Tagore Quotes

The joy of life is in new creations, new adventures, and new feelings. ~ Debasish Mridha

Rabindranath Tagore writes that the song he wanted to sing has never happened because he spent his days "stringing and unstringing" his instrument. Whenever I read these lines a certain sadness enters my soul. I get so preoccupied with the details and pressure of my schedule, with the hurry and worry of life, that I miss the song of goodness which is waiting to be sung through me. ~ Joyce Rupp

Magical morning lights, dreamy sky,
Smiling flowers letting us know summer is opening her eyes ~ Debasish Mridha

truth and falsehood mingle in life - and to what God builds, man adds his own decoration. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

God never under any conditions binds His creation with fetters; He awakens it through constant changes to ever new life. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

If it is necessary to die in order to live like men, what harm in dying? ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Love's over brimming mystery joins death and life. It has filled my cup of pain with joy. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

A butterfly flitting from flower to flower ever remains mine, I lose the one that is netted by me. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The higher nature in man always seeks for something which transcends itself and yet is its deepest truth; which claims all its sacrifice, yet makes this sacrifice its own recompense. This is man's dharma, man's religion, and man's self is the vessel. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Shall I be able to understand the sense of what you have written?

No, King, what a poet writes is not meant to have any sense.

What then?

To have the tune itself.

What do you mean? Is there no philosophy in it?

No, none at all, thank goodness.

What does it say, then?

King, it says "I exist." Don't you know the meaning of the first cry of the new-born child? The child, when it is born, hears at once the cries of the earth and water and sky, which surround him,--and they all cry to him, "We exist," and his tiny little heart responds, and cries out in its turn, "I exist." My poetry is like the cry of that new-born child. It is a response to the cry of the Universe. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Let us kill each other with love and kindness - not with hatred and guns. ~ Debasish Mridha

Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away. And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Love is the best treatment for depression. To get better, you have to give it away as much as you can, as fast as you can, and as often as you can. ~ Debasish Mridha

He only has freedom who ideally loves freedom himself and is glad to extend it to others. He who cares to have slaves must chain himself to them. He who builds walls to create exclusion for others builds walls across his own freedom. He who distrusts freedom in others loses his moral right to it. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of its tail. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Love's Question "
And is this all true,
My ever-loving friend?
That the lightning-flash of the light in my eyes
Makes the clouds in your heart explode and blaze,
Is this true?
That my sweet lips are red as a blushing new bride,
My ever-loving friend,
Is this true?

That a tree of paradise flowers withing me,
That my foosteps ring like vinas beneath me,
Is this true?
That the night sheds drops of dew at the sight of me,
That the dawn surrounds me with light from delight in me,
Is this true?
That the touch of my hot cheek intoxicates the breeze,
My ever-loving friend,
Is this true?

That daylight hides in the dark of my hair,
That my arms hold life and death in their power,
Is this true?
That the earth can be wrapped in the end of my sari,
That my voice makes the world fall silent to hear me,
Is this true?
That the univrse is nothing but me and what loves me,
My ever-loving friend,
Is this true?

That for me alone your love has been waiting
Through worlds and ages awake and wandering,
Is this true?
That my voice, eyes, lips have brought you relief,
In a trice, from the cycle of life after life,
Is this true?
That you read on my soft forehead inginite Truth,
My ever-loving friend,
Is this true? ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The most important lesson that man can learn from life, is not that there is pain in this world, but that it is possible for him to transmute it into joy. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

If things did not move on and vanish, we should see no beauty anywhere.

If youth had only the heat of movement, it would get parched and withered. But there is ever the hidden tear, which keeps it fresh.

