CHAPTER VIII

TAGORE: A MYSTIC

8. Tagore: a Mystic

The works of Tagore, My Reminiscences (1917), The Religion of An Artist and The

Religion of Man (1931) vouches for the mystic concerns of Rabindranath Tagore. As

these works embody an autobiographical flavour, they profusely involve in the

personal mystic experience of the author. In The Religion of Man Tagore writes, “It

(mystical ecstasy) has followed the current of my temperament from early days until it

suddenly flashed into my consciousness with a direct vision.368 For Tagore this direct

vision has been the core of his understanding of nature and man. Thus in The Religion

of An Artist he writes, “All that I feel about it (religion) is conditioned through vision

and not from knowledge. I am sure there have come moments when my soul has

touched the infinite and become intensely conscious of it through the illumination of

joy.”369 Tagore acquainted himself with mystic ecstasies at a strategic period of his

adolescence. His father also had such experiences when he was eighteen. About this

Maharshi writes, “…a strange sense of the Unreality of all things suddenly entered my

mind. I was as if no longer the same man…in my mind was awakened a joy unfelt

before. I was then eighteen years old.”370 For Rabindranath too the sudden and

spontaneous mystic vision authentically started at the age of eighteen. He writes,

“When I was eighteen a sudden spring breeze of religious experience for the first time

368 TAGORE, R. The Religion of Man , London, Unwin Books (1975), p.11 369 TAGORE, R. The Religion of An Artist, Calcutta, Viswa Bharati (1963) p.17-18. 370 SATYENDRANATH TAGORE AND INDRA DEVI, trans., The Autobiography of Maharshi

Devendranath Tagore, London, Macmillan (1914), p.38.

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came to my life. I suddenly felt as if some ancient mist had in a moment been lifted

from my sight.”371 The reference here is to his early morning vision at Jorasanko.372

Another mystic vision Tagore encountered was on a day after his morning work at

home. He stood for a moment at his window watching the market place on the bank of

a dry river bed accepting the first flood of rain along with its channel. Suddenly he

became conscious of a “stirring of soul”. He felt that he was like a man parading

through a fog without any destination and finally found himself standing before his

own house. It was his “Nirjharer Swapnbanga” meaning “The Awakening of the

Waterfall” – A poem he wrote at the very first day of the vision.

Tagore’s two earlier poems, Prabhat Sangit (ET. Morning Songs) and Pratidhwani

(ET. Echo) reveal his immediate response to certain mystic illuminations. Tagore

refers to the psychological implications of these poems thus, “I had so long viewed the

world with external vision only…when of a sudden, from an innermost depth of my

being, a ray of light found its way out, it spread over and illumined for me the whole

universe…This experience seemed to me of the stream of melody issuing from the

very heart of the universe, spreading over space and time, re-echoing thence as waves

of joy which flows right back to the source.”373 It was this dawn of a vision which

revolutionized his view of man, nature and God. All the visions Tagore had, were

sudden, spontaneous and transitory. But the insight and illumination continued to play

a spiritualizing role in his life and views. The vision faded out leaving in his “memory

371 The Religion of Man p.58 372 ibid. 373 My Reminiscences, p.178.

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a direct message of spiritual reality.”374 This mystic reality made a permanent

impression on him and continued to flourish and blossom in his subsequent encounters

with nature and life. Gitanjali is thus drops of divine vision enchanted in music and

words. Love for the divine Master, Love for man and nature, strength in sorrow and

humility in joy, an innocent wonder inspiring and initiating endless vision, inherently

enabled Tagore to see every minute aspect of life with a third eye. The closing stanza

of poem no.61 is a glaring and galvanizing example,

“The sweet, soft freshness that blooms on baby’s limbs-

Does anybody know where it was hidden so long?

Yes, when the mother was a young girl it lay pervading

Her heart in tender and silent mystery of love –

The sweet, soft freshness that has bloomed on baby’s limbs.”

8.1 The Poet-Mystic

Rabindranath was a mystic par excellence. In fact even from his very childhood, he

was inclined to higher and ecstatic communion. As mentioned above, it was at the age

of eighteen Tagore underwent his first mystical experience. He could commune with

different phases of nature and its beauty. He recalls the first instance thus in his My

Reminiscences375. “I could see at once that it was the effect of the evening which had

come within me; its shades had obliterated myself while the self was rampant during

374 The Religion of Man, p.58 375 TAGORE. R, My Reminiscences, London : Macmillan Co. (1971), p. 216

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the glare of the day, everything I perceived was mingled with and hidden by it. Now

the self was put in the background. I could see the world in its own true aspect. And

that aspect has nothing of triviality in it, it is full of beauty and joy.” This bliss is a

mode of nature mysticism but for Tagore this leads him to a unique God-experience.

He sees ‘One undivided changeless life in all lives, one inseparable in the

separable’.376 Tagore’s mysticism is an outcome of his firm faith in the natural

principles of unity, rhythm and harmony. Renunciation of the world for him was not a

separation from this material maya. There is reality in bliss that there, the Human and

Divine are united.

One essential feature of Tagore which makes him unique among the class-mystics is

that he was never an ascetic. For him ‘the ascetic denial of this world is due to an

imperfect realization of truth’.377 He writes in ‘Gardener’, “No my friends, I shall

never be an ascetic, whatever you say” (no. XLIII). The play Sanyasi is an explicit

vindication of his aversion to asceticism. In Gitanjali he writes:

“Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel 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.

376 Cfr. TAGORE.R, The Religion of Man, London. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (1953), p.30. 377 BHUPENDRA NATH, R. Tagore, His Mystico Religious Philosophy, Delhi : Crown Publication

(1985) p. 154.

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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 (Poem no. 73)

Tagore does not overlook the delights of the external world nor does he neglect the

truth and bliss of the inner being. This beautiful harmony and its rhythm is the

mystical experience of Tagore. Man is the bridge between two worlds:

“At one pole of my being I am one with stocks and stones … but at

the other pole of my being I am separate from all.”378

Again in Gitanjali he writes:

“Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches

when I try to break them ...

The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and

death; I hate it, yet hug it in love.”

(Poem no. 28)

The dichotomy between the body and the spirit as envisaged by St.Paul is evident in

this. Paul says, “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I

hate.”(Rom.7:15)

378 TAGORE.R, Sadhana: The Realization of Life, Macmillan(1979) p. 69

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S. Radhakrishnan commends on the above passage as an affirmation of the reality of

an Eternal behind the world. Rabindranath describes God as ‘Sivam, Santam,

Advaitam’ perfection, peace and non-duality’.379 “There is some force in me which

continually works towards that end, but is not mine alone, it permeates the universe.

When this universal force is manifested within an individual, it is beyond his control

and acts according to its own nature; and in surrendering our lives to its power is the

greatest joy.”380 The mystic experience is so intimate that he even forsakes everything

around. In his ‘Letters to A Friend’, letter dated December 18, 1914, he writes, “It

may seem to be egoistic. But this ‘life–impulse’, I speak of, belongs to a personality

which is beyond my ego … I must be true to it, even at the cost of what men call

happiness, at the risk of being misunderstood, forsaken and hated”.381 The reason for

this ecstasy is that ‘The Divine is incarnate in all existence that we are able to reach

truth and attain purity’382. The poet had deep faith in the power and purifying process

of silence and meditation. Tagore was a mystic in the world. In Gitanjali he asks,

“Deliverance? 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’. (Poem

no.11)

Rabindranath stood for the fullness of life, the growth of the different aspects of life.

For him ‘Moksha’ is not renunciation of the world. It is the proportioned development

of body, mind and spirit. Asceticism is a frame of mind, a spirit of detachment. For

379 RADHAKRISHNAN,S. ‘Most Dear to All the Muses’, ed. Sahitya Akademi – A Centenary Volume,

Rabindranath Tagore , p. XIX. 380 TAGORE.R, Glimpses of Bengal, letter dated August 13, (1894). 381 TAGORE.R. Letters to A Friend, London: Allen & Unwin (1928) 382 RADHAKRISHNAN,S, ‘Most Dear to All the Muses’ ed. Sahitya Akademi – A Centenary Volume,

`Rabindranath Tagore , p. XX.

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the man of detachment his home is a hermitage. To be a hermit, it is not essential to

abandon home. To be one with God, for him, is to be one with the universe because

Tagore upholds the immanence of God in everything. Tagore follows the Upanishadic

conception of Brahman i.e. Satyam, Jnanam, Anandam (Truth, Knowledge, Bliss).

He sees the Supreme Being in everything around him. “The first stage of any

realization was through my feeling of intimacy with nature”.383 The ‘Dvaita’ –

‘Advaita’ parallelism of Upanishad does not find serious concern in Tagore’s

mystical economy. For him there is equal importance to humanity, world, and God.

“As I look around the world

A memory comes to life

I seem to find in everything

The union of you and me in limitless form.”384

We are enjoined to see whatever there is in the world as being enveloped by God.

“I bow to God over and over again,

who is in fire and water,

who permeates the whole world,

who is in the eternal,

as well as in the perennial trees385.”

