Mind Without Fear

I vividly remember reading this poem for the first time in my 8th standard. Ever since then I felt deeply connected, in some mysterious way,  to this beautiful piece of creation from Gitanjali, a masterpiece written by Rabindranath Tagore.

Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been
broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;

Where words come out from
the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its
arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary
desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by
thee into ever-widening thought and
action—

Into that heaven of freedom, my
Father, let my country awake.

~Rabindranath Tagore

P.S: My “Where” series poems are inspired from this poem!

Where…III

Where realms of mind is
lost into the depth of heart.
Where power is not
with the so-called smart.
Where agile is “feeling” and
extinct is the thinking-dart.

Where questions have no
answers, yet they are asked.
Where replies are sought for not
in absolute terms, but masked.
Where instinct is at work to
receive, but logic is not taxed.

Where emptiness is
not empty of something.
Where the Creation coalesces
to become nothing.
Where only He exists
and not a thing.

Where…II

Where night whips
the feeling of fear.
Where tough gets
going, seldom hears.
Where heart sinks
in the depth so near.

Where soul is at bay
thinking to be in depth.
Where ‘to feel’ is
to die in debt.
Where emotions churn
the burning heck.

Where can I say
I lie down at the shrine?
Where can I say
that I’m fine?
Where can I say
let my glory shine?

Where questions are
more and answer none.
Where confusion kicks
and to cry is fun.
Where life is dead
and death on run.

Where mounts the
mountain of worry.
Where falls to fault
the height of glory.
Where cherished are
the sons of sorry.

Where never ending path
leads to nowhere.
Where every destination
is not so dear.
Where each step has
vastness so mere.

Where…I

Where words fall short
and the heart melts.
Where mind races high,
into deep faults.
Where vision fails and
the journey halts.

Where I feel not any
exuberance or high.
Where proximity is bliss
with inevitability to die.
Where nocturnal feelings
bear the brunt and sigh.

Where heat is frozen
and mist transparent.
Where faith falls and does
something incoherent.
Where rain is not cheered
and the wets are torment.

Where love is to die
in the depth unheard.
Where drops of water are
nothing but one in herd.
Where going gets tough
the belief sounds absurd.

Where emptiness rules the
caverns of rough weather.
Where vague is the disguise
of fermenting heather.
Where calmness dies the death,
laughs loud the coarse soother.