India, May 7 -- "Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in thousand bonds of delight." This strikes the keynote of Tagore's poetic spirituality. Despite his deep Vedantic background, Tagore was against any world-negating asceticism. "Whom dost thou worship in the lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?" He found the Omnipresent expressed in and through the creation.

"Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found?" Tagore is clear in assertion, "Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; He is bound with us all forever." God has invited the poet to this wonderful feast of sight and symphony as He wants to witness the eternal harmony of His creation through the eyes and ears of the poet who has been made endless with ever fresh life. So he undergoes the experiences of complete life and is so daring, so passionate and yet so saintly.

The poet is never indifferent to the sordid suffering and numerous worldly diversions. His desires are many and cry is pitiful but he is thankful to God for saving him with hard refusals and thereby making him worthy of divine love.

He is aware that the barrier between him and his cosmic beloved is created by his unending earthly desires. He knows, "All desires that distract me day and night are false and empty to the core."

But this human cry of flesh is succumbed by sublime cry of soul, "Light, oh where is the light? Kindle it with the burning fire of desire." Finally he affirms, "Yes, all my illusions will burn into illumination of joy and all my desires ripen into fruits of love."

"It was my songs that taught me all the lessons I ever learnt, they showed me the secret path,"- says the poet. He marked his poetic spirituality with the words, "In this playhouse of infinite forms, I have had my play and here have I caught sight of him that is formless."

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Hindustan Times.

View original post here:

Tagore's poetic spirituality