Bhagvad Gita and Gitanjali: Exploring Consciousness in Tagore

  • Anusree Ganguly
Keywords: literary journals India, online English research journal, research papers publisher, Peer reviewed literary journal

Abstract

If there is one music in the Gitanjali that resonates above the meter, rhyme scheme and diction of the poems, then it is the music of love in enmity, belief in restlessness and stoicism in sorrow – a pattern of good propensities in the bad that stops not at mishaps and being conscious of the life’s irresolute, death for one, is still more conscious of its resolute that is good. In crisis, when vision is clouded and fear is paramount, liberty takes us away from the beaten path consciously so that we know between good and bad, fear and courage or sorrow and happiness of life’s din and music. Bhagvad Gita, the religious text of Hindu thought, says that everyday living can strip us off the consciousness of liberty by the envelope of ‘maya’ – the illusion of truth – so that you mistake riches for happiness, praise for love and loss for sorrow. Life then becomes an endless merry-go-round of falsehoods: lassitude; preoccupation with death; denial of Him, the eternally free and happy; sorrow and the vicious circle goes on.  Consciousness as Non-Compromising Good is explored by Tagore in Gitanjali as liberty instantiated when man doesn’t compromise with the extremes of mirth, sorrow or delirium; but chooses the mean position, which thoughts will be explored in this essay.

Keywords: Consciousness, Gitanjali, Bhagvad Gita, Tagore, poems

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Author Biography

Anusree Ganguly

Anusree Ganguly is an Indian English poet, essayist, fiction writer and translator widely anthologized in publications like Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi), The Journal (The Poetry Society of India), The Festival Issue (The Statesman), World Poetry Festival, The Unisun Anthology of Poetry Timescapes and elsewhere. An alumna of Jadavpur University, Kolkata, she lives and works in Kolkata, West Bengal. She is a professional editor of English language.

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CLRI November 2019
Published
2019-11-05
How to Cite
Ganguly, A. “Bhagvad Gita and Gitanjali: Exploring Consciousness in Tagore”. Contemporary Literary Review India, Vol. 6, no. 4, Nov. 2019, pp. 1-24, https://www.literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/453.
Issue
Vol 6 No 4: CLRI November 2019
Section
Research Papers

Copyright (c) 2019 Anusree Ganguly

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