Our devotional religious endeavour has two sides - one deals with everything related to strength while the other deals with its succulent (juicy) vitality. The succulent vitality is the capacity to manifest the truth directly and instantaneously, which is full of life and vigour.
By strength we mean unquestionable faith arising out of moral and intellectual power. It is the firm belief that one possesses by virtue of his spiritual power, no matter what its extent is. It remains undisturbed under all circumstances.
This strength has got nothing to do with knowledge. It is not derived out of our belief about the existence of God. This faith or belief is a state of the mind. It is a sort of infallible dependency that cannot be thrown into confusion, that remains unperturbed under all circumstances. The mind always remains firmly grounded and it does not feel helpless in any situation. This faith is as firm as our universe. It is the safest haven for our minds. It has immense strength.
He who lacks this belief always finds himself in deep water, trying his best to survive by clinging on to whatever he can lay his hands upon. He fails to find solid ground under his feet. If he fails to have his grip on something, he drowns into deep sorrow. Then he finds no consolation anywhere. Hardship of life keeps on making him more and more frustrated. He fails to see the iron pillars of success. Fear and apprehension always keeps his mind disturbed. He tries to grab a floating, empty container to keep himself away from drowning. But one who has his both feet firmly grounded, though he needs empty containers to satisfy the needs of his day-to-day life, he does not need them to keep himself afloat, or save himself from drowning.
That is why one whose belief is firm and unquestionable, all his works bear a stamp of affirmation. He knows he has a firm ground to stand upon and a definite destination to reach. Even if he fails to see his destination clearly, even if he fails in his endeavour, in his mind he knows it very clearly that he has not been deprived altogether. His mind is ably equipped to foresee some success amidst failure. This immovable and undisturbed state of his mind is the eternal truth, which he can feel inside at every moment. He always enjoys a freedom from uncertainty and diffidence. This is that faith, that belief, upon which our whole religion is established.
There is a deep comprehension at the root of this firm belief, which is our utmost faith in God. Faith in God is a term, which is very easy to utter, and nobody ever confesses to believe anything contrary to it.
But unconsciously we deny his existence through our daily acts. We take up all responsibilities upon ourselves and try to accomplish everything on our own, leaving very little for the Almighty to take care of. We pray to Him for our well-being and yet we keep on worrying intensely about it. This way we keep on denying His existence. We seem to have more faith upon our own discretionary power than the grace of God.
The fact that God is holding all of us in the form of an eternal truth, sheltering us with utmost care is not the ultimate expression of the whole thing. This earth is built up with many a layers of stone. Had there been no such firmness, we would never have been able to glide upon its surface with such aplomb and ease. Upon all this firmness there is also a succulent (juicy) vitality, giving it a softness and tenderness which is so much inherent to it, and which adds zest and piquancy (a quality of enhancing enjoyment) to it. That is the ultimate form of our mother earth. It is soft, beautiful and kaleidoscopic.
Upon this eternal firmness of this earth, there is a constant playful movement, which has its own manifestation. This only gives this earth a complete form. Above the rock-solid foundation, there is a constant flow of life, flow of youth and flow of beauty. It is always expressing its beauty. There is no end to its youthful nature.
The juicy vitality is in a constant flow. It is capable of permeating into everything, thereby filling all that it permeates with delight. It is a constant manifestation of beauty, youthful vigour and nature. Where this juicy vitality dries up, the hard, lifeless inner core gets revealed.
All our devotional pursuit also requires this juicy vitality, without which it (our devotion) loses its complete form and worthiness. Our devotion then gets confined within a limit and its vision becomes one-sided and narrow. Such devotion always tries to bring down all others to its own way of thinking. This firm, obstinate nature of narrow devotion mistakes tenderness as weakness and variety as magical illusion.
The inner core is always hard. The outer appearance is always soft and tender. That gives our life the vitality it needs. The outer beauty is so essential for life to flourish.
Where our devotional pursuits flourish, there we find an incessant flow, a wide variety of feelings and manifestation of tenderness and politeness.
