Go not to the temple -- Rabindranath Tagore

 

On his 160^th birth anniversary, I doubt one can write anything on Rabindranath Tagore which has not already been written before. 

He was a rare kind genius, the kind that is seen once in hundreds of years. If he wrote poetry, he became the first non-European and lyricist to win the Nobel prize for literature; if he wrote songs and composed music, he did so in a style that was never heard before, so unique, it came to be known as Rabindrasangeet; if he wrote stories, he invented the Bengali-language short story genre; if he wrote plays, they were not in prose, they were an unheard-of combination of dance and poetry where characters emoted in dialogues that were poems and actions that were dance; if he was an educationist, he gave to the world Viswabharati at Shantiniketan, a revolutionary experiment in education; if he stepped into political life, his views even when contrary to those of  the Mahatma were revered by the latter, who hailed him as “Gurudev”; if he was a philosopher, he moved a man of science like Einstein to think of spirituality; if he was a nationalist, he gave up the knighthood in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre; if he was a social reformer, he came close to being assassinated because of wanting to blend Indian tradition with western philosophy, and if he was a painter; he experimented with letters of alphabet as works of art, he began the tradition of creating unnamed paintings that he wanted viewers to view through their own sensibilities and experiences and feel, interpret, understand them in their own way.

He is probably the only poet in the world who has written the national anthems of two countries; Jana Gana Mana which is India’s national anthem, Amar Shonar Bangla Bangladesh’s national anthem;  and, heavily inspired a third, which is Sri Lanka’s national anthem.

On the 160^th anniversary of his birth, we can only be grateful that such a luminous soul, who was a source of inspiration to commoners and princes, Nobel laureates and villagers alike, who taught future prime ministers, who has statues dedicated to him in cities and countries as far apart as England, Astana, Havana, Dublin, Vancouver, Fiji, Ankara, Tashkent, Budapest, Bucharest, Berlin, Paris, New York, Mexico and Mauritius – was an Indian. 

At Leftrightthodasacenter.blogspot.com we remember Gurudev with his own poem, which we feel is deeply relevant to the times that we live in.  Please do read and share and as always, do let us know of your views and thoughts in the Comment section below.  

 

Go Not to the Temple 

 

Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God,

First fill your own house with the Fragrance of love and kindness.

Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God,

First remove the darkness of sin , pride and ego, from your heart...

Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer,

First learn to bow in humility before your fellowmen.

And apologise to those you have wronged.

Go not to the temple to pray on bent knees,

First bend down to lift someone who is down-trodden.

And strengthen the young ones. 

Not crush them.

Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins,

First forgive from your heart those who have hurt you."

                                                Rabindranath Tagore

Image Credit: Biswajit Debnath/The Hindustan Times