তোমার অসীমে প্রাণমন লয়ে যত দূরে আমি ধাই
কোথাও দু:খ, কোথাও মৃতু্্য, কোথা বিচ্ছেদ নাই।
মৃতু্্য সে ধরে মৃতু্্যর রূপ, দু:খ হয় হে দু:খের কূপ,
তোমা হতে যবে হইয়া বিমুখ আপনার পানে চাই।
হে পূর্ণ, তব চরণের কাছে যাহা-কিছু সব আছে আছে আছে-
নাই নাই ভয়, সে শুধু আমারই, নিশিদিন কাঁদি তাই।
অন্তরগ্লানি সংসারভার পলক ফেলিতে কোথা একাকার
জীবনের মাঝে স্বরূপ তোমার রাখিবারে যদি পাই।
In Your Infinite Vastness, O Beloved, the further I approach with all my heart and soul,
There is no more sadness, no more death, there is no separation anymore.
The moment I turn away from You unto my small self,
Only then death takes the form of death, suffering becomes a trap.
O the Most Complete, the Most Wholesome,
At Your Feet is available all;
Selfishly deluding them as mine,
This immature self laments day and night.
When You are the Center of my life
All my self-pity, the weight of this world
vanishes in the blink of an eye.
~ Original Lyrics by Tagore, translated by Sadiq
Listen to the Song Sung by Three Different Artists
Commentary:
We human beings while trapped in this body of minerals, clay and decomposing elements often forget that our essence is our soul. In the vortex of materialistic world, we are swept away by materialistic orientation, thought and behavior. The constant focus on our ego-centric demands and activity make us suffer.
Here the mystic poet Rabindranath Tagore is transmitting one of the highest truth about life. The moment we re-orient ourselves to the Infinite Vastness of God, all delusions vanishes. This turning away from everything else to God, to the Real is called Tawbah in the Islamic tradition. Turning to God is the Homecoming of the soul.
Death is only real when we are seeing only our individual small self, our individual soul, but it becomes just a door, a transition where we merge back to the Source of All, God, the Supreme Soul. Suffering is only suffering when we entertain our cravings, demands and selfish needs.
The more we turn to God, the deeper we fly to God Infinite Vastness, the more we realize the truth that there is no death to the soul, there is no suffering. The natural state of the soul is to be happy for no reason, is to be in constant bliss.
In Islamic tradition, one of the Names of the Divine is al-Wasi, the Infinitely Vast. The song reflects on that very quality of God. Allahu Al-Wasi, God is the Most Vast, the Infinite Expanse.
God Who is Independent of All, has All. God is the Owner of All. All that is in the Heaven and Earth and the Cosmos belongs to Him. We through the illusions created by our ego claim certain things as mine and mine alone; and that is the root cause of suffering, The more attached we are to anything in this world, the more we suffer. The more attachment we generate, the more price we will pay in the currency of suffering. This is simply because in truth, in reality, nothing belongs to us, but all belongs to God.
The beautiful prayer in Qur'an teaches us, "inna lillah, wa inna ilaihi rajiun." Indeed We are His, and We Must Return back to the Supreme Soul. Is there anything more true than this?
The song finishes by offering us a remedy for every suffering that we human beings can possibly suffer, it offers the medicine for the existential crisis that we often go through in life - and the solution is this - the more we make God as the center of our life, the quicker all self-pity, weight of this world, weight of our delusions vanishes away. And indeed this is true. How do we make God as center of our life? By making our eye one, by seeing only the One. God alone is the Mover, the Doer, the Bringer of Us into Existence, the Fashioner, the Seer, the Architect of it All. When we realize that truth and internalize it, we can make God as the reality of our life. May God help us reach that blessed station to be alone with the Alone, to walk with God. This is a station when God becomes the Eye through which we see, the Hand through which He touches and the Ear through which we hear. We give our all we receive all.
The Homecoming Into the Boundless Divine Vastness.
May God increase us in our knowledge and understanding of Him and the Reality which is Encompassed by Him.
Mirpur, Dhaka
30 Nov 2017
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