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THE SPIRITUAL MOTIFS OF SUBMISSION AND SUPPLICATION IN

GITANJALI: TAGORE’S SEARCH FOR PEACE

1Mohammad Tajuddin &

2. Muhammad Safiur Rahman,

Assistant Professors, Department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University

Chittagong, Bangladesh

Abstract

The collection of poems in Gitanjali extensively highlights Tagore‟s sense of spirituality and piety

in both subjective and objective levels. Rabindranath Tagore‟s Gitanjali is an outstanding work

which brought him international fame and Nobel Prize in literature in 1913. In both personal and

historical context the poems create and develop extraordinary motifs of submission and

supplication throughout the book with Tagore‟s belief in a supreme God, Who, according to the

poet, can bestow peace and mercy on him and the world. This paper argues that Tagore actually

searches for internal and external peace during the troubled period of his life and the

contemporary world through his supplication and submission to almighty God, and God‟s

presence and remembrance in his life becomes source of peace and pleasures. Tagore supplicates

and submits to God in every possible way to acquire peace, and he finds peace through His

presence in every sphere of his life. Though Tagore‟s poetic narration seems to have been

influenced by pantheism of Hinduism and partly by its incarnation concept, his surrender or

submission to God in Gitanjali essentially reflects the oneness of God which brings Tagore closer

not only to the Islamic monotheism but also to other Semitic religions such as Christianity and

Judaism. The objective of the paper is to discuss the issues of submission and supplication of the

poet to God. This paper analyses the text of the poems, along with the life of the poet and the

contemporary issues, and aims at showing in a new perspective how Tagore searches for peace

through his submission and supplication to one God in Gitanjali.

Keywords: Gitanjali, submission, supplication, devotion to God, love, peace

Introduction: Tagore‘s Gitanjali is a spiritual quest

for the divine, for the supreme power or almighty

God- the all guiding force in nature and human life.

The poet‘s search for the infinite and all powerful

ever present God in the finite things: nature, human

beings, days and nights, and seasons of the year, in

the temple, in the river, and the mountains and at his

door steps. Thus the search becomes romantic and

idealistic at the same time. Also, his search for the

almighty God is very down to earth when the poet

deals human affairs in the poems in a very objective

manner. He can realize God through exceeding the

limitations of his own soul and self, through his

universal sense of humanity and love for all human

beings as well as all creatures. To understand the

divine he merges his individual self with the

universal. He finds God in human beings. In

subjective levels the poet‘s supplication to God with

a very endearing language and tone produces a deep

sense of compassion and understanding between the

poet and God. It is love of the poet which provokes

him to supplicate and submit himself to God to

acquire peace, and here love is reciprocal between the

poet and God. The poet is overwhelmed with

pleasure for God‘s presence in his life in time of his

happiness and sorrow, and everywhere. The spiritual

fervor of Tagore is immense in presenting God in

every sphere of his life, and he presents God

sometimes as a father, an appeaser and as friend as if

God were caressing him all the time. Sometimes, he

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behaves as a mystic as if he mingled with the divine.

The poet‘ search for God is meant for peace, for the

fulfillment, unity and meanings of life and death.

God‘s presence around the nature and around his

existence provides him peace, as if the poet were

never alone in the terrible and harsh world. So the

poet submits and supplicates to ever present God who

is not far from him and he, therefore, finds peace

through his submission and supplication. The poet

submits to an all powerful, all pervading God with

full devotion and supplicates Him for things that the

poet does not possess, and praises Him for not having

some things at His will and asks Him for things he is

unable to understand, explain, feel or cannot attain as

a finite and weak human being. Sometimes, Tagore‘s

poems in Gitanjali take the form of prayer and

prostration to God and highlight the extreme humility

with full submission, just as the Muslims prostrate

with humility in their five times prayers and

supplicate God. Tagore, as a Hindu, seemingly

presents a pantheistic view of God in his narration of

Gitanjali. Though pantheism means the presence of

God in everything or everything is God, Tagore,

while addressing God in poems of Gitanjali, seems to

be addressing one God and supplicating Him alone

with full submission. The idea of pantheism as

everything is God, virtually contradicts even with the

idea of the oneness of God as mentioned in the Hindu

religious scripture. Tagore must have been partly

influenced by such confusing ideas of Hinduism as

―incarnation‖, ―pantheism‖ and ―samskara‖.

However, Tagore‘s involvement with Brohmma

Somaj established by the laudable Hindu religious

reformer, Raja Ram Mohon Roy (1774), is significant

in the sense that Tagore finally speaks of one God

and is against idol worship like other learned Hindus.

Brhamo Somaj speaks for one God and against idol

worship. Tagore in his many speeches refers to the

teachings of the Upanishads, scriptures of Hinduism,

and talks about one God in Gitanjali accordingly. So

the supplication and submission motifs of Gitanjali

seem to be compatible with or conforming to the

Islamic teachings of monotheism (oneness of God) to

some extent and vice versa and compatible also with

the true teachings of other Semitic religions such as

Christianity and the Judaism which also teach

basically monotheism.

That through total submission of one‘s self and will

to the will of one almighty God one can acquire

peace is the true teaching of Islam, the most

monotheistic religion of all in the world. Islam

believes in one loving God Who is kind and merciful

and He keeps account of every affair of human lives.

Christianity like Judaism truly believes in one God

except for the confusing Christian concept of so

called trinity, which does not really exist in the bible.

Islam believes that not only the Earth but also the

whole Universe is surrounded by Him and His throne

is placed over the universe and His power permeates

everything in the earth and the whole universe.

Unlike pantheism (everything is God) Islam as a pure

monotheistic religion emphasizes the oneness of God

strongly. All created things belong to Him. In other

words, everything is not God but everything belongs

to God. So all created things are the signs of one

uncreated God. Therefore, Islam believes that human

beings can understand by their capability the

existence of God by observing His signs in the earth

and the universe such as the light and darkness, the

seasons and their changes etc. Amazed at the

surprising creation of God and His infinite capacity

revealed in the vast universe, human beings as finite

creature are logically supposed to surrender to His

infinite power and Him, to worship Him alone to

acquire peace here in the world and the hereafter.

