Rabindranath Tagore writes:
‘One morning in the flower garden,
A blind girl came to offer me a
Flower chain in the cover of a lotus leaf.
I put it round my neck, tears came to my eyes.
I kissed her and said ’’You are blind even as flowers are.
You yourself know not how beautiful is your gift.’’
Here is a simple incident, imagined and put in words of simplicity and sincerity.But there is something significant, really something of penetrating importance ,behind all this simplicity.A blind girl to Tagore,indeed ,to all thinking men with sympathy,penetration,and understanding,is not ugly.Her worth she seems to communicate to her gifts,and they are the flowers,beautiful and touching.Such a beauty only the eyes that see can see;blind eyes that most people have cannot be near realizing this beauty. The eyes that see this beaty cannot be with us for the mere asking.Much effort is needed.He had eyes to see beyond things,behind things as they appeared to the world.Naturally, tears came to his eyes;and he could imagine a blind girl kissed by him for her gifts of flowers.A new music,divine and earthly alike can be heard in a tremendous measure.
Tagore sings:
‘The morning sea of silence broke into
Ripples of bird songs;and the flowers
Were all merry by roadside ;and
The wealth of gold was scattered through
The rift of the clouds,while the busily
Went our way and paid no heed……….
At last,when I woke from my slumber
And opened my eyes, I saw thee standing
By me, flooding my sleep with thy smile.
How I had feared that path was long
And wearisome,and the struggle to reach
Thee was hard.’
We have here a philosophy of hope that can put round our neck a flower chain,delicate,sweet,and evergreen.In Tagore’s own words,out of the depth of one’s heart,one can say:’More flowers will come to you with perfume and pride,O World!’
Tagore realized his self and depicted it in unsurpassable grandeur and beauty.He has painted it in the variegated colour of the rainbow ;he has shaded it with twilight sunbeam;he has washed it in mellow moonlight;he has given it a harp and tuned it with morning air;he has adorned it with laurels and studded with dew-drops;he has enthroned it on the lotus;he has enshrined it in an alabaster temple;and he has kindled the muse’s flame at its golden altar.On the expanding beach the temple stands,under the canopy of the azure sky,wrapped in fog;the ripples carry forth its reflection over the vast expanse of water covering globe.There the poet stands amazed,looking at his own image;singing in solemn melody:
‘One cosmic brotherhood,
One universal good,
One source, one sway,
One law beholding us,
One purpose moulding us
One life enfolding us,
In love always.
Anger,resentment,hate,
Long made us desolate;
Their reign is done.
Race ,colour,creed and caste
Fade in dreamy past.
Man wakes to learn at last,
All life is One.’
‘One morning in the flower garden,
A blind girl came to offer me a
Flower chain in the cover of a lotus leaf.
I put it round my neck, tears came to my eyes.
I kissed her and said ’’You are blind even as flowers are.
You yourself know not how beautiful is your gift.’’
Here is a simple incident, imagined and put in words of simplicity and sincerity.But there is something significant, really something of penetrating importance ,behind all this simplicity.A blind girl to Tagore,indeed ,to all thinking men with sympathy,penetration,and understanding,is not ugly.Her worth she seems to communicate to her gifts,and they are the flowers,beautiful and touching.Such a beauty only the eyes that see can see;blind eyes that most people have cannot be near realizing this beauty. The eyes that see this beaty cannot be with us for the mere asking.Much effort is needed.He had eyes to see beyond things,behind things as they appeared to the world.Naturally, tears came to his eyes;and he could imagine a blind girl kissed by him for her gifts of flowers.A new music,divine and earthly alike can be heard in a tremendous measure.
Tagore sings:
‘The morning sea of silence broke into
Ripples of bird songs;and the flowers
Were all merry by roadside ;and
The wealth of gold was scattered through
The rift of the clouds,while the busily
Went our way and paid no heed……….
At last,when I woke from my slumber
And opened my eyes, I saw thee standing
By me, flooding my sleep with thy smile.
How I had feared that path was long
And wearisome,and the struggle to reach
Thee was hard.’
We have here a philosophy of hope that can put round our neck a flower chain,delicate,sweet,and evergreen.In Tagore’s own words,out of the depth of one’s heart,one can say:’More flowers will come to you with perfume and pride,O World!’
Tagore realized his self and depicted it in unsurpassable grandeur and beauty.He has painted it in the variegated colour of the rainbow ;he has shaded it with twilight sunbeam;he has washed it in mellow moonlight;he has given it a harp and tuned it with morning air;he has adorned it with laurels and studded with dew-drops;he has enthroned it on the lotus;he has enshrined it in an alabaster temple;and he has kindled the muse’s flame at its golden altar.On the expanding beach the temple stands,under the canopy of the azure sky,wrapped in fog;the ripples carry forth its reflection over the vast expanse of water covering globe.There the poet stands amazed,looking at his own image;singing in solemn melody:
‘One cosmic brotherhood,
One universal good,
One source, one sway,
One law beholding us,
One purpose moulding us
One life enfolding us,
In love always.
Anger,resentment,hate,
Long made us desolate;
Their reign is done.
Race ,colour,creed and caste
Fade in dreamy past.
Man wakes to learn at last,
All life is One.’
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