Please login to post your comments.
Leave This
Rabindranath Tagore
About Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941) is one of the finest poets that India has produced. He was not just an outstanding poet but also a playwright, a novelist, an essayist, a composer, and a painter. He was also an influential figure in India's freedom struggle. Tagore at heart was a reformist and this is reflected tremendously in his works. He penned India's national anthem and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.
Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads!
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground
and where the pathmaker is breaking stones.
He is with them in sun and in shower,
and his garment is covered with dust.
Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!
Deliverance?
Where is this deliverance to be found?
Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation;
he is bound with us all for ever.
Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense!
What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained?
Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.
Available Answers
- 1.
Based on your reading of the poem, complete the paraphrase by choosing the correct options.
In the poem 'Leave This', the poet addresses the _________________ (hypocrisy / fear) of people. He tells that genuine devotion ________________ (does not lie/lies) in rituals, chanting, or meditating within the ________________ (open / closed) boundaries of the religious places as these are just ways to attain ______________ (seclusion / publicity). Tagore goes on to say that God is not in ________________ (honesty / pretence) but rests with those who _______________ (work hard / preach God's word). The true place to meet God is where the ______________(downtrodden / privileged) sheds her/his sweat and earns bread by _______________ (tolling / meditating). Tagore's complete _________________ (criticism / devoutness) is towards exhaustive physical hard work. He believes that the sweat shed is more ________________ (valuable / undervalued) than the fragrance of the incense offered to God. Tagore is firm in his belief when he explains that moksha or rituals / activities) of life. The poet urges his readers too be with those who toil, thereby conveying that participation in the activity of life is essential for ____________________ (offering prayers to / realisation of) God.
- 2.
He is with them in sun and in shower,
and his garment is covered with dust.
put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!- What does the phrase 'in sun and in shower' mean?
- In what ways does the poet contrast the devotees and the toilers in the above lines?
- What does the poet really mean when he says, 'come down on the dusty soil'?
- 3.
Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense!
What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained?
Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.- Why does the poet feel that meditating and praying in temples is not the way to reach God?
- What do you think will be achieved once 'thy clothes become tattered and stained'?
- The expression 'stand by him' means to
- stand beside the toilers in the field.
- work hard like the toilers to meet God.
- empathise with the toilers.
- 4.
What is the poet's opinion on the conventional institutions of worship and their rituals?
- 5.
According to the poet, God can be found with the downtrodden and the hard-working people. How?
- 6.
What makes the poet feel that 'he is bound with us all for ever'?
7 more answer(s) available.