Rabindranath Tagore
“The live-long day has passed in spreading
his seat on the floor;
But the lamp has not been lit and
I cannot call him into my house.
I live in the hope of meeting with him;
But this meeting is not yet.”
- Gitanjali Poem no. 13
“...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 Poem no. 7
Giant of poetry!
My mother was his admirer; his book of poems Gitanjali, also known as “Song Offerings”, was so often lying down, on a living room sofa;
I was young when I opened it and start reading it. This discovery was one of the most beautiful in my life. A fresh world of devotion, smartness, beauty, honor and strength opened up in front of me.
It made me realised that power of words surpasses all others.
In one salutation to Thee
by
Rabindranath Tagore
(1910)
In one salutation to thee, my God,
let all my senses spread out and touch this world at thy feet.
Like a rain-cloud of July
hung low with its burden of unshed showers
let all my mind bend down at thy door in one salutation to thee.
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.
Like a flock of homesick cranes flying night and day
back to their mountain nests
let all my life take its voyage to its eternal home
in one salutation to Thee.
Mind Without Fear
by
Rabindranath Tagore
(1913)
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where 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.
Face To Face
by
Rabindranath Tagore
Day after day, O lord of my life,
shall I stand before thee face to face.
With folded hands, O lord of all worlds,
shall I stand before thee face to face.
Under thy great sky in solitude and silence,
with humble heart shall I stand before thee face to face.
In this laborious world of thine, tumultuous with toil
and with struggle, among hurrying crowds
shall I stand before thee face to face.
And when my work shall be done in this world,
O King of kings, alone and speechless
shall I stand before thee face to face.