This aspect of the immanence reaches a position of zenith when he says,

“I realize today in the midst of all,

It is you,

383 RADHAKRISHNAN,S.‘Most Dear to All the Muses’ ed. Sahitya Akademi – A Centenary Volume,

Rabindranath Tagore , p.XX. 384 Cfr. TAGORE,R, Sadhana, London : Macmillan & Co., (1966), p.15 385 Cfr. TAGORE, R, My Reminiscences , p.8

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I have loved always,

Along with the crowd through all ages,

Only you and I have been present.”386

Tagore was very much influenced by the Christian Anthropology. But while

identifying himself with Christian ideals and theism he remained distinct in his

Upanishadic garment. Tagore says, “Nobody has exalted man more in every sphere

than Jesus. The divinity of man is stressed by Jesus as by Vaishnava Saints.”387 It

may also be noted here that great poets like W.B. Yeats388 and Ezra Pound389 find

glaring equations in thought and expression between the Book of Psalms and

Gitanjali, and they compare the Poet with the Christian Mystics John of the Cross390

and Francis of Assisi391

8.2 The Influence of The Bible on Tagore

A comparison of Tagore with an ancient Christian author and mystic becomes possible

and real due to an influence, Tagore had from Christianity, to be precise from the

Bible. In fact the contact with the west in the nineteenth century opened up Bengal to a

new world of ideas. And these new ideas challenged many traditional Hindu customs

of the time. The relationship of Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya, with Tagore, for

386 TAGORE R , A Tagore Testament, Bangalore : Jaico Publishing House, (1980) p.8. 387 TAGORE R, The Religion of Man, London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (1953), p. 52. 388 WILLIAM BUTLER YEARS (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and dramatist

and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature .And it was Yeats who wrote an Introduction to Gitanjali when it was translated into English by Tagore in 1912.

389 EZRA POUND – Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement.

390 St. John of the Cross (24 June 1542 – 14 December 1591) was a major figure of the Counter – Reformation of the Carmelite Order, a Spanish Mystic, a Catholic Saint, Carmelite friar and priest. 391 St. Francis of Assisi (1181/1182 October 3, 1226 )was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher.

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example, mutually benefited them to inculcate the Christian vision and Hindu

ideologies. To point out a few instances, we have the words of Upadhyaya regarding

Tagore’s collection of poems Naivedya392 “The keynote of the sonnets is the direct,

personal relation with the Infinite. There are some who argue that as the Infinite is not

easily approachable, the finite should be worshipped tentatively as the Infinite, by the

less spiritually advanced. Is the Infinite really unapproachable?. If it had been so,

reason would be an anomaly. The perception of the Infinite is the dawn of Reason.393”

Their friendship, mutual influence and their joint collaboration on Santhiniketan etc.

contributed much to their understanding of the divine. In fact, Tagore models several

of the heroes of his novels after Upadhyaya and explicitly pays tribute to Upadhyaya

in the Preface to Char Adyay.394 In the Preface he writes, “Upadhyaya was a sanyasi

(sage), Roman Catholic yet Vedantist. He was powerful, fearless, detached; he wielded

great influence on those who came near him; he had a deep intelligence and an

extraordinary hold on spiritual matters.”395

Thus, through a few enlightened Christians inland and abroad, Tagore was directed to

the depth of Biblical spirituality. In order to authenticate the personal mysticism of

Tagore we refer to a few instances where Tagore was genuinely inspired by the

Bible. A strict following of the Bible by Tagore is out of question. But, closer

similarity is visible between the Psalms and Wisdom Literature to the lyrics of

Gitanjali. Both speak much of the union between the divine and the human. The

392 The year of writing of this collection is 1901 393 B. ANIMANANDA, The Blade, 101; Boyd , Indian Christian Theology, p.71 394 Novel 1934 395 ASHISH NANDY, The Illegetimacy of nationalism, Delhi; Oxford University Press, 1994, 1996

:21, 67, The Blade. 180

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mystical experiences and the expressions in both are also similar. Keeping in mind

each ones distinctness we may explore into a few references. The attitude of the poet

while comparing himself to a flute and the Divine as the Singer, the littleness before

the Supreme, the overpowering of grace into the frail vessel, echo the concern of the

Divine for man expressed in Psalm as, “what is man that thou art mindful of him”

(Psalm 8:3). Similarly the “God of Silence” in Psalm 109 is found in many lyrics

where the poet anxiously searches in silence for the Divine.