Islam, which comes from the root word silm which

means peace. It also means ―surrender‖ or

―submission‖. So, Islam basically means ―peace‖

acquired (by somebody) by submitting one‘s will to

the will of almighty God. (Naik, 2015).

Indirectly, like the teachings of Islam, Tagore in his

Gitanjal expresses the full submission to one

almighty God, and supplicates Him in many ways to

acquire peace and talks about peace accordingly.

What Tagore says, in his spiritual and philosophical

lecture, Sadhana- the Realization of Life delivered at

Harvard University in 1913, is noteworthy as to

achieving immense pleasure (peace) through

submission of one‘s self to God (Hossain, 2002, p.

4). Tagore says,

―Man's abiding happiness is not in getting

anything but in giving himself up to what is

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greater than himself, to ideas which are

larger than his individual life, the idea of his

country, of humanity, of God. They make it

easier for him to part with all that he has, not

expecting his life. His existence is miserable

and sordid till he finds some great idea

which can truly claim his all, which can

release him from all attachment to his

belongings. Buddha and Jesus, and all our

great prophets, represent such great ideas.

They hold before us opportunities for

surrendering our all. When they bring forth

their divine alms-bowl we feel we cannot

help giving, and we find that in giving is our

truest joy and liberation, for it is uniting

ourselves to that extent with the infinite‖.

(Tagore, Sadhana, p. 84). Regarding surrendering ―all belongings‖ to a

supreme power for peace as Tagore mentioned, what

could be more striking than the saying of the Koran,

which was revealed to the prophet Mohammad (S)?

The Koran says:

Say: ―Truly my prayer and my service of

sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for

Allah (the almighty God), the Cherisher of

the worlds: No partner hath He: this I am

commanded and I am the first of those who

submit to His will (Sura, Anam: verse: 162-

63).

Whether or not Tagore studied Islam and the message

of its last prophet Mohammad(s) is little known.

Tagore mentioned only the names of Jesus and

Buddha in Sadhana: The Realization of Life. It is

unknown why Tagore did not mention the name of

the Mohammad in his speech though Mohammad is

considered to be the most successful man and the

―most influential personality‖ (Hart, 1992, pp.3-8) in

human history whose message was Islam (peace) and

the message of the oneness of God to Whom human

beings are supposed to surrender for peace here in the

world and hereafter.

Objective: Peace is now an ardent craving of

humanity in the present world of wars, racial hatred

and political turmoil. But peace is far away from

humanity as it was during Tagore‘s time. But the

message of Tagore‘s Gitanjali for peace has not been

lost yet. In Gitanjali, Tagore, with endearing poetic

language, presents before humanity the need of

supplication and self submission to God to achieve

peace, which is a basic teaching of every religion

based on the scriptures, especially Islam. He seeks

and gets peace through self submission and suggests

these for all humanity. In this regard, Tagore‘s

Gitanjali becomes a search for the infinite divine

spirit and peace through which the poet wants to

convey a message of peace, unity and brotherhood to

the world. The objective of the paper is, therefore, to

analyze the motifs of submission and supplication in

Gitanjali in a new perspective to present the issues to

humanity. The objective is also to show how the poet

searches for peace and achieves it to a greater extent,

through the submission and supplication to God.

Methodology: To achieve the objective this paper analyses the text

of the poems of Gitanjali based on the life of the poet

and facts of the contemporary issue. Numerous

numbers of articles and books, as both primary and

secondary sources, written on Tagore and Gitanjali

have been analyzed. A historical analysis, along with

textual analyses, has been applied in the research to

present and clarify the issues or subjects mentioned

in the topic.

Literature Review: Swedish poet Verner von

Heidenstam, who made crucial decision for awarding

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Noble prize for

Gitanjali, said about poems of Gitanjali: ―I have not

met their (poems of Gitanjali) like in poetic

literature. The hours they gave me were special, as if

I had been allowed to drink from a fresh and clear

spring. The loving and the intense religious sense

permeates all thoughts and feelings, the purity of

heart, and the noble and unaffected elevation of the

style---all amount to a total impression of deep and

rare spiritual beauty‖(Hossain, 2002, p. 186). RK

Srivarshini (2015) writes in a review of

Gitanjali,―Gitanjali reflects on the interrelationships

among the poet/speaker, the deity, and the world. He,

sometimes, seems to be resisting traditional religion

and prophetically looking towards a new spirituality.‖

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About the first song or poem from Bengali Gitanjali

Sanat Kumer Saha says, ―The allegation of devotion

and submission, which in many cases ignore the

poetic imagination, may perhaps be pertinent in the

case of the curtain- raiser in the Bengali Gitanjali( let

my head bend/ To the dust/ Beneath your feet) and

that too if the poem is interpreted only

literally‖(Ahemed, Dubey & Sikri, P.284).On the

other hand, Nihar Ranjan Ray, another celebrated

authority on Rabindranath, says about Gitanjali-

poems that Gitanjali is a book of poems concerning a

very intimate relationship between a human being

and his God (Ahemed, Dubey & Sikri, p. 282).

Discussion: Mostly, the verses in Gitanjali are

beautiful prayers written after a gut-wrenchingly

painful period in Rabindranath Tagore‘s life, during

which he lost his father, wife, daughter and a son in

quick succession. His unfathomable pain and

unshaken devotion to God are captured in the moving

poetic verses of Gitanjali, which Tagore dedicated as

―Song Offerings‖ or ―offerings of songs‖. During his

deeply troubled period of sorrows Tagore tried to

overcome his sorrow through building a bond with

God. Nihar Ranjan Ray‘s comment on Gitanjali

above virtually supports what Dr. Mohammad

Sohidullah says about Gitanjali. In a book called

Islam Prosongo (about Islam) Sohidulla says that

―Tagore actually searches for Islam‖ (Sohidullah,

2011, pp.67-68) in Gitanjali for peace, calmness and

the serenity of mind. According to Abdul Mannan

Sayed, in his earlier works such as Kheya,and

Dakghor Tagore searches for his formless God

through the different symbols. But, in Gitanjali,

Sayed says, ―Tagore directly surrendered to God‖

(Sayed, 2001, P. 46). He also says, Tagore is trying

to achieve courage and assurance through his self

surrender or submission to God. It is also an attempt

of Tagore to reach the inner world of happiness from

the inner world of sorrow (Sayed, 2001, p.46).

