Two Gems From Tagore !

[Guest guest]

Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads!

Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with

doors all shut?

Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the

pathmaker is breaking stones.

He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with

dust.

 

Tagore- Gitanjali

 

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Friendless as a child

 

And looking far away,

 

I live my days in solitude.

 

I was born in a world

 

Unloved, unclean,

 

A world without walls and blazons.

 

My neighbors' homes were circled by high fences.

 

I was a nameless boy, an outcast,

 

They had fine and crowded homes;

 

>From afar, I watched their coming and their going

 

Along the paved way.

 

I have no caste,

 

And may not dine with them.

 

The men brought up in ritual and creed

 

Did not recognize Man in me,

 

Therefore I played on the streets alone.

 

Holding up their robes, they passed by,

 

And plucked flowers for the worship of their God,

 

Flowers plucked by the rules of their holy books;

 

And for my God, left behind

 

Flowers from all lands,

 

Flowers blessed by the same sun.

 

Neglected by the crowd

 

I have roved, hungry for unity with Man,

 

Whose guest-house has no walls, no guards.

 

Beyond the crowd I have found friends in my solitude,

 

Friends who in history's great Ages

 

Have come with lights,

 

Come with the Great Message.

 

They are heroes, death-conquerers,

 

They are my kith and kin,

 

My caste and my lineage.

 

By their constant purity, I am made pure.

 

They are Truth's pilgrims,

 

Light's worshippers,

 

Worthy possessors of Amrita*.

 

In the narrow circle, I have lost Man

 

And found him there, where he transcends

 

The limits of all lands.

 

With folded hands, I have prayed to Him:

 

'O Eternal Man, you who belong to all men,

 

Save me from the arrogance of Pride,

 

That wears the mark of Exclusion.'

 

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

 

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enjoy!