(338E) Rabindranath Tagore’s Vision of the Bhagavad Gita

(338E)  Rabindranath Tagore’s Vision of the Bhagavad Gita

Within the spiritual treasury of Indian culture, the Bhagavad Gita holds a place of unique distinction. The dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield of the Mahabharata is not merely a sacred scripture but also a priceless gift to human thought. Yet Rabindranath Tagore never approached the Gita with blind devotion. To him it was at once exalted and open to questioning. He accepted with reverence its call to spiritual freedom, while also raising clear moral doubts.

The first aspect that deeply moved Tagore was the Gita’s teaching of karma-yoga—the path of selfless action. The text does not urge renunciation of the world or escape from material life. Krishna repeatedly says, “Do your duty, but remain unattached to the results.” This ideal of detached action resonated with Tagore’s own humanistic philosophy. He believed that one can experience the divine while remaining fully engaged in worldly responsibilities. Likewise, the Gita’s non-dual vision—where matter and spirit are expressions of the same ultimate reality—nourished Tagore’s idea of the “universal human.”

Another feature impressed him no less. When Arjuna, torn by moral crisis, poses question after question, Krishna often gives no simple logical reply. Instead he points to a higher truth: the soul is eternal, the body perishable; therefore to shrink from one’s duty is not the way of humanity. Tagore saw here not a triumph of argument but an awakening of the spirit. Krishna turns Arjuna’s personal conflict into a symbol of the timeless human struggle, urging every person toward self-realization.

Yet Tagore did not stop at admiration. He was uneasy with the Gita’s glorification of war. To call battle a “righteous duty” troubled him. In his view, killing in the name of religion can never be a perfect moral solution. He also felt that the Gita’s weighty metaphysical tone sometimes hides life’s spontaneous joy. Thus he approached the text with both reverence and critique.

For Tagore, then, the Bhagavad Gita is at once an endless call to human liberation and a testing ground for moral awareness. In Krishna’s deliberate silences he found an invitation to self-knowledge, never to unquestioning acceptance. The Gita, he believed, teaches the union of action and spirituality, but the journey must proceed in the light of reason, humanity, and thoughtful discernment.

Blogger – Rabin Majumder
Date – 23 Sept 2025
If you enjoyed this post, please share it.
More writings are available at rabinujaan.blogspot.com.