The cry of the world is not only "I have," but also "I give." In the first dawning light of creation, "I have" was wedded to "I give." If this bond of union were to snap, then everything would go to ruin. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

When I am in nature, my heart dances with butterflies and sings along with flowers. ~ Debasish Mridha

For here rolls the sea, and even here lies the other shore waiting to be reached - yes, here is this everlasting present, not distant, not anywhere else. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

It was chilly weather. Through the window the rays of the sun touched my feet, and the slight warmth was very welcome. It was almost eight o'clock, and the early pedestrians were returning home with their heads covered. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

To try to keep Bimala as a garland round my neck, would have meant keeping a weight hanging over my heart. Have I not been praying with all my strength, that if happiness may not be mine, let it go; if grief needs must be my lot, let it come; but let me knot be kept in bondage. To clutch hold of that which is untrue as though it were true, is only to throttle oneself. May I be saved from such self-destruction. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

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.) ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Measure your life not by its longevity but by the differences you have made with your creativity and beauty. ~ Debasish Mridha

My wife's name was Mala. The marriage had been arranged by my older brother and his wife. I regarded the proposition with neither objection nor enthusiasm. It was a duty expected of me, as it was expected of every man. She was the daughter of a schoolteacher in Beleghata. I was told that she could cook, knit, embroider, sketch landscapes, and recite poems by Tagore, but these talents could not make up for the fact that she did not possess a fair complexion, and so a string of men had rejected her to her face. She was twenty-seven, an age when her parents had begun to fear that she would never marry, and so they were willing to ship their only child halfway across the world in order to save her from spinsterhood. ~ Jhumpa Lahiri

Tagore claims that the first time he experienced the thrill of poetry was when he encountered the children's rhyme 'Jal pare/pata nare' ('Rain falls / The leaf trembles) n Iswrchandra Vidyasagar's Bengali primer Barna Parichay (Introducing the Alphabet). There are at least two revealing things about this citation. The first is that, as Bengali scholars have remarked, Tagore's memory, and predilection, lead him to misquote and rewrite the lines. The actual rhyme is in sadhu bhasha, or 'high' Bengali: 'Jal paritechhe / pata naritechhe' ('Rain falleth / the leaf trembleth'). This is precisely the sort of diction that Tagore chose for the English Gitanjali, which, with its these and thous, has so tried our patience. Yet, as a Bengali poet, Tagore's instinct was to simplify, and to draw language closer to speech. The other reason the lines of the rhyme are noteworthy, especially with regard to Tagore, is – despite their deceptively logical progression – their non-consecutive character. 'Rain falls' and 'the leaf trembles' are two independent, stand-alone observations: they don't necessarily have to follow each other. It's a feature of poetry commented upon by William Empson in Some Versions of Pastoral: that it's a genre that can get away with seamlessly joining two lines which are linked, otherwise, tenuously. ~ Amit Chaudhuri

The past is always with us, for nothing that once was time can ever depart. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The ultimate altruism is nothing but the sacrifice of one's self for the benefit of others. Love yourself but never forget to be altruistic to others in need. ~ Debasish Mridha

The real frienship is like fluorescence, it shines better when everything has darken. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The traveller in the read-brown clothes that he wears that dust may not show upon him, the girl searching in her bed for the petals fallen from the wreath of her royal lover, the servant or the bride awaiting the master's home-coming in the empty house, are images of the heart turning to God. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Life finds its wealth by the claims of the world, and its worth by the claims of love. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Ours is truly a God-forsaken country. Difficult, indeed, is it for us to maintain the strength of will to do. We get no help in any real sense. There is no one, within miles of us, in converse with whom we might gain an accession of vitality. No one near seems to be thinking, or feeling, or working. Not a soul has any experience of big striving, or of really and truly living. They all eat and drink, do their office work, smoke and sleep, and chatter nonsensically. When they touch upon emotion they grow sentimental, when they reason they are childish. One yearns for a full-blooded, sturdy, and capable personality; these are all so many shadows, flitting about, out of touch with the world. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Bravery ceases to be bravery at a certain point, and becomes mere foolhardiness. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Theism is a philosophy of non-thinker. ~ Debasish Mridha

These paper boats of mine are meant to dance on the ripples of hours, and not reach any destination. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Those who think to reach God by running away from the world, when and where do they expect to meet him? We are reaching him here in this very spot, now at this very moment. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Be not concerned about her heart, my heart: be content if the music is true, though the words are not to be believed; enjoy the grace that dances like a lily on the rippling, deceiving surface, whatever may lie beneath. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The child, who is decked with prince's robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step. In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move. Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

