Sadhana : the realisation of lifeTagore, Rabindranath
Religion
Sadhana : the realisation of life
Tagore, Rabindranath
Philosophy, Hindu; Values
Similarly, when we talk about the relative values of freedom and
non-freedom, it becomes a mere play of words. It is not that we
desire freedom alone, we want thraldom as well. It is the high
function of love to welcome all limitations and to transcend
them. For nothing is more independent than love, and where else,
again, shall we find so much of dependence? In love, thraldom is
as glorious as freedom.
The _Vaishnava_ religion has boldly declared that God has bound
himself to man, and in that consists the greatest glory of human
existence. In the spell of the wonderful rhythm of the finite he
fetters himself at every step, and thus gives his love out in
music in his most perfect lyrics of beauty. Beauty is his wooing
of our heart; it can have no other purpose. It tells us
everywhere that the display of power is not the ultimate meaning
of creation; wherever there is a bit of colour, a note of song, a
grace of form, there comes the call for our love. Hunger compels
us to obey its behests, but hunger is not the last word for a man.
There have been men who have deliberately defied its commands to
show that the human soul is not to be led by the pressure of wants
and threat of pain. In fact, to live the life of man we have to
resist its demands every day, the least of us as well as the
greatest. But, on the other hand, there is a beauty in the world
which never insults our freedom, never raises even its little
finger to make us acknowledge its sovereignty. We can absolutely
ignore it and suffer no penalty in consequence. It is a call to
us, but not a command. It seeks for love in us, and love can
never be had by compulsion. Compulsion is not indeed the final
appeal to man, but joy is. Any joy is everywhere; it is in the
earth's green covering of grass; in the blue serenity of the sky;
in the reckless exuberance of spring; in the severe abstinence of
grey winter; in the living flesh that animates our bodily frame;
in the perfect poise of the human figure, noble and upright; in
living; in the exercise of all our powers; in the acquisition of
knowledge; in fighting evils; in dying for gains we never can
share. Joy is there everywhere; it is superfluous, unnecessary;
nay, it very often contradicts the most peremptory behests of
necessity. It exists to show that the bonds of law can only be
explained by love; they are like body and soul. Joy is the
realisation of the truth of oneness, the oneness of our soul with
the world and of the world-soul with the supreme lover.
VI
REALISATION IN ACTION
It is only those who have known that joy expresses itself through
law who have learnt to transcend the law. Not that the bonds of
law have ceased to exist for them--but that the bonds have become
to them as the form of freedom incarnate. The freed soul
delights in accepting bonds, and does not seek to evade any of
them, for in each does it feel the manifestation of an infinite
energy whose joy is in creation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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