Birth anniv special: Revisiting famous lines by Rabindranath Tagore

NEW DELHI: A poet, philosopher, essayist, novelist and above all a visionary- it takes a lifetime to sail in the ocean called- Rabindranath Tagore. The prodigy of Bengal was born on May 7, 1861, in Calcutta. He authored several volumes of poetical works that stand out to proclaim his philosophy of life and spiritualism. He championed the ideals of naturalism, humanism, internationalism and idealism. The collection of his poems was published in London in 1912 under the title Gitanjali and got the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He was the first Indian to bag that honour. Ahead of his birth anniversary, let's revisit some of his memorable quotes, which reflect on life, relationships and humanism...

"You cannot cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."

In this line, Tagore implied that having ambition is not enough. To make them translate into action, one must work relentlessly towards his goal.

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and beheld service was joy."

Tagore's humanism is manifested in these lines. According to him, the greatest joy lies in serving the mankind.

"Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark."

Faith is at the crux of any being. If faith is lost, life becomes meaningless and futile even for a moment. Faith can bring back everything that is lost from life. Restoring the faith in universal humaneness, the seer wrote these lines.

"Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come."

Tagore believed life is just another phase during the soul's eternal journey. Tagore in fact admired death and also sang in its praise. In this quote, we learn his attitude toward death.

"Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it."

When we desire something in life, we must first make ourselves worthy of receiving it. When we increase our deservedness, things will come to us automatically. In this quote, Tagore shows us the importance of increasing our deservedness.

"We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.

" The essence of wisdom is the awareness that knowledge is vast while what we learnt is only a drop of it. Great men of this world had always been humble and simple. In fact, humility is one of the characteristic hallmarks of learned people. In this quote, Tagore stresses the importance of cultivating humility despite our accomplishments and successes.

May Tagore's words and his profundity of thought restore our faith and heal our tormented souls.