When you have finished with others, that is my time. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

This world is a peaceful stage where we are all villains of this drama and trees are the heroes. ~ Debasish Mridha

To the birds you gave songs, the birds gave you songs in return. You gave me only a voice, yet asked for more, thus I sing. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Man is not to fight with other human races, other human individuals, but his work is to bring about reconciliation and Peace and to restore the bonds of friendship and love. We are not like fighting beasts. It is the life of self which is predominating in our life, the self which is creating the seclusion, giving rise to sufferings, to jealousy and hatred, to political and commercial competition. All these illusions will vanish, if we go down to the heart of ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Where is heaven? you ask me, my child,-the sages tell us it is
beyond the limits of birth and death, unswayed by the rhythm of day
and night; it is not of the earth.
But your poet knows that its eternal hunger is for time and
space, and it strives evermore to be born in the fruitful dust.
Heaven is fulfilled in your sweet body, my child, in your
palpitating heart.
The sea is beating its drums in joy, the flowers are a-tiptoe
to kiss you. For heaven is born in you, in the arms of the mother-
dust. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Always be there for others. Always inspire them with your dreams and hope, vision and mission, attitude and aptitude. ~ Debasish Mridha

Pride engraves his frowns in stones; 
love offers her surrender in flowers. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Like the sun, a teacher enlightens a mind with his love, warmth, and light. ~ Debasish Mridha

These were autumn mornings, the very time of year when kings of old went forth to conquest; and I, never stirring from my little corner in Calcutta, would let my mind wander over the whole world. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

To understand anything is to find in it something which is our own, and it is the discovery of ourselves outside us which makes us glad. This relation of understanding is partial, but the relation of love is complete. In love the sense of difference is obliterated and the human soul fulfils its purpose in perfection, transcending the limits of itself and reaching across the threshold of the infinite. Therefore love is the highest bliss that man can attain to, for through it alone he truly knows that he is more than himself, and that he is at one with the All. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

When our universe is in harmony with man, the eternal, we know it as truth, we feel it as beauty. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

This moment is the most important and beautiful moment of your life. Live it, love it, and enjoy it! ~ Debasish Mridha

Overstraining is the enemy of accomplishment. Calm strength that arises from a deep and inexhaustible source is what brings success. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Ah! Beautiful Paris! Where smiles bloom on stone. ~ Debasish Mridha

When I give up the helm I know that the time has come for thee to take it. What there is to do will be instantly done. Vain is this struggle.
Then take away your hands and silently put up with your defeat, my heart, and think it your good fortune to sit perfectly still where you are placed.
These my lamps are blown out at every little puff of wind, and trying to light them I forget all else again and again.
But I shall be wise this time and wait in the dark, spreading my mat on the floor; and whenever it is thy pleasure, my lord, come silently and take thy seat here. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Pluck this little flower and take it, delay not! I fear lest it droop and drop into the dust.
I may not find a place in thy garland, but honour it with a touch of pain from thy hand and pluck it. I fear lest the day end before I am aware, and the time of offering go by.
Though its colour be not deep and its smell be faint, use this flower in thy service and pluck it while there is time. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Love gives beauty to everything it touches. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

I don't teach. I just show them why to learn, what to learn, how to learn, and the ultimate purpose of learning. ~ Debasish Mridha

Let me think that there is one among those stars that guides my life through the dark unknown. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living the immortality of love. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The modern age has brought the geography of the earth near to us, but made it difficult for us to come into touch with man ~ Rabindranath Tagore

This is my delight, thus to wait and watch at the wayside where shadow chases light and the rain comes in the wake of the summer.

Messengers, with tidings from unknown skies, greet me and speed along the road. My heart is glad within, and the breath of the passing breeze is sweet.

From dawn till dusk I sit here before my door, and I know that of a sudden the happy moment will arrive when I shall see.

