CREATIVE UNITY

BY

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1922

MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA · MADRAS
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

TORONTO

COPYRIGHT

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

TO

Dr. EDWIN H. LEWIS

INTRODUCTION[v]

It costs me nothing to feel that I am; it is no burden to me. And yetif the mental, physical, chemical, and other innumerable factsconcerning all branches of knowledge which have united in myself couldbe broken up, they would prove endless. It is some untold mystery ofunity in me, that has the simplicity of the infinite and reduces theimmense mass of multitude to a single point.

This One in me knows the universe of the many. But, in whatever itknows, it knows the One in different aspects. It knows this room onlybecause this room is One to it, in spite of the seeming contradictionof the endless facts contained in the single fact of the room. Itsknowledge of a tree is the knowledge of a unity, which appears in theaspect of a tree.

This One in me is creative. Its creations are a pastime, through whichit gives expression[vi] to an ideal of unity in its endless show ofvariety. Such are its pictures, poems, music, in which it finds joyonly because they reveal the perfect forms of an inherent unity.

This One in me not only seeks unity in knowledge for its understandingand creates images of unity for its delight; it also seeks union inlove for its fulfilment. It seeks itself in others. This is a fact,which would be absurd had there been no great medium of truth to giveit reality. In love we find a joy which is ultimate because it is theultimate truth. Therefore it is said in the Upanishads that theadvaitam is anantam,—"the One is Infinite"; that the advaitamis anandam,—"the One is Love."

To give perfect expression to the One, the Infinite, through theharmony of the many; to the One, the Love, through the sacrifice ofself, is the object alike of our individual life and our society.[vii]

CONTENTS