Tagore's bond with nature

In an age when our interaction with nature is usually at a transactional or mental level, it is instructive and fascinating to see the kind of communion the great poet Rabindranath Tagore had with nature.

- By Ram Krishna Sinha

Tagore, through his soulful and emotive poetry, would share his intimate feelings with many inhabitants of nature - animate or inanimate - be it rains, winds, clouds, flowers, birds, plants, forests, rivers or even stars in the skies. In this glorious companionship with nature, he felt in tune with its varied forms and rhythms. In a way, nature was a powerful source of his creative and spiritual energy.

Nature, according to Tagore, reveals to us the inner unity of the world. Through its beauty and transience, it enables us to dissolve the focus on our narrow self, opening the path for us to develop as a universal man. Through most of his songs, he spoke of a deep spiritual presence in nature's balance and harmony amidst the diverse moods of the seasons. With the prevalence of Upanishadic spirituality permeating his family, Tagore's poetry could naturally explore the streams of oneness of all life. The poet strongly believed that the perfection of man is attained through the enlargement of personality. This expansion of self leads him to seek an empathy with the entire universe which also encompasses human society.