The Religion of Man by Rabindranath Tagore

2016-01-04 10:01:51 gokulmuthu

I recently read some parts of the book The Religion of Man by Rabindranath Tagore. He quotes extensively from the Upanishads and
the folk songs of the Bauls. The book further reinforced my observation that Hinduism is nothing but Spiritual Humanism packaged in a
form that can be practiced by the masses.

Here are some quotations from the book, that I found interesting:

The divine principle of unity has ever been that of an inner relationship. This is revealed in some of its earliest stages in the evolution of
multicellular life on this planet. The most perfect inward expression has been attained by man in his own body. But what is most
important of all is the fact that man has also attained its realization in a more subtle body outside his physical system. He misses
himself when he is isolated; he finds his own larger and truer self in his wide human relationship. His multicellular body is born and it
dies; his multi-personal humanity is immortal. In this ideal of unity he realizes the eternal in his life and the boundless in his love. The
unity becomes not a mere subjective idea, but an energizing truth. W hatever name may be given to it, and whatever form it symbolizes,
the consciousness of this unity is spiritual, and our effort to be true to it is our religion. It ever waits to be revealed in our history in a more
and more perfect illumination. (p. 3,4)

The individual man must exist for Man the great, and must express him in disinterested works, in science and philosophy, in literature
and arts, in service and worship. This is his religion, which is working in the heart of all his religions in various names and forms. (p. 4,5)

Creation has been made possible through the continual self-surrender of the unit to the universe. And the spiritual universe of Man is
also ever claiming self-renunciation from the individual unit. (p. 11)

It is said in a verse of the Upanishad that this world which is all movement is pervaded by one supreme unity, and therefore true
enjoyment can never be had through the satisfaction of greed, but only through the surrender of our individual self to the Universal Self.
(p. 11, on Isha Upanishad verse 1)

Man has taken centuries to discuss the question of his own true nature and has not yet come to a conclusion. He has been building up
elaborate religions to convince himself, against his natural inclinations, of the paradox that he is not what he is but something greater. (p.
53, 54)

If a foolish blackbird did not know how to seek its food, to build its nest, or to avoid its enemies, but specialized in singing, its fellow
creatures, urged by their own science of genetics, would dutifully allow it to starve and perish. That I am not treated in a similar fashion is
the evidence of an immense difference between the animal existence and the civilization of man. His great distinction dwells in the
indefinite margin of life in him which affords a boundless background for his dreams and creations. And it is in this realm of freedom that
he realizes his divine dignity, his great human truth, and is pleased when I as a poet sing victory to him, to Man the self-revealer, who
goes on exploring ages of creation to find himself in perfection. (p. 127,128)

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