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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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