of his race, and his motherland, these cannot be
utterly lost, and we can well walk with erect heads and
elated hearts in expectation of national regeneration in
the near future.
Tagore's miscellaneous poems are as beautiful as his
major poems and reveal as great qualities as these.
Tagore's lyric endowment is at once the cause of his
greatness and his limitations. He excels in " short
swallow-flights of song"; but there is no great epic or
narrative poem by him. The lyric mood is brief, sweet,
and passionate; and hence though it can give us
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
*' infinite riches in a little room," it cannot sustain a
poet through a long poetic effort. Tagore's short
poems are of wonderful beauty. They are found in
many tiny volumes of verse issued by him, and some of
them have been translated in the pages of the
Modern Review. They display the same affluence of
mystic emotion, the same plastic power of moulding
language into a thing of beauty to become a fit vehicle
for the heavenly ideas surging in the poet's heart, and
the same vision for the spiritual affinities of things that
his bigger volumes of verse reveal. I shall deal here
with a few of them.
" Thou hast come again to me in the burst of a sudden storm
Filling my sky with the shudder of thy shadowy clouds.
The sun is hidden, the stars are lost.
The red line of the road is merged in the midst of the rain :
The wail of the wind comes across the water.
Fitful showers, like ghostly fingers, strike the chords of some
unseen harps
Waking up the music of the dark,
Sweeping my heart with a shiver of sounds."
In this we have not merely natural magic but spiritual
suggestiveness and charm. The fairy beauty of the
world, when rain speeds to the expectant earth through
" the blue regions of the air," is brought home to our
minds while we seem to hear the thunders of an inner
storm and see the landscape of the heart blotted out of
sight by descending showers and feel in our souls * the
music of the dark'. Here is another lyrical gem.
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TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
" I know that the flower one day shall blossom crowning my
thorns,
And my sorrow shall spread its red rose-leaves opening its
heart to the light.
The breeze of the south, for which the sky kept watch for
weary days and nights.
Shall suddenly make my heart tremulous and plunder its
music and perfume.
Thy love shall bloom in a moment,
My shame shall be no more when the flower is ripe for
offering.
And when at the end of the night my friend comes and
touches it with his fingers.
It will drop at his feet and spend its petal in joy."
Here we have natural scenery and spiritual suggestion
of a different type altogether. The imagery of spring —
with its wealth of bloom, its glory of light, its sweet
perfume, and its immortal youth beneficent and bright —
is brought before us in all its manifold charm while
suggesting to us that the blossom of a gladness beyond
expression shall crown the thorny plant of life, that a
new perfume of love and service and renunciation shall
spread from the very heart of sorrow that has learnt
the truth of things, that the heart shall become fragrant
with the free play of the south wind of joy, that love
shall be born in the soul overcoming all selfishness,
shyness, and sorrow, and that life will reach its summit
of realisation when it touches in an ecstasy of adoration
the lotus feet of God. I shall quote here another perfect
poem :
439
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
*' I know that at the dim end of some day the sun will send its
last look upon me to bid me farewell.
The tired wanderer will pipe on his reed the idle tunes by
the waysidei
The cattle will graze on the slope of the river's bank,
The children with careless clamour will play in their court-
yards, and birds will sing,
But my days will come to their end.
This is my prayer to thee that I may know before I leave
Why the green earth raised her eyes into the light and called
me to her arms,
Why the silence of night spoke to me of stars,
And daylight stirred in my life glad ripples, —
This is my prayer to thee.
When the time comes for me to go,
Let all my songs cease upon their one refrain,
And my basket be full with the fruits and flowers of all
seasons.
Let me see thy face in the light of this life before it dies
And know that thou hast accepted the garland of beauty that
was woven in my heart,
When the time comes for me to go."
What better and higher and holier consummation of
life can be imagined than that the soul full of the
accumulated wisdom and experience of many ages and
births shall understand the meaning of things and feel
thrilled by the mystery and wonder of the world, and
go into the shrine of the Beloved with a glad and
unfaltering heart and lay its garland of pure thoughts
and feelings in adoration before God, and live in an
440
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
•endless and perfect ecstasy of bliss ? The following
poem is a fine poem entitled " My Heart is on Fire."
" My heart is on fire with the flame of thy songs.
It spreads and knows no bounds,
It dances swinging its arms in t!ie sky, burning up the dead
anrl the decaying.
The silent stars watch it from across the darkness.
The drunken winds come rushing upon it from all sides.
O, this fire, like a red lotus, spreads its petals in the heart of
the night."
Several poems of Tagore have been translated in the
•excellent chapter on '^ Poems of Rabindranath Tagore,"
in Dr. A. K. Coomarasvvamy's Art andSwadesi (published
by Messrs. Ganesh & Co., Madras). But many of these
have come out in the poet's own English translations
in The Gitanjali^ The Gardener^ and The Crescent Moon. I
shall quote below a few other poems.
THE METAPHYSICS OF A POET.
" Let any one who will ponder with eyelids closed,
Whether the Universe be real, or after all an illusion :
I meanwhile sit and gaze with insatiate eyes
On the Universe shining with the light of Reality."
SALVATION.
^' Closing my eyes and ears, withdrawing my mind and
thought,
Turning my face away from the world.
Shall my little soul alone cross over
This awful sea to gain salvation at last ?
Beside me will sail the great ship of the Universe
441
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The cheerful canoe of voyagers filling the air
With spreading sails gleaming white in the sun —
Her freight of human hearts, how beautiful !
For on and on she will sail
With laughter and tears through alternate darkness and Hghtr
Through infinite space will echo sadly
The sound of their joys and sorrows.
When all the Universe sails away with this cry
What avails it for me to seek salvation alone ?"
This beautiful message of working for the salvation
of all is a message that Tagore enforces with the
magical utterance of a poet and the moral fervour of a
prophet. If we study the message of India through the
ages, we realise how except perhaps in the case of the
few who are become one with God and are lost in light
and love and joy — and perhaps even in their case also
— the search for individual salvation without working
for the salvation of all has been proclaimed to be futile
and unblessed with the fruit of success. Bhagawan Sri
Krishna lays this injunction of service of humanity on
all and refers to His own gracious self as coming among
men not for getting anything unattained by Him but
out of the abundance of His love and His yearning to
serve Humanity and make it attain the heaven of His
Love. We know a beautiful incident in the life of Sri
Ramanuja, which shows this yearning for the salvation
of all very well. His Guru Tirukuttiyur Nambi revealed
to him a holy mantra under promise of secrecy as it
was a rahasya. Ramanuja asked his Guru what would
442
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
happen if he revealed the mantra freely to others and
broke the law of secrecy. His Guru said that the
person who reveals it would die though the persons
hearing it would be saved. The heart of Sri Ramanuja
yearned for the happiness of all mankind, and he ran to
the top of a tower and shouted out the holy mantra to
the crowded streets below, careless as to his fate if only
he could save others from sin and sorrow. We have read
in the holy life of Sri Chaitanya (Lord Gouranga), that
when Adwaita was asked by Chaitanya to choose a boon
he prayed that the nectar of prema (love of God) might
be distributed to all, irrespective of creed, colour, or
caste. When shall this heavenly ecstasy of emotion —
emotion that is too keen, heart-filling, and quivering
with purity, intensity, and rapture to live in a region of
mere fruitless vague desire — redawn in our hearts slay-
ing the darkness of our hearts with its golden arrows of
light and waken us to a new and endless day of service
of man and love of God ?
Another short poem gives us a beautiful solution of
the eternal problem of fate and free will.
The Guide.
" I asked of Destiny : 'Tell me
Who with relentless hand pushes me on ?
Destiny told me to look behind. I turned and beheld
My own self behind pushing forward the self in front."
Here we have a beautiful statement of the law of
Karma — a miserably misunderstood Indian Doctrine.
443
SIR RABINDUANATH TAGORE
Our self has by its acts fashioned for us our tendencies
and our joys and sorrows. But if we have had an in-
finite number of past lives, is not an infinity of power
'-within us ? What can vanquish infinity except infinity ?
Karma is not fatalism. We do not believe in any blind
overrujjfrg force. We do not say ;
"The moving finger writes : and having writ
Moves on: Nor all your piety nor wit
Can lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out one word of it."
We believe in Bhakti and Jnana being able to uplift
us from the surrounding mire of low life to the heaven
of His love, though such past actions as had begun to
fructify in effect will like a discharged arrow expend
themselves and bring to us their allotted load of joys
and sorrows. But even these joys and sorrows will lose
their poignancy of delight or agony to the true lover
and knower of God — just as moonlight and darkness,
though they are as far as under as earthly joy and
earthly sorrow, are aHke overthrown and absorbed in
the divine radiance of the sun which, like the dominat-
ing light of love and knowledge of God, brooks no rival
near its throne. It is only when the gracious doctrines
of Karma, Dharma, Bhakti, and Jnana are truly under-
stood, that man can live a worthy life and ascend from
rapture to rapture till at last he lays his soul at the feet
of God and lives for ever in the heaven of His love.
In many of Tagore's poems we find a note of sadness
444
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
which at the same time is not mere sadness, because it
is lit by the recognition of the immortal destiny of the
soul. His mystical sense of the unity of life and of
divine imminence casts a halo over the ceaseless travail
of the soul and lights up the eternal mystery of life
and death. The following poem on Death is exquisite
in its beauty, its suggestiveness, and its spiritual truth.
" O Death, had'st thou been but emptiness,
In a moment the world would have faded away.
Thou art Beauty : the world like a child
Rests on thy bosom for ever and ever."
One recent poem of his, "Unity in Diversity"
deserves to be widely read and passionately pondered
over.
" We are all the more one because we are many,
For we have made ample room for love in the gap where
we are sundered.
Our unlikeness reveals its breadth of beauty radiant with
one common life,
Like mountain peaks in the morning sun."
I shall quote here a poem of Tagore's translated by
R. Palit.
" Fruitless our cry
Fruitless the rebel longing of our souls !
The day is dying !
Darkness holds th'earth and light the sky,
While noiseless creeps behind
With downcast eyes
Weary eve with her mourning sigh.
I hold thy hands in mine
445
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
My hungry eyes
Look deep into thine
And seek for thee !
Thee ! The real thee !
Thy self ! Thy essence ! Thy sweetness veiled
Behind that mortal frame !
In the dark depth of my eyes,
Quiver the soul's mysterious beams,
As th'infinite mystery of heavenly light
Through star-set darkness tremulous gleams.
Thus, ever I gaze.
A quenchless thirst, like the sandy flood
Of fierce simoon,
Drowns my soul and being,
in thy eyes.
Behind thy smile.
In thy melodious speech.
Or in the calm peace that radiates from thee.
Where shall I find the true, th'immortal thee !
1 seek and weep.
In vain ! In vain !
In vain the cry,
The mad presumptions hope !
Not for thee this fullest rapture,
Holy and hidden.
Be thine the spoken word,
The fleeting smile,
And love shadowed in a passing glance ;
Let this suflice
What hast thou ?
Hast Infinite Love ?
Canst meet Life's infinite want ?
446
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
That seekest the whole human being
In perfect complelion,
Alone and helpless thou !
Canst thread thy path
Amid the throng of worlds,
Through ignorance and error,
The chequered maze of light and shade,
Or the labyrinth of daily change ?
And lead thy chosen partner.
Thy eternal companion,
Through all eternity ?
Though fearful, tired and weak,
Bent with the weight of thy own soul,
Darest thou seek
The burden of another charge ?
Not food for thy hunger
Is the human soul ;
Nor aught that with greedy clutch
Thou mayst grasp and hold !
Wouldst thou with keen desire
Pluck the Lily in its bloom,
That with tender care
From the subtlest essence
Of Beauty, Time, and Space
God fashioned for his own shrine,
And universal joy.
Be thou content,
That for thee is its sweetest perfume ;
That thou mayst love.
And thy soul bathe itself pure
In that loveliness sublime ;
Nor stretch thy impious covetous hand.
447
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The breath of calm and gentle peace
Hath stilled all sound in th'evening air.
Cool with tears thy hot desire.
Away ! this cry of hunger cease."
(The Modern Review, May 1911).
The poet teaches us in this beautiful poem that the
beauty of the soul is the real thing of which the beauty
of the body is but a dim reflection ; that the search for
it is a holy and difficult task ; that unless we are pure
and perfect we cannot realise it ; that beauty is not to
be grasped with selfish hands quivering with the desire
of physical possession ; that beauty is the sweetest o f
the flowers created for the adoration of God ; that we
must be grateful to God for giving the sunlight of beauty
for our souls to bathe in its pure beams and become
pure ; that we must make ourselves fit to have the
heavenly companionship of beauty ; and that when we
slay the lower hunger of the body, the soul will dwell in
fulness of joy in the contemplation of beauty.
Another poem translated by Tagore himself and
published in the Modern Review^ November 1913, maybe
quoted here though it is long. It consists of a number
of small poetic gems.
1.
" The axe begged humbly, Oh thou mighty oak,
Lend me only a piece of thy branch-
Just enough to fit me with a handle."
The handle was ready, and there was no more wasting of
time^
448
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
The beggar at once commenced business, — and hit hard at the
root,
And there was the end of the oak.
2
The favourite damsel said, " Sire, that other wretched Queen
of thine
Is unfathomably deep in her cunning greed.
Thou didst graciously assign her a corner of thy cowshed.
It is only to give her chances to have milk from thy cow for
nothing.
The king pondered deeply and said : " I suspect thou has
hit the real truth
But I know not how to put a stop to this thieving."
The favourite said : " 'Tis simple. Let me have the royal
cow
And I will take care that none milk her but myself."
3
Said the beggar's wallet, " Come, my brother purse,
Between us two the difference is so very small.
Let us exchange !" The purse snapped short and sharp,
*' First let that very small difference cease !."
4
The highest goes hand-in-hand with the lowest.
It is only the commonplace who walks at a distance.
5
The thirsty ass went to the brink of the lake
And came back exclaiming: " Oh how dark is the water !"
The lake smiled and said : " Every ass thinks the water
black,
But he who knows better knows that it is white."
29
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
6
Time says, "It is I who create this world."
The clock says, "Then I am thy creator."
7
The flower cries loudly. " Fruit, my fruit,
Where art thou loitering, — Oh how far!"
" Why is such a clamour ?" The fruit says in answer,
" I ever live in your heart taking form."
8
The man says, " I am strong, I do whatever I wish."
" Oh what a shame;" says the woman with a blush.
*' Thou art restrained at every step," says the man.
The poet says, " That is why the woman is so beautiful."
9
" All my perfume goes out, I cannot keep it shut."
Thus murmurs the flower, and beckons back its breath.
The breeze whispers gently, "You must ever remember this —
It is not your perfume at all which is not given out to others."
10
The water in the pitcher is bright and transparent ;
But the ocean is dark and deep.
The little truths have words that are clear ;
The great truth is greatly obscure and silent."
11
A little flower blooms in the chink of a garden wall.
She has no name or fame.
The garden worthies disdain to give her a glance.
The sun comes up and greets her, " How is my little beauty?"
12
Love comes smiling with empty hands.
Flattery asks him, " What wealth didst thou win?"
450
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
Love says, "I cannot show it it is in my heart."
Flattery says, " I am practical — what I get I gather in both
hands."
13
"Who will take up my work?" asks the setting sun.
None has an answer in th« whole silent world.
The earthen lamp says humbly from a corner,
" I will, my lord, as best I can."
14
The arrow thinks to himself " I fly, I am free,
Only the bow is motionless and fixed."
