Tagore: The Religion of Man

During the discussion of my own religious experience I express my belief that the first stage of my realization was through my feeling of intimacy with Nature—not that Nature which has its channel of information for our mind and physical relationship with our living body, but that which satisfies our personality with manifestations that make our life rich and stimulate our imagination in their harmony of forms, colors, sounds, and movements. It is not that world which vanishes into abstract symbols behind its own testimony to Science, but that which lavishly displays its wealth of reality to our personal self having its own perpetual reaction upon human nature.

I mention in connection with my personal experience some songs which I have often heard from wandering village singers, belonging to a popular sect in Bengal, called Bauls, who have no images, temples, scriptures, or ceremonials, who declare in their songs the divinity of Man, and express for him an intense feeling of love. Coming from men who are unsophisticated, living a simple life in obscurity, it gives us a clue to the inner meaning of all religions. For it suggests that these religions are never about a God of cosmic force, but rather about the God of human personality.

We must realize not only the reasoning mind, but also the creative imagination, the love and wisdom that belong to the Supreme Person, whose Spirit is over us all, love for whom comprehends love for all creatures and exceeds in depth and strength all other loves, leading to difficult endeavors and martyrdoms that have no other gain than the fulfillment of this love itself.

The Isha of our Upanishad, the Super Soul, which permeates all moving things, is the God of this human universe whose mind we share in all our true knowledge, love and service, and whom to reveal ourselves through renunciation of self is the highest end of life.

Rabindranath Tagore
The Religion of Man

Who Weaves the Web

Marbled Orb Weaver Spider

He it is, the innermost one, who awakens my being with his deep hidden touches. 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 pain. He it is who weaves the web of this maya in evanescent hues of gold and silver, blue and green, and lets peep out through the folds his feet, at whose touch I forget myself. Days come and ages pass, and it is ever he who moves my heart in many a name, in many a guise, in many a rapture of joy and sorrow.

Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali

My Journey

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 wildernesses 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.

The traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.

My eyes strayed far and wide before I shut them and said “Here art thou!”

The question and the cry “Oh, where?” melt into tears of a thousand streams and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance “I am!”

By Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali

Divine Messengers

“The Angels, Gracious Light of Soul,
bending near the earth
in me
touched the golden heart strings
of my heart
and the worlds
in silent obeisance lay
to hear their voices:
"Peace and Joy!
Peace and Joy
unto All!"

Upon this midnight clear 
I listen to their 
Word
resounding,
still.”

By Swami Kamalananda

“Praise be to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth,
who made the angels, messengers with wings…”

From the Qur’an, Fatir 35:1

“Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created.”

From Psalms 148:2-5

“Let your life come amongst them like a flame of light, my child, unflickering and pure, and delight them into silence. Let them see your face, my child, and thus know the meaning of all things. Let them love you and love each other. Come and take your seat in the bosom of the limitless, 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.”

From “The Child Angel” by Rabindranath Tagore

Two Little Birds in the Self-Same Tree

“Two little birds, linked by mutual friendly bonds, reside in the self-same tree; one of them is engrossed in the enjoyment of sweet fruit, while the other merely looks on with perfect serenity.”

“Dwelling within this body are the supreme Self, the individual self, and the potencies of thought, volition and feeling. The individual self, by means of the potencies of thought, volition and feeling, creates and lives in a little world of its own desires and pleasures. But finally the indwelling supreme Self, by its inherent power of illumination, renounces all bondage of limitations and regains freedom.”

“Even so, becoming identified with the body, man has fallen into the delusion of imperfection, self-condemnation and weakness, and in consequence has become engulfed in sorrow. But when, by the power of his subjective meditation and illumination he realizes the glory of his own divine Self, he transcends sorrow and lives by the power of inner contentment.”

—Svetasvatara Upanishad
translated by Swami Premananda in Eight Upanishads

“In the Upanishad it is said in a parable that there are two birds sitting on the same bough, one of which feeds and the other looks on. This is an image of the mutual relationship of the infinite being and the finite self. The delight of the bird which looks on is great, for it is a pure and free delight. There are both of these birds in man himself, the objective one with its business of life, the subjective one with its disinterested joy of vision.”

—Rabindranath Tagore