The use of New Testament images in Gitanjali is conspicuous. Christ condemns the

pharisaic worship and Tagore too questions the externals of worship in Poem no.11,

while asking to leave the chanting and singing and telling of beads. The unexpected

arrival of God, and Jesus warning to be watchful, the parable of the ten virgins

(Matthew 25: 1-13) etc. are together alluded in Poem no. 51. “… The king has come

but where are lights, where are the wreaths? ...” Jesus’ remark “I have come not to

establish peace but the sword,” is echoed in Tagore’s phrases like, ‘flashing as a

flame,’ ‘heavy as a blot of thunder,’ “that the beloved found as gift from his lover”.

Another field of application of Tagore’s vision from the Bible would be his constant

references to death and a free loving submission to the divine will.

8.3 Mysticism in Gitanjali

In order to discuss mysticism in Gitanjali, we need to examine the broad division of

mysticism as religious mysticism and nature mysticism. A religious mystic can be a

nature mystic as well, as in the case of Rabindranath Tagore. “Nature mysticism

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includes mysticism of joy, aesthetic mysticism, and poetic mysticism. These are

found in abundance in Gitanjali.”396 W.B. Yeats writes of his deep appreciation of

Tagore as a poojari397 of nature “Every morning at three, I know for I have seen it,”

one said to me, “he sits immovable in contemplation, and for two hours does not

awake from his reverie upon the nature of God”398. A true nature mystic always takes

pleasure in such contemplation. Wordsworth399, in his “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”

defines poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, it takes its origin in

emotion recollected in tranquility.”400 Gitanjali is not a mere drop of a tear or a tune of

deep grief. It is the overflow of emotions purified and sacramentalised in tranquility

and divinity. Like the Job of the Old Testament401, Tagore was faced with a series of

bereavements in the form of death and sickness of dear ones and as a result, “an

otherworldly love and devotion began to flow through his poems”402. The Lyrics of

Gitanjali are the result of the drops of blood that oozes out from this agonized heart.

396 VATTAKALAM JOSEPH ‘Mysticism in Tagore’s Gitanjali, Carmel International Publishing

House, Trivandrum (1999 ), p.28. 397 Worshipper (priest) 398 TAGORE. R.,Gitanjali, with an Introduction by W.B. Yeats, Scribner Poetry Edition (1997)

p.8.(All references to Gitanjali in this thesis are to this edition only). 399 William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet who with

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English Literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads.

400 WORDSWORTH, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, A.J. Enright and Ernest De Chitra (eds) English Critical Texts, Delhi : Oxford University Press (1962) p. 180.

401 The Book of Job, along with Ecclesiastes is part of the dissenting or speculative group of wisdom literature within the Old Testament of the Bible. It tells of the trial of Job, the son of Uz, a Jew, who was the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. It tells of his trials at the hands of God, the nature of his suffering, his challenge to God and finally a response from God.

402 Cfr.KRIPALINI KRISHNA, Tagore, Dr. K M George (trans) Calicut : The Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd., (1974) p.162.

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In Gitanjali, Tagore forces upon us a God-concept which is both immanent and

transcendent. Since he is immanent, man should keep his body, heart and mind pure,

as the Temple of God.

“Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing

that thy living touch is upon all my limbs.

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 hast 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 which gives me strength to act.” (Gitanjali Poem no. 4)

Once the person is purified, there is nothing untouchable in the great body of God i.e.

the world of men. Thus our love should go to every creature, the naked and the

hungry, the sick and the stranger. This is why Tagore vehemently opposes the view of

renunciation of the world. God is transcendent as he is the creator and author and the

guiding principle of the Universe. Hence he brings in the finiteness of man, the

infiniteness of God.

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“I am like a remnant of a cloud of autumn uselessly

roaming in the sky, O my sun ever – glorious! Thy touch

has not melted my vapour, making me one with thy light,

and thus, I count months and years separated from thee.”

(Gitanjali Poem no. 80)

“Gitanjali is verily a recording of the vicissitudes of the drama of human soul in its

progress from the finite to the infinite. And this progress is necessarily conceived as a

battle, as a journey and as a continuing sacrifice culminating in a total offering of all

(atma samarpana) so that by losing, one may gain all”.403 In this journey, God appears

to the mystic poet, as an eternal singer, friend and Lord,404 a solitary way farer,405 as a

lover,406 or as a king407.

8.4 Gitanjali : Mystical Imagery and Symbolism

Images and symbols are terms closely associated. Image extends our vision beyond

the visible whereas symbols are basically connotative in nature. In fact there are

different, even opposing views regarding images and symbols among literary

critics.408

Tagore seems to delight in a withdrawal from the compulsions and moral concerns of

life. In that sense mysticism in the poems of Gitanjali is “a mystical form of 403 IYANGAR .S.K.R, Rabindranath Tagore – A Critical Introduction, Delhi, Sterling Publishers Pvt.