The bow divines his mind and says, " When wilt thou know
the truth
That thy freedom is ever dependent on me ?"
15
The moon gives light to the whole creation,
But keeps the dark spot only to herself.
16
" Restless ocean, what endless speech is thine?"
" It is the question eternal," answered the sea.
" What is there in thy stillness, thou ancient line okhills?"
" It is the silence everlasting " came the answer.
17
In the morn the moon is to lose her sovereignty,
Yet there is smile on her face when she says,
" I wait at the edge of the western sea
To greet the rising sun, bow low, and the depart."
18
The word says, " When I notice thee, Oh work,
I am ashamed of my own little emptiness."
The work says, " I feel how utterly poor I am ;
I never can attain the fulness which thou hast."
451
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
19
If you at night shed tears for the lost daylight,
You get not back the sun but miss all the stars instead,
20
I ask my destiny — what power is this
That cruelly drives me onward without rest ?
My destiny says, " Look round !" I turn back and see
It is I myself that is ever pushing me from behind.
21
The ashes whisper, " The fire is our brother."
The smoke curls up and says, " We are twins."
•' I have no kinship " the firefly says, "with the flame —
But I know I am more than a brother to him."
22
The night comes stealthily into the forest and loads its
branches
With buds and blossoms, then retires with silent steps.
The flowers waken and cry, — " To the morning we owe our
all."
And the morn asserts with a noise, " yet it is doubtless true,"
The night kissed the departing day and whispered,
" I am death, thy mother, fear me not.
I take thee unto me only to give ftiee a new birth
And make thee eternally fresh."
24
Death if thou wert the void that our fear let us imagine,
In a moment the universe would disappear through the charm..
But thou art the fulfilment eternal,
And the world ever rocks in thy arms like a child.
25
Death threatens, " I will take thy dear ones."
The thief says, " Thy money is mine-"
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TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
Fate says, " I'll take as my tribute whatever is thine own."
The detractor says, " I'll rob you of your good name."
The poet says, " But who is there to take my joy from me?"
How shall I unfold the beauty and wisdom of these
twenty-five small poems ? It will require a volume by
itself to do this task worthily. Some of them have
been translated by others, and we have only to set these
translations side by side with Tagore's own translations
to see the instinct for beauty of thought and style which
he has in a supreme measure. I despair of doing the
work of interpreting the above poems worthily and
well and shall give here only a few hints. The fourth
poem contains a great and profound truth. It is only
arrogant human pride that sets barriers between man
and man. But God and god-like men know no such
barriers. Mediocrity glories in differences of rank and
wealth and power. But to the God-like these do not
exist at all. The sixth poem teaches us a great philo-
sophic truth that the idea of time creating the world is
as much an illusion as the idea of a clock creating time.
The idea of time is purely subjective. Just as one
aspect of the self-division of the soul is the universe, so
another aspect of such self- division is time. Time is
a purely subjective phenomenon. But the soul is in-
finite and immortal. The seventh poem is full of the
most perfect wisdom. What a fruitless clamour is the
clamour for fruit ? The fruit is in the course of birth
inside the flower. If the flower lives its life fully,
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
taking its share of sun and rain and sending the joy of
perfume with liberal gladness to all, the perfect fruit
will surely come through His grace in the fulness of
time. How shall I describe the peerless beauty of the
eighth poem ? Only a poet can describe in perfect
prose what the poet has truly said in perfect poetry.
The fascination of the eternal feminine consists in its
perfect obedience to law, its perfect harmony and at-
tunement in relation to the laws of beauty and grace,
its perfect homage to modesty and measure in self-
expression, its balance and repose, its readiness to quell
the rebellion of the will and crown Purity and Love as
the King and Queen of the fair domain of the soul, and
its overflowing ambrosial sea of tenderness and emo-
tion and spiritual feeling out of which is born the
Lakshmi of heavenly beauty. The ninth poem shows
OS how genius finds its truest fulfilment in limitless re-
nunciation and service. That which it gives freely and
gladly to all is its only true and valuable possession.
The eleventh poem shows us how the lowliest of
human beings if he is pure and good is loved by God
even though his arrogant brother-man despise him.
The twelfth poem shows us how the inner affluence of
love is superior to the outer affluence of flattery. The
fourteenth poem shows us how our wills though they
seem free are really dependent on God, that
" Our wills are ours to make them thine."
The twentieth poem shows how it is foolish to be
454
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
thinking over and grieving for a lost past and how such
an attitude u^ill not bring back the vanished past but
will unfit to us to see the beauty that lies about us and
to do our great work in life in Ihe present and for the
future. The twenty-second poem shows us that the
true kinship is kinship of soul. What is the use of
us — the Indians of to-day — claiming kinship with our
great forefathers ? We are to them what the ashes and
the smoke are to the fire. Let us kindle the flame once
again till it shall shine bright as gold and illuminate the
darkness of the soul up to the very ends of the earth.
I shall refer here to Tagore's great poem on Ahalya
published in " The Modern Review," January, 1916.
" Struck with the curse in midwave o£your tumul-
tuous passion your Hfe stilled into a stone, clean,
cool, and impassive.
You took your sacred bath of dust, plunging deep
into the primitive peace of the earth.
You lay down in the dmnb immense where faded
days drop, like dead flowers with seeds, to
sprout again into new dawns.
You fell the thrill of the sun's kiss with the roots of
grass and trees that are like infant's lingers clasp-
ing at mother's breast.
In the night, when the tired children of dust came
back to the dust, their rhythmic breath touched
you with the large and placid motherUness of
the earth.
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SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Wild weeds turned round you their bonds of
flowering intimacy.
You were lapped by the sea of life whose ripples
are the leaves' flutter, bees' flight, grasshoppers'
dance, and tremor of moths' wings.
For ages you kept your ear to the ground, counting
the footsteps of the unseen comer, at whose
touch silence flames into music.
Woman, the sin has stripped you naked, the curse
has washed you pure, you have risen into a per-
fect life.
The dew of that unfathomed night trembles on your
eyelids, the mosses of ever-green years cling to
your hjair.
You have the wonder of new birth and the wonder
of old time in your awakening.
You are young as the new-born flowers and old as
the hills."
This wonderful poem takes our heart and soul to that
passionate lyrical outpouring of Ahalya's heart and soul
at Rama's holy feet in the Adhyatma Ramayana. There
is in it further an indefinable something that makes us
realise that Ahalya symbolises our beloved land, whose
JalUng away from the path of purity and righteousness
has had disastrous consequences, who though measure-
lessly old has immortal youth in heir veins and is
" young as the new-born flowers and old as the hills,"
who is " counting the footsteps of the unseen comer, at
• 45G
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
whose touch silence flames into music," who is now
rising from her sleep of ages, and who has " the wonder
of new-birth and the wonder of old time in her awaken-
ing."
I shall quote here a few other precious poems by
Tagore :
" Beloved !. in this joyous garden of ours we shall
ever dwell and sing songs in rapturous joy.
Here shall our hearts thrill with the mystery of
life. Yea, and the days and nights shall pass as
visions of the Lord of Love, and we shall dream
together in a languor of everlasting delight."
[From Basanta Koomar Roy's article on Rabindra-
nath Tagore in the " Open Court" for July 1913.]
"But in sweet repose she smiles, for now the tender
chords of her heart stir melodiously in the shadow
land of dreams."
[The poem on the Pensive Beloved quoted in the
above].
"To thee, my motherland, I dedicate my body ; for
thee I consecrate my life; for thee my eyes will
weep; and in thy praise my muse will sing."
I shall refer finally to the following poem of Tagore's
on Indian Unity which is wonderful in its insight into
the poet's function in life and its message as to our
future duties:
" When fate at your door is a miser the world be-
comes blank like a bankrupt ;
457
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
When the smile that o'er brimmed the sweet
mouth, fades in a corner of the lips ;
When friends close their hearts to your face, and
hours pass in long lonely nights ;
When the time comes to pay your debts, but your
debtors are one and all absent ;
Then is the season, my poet, to shut your doors
tight with bolts and bars,
And weave only words with words and rhymes
with rhymes.
When sudden you wake up one morning to find
your fate kind to you again ;
When the dry river-bed of your fortune fills up in
unhoped — for showers ;
Friends are lavishly loving and the enemies make
truce for the moment ;
Ruddy lips blossom in smile, black eyes pass stolen
glances ;
This is the season, my poet, to make a bonfire of
of ycur verses ;
And weave only heart with heart.
And hand with hand."
As Tagore points out the greatest of truths is that of
the unity of life and " the knowledge of this is the
highest good and the uttermost freedom." In his season
of obscurity the poet should not lose his vision but
realise it in songs and rhymes. But when he becomes
a great force in life and is acclaimed on all sides, the
458
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
full frution of his life is in helping his fellowmen to
achieve a higher unity in love of man and love of God.
It is interesting to know that Tagore is now com-
posing new poems {Giia Mala) in the Gitanjali strain.
They will be the passionate expression of the thoughts
and emotions of a highly spiritual soul in the full-
maturity of its powers and are sure to be a precious
human document revealing the elements of beauty and
holiness in life and the true and eternal relations of
Man, Universe, and God.
I shall close this section with the following exquisite
stanza from " The Infinite Love" by Tagore :
"The onrolling flood cf the love eternal
Hath at last found its perfect final course
All the joys and sorrows and longings of the heart,
All the memories of the moments of ecstasy,
All the love-lyrics of the poets of all climes and times
Have come from the everyvi^here
And gathered in one single love at thy feet. '
IV. Tagore's Dramas.
Tagore has written many plays but only three of
them have been translated into English. His dramas
carry on the great dramatic tradition in India and show
how the most potent adverse influences are unable to
quell the soul of India and disturb the wonderful
unity of her life. Indian plays have had as their great
traits in the golden age of dramatic composition in
India a large, balanced, and sane view of life, a high
strain of romanticism, a worthy conception of woman-
459
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
"hood, 3 wonderful fusion of the real and the ideal, a
fine power of characterisation, and above all a deep,
faith in a beneficent Providence and in the divine
foundations of life. Little attempt was made at origin-
ality of plot, because the infinite storehouse of Puranic
stories was near at hand and open to all. The genius
of the greatest poets was lavished on delineation of
character till the figures of Sita, Sakuntala, Rama,
Krishna, and other personages human and divine stand
out before our mental gaze like living and breathing
men and women whom we have known and loved from
our youth. Also the life of human beings is shown as
embosomed in the larger and more varied and radiant
life of nature, till we begin to realise both man and
nature as quivering with a higher and diviner radiance
than their own. All these great qualities of classic
Indian drama are seen in their fulness of beauty in
Tagore's plays.
In Tagore's drama called Prakriiirn Pratisodha
(nature's revenge) we have the delineation of a Sanyasi
(ascetic) who seeks to master all the secrets of life and
nature and who learns at the end the supremacy of
love over knowledge. In bis play entitled Valmiki-Pra-
iiva (the genius of Valmiki) we see how faithful he is to
the great ideals of the Hindu race. The episode of
Valmiki's discovery of rhythmic and poetic experssion
and the surprise and rapture that it brought to him, of
Jiis enlightenment as to the nature and attributes of Sri
460
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
Rama, and of the composition of Ramayana and its
musical recitation by Kusa and Lava is one of the most
romantic and fascinating stories in the entire range of
literature. The play of Valmiki-Prativa was acted
recently in the Theatre Royal. Lord Carmichael and
Lady Carmichael were among the interested spectators.
The play is one of the earliest works of Sir Rabindranath
Tagore. It is a musical opera composed by him when
he was fourteen years of age. It consists of six scenes.
Valmiki is described as having been a robber in his
younger days — as the chief of a band of freebooters
and worshippers of Kali. One day his followers
captured a young girl who had lost her way in the wood
and took her captive to their chief to be offered as a
sacrifice to the goddess. But the girl's beauty and
purity and helplessness touched his heart and he set
her free. Ever after this he was a changed man. He
roamed over the forest in sadness. He tried to shake
off his melancholy by joining in a chase with his fol-
lo>wers. But the cruel sport jarred upon his new-born
sense of pity and compassion and he turned away from
it. One day he saw a hunter aiming at two birds sitting
on a bough and enjoying the delight of love. A sudden
overflowing wave of tenderness overflowed his heart,
and his utterance became rhythmic and he gave ex-
pression to the first Sanskrit sloka (stanza) ever uttered
by the lips of man. He was himself astonished at the
sweetness of the rhythm and felt as if one had suddenly
461.
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
seen Lakshmi rising in her matchless heavenly beauty
above the sunlit sapphire glory of the sea. Kalidasa
describes this scene thus in his beautiful words:
[Whose pity (shoka) born of the sight of the cruel
killing of the birds by the hunter became transformed
into poesy (sloka)'}.
We know also that another play of Tagore's — Malini
— was acted in England by some of his Indian admirers
and that it was widely appreciated there. I may here
mention also his other famous plays— Chitvargada^
Visayan^ Achalayatan. His short story Dalia was
dramatized as The Maharani of Arakan and produced in
the Royal Albert Hall Theatre, London.
I shall make here a brief reference to Tagore's musical
play called Phalguni. The name and story of the play
suggest that death is only rejuvenation and hint also that
the second spring of India's greatness will come into
shining existence very soon. It was recently staged at
Calcutta on 2!)th January 1916 by the pupils of the Bolpur
Brahmacharya Asram. The story is as follows. A king is
in great distress of mind on finding that age, the enemy
whose forces can never be defeated, has invaded him.
He sees his first grey hair and feels that he must give
up the world. He asks Shrutibhushan, a great holy man,
to help him in his path of renunciation. The duties of
his exalted position are left uncared for, and a terrible
famine sweeps over the land. Shruthibhusan enables
462
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
him to attain serenity and peace. Then comes the poet,
who had been dismissed by the poet in his sorrow at
i:he ravages of age and brings music into the land and
work and zest in Hfe. He does so by the play of
Phalgimi consisting of four scenes. The first scene is
named Outburst; the second is named Search ; the third
is named Doubt ; and the last is named Discovery. Each
scene has a musical prelude. The Dramatis personae are
A Band of Youths — seekers of the secret life.
Chandrahas : — The favourite of the party who re-
presents the charm of Hfe.
The Leader : — The Life- Impulse.
Dada (Elder Brother) : — The wise man of the party.
He checks and controls and is the
spirit of prudence.
Baul : — The blind singer, seer of life in its truth, undis-
tracted by eyesight.
A ferryman, a watchman, and others.
Heralds of Spring : Flowers, young leaves and birds
represented by boys and girls.
Winter and his party.
In the musical prelude to Scene I we find a descrip-
tion of the joy of nature. The heralds of Spring are
abroad ; and there are songs in the rustling bamboo
leaves, in birds' nests, and in blossoming branches. The
bamboo sings :
" O south wind, Oh wanderer, push me and rock me,
Thrill me into the outbreak of new leaves.
463
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
I stand a tiptoe, watching by the way side to be started
by your first whisper,
By the mustc of your footsteps, a flutter of joy running
though my leaves, betraying my secret.
The bird sings :
" The sky pours light into my heart, my heart repays the
sky in songs.
I felt the south wind with ray notes.
Oh blossoming Palash, the air is afire with your passion,
You have dyed my songs red with your madness.
Oh Sirish, you have cast your perfume-nets wide in the sky,,
bringing up my heart into my throat.
The blossoming Cham oak sings :
" My shadow dances in your waves, ever flowing rivei,
I, the blossoming champak, stand unmoved on the bank
with my vigil of flowers.
