The Mystic Flights of Tagore tries to show how Tagore maintains the possibilities of a highly developed state of human mind and consciousness, which fall within the ambit of human efforts of a very different nature and quality. Such a developed state of human consciousness is identical with the Supreme Power, the Supreme Self that governs the universe. It traces different expressions in Tagore's concept of 'Jiban Debta'-a reality which is very much human but still very much capable of transcending the human limitations of thought and action. Tagore's quest for such possibilities in his own personality as well as in the world of Nature surrounding the human world marks the fundamental cord of his poetic persona, which we may appreciate as his mystic pantheism. Evidently, he translates into art his own experiences that he undergoes as a human. Again, as a theorist of his own observations, he establishes such concepts and arrives at such conclusions as display his insatiable quest for the Transcendental Beyond. This book reflects the mystic aspect of Tagore's work along with the historical and cultural contexts of mystical and transcendental poetry in the East and the West. Attention is given to the individual poets pursuing such commitment in English Literature and also in Indian Writing in English. With this background, the tenets of mysticism and transcendentalism in Tagore's poetry have been explored, along with how Tagore has proved to be a fellow traveler to the Yogis and saints, the mature and sensitive.
Dr. Swati Samantaray is currently working with KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, as an Associate Professor, in the School of Humanities. She has more than 12 years of teaching experience and has taught English at various levels (P.G. & U.G.). She has authored 3 books and has a couple of journal paper and articles to her credit. Dr. Swati has obtained a BEC certificate from Business English Council. She was also associated with Tala Consultancy Service as a communication faculty and coordinator of soft skills.
The writings of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore have been my preoccupation for more than a decade, and as a scholar of English Literature I have always been especially interested in the mystic poets, Tagore being my favourite. During my studies what struck me was Rabindranath's consciousness of the Divine Presence the theme of a spiritual quest which is recurrent in his poetry, which is essentially mystical and transcendental.
A tendency so universal and so persistent as that of mysticism, which appears among all people and influences philosophical thought more or less throughout all centuries, must have some real foundation in human nature. There is indeed in the human soul a natural desire for, an aspiration towards the highest truth or the absolute truth. We know by experience and reason that the knowledge and enjoyment of created things cannot give the fullness of truth and the perfection of beatitude which will completely satisfy our desires and aspirations. There is in our being a capacity for more truth and perfection than we can ever acquire through the knowledge of created things. We realise that God alone is the end of human life; knowing him and coming closer to him, we can reach the satisfaction of our aspirations.
The phenomenal world, for a mystic, remains an illusion, a dream, a magic spell'.' He shuts the doors of fleeting senses and passing passions; he remains self-evident, self-sufficient and self-luminous. Being initiated into the mysteries of existence and the esoteric knowledge of the realities of life and death, he aspires for afar, yearns for the inaccessible, and searches for the ideal heart's compassion and the desire to know the unknown. Through the purgation of bodily desires and the purification of profaneness of heart and will power, he discovers the illumination of mind, which enables him to pursue the union with the Absolute, leading to a state of ecstasy, a state of bliss. The experience, thus, is vividly joyous, finely intellectual and fully divine. It is also distinctly personal and evidently universal at the same time, which sets in a life of reception, transformation, transfiguration and continuous living in that state of rhapsodic exaltation.
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