Rabindranath Tagore, the myriad-minded polymath is known as the World- Poet for his magical poesy, orchestration of language, manifestation of powerful imagination and the verbosity of musical cadences. Gitanjali means tribute of songs poeticized by the poetic soul (jivatma) yearning to mingle with Supremo (Paramatma). In Gitanjali 50, the poet is a beggar, begging alms from door to door. Soon he is spellbound by the appearance of a golden-chariot in front of him. A king in majestic grandeur descends from the chariot and asks begging from the poet. The confused poet doesn’t realize the matter and he gave the king a grain of corn from his bag and the king departs. Returning home, the poet, in his utter bewilderment finds a piece of golden corn among the heap of begging. In Gitanjali 103, the poet pays his heartfelt veneration, soulful surrender to the lotus feet of God. He surrenders his senses, mind, and inner soul completely to the feet of God. The poet’s regret (in the poem 50) for not offering the whole alms he has begged gets fulfilled in the last poem (Gitanjali 103) through the unconditional surrender of the poetic soul to His lotus feet. The journey from finite to infinite, possession to surrender, illusion to ultimate truth and surjection to surrender is reflected through these poems.
This paper aims to study Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali 50 & Gitanjali 103 poem from varied perspective. How does the poetic regret get pacified in soulful surrender to the Almighty? How does the poetic introspection transcend the self to merge with the immanent spirit? This paper examines Tagore’s spiritual offerings through lucid imagery, symbolic language and musical cadences blended with devotional effluence.