My movement dwells in the stillness of my depth,
In the delicious birth of new leaves, in floods of flowers,
In unseen urge of life towards the light ;
Its stirring thrills the sky, and the silence of the dawn is
moved.
The first scene depicts a band of youths seeking
adventure. The words of the wise man of the party-
are unheeded by them. Then enters their leader,
Immortal youth, and they agree to bring the Old Man,
Winter captive, for their spring festival. In the musical
prelude to Scene II we find Spring's heralds trying ta
seize Winter.
They sing :
" We are out seeking our playmates, waking them up from
every corner before it is morning.
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TA GORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
We call them in bird-songs, beckon them in trembling
branches, we spread our enchantment for them
in the sky.
You shall never escape us. Oh winter !
You shall find our lamp burning even in the heart of the
darkness you seek."
Winter sings :
" Leave me, Oh let me go.
I am ready to sail across the South Sea for the frozen
shore.
Your laughter is untimely, my friends, you weave with my
farewell tunes your r.ong of the new arrival.
Spring's heralds sing :
*' Life's spies are we, lurking in all places.
We have been waiting to rob you of your last savings of
dead leaves, scattering them in the south winds.
We shall bind you in flower-chains where Spiing keeps his
captives,
For we know you carry your jewels hidden in your gray
rags."
The band of youths then set forth to find the Old Man.
They question the Ferryman about him, but he knows
only the way and not the wayfarers. They question
the Watchman and he says that his watch is during the
night and that passers-by are shadows to him. They
learn that the Old Man is seen only from behind and
never in front. In the Musical Prelude to Scene III,
Winter is being unmasked and his hidden life is about to
be disclosed. The Spring's heralds sin^ :
465
30
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
" How grave he looks, how laughably old,
How seriously busy with the preparations of Death !
But before he reaches home we will change his dress and
his face shall change,"
A troup of young things come in and sing :
" We shall smile and leave when our time comes,
For we know that we throw ourselves into the arms of
the never-ending."
In the Scene III the young travellers are described
as sitting tired with wavering faith in their Leader,
who has disappeared from their sight. Then comes
Chandrahas, the favourite of the party, with a blind
singer to direct him in his pursuit. The singer
can see with his soul, not having the distraction
of eyesight. Chandrahas makes ready to enter the
cave to capture the Old Man. The following is the
musical prelude to Scene IV^
Winter is revealed as Spring. He says thus in
answer to the queries put to him.
" Do you own defeat at last at the hand of youth?
Yes!
Have you(in the end met the Old who ever grows new?
Yes!
Have you come out of the walls that crumble?
Yes!
Do you own defeat at last at the hands of the hidden life?
Yes!
Have you in the end met the Deathless in death!
Yes!
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TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
Is the Dust driven away that steals your City of the Im-
mortal ?
Yes!."
Chandrahas then enters the cave and says that the
Captive will follow soon. To the astonishment of all
the youths, their Leader himself comes out of the cave
and the Old Man is nowhere .... Then Spring's
followers surround him and sing : —
" Long have we waited for you, beloved, watching the
road and counting days.
And now April is a flower with joy.
Your come as a soldier boy winning life at death's gate.
Oh the wonder of it !
We listen amazed at the music of your young voice.
Your light mantle is blown in the wind liiie the odour of
spring blossoms.
You have a spray of Malathi flower in your ear.
A fire burns through the veil of your smile, —
Oh the wonder of it !
And who knows where your arrows are with which you
smile death!"
The Wise Man comes with his last quatrain, which
runs as follows : —
" The sun stands at the gate of the east, his drum of victory
sounding in the sky.
The night bows to him with her hands on her heart and
says,
' I am blessed, my death is bliss!
The darkness receives his alms of gold, filling his wallet
and departs."
467
SIR| RABINDRANATH TAGORE
They all sing :
" Come and rejoice ! for April is awake,
Fling yourselves into the flood of being, bursting the bond-
age of the past.-
Apriljis awake.
Life's shoreless sea is heaving in the sun before you.
All the losses are lost, and death is drowned in its waves.
Plunge into the deep without fear with the gladness of
April in your blood."
Thus the play is one of'singular beauty and spiritual
appeal. The circumstances of its production show
how Tagore is as great a patriot and philanthropist as
he is a poet and play-wright. It was staged for reliev-
ing with the receipts the famine in Bankura. Tagore
figured in it as an actor. He acted as the poet and
then as the blind beggar. It embodies the highest
teachings of Hindu philosophy and religion, but its
poetic and musical perfections prevent the teaching
from being too obtrusive. The central idea of the play
takes our minds to the story in Tennyson's Gareth and
Lynette where Gareth fights with the Knight of Death
who is thus described:
" High on a night, black horse, in night— black arms,
With white breast-bone, and barren ribs of Death,
And crowned with fleshless laughter,— some ten steps—
In the half-light, — through the dim dawn— advanced
The monster, and then paused, and spake no word."
When Sir Gareth clove the helmet with his trusty.
sword, what was seen ?
468
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
" And out from this
Issued the bright face of a blooming boy
Fresh as a flower neiv-born."
And thus we take leave of the play in a glad though
•solemn mood, with a clearer vision as to the eternal
A^erities shining throagh the shows of life and death,
and realising the truth of truths proclaimed in a golden
verse in the Gita.
[He is never born and never dies. Nor was He
created at any particular time. Nor shall He born
a new. He is birthless and deathless, eternal and im-
mortal, measurelessly old, and yet ever young. He is
never slain even though the body be slain.]
V. Tagore's Novels.
I have shown in a previous chapter that the lyrical
and poetic element in Tagore's genius is predominant
in his short stories and longer novels, and that it gives
to his stories and novels a peculiar fascination though it
prevents his taking a place the first rank as a novelist
•of genius. I shall refer here to a few other beautiful
novels and stories from his pen.
The story of Raja and Rani describes how a Queen
viewed the King's friend with disfavour, how owing to
;her disfavour the friend was neglected by the servants,
469
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
how after hearing him sing and act she viewed with
him favour while he went down in the King's favour
proportionately, how then the servants neglected him
owing to the King's disfavour, and how eventually he
was dismissed by the King and had to go away. " Nor
was this the only matter of regret to Bepin. He had
been bound to the Rajah by the dearest and most
sincere ties of attachment. He served him more for
affection than for pay. He was fonder of his friend
than of the wages he received. Even after deep cogita-
tions, Bepin could not ascertain the cause of the Rajah's
sudden estrangement. " 'Tis Fate ! all is Fate !" Bepin
said to himself — and then, silently and unmurmuringly,
he heaved a deep sigh, picked up his old guitar, put it
up in the case, paid the last two coins in his pocket as
a farewell Bakshish to Pute and walked out into the
wide, wide world where he had not a soul to call his
own." There is a considerable element of pathos and
wisdom in this short story.
Another short story called " The Supreme Night " is
conceived in a high strain. Surabala and the hero of
the story were playmates during early youth. He then:
went away to Calcutta for his education, and full of
dreams for the regeneration of India he refused to
marry Surabala till his education was over. She
was then married to Ram Lochan Ray who after-
wards became a Government Pleader. The dreaming
hero's father died and the hero had to take up a
470
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
humble schoolmaster's place. Once when he went
to Ram Lochan's house Surabala saw him through a
window and he saw her. He is overpowered by vain
longing and the sense of what might have been. He
says : " I used to muse that human society is a tangled
web of mistakes ; nobody has the sense to do the right
thing at the right time, and when the chance is gone we
break our hearts over vain longings." One night when
Ram Lochan was away, the tides came rushing on the
land. The hero ran towards Surabala's house and met
her on " an island three yards in area" while all around
went the roaring waters. " The night wore out, the
tempest ceased, the flood went down ; without a word
spoken, Surabala went back to her house, and I, too,
returned to my shed without having uttered a word. .
, . . . That one night, out of all the days and
nights of my allotted span, has been the supreme glory
of my humble existence."
Tagore's Gora is a fairly long novel. It has grace and
simplicity of style due to consummate art, the fascina-
tion due to restraint and measure in expression of
feeling, and a large humanity. Gora is born of Irish
parents but is brought up in a Bengali family. He was
born during the Indian mutiny, but is unaware of his
parentage. He and his friend Benoy became passionate
champions of the Hindu revival. Benoy comes into
contact with a Brahmo called Pares Bhattacharya and
his foster-children Sucharita and Satis. Cora's adoptive
471
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
father Krishna Dayal was a friend of Pares Babu, and so
Gora also came to know the latter and his family. Benoy
falls in love with Lalita, a daughter of Pares, and Gora
is attracted by Sucharita. Gora is thrown into gaol for
supporting schoolboys in a conflict with the authorities.
The Brahmos disapprove of Benoy's proposed marriage
with Lalita and excommunicate Pares. Gora finally
learns the secret of his birth, and then comes to Pares
as a disciple. Both are free from their old shackles
and feel that they belong to a freer India. Gora event-
ually marries Sucharita. Those who have studied well
the original say that it is a failure on the whole.
Tagore's poetic genius cannot but invest the story with
charm, especially in portions where lyric treatment is
possible. But there is little or no movement in the
story. Mr. K. C. Chatterji, who has written an excellent
article on Modern Bengali Fiction in the Indian Review
for Juy 1914, says : " Rabindra Nath's Bengali style is
distinguished for its inimitable humour, literary grace
and simple native dignity. His excursions in the field
of longer romance have not been equally successful. His
only long novel " Gora " is a failure."
VI. Tagore's Essays on Art and Literature.
India is famous not only for its art and poetry, but
also for its aesthetics ; and some of the greatest poets
and artists of India have been among the greatest
rhetoricians and art critics of the world. Tagore
carries on this literary tradition, and we find united
472
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
in him vision and imagination and a keen realisation to
the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.
In his essay on The Real and the Ideal^ he brings out a
great truth of art in his own vivid and inimitable manner.
He describes the difference between the real and the
ideal by first pointing out a great psychological truth.
We see objects but the conception of beauty is an inner
discernment ; the vibrations of ether are transformed
into the sensation of light ; and outer incidents are
transformed into joy and pain in the heart. This
mysterious transformation into facts of conscious-
ness is one of the most wonderful things in life at
which the really scientific mind has felt puzzled and
staggered. Tyndall says : " But the passage from the
physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of con-
sciousness is inconceivable as a result of mechanics. . .
What, then, is the causal connection between the ob-
jective and subjective, between molecular motions and
states of consciousness ? My answer is : I do not see
the connection, nor have I as yet seen anybody who
does. It is no explanation to say that the objective
and subjective effects are two sides of one and the
same phenomenon. Why should the phenomenon
have two sides ? This is the very core of the difficulty.
There are plenty of molecular motions which do not
■exhibit this twosidedness. Does water think or feel
when it runs into frost-ferns upon a window here ? If
-not, why should the molecular motions of the brain be
473
SIK RABINDRANATH TAGORE
yoked to this mysterious companion — consciousness ?
. . . . Amidst all our speculative uncertainty, how-
ever, there is one practical point as clear as the day ;.
namely, that the brightness and the usefulness of life,
as well as its darkness and disaster, depend to a great
extent upon our own use or abuse of this miraculous
organ (soul) I know nothing, and never
hope to know anything, of the steps by which the pass-
age from molecular movements to states of conscious-
ness is effected." Du Bois Raymond says: "What
conceivable connection subsists between definite move-
ments of definite atoms in my brain on the one hand,
and on the other hand such primordial, indefinable,
facts as these ; I feel pain and pleasure ; I experience
a sweet taste, or smell a rose, or hear an organ, or see
something red. . . It is absolutely and for ever in-
conceivable that a number of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,,
and oxygen atoms should be otherwise than indifferent
as to their own position and motion, past, present,,
or future. It is utterly inconceivable how conscious-
ness should result from their joint action." These
acute criticisms of the mechanical theory of the uni-
verse are the securest basis of idealism, and Tagore is
in full agreement with them. On this basis he raises
the fair fabric of the positive side of idealism. The
music of the waves is beautiful ; but the inner music
evoked by it is of an even deeper and truer reality and
sweetness. " Only one thought seized me then — that
474
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
this music which the great sea had struck in the inner
chord of my soul could never be a mere echo of the
wail of wind and the murmur of waves that I heard
around. ... It was a distinct music and in sweet order,
one by one, the notes of it opened out to me like the
petals of a full-blown flower." I have already referred
to Tagore's insight into the spiritual aspect and oneness
of nature which this passage shows very well. It is his
deep meditation and comtemplation that have given
him this unique faulty. Mr. Basanta Koomar Roy says:
" He would spend hours together watching the mystic
flow of the Ganges or seeing the moon kiss the sacred-
river into ripples. Here he would spend night after
night upon the flat roof of the house, musing on the
mystery of the star-ht universe." Tagore had this spirit
and this insight even in his childhood. He says: "In
the mornings, every now and then, a kind of unspeak-
able joy, without any cause, used to overflow my heart.
. . . . All the beauty, sweetness, and scent of this
world, .... all these used to make me feel the
presence of a dimly recognised being, assuming so
many forms just to keep me company." In later life
this joy in beauty was included and transformed in his
spiritual rapture, and his love included humanity and
nature as two holy manifestations of God. Tagore
describes this transformation thus : " A singular glory
covered the entire universe for me — bliss and beauty
seemed to ripple all over the world Then.
475
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
nobody and nothing whatsoever remained unwelcome to
me. . . Even the coarse forms and features of some
of the members of the labouring class, as they passed by
on the street, had an inner glory for me." Tagore's view
is that the artist must reveal to the world the beauty,
the love, the joy, and the holiness that he realises in
life more vividly than others by reason of his clearer
and keener vision. The artist feels it his duty, his
privilege, his glory to express the harmony and beauty
discerned within. Tagore says : " We, therefore, see
that all that the artist is anxious for, is to express this
invisible and inexpressible within, lying in the heart of
the visible and the tangible without The
invisible and inner beauty of the universe is a thing of
the heart, and the artist knows it as such. He rends
the veil woven by habit and brings out that inner
beauty He thus proves that no form is
ultimate and final in the universe. All forms are sym-
bols. If their passage to the soul be once opened, they
remain no longer fixed but become plastic and free."
Tagore then reveals to us the idea underlying the
Indian view that different ragas and raginis are asso-
ciated with different parts of the day and the night and
with different seasons. " For instance, Bhairo is a
ragini of the morning. But is it an imitation of the
thousand sounds of the new awakened earth that we
hear in the morning time ? No. The musician who
composed it had heard with rapt soul the inner music
476
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
of all the various sounds, — and more, of the deep and
soundless silence of the morning and then he could say
that his ' Bhairo' was a ragini of the morning." Tagore
then points out that the effort and emphasis of Western
music in trying to express emotions by the " urging
and straining of both voice and tune" are a violation of
the deepest laws of art. We must learn the highest
ideas of Western music as it also is a heavenly self-
expression of the soul of man. As Maud MacCarthy
says : '' Now an exchange of musical ideas does not
imply, as some think, a ' cosmopolitan art devoid of
character,' because true national traits emerge stronger
under the stimulus of true international communion."
She says again: "Hence, the finest Western music, which
is as yet unknown to India, is but another of her beau-
tiful wondering children." As has been well said by
her: "The arts are nature's beauties as they exist in the
subtler human experience." We must, however, retain
the great and unique traits of our music. Maud Mac
Carthy well says : "Nevertheless, in spite of many unto-
ward circumstances, it cannot die, because its roots are
deep in the heart of the people, mingling with every
phase of their rich imaginative natures, and with each
cherished aspect, personal and familiar, mystic and
transcendental, of their archaic but vital religious and
social organism." I make bold to quote here two other
passages from her essay on Indian Musical Education as
they show our duty and the duty of our rulers very well.
