{"id":186,"date":"2023-07-19T11:55:38","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T11:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/?p=186"},"modified":"2023-07-20T11:13:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T11:13:17","slug":"embracing-the-infinite-tagores-exploration-of-death-and-existence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/embracing-the-infinite-tagores-exploration-of-death-and-existence\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing the Infinite: Tagore’s Exploration of Death and Existence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“\u09a4\u0996\u09a8 \u0995\u09c7 \u09ac\u09b2\u09c7 \u0997\u09cb \u09b8\u09c7\u0987 \u09aa\u09cd\u09b0\u09ad\u09be\u09a4\u09c7 \u09a8\u09c7\u0987 \u0986\u09ae\u09bf..” (\u201cAnd who says I am not there in that morning\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\nSource: <\/span>https:\/\/www.thebetterindia.com\/140394\/gurudev-rabindranath-tagore-my-reminiscences\/ <\/a>\n\n\n\n

Published in the magazine \u201cProbashi\u201d, in Santiniketan, dated April 5, 1916, the song  \u201cJokhon porbe na mor\u2019\u2019 reflects Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore\u2019s humble yet self-assured  acceptance of death and his outlook on the transience of human life. Perhaps it was because  grief had befallen him quite early in life, with the loss of his mother when he was only sixteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pain and anguish that he felt is evident in his autobiographical work, Jibansmriti<\/em>,  which he penned at the age of 50. Then at age 24, Tagore experienced what he recalled his first  \u201cpermanent\u2019\u2019 encounter with death, as his sister-in-law, Kadambari Devi, committed suicide.  He writes, \u201c\u2026its blow has continued to add itself to each succeeding bereavement in an ever lengthening chain of tears.\u201d Yet, the consolation lay in Tagore\u2019s search for meaning and  significance in death and loss, where life didn\u2019t seem futile but enriched and fulfilled even at  death\u2019s doorstep and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence Tagore pens the essay \u201cPratham Shok\u201d (First Grief) in \u201cLipika\u2019\u2019:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

“\u09af\u09be \u099b\u09bf\u09b2 \u09b6\u09cb\u0995, \u0986\u099c \u09a4\u09be\u0987 \u09b9\u09df\u09c7\u099b\u09c7 \u09b6\u09be\u09a8\u09cd\u09a4\u09bf” (\u201cWhat was sorrow, today it has become peace\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professing the faith that there is a sense of relief to be found within grief, Tagore vowed to find  catharsis, and ultimately attain a sense of solace and transcendence. This quest offered a new  perspective on death as imperative in upholding the balance of mortality, leading to the joyous  realisation \u201c…<\/strong>that we were not prisoners forever within a solid stone wall of life was the  thought which unconsciously kept coming uppermost in rushes of gladness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps these philosophical reflections and understanding of the transient nature of life held  him upright in the face of profound grief he experienced, including the passing of his wife,  Mrinalini Devi, in 1902, the death of his 12-year-old second daughter, Rani, in 1903, the loss  of his close companion Satish Chandra Ray in 1904, and the death of his father in the early part  of 1905. The year 1907 brought the most severe blow when Samindranath, his 11-year-old son succumbed to cholera. Tagore recollects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt a particular point of time\u2026I saw the vision of my son lying in the heart of the  Infinite\u2026that the child was safe, that he had found his liberation\u2026I felt at once that the  physical nearness of our dear ones to ourselves is not the final meaning of their protection. It  is merely a means of satisfaction to our own selves and not necessarily the best that could be  wished for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1932, 21-year-old Nitu, Tagore\u2019s youngest daughter Mira\u2019s son Nitindranath Ganguly,  passed away from tuberculosis. Like a parent finding solace in comforting another parent,  Tagore writes to Mira \u201cwhen I heard that Nitu had left us, for days I repeated to myself that I  had no responsibility left, except to pray that he should find well-being in that Infinite to which  he has gone.\u201d Consequently, he composed \u201cBishwashok\u2019\u2019 or \u201cUniversal Grief\u2019\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u098f\u0987 \u09ac\u09cd\u09af\u09a5\u09be\u0995\u09c7 \u0986\u09ae\u09be\u09b0 \u09ac\u09b2\u09c7 \u09ad\u09c1\u09b2\u09ac \u09af\u0996\u09a8\u09bf \u09a4\u0996\u09a8\u09bf \u09b8\u09c7 \u09aa\u09cd\u09b0\u0995\u09be\u09b6 \u09aa\u09be\u09ac\u09c7 \u09ac\u09bf\u09b6\u09cd\u09ac\u09b0\u09c2\u09aa\u09c7\u0964\" (\u201cWhen I transcend this personal woe,\u00a0Only then will it manifest in its universal form.\u2019\u2019)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
While \u201cPrathom Shok\u2019\u2019 asserts “\u0986\u09ae\u09bf \u09a4\u09cb\u09ae\u09be\u09b0 \u09b8\u09c7\u0987 \u0985\u09a8\u09c7\u0995 \u0995\u09be\u09b2\u09c7\u09b0, \u09b8\u09c7\u0987 \u09aa\u0981\u099a\u09bf\u09b6 \u09ac\u099b\u09b0 \u09ac\u09df\u09b8\u09c7\u09b0 \u09b6\u09cb\u0995” (\u201cI am that long-gone sorrow of yours, twenty-five years in age\u2019\u2019), now in the twilight\u00a0 years Tagore\u2019s faith in the supreme had delivered his personal sorrow to the realm of universal\u00a0 truth. In Gitanjali <\/em>Tagore expresses this sentiment as \u201cDeath thy servant is at my door. He has\u00a0 crossed the unknown sea and brought thy call to my home.\u201d The Bard\u2019s acknowledgement and\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
reception of death, as Meenakshi Singha in her essay “\u09aa\u09cd\u09b0\u09a5\u09ae \u09b6\u09cb\u0995 \u09a5\u09c7\u0995\u09c7 \u09ac\u09bf\u09b6\u09cd\u09ac\u09b6\u09cb\u0995” (\u201cFrom First\u00a0 grief to Universal grief\u2019\u2019) describes it, elevated the status of grief to eternal verse; wherein \u201c\u09b6\u09cb\u0995 \u09b9\u09df\u09c7 \u0989\u09a0\u09b2\u09cb \u09b6\u09cd\u09b2\u09cb\u0995\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“\u09a4\u0996\u09a8 \u0995\u09c7 \u09ac\u09b2\u09c7 \u0997\u09cb \u09b8\u09c7\u0987 \u09aa\u09cd\u09b0\u09ad\u09be\u09a4\u09c7 \u09a8\u09c7\u0987 \u0986\u09ae\u09bf..” (\u201cAnd who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rabindra-sangeet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brainwareuniversity.ac.in\/celebrating-tagore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}