Dr.Mohammad Sohidullah quotes the following first

four lines of the first poem of Bangla Gitanjali in

Islam Prosongo (About Islam), P.68:

আমার মাথা নত করর দাও হে হতামার

চরণধুলার তরল ।

সকল অেংকার হে আমার

ডুবাও হচারের জরল।

The English translation of the full poem is given

bellow:

Bring down my head

To the dust of your feet

Drown all my pride

in tears.

When I try to glorify myself

All I do

Is insult my true self,

Encompassing myself

Over and over again

In greater shame.

Drown all my pride

In tears.

May I never proclaim

My own merits in my work.

May your will

Be fulfilled in my life.

I beg for your ultimate peace

Your divine grace in my soul.

Shelter me,

Standing on the petals

Of my heart –lotus.

Drown all pride in tears.

The complete book, Gitanjali, in Bengali comprises

of total 157 poems. Out of 157 only 103 poems

translated by Tagore himself in English were

submitted to noble committee. Irish poet W. B. Yeats

read the English prose translation of poems and

helped Tagore choose good translated poems in

English. Though the poem above is excluded from

the translation of 103 poems, there are many similar

poems regarding the issue of human pride and its

consequences. Human pride is a strong deterrent to

God consciousness and a larger global consciousness

of humanity. Pride creates different social evils in

society in different ways that disrupts peace. Pride is

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revealed in the forms of caste, racial superiority,

color or in the form of the so called rich class or the

poor class. It is a sin not only in Islam but also in

other religions. In Christianity pride is considered as

one of the seven deadliest sins. It is pride which

prevents human beings from surrendering his self to

God. Satan disobeyed God out of his pride and

therefore was cursed by God and was forced to leave

the garden of paradise. In Marlowe‘s Dr. Faustus Dr.

Faustus sacrificed his virtue for pride and faced the

terrible consequences. So, Tagore asks almighty God

to help him in fulfilling His will in every action of his

life. Tagore begs for ―eternal peace‖ and ―divine

grace‖ in his soul which are not attainable without

sacrificing pride. Self glorification of the poet (―when

I try to glorify myself‖…) does not provide him with

real peace but insult. Real peace is found in full

humility in shedding tears for the love of God.

American poet Whitman in his poem ―Song of

Myself‖ presents a spiritual journey of soul in which

he finds peace and happiness through dissolving the

pride of his human self and soul. Whitman writes in

an extreme tone of humility:

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the

runaway sun,

I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in

lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from

the grass I love,

If you want me again look for me under

your boot-soles. (Section: 52. Lines: 7-10)

Tagore says in Sadhana: The Realization of Life,

―Pride of self interferes with the proper function of

the soul which is to realize itself by perfecting its

union with the world and the world's God.”(P. 21).

Tagore also quoted Jesus Christ: ―When Jesus said,

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the

earth," he meant this.”(P. 21). Pride is also regarded

by Islamic faith as the heinous sin like associating

partner with almighty God. The Muslims are advised

to remain very humble during their prayers and in

their everyday life. The Koran says,

Those who behave arrogantly on the earth in

defiance of right—them will I turn away from My

signs, they will not believe in them; and if they see

the way of right conduct, they will not adopt it as the

Way but if they see the way of error, that is the Way

they will adopt. For they have rejected our Signs, and

failed to take warning from them (A’raf: 7:146).

As the Koranic verse indicates that arrogance or pride

is bar to finding the truth, and pride just leads one to

the path of error. The prophet Mohammad(s) says, ―If

a man has an atom of pride, he will never enter

paradise‖. Tagore yearns for truth in many of his

books, such as Sadhana: The Realization of Life,

Manusher Dharma (The Religion of Man) and

Dharma (Religion). God is ultimate truth, God is

Ananda(pleasure). As Tagore mentioned above for

achieving peace and happiness one must give up

one‘s self to a supreme power which is above him.

But human pride works as a bar to one‘s will of

submission to the supreme power of God. So Tagore

asks in his poem to get rid of pride.

How can an individual be happy without the truth,

without knowing the source of truth that is God?

God, who is Ananda(pleasure), reflects this pleasure

in his creation. And Man is the best creation of God.

So, according to Tagore, God is best realized in man,

then in other things. But pride is the bar to knowing

the divine within man. In his book called Manusher

Dharma (―The religion of Man‖) published in 1933,

Tagore emphasizes similarly the ―emancipation of

pride to reach to one‘s soul to find God, the source of

ultimate peace and truth (Tagore, 2011, p.52). In

reference to the Bauls( bards), who call God as

moner manush(man of Heart), Tagore says this

moner manush (meaning God) can only be

apprehended by a soul free from pride.

In many other poems of Gitanjali the issue of pride

appears in different ways, along with Tagore‘s

supplication and self submission to God. In song 53

of Gitanjali Tagore supplicates God to destroy his

pride and his stone- heart devoid of love. He asks

God to soften his heart. Few lines are as follows:

Bring me down,

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O bring me down to your feet.

Soften my heart,

In tears.

………..

My pride has brought all progress

To a stop.

Cast down my proud throne

Into the dust;

Smash it up.

The poet does not find any meaning of his pride. He

says, ―In this useless life/ what is there for me to take

pride in?‖ God is everything for the poet, without

Him he finds no peace in the midst of wealth:

―Without you/ I am empty/ though my room be full‖.

In song 148 Tagore prays to God to accept him

through his, at least one, full reverence (salutation)

for Him. We strongly feel poet‘s eagerness to bow

down to God:

In one deep reverence, Lord,

In one deep reverence

Let my whole body bow low

Here in your universe.

