Vision

Tagore is one the best spiritual poets of the contemporary century. For me, he is all time inspiration. Whenever I read his poems, I feel divinely delightful. He has heavenly mirth in his poems. His poems are devoted to God. That is the inner bliss runs beneath. Here in this one, he feels the presence of God with him. We may believe that God is in the temple, but the foremost wisdom is: God is with me, within me. So he keeps his body, mind and spirit pure. He keeps all untruths and evils away from him by knowing that God is in the inmost shrine of his heart. He reveals God’s divine touch in his endeavour because God gives him the strength to act. Here it is:                   Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living touch is upon all my limbs. I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that trut...

Restlessness, the longing for something different, something new, or something more, seems to be part of the human condition, and in this poem, George Herbert reflects on this human characteristic. The title is a metaphor drawn from mechanical engineering. A pulley is a device with which by pulling down you lift something up. Restlessness is a device by which God lifts men and women to Himself. Here is the poem:  When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by, “Let us,” said he, “pour on him all we can. Let the world’s riches, which dispersèd lie, Contract into a span.” So strength first made a way; Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure. When almost all was out, God made a stay, Perceiving that, alone of all his treasure, Rest in the bottom lay. “For if I should,” said he, “Bestow this jewel also on my creature, He would adore my gifts instead of me, And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature; So both sho...

Once upon a time, there was a king who had gone to visit neighbouring kingdoms. He was gifted a pair of baby Macaw Parrots by the king of the last kingdom where he was visiting. They were the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. So, upon returning to his kingdom, he called for a bird trainer and asked him to train macaw parrots. The king also arranged a place in the palace garden for the parrots. He often looked at them from his palace window. As time passed, one day the trainer came to the palace and informed the king that though one of the parrots was flying majestically high in the sky, the other one was not moving from its branch since the day it had arrived. Upon hearing this, the king summoned trainer and healers from the nearby kingdoms. They all tried their best, but couldn’t make the parrot fly! He even asked his courtiers to try to find a way to make the parrot fly but they all failed. The parrot was not moving from his branch at all. Finally, after trying eve...