There is no word or phrase holding the ultimate strength that may contain the sheer audacity to describe the personality of Rabindranath Tagore. No doubt, his thoughts were deeply rooted in India (the eastern world), and he took great pride in the glorious, historical events which went by in the past.
His texts seemed to be flowing like a river with all its noises and silence at the same time, paying attention to both, which is necessary for the well-being of humankind.
He wanted India, along with its eastern counterparts, to stop imitating the west at once, look into its own fertile past, and acknowledge the beauty it has to share with us.
Because, imitating will only lead us to the future characterised by hollow, victorious events… They may have a victorious crust but are filled with hollow uncertainties.
The Importance Of The East And Its Past
In the present, hollow structure of the world, where there is no room for humanity in any sense, justice is struggling and gasping for justification. Inhumanity has reached its zenith, stepping onto the humane, which has been gifted the oozing death.
This in itself is evidence of his visionary thoughts. Tagore thinks that only the east and its past can fix this fissure that has erupted during the course of indiscriminate use of resources.
He tried to justify his thoughts by his description of how the great empires and its edifices which once stood up through the skies, now find their ruins mixed in the soil with no significant repository of thoughts for the precious present.
“The lamp of ancient Greece is extinct in the land where it was first lighted; the power of Rome lies dead and buried under the ruins of its vast empire.”
India And China Need To Look Within
And, he cited India and China to be still thriving only because of their sense of acknowledging the true sense of development. According to him, humanity still prevails in our texts and our vision is still not blurred by the hunger for more.
In another sense, it was only the eastern world, which put great emphasis on human developmental needs through the various, spiritual tools of introspection. Each and every tool digs through the core meaning of human existence and its necessity, in this exceptional coherence.
“But the civilization, whose basis in society and the spiritual ideal of man, is still a living thing in China and in India.”
According to him, the east was plagued by the bondage of self-dejection. Our thoughts lack the stimulation to boost our belief in self-efficacy. We lived through the attribution to be the protector of the past which, with all its magnificence, tries to conjure up the dead from its grave.
The East Illuminated The Rest Of The World
We were blamed to be the cultivator of the stagnant society which lives in the past, and has no care for the future. Tagore claims that this consistent accusation made us helpless, and turned this into a matter of boasting, which is no less than a façade of shame.
“But boasting is only a masked shame, it does not truly believe in itself.”
Tagore asserts, that when the west was sleeping and in slumber. It was the east that was holding torches of civilizational growth and illuminated the rest of the world with its wisdom. Then, the darkness falls onto the east and stopped. It doesn’t seem to be moving and is draining us of all our limitless resources.
He described Asia to be still, with no regard for the future feeding upon the past, which is in its true meaning is feeding upon itself. In a manner, he tries to give us an outlook on the acceptance of evolution within certain limits.
“Then fell the darkness of night fell upon all the lands of the east. The current of time seemed to stop at once, and Asia ceased to take any new food, feeding upon its own past, which is really feeding upon itself.”
Why Being Open To Change Is Necessary
However, Tagore came out to be the true optimist here. He thinks pauses are essential for the renewal of life. For the indiscriminate use of utilities may end us using up all our fuel, and thus, die of hunger in the long run. In a way, extravagance should always be kept in check, at least once in a while.
As I described him, Tagore is a man of different beliefs owing to different circumstances. He put forth all these spectra of thoughts just to pave the way so as to describe his thoughts on the ideals. To him, once ideals are formed, humans restrict themselves from permeating other boundaries of thoughts.
Formed ideals make us sluggish, weak, and also unacceptable within the broader framework. Ideals are like habits, and put forth the formidable challenge that keeps us from taking cutting-edge experiences, waiting for us to grab them like a true adventurer.
Therefore, at least for the sake of Tagore’s adventure, his thoughts must not be defied by us youths. We are the creatures made to maneuver through this adventurous landscape, and take great strides throughout the journey, which is not possible without breaking the shackles of ideals.
“Ideals once formed make the mind lazy. It becomes afraid to risk its acquisitions in fresh endeavors. It tries to enjoy complete security by shutting up its belongings behind fortifications of habits. But this is really shutting oneself up from the fullest enjoyment of one’s own possessions. It is miserliness.”
This article was originally published here.