Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore (Themes)

Gitanjali

by Rabindranath Tagore

(Themes)

 

Gitanjali is a blend of a number of themes and ideas. Its hundred and odd lyrics explore the relationship between God and Man, individual and humanity. It justifies the ways of man to God and vice versa. It “expresses in perfect language and permanent human impulses”, and thus passes the test of great poetry as laid down by T. S. Eliot. Here poetry has become a revelation, and incantation, like Vedic mantras and the poem as a whole opens the closed petals of our lotus-heart. It is an Xray of inner reality. In the words of Dr. Radhakrishnan, “The poems of Gitanjali are the offerings of the finite to the infinite.” Gitanjali is Tagore’s autobiography. But at the same time, it is the voice of our own soul. Its central theme is the realization of God through self-purification, love, constant prayer, bhakti, dedication and surrender before God, through service to humanity and through ‘Karma Yoga’ and detachment from the worldly pleasures and desires without renouncing the world.

The central theme of Gitanjali, despite the lack of a logical structural succession of a continuous theme, is devotional: it expresses the yearning of the devotee for re-union with the divine. The poet is a singer and he seeks the realization of God through his songs. He considers himself to be a living musical instrument in the hands of God, the Master Musician. But he must remove his imperfections before he can be a fit instrument. The entire Sadhana of his life is elevated to removing the imperfections and the impurities of his mind and heart, to overcoming all obstacles in the path of his realization of God. A few of the song-offerings shall convince us about our claim: -

1. Ever in my life have I sought thee with my songs.

2. In our salutation to thee, My God, let all my senses spread out and touch this world at thy feet ......

In his love for God, Gurudev Tagore never ignored man. Tagore always sang to the glory of man. Man was the hero of all his songs. Not God alone, but man also is the main theme of Gitanjali. With mysticism is clubbed humanism, which is voiced forcefully in a number of lyrics. God is not to be found in the temple but with the lowliest of low. Idolatry and blind worship are castigated:

Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely corner of a temple with doors all shut?

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

The tiller, the stone-breaker, the honest laborer, mocking in the spirit of the Gita, are the real abode of God. The idea of escape from world’s duties is condemned by the poet. Deliverance is to be found within and not in renouncing the world. Man can attain God by living in the world and performing his duties like a Karma Yogi. Tagore’s oft quoted and oft-recited prayer is the sum and substance of humanism. There could not be a greater humanistic steam than in the following lines: -

Where the mind is without fear and head is held high,

Where knowledge is free, etc.

According to Tagore, we can worship God only by loving and adoring the divinity in man. The most concrete and visible manifestations of the Supreme Being are men. We cannot comprehend the infinite nature of God. We can only sense Him through love and service to humanity. The true religion, therefore, ordains us to love humanity. Thus, humanism is also the theme of Gitanjali. Sometimes it is the unison of man. God and Nature that becomes the major theme in the Gitanjali, may the whole of Tagore’s poetic output is steeped in this colour. In the Gitanjali, the poet probes into the mysteries of life, of man and of nature and the poet’s vision is “free, vast and serene.”

Another major theme of Gitanjali is death, soul’s voyage to eternity. This becomes prominent towards the end of the poem. The poet is not afraid of death; rather he welcomes it joyfully, for it is the gateway through which alone union with the eternal is possible. Death is not the end of life but a beginning of a new one; it is a renewal of life. In Gitanjali, life is spoken as a pitcher which is filled again through death. It is only through death that spiritual

truths can be realized. Death is the bride and we all are bridegrooms and should be ready to meet her. Death to Tagore is an auspicious moment to provide him an opportunity to return to the original home. It is a tryst with the dinner. It is an intimation of immortality. Tagore speaks of death as a mystic. Death is his inseparable companion.

Thus, in Gitanjali flowers, from the gardens of light, time, death, beauty, Nature, Divinity, Humanism, are selected. The beauty of the poem lies not so much in the statement of any kind of experience but in the realization of experience through words, which have in themselves become things.

To sum up, the themes of Gitanjali are Man, Nature, God, Life, and Death.