477
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
She says; " The art of improvisation in ragas, with its
complex rules and arduous training, its psychic and
physical discipline and control, may still be heard in its
glory, amongst true Indian surroundings, where it
wells up, bird-like but with all the added powers of
conscious creation, of human art. This splendid herit-
age, with its countless mythic and transcendental asso-
ciations, is a national duty to preserve, and to
increase from individual to multisonant perfections.
And this can only be done by chnging to immemorial
Indian traditions in music." [She adds in a footnote,
traditions — not conventions: let all young artists write
upon their hearts that tradition is a living, but conven-
tion, a dead, thing.] She says again: "I lay this stress
upon the advantages which are also to be gained by the
Western nations from Indian musical education for
Indians, because among the greatest privileges of true
education, and tests of its worth, is that which is within
the reach of every Indian by birth, if not always by merit
— the privilege of teaching, after he has pondered the
-wisdom of his sacred land." We must learn to revere
our professional musicians, and then our reverence will
react on their lives so that they will lead Hves worthy
of their art. If we wait to revere till they lead worthy
lives, we may wait for ever. The decadence of India
began when art and religion lost their old comradeship
and went diverse ways, and when the man of mere
wealth or intellect began to despise the man of art
478
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
and forced him down into the hell created by his own
irreverence and contempt. Art by itself is a pure and
uplifting thing and would purify and uplift the artist
but for our superciliousness and the terrible gravitational
force of the world of contempt that we in our imagined
superiority — thoroughly unjustified by our masked sins
draped in the lace garments of hypocrisy — feel for him.
If we restore our ancient Sankirtan parties and are not
ashamed of our love of God but exult and glory in it
and in the musical expression of it, Indian art will
flourish as before and we shall lead better lives.
In a recent speech at Lahore Tagore pleaded for the
introduction of music in the curriculum of every Indian
University. In modern India people of light and
leading are the products of a wrong system that
has no place for art in its scheme of education, and
this has reacted on art and led to its decadence. Yet
what chance is there of this in modern India ? I have
been led into these melancholy reflections outside my
present scope, because of my deep and passionate love
of the Indian ideals of the life of art and the art of life.
Tagore has sought to reintroduce beauty into life and
life into beauty by the recently started " Bichitra
Hall" to which I have referred already. Tagore
■expresses the very soul of music when he says :
"We express sorrow by shedding tears, and joy by
laughing, and what can be more natural ? But if in the
singing of a sorrowful song, the singer imitates weeping
479
SIK KABINDRANATH TAGORE
and in a song of jubilance, laughter, how grossly he
insults the goddess of music, the hner sense of music.
In fact, the power of music is at its best when the tear
trembling in the eye is not allowed to be shed, and the
laughter ringing within the heart is not allowed to
break out. Then, indeed, through our human tears and
laughter, our consciousness stretehes out to the infinite,
and in our songs of joys and sorrows, even the trees
and the fountains and rivers join their voices and find
their deepest expression. Then, indeed we realise the
efflux of our soul as the joyous sport of the ocean of
the Universal Heart." Tagore shows how even the
most imitative of all arts— the histrionic art — has the
expression of the inexpressible as its highest crown.
Though actors interpret by gesture and voice yet they
will achieve their best effects by self-control. Tagore's
closing observations deserve being read and re-read and
pondered over: '• Inasmuch as art restrains 'reality,'
it lets in truth, which is greater than 'reality.' The pro-
fessional artist is a mere witness to 'reality', while the
real artist is a witness to truth. We see the produc-
tions of the one with our corporeal eyes, and of the
other with the deeper eye of contemplation. And to
see anything in contemplation requires, first and fore-
most, that the obsession of the senses be curbed strongly
and this declaration be made to all outward forms that
they are never ultimate or final, never an end but
always means to an end."
480
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
In his essay on The Stage, Tagore points out that
each art is seen in all her glory only when she is sole
mistress. He says : " A sort of artistic pageant may no
doubt be got up with a mixture of word and tune and
picture, but that would be common or market Art, not
of the Royal Variety." The art of drama, though
it takes help from acting, scenery, music, and other
accessories, does not depend on such aid for its highest
appeal. " Like the true wife who wants none other
than her husband, the true poem, dramatic or otherwise,
wants none other than the understanding mind. We
all act to ourselves "as we read a play, and the play
which cannot be sufficiently interpreted by such in-
visible acting has never yet gained the laurel for its
author." The actor also must assert his individuality
and should not become the slave of the scene-painter.
He says : " That is why I like the J^alra plays of our
country. There is not so much of a gulf separating the
stage from the audience. The business of interpreta-
tion and enjoyment is carried out by both in hearty co-
operation, and the spirit of the play, which is the real
thing, is showered from player to spectator and from
spectator to player in a very carnival of delight. When
the flower-girl is gathering her flowers on the empty
stage, how would the importation of artificial flowers
help the situation ? Must not the flowers blossom at
her every motion ? If not, why need an artist play the
flower-girl at all, why not have stocks and stones for
481
31
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
spectators ?." He well points out : "If the poet who
created Sakunlala had to think of bringing concrete
scenes on his stage, then at the very outset he would
liave had to stop the chariot from pursuing the flying
deer." Tagore then says: " The European wants his
truth concrete In the Orient, pomp
and ceremony, play and rejoicing, are all easy and
simple. It is because we serve our feasts on plantain
leaves that it becomes possible to attain the real object
of a feast — to invite the whole world to a little home ;
this true end could never have been gained had the
means been too complex and extravagant If
the Hindu spectator has not been too far infected with
the greed for realism, and the Hindu artist still has
any respect for his craft and his skill, the best thing
they can do for themselves, is to regain their freedom
by making a clean sweep of the costly rubbish that has
accumulated round about and is clogging the stage."
In Indians Epic Tagore tells us that there are two
kinds of poetry. One kind expresses the eternal feelings
of Humanity through the medium of the poet's personal
joys and sorrows and fancies and experiences. The
other expresses " the feelings and experiences of an
entire country or age and make them the eternal pro-
perty of Man." In Kalidasa's poems we see his skill
and genius. Ramayana and the Mahabharata^ however,
seem to be India's own, the poet being hidden by the
poem. The whole of India is expressed in them. They
482
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
contain "the eternal history of India/' Tagore says :
*' The history of what has been the object of India's
devoted endevour, India's adoration, and India's
resolve, is seated on the throne of eternity in the palace
•of these two vast epics." Rama is the ideal man, and
Valmiki has set up in his work the supreme ideal for
men. In the Ramayana the tie of moral law and the
'bond of domestic affection have been lifted to a trans-
icendent height. This shows in what high regard the
grihastha life has been held in India and how the house-
holder's life " held the whole fabric of society together
and developed the true manhood of the people."
Tagore says : " The household was the foundation of
the Aryan Society of India ; and the Ramayan is the
epic of that household." The Ramayana is our book
'Of ethics, our romance, our scripture. " In the Rama-
yana's simple annshtup rhythm the heart of India has
been beating for thousands of years." The world needs
both the Western and the Eastern tyjies of art. Tagore
well says : " The Ramayan is ever showing us a picture
of those ancients who thirsted for the nectar of the
Fully the Undivided. If we can preserve our simple
reverence and hearty homage for the brotherliness,
love of truth, wifely devotion, servant's loyalty depicted
in its pages, then the pare breeze of the Great Outer
Ocean will make its way through the windows of our
.factory-home."
I have already referred in a previous chapter to
483
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Tagore's beautiful essays on Kalidasa : The Moralist and*
Sakuntala : Us Inner Meaning, Tagore shows us that it
is wrong to regard Kalidasa the poet of mere aesthetic,
enjoyment ; and that in him, as in Vyasa and Valmiki,.
we find the shrine of renunciation set as the object of
adoration in the very palace of sense-delights. He points
out how a European poet would have closed the
Sakuntala with the agony of the king on recovering the-
lost ring and the Kumarasamhhava with the grief and'
shame of Parvathi " at the failure of her assault on
Siva's heart." He deprecates the artistic ideal that:
turns away from married love and seeks to glorify the
cyclonic love that bears away two souls on its tem-
pestuous wings whatever unhappiness they leave behind. .
Kalidasa describes the morning radiance of love but:
reserves best resources of his art for the love " stripped-
of all the external robes of beauty and circled with the
pure white halo of goodness." "He shows Cupid van-
guished and burnt to ashes, and in Cupid's place he makes
triumphant a power that has no decoration, no helper, —
a power thin with austerities, darkened by sorrow."
Tagore says again: — " The wild love which forgets every
thing except the loved one, succeeds in rousing against
itself all the laws of the universe. Therefore, such love
speedily becomes intolerable ; it is ' borne down by its
opposition to the rest of the world.' . . . Physical
charm is not the highest glory or supreme beauty in a
"woman Submission to spiritual beauty is.
484
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
no defeat, it is a voluntary offering of self." Again he
says : " The highest rank among our women is that
of the matron. Child-birth is a holy sacrament in our
country." I shall quote again a beautiful sentence
quoted already in a preceding chapter. "This ancient
poet ot India refuses to acknowledge passion as the
supreme glory of love ; he proclaims goodness as the
final goal of love." The above passages are all from
Tagore's essay on Kalidasa : The Moralist. In the essay
on Sakunlala : Its Inner Meanings Tagore enforces the
same lessons. He says : " In Goethe's words, Sakunlala
blends together the young year's blossoms and the
fruits of its maturity ; it combines heaven and earth in
• one Goethe says expressly that Sakunlala
contains the history of a development, — the develop-
ment of flower into fruit, of earth into heaven, of
matter into spirit." Sakunlala e\ev2Ltes " love from the
sphere of physical beauty to the eternal heaven of
moral beauty." Sakuntala — a fair forest-maiden — had
no armour against Cupid. But in spite of her secret
marriage and too ready surrender she retains her innate
chastity. Later on spiritual self-discipline makes her a
[perfect woman. " With matchless art Kalidas has
placed his heroine on the meeting-point of action and
calmness, of Nature and Law, of river and ocean, as it
were." '' Sakuntala's simplicity is natural, that of
Miranda is unnatural Sakuntala's simplicity
'was not girt round by ignorance, as was the case with
485
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Miranda Miranda's simplicity was never
subjected to such a fiery ordeal ; it never clashed with-
knowledge of the world." " In this drama Kahdas has-
extinguished the volcanic fire of tumultuous passion by
means of the tears of the penitent heart." Dushyanta is
purified by remorse, and hence Sakuntala, equally puri-
fied, becomes the queen of his soul instead of being-
one of the beauties of the harem " Truly
in Sakuntala there is one Paradise lost and another
Paradise regained."
VII. Tagore's Essays on History, Politics, and
Sociology.
Tagore's mesasge on historical, political, and socio*
logical matters is worthy of our serious study. He is not
a regular historian, or politician, or student of sociology.
His deepest interests lie elsewhere. But a man en-
dowed with genius, with vision, and with love, living in*
this scientific and historical age and during times of
unrest and transition in India and yearning for the birth
of a higher national life in this sacred land, cannot help
thinking deeply on matters of vital importance to our
national welfare and progress. The views of such a
man are entitled to the deepest reverence because his
innate purity of vision, his burning love, and his
synthetic genius will enable him to realise the deeper
movements of the soul of the nation and give us valu-^
able ideas as to the work to be done for the regenera-
tion of our beloved land.
486
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
I have dealt with Tagore's ideas on these matters
at some length when dealing with his Sadhana.
Indeed his central ideas are detailed in the first chapter
of that wonderful book. In his essay on The Philosophy
of Indian History^ he points out that the history of
dynasties and battles that we learn is not the true
history of India and that " we shall fail to see the true
India if we look at her through this blood-red shifting
scene of dreamland." He says : " But to a foreign
traveller this storm is the most noticeable affair, every-
thing else is hidden from him by the clouds of dust,
because he is not within our house but outside it. Hence
it is that the histories of India written by foreigners tell
us only of this dust, this storm, and not of our home.''*
Again he says : " But there was a real India in those
days, just as there were foreign countries. For if it
were not so, who gave birth to Kabir and Nanak,
Chaitanya and Tukaram, amidst all this tumult ?" Our
boys learn the wrong kind of history. When shall our
great historian of India arise who shall reveal the soul
of India as manifested in her history ? Tagore says :
" Indian history has concealed the true India. The
narrative of our history from the invasion of Mahmud
of Ghazni to Lord Curzon's outbursts of imperialistic
pride, is only a variegated mist so far as India is con-
cerned. It does not help us to realise our true country,
it only veils our gaze This history has, as
it were, slipped the true holy book of India within a
487
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
■volume of the marvellous Arabian Nights Tales. Our
boys learn by rote every Hne of this Arabian Nights^ but
none opens the sacred volume of India's inner history.
Later, in the night of cataclysm, when the Mughal
Empire was in its death gasp, the vultures assembled
from afar in (he funeral heath, began their mutual
squabble, deception, and intrigue. Can we call that the
history of India ? In the next page we have the British
administration regularly divided into periods of five
years each, like the squares of a chess-board. Here
the true India grows even smaller. Nay, more, the
India of this period differs from a chess-board in this
that while the ordinary chequers are alternately black
and white, on this historical chess-board fully fifteen
parts out of sixteen are coloured white. It is as if we
were bartering away our food-stuffs for good govern-
ment, good justice, good education, in some gigantic
Whiteaway Laidlaw and Co.'s firm, while all other
shops were closed. In this huge administrative work-
shop everything from justice to commerce may be
*' good'; but our India occupies only an insignificant cor-
ner of its clerical department." Tagore gives us another
great and valuable idea: "We must, at the outset, discard
the false notion that history must be cast in the same
mould in all countries One who has read the life of
Rothschild will, on coming to the life of Christ, call for
His account books and office diary, and if these are not
forthcoming he will turn up his nose and say, " A
488
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
■biography forsooth ! of a man who was not worth a pen-
ny in the world !" Similarly, most critics, when they fail
to get from India's political archives any genealogical
tree or despatches of battle, despair of being able to
construct India's history_ and complain, ' How could a
country have a history when it had no politics ?' The
present teaching of Indian history is a disgrace to
modern culture. 'J'agore says : "The method in which
we are taught from our childhood dissociates us every
day from our country, till at last we cherish a feeling of
repulsion from her." It is, however, impossible to quell
the national spirit. " Like the life that animates our
body, this national spirit is a manifest reality and yet
inexpressible in terms and concepts. ... Its mar-
vellous power moulds us secretly, keeps up the con-
tinuity between our past and present ; — it is the link
that ties us together in a community and prevents us
from becoming unconnected atoms." Tagore says that
we can realise and define the Mission of India. "We see
that throughout the ages India's only endeavour has
been to establish harmony amidst differences, to incline
various roads to the same goal, to make us realise the
one in the midst of the many with an undoubting inner
conviction ; not to do away with outer differences, and
yet to attain to the deeper oneness that underlies all such
differences. It is quite natural for India to realise this
inner harmony and to try to spread it to the uttermost.
