That we are leaving God out day and night -
if it created a loss in our family worth even a quarter of a penny,
we would have been alarmed immediately.
But that danger is not there;
the sun is giving us light;
the earth is giving us food;
the great local community is addressing our thousand needs through its thousand channels.
Then what need of ours remains unmet by cutting God out of life!
Alas!
Until we know that loss, we rest assured and consider ourselves God's specially privileged children -
living as we do in the midst of pomp, luxury and comfort.
But, how to inculcate the loss that is being incurred?
As an example, let me describe an experience here in the form of a dream that I recently had.
I lost my mom at a very early age.
As I grew up, mom was not there in my life.
I dreamed last night as if I'm a child again.
And mom is sitting in a room at the garden house beside Ganges1.
There is mom, OK, so what -
her appearance doesn't always register in our Consciousness.
I, too - paying no heed to her - passed by the very room where she was sitting.
Suddenly, as I reached the balcony,
what happened to me I don't know -
'mom was there' - this thought rose in my mind.
Immediately I went back to her room and paid obeisance to her - touching her feet.
She held my hand and said: you've come!
And the dream ended right there.
I started thinking -
I'm living in her house,
I'm passing through her doors ten times a day -
I know she's there, there is no doubt;
and yet this life is going on as if she's not there.
But what is the problem with that!
She has not closed her supply,
she is feeding me every day,
she is fanning me even as I am asleep.
Except that part,
where she is holding my hand and saying: 'you've come!'
Food and drink, money and friends - everything is there,
but where is that voice, that touch!
When the Consciousness is fully awake,
it yearns for that voice and that touch alone;
and when it doesn't get that,
it starts wondering room to room, filled with stuff;
and finds no taste for all the food and drink.
Think carefully for a moment;
it happens very rarely in life when we go to certain things, or to certain people in this world.
It may so happen that we pass by one of our very close relatives several times every day;
but it is only rarely, if at all, that we actually end up reaching that person.
Perhaps I have talked to him/her many times when no one else was there;
perhaps I have taken a walk with him/her many mornings and evenings - enjoying the sunshine together;
but among all those times, I only remember the day when it filled my heart to know that I became close to him/her.
There are hundreds and thousands of people who have never, ever, come in contact with anybody or anything in their entire life.
They were born in this world,
but have not touched it since.
That they have not touched it -
even this they don't know.
They are laughing, playing, gossiping, making merry, doing dealings with others, and thinking:
ah, how I'm enjoying life - mixing with others.
That this enjoyment by mixing with others is virtually nothing compared to a heartfelt touch, is beyond their comprehension.
Santiniketan
23 Agrahāyaṇa 1315
(December 8, 1908)
Bengali original: http://tagoreweb.in/Render/ShowContent.aspx?ct=Essays&bi=72EE92F5-BE50-4057-6E6E-0F7410664DA3&ti=72EE92F5-BE50-4647-8E6E-0F7410664DA3&ch=1