Ltd., (1965)p.16. 404 Poem nos. III, XIX, II 405 ibid XIII, XIV, XVIII, XIII 406 ibid XXVII, XLI, LII 407 ibid L, LXXXII 408 Cfr. DAY LEWIS C., The Poetic Image, London: Jonathan Cape (1961), William York Tindall,

The Literary Symbol, New York : Columbia University Press, (1935).

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Aestheticism”. And it does not have much to do with the traditional or universal kind

of symbolism associated with mysticism of the sacred type such as Christian

Mysticism. “The imagery and symbolism the Gitanjali poems employ are mostly

individual and unique in appeal”.409 A few mystical images in Gitanjali are, flute of a

reed,410 “glad bird on its flight across the sea”,411 light, life-breath and strong current

of water,412 Life, Truth and Love symbolizing God,413 God as the Master Musician,414

The Lamp,415 the bride-bridegroom, an image specifically biblical,416 the way-farer,417

the King and the subject418, the sword of the king419.

According to Evelyn Underhill, the mystical poet’s success mainly depends on their

efforts at an indirect exploitation of suggestive imagery.420 Gitanjali explores this to

the fullest.

8.5 Gitanjali : “Nature Mysticism “

Nature plays an important and active role in the poems of Gitanjali. The frowning

forest421, the ink-black river422, the night with starry vigil423, the ever wakeful blue

409 VATTAKALAM JOSEPH, Mysticism in Tagore’s Gitanjali, Trivandrum Carmel International

Publishing Home, (1999), p.41. 410 Poem no. 1 411 ibid 11 412 ibid 111 413 ibid. IV 414 ibid VII 415 ibid. IX 416 ibid XVII cfr. Psalm 42:1-3 417 ibid XXII 418 ibid XL111, XLV1, XV111, XL1X, L, L1, LVI 419 ibid L11 420 Cfr. UNDERHILL EVELYN, The Essentials of Mysticism and Other Essays (1920,) New York:

AMS Press (1967), p. 70-72. 421 Poem no. XXIII 422 ibid

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sky,424 forest groves,425 shore-less ocean426, the cloud of grace427, lashes of lightning

startle the sky,428 midday bees strike up their lazy hum429 are a few drops from

Tagore’s nature’s downpour. Clouds, darkness, rain and thunder symbolize the

dangers and difficulties which lie in the path of the poet-mystic. Tagore experiences

God as all pervasive and immanent in nature. He is there in the perfume,430 in the

sunny April, the month of Spring, and in the form of rain and thundering clouds in the

dark month of July. In Poem no. 69, Tagore recognizes the universal soul of the

nature: “The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs

through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.” “Hidden in the heart of things

thou art nourishing seeds into sprouts, buds into blossoms and ripening flowers into

fruitfulness”.431 The multi-coloured beauty of nature has a great fascination and

admiration for Tagore. “I had a deep sense, almost from infancy, of the beauty of

nature”.432 In Sadhana Tagore writes “We could have no communication whatever

with our surroundings if they were absolutely foreign to us”.433 He also continues to

emphasize that there is a regular commerce between man and the things of the Nature,

showing that there is a rational connection between him and nature, for we never can

make anything our own except that which is truly related to us. The pantheistic

relationship with nature is clearer in Tagore as he writes in Creative Unity:

423 ibid XIX 424 ibid XXII 425 ibid XIX 426 ibid XXXXII 427 ibid XL 428 ibid 429 ibid LXXXIX 430 ibid XLIV 431 ibid LXXX1 432 TAGORE, The Religion of Man, London: Unwin Books, (1975), p.13 433 TAGORE, Sadhana, The Realisation of Life; Madras, Macmillan (1979), p.5

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“India has saturated with her love and worship of the great nature with which her

children are surrounded, Whose light fills their eyes with gladness and whose water

cleanses them, Whose food gives them life, And from whose majestic mystery comes

forth constant revelation of the infinite in music; Scent and colour bring its

awakening to the soul of man”.434

In The Religion of Man, he further clarifies: “The invisible screen of common place

was removed from all things, and all men” and the experience of ecstasy arises “from

the drifting trivialities of common place life”.435

God and Nature, as in vedantic terminology is purusha and prakriti, the two aspects of

the absolute nature leading to realization of God. Nature is an outer manifestation of

God. God has created this world with various beauties of nature and the best form of

worship and the process of realization of God is to enjoy the beauties of nature.

