Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c5.44

c5.44

Tagore sings of an infinite supreme Being underlying the whole cosmic process of finite creation. The world-process is an eternal process of self-realisation through self-manifestation of that supreme Being. The Infinite is becoming self-conscious through the eternal art-creation of all finitude,—and the truth of the Finite lies in the ideal of unity which it finds in the deeper relatedness with the Infinite. The Finite and the Infinite have embraced each other in the personality of man and the religion of man, which consists of his realisation of the ultimate truth in him, lies in the perfect evolution of his personality or the extension of it into infinity through the increase of knowledge, love and disinterested activities. There is an ideal unity underlying the diversity of the world-process, and the world of inanimate objects is evolving with the same rhythm with which the biological, the psychological and the spiritual processes of man are moving; and the world-process as a whole is moving towards an ideal end—the ideal of perfection, which is to be attained by the realisation of our deeper relatedness with the Infinite Being. In speaking of a vision of his childhood Tagore says in his work, *Religion of Man*, “The rhythmic picture of the tremulous leaves beaten by the rain opened before my mind the world which does not merely carry information, but a harmony with my being. The unmeaning fragments lost their individual isolation and my mind revelled in the unity of a vision. In a similar manner, on that morning in the village the facts of my life suddenly appeared to me in a luminous unity of truth. All things that had seemed like vagrant waves were revealed to my mind in relation to a boundless sea. I felt sure that some Being who comprehended me and my world was seeking his best expression in all my experiences, uniting them to an ever-widening individuality which is a spiritual work of art.” When this ever-widening individuality or personality approximates infinity, we realise the divinity in man and that is the ideal realisation of truth.