In song 125 Tagore remembers his position as a poet

and his honor among the people. But he sacrifices his

pride in front of God as a poet. He sings the glory of

God with simple verse without many ornaments in

fear that these exaggeration may turn to be a bar to

establishing bond between the poet and his Lord as

much ornaments reflect pride:

This song has left out

All flourishes and ornaments,

It no longer tries to impress You

With its proud appearance.

Tagore is not proud of his position as a poet:

O Great Poet,

My pride as a poet

Does not impress You.

I long to cling to your feet.

Tagore‘s ―philosophical outlook is based on the

Upanishadic idealism‖(Ahemed, Dubey & Sikri,

2013, p. 54). Not only that his religious outlook on

God and humanity in relation to humanity‘s attitude

to God and his views on religious rituals are very

much based on the Upanishadic ideals and other

scriptures of Hinduism. In October 1912, Bertrand

Russell published an essay in the Hibbert Journal

titled as ―The essence of Religion‖ in which Russell

argues that ―the essence of religion…lies in

subordination of the finite part of our life to the

infinite part.‖(Ahemed, Dubey & Sikri, 2013, P.64)

Tagore studied the essay and wrote to Russell that he

found similarity between its viewpoint and the

Upanishad.

Tagore also extensively quotes from the Upanishads

and Vedas in his spiritual books as some mentioned

above. Tagore also emphasized the teaching of

Buddhism and sometimes quoted Jesus Christ.

Tagore thought of ―Buddhism as an offshoot of

Upanisadic Hinduism‖ (2013, P. 45). What is

important and interesting to note is that Tagore, in his

religious books, never mentioned the religion of

Islam and its prophet Mohammad (pbuh) and

Mohammad‘s teaching of one God! In Gitanjali

Tagore addresses, throughout all poems, only one

God. But the way he addresses God also presents

Tagore as a pantheistic as well as a mystic and

humanist (2013, p. 55). Pantheism (everything is

God or God‘s presence in everything) contradicts

with the idea of one God in Islam and even true

Hinduism in the sense that pantheism distorts the

concept of one supreme God as single unified entity

Who is all powerful and all knowing and has power

over all things, but not necessarily present in

everything. When pantheism emphasizes the

presence of the divine or God in every finite thing, it

paves the way for the idol worship or different

created things or creatures of God such as monkey,

snake or the moon, the sun or statue or image etc.

When idol worship is prohibited by Brahma Samaj as

well as Hindu scriptures, most of the Hindus yet

worship Idols. Pantheistic belief really creates a

problem as to whom one should worship: the created

things in which God permeates or God Himself? In

this regard Islamic monotheism is very clear and free

from all confusion unlike Hindu idol worship or

Christian concept of the trinity. The Muslims only

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believe in one God and in the prophethood of

Mohammad (peace be upon him) as the final

messenger sent down to humanity in line with the

other messengers sent before him with the same

message of one God: Adam, Noha, David, Solomon,

Moses and Jesus (pbuh). In Hinduism, according to

Veda‘s teaching, is believed sending Rishi (similar to

the concept of prophet) by almighty God (Brahma)

for the benefit of humanity. The distortion of Hindu

religion against the teaching of Vedas regarding

sending of Rishi (like prophet) is in the belief of God

incarnated. According to the incarnation theory God

himself comes down to the earth in human form to

destroy the evils. Islam does not believe in such a

confusing theory. The teaching of Vedas regarding

Rishi sent to humanity has some similarities to the

teaching of Islam regarding prophet hood. (Naik,

2015). One poem of Tagore, ―Prashna‖ (The

Question) reflects his belief in Rishi(Prophet) in

which Tagore appeals to the Indians for solidarity

and restraint in the background of political turmoil

and violence, after the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi by

the British. Few lines of the poem are as follows:

God, you have sent messengers, life after

life,

To this callous earth;

They have said ‗Forgive all sins,‘ they have

told us ‗Love-

From your heart all malice remove.‘

They are the venerable men, worthy of

reverence, but we

In the dark days reject them with ritual

futility.

This poem also reflects Tagore‘s strong humanism in

parallel to his strong conviction on God,

prophet(rishi) or religion, which demands good

conduct and emphasizes humanity and mercy above

all things. Violence is rejected for peace. Cruelty and

repression are criticized by the poet the same in

Gitanjali. Regarding the value of love prophet

Mohammad (S) said: "By the One in Whose Hand is

my soul! You will not enter Paradise until you

believe, and you will not believe until you love one

another. Shall I inform you about a matter which if

you do it, and then you will love one another? Spread

the Salam (greetings, Say, ―peace be on you‖) among

each other." To spread peace is the duty of every

Muslim, or at least for the person who claims to have

belief in one God. The prophetic Hadith (saying)

indicates this truth.

By the worship of many Gods and goddesses one

cannot find or enjoy true spiritual peace. So, in spite

of such confusing ideas of Hinduism and Tagore‘s

occasional pantheistic approach in Gitanjali, Tagore,

however, retains the concept of one God in his tone

and language while addressing God as ―Lord, ―Oh,

God‖ ―You‖ and so on in Gitanjali poems. Tagore is

not found to mention Gods or Goddess or a number

of deities in Gitanjali. Tagore‘s supplication and

submission sound the presence of one God in his

poems. This tendency brings Tagore close to the

Islamic monotheism to a greater extent. Thus,

virtually Tagore supplicates to one God in Gitanjali

poems and seeks peace by praising and addressing

one God and glorifying Him alone in various ways.

Therefore, it may be said, his occasional pantheistic

approach in his poems is just a poetic approach or

craft, but Tagore believes in one God wholeheartedly

and supplicates Him only to find peace.

