The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore
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The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) by Kalyan Sen Gupta (z-lib.org)
Self, Art, Evil and Harmony
81 Or: What matters most is to see how man constantly expresses oneself in diverse ways in different forms in literature. 17 This profound urge towards self-expression in art is, unsurprisingly, some- thing that Tagore links up with his notion of surplus, which we have already encountered on several occasions. The most important distinction between animals and human beings, according to Tagore, is that the animal, unlike the man or woman, is very nearly bound within the limits of necessities, the greater part of its activities being those that are required for its self- preservation. In the case of human beings, however, there is a vast excess of ‘wealth’ in their lives, a fund of emotional energy which transcends preoccupation with their self-preservation. This surplus seeks its outlet in the creation of art as the expression of the ‘wealth’ and inner depth of one’s being. Ordinary, literal language, which is adapted to the purposes of informing and explaining, is incapable of fully expressing this depth. What is required, instead, is ‘the language of picture and music’, language ‘which does not merely talk, but conjures up pictures and sings’. And this means, in effect, that the expressive artist must cut ‘the links that bind one’s vocabulary to the vocabularies being used by one’s fellow humans’. Implicit in these remarks is the basic reason why, according to Tagore, there is such a phenomenon as art at all. Art, he explains, has its origin neither in some social purpose nor in the need to cater to a demand for aesthetic enjoyment. It owes, rather, to an impulse of expression, which, as Tagore sees it, is the basic impulse of our very being. In responding to this impulse, he says, human beings are asserting their sense of immortality in spite of the obvious fact of death. For, in artistic expression of the impulse, a person attests to his or her consciousness of an inexhaustible abundance within themselves, of an infinite dimension to their lives, in effect. It is in artistic activity, in short, that one evokes infinity, abundance, and the expansion of being beyond oneself. 18 It follows that, to be authentically human – to provide space for the exercise of that ‘surplus’ that distinguishes human existence – a person must reserve for himself a private space that is set apart from the social world of use. This space is, above all, that of artistic activity. If we combine this discussion with earlier ones, especially in Chapter 2, it emerges that Rabindranath offers two rather different pictures of human beings. On the one hand, a person is a being with others. On the other hand, he is a ‘private’ being able to express and create his identity in solitary artistic creativity. On the one side, social life, the sphere where solidarity with others obtains, predominates; on the other side, the central dimension of a human life is that of personal autonomy and creativity. In the public sphere what takes precedence is social commitment, communal hope, the desire for 82 The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore a harmonious society. In the private sphere, a person is crucially concerned to engage with his or her ‘aloneness’. It seems, therefore, that there is, in Rabindranath’s position, a tension, even a contradiction between two conceptions of human being. For he insists both that one’s identity consists in one’s relation to other human beings, and at the same time that this social identity cannot exhaust the description of a person. He is equally committed to private autonomy and communal solidarity. If there is a tension here, it is one of which Tagore is himself fully aware. It is this tension between the public and the private, between the call of action and the call of serene contemplation and its expression in art, that is being expressed in, for example, the long poem ‘Ebar phirao more’ (‘Turn me back’), with its theme of returning to the world of action from the ‘intoxicating embrace of the Muse’: In this world while all others are engaged all the time in a hundred avocations You like a truant boy freed from restraints, At noontide in a heath under the shadow of a tree, alone and cheerless, Lulled by a sluggish way-weary warm wind carrying the fragrance of remote forest, Played your flute the livelong day. Recall me now, take me to the brink of the world, frolicking fancy, don’t keep me a-swinging in the breeze And in the waves, do not make me a dupe of your charming illusion In the shadow of the arbour of mind, secluded and deeply morose Do not keep me seated any more. 19 Similarly, in one of his later poems, Tagore tells us how, sadly, his devotion to a life of poetry has been largely responsible for his failure to participate to a greater degree in the task of helping to build a ‘beautiful’ society in the teeth of destructive, indeed ‘demonic’, forces: I have realized within myself the man who sings But I have yet to realize the life-sacrificing-man. Pale, feeble, I leave now Undistinguished and unfulfilled Humbled, deprived of the knowledge of fierce manhood That can snatch life away from the bonds of death And liberate it. 20 We should, then, consider whether this tension to which Tagore attests is one that can be resolved. Does acceptance of the ‘embrace of the Muse’ in solitary artistic creativity require a person to cut the social bonds that unite him with others in a social body? Does the quest for ‘private’ autonomy require one to abandon one’s social identity? Given Tagore’s own commitments Download 467.3 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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