Question- "Tagore is not a poet of Bengal, but of India and the world." Discuss.

Or

Gitanjali is an immortal work of art. Discuss the theme of death in connection with Tagore's Gitanjali.

Ans-
Tagore is India's greatest genius, the only poet from India who has won Nobel Prize for Literature. He has also been called "India's Poet Laureate", "The Sun of India", "The Sentinal of East" and "The Bard of the East." As stated by Prof. Iyengar, Tagore is rightly "the one writer who first gained for modern India a place on the world literary scene." Tagore is a world poet in two ways. First he has universality of appeal. Secondly his poetry is a festival where all the people and epoch are brought together. According to Prof. Buddhadenra Bose, "To think of him only in terms of India, Asia or Oriental literature is to miss of his main points."
Tagore's reputation as a poet in English chiefly depends upon Gitanjali Which is undoubtedly an English classic. There are various reasons for the universal appeal and continuing popularity of the Gitanjali. First the central theme of the Gitanjali is mainly devotional in the great Indian tradition particularly vaishanave tradition of Bhakti. This devotional poetry created a sensation in the West Abbe Bremond declared "such poetry is half a prayer from below and half a whisper from above, the prayer evoking the response, or the whisper provoking the whisper and always prayer and whisper chiming into song." The poet begins his song-offering in the very first poem of Gitanjali.

"Thou has made me endless such is thy pleasure
This frail vassel thou emptiest again and again
and fillest it ever with fresh life.

The devotional theme finds a new and original treatment in Gitanjali which is steeped with the colour of patriotism, nationalism and Indianness: This treatment has the unique Indian flavour.
In the words of K. R. S. Iyengar: "The Gitanjali songs are mainly poems of Bhakti in the great Indian Tradition. We have Vaishnava poets and Saiva poets who seek God as a child seeks its mother, as a lover seeks his (or her) beloved. Numerous are these gifted singers - got intoxicated, indoxicated with the love of the Divine, turning this love into the purest-poetry. The current coin of India's devotional poetry is melted and minted aven by Rabindranath. The imagery, the conceits, the basic experience, the longing, the trial, the promise, the realization, all have the quaintly unique Indian flavour and taste. Its familiarity was its recommendation to India, its apparent novelty was its recommendation abroad."
Secondly Gitanjali is a deeply mystical poem. In the words of Dr. Radhakrishnan, "The poems of Gitanjali are the offering of finite to the infinite." In the words of Prof. Sen Gupta in Gitanjali we are in tune with the infinite. The entire work is stuffed with divine presence, and the divine is shown yearning for union with the human as much as the human years for union with the divine. Though the theme is mystical but the diction is very simple. There is priblical simplicity, a lyricism and a rare grace of diction in Gitanjali. The language is simple and melodious. "In Gitanjali there are no poems but only beautiful prose-pieces". Tagore himself compares the movement of prose-poem to the steps of a young women controlled by the natural desire for balance. His poetry is deeply rooted in life, in the most common objects of life and has the quality to root deep into the hearts.
Thirdly Gitanjali is a blend of a number of themes and ideas. The treatment is unique and varied. Gitanjali is steeped in God's colour. Almost poem is every verse refers to God. The theme of Gitanjali is life and death. The like a tale of soul's wait to meet her eternal bridegroom, the Divine Lord. In Gitanjali death is given a varied treatment. It is represented as a traveller, as a businessman, as a helmsman, as a bridegroom and the soul of the poet as a bride. Sometimes it is the veil and the other times life and death are the two breasts of Divine Mother. Death is renewal of life. It is diving into the ocean of form for the pearl of the formless. Death is the last fulfilment of life. Man has to surrender himself before it in all its totality. To most of the English poets death is a terrible experience, to Tagore it is a very pleasant one, it is a gate to salvation.
Fourthly Gitanjali is a store house of vivid, picturesque imagery. In Tagore's poetry we have direct images by means of picturesque and concrete fancies, visions and dreams, figurative images by means of metaphor and simile, symbol and personification, mythical or legendry images For instance in Gitanjali both the poet and God appear to be singers; both are related to music imagery:

This little flute of a seed thou hast
carried over hills and dates and hast
breathed through it melodies eternally new.

Fifthly Tagore besides being a mystic and romantic poet, is a humanist
who loves humanity. She is a poem of man and his work is a poem of humanity. He has sympathy for the suffering and the under-dog. Through his literary works he strives for the renewal of human personality and society:
Sixthly even when we forget about his mysticism and lyricism Tagore remains one of the supreme poets of the beautiful landscape, gathering fruits from the garden of his poetry. He can see the beauties of nature and hear her sweet melodies. In his poetry there is dancing ring of seasons the elusive play of lights and shadows, of wind and water. Dr. Iyenger feels that "the poems are the recordatious of the poet's experience of flowers, clouds, all the wealth of spring, all the flory of earth."
Gitanjali has been undervalued by some critics abroad as an Indian poem. Robert Frost said, "He (Tagore) belong little less to us than to his own country." If by the Indianness of Gitanjali is meant that it is a poem which could have been written only in India, the land of Vedas, the Purans, the Upanisheds, the Bhagwad, a land which has a unique and most glorious tradition of saint poets, Gitanjali is definitely an Indian poem. But if by the Indianness of the poem is meant. its limited and local appeal the statement is invalid, for Tagore's message is beyond India, beyond all limits of this earth and the oceans and the mountains. Tagore is a world poet and his Gitanjali, honoured with Nobel Prize is a world poem.
All these factors account for the universalty of the Gitanjali. It has been a constant source of peace and consolation to countless people all over the world since it was first published. Its magic has been enduring and world- wide and there are reasons for it some of which have been mentioned above.

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