False Religion
Those who in the name of Faith embrace illusion,
kill and are killed.
Even the atheist gets God's blessings-
Does not boast of his religion;
With reverence he lights the lamp of Reason
And pays his homage not to scriptures,
But to the good in man.
The bigot insults his own religion
When he slays a man of another faith.
Conduct he judges not in the light of Reason;
In the temple he raises the blood-stained banner
And worships the devil in the name of God.
All that is shameful and barbarous through the Ages,
Has found a shelter in their temples-
Those they turn into prisons;
O, I hear the trumpet call of Destruction!
Time comes with her great broom
Sweeping all refuse away.
That which should make man free,
They turn into fetters;
That which should unite,
They turn into sword;
That which should bring love
From the fountain of the Eternal,
They turn into prison
And with its waves they flood the world.
They try to cross the river
In a bark riddled with holes;
And yet, in their anguish, whom do they blame?
O Lord, breaking false religion,
Save the blind!
Break! O break
The alter that is drowned in blood.
Let your thunder strike
Into the prison of false religion,
And bring to this unhappy land
The light of Knowledge.
— Rabindranath Tagore
* * *
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was one of India’s greatest poets and freedom fighters. He was also one of the country’s earliest Nobel Laureates.
Born in Calcutta into a wealthy Bengali Brahmin family, he was a writer, playwright, songwriter, poet, philosopher and educator.
During the first 51 years of his life he became famous for his short stories which were published monthly in a friend's magazine and he even played the lead role in the public performances of his plays.
In 1912, he returned to Britain for the first time since his failed attempt at law school as a teenager.
He began translating, for the first time, his latest selections of poems into English. Almost all of his work prior to that time had been written in his native tongue Bengali.
Tagore had no expectation that it would be well-received by the British.
A friend of the writer William Butler Yeats read his poems and introduced Tagore to Yeats, who was impressed with his work.
Tagore’s poems were published in 1912 by the India Society in London.
Both the poetry and the man became an instant sensation, first in London and soon around the world.
His spiritual presence was awesome. His words evoked great beauty. Nobody had ever read anything like that.
A glimpse of the mysticism and sentimental beauty of Indian culture was revealed to the West for the first time.
Less than a year later, Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
He was the first Indian to be so honoured.
Overnight he began world lecture tours promoting inter-cultural harmony and understanding.
In 1915 he was knighted by the British King George V.
When not travelling he remained at his family home in Calcutta where he remained active as a literary, spiritual and social-political force fighting for Indian independence.
A good friend of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Tagore promoted spiritual values and the creation of a new world culture founded in multi-culturalism, diversity and tolerance.
He served as a spiritual and creative beacon to his countrymen and the world.
He used the funds from his writing and lecturing to expand upon the school he founded in 1901, Visva Bharati.
Rabindranath Tagore opened the School Of Wisdom in 1920 and participated in several of its programmes which combined traditional Indian values and Western ones.
He wrote over a thousand poems, eight volumes of short stories, almost two dozen plays, eight novels and many books and essays on philosophy, religion, education and social topics.
Aside from words and drama, his other great love was music, Bengali style.
He composed more than two thousand songs, both the music and lyrics.
Two of them became the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.
In 1929 he began painting. Many of his paintings can be found in museums, especially in India, where he is considered the greatest literary figure of all time.
Tagore was very knowledgeable in Western culture, especially poetry and science.
He had a good grasp of modern physics and was able to hold his own in a debate with Albert Einstein in 1930 on the newly emerging principles of quantum mechanics.
False Religion Rabindranath Tagore
by betterdaze 1 Replies latest watchtower bible
-
betterdaze
-
wobble
A truly remarkable polymath, not appreciated enough today in the West. If I remember correctly, he was striking looking too!
The man had everything.