Being in contact with the Brahma Samaj, Tagore

must have been influenced by its teaching of one God

and its opposition to idol worship. Tagore was in the

habit of delivering sermons and acting as a minister

in the Brahmo Samaj, the religious reform movement

in which Tagore‘s father also played the role of

prophet and leader. Tagore‘s Bengali sermons were

later published under the title Dharma (religion) in

1909 and Shantineketon (1909-1916). The time of the

publications of these two books, which reflect

Tagore‘s religious ideas, was very close to the time

of publishing Gitanjali in 1910. Brahma Samaj, with

which Tagore has connection, believes in such

principles as given below:

―Loving Him and doing His will, I shall

worship the One, Absolute Parabrahma, the

Creator, Preserver and Destroyer, who is the

Giver of all good in this world and the next,

who is All - knowing, All -pervading,

Formless and Beneficent.

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I shall not adore any created thing, thinking

it to be Parabrahma.

Unless prevented by sickness or trouble, I

shall daily, in loving reverence, hold

communion of spirit with Parabrahma.

I shall endeavor to perform good deeds.

I shall endeavor to abstain from sinful deeds.

If I should ever, through delusion, be led

into sin, I shall desist there from with

sincere repentance.

I shall give something, out of my income,

every year to the Brahmo Samaj, to promote

the Brahmo faith.

O God, grant me strength to live in

accordance with the sacred principles of this

religion.

God, the One alone, the Absolute,

Ekamevaditiyam‖

Tagore used in one of the chapters of his book,

Dharma, and ends the chapter with the dictum:

Ekamevaditiyam, the important part of the Brahma

sutra, which basically is derived from Chondoyga

Upanishad chapter no.6, section.2 verse no.1. It

means, He (God) is one, the one alone and the

absolute. (Tagore, 2014, p. 57).

If Tagore‘s religious philosophy were not based on

one God, and if it were based on the concepts of

many Gods, goddesses and deities and idol worship,

certainly the poems of Gitanjali would lose their

appeal to the world just like a mythological scum of

Indian culture. The idea of one God and its impact is

immense. It binds all humanity together regardless of

caste, creed, races and colors based on global

brotherhood of humanity, which is essential for the

peace and prosperity of all humanity. Just like the

actual teaching of the Bible, the Koran declares

strongly, „If there were, in the heavens and the earth,

other Gods besides Allah, there would have ruin in

both! But glory to Allah, the Lord of the Throne:

(High is He) above what they attribute to Him”

(Surah Ambia: 22). The actual teaching of the Bible

equally presents the oneness of God, unlike the

distorted teaching of the contemporary Christian

church, which taught the Christian people the wrong

teaching, such as confusing idea of Trinity, along

with Jesus‘ being a begotten son of God or a God

incarnated rather than Jesus‘ being a prophet of

almighty God. But Jesus Christ himself says in the

bible explicitly, ―My father is greater than I (John:

14:28), My father is greater than all (John: 10:29),

and Son of Israel listen to this, our Lord, our God is

one God‖ (Mark: 12:29). So, when Tagore took the

English translation of Gitanjali to England and met

W. B. Yeats, Yeats read the manuscript of English

Gitanjali in prose translation, was overwhelmed by

the devotional poems celebrating one God, and he

made the following comments:

If the civilization of Bengal remains

unbroken, if that common mind which—as

one divines—runs through all, is not, as with

us, broken into a dozen minds that know

nothing of each other, something even of

what is most subtle in these verses will have

come, in a few generations, to the beggar on

the road…

A whole people, a whole civilization,

immeasurably strange to us, seems to have

been taken into this imagination; yet we are

not moved because of its strangeness, but

because we have met our own image…

(Hossain, 2002, p.166)

As W. B. Yeats says, ―but we have met our image‖ in

the verses of Tagore, it (―but we have met our

image‖) indicates the natural tendency of human soul

that inclines to bow down or submit to almighty God,

the divine, for peace. W. B. Yeats actually felt the

unity and the harmony of the message of Gitanjali

which was possible for the concept of one God.

―Tagore‘s western admirers saw the humane spirit of

Christianity, venerated in theory but ignored in

practice, reflected back at them from Gitanjali in a

pure form‖(Hossain, 2002, p.169). To note the fact

that already the concept of one God in the western

society had been damaged not only for the wrong

teaching of the Christian church but also for the so

many confusing scientific theories such as

Darwinism its so-called evolution theory or other

wrong philosophical ideas. The absence of faith in

God, the rise of narrow destructive nationalism in the

30

western society in the 19th

and the 20th

centuries were

predominant facts. Nietzsche (1844-1900), the

German atheist philosopher, became famous for his

saying, ―God is dead‖ and ―We have killed him

(God)‖ (Lavine, 1989, P. 324) which truly present

the contemporary spiritual vacuum of the westerners.

T. S. Eliot‘s The Waste Land can be a good example

of the contemporary spiritual barrenness. So when

the Eastern knowledge of Tagore merged in divinity

and spirituality, which is superior to the Western

empirical and rational knowledge merged in

materialism, devoid of heart and soul, reached them

they were fascinated. The serene message of piety of

Gitanjali and its spirituality are possible only through

the image of one almighty God whom Tagore

supplicates and submits his will, in no other way is

possible. In relation to the moral and spiritual

vacuum of the western civilization and the

acceptance of Gitanjali in such a civilization, Rafiq

ullah Khan says,

Until the First World War (1914-17)

Tagore‘s wholehearted poetic attempt had

been an attempt to unify both the objective

and the subjective ideas and notions. In the

background of western materialism,

machinery, moral decay, anarchy and

emptiness, Tagore‘s spiritual and calm

poems and songs of Gitanjali worked as an

inspiration for the new consciousness in life

(Khan, 2007, pp. 15-16).

Tagore‘s songs and poems of Gitanjali partly filled in

the spiritual vacuum of the westerners with his

bringing the appearance of one Almighty and loving

God Who had been so far either forgotten by the

westerners (as Nietzsche says, ―we have Killed

Him‖) or whose image had been distorted by the

trinity concept or by the intercession of Jesus Christ

in between God and Jesus Christ himself. Who

should the Christian worship or supplicate: God or

the Jesus Christ?

