Tagore, Rabindranath (Rabindranath Tagore)

Posted April 14th, 2006 by Taran

Truth comes as conqueror only to those who have lost the art of receiving it as friend.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

If anger be the basis of our political activities, the excitement tends to become an end in itself, at the expense of the object to be acheived.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

But I am thankful that my lot lies with the humble who suffer and bear the
burden of power, and hide their faces and stifle their sobs in the dark.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

You have set me among those who are defeated.
I know it is not for me to win, nor to leave the game.
I shall plunge into the pool although but to sink to the bottom.
I shall play the game of my undoing.
I shall stake all I have and when I lose my last penny I shall stake myself, and then I think I shall have won through my utter defeat.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

We pass examinations, and shrivel up into clerks, lawyers and police inspectors, and we die young .... Once upon a time we were in possession of such a thing as our mind in India. It was living. It thought, it felt, it expressed itself. But it has been thrust aside, and we are made to tread the mill of passing examinations, not for learning anything, but for notifying that we are qualified for employment under organizations conducted in English. Our educated community is not a cultured community, but a community of qualified candidates.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

When I began my life as a poet, the writers among our educated community took their inspiration from English literature. I suppose it was fortunate for me that I never in my life had what is called an education, that is to say, the kind of school and college training which is considered proper for a boy from a respectable family.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

The moment is arising when you also must find a basis of unity which is not political .... There is only one history — the history of Man. All national histories are chapters in the larger one.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

WHERE roads are made I lose my way.
In the wide water, in the blue sky there is no line of a track.
The pathway is hidden by the birds' wings, by the star-fires, by the
flowers of the wayfaring seasons.
And I ask my heart if its blood carries the wisdom of the unseen way.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

WHEN I lingered among my hoarded treasure I felt like a worm that feeds in
the dark upon the fruit where it was born.
I leave this prison of decay.
I care not to haunt the mouldy stillness, for I go in search of everlasting
youth; I throw away all that is not one with my life nor as light as my
laughter.
I run through time and, O my heart, in your chariot dances the poet who
sings while he wanders.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

FAR below flowed the Jumna, swift and clear, above frowned the jutting
bank.
Hills dark with the woods and scarred with the torrents were gathered
around.
Govinda, the great Sikh teacher, sat on the rock reading scriptures, when
Raghunath, his disciple, proud of his wealth, caine and bowed to him and said,
"I have brought my poor present unworthy of your acceptance."
Thus saying he displayed before the teacher a pair of gold bangles wrought
with costly stones.
The master took up one of them, twirling it round his
finger, and the diamonds darted shafts of light.
Suddenly it slipped from his hand and rolled down the bank into the water.
"Alas," screamed Raghunath, and jumped into the stream.
The teacher set his eyes upon his book, and the water held and hid what it
stole and went its way.
The daylight faded when Raghunath came back to the teacher tired and
dripping.
He panted and said, "I can still get it back if you show me where it fell."
The teacher took up the remaining bangle and throwing it into the water
said, "It is there."
-- Rabindranath Tagore

"WHO among you will take up the duty of feeding the hungry?" Lord Buddha
asked his followers when famine raged at Shravasti.

Ratnâkar, the banker, hung his head and said, "Much more is needed than all
my wealth to feed the hungry."

Jaysen, the chief of the King's army, said, "I would gladly give my life's
blood, but there is not enough food in my house."

Dharmapâal, who owned broad acres of land, said with a sigh, "The drought
demon has sucked my fields dry. I know not how to pay King's dues."

Then rose Supriyâ, the mendicant's daughter.

She bowed to all and meekly said, "I will feed the hungry."

"How!" they cried in surprise. "How can you hope to fulfil that vow?"

"I am the poorest of you all," said Supriyâ, "that is my strength. I have
my coffer and my store at each of your houses."
-- Rabindranath Tagore

"SIRE," announced the servant to the King, "the saint Narottam has never
deigned to enter your royal temple.

"He is singing God's praise under the trees by the open road. The temple is
empty of worshippers.

"They flock round him like bees round the white lotus, leaving the golden
jar of honey unheeded."

The King, vexed at heart, went to the spot where Narottam sat on the grass.

He asked him, "Father, why leave my temple of the golden dome and sit on
the dust outside to preach God's love?"

"Because God is not there in your temple," said Narottam.

The King frowned and said, "Do you know, twenty millions of gold went to
the making of that marvel of art, and it was consecrated to God with costly
rites?"

"Yes, I know it," answered Narottam. "It was in that year when thousands of
your people whose houses had been burned stood vainly asking for help at your
door.

"And God said, 'The poor creature who can give no shelter to his brothers
would build my house!'

"And he took his place with the shelterless under the trees by the road.

"And that golden bubble is empty of all but hot vapour of pride."

The King cried in anger, "Leave my land."

Calmly said the saint, "Yes, banish me where you have banished my God."
-- Rabindranath Tagore

Where were your songs, my bird, when you spent your nights in the nest?

Was not all your pleasure stored therein?

What makes you lose your heart to the sky--the sky that is boundless?

Answer

While I rested within bounds I was content. But when I soared into vastness I found I could sing.
-- Rabindranath Tagore