Childhood
"The childhood shows the man,
As morning shows the day."
As morning shows the day."
""— Milton, Paradise Regained
As every canon admits of exception, even so this truth does not always hold. But in the life of Rabindranath it is absolutely true.
The more we make a child happy, the more we can expect good of him. It is but a child’s cheerful face that can frighten away the teeming ills of the world.
To serve a unique purpose Tagore invites a child to appear on the world-scene.
"They [men] are cruel in their greed and their envy, their words are like hidden knives thirsting for blood.
Go and stand amidst their scowling hearts, my child, and let your gentle eyes fall upon them like the forgiving peace of the evening over the strife of the day.
Let them see your face, my child, and thus know the meaning of all things; let them love you and thus love each other.
Come and take your seat in the bosom of the limitless, my child.
The Crescent Moon"
Go and stand amidst their scowling hearts, my child, and let your gentle eyes fall upon them like the forgiving peace of the evening over the strife of the day.
Let them see your face, my child, and thus know the meaning of all things; let them love you and thus love each other.
Come and take your seat in the bosom of the limitless, my child.
The Crescent Moon"
Sri Chinmoy, Rabindranath Tagore: the moon of Bengal’s Heart, Agni Press, 2011
