Friday, November 27, 2015

Tagore on God

"Therefore, it is the self of man which the great King of the universe has not shadowed with his throne--he has left it free.  In his physical and mental organism, where man is related with nature, he has to acknowledge the rule of his King, but in his self he is free to disown him.  There our God must win his entrance.  There he comes as a guest, not as a king, and therefore he has to wait till he is invited.  It it the man's self from which God has withdrawn his commands, for there he comes to court our love.  His armed force, the laws of nature, stand outside its gate, and only beauty, the messenger of his love, finds admission within its precincts.

It is only in this region of will that anarchy is permitted;  only in man's self that the discord of untruth and unrighteousness hold its reign;  and things can come to such a pass that we may cry out in our anguish, 'Such utter lawlessness could never prevail if there were a God!'  Indeed, God has stood aside from our self, where his watchful patience knows no bounds, and where he never forces open the doors if shut against him.  For this self of ours has to attain its ultimate meaning, which is the soul, not through the compulsion of God's power but through love, and thus become united with God in freedom."


Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana, 1916.  Free Books App ebook.

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