My desires are many

Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali has always attracted me with its beautiful and simple rendering. A very concise book containing some of the most beautiful verses I have ever read. Without the special effects of rhyming that some of the poets are used to, this set of poetry has its own rhyme and rhythm that is beyond comprehension. In short, “Gitanjali” is a prayer directed towards the eternal hand of truth. I wanted to write on one extract from “The Gitanjali” that has a special place in my heart. Here I present the extract that I want to elaborate upon.

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My desires are many and my cry is pitiful,

but ever didst thou save me by hard refusals;

and this strong mercy has been wrought into my life through and through.

Day by day thou art making me worthy of the simple,

great gifts that thou gavest to me unasked---this sky and the light, this body and the

life and the mind---saving me from perils of overmuch desire.

There are times when I languidly linger

and times when I awaken and hurry in search of my goal;

but cruelly thou hidest thyself from before me.

Day by day thou art making me worthy of thy full acceptance by

refusing me ever and anon, saving me from perils of weak, uncertain desire.

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Tagore looks helpless like a child in these verses. When the mother is away, the child starts crying and she comes running to take care of her child. I see something similar happening in these simple verses. Tagore gives an indication as to how the desires we hold so dear to us, are met with hard refusals by the hands of life, and he says that he is thankful that the divine principal in him protects him from getting those desires fulfilled. He knows deeper inside that if the desires that he holds very dear at present get fulfilled, they will be causing a lot of distress in his life. He is thankful that this merciful treatment is just and is the most beautiful thing in his life. Tagore uses a very contrasting but very appropriate word with mercy and that is “strong,” which clearly indicates towards the refusal that seems harsh at the moment because of our strongly holding on to those desires that cause pain at the moment, but eventually as time passes, we see the mercy of the divine.

In the next stanza, he further converses with his internal principal and says that by refusing to all these desires, the divine is making him learn the true meaning of the simple things that we normally ignore due to our constant running and hankering after the objects of desires. Then he clearly states as to what those simple things are, the sky and the light, the body and the life, and the mind. Tagore has a very precise understanding of things and knows exactly as to what is meant by simple, and then he adds “great gifts” along with simple and we can see as to how Tagore is used to giving force to his thoughts. Every now and then he fuels his idea with few supporting or contrasting words that makes it a beautiful rendering.

Now, the poet feels the urgency of meeting with his beloved, the divine that he holds so dear. This is the beauty of most of his verses that so many shades of love can be seen in his poetry until he specifically states that the love is directed towards the divine. In the further rendering, Tagore presents another contrasting situation in which he says that there are times when he gets lazy and forgets about the true purpose of his existence, and then all of a sudden when he tries to hurry towards the goal of self realization or divine unfolding, he doesn’t reach anywhere. He adds that it is cruel on the part of the divine to hide the truth, but then he again adds that even in those hard rebuttals there is so much mercy that it is making him worthy of full acceptance by the hands of the divine. He says that his cries will be heard only when he becomes worthy of full acceptance by the divine and then the divine mother will take him in her hands to feed her child for the love and nourishment that his soul is craving from ages. He thus presents the weakness that the desires create, the ever changing and ever growing desires in us, that eventually lead us towards sorrow and distress. In short, these verses impart a beautiful message that living a simple life has its greatness hidden in the blessed state it puts us in. There never was any end to desires in this world of desires, and the only great purpose these desires can fulfill is when they are directed towards the divine unfolding in us and not without.