Tagore was a lover of nature and common life. He seems to be the first among saints

who has not refused to live. He uses nature to illustrate his ideas and in thinking

through the eye of nature. He has a positive view of the kinship of the spirit of nature.

According to Tagore, nature is the melody of God. Man is ultimately bound up with

nature. God, man and nature – all these entities have kinship. Tagore is the greatest

admirer of nature. In nature he finds the affection, inspiration and spiritual love. Man

434 TAGORE. R., Creative Unity, London, MacMillan,(1922). 435 TAGORE.R., The Religion of Man : London, Unwin Books, (1975), p.58, 59.

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and nature are inseparable. Tagore believed in the oneness of man and nature. For

this, he does not keep his own identity apart from nature, but mingles freely with it

and does not even mind losing his own identity in that of nature. Like man, nature is

also one of the myriad roles of his creation, the source of joy and his love for mankind

- the river, flower, sun, moon, stars, trees, leaves, all symbolize his love for mankind.

The token of love of God for man can be seen in Gitanjali Poem no.75.

“Thy gifts to us mortals fulfill all our needs and yet run back to thee

undiminished.

The river has its everyday work to do and hastens through fields and hamlets; yet

its incessant stream winds towards the washing of thy feet.

The flower sweetens the air with its perfume; yet its last service is to offer

itself to thee”436

The world thus gets so many benefits from nature, from God. Tagore feeds on this

immortal love, care, affection and human joy in the light which is shattered into gold

on every cloud that scatters gems in profusion, coming from this heavenly river which

drowns its banks with the flood of joy. “Light, my light, the world-filling light, the

eye-kissing light, heart-sweetening light!”437 This light that dances upon the leaves

and the mirth that engulfs the whole world in gladness without measure is nothing but

His Love.

436 Poem no. LXXV 437 ibid LVII

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Meditation on nature leads to realization of God. There are many similarities between

Tagore and Wordsworth. They feel that when we approach nature in a proper mood

and spirit, nature is bound to influence the human soul of man. Tagore says in his

many poems in Gitanjali, nature can be the guide and friend of mankind, while

Wordsworth believed in nature’s education only in theory.

Tagore is a practical idealist in his vision of nature. He believes in the immortal gifts

of nature to man, the essential oneness of God, man and nature. Tagore never looked

upon nature as hostile to man.438

Of course the Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita are the basic sources of inspiration for

Tagore in his nature mysticism. The ‘sacramental vision’ of nature draws Tagore

nearer to some Christian mystics as well. Nature occupies a very prominent place in

the Mysticism of St. Francis of Assisi. W.R. Inge writes in this regard, that he loves to

see all around him: “The pulsation of one life, which sleeps in the stones, dreams in

the plants and wakens in man”.439 The Bible clearly points out the perception of God

in the creation. “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely, his

eternal power and deity, have been clearly perceived in the things that have been

made.”440 Again in the Psalms, the Bible pronounces the veracity of nature’s

declaration of the glory of God. “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the

firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night

438 JYOTI YADAV, Aliya Shobi Khan – International Research Journal, October 2010, ISSN-0975-

3486 RNI : RAJBIL 2009/30097 Vol. 1, Issue 13 439 INGE W.R. Mysticism in Religion, London: Methuen (1947), p 302. 440 Romans 1:20

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declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard,

yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the

world.”441

8.6 Gitanjali : Mysticism of Joy

The poet attains supreme joy and ecstasy as he communes with nature. Gitanjali

imparts a mode of mysticism of joy. The poet experiences a rhythmic dance of joy in

nature and he sits in front of his door from dawn to dusk for the happy moment of the

divine manifestation.442 This joy is not in asceticism by renouncing the world and its

activities. Tagore considers the renunciation of the world the highest and meanest

show of ingratitude to the Divine Providence. And he wrote: “Deliverance is not for

me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight.”443

Hence, Tagore affirms “No, I will never shut the doors of my senses. The delights of

sight and hearing and touch will bear thy delight”,444 “all my illusions will burn into

illuminations of joy and all my desires ripen into fruits of love”.445 In Sadhana

published in 1913, one year after the publication of Gitanjali, he sums up the concept

of joy and nature by quoting a verse from the Upanishad. “From joy are born all

creatures, by joy they are sustained, towards joy they progress and into joy they

enter”.446 Life and death are both moments of joy as they reveal the direct intervention

of the Divine in the finite.

