Gitanjali is a story of soul's liberation. It is a song offering to God in the form of a prayer. But the theme of it is life and death. Thus the poem is the tale of soul's wait to meet her eternal bridegroom, the Divine Lord; a narration of soul's pilgrimage and voyage to the Heaven of Heaven. In the poem some flowers are from the garden of love, some from the garden of light, others from the garden of time, yet still others from the garden of death. The beauty of the poem lies not so much in the statement of any kind of experience but in the realization of experience through words which have in themselves become things.
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| Treatment of Death in Tagore’s Gitanjali |
In Gitanjali death is given a varied treatment. It is represented as a traveller, as a businessman, as a helmsman, as a bridegroom and the soul of the poet is represented as a bride. Sometimes, it is the veil and at other times life and death are the true breasts of the Divine Mother. Death is a renewal of life. It is diving into the ocean of form for the pearl of the formless.
Though the poet had to face a number of bereavements in his family which made him sombre and melancholic, yet like a true philosopher and mystic he does not find death as an object of fear. Rather he welcomes it joyfully, for it is the gateway through which alone union with the Eternal is possible. This creation of myriad colours and shapes is the curtain that separates the poet from his maker, and it is death alone which rends asunder the veil and ushers in the poet in the presence of the divine. Life is like a flower which is offered to Him before it withers. There should be no delay in one's total surrender to Him. He is the bearer of our burdens and one should leave everything to the will.
Death is the last fulfilment of life. It is inevitable and man has to surrender himself before it in all his totality, when deaths strikes all that man has ignored or spurned earlier will appear more valuable. So, love well while you live, but you should be ready when the summons comes from God without any bitter feelings as entrance to death. The soul dispossessed of all the worldly goods will reach God in a sweeter manner. Death is the last fulfilment of life.
Theme of death becomes predominant towards the end of Gitanjali, especially from 89th to 103rd song. In Gitanjali, 74, life is spoken of as a pitcher which is filled again and through death. It will not put an end to life. Life - death - life is the endless cycle in Nature. In the 89th song the poet hears the call of his divine playmate desiring him to come and play with Him. The poet must obey this sudden untimely call. In the 90th song, therefore, he says that he is not afraid of death. He is ready to welcome death whence it comes. He will give, to death all that he has acquired, earned and stored during his life on the earth. In song 91 he says that death is the fulfilment and consummation of life. He compares his life to a bride and death to a bridegroom. Like a bride, he has been waiting eagerly for the arrival of the bridegroom death. When death comes, he will offer to him all his hopes, all his joys and all his love.
In song 93, he finds that the call of earth has come to him from the great unknown and he will now start on his last journey. In song 95 he says that just as birth brings the soul into a strange world so also death carries him into the great unknown across the sea of eternity. Just as the soul had loved the life in this would as a matter of fact, life and death are the two breasts of the Divine Mother. When the mother feeds the child from one breast it weeps, but is soon consoled when it is put to the other breast. So also the human soul will also easily find rest and peace in the other world to which it will go after death.
In song 98 the poet will lay all his passions at the fact of his victor. He will give up all his pride, all his egoism and all its suffering and agony at the feet of his Lord and Master. At last the lotus of God's heart will open out like a flower, and he will drink from it the nectar of divine love and mercy.
In song 99, earthly existence is compared to a sea voyage. Until now the poet himself was the pilot of the ship but now he gives over its control to the Divine . He will welcome death when it comes.
In song 100, the poet compares this universe to an ocean full of myriad forms. In the depth of ocean lies a perfectly beautiful place which is God the infinite. All his life he has been searching for this place. In search of it he has sailed from one side of the ocean to the other and has been tossed about. But now the days are passed when he enjoyed being tossed about by the waves. Now he is eager to die and so enter the sea of Eternity. In that fathomless sea of Eternity in the great audience hall of the Infinite there is played the divine music, he will offer it at the feet of the Eternal silence...
In song 101 he says he has sought the divine all through his life. At last his songs would lead him to the gates of the palace of the divine.
It is in the last song (103) of Gitanjali that the poet prepares for the last surrender. Just as a cloud in July, full of rain, bends over the world and sheds its rain, so also he will bend low at the door of the divine and offer all that he has at His feet. Just as stream flows into the sea, so also all his songs will unite to form a single stream which will flow into the Eternal Sea. In this way he will offer all his songs to the divine. Just mark only a few of the lines related to the theme of death, how charming, how peace - providing, how consoling. how enjoyable and how lyrical they are: They are rich not only in thought but also in art:
1. In one salutation to thee, my God, let all my sense spread
showers;
Let all my mind bend down at thy door in one salutation to
thee.
2. I must launch out my boat, The languid hours pass by the
shore on the shore ......... (21).
3. Like a flock of homesick cranes flying night and day back
to their mountain nests,
Let all my life take its voyage to eternal home
in one salutation to thee.
Death is a permanent pre - occupation with Tagore. This theme is recurrent in his poetry. In a few other major poems besides Gitanjali, death is treated alike. For example, observe the following lines from his Fruit Gathering:
1. I have reached the brink of the shoreless sea to take my
plunge and lose myself for ever ( 37 )
2. My head bends in worship like a dew - laden flower and I
feel the flood of my life rushing to the endless.
Or study a line from Crossing: “Life sits in the chariot crowned by death”, and the reader would come to the conclusion that like Donne, like Eliot, Tagore also treated death in his poetry. But whereas to most English poets, death is a terrible experience, to Tagore it is a very pleasant one: it is a gate to salvation. The influence of Buddhism is very deep on him in this respect.