From Afar
From Afar - context Summary
Published in Gitanjali, 1910
This poem appears in Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali (published 1910). It articulates a central mystical contrast between the transient ego that "floats along the wave of time" and a deeper, stable self that is free, desireless, and illumined. Placed within Gitanjali’s devotional context, the poem frames spiritual insight as a perspective shift: the poet observes the passing self from a distance, affirming inner peace beyond worldly suffering.
Read Complete AnalysesThe 'I’ that floats along the wave of time, From a distance I watch him. With the dust and the water, With the fruit and the flower, With the All he is rushing forward. He is always on the surface, Tossed by the waves and dancing to the rhythm Of joy and suffering. The least loss makes him suffer, The least wound hurts him— Him I see from afar. That 'I’ is not my real self; I am still within myself, I do not float in the stream of death. I am free, I am desireless, I am peace, I am illumined— Him I see from afar.
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