441 Psalms 19:1-4 442 Cfr. Poem no. XLIV 443 ibid LXXIII 444 Poem no. LXXIII 445 ibid 446 TAGORE R, Sadhana : The Realisation of Life, Madras : Macmillan, (1979), p.86

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“Let all the strains of joy mingle in my last song –

The joy that makes the earth flow over in the riotous

excess of the grass,

The joy that sets the twin brothers, life and death,

Dancing over the wide world,

The joy that sweeps in with the tempest,

Shaking and waking all life with laughter,

The joy that sits still with tears on the open

red lotus of pain, and

the joy that throws everything it has upon the dust

and knows not a word”.447

The poet takes along with him the members of his universal and natural fraternity to

the height of rejoicing and gladness. The sky opens, the wind runs riot and “laughter

passes over the earth,”448 The butterflies “spread their sails on the sea of light”,449 lilies

and jasmines surge upon the “crest of the waves of light”,450 shattered into gold and it

“scatters gems in profusion”. In fact, nature mysticism and the mysticism of joy are

intertwined in the lyrics of Gitanjali. For Tagore, joy is an end in itself. Joy is the

harmonization of loss and gain, bondage and liberation. In his lecture on “Realization

in Love” Tagore explains “everywhere it is in the earth’s green covering of grass; in

447 Poem no. LVIII 448 ibid LVII 449 ibid 450 ibid

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the blue serenity of the sky; in the reckless exuberance of spring; in the severe

abstinence of grey winter; in the living flesh that animates our bodily frame; in the

perfect poise of the human figure, noble and upright, in living; in the exercise of all

our powers; in the acquisition of knowledge; in fighting evils; in dying for gains we

never can share. Joy is there everywhere”.451

8.7 Gitanjali : Mysticism of Suffering

The attitude and approach of Tagore towards suffering is unique. “Send thy angry

storm, dark with death, if it is thy wish, and with lashes of lightning startle the sky

from end to end”.452 Yes, it is a welcome acceptance of suffering, for the poet is

certain that it is from the gracious and kind father. In Poem no.52, after a night of

bliss, the only divine gift left behind by the Lover is his sword, which symbolizes the

spiritual strength and courage, consequent on suffering. This divine sword appeals to

him even more than the appeasing nature of this world “But more beautiful to me thy

sword with its curve of lightning like the outspread wings of the divine bird of Vishnu,

perfectly poised in the angry red light of the sunset.”453 Tagore’s mystic experiences

of suffering are generated from his encounter with the crude realities of personal life.

In fact in Gitanjali, the wreath of flowers dedicated to the Divine, is a sublimation of

all the pains and sufferings, bereavements and sorrows, struggles and mortification,

the poet underwent in the first decade of the 20th century. In Poem no. 87, Tagore,

searches for his wife everywhere in the house and finally reaches the abode of the

Lord only to find by himself, the “lost sweet touch in the allness of the universe.”

451 TAGORE.R, Sadhana, p. 96-97 452 Poem no.XL 453 ibid LIII

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In the dualism of death and life, the poet finds a unique harmony. In Poem no. 95 of

Gitanjali, there is a striking and vivid comparison of Life and Death to the two breasts

of the Divine Mother “The child cries out when from right breast the mother takes it

away, in the very next moment to find in the left one its consolation.”454 Tagore

amplifies the point in The Religion of Man, “the flower has to die to give life to the

plant.” Yes, for Tagore death is not the ultimate reality but the portal to new life.

Inviting death he confesses “Day after day have I kept watch for thee, for thee have I

borne the joys and pangs of life”.455

The mystic poet finds the offering of sorrow as rewarding and precious. “This my

sorrow is absolutely mine own and when I bring it to thee as my offering, thou

rewardest me with thy grace”.456 In Sadhana Tagore writes “(pain) is the hard coin

which must be paid for everything valuable in this life, our power, our wisdom, our

love”.457 In fact through suffering, God brings back the poet to His Eternal Mercy.

“Misery knocks at thy door, and her message is that thy Lord is wakeful, and he calls

thee to the love – tryst through the darkness of night”.458 In Poem no.36, he even dares

to pray God that he may strike at the root of penury in his heart.

Tagore basically is a poet. And his attachment to the Divine is thus substantially

poetic and truthfully musical. Tagore writes in The Religion of Man: “Gladness is the

454 Poem no. XCV 455 ibid. XLI 456 ibid.LXXXIII 457 TAGORE R, Sadhana, p.53 458 Poem no. XXVII

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one criterion of truth, and we know (the truth) when we have touched Truth by the

music it gives, by the joy of greeting it sends forth to the truth in us”. In Gitanjali the

Divine Master, is depicted as the music in the flute made of reed. He confesses:

“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.”459

The poet mystic is truly transparent in his relation to the Divine. Ornaments and

decorations if any would hamper the sweetness of his mystic ecstasy. Tagore in

Gitanjali Poem no. 7 depicts this aspect of mysticism converting this to poetic

mysticism:

“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; 459 Poem no. I

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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.