In the meanwhile I smile and I sing all alone. In the meanwhile the air is filling with the perfume of promise. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

When you are ready, every door will open automatically for you. ~ Debasish Mridha

When we accept any discipline for ourselves, we try to avoid everything except that which is necessary for our purpose; it is this purposefulness, which belongs to the adult mind, that we force upon school children. We say, Never keep your mind aler. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

What you are you do not see, what you see is your shadow. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

I am willing to serve my country, but my worship I reserve for Right which is far greater than my country. To worship my country as a god is to bring a curse upon it. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying, and I knew it not. My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded.
Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from my dream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind.
That vague sweetness made my heart ache with longing and it seemed to me that is was the eager breath of the summer seeking for its completion.
I knew not then that it was so near, that it was mine, and that this perfect sweetness had blossomed in the depth of my own heart. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

I shall not commit the grievous sin of losing faith in Man ~ Rabindranath Tagore

I am ashamed of my emptiness," said the Word to the Work. "I know how poor I am when I see you," said the Work to the Word. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Wealth is the byproduct of thoughts. To be wealthy, think of wealth. ~ Debasish Mridha

We have seen that in order to be powerful we have to submit to the laws of the universal forces, and to realise in practice that they are our own. So, in order to be happy, we have to submit our individual will to the sovereignty of the universal will, and to feel in truth that it is our own will. When we reach that state wherein the adjustment of the finite in us to the infinite is made perfect, then pain itself becomes a valuable asset. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Love adorns itself; it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Humanity reveals her inner beauty through the interplay of gratitude, love, and kindness. ~ Debasish Mridha

Always be excited about your life. Try to find and create beauty in and around you. Give away your love and smiles as much as you can. Be content and happy with what you have. ~ Debasish Mridha

Joy is everywhere; it is in the earth's green covering of grass: in the blue serenity of the sky: in the reckless exuberance of spring: in the severe abstinence of grey winter: in the living flesh that animates our bodily frame: in the perfect poise of the human figure, noble and upright: in living, in the exercise of all our powers: in the acquisition of knowledge ... Joy is there everywhere. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Never be afraid of the moments
thus sings the voice of the everlasting. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

...those in this world who have the courage to try and solve in their own lives new problems of life are the ones who raise society to greatness! Those who merely live according to rule do not advance society, they only carry it along. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

But what is this state? It is like a morning of spring, varied in its life and beauty, yet one and entire.
All the conflicts and contradictions of life are reconciled; knowledge, love and action harmonized; pleasure and pain become one in beauty, enjoyment and renunciation equal in goodness; the breach between the finite and the infinite fills with love and overflows; every moment carries its message of the eternal; the formless appears to us in the form of the flower, of the fruit; the boundless takes us up in his arms as a father and walks by our side as a friend.
While yet we have not attained the internal harmony, and the wholeness of our being, our life remains a life of habits. The world still appears to us as a machine, to be mastered where it is useful, to be guarded against where it is dangerous, and never to be known in its full fellowship with us, alike in its physical nature and in its spiritual life and beauty. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The night kissed the fading day With a whisper: "I am death, your mother, From me you will get new birth." ~ Rabindranath Tagore

What a strange tune is this, that comes out of the music of Spring.
It seems like the tune of yellow leaves.
Spring has stored up its tears in secret for us all this while.
It was afraid we should not understand it, because we were so youthful.
It wanted to beguile us with smiles.
But we shall sleep our hearts tonight in the sadness of the other shore. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

I have observed, on board a steamer, how men and women easily give way to their instinct for flirtation, because water has the power of washing away our sense of responsibility, and those who on land resemble the oak in their firmness behave like floating seaweed when on the sea. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

I want to know the truth to set it free. ~ Debasish Mridha

Man's history is being shaped according to the difficulties it encounters. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

