TWO POEMS ABOUT GOD
Given
below are two poems, originally called songs. They are included in a book
titled Gitanjali (Song Offerings)
written by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore who received the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1913, for its English translation.
Tagore who was a British
Indian poet, author, playwright, musician, composer, philosopher, social
reformer, painter and one of the foremost figures of the Bengal Renaissance, was
born on 7 May 1861 at Jorasnko and passed away on 7 August 1941 at Jorasanko
Thakurbari, Kolkata. He was the son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the
Brahmo Samaj, a new religious sect in the nineteenth century.
Tagore is most famous
for his Gitanjali (1910), novels like
Gora(1910), and Ghare-Baire (1916) concerning social and political identity. Among
his short stories Kabuliwala is very popular.
Tagore also composed
more than 2,2000 songs blending classical and folk traditions.
He authored two National
Anthems “Jana Gana Mana” and “Amar
Sonar Bangla”.
Tagore
believed in spiritual humanism, universal brotherhood, and harmony with
nature. In Gitanjali he addresses God as an ordinary worker in quite a few songs.
The two poems which are given
below are about God’s active presence among the poorest and ordinary human
beings who are engaged in creative labour.
FIRST POEM: Here is thy footstool and there rest
thy feet where live the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.
When I try to bow to
thee, my obeisance cannot reach down to the depth where thy feet rest among the
poorest, and lowliest, and lost.
Pride can never approach
to where thou walkest in the clothes of the humble among the poorest, and
lowliest, and lost.
My heart can never find
its way to where thou keepest company with companionless among the poorest, the
lowliest, and the lost.
…………….
SECOND POEM: 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 path-maker 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
the deliverance to be found? Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the
bonds of creation; he is bound with us all for ever.
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.
*********
G.R.Kanwal
24 July 2026
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