Mysticism In Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali

AN EVALUATION OF MYSTICISM IN RABINDRANATH TAGORE’S GITANJALI (1910)

Introduction
Rabindranath Tagore is to know the essence of Indian artistic traditions, to understand a great man who becomes a “cultural hero” and “an international figure.” This research paper focuses on Gitanjali which is classified under mystic poetry. The endeavor here is to look for the mystical elements in Gitanjali and how it qualifies to be a mystical poetry. Tagore is an unofficial ambassador to the world and he put India on the literary map of the world. To appreciate him fully, it is essential to note the quality and beauty of his mastery of English language that made him a renowned writer. He belonged to the whole world being “a darling of versatility”. He is a poet who first gained for modern India a place on the world literary scene.

Tagore expresses his firm convictions about God, about the human soul, and about the ultimate goal of human soul. This book is free from all kinds of material considerations and worldly desires or ambitions. Tagore seeking a communion with God and feeling sure that he would succeed in his aspiration. The mystical life is a contemplative life and it is a life in which the individual shows a complete detachment from all worldly concerns and worldly pursuits. A mystic need not renounce the world together but an attitude of detachment is absolutely necessary. There is the condition for the appreciation of Tagore’s mysticism in Gitanjali. All the elements of mysticism are to be found in the poems of Gitanjali. Indeed, Gitanjali is steeped in mysticism though really in order to appreciate its mysticism we must set aside our worldly concerns and materialistic preoccupations. The very opening of the poem shows Tagore as a mystic. Here Tagore asserts the immortality of the human soul even though the human body is mortal: “Thou has made me endless, / Such is Thy pleasure” (Gitanjali, The Little