"Thakur" pujo

প্রভু আমার, প্রিয় আমার পরম ধন হে,

চিরপথের সঙ্গী আমার চিরজীবন হে।

তৃপ্তি আমার, অতৃপ্তি মোর, মুক্তি আমার বন্ধনডোর,

দুঃখসুখের চরম আমার জীবন মরন হে। 

(My lord, my beloved, the utmost treasure of my life,
The one who has been my everlasting companion throughout,
You have been there with my greatest satisfaction and also my unfulfilled desires,
You have been the eternal comrade of my bondage and my moments of emancipation.
You have taken me to the extremes of grief and pleasure,
Your existence defines for me the very beginning and end of life)

The lyrics penned by the man himself are enough to describe his relevance in the minds of thousands of Bangalis all over the globe. Among all our Gods and Goddesses whom we remember in times of happiness and distress, he is the only human being who gets similar stature from us. All our emotions of satisfaction, discontent, liberty, shackles, sorrow, happiness and even life and death are incomplete without calling him to mind. He is truly the wealth that generations of Bangalis have treasured in their hearts and draw their nourishment from. Yes, Bengalis worship their beloved Rabindranath Thakur with all their heart and soul. Does a worship include only mantras and offerings? No, this isn't anything of that sort. The only offering here is the reverence that one feels deep within as Tagore grows upon us as we grow up.

His sole contribution to literature is more than enough to read and understand life in a lifetime. His works present life in a nutshell, comprising every emotion, every chapter of life and every pull at your heartstrings with each turn of the season. His poetry, his philosophy and his view of life has not only enriched our culture but has also enriched our outlook towards life as well. Reading or listening to his works have a calming effect on a troubled mind because we begin to see life and its bounty and disappointments with a sublime view. We rise above the usual, the mundane and learn to accept life as it comes with its surprises, with its ups and downs like the rhythm of the heart and our ego is put to shame with an exalted and a purer mind that is cleansed of all pettiness. We understand that life and death are ultimate realities and all that happens in between is like a mirage we try to chase in a desert.

"ক্ষুদ্র আশা নিয়ে রয়েছে বাঁচিয়ে, সদাই ভাবনা,

যা কিছু পায় হারায়ে যায়, না মানে সান্তনা।।

সুখ আশে দিশে দিশে, বেড়ায় কাতরে-

মরীচিকা ধরিতে চায় এ মরুপ্রান্তরে।। "

(People cling on with the minutest of hope in their hearts, apprehensive to see them crushed any moment,
Inconsolable, when they lose the little they have gained.
In the search of happiness they wander about helplessly,
Only to be chasing mirages in endless stretches of deserts. )

But once again, it is the same Rabindranath who inspires us to fight our shackles and rise up from our ashes like a phoenix to break the walls that confine us.

" কেন রে বিধাতা পাষাণ হেন,

চারি দিকে তার বাঁধন কেন!

ভাঙ রে হৃদয়, ভাঙ রে বাঁধন,

সাধ রে আজিকে প্রানের সাধন,

লহরীর পর লহরী তুলিয়া,

আঘাতের পর আঘাত কর। "

(Why is the Lord such stone-hearted?
Why has he shackled us in chains?
Unlock the rebellious heart and break open the shackles
Let it accomplish all its desires
Blow after blow from your emancipated heart can smash the shackles into pieces
Like the waves of the sea crashing upon the rocks )

Time and again we look back to him and draw inspiration as to how to channelize our broken dreams and aspirations into creativity so that life itself rises above the meagre. It is indeed inspiring how a man, disappointed time and again with life, broken by deaths of his loved ones one by one, rose up each time with renewed spirit to accept life as it came to him. On one hand, he teaches us to carve our own destiny instead of mutely accepting everything as Fate, and on the other, he soothes our hurt souls and shows us how to benevolently accept whatever life gives us and move on towards life.

If you question your inner soul why we as a community are so obsessed with Rabindranath, why we idolize him and just cannot bring ourselves to do without him, the answer is very simple. He is not an idol of stone and mud that we worship; he is the human we worship in reverence because he has immortalized everyday sufferings and existential crisis with his art and given us hope to live on through them. His art eases our pain and makes our sufferings tolerable.

He too, was a common man, falling in love, raising a family, facing disappointments in bitter form throughout his life. Through his lyrics and poetry he has time and again questioned the Almighty and His blows every time he faced depression. Following the death of his wife and his children, he believed that it was difficult to keep the flame of life steady when God Himself douses it every time. These are the times when we start losing faith.

" যতবার আলো জ্বালাতে চাই 

নিবে যায় বারে বারে 

আমার জীবনে তোমার আসন 

গভীর অন্ধকারে। "

( Although I try to light the lamp innumerable times , a breath of wind emerges to douse it every time.
Your seat in my life thus remains ever clouded in darkness)

May be because death scarred him bitterly at a very tender age after his Muse chose to leave the world he understood that death is the ultimate reality one has to face in life. Peace is in its acceptance as life is indeed fleeting like the short lived breeze in Spring. The young poet writes after the sudden and unexpected death of his Muse, his childhood playmate, his sister-in-law,

বসন্তের বাতাস টুকুর মত, 

সে যে ছুঁয়ে গেল, নুয়ে গেল রে - 

ফুল ফুটিয়ে গেল শত শত।

সে চলে গেল, বলে গেল না-  সে কোথায় গেল ফিরে এল না। 

(Like the short lived breeze of Spring, the person came and went by touching me most deeply,
blossoming a hundred flowers in the garden of my life.
The person disappeared without a trace, without bidding goodbye;
 never to return even for a moment) 

It was the first death that had touched him so deeply for the rest of his life. He was clearly not prepared for it and it inwardly changed the poet into a maturer human being with a profound understanding of life and death. The subsequent deaths of his life partner and his daughter, Renuka Devi and son, Shamindranath Tagore later in life concretized the profundity of the philosophy and Tagore sought his art every time to come in terms with life with all its cruelty. He found out that it is again his faith, his submission to Fate that helped him to overcome his grief and raise himself above all the sufferings. In the abode of God, where you surrender your soul with deep acceptance of whatever happens in life, you reach that state where there's neither death nor sorrow.

তোমার অসীমে প্রানমন লয়ে যত দূরে আমি ধাই -

কথাও দুঃখ, কথাও মৃত্যু, কোথা বিচ্ছেদ নাই।

মৃত্যু সে ধরে মৃত্যুর রূপ , দুঃখ হয় হে দুঃখের কূপ,

তোমা হতে যবে হইয়ে বিমুখ, আপনার পানে চাই। 

( When I traverse to the farthest stretches of your infinite realms with my heart and soul,

I realize that all is calm there; there's no sorrow, no death and no pangs of separation. 

The times when I mistakenly turn my face away from you to look at myself, 

The ugliness of death comes to haunt and push me down the bottomless abyss of sorrow. ) 

No wonder his art is our solace when we face times which try to tear us apart. It is his art that acts like our friend, philosopher and guide for which the entire Bengali community keeps Tagore on a pedestal. People who term it as a quintessential Bengali idiosyncrasy ( আদিখ্যেতা,  to be precise) surely either have not understood the reason behind the reverence or has a misplaced idea of the irreplaceable seat of Rabindranath Tagore in the heart of the Bengali community. Yes, the seat is irreplaceable because if you can catch even half of his thought behind his works, you have almost got all the answers you have ever wanted from life.