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Poetry
Chaikhana
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About Rabindranath TagoreTimeline (1861 - 1941) |
![Rabindranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore poetry, Yoga / Hindu, Yoga / Hindu poetry, poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry](images/TagoreRab_sm.jpg) |
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English version by Original Language |
I touch God in my song
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I touch God in my song
as the hill touches the far-away sea with its waterfall. The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. Let my love, like sunlight, surround you and yet give you illumined freedom. Love remains a secret even when spoken, for only a lover truly knows that he is loved. Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for thee. In love I pay my endless debt to thee for what thou art.
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...only a lover truly knows that he is loved.
In this poem's few short lines, Rabindranath Tagore marries the bhakti path of utter love for God with the heart of karma yoga's union through action.
In traditional Indian metaphysics, the goal is usually understood to be enlightenment and freedom from the karmic tug that traps us in the cycle of earthly embodiment, "emancipation from the bondage of the soil." But here Tagore challenges the otherworldly approach that often engenders.
Even the spiritual idea of earthly liberation can become a selfish goal. For one utterly in love with God, the paying of that "debt" is simply a labor of love. Every effort, every experience, even suffering, is simply an expression of one's love for God. That is enough right there for the true lover of God. Rather than seeking escape from "the soil," the world is seen as a panorama that offers endless opportunities to worship and experience the Divine.
This is the great vision of karma yoga.
It is also the attitude finally allows us to be at rest on our spiritual journey, rather than live as a convict on the run. What some see as the prison yard, becomes instead an exercise yard. It is a courageous way of acknowledging that freedom is not escape, it is deep presence.
And we find that we live not in fleeting time, but in the ever expanding present moment.
The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.
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Ivan
M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright ©
2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or
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