Bichitrita Artist: Rabindranath Tagore. 'At the time of renouncing his family life, Jag(n)a-balkya attempted to give away his properties to his two wives. Then Maitreye said, "Tell me if I would become immortal with these things." Jag(n)a-balkya said, "No, that would not happen. Your life would be like the lives of the owners of ingredients. The two of you would live comfortable lives just the way people having family lives spend comfortable days with their secured homes, cows and cattles, and food and clothes." Maitreye said in a moment, "Jenahang namrita syam, kimahang teno koorjam?" What would I do with that which would not make me immortal? These were not words of profound wisdom. She did not say these words after dertermining by thinking and meditation what was temporary and what was timeless. She had a judgement-stone in her mind. She rubbed all ingredients of family life on it once and said, "These are not what I want." Within our inner nature there is a woman. We bring to her all our savings. We bring wealth and say, "Take this." We bring fame and say, "You save this." The man in us works hard all his life and brings so many things from so many places. He says to the woman, "You lay out all this in your house. Have a neat family life. You be happy with all this." The hermit woman living in the inside cannot say clearly yet, "I will get no benefit from these." She thinks perhaps what I want are all these. But she does not accept that she got everything after receiving all these. She thinks perhaps she needs to receive more. More money is needed. More fame is needed. Life cannot go on without more power. But there is no end to that more. Indeed one day she has to realize that she wants amrit. And all these ingredients are not amrit. One day in a moment, pushing aside heaps of savings of her entire life like trash, she has to say, "Jenahang namrita syam, kimahang teno koorjam?"' A part of an article entitled The prayer. This article was written one hundred years ago. The date given is the second day of Pous, 1315 in Bengali calendar. Translated from Bengali. "Aaj    dhaner khete roudra-chha-aa-ai        Lukochuri khela. Nil aakash-e ke bha-sa-le        Sada megher bhela." Previous  Next  List of all Paintings   Home