Faith, in the life of a poet

Rabindranath invariably believed in a religious view which is directly related to the greater welfare of humanity as well as human beings. He was neither an atheist nor a great believer of conventional religions. In one of his poems he asserted that he was not interested in leaving any view because he was complete through consuming all the beliefs into himself. Tagore philosophizes that truth always merges into a unified whole. While writing the book Rabindranath: Dharmabhabna (Tagore: Thoughts on Religion) Professor Kajal Banerjee, an influential Bangladeshi essayist and poet, portrays Rabindranath would perhaps believe in a God of humanity. He brings out multifarious perceptions of Tagore regarding religion through a number of quotations from different sources. He has also added his own comments to clarify Tagore's points of view, thus adding a new dimension to this literary piece.
Kajal Banerjee has proved his capability of integrating Tagore's transitional views in only eighty pages. He has gone through Tagore's works with much devotion to postulate what he thinks of Tagore's religious standpoint. It is true that Tagore was not in the same position throughout his lifetime in terms of beliefs and visions. His perceptions have been transformed with the passage of time. If we consider Tagore's philosophy, we find a good deal of revisions in it. He loved to revise and renew his views and opinions because he believed in self growth and understanding further. However, there was no iota of doubt that the basic arenas of humanity and equality among people, regardless of caste and creed, were the same from the very beginning of Tagore's poetic career to the very end.
If one were to look at Tagore's thoughts about atheism, one would notice that Tagore clarified his earlier standpoint regarding atheism later in life. Banerjee comments that Tagore did not solely throw away atheism, which is a modern idea and reveals the natural tendency of a poet or artist. To make this point stronger, Banerjee exemplifies an instance from Tagore's famous short story, Robibar (Sunday), in which the protagonist Avik measures everything based on his atheistic views. Furthermore, Professor Banerjee refers to the letters which Tagore shared with Hemantabala and that are full of his conflicting comments regarding religion.
Banerjee also discusses Professor Jatin Sarker's comment, which notes that Tagore's belief in the theory of evolution is conspicuous in many of his poems. Rabindranath was influenced by the thoughts, views and theories of Lalon Shah and Hason Raja. Their religious views possessed greater value, which was passionately felt by Tagore because he believed that humanity is deeply rooted in those theories. Consequently, when we go through his Hibert speeches we observe that humanity is considered as the supreme aspect of religion.
To make his religious standpoint much more conspicuous, Tagore indicated the emptiness was intensely rooted in the conventional religious rituals. The religious motif of Tagore was clearly reflected in Achalayatan in which he projects a protestant group among the followers of the Hindu faith, individuals who are rebellious against every kind of orthodoxy, superstition and fundamentalism. Broadly enough, Tagore reflects his own religious views through this drama.
The point that comes through most clearly in the analysis by Professor Banarjee on Tagore's religious thoughts is that Tagore's religious viewpoints were geared to saving humanity from all kinds of ills in society. As Kajal Banerjee would have us know, Tagore realized the root causes of conventional religious hypocrisies and consequently he attempted to come out from this confinement.

Tusar Talukder is a freelance writer and translator.
E-mail: [email protected].