This spirit has in all ages made her indifferent to
489
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
political greatness, because the root of such greatness is
discord. Unless we keenly feel foreign nations to be ab-
solutely alien to us, we cannot regard extension of em-
pire as the supreme end of our life." Thus Tagore's
burning nationalism never soured his love for other
nations and races in the world. He believes in univer-^
sal unity amidst national diversity — diversity, not
hatred. He has realised that "above all nations is
humanity " and teaches that national variations are
necessary for the harmonious development of the uni-
verse. This greatest of India's national singers thinks,
that " as the mission of the rose lies in the unfoldment
of the petals which implies distinctness, so the rose oi
humanity is perfect only when the diverse races and
the nations have evolved their perfected distinct
characteristics, but all attached to the stem of human-
ity by the bond of love." In his speech at the banquet
given in his honour in England he said: " I have
learned that, though our tongues are different and our
habits are dissimilar, at the bottom our hearts are one :
The monsoon clouds, generated in the banks of the Nile,
fertilize the far distant shores of the Ganges ; ideas-
may have to cross from East to Western shores to find
a welcome in men's hearts and fulfil their promise.
East is east and west is west — God forbid that it.
should be otherwise — but the twain must meet in amity,
peace and mutual understanding ; their meeting will
be all the more fruitful because of their differences ;
490
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
it must lead both to holy wedlock before the
common altar of humanity." Tagore then proceeds-
to point out the great social idea underlying the
Indian ordering of society. " The union that European
civilisation has sought is based upon conflict, while the
union adopted by India is founded on reconciliation.
The real element of conflict lying hidden in the politi-
cal union of a European nation can, no doubt, keep
that nation apart from other nations, but it cannot
create harmony among its own members
It is not the case in Europe that all classes do their
respective legitimate functions and thus by their collec-
tive efforts maintain the social organisation. On the
contrary, they are mutually antagonistic ; every class is
always on the alert to prevent others from growing
stronger Thus the social harmony
is destroyed and the State is driven to make law after
law to hold together, somehow or other, all these
discordant elements of society. Such a result is inevit-
able, because if you sow conflict you must reap conflict^
never mind how luxuriant and many-leaved your plant
may look. India has tried to reconcile things that are
naturally alien to each other She set
limits to and fenced off all the rival conflicting forces of
society and thus made the social organism one and capa-
ble of doing its complex functions She
has ever been building, out of diverse materials, the
foundations of that civilisation of harmony which is the
491
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
highest type of human civilisation This
■ estabHshment of harmony and order is manifest not
only in our social structure hut also in our religious
system. The attempt of the Gita to perfectly reconcile
Knowledge, Faith, and Deed, is peculiarly Indian. The
word ' Religion ' as used by Europe cannot be trans-
lated into any Indian tongue, because the spirit of India
opposes any analysis of Dharma into its intellectual
components. Our Dharma is totality, — the totality of
our reasoned convictions, our beliefs and our practices,
this world and the next, all summed together. India
has not split up her Dharma by setting apart one side
j of it for practical and the other for ormamental purposes.
Dharma in India is religion for the
■whole oi society, — its roots reach deep underground,
■ but its top touches the heavens ; and India has not
contemplated the top apart from the root, — she has
looked on religion as embracing earth and heaven
( -alike, overspreading the ivholeMiQ of man, like a gigantic
banyan tree. Indian history proves this fact that in the
civilised world India stands forth as the example of
"i how the many can be harmonised into One. To realise
the One in the universe and also in our own inner
I nature, to set up that One amidst diversity, to discover
' it by means of knowledge, to establish it by means of
. action, to perceive it by means of love, and to preach
it by means of conduct, — this is the work that India
.has been doing in spite of many obstacles and calamities,
4'J2
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
in ill-success and good fortune alike. When our his-
torical studies will make us realise this eternal Spirit
of India, then and then only will the severance between
our past and our present cease to be." I have quoted
the above-said long passages, because of their perfect
insight into the very heart of Indian socialand religious
ideals and their perfect beauty of style. Tagore, however,
seems to have wavered between this view and the view
that caste is an evil. In his letter to Mr. Myron
H. Phelps of America published in the Modern Review
for August 1910 and February 1911, he says : '' It (the
caste system) has largely contributed to the freedom
from narrowness and intolerance which distinguishes
the Hindu religion and has enabled races with widely
different culture and even antagonistic social and
religious usages and ideals to settle down peaceably
side by side — a phenomenon which cannot fail to
astonish Europeans, who, with comparatively less jar-
ring elements, have struggled for ages to establish peace
and harmony among themselves. But this very absence
of struggle, developing into a ready acquiescence in
any position assigned by the social system, has crushed
individual manhood, and has accustomed us for
centuries not only to submit to every form of domina-
tion, but sometimes actually to venerate the power
that holds us down. The assignment of the business of
Government, almost entirely to the mihtary class, reacted
upon the whole social organism by permanently
493
. SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
excluding the rest of the people from all political co-
operation, so that now it is hardly surprising to find the
almost entire absence of any feeling of common interest,
any sense of national responsibility, in the general
consciousness of a people of whom as a whole it has
seldom been any part of their pride, their honour, their
dharma^ to take thought or stand up for their country.
The regeneration of the Indian people,
to my mind, directly and perhaps solely depends upon
the removal of this condition." In a recent article by
Tagore on The Appeal of Christ to India, published in the
January issue of The Quest for 1916, he says : "We in
■India have been led by the spirit of exclusion which is
inherent in our society. We have drawn lines as to
"where we shall eat and where not and have thus erect-
ed ring-fences throughout our world. . . . Even
against those whom God has sent to distribute food to
the world we have enforced the restrictions of caste.
Thus we have long entertained such an altitude of ill-
will towards Jesus Christ. . . . Who else has
glorified man in every way as he has done ?" While
as an estimate of Christ's Ufe and work the article is
excellent, it errs by overstatement in its condemnation
of the caste system. The non-acceptance of Christ-
ianity in^ India is due not to lack of love for
Christ but to our religion including and transcending
his holy religion. It seems to me that a good deal
of misapprehension as to its aims and ideals and
494
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
'methods is the cause of attacks on the caste system.
The widely-prevalent system of village autonomy and
local self-government, the incident in the Ramayana
about the king taking his people into his confidence and
•consulting them as to the choosing of the yiivaraja^
and the duties of kings and subjects as laid down in
the Niii Sastras, show that the institution of caste is no
hindrance by itself to a healthy political life springing
up or flourishing in the Hindu polity. The caste
system as it now obtains is as much a foe of religion as
it is a foe of light and love and progress. But the caste
system as conceived by the master-minds of old never
clashed with the expansion of the Hindu race, or its
political growth, or its military greatness. We can well
learn this fact if we study to any purpose the great and
impressive history of Hindu colonisation, or the politi-
cal institutions of ancient and mediaeval India, or the
course of military conquest by Raghu and other great
heroic chiefs of our race. The ideal of caste was to
secure harmonyj co-operation, efficiency, and orderly
lives by each caste performing its great duties of life in
a spirit of detachment and as an act of worship of God.
Sir Henry Cotton says : " The system of caste far from
being the source of all troubles which can be traced in
Hindu society, has rendered most important service in
the past, and still continues to sustain order and
solidarity." Dr. A. K. Coomaraswami says: "What
I do suggest is that the Hindus grasped more firmly
495
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGOKE
than others the fundamental meaning and purpose of
life and more dehberately than others organised society
with a view to the attainment of the fruits of Ufe ; and
this organisation was designed not for the advantage
of a single class but, to use a modern formula, to take
from each according to this capacity and to give tO'
each according to his needs. Even with its imperfec-
tions Hindu society as it survives will appear to many
to be superior to any form of social organization
attained on a large scale anywhere else, and infinitely
superior to the social order which we know as modern
civilisation." Hindu society was so ordered as to be a
garden full of beautiful blossoms of souls — with diverse
colour and fragrance yet all fit for worship at the lotus
feet of God, — a garden which was the expression of a
beautiful and divine plan and scheme of life. There is
no doubt whatever that the great features of the true
system of caste which is intimately bound up with our
religion can be preserved while the great political
institutions and ideals of the West are being built into
our civilisation, till we shall present to the world a type
as beautiful and rare and noble as the great type that
existed in the past of India, and in which order and
progress, social love and social efficiency, statical and
dynamic elements, harmony and energy, peace and
power, will be combined till our beloved land becomes
the pattern for all other lands and the wonder and
glory of the world. ,:^ ^^^_^ ^^^ \
496 \
TAGOKE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
I shall point out here briefly that Tagore's views on
woman's place in society are worthy of our serious
consideration. He says in his article on Woman's Lot in
East and West : " Women are the centripetal force o£
society I think this destruction of social
harmony is the reason why women in Europe are
striving for equal rights with men Well,.
we are quite happy with our household goddesses, and.
they too have never told us that they are very unhappy.
Europe, your happiness lies outside,
our happiness dwells inside the home ; how then can we
make you realise that we are happy With-
us love is the supreme need." Tagore's abiding
reverence for womanhood is as vital an element of
his genius as his love of nature and his passion of love
for God. He said recently to a gathering of students
that after the loss of his mother, he, — being the young-
est in the family— was most tenderly looked after by
his sisters and other ladies of the household ; and that
"this gave him ample opportunity of watching and
adoring the divine qualities of womanhood — the un-
fathomable tenderness, the never-tiring patience, and
the absolute self-effacement." The following summary
of his views that appeared in December 1915 in the
Indian Patriot speaks for itself : " The poet deprecated
the modern tendency which found expression in some
extreme movements in the West — concerning woman's
rights. Talk as much as you like of woman's equality
497
32
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
•with man, — a woman's nature was constitutionally
different from a man's, not merely accidental variations
that were doomed to disappear, but there were
pronounced differences designed and decreed by
Heaven to be handed down everlastingly. In the
pursuit of ideals — in the struggle for existence — in the
engrossment of work, a man forgets his immediate
environment — he is incapable of looking at individuals —
he dashes onward. But the infinite patience for going
into details — the eager looking after —cannot be denied,
that cannot be dispensed with, nay, they are the very
pulse and throb of life. Sir Rabindranath thought it
was not desirable to have this difference removed and
he hoped that the high ideal of a true woman would
never be lost sight of." Tagore shows in the article
above referred to how the Hindu widow is unlike the
European old maid but is a centre of love and happiness^
—attached to her relations, loving her husband's memory^
pure, and pious. Our women receive practical education
in the home and are trained to be good, loving, pious,
serviceable, and courteous. We must give proper edu-
cation through the medium of vernaculars and Sanskrit
to our women but not so as to make them turn away
from the path trodden by Sita and Savitri. If our social
agitators will ponder over these wise words of Tagore,
all Indians can yet join together and work for the
regeneration of true womanhood in our beloved land.
Tagore's essays on " My Interpretation of Indian
498
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
"History," which I have referred to already in a previous
chapter, contain some of his maturest and most valu-
able ideas. He points out that " through all the
operations of the universe there runs the alternations
of inhaling and exhaUng, closing and shutting, sleeping
and M^aking ;— an eternal rhythmic beat is going on
with its alternate swell and cadence, first inwards, then
outwards." In the rhythm of human nature, however,
there is not the same perfect harmony, though there is
a quest for it. The struggles of the Aryans with others
led to unity among themselves. Then began, Tagore
says, the great enterprise of the fusion of the Aryans
and the Non- Aryans. I must, however, point out that
Tagore repeats an ordinary mistake when he says that
the brahna-vidya was pecuharly a Kshatriya science.
Many of the seers of the Upanishads were Brahmins,and
the Rig Veda itself proclaims the unity of God. Tagore
misunderstands the term Raja-vidya. It does not mean
the lore of the kingly caste but the king of all vidyas.
Nor is it right to say that *' Bhrigu spurning at the
bosom of Vishnu" epitomises the history of a conflict
between Brahmmism and the new religion of lov^e.
These are utterly fanciful and baseless theories
invented and flaunted before the public gaze to support
pet social and historical theories. It is equally absurd
to draw any inference from the fact that Vishnu
incarnated as Kshatriyas during his avatar a as Rama
.and Krishna. These declared that they reverenced
499
SIR RABIN DRANATH TAGORE
the true Brahmins and came to maintain*
Varnashrama Dharma. Further, it is said that the-
Kalki Avatara is to be in a Brahmin family. It is
a wrong method to take up single facts or phrases and
then build a big castle of theory upon such a slender
foundation. For the sake of supporting such a pet
theory or winning a worthless victory in a vain
argument, we twist and torture facts and talk learnedly
about interpolations and allegorical meanings. Tagore
then takes us to the Buddhistic era. " Amidst the
Buddhistic flood the Brahman caste alone in Aryan
society could keep itself intact, because the Brahmans
in all ages had been the guardians of the individuality
of the Aryan race By that time the Kshat-
riyas had become almost entirely submerged in the
common people."' Tagore then shows to us the reasser-
tion and '' restoration of our racial individuality and
our own institutions and ideals, from out the wide-
spread social dissolution of the Buddhistic age;"
Tagore then describes Sri Krishna's gracious message
as revealed in the Gita. He says : " The ultimate
truth in all Indian history is the synthesis of know-
ledge, action, and faith" The Gita shows
how every aspect of human activity is completed and
perfected when it is joined to the Vast, the Complete,
the Universal." He says again : " The characteristics
of the Shiva-cult are bareness of ornament and stern-
ness ; its peace and passion alike are attuned to the
500
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
spirit of destruction. It represents the monism of the
-Aryan civilisation, it tends to absorption into One ; it
(follows the path of negation ; its decoration consists in
renunciation, its abode is the charnel-house. The
•essence of Vaishnavism is the play of love, beauty, and
youth ; — it represents the dualism of Aryan civilisa-
tion," Tagore then sajj^ that the Brahmin reassertion
iin the post-Buddhistic age was characterised by the
assimilation of non-Aryans on a basis of inferior status
for them. Here again we are in the region of fanciful
theories. We must ever remember the following
golden ideas in Tagore's great essay : "India always
seeks for the One amidst Many ; her endeavour is to
concentrate the diverse and the scattered in One, and
not to diffuse herself over Many. . . . Not to fight
against the accumulated rubbish of ages, to let matters
drift, is to court death. . . . The strength of a race
is limited. If we nourish the ignoble, we are bound
'to starve the noble. . . . Thus placed between two
contending forces, we shall mark out the middle path
of truth in our national hfe ; we shall realise that only
through the development of racial individuality can we
truly attain to universality, and only in the light of the
spirit of universality can we perfect individuality ; we
shall know of a verity that it is idle mendicancy to
discard our own and beg for the foreign, and at the same
:time we shall feel that it is extreme abjectness of
ipoverty to dwarf ourselves by rejecting the foreign."
501
\
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
I shall now take up Tagore's article on The Rise and'
Fall of Sikh Power. He points out there that Sivajii
began with the clear ideal of a Hindu Empire while the
Sikhs began as a religious sect which became a political'
force owing to Mughal oppression. When the Mughal!
Empire became weak the Sikhs thirsted after expansion!
and domination. Tagore well says : *' So long as our
enemies are strong, the instinct of self-preservation,
remains intense within us and the sense of a common'
danger keeps us firmly knit together. When that ex-
ternal pressure is removed, what force is there to keep
in check the intoxication of victory ?" He says again :
" He who unites men by force succeeds in so doing;
only by weakening others. Nay, worse still, he gains- \^v
his end only by overpowering and crippling the eternal ^
root principle of true union, namely, love.'' The success
of Ranjit Singh made the Sikhs feel that Might is Right.
*' The Sikhs flashed through the sky of history with?
meteoric splendour and then sank down for ever." The-
follovving passage is full of the truest wisdom : "In.
this way men sacrifice their highest good for the sake
of a temporary need, of which history records many ex-
amples ; and even now this short-sighted greed makes
all societies offer human sacrifice, i.e , destroy true and!
full manhood. The blood-thirsty demon to whom we
offer such sacrifice assumes different names — such as.