Politeness does not necessarily mean educative courtesy. Politeness emanating from or evolving out of educative courtesy is like the sharp edge of a sword. There is another kind of politeness, which is akin to the tender leaves of a plant, or to that which makes a flower bloom, or to the wind that caresses the branches of trees, or to the rain, which drizzles to a tune, or to the vibrating rays of the morning sun. It is that politeness which very easily establishes a link with everyone, which responds, which is agreeable, which transforms a faulty stroke into a tuneful one, and which, by virtue of/with the help of/in its own beauty, breaks down individuality, so that it can find its way into every heart. This politeness comes out of that juicy vitality, and not from that educative courtesy. This politeness is not burdened with dry restraint; it is filled up with juicy abundance. If it is at all burdened, then that is definitely with love, devotion and completeness.
The juicy vitality expresses itself in the form of joy. Joy can very easily give away all that it possesses. It always tries to distribute itself among everyone. If one remains unyielding, then it becomes very difficult for him to unify himself with others. This unyielding, proud nature can only be got rid of with the help of politeness.
This is where even the Almighty bows down to us. He is strong and firm, but even He cannot stay away from distributing all his joy and happiness among us. There He acts just like a loving parent, calling all his little children for embracement. On one hand He is eager to distribute all his joy and happiness among us and willing to hold all of us within Himself, while on the other hand He is controlling all that is happening in this universe with a firm grip.
His role as the loving parent is easily evident. This is expressed through His polite beauty, which is spread all around us. But His role as the controller is not so easy for everyone to comprehend. It took us a long time to understand His role as the controller of this universe.
A glacier is a frozen mass of ice. It is like that dry intellect, which is firm and brittle. But when a glacier melts, it starts flowing. Then it transforms into that juicy vitality. It takes everything in its stride. Every obstacle then lends it more variety and rhythm.
When strict discipline and stern practices make our religion dry, it gets subdivided. Walls and fences are built up to demarcate individual areas. Religion becomes weak. When this juicy vitality of religion pervades us, we get unified under one belief, one faith and one roof. Then we all flourish along with religion. We fail to get unified successfully when some need, some theological cause, some dry intellectual pursuit or some strict disciplinary practice lies at the root. Such things make us heartless, build up numerous obstacles, and give birth to religious pride, which in turn makes our mind and vision narrow. These are certainly not the ways to get united with God. Moreover, we also have to pick out and throw away the thorn of enjoyment, desire for which only weakens us.
Enjoyment is not the aim of love. Love should be such that it can embrace sorrow with joy. Through sorrow, good deeds and dedication we can make our love worthful. Acceptance of sorrow is the crown of love. No matter how hard a housewife works at home for the well-being of her family, it can never make her feel tired. Similarly, in case of a devotee, dictates of work can never turn out to be fetters for him. Those are his ornaments. Sorrow is his pride. His painstaking efforts never arouse any pain. He embraces sorrow; otherwise his devotion loses much of its essence. A devotee takes up every duty, which unfolds before him, with joy. Within sorrow and duty he finds his freedom.
One who has been motivated by this juicy vitality, for him there is no stoppage. During his journey of life, every obstacle lends him a different variety.
Without this juicy vitality, a person gets engulfed with all kinds of restraint. He then remains confined within a handful of daily duties, only to stay alive.
The main problem of man is not to find out a way by which he can get rid of all his sorrows and sufferings. It is not that he can conquer sorrow and banish it from his life with the help of some strength. The main problem of mankind is to find out a way with which he can embrace sorrow, to find that strength through which he can endure sorrow and still prosper internally. Those who talk about embracement of sorrow, they say that by relinquishing ego, prejudice and vanity, men can embrace sorrow. We can replace ego and vanity by love and devotion, if we want to conquer sorrow. All our problems get solved when we arouse the feeling of devotion within us. With a feeling of devotion all our work becomes a joy, and we feel glorious even among all kinds of sorrows.
Translation based on Bengali works of Rabindranath Tagore
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Whenever anything in nature seems to us ridiculous, absurd or evil, it is because we have a partial knowledge of things. We are ignorant of the order and coherence of nature as a whole, and because we want everything to be arranged according to the dictates of our own reason. What our reason pronounces bad and distasteful is not bad as regards the order and laws of universal nature, but only as regards the laws of our own nature, taken separately. 
Our devotional religious endeavour has two sides - one deals with everything related to strength while the other deals with its succulent (juicy) vitality. The succulent vitality is the capacity to manifest the truth directly and instantaneously, which is full of life and vigour.
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The 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore is on 9th May, 2011. His actual date of birth is 6th May 1861. He was born in Calcutta, India, in a wealthy Brahmin family at Jorashanko, Calcutta. However his birthday is observed according to the Bengali calendar, on 25th Baisakh.
