“তখন কে বলে গো সেই প্রভাতে নেই আমি..” (“And who says I am not there in that morning”)
Source: https://www.thebetterindia.com/140394/gurudev-rabindranath-tagore-my-reminiscences/Published in the magazine “Probashi”, in Santiniketan, dated April 5, 1916, the song “Jokhon porbe na mor’’ reflects Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s humble yet self-assured acceptance of death and his outlook on the transience of human life. Perhaps it was because grief had befallen him quite early in life, with the loss of his mother when he was only sixteen.
The pain and anguish that he felt is evident in his autobiographical work, Jibansmriti, which he penned at the age of 50. Then at age 24, Tagore experienced what he recalled his first “permanent’’ encounter with death, as his sister-in-law, Kadambari Devi, committed suicide. He writes, “…its blow has continued to add itself to each succeeding bereavement in an ever lengthening chain of tears.” Yet, the consolation lay in Tagore’s search for meaning and significance in death and loss, where life didn’t seem futile but enriched and fulfilled even at death’s doorstep and beyond.
Hence Tagore pens the essay “Pratham Shok” (First Grief) in “Lipika’’:
“যা ছিল শোক, আজ তাই হয়েছে শান্তি” (“What was sorrow, today it has become peace”)
Professing the faith that there is a sense of relief to be found within grief, Tagore vowed to find catharsis, and ultimately attain a sense of solace and transcendence. This quest offered a new perspective on death as imperative in upholding the balance of mortality, leading to the joyous realisation “…that we were not prisoners forever within a solid stone wall of life was the thought which unconsciously kept coming uppermost in rushes of gladness.”
Perhaps these philosophical reflections and understanding of the transient nature of life held him upright in the face of profound grief he experienced, including the passing of his wife, Mrinalini Devi, in 1902, the death of his 12-year-old second daughter, Rani, in 1903, the loss of his close companion Satish Chandra Ray in 1904, and the death of his father in the early part of 1905. The year 1907 brought the most severe blow when Samindranath, his 11-year-old son succumbed to cholera. Tagore recollects:
“At a particular point of time…I saw the vision of my son lying in the heart of the Infinite…that the child was safe, that he had found his liberation…I felt at once that the physical nearness of our dear ones to ourselves is not the final meaning of their protection. It is merely a means of satisfaction to our own selves and not necessarily the best that could be wished for them.”
In 1932, 21-year-old Nitu, Tagore’s youngest daughter Mira’s son Nitindranath Ganguly, passed away from tuberculosis. Like a parent finding solace in comforting another parent, Tagore writes to Mira “when I heard that Nitu had left us, for days I repeated to myself that I had no responsibility left, except to pray that he should find well-being in that Infinite to which he has gone.” Consequently, he composed “Bishwashok’’ or “Universal Grief’’:
"এই ব্যথাকে আমার বলে ভুলব যখনি তখনি সে প্রকাশ পাবে বিশ্বরূপে।" (“When I transcend this personal woe, Only then will it manifest in its universal form.’’)
While “Prathom Shok’’ asserts “আমি তোমার সেই অনেক কালের, সেই পঁচিশ বছর বয়সের শোক” (“I am that long-gone sorrow of yours, twenty-five years in age’’), now in the twilight years Tagore’s faith in the supreme had delivered his personal sorrow to the realm of universal truth. In Gitanjali Tagore expresses this sentiment as “Death thy servant is at my door. He has crossed the unknown sea and brought thy call to my home.” The Bard’s acknowledgement and
reception of death, as Meenakshi Singha in her essay “প্রথম শোক থেকে বিশ্বশোক” (“From First grief to Universal grief’’) describes it, elevated the status of grief to eternal verse; wherein “শোক হয়ে উঠলো শ্লোক”.