When material is in profusion, the mind gets lazy and leaves everything to it, forgetting that for a successful feast of joy its internal equipment counts for more than the external. This is the chief lesson which his infant state has to teach to man. There his possessions are few and trivial, yet he needs no more for his happiness. The world of play is spoilt for the unfortunate youngster who is burdened with an unlimited quantity of playthings. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The End"
It is time for me to go, mother; I am going.
When in the paling darkness of the lonely dawn you stretch out your arms for your baby in the bed, I shall say, "Baby is not there!" - mother, I am going.
I shall become a delicate draught of air and caress you; and I shall be ripples in the water when you bathe, and kiss you and kiss you again.
In the gusty night when the rain patters on the leaves you will hear my whisper in your bed, and my laughter will flash with the lightning through the open window into your room.
If you lie awake, thinking of your baby till late into the night, I shall sing to you from the stars, "Sleep, mother, sleep."
On the straying moonbeams I shall steal over your bed, and lie upon your bosom while you sleep.
I shall become a dream, and through the little opening of your eyelids I shall slip into the depths of your sleep; and when you wake up and look round startled, like a twinkling firefly I shall flit out into the darkness.
When, on the great festival of puja, the neighbours' children come and play about the house, I shall melt into the music of the flute and throb in your heart all day.
Dear auntie will come with puja-presents and will ask, "Where is our baby, sister?" Mother, you will tell her softly, "He is in the pupils of my eyes, he is in my body and in my soul. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Muhammad Iqbal, who had spent three rewarding years as a student in Europe in the first decade of the twentieth century, now wrote of it in the satirical tradition of the Illahabadi:
The West develops wonderful new skills
In this as in so many other fields
Its submarines are crocodiles
Its bombers rain destruction from the skies
Its gases so obscure the sky
They blind the sun's world-seeing eye
Dispatch this old fool to the West
To learn the art of killing fast- and best
On his previous trips to the West, Liang, like Tagore and Iqbal, had been a qualified admirer. During his longest sojourn there, he began to develop grave doubts about the civilization that had so blithely thrown away the fruits of progress and rationalism and sunk into barbarism. The 'materialist' West had managed to subdue nature through science and technology and created a Darwinian universe of conflict between individuals, classes and nations. But to what effect? Its materialistic people, constantly desiring ever-new things and constantly being frustrated, were worn out by war, were afflicted with insecurity, and were as far from happiness as ever. ~ Pankaj Mishra

Love is not a mere impulse, it must contain truth, which is law. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

With your spare time and money, make a difference for those who can't afford a life. ~ Debasish Mridha

The truth should not be contingent, but it should be coherent. ~ Debasish Mridha

CHASTITY is a wealth that comes from abundance of love. 74 ~ Rabindranath Tagore

The great ocean, crooning its lullaby with one unceasing melody, lapped the island to sleep with a thousand soft touches of its wave's white hands. The ~ Rabindranath Tagore

You came down from your throne and stood at my cottage door.
I was singing all alone in a corner, and the melody caught your ear. You came down and stood at my cottage door.
Masters are many in your hall, and songs are sung there at all hours. But the simple carol of this novice struck at your love. One plaintive little strain mingled with the great music of the world, and with a flower for a prize you came down and stopped at my cottage door. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Why did the flower fade? I pressed it to my heart with anxious love, that is why the flower faded. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

In order to succeed, we must first dream. Then we must believe in that dream and take action. ~ Debasish Mridha

Eyes see only dust and earth, but feel with the heart, and know pure joy.
The delights blossom on all sides in every form, but where is your heart's thread to make a wreath of them?
My master's flute sounds through all things, drawing me out of my lodgings wherever they may be, and while I listen I know that every step I take is in my master's house.
For he is the sea, he is the river that leads to the sea, and he is the landing-place. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

In life, every moment and everything, is miraculous because life itself is a dance of a miracle. ~ Debasish Mridha

The more you focus on the positive and the beauty around you, the more positive and peaceful your life will be. ~ Debasish Mridha

It is the same life that emerges in joy through the dust of the earth into numberless waves of flower. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

those who cannot find food for their enthusiasm in a knowledge of their country as it actually is, or those who cannot love men just because they are men - who needs must shout and deify their country in order to keep up their excitement - these love excitement more than their country. To ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Read books when you are free, read minds when you are'nt ... but do read ... ~ Rabindranath Tagore