Analysis-Leave this chanting by Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was an educationalist, poet and social reformer of India. He wrote hundreds of poems, plays, novels and short stories in English which enjoy universal appeal and esteem. He was a noted painter also. In a house where Thabala, Veena and Mridangam resounded day and night, it is no wonder music and rhythm found their way into his heart. Only the immovables in Tagore House did not sing, dance or write. Santhinikethan was a model educational institution founded by him where all Fine Arts faculties enjoyed privileges. Educated in England and in India, he himself was an educational visionary of exceptional dreams. His multitude of poems and songs written in the Bengali language brought renaissance to Bengal. He himself tuned his songs and never translated these songs to English, a very unfortunate affair.

Politics also seemed to fit him well. Along with Mahathma Gandhi, he served as a leading light and source of inspiration for the Independence Movement of India. His famous poetical collection Geethanjali was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. His poem Where The Mind Is Without Fear is world famous in which he mixed fact and fancy, reality and dream and politics and poetry. Without telling it directly and plainly, he skillfully portrayed in this poem the position into which British Rule pushed India with a heritage far longer than the British. This poem Leave This Chanting is equally important in World Literature due to his exposing the pseudo-zeal of worshippers everywhere. Just as 'Where The Mind Is Without Fear' contains his vision of a Free India, 'Leave This Chanting' contains his vision of Uncontaminated Worship.

In this poem “Leave This Chanting And Singing” Tagore deplores all selfish and barren ritualism (mere performance of rituals without any thought of general being). Tagore bids the holy man of prayer to abandon the outdated method of chanting, singing and murmuring loud prayers by holding tight the chain of beads one by one. He stresses on the holy man to contemplate on the fact of finding God inside a lonely dark room with all the doors shut. He must try to open his eyes inside the dark room to see whether God is really there in front of him. Will he even come near to the presence of God and expect a positive interaction with the Great Unknown? God is not in the dark chamber where the so called devotee is meditating and chanting hymns turning his back upon the world of toiling humanity. 

God is everywhere but His face can be mysteriously seen by the eyes of one’s heart in perhaps some of the most unusual places of the world. According to Tagore, God stands with the tiller who is tilling the hard ground and the path-maker who is breaking stones in the open air. He is with both of them in the heat of the sun and the shower of the summer rain, yet strengthening them unknowingly. Tagore even imagines that in the process even God’s garment is covered with dust. So he advises the holy man to at least try to imitate God by removing the ‘holy mantle’- the mendicant’s loose robe- and set foot upon the dusty soil.

After all man’s ultimate spiritual goal is to seek God’s deliverance. This is the liberation of the soul from the cycle of birth and death. God has bound himself in the process of creation and accepted its joys and sorrows. To be Godly is not to be restricted to self meditation and needless ritualistic flowers and incense, but let his clothes be tattered and stained for God’s sake. He should learn it the hard way to seek and find the face of God amidst the face of the world. God does not listen to his prayers, for he is with the poor and the down trodden. True religion consists in love of man and in lending a helping hand to the less fortunate men and women who struggle hard to make a bare living. Like Vivekananda and many other seers, Tagore believes that service of man is the service of God. That man is to be pitied who is seeking to find his personal salvation by running away from the world.Tagore conveys that participation in the activity of life is essential for the realization of God. This poem ‘Leave This Chanting’ is equally important in World Literature due to his exposing the pseudo-zeal of worshipers everywhere.


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