Introduction
Rabindranath Tagore FRAS was a Bengali polymath – poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual.
Poem: ‘There is no god in that temple, said the hermit’: Rabindranath Tagore
Said the royal attendant, “Despite entreaties, king,
The finest hermit, best among men, refuses shelter
In your temple of gold, he is singing to god
Beneath a tree by the road. The devout surround him
In numbers large, their overflowing tears of joy
Rinse the dust off the earth. The temple, though,
Is all but deserted; just as bees abandon
The gilded honeypot when maddened by the fragrance
Of the flower to swiftly spread their wings
And fly to the petals unfurling in the bush
To quench their eager thirst, so too are people,
Sparing not a glance for the palace of gold,
Thronging to where a flower in a devout heart
Spreads heaven’s incense. On the bejewelled platform
The god sits alone in the empty temple.”
At this,
The fretful king dismounted from his throne to go
Where the hermit sat beneath the tree. Bowing, he said,
“My lord, why have you forsaken god’s mighty abode,
The royal construction of gold that pierces the sky,
To sing paeans to the divine here on the streets?’
“There is no god in that temple,” said the hermit.
Furious,
The king said, “No god! You speak like a godless man,
Hermit. A bejewelled idol on a bejewelled throne,
You say it’s empty?”
“Not empty, it holds royal arrogance,
You have consecrated yourself, not the god of the world.”
Frowning, said the king, “You say the temple I made
With twenty lakh gold coins, reaching to the sky,
That I dedicated to the deity after due rituals,
This impeccable edifice – it has no room for god!”
Said the tranquil hermit, “The year when the fires
Raged and rendered twenty thousand subjects
Homeless, destitute; when they came to your door
With futile pleas for help, and sheltered in the woods,
In caves, in the shade of trees, in dilapidated temples,
When you constructed your gold-encrusted building
With twenty lakh gold coins for a deity, god said,
‘My eternal home is lit with countless lamps
In the blue, infinite sky; its everlasting foundations
Are truth, peace, compassion, love. This feeble miser
Who could not give homes to his homeless subjects
Expects to give me one!’ At that moment god left
To join the poor in their shelter beneath the trees.
As hollow as the froth and foam in the deep wide ocean
Is your temple, just as bereft beneath the universe,
A bubble of gold and pride.”
1) The poem was written 120 years (approx.). Can you find any resemblance between the poem and the pandemic time?
The title of the poem, which can be assumed to mean, 'Donating to the destitute,' has been making the rounds on social media since A On the same day, deaths from Covid-19 in India crossed the 40,000 mark, the fifth highest in the world, even as the country recorded its biggest single-day surge in fatalities at 918 on Wednesday, with the count crossing 900 for the first time.
2) Why do you think the King is angry with the Sage?
King told that he builded a gold temple and God is not in his gold temple. As a king he has to save civilize first and when people went for shelter in the difficult time king exiled them and that time God also went with them. So the sage speaks the bitter truth which hurts the pride of the king. He thought that God loves only rich people but it is not so. In the original lines of the poem we are also aware about this. It symbolically suggests the mentality of the people who are at the highest position. King furious said its cost is "two million gold coins," The hermit wanted to say that God has the universe to stay. God is in humanity, Sympathy and it is your duty as a king to save and protect the life of people.
3) Why do you think the Sage refuses to enter the temple?
The king thought that the sage would come to the temple because it is built with gold. No, God is not in any so-called golden temple. No God is in humanity, in compassion not in any temple. The sage is the true devotee of God. That’s why he refuses to enter the temple.
4) Can there be any connection between the text of the poem and the verdict of Ayodhya Ram Mandir?
August 5th marked a historic day in India when Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid down the first bricks of the much-contested Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The ceremony was marked with much fanfare and celebrations. The celebrations were in the middle of a pandemic that has gripped the world.
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