The Penetrating Eye

Rabindranath Tagore is perhaps one of the most beautiful and lucid poets that has ever graced a blank page with words and visions that soar and intoxicate with a style that seems effortless in its' simplicity and charm. He makes the language vibrate at another level that stretches back and forth in Time. I was introduced to his work many years ago and every year, I re-read his numerous poems and short stories which seem more interesting at each reading. With such genius, he himself remained humble and untainted my fame and fortune. In fact, he renounced his knighthood after British troops brutally slaughtered scores of demonstrators in India in 1919. Any form of "ism' was anathema as he sought a deeper purpose based on spiritual/ethical principles and a hope that a better world was possible rooted in diversity and tolerance of all people.

His vision needs to be resurrected.

Partake in these morsels from various works:

This is the ultimate end of man, to find the One which is in him; which is his truth, which is his soul; the key with which he opens the gate of the spiritual life, the heavenly kingdom.

Whatever we treasure for ourselves separates us from others; our possessions are our limitations.

There are men whose idea of life is tactic, who long for its continuation after death only because of their wish for permanence and not perfection; they love to imagine that the things to which they are accustomed will persist for ever. They completely identify themselves in their minds with their fixed surroundings and with whatever they have gathered, and to have to leave these is death for them. They forget that the true meaning of living is outliving, it is ever growing out of itself.

Truth cannot afford to be tolerant where it faces positive evil.

Want of love is a degree of callousness; for love is the perfection of consciousness. We do not love because we do not comprehend, or rather we do not comprehend because we do not love. For love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us. It is not a mere sentiment; it is truth; it is the joy that is at the root of all creation.

We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.

We can make truth ours by actively modulating its inter-relations. This is the work of art; for reality is not based in the substance of things but in the principle of relationship. Truth is the infinite pursued by metaphysics; fact is the infinite pursued by science, while reality is the definition of the infinite which relates truth to the person. Reality is human; it is what we are conscious of, by which we are affected, that which we express.

Some good sources of info:

http://www.indolink.com/Poetry/tgorIndx.html
http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/writings/other/tagore_gora.htm
http://www.poetseers.org/nobel_prize_for_literature/tagore/stray
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=tagore+rabindranath&amode=start

OneLove

:::MixMasterE:::

On Truth Crushed To The Ground

I was listening to C-SPAN's call-in segment the other day and the topic of discussion was the perception of the war in Iraq and whether or not the Bush Administration was properly handling what is fast becoming (or has become) a civil war. I was flabbergasted by the number of people who called in from all over the country ( mostly on the Republican phone line) who insisted on the U.S's right to be there and going so far as to blame the Iraqi government for not stemming the tide of the rivers of blood. Several apologists for the Bush Administration later paraded their twisted logic concerning this matter in their expected passionless, dim-witted manner. This was/is bothersome. I am encouraged, nonetheless, as there seems to be some detectable sign of life within the Democratic party . Impressively, they tried to pass a non-binding resolution opposing President Bush's troop surge in Iraq, but the GOP succeeded in knocking that down (twice)--but the battle rages on.

As they bicker about policy,strategies and recommendations in the safe inner sanctums of power and privelege, helpless innocents just going about their business in Iraq continue to be blown to pieces: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3519855663545752103

Sloooowwwwly, painfully but surely, the real story of what's going on in Iraq is trickling out, especially through the blogsphere and from a few mainstream personalites (Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart, Lou Dobbs) who are just fed up with this insanity. Many people are rising from a deep sleep that has kept them in a catatonic stupor for far too long (thanks to widespread mass media and rhetorical manipulation). Yes, manufacturing consent is still alive and well in the U.S, but it is taking some big hits.

It's amazing how a few sparks here and there can potentially start a raging fire. This is borne out in the history of this country: The British Empire manipulated, deceived and enslaved its' subjects for decades until a few colonists started to question and discern the truth behind the patina of lies. Folks like Jefferson and Paine (Tom) exposed the self-destructive mercantile system that provided blood wealth to the British Empire and sparked the imaginations of their countrymen ( farmers, philosophers, writers, businessmen...). Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness became the mantra for revolutionary change--a better world was envisioned and it caught on like wild fire. 'America' would never be the same.

I am aware of the enormous power and influence of an empire to strike back and recalibrate the blood-encrusted scales in its favor, yet as powerful and destructive as that is, it is no match for the power of the masses united with a vision that enough is enough and that a better way..a better world is not just possible, but urgently necessary.

"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers."


:::MixMasterE:::