Society, State, Religion, or some fascinating catchword
of the time, — when it plies its task of destruction."^'
502
TAGORES MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
Tagore teaches us a valuable le- son as to why the efforts-
of the Sikhs and the Marathas ended in failure. He-
says : '' My answer is, — an idea which wishes to com-
prehend the whole country cannot achieve success if it
is taken up by one great man or a few great men only.
India's history has repeatedly shown that
forces origin a te'h ere but are not carried on continuously..
The cause is our mutual separation."
Here again Tagore's perception of the evils of caste as-
they are, leads him to attack the Hindu institution of
caste. But we must never forget his warning : " So long,
as the perception of Oneness does not find scope of
work in the religious consciousness of the community,,
so long as a unifying force, vivified for ever by some
noble idea, does not drive the society from all sides^
within and without, to the goal of union, even so long
can no pressure from outside, no heroism of any in-
dividual genius, make such a society firmly knit and
instinct with life and sensibility."
We now come to Tagore's essay on The Impact of
Europe on India. India's peculiar isolation and natural
resources enabled her to perfect her social order and
devote herself to the task of fathoming the unfathom-
able. ''The human soul is limitless like the material
universe. It is sheer scepticism to say that those who
had explored that undiscovered inner world did not
gain any truth or new bliss." But our seclusion and
social peace and spiritual effort were not to be left
503
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
oandisturbed. '' Just then through some loophole the
ever-restless human stream poured into our country
and tore up our social order, it mingled the new with
our old, doubt with our belief, discontent with our pre-
vailing content, and thereby threw all into confusion."
Tagore exposes with inimitable sarcasm our supineness
and the restless and often unpurposive energy of the
West.
We now come to the great essay on the Future of
India. I have purposely arranged Tagore's essays in
such a way as to present a panoramic view so that we
•draw great lessons from a great presentation of the
whole of our history in its true inwardness. The
following message of Tagore is as true as it is noble :
•" Whatever is best, whatever is fullest, whatever is the
supreme truth, that is for all ; and that is ever trying to
assert itself through every conflict and opposition. In
proportion as we try to advance that with all our will,
in that proportion only will our efforts succeed. The
attempt to secure one's own triumph, either as an in-
dividual or as a part of a nation, has no abiding influence
on the divine order of things. The banner of Grecian
conquest, under Alexander's guidance, failed to bring
the whole earth under one sceptre. The failure dashd
to the ground Grecian ambition, but that ambition has
no bearing on the world to-day. The Roman universal
empire in the course of its building was split up and
scattered over Europe by collision with the Barbarians.
504
TAGOKE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITLXGS
Kome's ambition was unrealised, but who in the world
will mourn the loss to-day? Greece and Rome have
loaded the reaped harvest of their achievement in the
Golden Boat of Time, but they themselves have not got
any seat for ever in that boat, and Time is no loser by
this fact, only it has been spared a useless burden. The
final purpose of the history that is being built up in
India is not that the Hindus or any other race will pre-
dominate here. Indian history has no less an object
than this, — that here the history of man will attain to a
special fulfilment and give an unprecedented form to
its perfection, and make that perfection the property
of all mankind. If in modelling the image of this
perfection, the Hindu, MusHm or Englishman utterly
removes all trace of his own existing individual features,
'he may thereby no doubt destroy his national pride,
but neither truth nor goodness will suffer. We are
here to build up the Greater Indian The significance
of the advent of the British civilisation into India is
thus beautifully described. " Recently the English
have come from the West and occupied a chief place in
Indian History. This event is not uncalled for nor
accidental. India would have been shorn of its fullness
if it had missed contact with the West. The lamp of
Europe is still burning. We must kindle our old
extinguished lamp at that flame and start again on the
road of Time. . . . We must fulfil the purpose of
•our connection with the English. This is our task
505
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
to-day in the building up of Great India." Tagore then)
points out "how the highest intellects of our country ia
the modern age have spent their lives at the task of
reconciling the West to the East." He well says : *' In
whatever quarter of the globe a great man has removed
the barrier to Truth, or taken off the chains of inertia
and set free the fettered powers of man, he is truly our
own, each of us is truly blessed by him." Tagore makes
us realise why Bengali literature has attained supreme
heights of achievement in recent times. He says :
" That Bengali literature has so rapidly grown is only
because it has torn off all those artificial bands which
prevented it from uniting with the world's literature."
He says further : "Thus we see from every side that
the truly great men of modern India, the inspirers of
the new age, have such an innate liberality of mental,
constitution that in their lives neither the East nor the
West is opposed and repressed, but both attain to frui-
tion together. Our educated men now-a-days think that.
the attempt of the various races in India to unite pro-
ceeds from a desire to gain political strength. But by so
thinking we make what is large subordinate to what is
small. The union of all races in India is higher than
all other aims, because it is the only means of attaining
to the fullness of humanity Our efforts at
union will succeed only if we look at this movement
for union from the religious point of view." Tagore
then analyses the new-born national spirit and says :
506
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
"We once went abegging to Europe, foolishly, inertly.
. . . A manner of acquisition which is humiliating
to us cannot be a suroce of gain to us. From this cause
it is that for sometime past we have rebelled against
Western education and influence. A new-born self-res-
pect has pushed us back from Europe towards our own
country. In obedience to the will of great Time, this
necessary self-respect arose in us." He says again :
" Good government and good laws alone are not the
highest benefits to mankind. Office, court, law, rule, —
those things do not constitute man. Man wants man,
and if he gets that, he is ready to put up with many
sorrows and many wants." Tagore then teaches a
wholesome lesson to both Englishmen and Indians alike.
He says : "We cannot acquire with ease whatever
is greatest, whatever is best in the English ;
we must win them Those of us who
present themselves at the court of the English
with folded palms and lowered head, in search of title,
honour, or post, only draw out the Englishman's
meaner elements ; they corrupt the manner of England's
expression of herself in India. ... So long as we,
out of personal or collective ignorance, cannot treat our
countrymen properly like men, so long as our landlords
regard their tenants as a mere part of their property,
so long as the strong in our country will consider it
the eternal law to trample on the weak, the higher
castes will despise the lower as worse than beasts, —
507
SIR RABINDKANATH TAGORE
•even SO long we cannot claim gentlemanly treatment
from the English as a matter of right, even so long
we shall fail to truly waken the English character,
even so long will India continue to be defrauded of her
due and humiliated." This lesson of sturdy self-respect
is enforced very well by Tagore's outspoken and
eloquent article on Indian Sindenls and Western Teachers
published in the April issue of the Modern Review for
19J6. What will be the golden goal if India is true to
herself ? "Then in India province will join province,
race will join race, knowledge will be linked with
knowledge, endeavour with endeavour ; then the
present chapter of Indian history will end, and she will
emerge in the larger history of the world." (Tagore's
article on The Future of India.)
VIII. Tagore as a Public Speaker.
Those who have heard Tagore's public addresses
say that he is an orator of genius. His face and features
which are full of distinction and attractiveness contri-
bute to his fascination as an orator. Mr. Basanta
Koomar Roy says : " The Hindu poet's flowing hair,
his broad, unfurrowed forehead, his bright, black,
magnetic eyes, chiselled nose, firm but gentle chin,
delicate sensitive hands, his sweet voice, pleasant smile,
keen sense of humour, and his innate refinement, make
him a man of rare and charming personality." Tagore's
• astonishing versatility has enabled him to be great as a
508
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
poet, play-wright, philosopher, prose- writer, philan--
throphist, peadagogue, publicist, and patriot ; he is a
profound student of history ; he has edited four
different magazines, Sadhana, Bangadarsan, Bharaii^ and,
Tattwahodhini ; and he is a great orator. He owes all
these great traits to his deep and passionate love of his
motherland and of God. Almost always he speaks
before Bengali audiences in his own mother-tongue,
though his English style has won the admiration of
Englishmen of culture in England. Whenever a lecture
by him is announced people assemble by thousands to
come into touch with his wonderful perfonality and
hear the words of love and wisdom that fall from his
lips. I have already referred to his beautiful religious
address collected under the name of Shaniiniketan. In
them we see how his soul is full of love of God and
how he has realised that the universe is the manifesta-
tion of God's love. He makes us feel vividly and
intensely the glory and loveliness of nature and lifts
our hearts to the raptures of Divine love. Mr. Yeats
says : " When I tried to find anything Western which
might compare with the works of Mr. Tagore, I
thought of "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas
a Kempis. It is like, yet between the work of the two
men there is a whole world of difference. Thomas a
Kempis was obsessed by the thought of sin ; he wrote
in terrible imagery. " Mr. Tagore has as little thought
of sin as a child pi i ying with a top." In a recent address
509
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORli
on Ananda Mohan Bose, Tagore laid great stress on the
profound spirituality of the life of Ananda Mohan Bose
and showed that the secret of his greatness of achieve-
ment lay in his passion of love and service. He said in
a recent presidential address on Raja Ram Mohan Roy :
" Ram Mohan came to this lifeless country, like a foun-
tain in the desert, with his message of salvation, his
green verdure of life. We would fain shut our doors
against him if we could, but he forces his way in. All
round us we see our lives fed by the water of his
life-stream. Because we are enjoying the fruit we are
apt to forget and deny the roots which sucked the
nourishing juice and fed it. Ram Mohan came to us
with the glad tidings of the freedom of the soul ; but
we want outward freedom, to be acquired by the know-
ledge of material science in imitation of the West ; but
that is impossible ; until and unless we are free in soul,
the centre of all life and power, we can never be free."
IX. Tagore as a Letter- Writer.
Tagore's letters are full of beauty and charm and
give us a fascinating revelation of his poetic and
saintly personality. They will be a great inner asset
when they are published in a collected form. I shall
refer here to only one letter that Tagore wrote to
our great and self-sacriticing patriot, Mr. Gandhi.
He refers there to the struggle in South Africa
as the " steep ascent of manhood, not through
510
I
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
the bloody path of violence but that of dignified pa-
tience and heroic self-renunciation." He says further :
"The power our fellow countrymen have shown in
standing firm for their cause under severest trials,
fighting unarmed against fearful odds, has given us
a firmer faith in the strength of the God that can defy
suffering and defeats at the hands of physical supre-
macy, that can make its gains of its losses."
I shall quote here finally extracts from a very
valuable letter by him to Mr. Frederick Bose, who
wrote to Tagore asking what methods were adopted
by him to unfold the mental and spiritual faculties
of his pupils. Tagore said : " To give spiritual culture
to our boys was my principal object in starting my
school in Bolpur. Fortunately, in India, we have the
model before us in the tradition of our ancient forest
schools .... Having this ideal of a school in
my mind, which should be a home and a temple in one,
where teaching should be a part of a worshipful life, I
selected this spot away from all distractions of town,
hallowed with the memory of a pious life whose days
were passed here in communion with God . . The
first help that our boys get hereon this path is from the
cultivation of love of nature and sympathy with all
living creatures. Music is of very great assistance to
them, the song, being not of the ordinary hymn-type,
dry and didactic, but as full of lyric joy as the author
could put in them. You can understand how these
511
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
s©«gs affect the boys when you know that singing,
them is the best enjoyment they choose for themselves
in their leisure time, in the evenings when the moon is
up, in the rainy days when their classes are closed.
Mornings and evenings, fifteen minutes' time is given
to them to sit in an open space, composing their minds
for worship. We never watch them and ask questions,
about what they think in those times, but leave it
entirely to themselves, to the spirit of the place and the
time, and the suggestion of the practice itself. We rely
more upon the sub-conscious influence of Nature, of the
associations of the place, and the daily life of worship
that we live than on any conscious effort to teach them."
It is needless to comment upon the greatness and
practicality of this ideal and this method. In most of
the schools of the ordinary type we have no moral and
spiritual education at all ; and in the microscopic
minority of schools where the door is partly and
tremblingly opened to the rays of divine light as if they
were a menace to be counteracted and kept out, we
have ponderous lifeless text-books in learned language
on incomprehensible themes. Our great Viceroy, Lord
Hardinge, said in his address on the occasion of laying
the foundation stone of the Hindu University, which,,
located in the holy city of Benares with its immemorial
traditions of learning and godliness, is looked up to by
the whole of India as the inaugurator of a new era in
our national life : " Indeed the whole Indian idea o£
512
TAGORE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
education is wrapped up in the conception of a group
of pupils surrounding their Guru in loving reverence,
and not only imbibing the words of wisdom that fall
from his lips, but also looking up to him for guidance
in religion and morality and moulding their characters
in accordance with his precept and example
The object of an educational system must be to draw \
out from every man and woman the very best that is in
them, so that their talent may be developed to their
fullest caipacity, not only for their individual fulfilment
of themselves, but also for the benefit of the society of
which they find themselves members . . . Though
something may be done by mental and moral discipline,
and something by the precept and example of Profes-
sors, these are but shifting sands upon which to build
character without the foundation of religious teaching
and the steadying influence of a religious atmosphere."
When shall we lay these valuable words to heart and
see that young India is disciplined in schools of the
type of Tagore's school at Bolpur ? Tagore has further
insisted on the need for imparting education in the
vernaculars. He has stated that he does not find it
possible to compose exquisite poems in English
directly. He said recently : " We feel that we are not
in our own element as our own tongue is not the
medium of instruction. In order to uplift the country,,
education must be spread more liberally and in order
to render it more popular, it must be made cheaper and
513
33
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
•easy of attainment. I cannot conceive why the door-Lof
higher education should be shut against those who
were not so fortunate or opulent as to acquire the
English language." Thus he has given to us the great
ideals of free and compulsory education, making higher
education cheap and widespread, education on national
lines, education through the medium of vernaculars,
artistic education, and moral and spiritual education, and
tie has striven all his life to realise these great ideals on
which the future greatness of our race depends. The
education of youths on the footing of their having a
unity of personality and by trying to appeal to intellect,
emotion, will, imagination, and soul at the same time is
his noble ideal and has been achieved by him at Bolpur.
In his recently published brilliant article on Indian
Students and Western Professors^ which adorns the pages
of the Modern Review for April 1915 he pleads for
greater sympathy in dealing with Indian students and
makes us realise how the Indian students of to-day have
patriotism and self-respect and form a fine type of man-
hood and must be educated in a spirit of fraternity and
love. I have thus referred in conclusion, to this aspect
of Tagore's work because it is in my opinion the very
greatest of his many and manifold services to our
beloved motherland, which is to us the light of our eyes
and the idol of our hearts.
514
CHAPTER XII.
, CONCLUSION.
Our great and sympathetic Viceroy Lord Hard-
inge, when he presided at the lecture by the Rev.
C. F. Andrews on Tagore, said that the sovereignty of
Tagore had already passed far beyond the bounds of
Bengal and had reached to Western as well as Eastern
shores, that he admired the large humanity of the poet
whose affections, interests, and emotions were as
large as humanity itself, and that he rejoiced to honour
a poet whose sympathies were so deep and wide and
whose poetry was so true to nature and profound in
spirit. This is an estimate as true as it is felicitous in
expression. The poet's dower of vision and imagina-
tion and love and sympathy is unique ; and his affluence
of genius has a deep spiritual origin. It is in the study
and interpretation of a mind like that of Tagore— so
rich, so original, so pure, so perfect, so spiritual, and yet
so practical — that we realise the truth of Emerson's
wise and beautiful words : " Those who are capable of
humanity, of justice, of love, of aspiration, stand already
on a platform that commands the sciences and arts,
speech and poetry, action, and grace The
heart which abandons itself to the supreme mind finds
535
SIR KABINDRANATH TAGORE
itself related to all its works, and will travel a royaK
road to particular knowledges and powers
Genius is religious. It is a larger imbibing of the-
^ommon heart."
