Leave This Chanting
by
Rabindranath Tagore
(Summary)
Gitanjali is a collection of 103 English
poems, largely translations, by Rabindranath Tagore himself. ‘Leave this
chanting’ is the 11th poem in the collection. In this poem, Tagore says, that
God lives in the company of humble tillers despite their dirty and tattered clothes.
God loves the poor and the humble because they earn their bread with the sweat
of their brow.
Leave this chanting
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.
Put off thy holy
mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!
Deliverance?
Where is this
deliverance to be found?
Our master himself
has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation;
he is bound with us
all forever.
Come out of thy
meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense!
What harm is there if
thy clothes become tattered and stained?
Meet
him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.
Summary
The
poet asks the religious people to give up their counting of beads and their
singing of hymns. He also asks them to stop worshiping God, with their eyes
half shut because God is not there before them. God can not to be found in this
way. Tagore says, that God really exists with the humble and down-trodden like
the tillers of the land and path-makers who work hard at breaking stones. God
lives with those who toil in sun and shower and whose clothes are soiled with
dust. The poet asks the priests to give up their holy robes and work with the
humble tillers of the soil in rain and sun.
Tagore
says, that the man seeks deliverance. But God, who is the creator and master of
everything, is not free as He has joyfully bound Himself to the work of
creation and to the objects He has created. God, Himself is bound to all of us
in chains of love. The poet says, that flowers and incense are not necessary to
find God. One can find God not in the temple but with the workers who works
whole day in the dirt and under the hot sun. He says, there is no harm if we
work under the sun and if our clothes become dirty, because we are going to see
the creator. According to Tagore, participation in the activity of life is
essential for the realization of God.
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