In song 20, Rabindranath talks about the flowering of the lotus. The speaker, a flower gatherer, fails to pick up the lotus when it blooms. He is overcome by sadness as he wanted to offer the lotus to the divine.
Is the spiritual journey outward or inward? All journeys are outward-looking at the beginning. At some point, they become internal. Initially, a seeker will look for love and beauty outside himself, disbelieving that he could be capable of the fragrance he seeks. When self-realization dawns, the difference ordinary and the divine fades away. The seeker gets the capacity to love all, for everyone mirrors his beloved. Eventually, the lover becomes the beloved. He realizes that the beauty he seeks lies within him. The seemingly impossible — the seeker as the fountainhead of all truth, all fragrance — becomes possible.
In song 20, Rabindranath talks about the flowering of the lotus. The speaker, a flower gatherer, fails to pick up the lotus when it blooms. He is overcome by sadness as he wanted to offer the lotus to the divine. Now and then, the smell of the lotus wafts around him, making him believe that probably the South wind carries it. For a long time, he keeps looking for its source. Then one day, he is most amazed to find the sweet smell emanating from him.
The lotus flower has particular significance in Sanatana Dharma. It symbolizes beauty, prosperity, and eternity. Goddess Saraswati and Laxmi are shown seated on a lotus. The blossoming of the lotus is also indicative of the attainment of enlightenment by a person. ‘Blossoming’ signifies the activation of the crown chakra (Sahasrara located at the top of the head), also called the thousand-petalled lotus. A yogi is said to be fully realized when he/she raises her energy through all other chakras to meet the crown chakra.
Long ago, I heard a song in khadi boli (a dialect of Hindi)“Bagan mat ja re teri kaya mein Gulzar”.(“Don’t go to the gardens, for your body has the fragrance you seek. It is a luxuriant garden.”).
Song 20 of Gitanjali reminded me of the old folk song again. In many bhajans of Bhakti saints, the idea of a ‘Kasturi mrig’ or a musk deer comes up frequently. It is supposed that a musk deer goes around the forest madly searching for the source of the heady perfume. Little does it know that the sweet smell emanates from its own body. Tagore’s speaker discovers the same fragrance.
On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying, and I knew it not. My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded.
Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from my dream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind.
That vague sweetness made my heart ache with longing and it seemed to me that it was the eager breath of the summer seeking for its completion.
I knew not then that it was so near, that it was mine, and that this perfect sweetness had blossomed in the depth of my own heart.
Geetanjali is a collection of sublime devotional poetry that glorifies the divine energy that pervades through this universe. Cultivating devotion is the most beautiful way to lead a meaningful and rich life. How do you identify the deity you connect to and then perform daily rituals that deepen your bond with them? The answer is the free and incredible Vedic Sadhana app, which makes the ancient rituals and practices followed by the sages of India available for you.
