Gitanjali Summary and Analysis

Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali is a set of poems. Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his translation of Gitanjali into English: Song Offerings, making him the first person outside of Europe to receive this distinction. The UNESCO Collection of Representative Works includes it. 

It is a collection of 103 prose poems written in English. The Bengali piece of Gitanjali was first distributed in November 1912 by the Indian Culture of London. It contained interpretations of 53 sonnets from the first composed Gitanjali which was in the Bengali language, as well as 50 different sonnets from his other piece of the sonnets. Devotion to God is the main topic of Gitanjali.

Summary

In his poem "Gitanjali," Rabindranath Tagore ponders the nature of God and the connection between humans and the divine. God is portrayed at the beginning of the poem as the master of humans, repairing their bodies and giving them new life. The poet likens himself to a flute, which is used to play God's breath, creating an everlasting melody. The poet feels blessed to have received God's infinite gifts and is profoundly moved by God's touch.

The poem also looks into the possibility that God is with the poorest and most excluded members of society. The writer thinks about the profundity of God's association with these individuals, and how selfish people can't completely comprehend or arrive at God. The writer feels a feeling of disarray and dread, as he battles to figure out how to interface with God and carry on with a significant life.

By and large, the significant subject of Gitanjali is commitment to God, and the writer's quest for a more profound comprehension and association with the heavenly. The poem explores the notion that God is everywhere and all-pervading, and that humans can come into direct contact with the infinite through devotion and selflessness. Gitanjali by Tagore is a rich and nuanced examination of the relationship between humans and the divine that is influenced by Indian philosophical thought.

Analysis

Tagore starts his 'tune offering' with a delightful vanity of human existence. The human spirit is timeless though his body is transient and mortal, yet God wills it so that man is truly eternal. He doesn't really exist. The truth is that God breathes his spirit into him, and as a result, he lives forever, even though his body may die repeatedly. The supreme creator, God, uses man's frail instrument to inspire eternally melodious music. Poetry emerges from divine inspiration as the limited and bound human heart expands into limitless joy. Although man is a fragile vessel, a breakable being, and a small being, he is endowed with an endless, everlasting life because God continues to shower him with blessings, and God's gifts are so abundant that they never run out.