Human heart can find true peace or happiness (as

Tagore mentioned earlier) through full submission to

a true one God as has been revealed in the scriptures

mentioned above, not by submission to a false and

confusing god or Gods or goddesses of the

mythology of Mahabharat, where gods fight among

themselves, like the gods of pagan Greek mythology.

So, Tagore in one poem of Gitanjali, submits to one

supreme God through his extreme supplication and

submission for true peace:

I‘ll throw myself down

At the foot of Your throne,

I‘ll be gray with dust,

In the dust at your feet.

Why do You keep me away from You

By heaping honors and fame on me?

Do not forget me like this forever,

Drag me ruthlessly to Your feet

…………………………….

Tagore believes that, possibly a man can forget his

Lord easily when he is surrounded by admirers, by

worldly fame and name. So the poet asks God to drag

him to Him by His own kindness, just as a father

drags his own child unto his lap. He desires to look at

the face of God with love, and he wants nothing from

Him like other people who love to get some favors

from God:

So many come running to You

For your favor;

I‘ll ask for nothing

I‘ll just stay looking.

By supplicating God one sincerely remembers Him

and one finds peace in heart. Before supplication to

any one or any power one acknowledges the

authority of the power one supplicates. This is the

true nature of a believer in God, also logical. The

piety and God consciousness of a man, especially the

consciousness of one God Who is one and only

creator of the whole universe, produce a greater

spiritual awareness in the mind of an individual. The

prophet Mohammad(s) says, ―The supplication is the

essence of worship.‖

31

So, actually in supplication one remembers God just

as one remembers God in worship. 20th

century

American modern poet, Ezra Pound, who found in

the poems of Gitanjali, an expression of

commonsense, said that the ―Poetic piety‖(Hossain,

2002, p. 167) of the Gitanjali poems is equal to that

of Dante.

Piety or God consciousness not only provides human

being with inspiration and awareness but also a sense

of responsibility towards humanity as a whole

creating love in the mind for the mankind. Belief in

one God binds all mankind together in peace and

brotherhood. Islamic concept of universal

brotherhood is based on the belief of one God. This

concept of universal peace is mentioned in the Koran.

Allah (SWT) describes the Islamic concept of

Universal Brotherhood: “O mankind! We (God)

created you from a single (pair) of a male and a

female, and made you into nations and tribes, that

you may know each other (not that you may despise

each other). Verily the most honored of you in the

sight of God is (he who is) the most Righteous of you.

And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted

(with all things)” (Surah Hujurat, Chapter No. 49,

and Verse No. 13).God consciousness of an

individual is deeply connected with his virtues and

righteousness. According to the Koranic verse

mentioned above the criteria for superiority of a man

in terms of caste, color, creed and races is completely

rejected. Only the righteousness, connected with

God-consciousness, makes a man superior to another

man. So, in this way God-consciousness leads one or

encourages one to virtuous activities, which can

ensure peace among human beings. In this respect,

Tagore‘s God-consciousness is very significant

towards achieving peace by being dutiful and

respectful to other human being. Perhaps, for this

reason Tagore has been influenced by the non-

violent, humanistic teachings of Buddha. Tagore‘s

supplication, submission and worship of one God in

the poems of Gitanjali are signs of God-

consciousness, which clarifies poet‘s duty to other

human being. So, God and Human beings in the

poems of Gitanjali are symbiotic.

By Ezra Pound‘s use of the word ―commonsense‖ for

the poems of Gitanjali he not only refers to Tagore‘s

calm voice and language but also Tagore‘s natural

self submission and supplication to one God instead

of many Gods or Goddesses.

In the holy Koran is also mentioned the benefit of

remembering God in prayer and supplication, “Those

who believe, and whose hearts finds satisfaction

(serenity) in the remembrance of Allah: for without

doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find

satisfaction (Chapter-13: 28). In respect of achieving

peace through the remembrance of, submission and

supplication to, almighty God, or as an example of

the spiritual impact of Tagore‘s Gitanjali on western

mind, the comment of Paul Nash, friend of

Rothenstein, who really first introduced Tagore to W.

B. Yeats and other English artists and writers, is

enough:

And so they delight me: for every where I

am glad to find my confused thoughts and

feelings expressed so clearly and so

beautifully that I have sometimes laughed

for joy, sometimes felt tears come… As to

style, beauty of language, craft of any kind I

am not bothered by it. I would read Gitanjali

as I would read the Bible for comfort and

strength. (Hossain, 2002, P.167).

The western admirers of Gitanjali were basically

fascinated by Tagore‘s internal message of peace

carried through humble spiritual submission of the

poet‘s self to the self of a loving, all powerful God,

the Lord of the worlds.

Peace of an individual through awareness of his own

self is materialized by his humane interactions with

other men (and things) based on love and mutual

sympathy, sharing for and with all mankind who are

also creation of one God. The individual awareness

finds a larger meaning of life and peace only through

its realization of its relationship with other creation

and the universe, which is created by one God in

diversity with a purpose. Therefore, Tagore in his

book, The Religion of Man quotes Chandidas, the

famous saint poet, who said: ―The truth of man is the

32

highest truth; there is no other truth than the truth of

man‖ ( Ahemed, Dubey &.Sikri p. 29). Humanity is

the God in Man. That is, man can find peace through

relating his self with other selves of men based on

love for the humanity. Our individual awareness of

love and sympathy is extended to a greater and larger

awareness only through individual‘s humane actions

that relate to other human beings. We love our wife,

children, our relatives and neighbors or the poor and

other human beings because we realize the inherent

nature within us that needs to be cultivated and this

―inherent nature” ( Ahemed, Dubey, Sikri, p. 38) is

humanity, and merged in every personality connected

with love. Thus through the individual awareness of

self comes to us a universal awareness and sense of

brotherhood and love for all human beings, who are

related with that individual self based on a greater

concept of universal humanity, which exists only

because of God‘s love. This realization is what

Tagore calls Dharma (religion). American humanist

and mystic poet, Walt Whitman, presents the picture

of such spirituality of universal brotherhood very

beautifully in his notable poem ―Song of Myself‖:

Swiftly arose and spread around me the

peace and knowledge that pass all the

argument of the earth,

And I know that the hand of God is the

promise of my own,

And I know that the spirit of God is the

brother of my own,

And that all the men ever born are also my

brothers, and the women my sisters and

lovers,

And that a kelson of the creation is love,

And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in

the fields,

And brown ants in the little wells beneath

them,

And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heap‘d

stones, elder, mullein and poke-weed.

