The small wisdom is like water in a glass: clear, transparent, pure. The great wisdom is like the water in the sea: dark, mysterious, impenetrable.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
For the current of our spiritual life creeds, rituals and channels that may thwart or help, according to their fixity or openness. When a symbol or spiritual idea becomes rigidly elaborate in its construction, it supplants the idea which it should support.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Rigid religious structures can hinder true spiritual understanding.
In this quote, Rabindranath Tagore emphasizes that when spiritual beliefs and practices become overly fixed or complex, they can obstruct the very essence of the spirituality they are meant to express. Instead of facilitating spiritual growth and understanding, these elaborate structures can lead to a detachment from the original ideas and truth they aim to communicate.
Themes
SpiritualityRitualsBeliefFlexibilityUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about open-mindedness in spirituality, one might say, 'As Tagore reminds us, rigid beliefs can hinder our true understanding.'
More from Rabindranath Tagore
All quotes →Music fills the infinite between two souls. This has been muffled by the mist of our daily habits.
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True deliverance of man is the deliverance from Avidya i.e. ignorance. It is not in destroying anything that is positive and real, for that cannot be possible, but that which is negative, which obstructs our vision of truth.
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The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
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If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
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