In his “Sadhana : The Realisation of Life”, poet, writer, nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore eloquently says..
“Within us we have a hope which always walks in front of our present narrow experience; it is the undying faith in the infinite in us; it will never accept any of our disabilities as a permanent fact; it sets no limit to its own scope; it dares to assert that man has oneness with God; and its wild dreams become true every day.”
-Rabindranath Tagore
As I read and re-read the above paragraph, so many concepts and ideas seem to speak to me. The idea of hope. The idea of undying faith. The idea that the infinite within us will never accept any of our disabilities as permanent. The idea that we, our spirit, our faith, sets no limit to its own scope. And, in a final, glorious pronouncement, Tagore concludes that we, our spirit, dares to assert our Oneness with God… and it is in this assertion, that our wild dreams become true every day.
So inspiring, isn’t it? This idea, which is more than a mere idea – for when we meditate on it, believe in it, experience it, practice it, imbibe it into our everyday lives – it becomes a living, breathing thing. This idea of Oneness. This idea that is more than a dream – it is a reality. The reality is that there is more in common among us, among me and my fellow humans, among me and the billions of people that you and I have never met – or will ever meet. Yes, there is more than unites us than divides us.
The Oneness that permeates us is perhaps what brings a smile to the baby’s lips as they sleep. The Oneness that permeates us is perhaps what gently closes our eyes, and takes us to lands of peaceful rest, and wakes us up gently when it is time to awaken. The Oneness that permeates us opens our heart to joy, to compassion, to service, to empathy, to sympathy, and above all, to Love.
Even science is waking up to the realisation that it is Oneness that can tie the strings of all scientific theories together. In fact, Tagore had written further on in the same essay…
“Through our progress in science the wholeness of the world and our oneness with it is becoming clearer to our mind. When this perception of the perfection of unity is not merely intellectual, when it opens out our whole being into a luminous consciousness of the all, then it becomes a radiant joy, an overspreading love.”
-Rabindranath Tagore
Our intuition tells us that Science and Spirituality are not separate – it is a matter of perception and manifestation that they may appear to be separate – but, indeed they are tied together with Oneness. Science may look for the so-called “God particle” – and some may claim that it has already been found – but it is merely a matter of when and not if the final confluence will be confirmed by Science. We are not going to wait for Science to confirm this Oneness – are we?! Tagore encourages us – to go beyond Science, through science and the merely intellectual – to open our whole being into a luminous consciousness…
So, I invite you – those of you who have read this far, to join me and the #SpiritChat community in a twitter chat on Sunday April 27th 2014 at 9amEDT in a discovery, a celebration, an experience of radiant joy, an expression of overspreading love – of Oneness.
Namaste,
Kumud
P.S. The entire text of the essay is available for free at ibooks: Rabindranath Tagore. “Sadhana : the realisation of life.”
P.P.S. The word sadhana is translated as “that which is attained or accomplished by devoted practice ; the act of practice"