(Section: 5)

Whitman understands, through spiritual experience of

his self and soul, the truth (knowledge) that ―all the

men ever born are also my brothers, and the women

my sisters and lovers‖ and the ―keelson (foundation)

of the creation is love‖. This realization of the

humanity and human equality gives him peace

(―Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace…‖).

In this regard we also can remember the moral of

Coleridge‘s ―The Rime of the Ancient Mariner‖,

which propounds the lesson of love for all creatures:

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all. Part VII

Tagore thinks about individual‘s peace and he

―interprets Buddha‘s message of release from

suffering as a merging of the individual with the

universal‖ (Ahemed, Dubey, Sikri, p.45). In the

passage taken from Sadhana Tagore says about

Buddha:

When Buddha meditated upon the way of

releasing mankind from the grip of misery

he came to this truth: that when man attains

his highest end by merging the individual in

the universal, he becomes free from the

thralldom of pain. (Ahemed, Dubey, Sikri:

p. 45)

Tagore in relation to Buddha‘s spiritual teaching

stresses a ―universal love for all creatures‖ (Ahemed,

Dubey& Sikri, 2013, P. 45) in his poetic fold.

However, the most significant way of realizing the

divine is by developing a perception of unity with

other human beings through love, which is all

conquering. Tagore, therefore, develops the spiritual

motifs of submission and supplication in the Gitanjali

relating his self to other human beings and other

things in the nature or the universe. In one poem of

the Gitanjali he expresses his gratefulness to God, he

writes:

O how many unknown things

You made known to me,

In how many places

You found room for me

Who was distant friend

You brought near

33

The stranger

You made my brother. Gitanjali: 3

Like Whitman and Nazrul, Tagore finds God within

him as a human being, within his self and soul. The

beautiful body and its mysterious interior make God

very close to him as God remains close to other

human beings elsewhere:

Alas, people and possessions

Encompass me,

Yet know well:

My soul wants you,

You are within me

Oh indweller;

Spouse of my soul, Gitanjali:29

In another poem he writes:

Oh my God,

You have filled my body and soul

With your gifts;

Now what nectar of mine

Do you want to drink?

…………………..

The beauty of your creation

Is painted in my interior

As a colorful voice.

Your love, O lord,

Intermingling with it,

Has awakened all my songs.

You see Yourself, in some delightful way,

Portrayed within me, because you have

portrayed within me, Gitanjali:101

Tagore remembers the poor and the destitute, the

oppressed and the down trodden with his

remembrance of almighty God in his Gitnjali. Tagore

writes about people‘s indifference to the poor and

reminds them of its consequence. We often see the

poet encouraging and motivating the masses who are

the downtrodden in the contemporary society and

poor. The poet informs us that the Lord is so great

that the Heaven is his Thorne and the Earth is his

Footstool. He says that the Lord walks in the midst of

the poorest the lowest and the lost people who have

no hopes and the Lord is there with them to love and

take care of them. He tries to awaken those people

who have pride of wealth and standard to correct

them to share the love and be humane to the needy

people and let everyone live in peace and harmony.

So the poet writes:

Here is thy footstool and there rest thy feet

where live the

Poorest, and lowliest, and lost.

When I try to bow to thee, my obeisance

cannot reach down to

the depth where thy feet rest among

the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.

Pride can never approach to where thou

walkest in the clothes

of the humble among the poorest, and

lowliest, and lost.

My heart can never find its way to where

thou keepest

company with the companionless

among the poorest,

the lowliest, and the lost.

(Gitanjali- X)

Tagore presents before the Indian poor and down

trodden a ray of hope in the midst of despair and

uncertainty by his devotion to God whom he

believes. This is poet‘s humanism with his realistic

religious thought. So Tagore‘s Gitanjali reflects

clearly a humanistic spirituality. In his book,

Dharma, Tagore writes, ―We have no

communication, heart to heart, with water, land, sky

and the planets, and we have no relations with them

in terms of our good deeds. We can only find close to

us (our heart) human beings, whom we can know

completely in our knowledge, love and works. So, the

complete realization of God, the divine, is possible,

only within man and by men.‖(Dharma, P.53).

Tagore‘s spirituality in Gitanjali, therefore, is not

without Man and the universe where Man lives with

other human beings: rich or poor, black or white and

high or low.

Peace, internal or external, is disrupted by human

injustice and oppression throughout the world. It is

because of the lack of God-fearing persons. Men who

34

do not believe in God lack love for God and for other

human beings. According to Tagore, freedom from

all the oppressions of the world would enable

everyone to live a life full of contentment. This

freedom leads to a total whole that is Infinite, which

is the consolidation of the best in the finites. This

perfect freedom is the key that leads Man from the

state of finiteness to identify with the Infinite. The

poet says:

Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart

aches when I try to

break them.

Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I

feel ashamed.

I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee,

and that thou art

my best friend, but I have not the heart to

sweep away the

tinsel that fills my room

The shroud that covers me is a shroud of

dust and death; I hate

it, yet hug it in love.

My debts are large, my failures great, my

shame secret and

heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good,

I quake in fear lest

my prayer be granted.

(Gitanjali- XXVIII,)

Peace is absent from the land where irrationality and

superstition rule over reason, falsehood dominates

over the truth, ignorance supersedes the knowledge;

cowardice fills the heart and mind of people with

weakness. So, the poet supplicates God and prays to

Him, with freedom, to give all positive virtues to

India and the world as a whole by replacing all the

negative qualities of human kind. Human bondage

and slavery, physically and mentally, are bar to

human happiness. The poet writes:

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.

