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Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore Quotes

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Famous Rabindranath Tagore Quotes

“The question why there is evil in existence is the same as why there is imperfection, or in other words, why there is creation at all. We must take it for granted that it could not be otherwise, that creation must be imperfect, must be gradual, and that it is futile to ask the question, ‘Why are we?’ But this is the real question we ought to ask: Is this imperfection the final truth? Is evil absolute and ultimate? The river has its boundaries, its bank, but is a river all banks or are the banks the final facts about the river? Do not these obstructions themselves give its water an onward motion? The towing rope binds a boat, but is bondage its meaning? Does it not at the same time draw the boat forward? The current of the world has its boundaries, otherwise it could have no existence, but its purpose is not shown in the boundaries which restrain it, but in its movement which is towards perfection. The wonder is not that there should be obstacles and sufferings in this world, but that there should be law and order, beauty and joy, goodness and love. The idea of God that man has in his being is the wonder of all wonders. He has felt in the depths of his life that what appears as imperfect is the manifestation of the perfect. Just as a man who has an ear for music realises the perfection of a song, while in fact he is only listening to a succession of notes. Man has found out the great paradox that what is limited is not imprisoned within its limits; it is ever moving, and therewith shedding its finitude every moment. In fact, imperfection is not a negation of perfectness. Finitude is not contradictory to the infinity. They are but completeness manifested in parts; infinity revealed within bounds.”

GodSufferingEvilCreationPerfectionInfiniteImperfectionInfinityFinitude
Book:Sadhana
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“মম চিত্তে নিতি নৃত্যে কে যে নাচে তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ। তারি সঙ্গে কী মৃদঙ্গে সদা বাজে তাতা থৈথৈ তাতা থৈথৈ তাতা থৈথৈ॥ হাসিকান্না হীরাপান্না দোলে ভালে, কাঁপে ছন্দে ভালোমন্দ তালে তালে, নাচে জন্ম নাচে মৃত্যু পাছে পাছে, তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ। কী আনন্দ, কী আনন্দ, কী আনন্দ দিবারাত্রি নাচে মুক্তি নাচে বন্ধ-- সে তরঙ্গে ছুটি রঙ্গে পাছে পাছে তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ, তাতা থৈথৈ॥”

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Author:Rabindranath Tagore
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“Whatever character our theology may ascribe to him, in reality God is the infinite ideal of Man, towards whom men move in their collective growth, with whom they seek their union of love as individuals, in whom they find their ideal of father, friend and beloved.”

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Book:The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore: A miscellany
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“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.”

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Book:SĀDHANĀ - The Realisation of life
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“Our self (Soul) is maya (an illusion) where it is merely individual and finite, where it considers its separateness as absolute; it is satyam (truth) where it recognizes its essence in the universal and infinite, in the Supreme Self, in paramatman (God). This is what Christ means when he says, "Before Abraham was, I am" (i.e. before Abraham was God, who is the same that is in my soul - I am That.)”

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Author:Rabindranath Tagore
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