Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali: An Ecocritical Study

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali is a garland of songs which adorns the Indian English poetry with its fragranced melodious strings sung by someone who experienced an ecstasy—a state of divine union of soul with the Supreme. Tagore’s philosophy of nature has wide range and variety. The imagery, pervasive but not startling, is taken from nature and from Indian classical mythology. Tagore was also bold enough to fight against the fineries that keep man away from mother earth. Tagore’s Gitanjali echoes in its cadence the essence of every religion, giving solace to the whole humanity in the heart of mother earth; the nature, resonating the ancient Indian mysticism. “To Tagore the world of nature is not an illusion but is rather a medium for accomplishing indivisibility with the infinite” (Nagar 77). Aridness is the result of drought and dried soul. The poet feels sorry for the causes of this aridness that he experiences both in spirit and body. Deforestation and urbanization has led the land to cry in anguish to save it from further destruction. It is there Tagore sang again on the fragmented land where the walls have separated man and nature and stopped God from dwelling amidst. Man separated man from his company and the nature is destroyed at the hands of technology. It is in this anguish Tagore says “Send thy angry storm, dark with death, if it is thy wish, and with lashes of lightning startle the sky from end to end.” (Gitanjali Poem No.40)The ecological world can be easily explored through literature in order to bridge the gap between science and literature. The poetical works of Rabindranath Tagore is imbued with ecological elements.