Tagore ! thy land of ancient hallowed fame, —
Our well-beloved mother, thine and mine, —
That, like the Goddess Uma who though born
With heavenly beauty on the snow-clad slopes
Of Himalaya great has blessed this land—
From East to West and North to farthest South
To where the smiling seas dance round the Cape —
With her immortal presence fair and sweet,
Does o'er our myriad forms of life and thought
The light of her eternal radiance shed
Till in that splendour bright they lose their gloom
And shine (or e'er and e'er, is proud of thee.
Thou in the silence of thy pure true heart,
Amid the din of tonguesters leading men
They know not where and tramp of battling hosts
That tight and kill and burn they know not why,
Hast he.-^rd the ageless music chanted sweet
By India's sages who by Ganga's stream-
That with the flutter of her mantle white
Does speed in joy to give the two-fold gift
Of gold of corn and brighter gold of grace-
Did hear the beating of the heart of things
And saw the beauty of the face of God :
The words that Rama uttered when he bore
His loving sire's behest upon his head
( As royal crown far brighter than the crown
That lay neglected at his holy feet,
516
CONCLUSION
And lit the light of truth and virtue pure
Dispersing inner gloom : the heavenly flute
Of Krishna which did kiss his gracious lips
And gazed on Him with seven insatiate eyes :
The sweet Sankirtans which Chaitanya sang,
Which flowed from him in an ambrosial flood
Deluging parched-up tracts of soul with prem : —
And hence in thy sweet verses full of grace
We hear such mingled harmonies as thrill
-■Our hearts with joys of golden memories
Beyond expression sweet. Thy song is both.
-A recollection and a prophecy.
The fragrance of the coming happy spring
That o'er our well-beloved land shall dawn
With wealth of flovsrers of love and song and deed
tPerfumes thy verse. The yearning for the day
When our sweet land with crown of highest hills
..Now sceptreless shall hold love's sceptre bright
And be the Queen of all the world— a thought
Which almost is an intense agony
But for the joy of working for the goal —
Has been thy ruling thought and dearest dream.
The gracious coming of a singer dowered
With gifts of golden speech and song to charm
The souls of men — a holy happening
O'er which the angels keep high holiday —
God grants as rare and radiant royal boon
To righteous races worthy of. His grace.
'Tis only next in sweet uplifting power
To His most gracious coming unto earth
To take His birth among the sons of men,
And dower them with His grace.
517
SIR RABIN DRANATH TAGORE
O poet-saint !
Thou hast thy wondrous talents used full well.
Thy work is no art-palace decked with flowers
Of speech and fragments fragile fleeting fair
Of song's bright rainbow shining in the cloud
Of fancied grief of love : Nor prison-cell
Where human.powers shut out from light of love
And from the sight of sky of God's sweet grace
And shining flowers of earth's most varied joys —
Are chained and doomed to hopeless toil while Fate
Doth hold the lash with bitter mocking lips :
Nor some vast charnel-house where lie
The mouldering tombs that mark the milion graves
Of human triumphs, inventions, arts, and deeds
That were immortal deemed while over all
The desolating breath of darkness dire
Doth sweep : but is a shining temple built
With love and godward thoughts ?nd service true
To brother-men, wherein we pass beneath
The soaring dome of song that lifts our thoughts
To Heaven, through wondrous portals high and bright:
Of Fancy, to the sacred altar fair
Where God has His beloved chosen seat,
With flowers of purest thoughts and acts of love
Around His lotus feet, while dream around
Thought's golden lamps with joy's unwavering flame,
And from the censers of adoring hearts
Love's heavenly fragrance spreads o'er all the world.
1 have with gladness read thy " Crescent Moon
From whose pure orb a shaft of light did come
Within my inner gloom and lit it bright :
Thy " Gardener " that lets us pass in joy
518
CONCLUSION
Within the heavenly bower where sits in light
The maiden of our dreams with loving heart
And bright expectant eyes : Gitattjalt
That shows how o'er the solemn evening
Of consummated life a holy calm
Doth brood while from the Heaven descend in liglif
God's angels fair to lead us to His throne.
I sat with thy sweet Amal when he looked
Through life's large window at the world beyond
And when he went to sleep with angel-touch
Upon his brow : I stood — one half of me
As bride's-maid fair and half as bridegroom's friend-
When sweet Sudarshana in chamber dark
Did meet her heart's true king : And then in light
Beneath the shining skies and by the hearth
I saw thy Chitra — house-wife, comrade, queen,
And goddess crowning with her thrilling kiss
And sceptr'ing with her love her Arjuna.
I read thy wondrous tales that show the light
Of love in humblest huts and god-like hearts
In poorest folks : I read thy " Sadhana " —
That ladder leading unto love of God
With golden rungs of action, faith, and thought :
Thy holy songs so full of love of God
And of our land, the Goddess of our hearts.
Have thrilled my inmost being : O poet-saint
The white-robed holy Ganga of thy song
And verse and rhythmic prose has made me pure
And overflowed my heart's most poor domain
That in its aridness unfruitful lay
Till now it smiles with sweet full-blossomed flowers
Of love which with His grace may yet become
519
SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE
True golden fruitage for my country's joy.
Accept this homage of my grateful heart,
O poet-saint : God grant thou livest long
To lead our land to lofty heights of love
And thought and service till she shine again
With radiance bright and lead all sister realms
In love unto the lotus feet of God.
520
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
I. TAGORE'S BENGALI WORKS
1.
2.
Achalayatan.
Adhunik Sahitya.
3.
Alochana. ,
4.
Baikunther Katha.
5.
Bau-thakuranir Hat.
•6.
Bhakta Bani.
7.
Bhanusinher Padabali.
8.
Bichitra Prabandha.
9.
Bidaya.
10.
11.
12.
Bisarjan.
Byanga-Kantuk.
Chaitali.
13.
14.
Chayanika.
Chha6i 0 Gan.
15.
Chhinna-Patra.
16.
Chhutir Para.
17.
Chitra.
18.
Chitrangada.
19.
Chokher-Bali.
20.
Dak-ghar.
21.
Dharma.
22.
1^3.
24.
Galpa Chariti.
Galpa Guchcha.
Gan.
:25.
Gitanjali.
521
BIBLIOGRAPHY
26.
Gitilipi.
27.
Gora.
28.
Goraya Galad.
29.
Hasya Kautuk.
30.
Ingraji Patha.
31.
Ingraji Sopan. ^
32.
Ingraji Sruti Siksha.
33.
Jivan Smriti.
34.
Kahini.
35.
Kalpana.
36.
Kanika.
37.
Kari 0 Komal.
38.
Katha.
39.
Katha Chathustaya.
40.
Katha Kahini.
41.
Kheya.
42.
Kshanika.
43.
Loka Sahitya.
44.
Manasi.
45.
Mayar Khela.
46.
Mukut.
47.
Nadi.
48.
Naibedya.
49.
Naukadubi.
50.
Panchabhuta.
51.
Prachin Sahitya.
52.
Prajapater Nirbhandha.
53.
Prakretir Pretisodh.
522
BIBLIOGRAPHY
54. Piabhat Sangita.
55. Prayaschitta.
56. Raja.
57. Raja O Rani.
58. Raja Praja.
59. Rajarshi.
60. Sahitya.
61. Samaj.
62. Samalochana.
63. Samuha.
64. Sandhya Sangit.
65. Samskrita Sopan.
66. Santineketan. (14 Volumes).
67. Saradotsab.
68. Saritra Pooja.
69. Sisu.
70. Sonar Tari.
*71. Swadesh O Sankalpa.
72. Phalguni [staged at Calcutta in January 1916.]"
73. Gitamala [In course of preparation.]
74. Prem.
75. Jouban Svapna.
[Taken partly from Professor N. Mitra's The Indian
Literary Year Book for 1915].
I give below a brief description of some of Tagore's
works in Bengali : —
Achalayatan:— It is an allegorical problem- play in
prose. It has no female characters.
523
BIBLIOGRAPHY
It describes how a monastery degene-
rates by shutting out healthy contact
with the world and is reformed and
purified by overpowering outside in-
fluences. It is said to contain various
lyrical and musical gems.
Adhunik Sahitya: — Essays on Modern Literature.
Alochana. — Essays on General Topics.
Baikunthar-Katha . — It contains some fine comic and
some pathetic situations. It de-
scribes how an old man having an ex-
aggerated idea of his own literary
productions thrusts them upon un-
willing hearers.
Bau-Thaukuranir-Hat: — It is a historical novel treating
of certain kings of Bengal during the
later Moghul period. It belongs to
the poet's early period of literary
activity.
'Bhakta-Bani: — It is akin to the series known as "Shanti-
niketan." It contains the lives and
teachings of Kabir and other great
saints.
Bichitra Prabandha: — A selection of essays.
Bidaya : — Poems.
©isarjan: — It is a drama in verse. Raghupathi,apriest and
an earnest and pious devotee of Kali,
wants to offer animal sacrifice to Kali.
524
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Govinda Manikha, King of Tipperah,,
is sincerely opposed to this and issues
a mandate against animal sacrifice.
I The dialogue between them on sacrifice
is said to be a literary masterpiece.
Raghupathi conspires to dethrone the
king. The priest deprives a poor girl
of her only and favourite goat to offer
it as a sacrifice. Raghupathi's dis-
ciple Jayasinga who loves the girl is
incensed at this. The conflict in his
soul between his reverence for his-
Guru and his love for the girl and for
her pet is a fine subject for dramatic
handling and is very beautifully de-
scribed. He offers to give his own
heart's blood to propitiate KaH rather
than allow the goat to be killed.
Byanga Kantuk: — A collection of humorous stories and-
plays.
Chaitali: — A series of poems.
Chhabi-O-Gan : — Poems.
Chhinna-Patra: — Fragments of his letters. (His son
Rotindra Babu is now collecting more
of Tagore's letters).
Chitra: — Poems.
Dharma:— Prose works.
Galpa Chariti : — Stories.
525
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gan: — songs.
Gitilipi : — Songs.
Goraya Galad: — A comic play.
Ingraji Patha. ) An easy original method of teach-
Ingraji Sopan. ) ing English to boys.
Jiwan Smrithi. — Reminiscences.
(Tagore's reminiscences are being
translated in the issues of the Modern
Review from January 1916).
Kahini. — A series of poems illustrating stories from
Mahabharata, Jatakas, and Rajput
history.
Kalpana. — Poems.
Kanika. — Short Instructive poems.
Kari-0-Komal. — Poems.
Katha. — Poems on historical subjects.
Kheya. —Poems.
Kshanika. — Poems.
Loka Sahitya. — Literature for the masses.
Manasi. — Poems.
Mayar Khela.— An opera dealing with love. It belongs
to the poet's early period.
Mukut. — A fine play intended for youngsters.
Nadi, — Poems.
Naibedya. — Poems.
Naukadubi. — It is of the same class as Eyesore.
Panchabhuta. — Personification.
526
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Prachin Sahitya. — Criticisms on Kalidasa and other
poets.
Prajapater Nirbhanda. — A drama.
Prakritir Pratiscdh. — A drama on nature's revenge.
The supremacy of love over know-
ledge is proved.
Praj'aschitta. — A dramatic version of " Ban-Thakuranir-
Hat" with the addition of exquisite
songs.
Raja-0-Rani.— A drama. A Raja neglects his kingdom.
The Rani's entreaties slowly bring
about a reformation in him.
Raja Praja. — Political Essays.
Rajarshi. — A novel, being a prose version of the play
"Bisarjan."
Sahitya. — Essays in Literature.
Samaj. — Social Essays.
Samalcchana.— Criticisms on General Literature.
Saritra Pooja.- — Lives of eminent men. The hfe of
Vidyasagar in it is admirable.
Samskrita Sopan. — An easy method of teaching Sans-
krit.
Shanti Niketan.— Sermons delivered at the Bolpur
Ashram.
Saradotsab.— A drama for the boys of the Ashram. It
deals with Sarat-Kal.
Sonar Tari.— Poems.
527
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[I owe this information to Mr. N. Lakshmanan of
Coimbatore, who got it from Mr. Narayan K. Dewal].
II. TAGORE'S WORKS IN ENGLISH.
1. Gitanjali.
2. The Gardener.
3. The Crescent Moon.
4. The King of the Dark Chamber,
5. Post Office.
6. Chitra.
7. Sadhana.
8. Translation of Kabir's Poems by Tagore and
Evelyn Underbill.
9. GUmpses of Bengal Life— Translated by Rajani
Ranjan Sen.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
10. A poem called " Baisakh."
{Modern Review^ July 1910)»
11. A poem called " Fruitless Cry "
{Modern Review^ May 1911).
12. " The Ocean."
{Modern Review^ February 1912).
13. " Three poems," translated by the poet himself^
{Modern Review^ September 1912).
14. Poems translated by the poet himself.
{Modern Review, November 1918).
15. " My Heart is on Fire " — A poem.
{Modern Review, January 1915>.
528
BIBLIOGRAPHY
16. " Santineketan : " A poem.
(Modern Review^ February 1915).
17. " Unity in Diversity : " A poem.
{Modern Review^ October 1915).
18. Various poems translated in the chapter on
Tagore in Dr. A. K. Coomaraswami's Art and Swadeshi^
(published by Messrs. Ganesh & Co.).
MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS ON LITERATURE AND ART.
19. Sakuntala : Its Inner Meaning.
{Modern Review, February 1914).
20. India's Epic.
■ {Modern Review, March 1912).
21. Kalidas : The Moralist.
{Modern Review^ October 1913).
22. The Stage.
{Modern Review, December 1913).
23. The Real and the Ideal.
(The Indian Review, March 1914).
MISCELLANEOUS NOVELS.
24. Raja and Rani.
{Modern Review, June 1911).
25. The Supreme Night.
{Modern Review, June 1912).
26. Eyesore.
{Modern Review, Jan. to Deer. 1914).
529
31
BIBLIOGRAPHY
27. Elder Sister.
{Modern Revieiv^ July 1910).
MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS ON INDIAN HISTORY, POLITICAL.
AND SOCIOLOGY.
28. The Future of India.
[Modern Review^ March 1911).
29. The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Power.
{Modern Revieiv^ April 1911).
30. The Impact of European India.
{Modern Review^ May 1911).
31. My Interpretation of Indian History.
{Modern Review^ August to September 1913).
32. Woman's Lot in East and West.
{Modern Review^ June 1912).
33. Tagore's letter to Mr. Myron H. Phelps on
Caste. [Modern Review^ February 1911).
ADDRESSES.
34. Address on Raja Ram Mohan Roy. (The Indian
Messenger, dated 10th October 1915).
MISCELLANEOUS.
35. Tagore's Introduction to " Songs from the Pun-
jab" by Ratan Devi.
36. Tagore's letter on Bengali Prosody.
37. Tagore's Introduction to Mrs. Biswas's, "The
Passing of Spring."
38. Tagore's Translation of " The Poems of Vidya-
pathi and Chandidas " (under preparation).
530
BIBLIOGRAPHY
39. Some Songs by Tagore are translated in
:Mr. Bipinchandrapal's The Neio Spirit.
40. The Relation of the Universe and the Individual.
{Modern Revieii\ July 1913).
(This is the same as chapter I o{ Tagore's Sadhana).
41. Tagore's letter to Mr. Frederick Rose about
spiritual education at Bolpur. \_New India^ dated 11th
January 1916].
42. Tagore's letter to J. D. Anderson, on Bengali
Prosody.