Conclusion

There is a poetic tension between the ‘not-yet’ and ‘already’ in many poems of

Gitanjali. This agony of the quester is very much evident in Poem no. 13:

“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.”

For Tagore, poetry itself is a mystical experience because it always inspires the

beholder into innumerable heights. The substance of all his poems and versification is

the identification of God’s will in the daily nuances of nature’s life. The poems are the

rendering of thoughts, inspirations and intuitions of the poet. Its implications and

initiations vary from reader to reader. And this is the strength of true poetry. But, for

Tagore, the final meaning of each verse is neither of the poet nor of the beholder but

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of the Divine Master, because it is to him that everything is pointed. Thus he

concludes in Poem no. 75:

“From the words of the Poet men take

what meanings please them,

Yet their last meaning points to thee.”

This culmination of the poetic design is the result of the poet’s earnest thirst for the

Divine in his inner self. In Sadhana, he writes:

“Man’s highest revelation is God’s own

revelation in him…

Manifestation of his soul is the manifestation

of God in his soul”460

Thus the secret of Tagore’s poetic genius is hidden in his own words,

“Residing in the inner most me,

You snatch words from my lips.

With my words you utter your own speech,

mixing your own melody …

460 TAGORE .R, Sadhana,p. 40

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What I wish to say I seem to forget,

I only say what you want me to say.

In the stream of songs I lose sight of shores,

drifting into a far unknown …

Every puff of breath produces a note,

it is true, but that is not playing the flute.

The flute is played by one who has control

of all melodies and tunes;

outside those knowledge

nothing exists.”461

A prominent feeling that we enjoy in the study of Gitanjali is that Tagore makes no

effort to appeal to any deemed concepts to our intellect. Rather, he almost appeals to

and arrests our heart, to our inmost feelings of love and longing for the Creator as our

beloved who transcends this world of man and nature and yet remains immanent in it.

And hence the only desire the poet has in life is to do the will of the Master. Tagore

categorically declares this in his very first lyric of the Bengali volume of Gitanjali.

“May I never celebrate myself in my achievements. Let only thy will be fulfilled in

my life.”462 The observations of Helen C. White in this connection is true and the

author says, “It is not a strange hybrid of poet and mystic who writes a mystical poem.

It is not a man who writes first as a mystic and then as a poet. It is not even a mystic

who turns over to the poet who happens to dwell within the same brain and body for

461 DUTT, INDU. A Tagore Testament, Bombay : Jaico Publishing House, (1984), p.4- 5. 462 TAGORE, R, Gitanjali, tr. Krishna Krupalini, Rabindranath Tagore, A Biography, Culcutta,

Vishvabharathi, (1980), p. 216.

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the materials of his insight to be made into a work of art, by the competent crafts man.

It is rather that the same human being is at once poet and mystic, at one and the same

time, from the beginning of the process to the end.”463 Hence the visionary

imagination of a mystic poet cannot be lowered by saying that it is only a poetic

imagination. In fact in many cases poetry and mysticism are closely related and

intermingled and in such case it is incorrect to argue that there is a dichotomy between

the two.

The seventeenth century English literature witnessed many mystic poets. They are

generally known as Metaphysical poets, belonging to the school of Donne. They

distinguished themselves by writing lyrics that gave immense expression to their

religious experiences. As a matter of fact their poems reveal a sensibility akin to

mysticism. We witness an ‘I – Thou’ relationship in their poems. “Thou hast made me

endless, such is thy pleasure” (Poem no. I).The lyrics of Gitanjali thus rightly suggest

a sensitivity which is purely mystical, intimate and personal. Poem no. 5 is for

example most intimate and close to the Divine:

“I ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit by thy side.

The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards…

Now it is time to sit quiet face to face

With thee, and to sing dedication of life in

This silent and overflowing leisure.”

463 WHITE HELEN C., Metaphysical Poets: A Study in Religious Experience, New York, Macmillan,

(1956), p. 22.

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Through the mystical images and symbols Tagore reveals and emanates a special

sensitivity of natural beauty and at the same time forces upon us a special mystical

significance in the wonder that surrounds the common natural things. Gitanjali is

therefore a mystic outburst with a uniqueness which is experienced by a permanent

and compelling inner longing for the Divine Master.