Rabindranath

Selected Quotations of RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Gross utility kills beauty. We now have all over the world huge production of things, huge organizations, huge administrations of empire - all obstructing the path of life. Civilization is waiting for a great consummation, for an expression of its soul in beauty. This must be your contribution to the world.

A dewdrop is a perfect integrity that has no filial memory of its parentage.

I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.

Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.

Life, like a child, laughs, shaking its rattle of death as it runs

To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.

In the night we stumble over things and become acutely conscious of their separateness, but the day reveals the unity which embraces them. And the man whose inner vision is bathed in consciousness at once realizes the spiritual unity which reigns over all racial differences, and his mind no longer stumbles over individual facts, accepting them as final. He realizes that peace is an inner harmony and not an outer adjustment, that beauty carries the assurance of our relationship to reality, which waits for its perfection in the response of our love.

Truth cannot afford to be tolerant where it faces positive evil.

eg. (My comments) - In the movie The lion King, Simba had to kill uncle Scar who was positively evil !!

	Selected Quotations of RABINDRANATH TAGORE
	Gross utility kills beauty. We now have all over the world huge production of things, huge organizations, huge administrations of empire - all obstructing the path of life. Civilization is waiting for a great consummation, for an expression of its soul in beauty. This must be your contribution to the world.
	A dewdrop is a perfect integrity that has no filial memory of its parentage.
	I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it. Facts are many, but the truth is one.
Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.
Life, like a child, laughs, shaking its rattle of death as it runs
Love adorns itself; it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty. Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom. Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it. Love is not a mere impulse, it must contain truth, which is law. Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation. Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation. Loveís overbrimming mystery joins death and life. It has filled my cup of pain with joy. Love's gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted. Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence.
The fish in the water is silent, the animals on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing. But man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.
The question why there is evil in existence is the same as why there is imperfection... But this is the real question we ought to ask: Is this imperfection the final truth, is evil absolute and ultimate?
This is the ultimate end of man, to find the One which is in him; which is his truth, which is his soul; the key with which he opens the gate of the spiritual life, the heavenly kingdom.
To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.
Children are living beings - more living than grown-up people who have built shells of habit around themselves. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for their mental health and development that they should not have mere schools for their lessons, but a world whose guiding spirit is personal love.
In the night we stumble over things and become acutely conscious of their separateness, but the day reveals the unity which embraces them. And the man whose inner vision is bathed in consciousness at once realizes the spiritual unity which reigns over all racial differences, and his mind no longer stumbles over individual facts, accepting them as final. He realizes that peace is an inner harmony and not an outer adjustment, that beauty carries the assurance of our relationship to reality, which waits for its perfection in the response of our love.
Religion, like poetry, is not a mere idea, it is expression. The self-expression of God is in the endless variety of creation; and our attitude toward the Infinite Being must also in its expression have a variety of individuality ceaseless and unending. Those sects which jealously build their boundaries with too rigid creeds excluding all spontaneous movement of the living spirit may hoard their theology but they kill religion.
So our daily worship of God is not really the process of gradual acquisition of him, but the daily process of surrendering ourselves, removing all obstacles to union and extending our consciousness of him in devotion and service, in goodness and in love.... Thus to be conscious of being absolutely enveloped by Brahma is not an act of mere concentration of mind. It must be the aim of the whole of our life. In all our thoughts and deeds we must be conscious of the infinite.
The child learns so easily because he has a natural gift, but adults, because they are tyrants, ignore natural gifts and say that children must learn through the same process that they learned by. We insist upon forced mental feeding and our lessons become a form of torture. This is one of man's most cruel and wasteful mistakes.
Your mission is proving that a love for the earth, and for the things of the earth, is possible without materialism, a love without greed... I entreat you not to be turned by the call of vulgar strength, of stupendous size, by the spirit of storage, by the multiplication of millions, without meaning and without end. Cherish the ideal of perfection, and to that, relate all your work and all your movements. Though you love the material things of earth, they will not hurt you and you will bring heaven to earth and soul into things.
We do not want nowadays temples of worship and outward rites and ceremonies. What we really want is an Asram. We want a place where the beauty of nature and the noblest pursuits of man are in a sweet harmony. Our temple of worship is there where outward nature and human soul meet in union.
Truth cannot afford to be tolerant where it faces positive evil. eg. (My comments) - In the movie The lion King, Simba had to kill uncle Scar who was positively evil !!