43. Tagore's Poem " Trumpet."
do " Peace Hymn."
do on " Tryst and the Brahmin."
do on " Indian Unity."
do on " Ahalya " [Modern Revieiv^
January 1916].
48. Tagore's appreciation of Sister Nivedita, prefixed
to her Studies from an Eastern Home.
49. Tagore's Lecture giving reminiscences of his
early life. [Indian Patriot^ December 1915].
50. Tagore's Address on "The Vehicle of Teaching,"
containing his views as to education through the me-
dium of vernaculars. [New India, dated 11th February
1916].
51. Tagore's Address on the occasion of Ram Mohan-
roy's Anniversary in 1915.
52. Tagore's Address on Ananda Mohan Bose in
1915.
531 «
44.
Do
45.
Do
46.
Do
47.
Do
BIBLIOGRAPHY
53. Tagore's Essay on the Philosophy of Indian
History.
54. Tagore's ''My Reminiscences" [Translated in
the Modem Review^ from January 1916].
55. Tagore's article on " The Appeal of Christ to
India," in The Quest for January 1916],
56. Tagore's Translations of Two Poems by Deven-
dranath Sen [Published in The Modern Revieiv for
March 1916.
57. Tagore's Article on " Indian Students and Western
Professors" in the Modern Review, April 1916].
III. BOOKS AND ARTICLES ON TAGORE.
1. Mr. Rhys' Rabindra Nath Tagore: A Biography.
(Published by Messrs. Macmillan & Co., 5 s. net).
2. R. C. Dutt's " Literature of Bengal. "
3. My Monograph on Tagore.
(Biographies of Eminent Indians Series, pub-
lished by Messrs. Natesan & Co., Madras,
As. 4).
4. Mr. J. D. Anderson's Article on the metre of
Tagore's Gitanjali. (The New Reformer^ October 1914).
5. The Chapter on " Poems of Rabindra Nath
Tagore" in Dr. A. K. Coomaraswami's Art and Sivadesi^.
(published by Messrs. Ganesh & Co., Madras).
6. The chapter dealing with Tagore in Vol. Ill "of
Indian Nation-Builders Series, (published by Messrs.
Ganesh & Co.)
• 532
BIBLIOGRAPHY
7. The article by the Rev. C. F. Andretvs on
Tagore. {Modern Review for July 1913).
8. The Rev. Mr. C. F. Andrews' The Renaissance
in India.
9. The Rev. Mr. C. F. Andrews' An Evening with
Rabindra. {Modern Revieiv^ August 1912).
10. Lord Hardinge's Presidential Remarks on the
occasion of the lecture on Tagore by the Rev. C. F.
Andrews, (pages 34-35 of the Modern Review for July
1913).
1 1. The Rev. C. F. Andrews' Poem On Reading the
Gitanjali^ (published in the Modern Review and in his
collected poems).
12. The Rev. Mr. C. F. Andrews' Poem on Tagore,
{Modern Review^ March 1912).
13. Mr. J. Ramsay Macdonald's Article to the Daily
Chronicle about the school at Bolpur.
14. Article on The Gitanjali by the Rev. P. B.
Emmet in The Indian Review for May 1913.
15. Article on The Nobel Prize for Rabindranath in
The Indian Review for December 1913.
16. Article on Rabindranath' s Conception of Woman-
hood by Mr. Chunilal Mukherji. {The Indian Reviewy
July 1913).
1 7. Article on Modern Bengali Fiction by Mr. K. C.
Chatterji. {The Indian Review, July 1914).
533
BIBLIOGRAPHY
18. "A Review of Tagore's Gora by Satya V. Mukerjea.
{Modern Revieiv^ August 1912).
19. Mrs. Norah Richards' article on European Influ-
ence on the Indian Stage. [Modern Review^ January
1914).
20. Article on " Patriotic Songs of Bengal " by
Hemendra Prasad Ghose in the Indian Review for
September 1907.
21. The chapter on " Sadhana" in Pandit Sita Nath
Tattwabhushan's History of Brahmoism.
22. John Alden Carpenter's Book of Songs setting
to music selections from Gitanjali^ (pubhshed by Mr.
G. Schirmer).
23. Four Songs from Gitanjali set to music by
Professor Landon Ronald. (Messrs. Macmillan & Co.).
24. The portion in the Bengal Administration
Report for deahng with Tagore as a landlord.
25. Mr. Ajitkumar Cbakravarthi's article on "Shanti-
niketan." {Modern Revieiv^ 1914).
26. Mr. Seshadri's Articles in The Hindu for 1914-1915
on The Crescent Moon^ The King of the Dark Chamber^ and.
The Post Office.
27. My Articles on Tagore
(1) Rabindranath Tagore : An Appreciation :
The Hindu ^ dated 1st November 1913.
(2) The Spiritual Beauty of Tagore's
The King of the Dark Chamber.
{Vedanta Kesari, November 1914).
534
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(3) Tagore's The Post Office.
{Vedanta Kesari^ November 1915).
(4) Tagore's Chitra : A Study and an Apprecia-
tion.
{The Madras Fortnightly, March 1915).
(5) Tagore's The Crescent Moon.
(The Modern World, March 1915).
(6) Tagore's Translation of Kabir's poems.
{The Literary Journal, August 1915).
(7) Kabir and Tagore. ,
{The Madras Fortnightly, August 1915).
(8) Tagore's Sadhana : [Vedanta Kasari, January
1916.]
(9) Tagore's Gitanjali : \_Vedanta Kesari, March
1916.]
28. J. C. Rollo's Chitra: [^Indian Reviwe for 1914,
pages 609, 610].
29. Professor T. Hirose of Keio University, Tokio
on Tagore. [Journal of the Indo-Japanese Association
for August 1915, quoted in the Modern Review, January
1916J,
30. Tagore's Limitations. [From the Vernacular
paper Hindustan quoted in the Indian Review, Novem-
ber 1915, page 977].
31. Sir Narayan Chandavarkar's Lectures on Tagore
in 1915.
535
BIBLIOGRAPHY
32. A letter by " An Educational Pilgrim" to the
Leader: [Quoted at pages 157 to 160 of the Dharma
Prachar, Mysore].
33. Mr. Basanta Koomar Roy's article on Rabindra
nath Tagore in the Open Court, July 1913.
536
INDEX.
Andrews, C. F. on Tagore.
34. 43, 46
Andrews, C. F. Poem on
Shantineketan ... ... 60-1
Architecture, Indian ... 79
Art, Indian : Ideals of. 77-78
Beaconsfield on Race ... 27
Beauty and Love ... 26ti-267
Bengali Renaissance ... 32
Bhagavatha Natha Move-
ment ... ... 376-378
Bhakti Movement in India. 10-14
Bhanu Sinha ... ... 41
Bibliography ... 521-536
Bolpur ... 59-74
Chaitanya ... 14-16
Chamberlain, H. S., on Race. 27
Chandidas ... U, 12
Childhood, Appeal of. 244-246
Chitra ... ... 266-285
Civilisation, types of. 401-2
Civilisation of India, Speciality
of ... ... ... 403
Coomaraswami, Dr. A. K. on
Indian Art ... ... 29
Crescent Moon ... 244-265
Crescent Moon — Child is God
Incarnate ... ... 247
Crescent Moon — Child's
Beauty ... ... 250-12
Crescent Moon — Child's Spor-
tiveness ... ... 254-5
Crescent Moon — Child's Mind.
256-259
Crescent Moon— Child's Love
of Beauty ... 255-6
Crescent Moon — Child's
Heart ... ... 259-260
■Crescent Moon— Child's Soul 260
Crescent Moon — Child's
Appeal ... ... 261-4
Crescent Moon — Our Gift to
the Child ... 264-5
Dancing, Indian ... ... 80
Death and After ... 325-328
Education in Ancient India 62-3
England's Place in Indian
Renaissance ... 21-22
England and India, Mutual
Gifts ... ... .. 22
Fiction, Tagore's ... 375-397
Gardener ... ... 205-243
Gardener— Symbolism. 207-212
Gardener — Love Poems. 213-236
Gitanjali ... ... 16-5-204
Gitanjali— Ideal of Poesy ... 172
Gitanjali— Prayerfulness. 177-9
Gitanjali— Desire for God
Vision ... ... 181-2
Gitanjali — Certainty of God's
Grace ... ... ... 184
Gitanjali — God Love and God
Vision — How attained. 187-194
Havell on Indian Art ... 29
Hindu Race, Unity of, ... 26
Ideals of Indian Art. 77-78
Image W^orship, Significance
of ... ... 77
Indian Art, Idealistic and
Religious ... ... 29
Indian Unity ... 24-26
Kahir, Translation of. 356-374
Katha Movement ... 376-378
of the Dark Chamber.
286-324
Life, Indian View of ... 81
Love, Indian Ideal of ... 82
Love Poetry in India. 267-270
Macdonald, J. R. on Tagore's
School ... ... 71-74,
Maharshi Devendranath
Tagore ... ... ... 2
King
11
INDEX.
Maharshi Devendranath, His ]
Great Traits. ... 4, 5, C, 7 ;
Mira Bai ... ... ... 12
Miscellaneous Writings of
Tagore ... ... 428 et seq.
Miscellaneous Songs of
Tagore ... ... 430-6
Miscellaneous Poems of
Tagore ... ... 437-459
Miscellaneous Dramas. 459-469
Miscellaneous Novels. 469-472
Miscellaneous Essays of
Tagore on Art and Litera-
ture ... ,,. 472 et seq.
Montagu on Tagore's Univer-
sal Popularity ... ... 1
Music, European and Indian.
430-431
Music, Indian ... ... 79
Mystery and Science. 405-6
Mysticism ... ... 127-137
Nalanda University... ...63-4
Nationhood in India „.. 24-6
Nationalism in Literature ... 28
Nivedita on Indian Unity ... 24
Nivedita on the Mission of
Indian Art ... ... 30
Poem on Tagore ... 516-520
Poetry, Relation of, to Spiritu-
ality in India ... 9-10
Post Office ... 325-356
Race, Meaning of ... ... 27
Radhakumud Mookerji on
Indian Unity ... ... 24
Ratcliffe, S. K. on Tagore's
School ... ... ... 67
Religious Education, News of
Tagore on ... 611-4
Renaissance, The Indian. 19-35
Renaiscence of Wonder in
India ... ... 92
Rhys, Ernest, on Bengali
Language ... ... 33
Rhys, Ernest, on Indian Gurus 65
Rhys, Ernest, on Tagore :
Crismsitic ... ... 13
Sadhana ... ... 398-42r
Shantiniketan ... 59-74-
Shantinikftan School Hours. 67-68
Social Service ».. .'.68
Sufism ... ... 17-18-
Tagore, Sir Rabindranath ... 2
„ as a Letterwriter. 510-4
„ as a Public Speaker 508-10
,, Award of Nobel Prize.
47-48
„ Chinna Patra ... 37
„ Conception of Art, 83-88
„ Conception of Woman-
hood ... 147-156
„ Development of His
Art ... 111-112
,, Devotional Songs. 109-110
„ Fiction ... 375-397
,, Great Message to
India ... 159-164
,, His Educational Ideals. 66
„ His Love of Nature. 36-37
„ His Personality. 49-59
„ His Place in Indian
Renaissance. 33-35
„ HisSyntheticMysticim. 1
„ Indian Music ... 87
,, Individualism, Ideal-
ism, and Roman-
ticism ... ... 90
,, Influence of Brahmo
Samaj on Him .. 19
,, Insight into Indian
Ideals ... 74-83.
,, Jivan Smrithi ... 37
„ Life ... 35-49-
,, Limitations... ... lU
„ Love Poetry. 105-106
,, Lyrical Genius. 106-108
,, Message to Man ... 161
,, Miscellaneous Writ-
ings ... 428 et seq,
„ Miscellaneous Songs.
430-43fr
„ Miscellaneous Poems.
437-469'
INDEX.
in
Tagore, Miscellaneous Dramas.
459-469
,, Miscellaneous Novels.
469-472
„ Miscellaneous Essays
on Art and Litera-
ture ... 472 et seq.
„ Mysticism ... 127-146
„ National Character of
His Art ... 93
„ Nature Poetry. 101-104
„ Novels ... 110
,, on Religious Educa-
tion ... 511-4
Poet of the People ... 98
„ Pravat Sangit ... 41
„ Religious Ideas. 141-146
„ Renascence of Wonder. 92
„ Sadhana ... 398-427
„ Sandhya Sangit ... 41
„ Shantiniketan. 59-74
„ Simplicity and Spon-
taneity ... ... 96
„ Social Gospel. 155-158
„ Stvle ... 112-126
Tagore, The Geniusof Valmiki. 42
„ Translation of Kabir.
35Q-374
„ Universal Appeal ... 97
„ Varsha Shesha ... 43
„ Views on Historical,
Political, and Socio-
logical Matters. 486-508
,, Views on the Dramatic
Art
,, Voicing of the East ...
,, What he owes to his
Father
„ What he owes to the
Vaishnava Poets and
Mystics ...
,, What he owes
Sufism
Underhill, Miss Evelyn
Tagore ...
Vernaculars
Vernaculars, Place of.
Vidyapathi
85
88
11-16
to
17-18
on
... 1
30-32
113-4
... 11
Vincent
Unity
Smith on Indian
26
TABLE OF ERRATA.
Page
Line
For
Read
22
26
East
West.
33
23
development
development.
36
16
lovely
lonely
36
17
lovely
lonely
40
26
javan
jivan.
44
26
know
knew
45
8
Naivedya Sishu
Navvedya, Siahir*
47
23
stated.
stated :
50
19
soared
soured
58
28
it
them
54
27
Banjuya
Bangiya
66
8
Yeat's
Yeats'
56
13
care
cares
56
14
pleasure
pleasures
60
3
Heramalahi
Her Amalaki
64
23
W
^
76
8
^ gii^
«^urr
90
11
spirits
spirit
90
28
in service
in the service
93
1
Hence utter
On hence utter
98
11
soul
soul,
98
16
)
1
98
18
omit
100
18
any by
by any
101
8
potriotism
patriotism
101
24
every
many
102
10
above said
abovesaid
TABLE OF ERRATA.
Page
Line
For
Read
106
18
letter,
letter
116
23
consonants,
consonants
117
28
per feet
perfect
120
26
word,
word
124
25
margins
margins,
136
9
thousand
a thousand
151
5
goal.
goal,
165
28
beauty
beauty,
169
8
who
save
171
26
beautiful.
beautiful
171
28
genins
genius
176
14
fervour of the
the fervour of
179
17
ancient India
ancient India,
180
6
need for love
need for the love
193
21
above said
abovesaid
200
9
shrink not to
shrink to
^36
24
, soars
, and soars
240
19
opposite
apposite
245
1
child
child ;
270
7
selflesness
selflessness
276
14
and
omit
288
25
upon
upon the
289
22
grandmother
grandfather
309
17
the twhole
the whole
315
10
benign aspect)
benign) aspect
368
10
still player
still the player
381
20
1
omit
381
20
loves
loves ;
394
5
harem f
harem of
394
19
cross
crossed.
21
^T«T^ 51
^
421
'4|IH«'<^«i
432
14
hoar
hear
TABLE OF ERRATA.
Page
Line
For
Read
443
28
Doctrine
doctrine
462
4
<^:(Wu4^:
i^AV^:
469
9
^W^:
^R^-
484
11
that
which
484
12
and seeks
and which seeks
524
17
1915
1916
524
22
referred
referred,
526
6
well-beloved
well-belove'd
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