(Gitanjali-XXXV)

Just as the Muslims practice practically the universal

brotherhood in the gathering of Haj pilgrimage in

Mecca; and they circumambulate the Kaba declaring

the oneness of God, Tagore thinks of India as a place

of pilgrimage the same way. Tagore imagines of

India as a great place of humanity with a sense of

universal brotherhood and he thinks of India as a

place of absorbing all types of people even in the

midst of Indian racial problems, caste system,

communal and deep political rift between the Hindus

and the Muslims. India becomes a place of

pilgrimage in the words of Tagore. It is possible to

gather all humanity in a place like India, only through

a greater awareness of humanity, along with a belief

in one God, Who reflects Him within all human

beings, Tagore writes:

Come then, Aryan, come, non –

Aryan,

Come, Hindu, Come Muslim,

Come, come today, You

Englishman,

Come oh Christian,

Come O Brahmin,

Purify your mind

And grasp the hands of all;

Come, all you downtrodden,

Through aside the burden of

disgrace

In nature, in the game of light and shade, in the rainy

season: Ashar and Shrabon; in the lighting and the

35

thunderbolt of the sky, in day and night, in the

moonlight night, in the road or in the temple, like a

stranger, the poet feels the presence of God and talks

to Him and questions Him with compassion and love.

The poet complaints to God against His being so

slippery in His appearance and disappearance like a

shadow behind him. He, God, is formless. But

Tagore says he feels His presence everywhere. This

is slightly Tagore‘s pantheistic approach in dealing

with the spirituality of his poems. Sometimes, Tagore

expresses his satisfaction with God‘s attitude to him;

God‘s game of hide and seek with the poet. The poet

has, sometimes, no complaints and he is satisfied

with his life and death question. ―Oh death, Oh my

perfection/ come, come‖ Tagore writes. Almost, in

every type of poem in Gitanjali, Tagore maintains

extreme note of humility in attitude and calmness in

language to develop the motifs of submission and

supplication to create peace in his own mind and the

mind of readers. Some examples of these kinds are

given below:

I.….

Look at me

Mercifully and kindly.

Monsoon rains pour down in torrents

On the dense forest branches,

The night sleeps on

Lulled into laziness by the torrential rain.

Gitanjali:86

II. On the moonlight night

My soul awakens.

Will there be room for me

Today at Your side‖

………..

III. Alone I went out

To keep my tryst with You.

Ah, who walks behind

Every step of me

In silent darkness?

……………… GitanjalI: 103

―Tagore was strongly against idol worship of

Hinduism,‖ (Sayed, 2001, P. 117)‖ and, therefore,

was a strong believer in one God. So Tagore has

developed the motifs of his poem accordingly in

Gitanjali. Tagore‘s last poem, which he dictated and

someone wrote before his death, proves that Tagore

at the end of his life fully surrendered to God. The

language of the poem is heart-breaking in which the

poet actually bargains with God with a very clear

compassionate language for peace saying that the

world has been designed as trap and deceptions by

God, and the paths to Him were not easy to select for

the poet. But the poet has been, in spite of his

external deceitful behavior, very humble within his

soul for God. At least for this humbleness of his

heart; and as a person, who tried his best to tolerate

and overcome the deceptions of the world to find the

way to God sincerely within all types of difficulties,

he deserves the guarantee for peace from God. Few

translated lines of the poem, quoted by Abdul

Mannan Sayed in his book, Rabindranath, (p.70), are

given below:

You have filled up the paths of your creation

With varied deceptions,

Oh, contriver/ deceiver!

…………………..

Though deceitful I am outwardly,

Inside humble within my soul,

I, who, have tolerated the deceptions in

silence,

Deserve eternal guarantee for peace in your

hand.

Conclusion: Though it is not possible to discuss, in a

short essay like this, the whole issue of submission

and supplication motifs of Tagore‘s Gitanjali, which

consist of virtually 157 poems, a significant attempt

has been made here to focus on the subjects. It can be

asserted that Tagore has developed the spiritual

motifs of submission and supplication to God in

Gitanjali poems in such a way that as if God were

with him all the time even in his dream in sleep, not

only in the day and night when he is awake. The

constant interactions of the poet with God in his

subjective and objective levels create a sense of

humility within him. He realizes God‘s presence in

his life and the life of other human beings in terms of

love and sympathy. He supplicates and submits to a

loving and compassionate God Who is understood

36

well in the greater existence of mankind in the world.

So Tagore‘s piety and spirituality are not separated

from mankind that has been created by the same God.

By submitting to one loving and compassionate God,

and by asking His help during his time of sorrow and

delight Tagore not only achieves peace for him but

also spreads a message of peace for humanity.

Tagore‘s message for peace in Gitanjali poems thus

is deeply connected with the belief in the existence of

one God Who created all human beings, who are

supposed to live peacefully in the world with love,

brotherhood, and justice. Tagore was greatly shocked

at the outbreak of the First World War and the plight

of human beings during the war. He cried out, ―Oh

God, save humanity, save us‖ in his writings and

speech equally. Tagore‘s message of Gitanjali, is

therefore, a message of peace for humanity which can

be achieved only through the submission and

supplication to God in personal and universal levels

by all human beings.

NOTES:

(i) For English translation of Gitanjali poems two

books have been selected:

Tagore, R. Gitanjali . (2000). New Delhi: Macmillan

India Limited & Tagore, R. Gitanjali, (2008),

(Trans.) by Brother James, the University Press,

second impression, Dhaka,

(ii) Tagore, R. (2010). Gitanjali (Bengali), Bissha

Sahiyatta Bhavan, Dhaka.

(iii) Hadith (sayings of the holy Prophet

Mohammad(S), retrieved from: www. Sunnah.com

(iv). Translation of the verses of the Koran is taken

from, The Holy Qur‟aan, English translation by

Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Farid Book Depot (pvt.) Ltd.

New Delhi, India, revised edition, 2000.

(v) ―Creed of the Brahmo Dharma‖ available:

http://www.thebrahmosamaj.net/liturgy/creed.html

(vi) The holy Bible, available on:

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bible?lang=eng

(vii).The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (text of 1834)

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173253

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