Song 36 from Gitanjali

Song 36 (from Gitanjali) - Rabindranath Tagore:

Song 36 (from Gitanjali ) - Rabindranath Tagore m n RAJU

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m n RAJU Theist Atheist Skeptic Agnostic

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m n RAJU Who said: “Strength is life, weakness is death”

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m n RAJU What do we generally pray for? “We do not always pray for something, sometimes we just praise God and sometimes we merely share our sorrows and joys with Him.”

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m n RAJU Do we generally pray for the fulfillment of our own wishes or those of others? Great People

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m n RAJU Rabindranath Tagore 1861 - 1941 Wrote songs, stories, poems, novels, essays, dramas . .

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m n RAJU Rabindranath Tagore 1861 - 1941 Wrote in Bangla & English Also musician, painter Founded Visva-Bharati Known as Gurudev

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m n RAJU Rabindranath Tagore The only litterateur who wrote national anthems of two countries: Jana Gana Mana – India Amar Shonar Bangla - Bangladesh

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Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he Bharata-bhagya-vidhata. Punjab-Sindh-Gujarat-Maratha Dravida- Utkala -Banga Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga Uchchala - Jaladhi -taranga. Tava shubha name jage, Tava shubha asisa mage, Gahe tava jaya gatha, Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he Bharata-bhagya-vidhata. Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he, Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he! Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, Dispenser of India's destiny. Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha, Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal; It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea. They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise. The saving of all people waits in thy hand, Thou dispenser of India's destiny. Victory, victory, victory to thee. m n RAJU

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m n RAJU Gitanjali (1910) 103 songs of offering (‘ git ’ = song; ‘ anjali ’ = offering)

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The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913 m n RAJU "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" the first non-European the only Indian

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m n RAJU Gitanjali Tagore’s experience of god Moving, heart-felt prose poems Greatest book of a great writer Widely translated Like the psalms in Old Testament

Yeats on Tagore :

Yeats on Tagore stirred my blood as nothing has for years to read one line of his is to forget all the troubles of the world so abundant, so spontaneous, so daring in his passion, so full of surprise fusion of art and religion m n RAJU

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Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action— Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Song 35 m n RAJU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5qOWItfl0g&feature=related

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m n RAJU Song 36

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This is my prayer to thee, my lord - strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart. Give me the strength Lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service. Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might. Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles. And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love. m n RAJU Song 36

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? What image does the line - strike, strike at the root - suggest? m n RAJU In the line – penury in my heart – what kind of poverty does Tagore refer to?

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This is my prayer to thee, my lord – strike, strike at the root of in my heart. m n RAJU penury

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? How does the poet want to bear his joys and sorrows? m n RAJU

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Give me the strength Lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. m n RAJU

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? What kind of love is the poet praying for? m n RAJU

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Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service. m n RAJU

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? What two things does the poet not wish to do? m n RAJU

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Give me the strength never or before m n RAJU insolent might. to disown the poor bend my knees

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? How high does Tagore want his mind to be raised? m n RAJU

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Give me the strength to raise my mind high above m n RAJU daily trifles.

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? m n RAJU To whom does the poet want to surrender his strength?

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And give me the strength my strength to thy will with love. m n RAJU to surrender

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Song 36 – Some Titles This is My Prayer to Thee Prayer for Strength Give Me Strength A Poet’s Prayer Suggest your title for the song. m n RAJU

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This is my prayer to thee, my lord - strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart. Give me the strength Lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service. Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might. Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles. And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love. m n RAJU

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Tagore’s song in his own voice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvTim1Kg_F8&feature=related m n RAJU

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Tagore drew spiritual inspiration by spending time in nature, observing it carefully, a ritual rooted since his childhood. “We had a small garden beside our house; it was a fairyland to me, where miracles of beauty were of everyday occurrence,” he recalled. “Every morning at an early hour I would run out from my bed to greet the first pink flush of dawn through the trembling leaves of the coconut trees which stood in a line along the garden boundary. The dewdrops glistened as the grass caught the first tremor of the morning breeze. The sky seemed to bring a personal companionship, and my whole body drank in the light and peace of those silent hours. I was anxious never to miss a single morning, because each one was more precious to me than gold to the miser. I had been blessed with that sense of wonder.” m n RAJU

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m n RAJU http://youtu.be/eiODg-skyLE?t=2m4s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiODg-skyLE&feature=player_detailpage#t=123s