Remembering Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

-- Rabindranath Tagore, Chitto jetha bhayashunyo (Where the mind is without fear), Gitanjali, 1910

The grand doyen of Indian literature, music and poetry, educationist, spiritualist, philosopher and Nobel Laureate, respected world over as a man whose creations have no equals, was born on this day in 1861.

Today, as Redefining Oblivion pays respectful homage to this unequivocal polymath, I have chosen to post some of his most celebrated words that have hence become iconic, timeless and supremely meaningful.

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

Age considers; youth ventures

Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.

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

Facts are many, but the truth is one

In Art, man reveals himself and not his objects

Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them

Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle. It is the extinguishing of the flame because day is come

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough

The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence