Rabíndranáth Thákur citáty

strana 5

46 nadčasových myšlenek o štěstí, víře a kráse života

„Pokud pláčete, protože slunce odešlo z vašeho života, vaše slzy vám budou bránit ve spatření hvězd.“

„Je velmi jednoduché být šťastný, ale je velmi těžké být jednoduchý.“

„Pokud roníš slzy, když ti chybí slunce, přicházíš i o hvězdy.“

„Stromy jsou nekonečnou snahou země promlouvat k naslouchajícímu nebi.“

„Moře nemůžete překonat pouze tím, že budete stát a dívat se na vodu.“

„Lehké je být upřímný, když neříkáme celou pravdu.“

„Když zamkneš dveře před všemi omyly, zůstane za nimi pravda.“

„Uzavřel jsem před omylem dveře svojí duše. Pravda řekla: „Jakpak já teď dovnitř dostanu se?““

„Lehko je být otevřený, když nechceme říci celou pravdu.“

„Zavřeli jsme dveře, aby nevešel omyl, ale jak má teď vejít pravda?“

„Smrt není zánikem světla; je zhašením lampy, protože svítá.“

„Život jako celek nepřikládá smrti váhu.“

„Co je jako klenot nesmrtelné, nepyšní se věkem, ale jiskřícím se okamžikem.“

„Drazí moji, víte že jsme nesmrtelní. Je tedy rozumné zničit si srdce pro ženu, která si to svoje vzala spět?“

„Nechť se nemodlím za úkryt před nebezpečím, ale za to, abych byl beze strachu, když nebezpečí přijde. Nechť neprosím o utišení mé bolesti, ale o srdce díky kterému bych ji zdolal.“

„Nejbohatší jsou ti lidé, kteří se většiny věcí mohou vzdát.“

„V tmavých jeskyních našich myslí sny stavějí svá hnízda z pozůstatků dne.“

„Víra je ptáče, které zpívá, ještě když je noc temná.“

„Kéž tě má láska jako sluneční paprsek obejme a přitom ti zanechá osvícenou svobodu.“

„Prvé kroky - vždy nejtěžší.“

„Rozumět něčemu, to znamená nalézt v tom něco, co je naše, a právě toto objevování sebe mimo nás je to, co nás těší.“

„Jako jedinec jsem zcela jedinečný, odlišný ode všeho, s ničím nesrovnatelný. Ani veškerá hmota vesmíru není sto rozdrtit mou individualitu.“

„Porozumět člověku, to chvilku trvá.“

„Svoboda je vše, čeho si žádám, ale doufati v ni se hanbím.“

„Spal jsem a snil, že život je radost. Probudil jsem se a spatřil, že život je povinnost. Plnil jsem ji a pochopil, že povinnost je radost.“

„Neobětujme slabé silným, chceme-li se sami zachránit.“

„Kněžka paměť ubíjí přítomnost a obětuje její srdce svatyni mrtvé minulosti.“

„Suchý strom není na místě v zeleném lese.“

„Člověk je tvor slabý.“

„Je to hra dávání a zdržování, odhalování a opětovného zakrývání; trocha vyzývavosti, trocha ostýchání, a trocha sladkého, snadno překonatelného odporu.“

„Stud je známkou slabé povahy.“

„Pokud člověk zůstává v mezích konvence, nevzbudí příležitost k poznámkám.“

„Chci uchopit krásu, uniká mi, zanechávajíc jen tělo v rukou mých…“

„Obloha rdí se jitrem a já novou, dosud nepoznanou cestu vidím před sebou.“

„To je běh světa — pokus se prokázat přátelskou službu a hubování je ti odměnou.“

„Lidé nemají rádi žertu, když je v něm trocha pravdy.“

„Čím je žena ctnostnější, tím hůř se s ní zachází.“

„Člověk nikdy nemůže vidět dvě strany koule zároveň.“

„Nesmíte honem odsuzovat, čemu nerozumíte.“

„Nejtrvalejší věci dlouho nevydrží.“

„Radost je jednota naší duše, jednota naší duše se světem.“

„Špatně čteme svět a říkáme, že nás klame.“

“My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.”

“Do not say, "It is morning," and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a new-born child that has no name.”

“According to the Upanishads, the complete aspect of Truth is in the reconciliation on the finite and the infinite, of everchanging things and the eternal spirit of perfection. When in our life and work the harmony between these two is broken, then either our life is thinned into a shadow, or it becomes gross with accumulations.”

“God, the Great Giver, can open the whole universe to our gaze in the narrow space of a single land.”

“I touch God in my song
as the hill touched the far-away sea
with its waterfall.”

“I thought that my invincible power would hold the world captive, leaving me in a freedom undisturbed. Thus night and day I worked at the chain with huge fires and cruel hard strokes. When at last the work was done and the links were complete and unbreakable, I found that it held me in its grip.”

“The wise man warns me that life is but a dewdrop on the lotus leaf.”

“He who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gate open.”

“The light of the stars travels millions of miles to reach the earth, but it cannot reach our hearts — so many millions of miles further off are we!”

“The truth comes as conqueror only because we have lost the art of receiving it as guest.”

“The idea of the Nation is one of the most powerful anaesthetics that Man has invented. Under the influence of its fumes the whole people can carry out its systematic programme of the most virulent self-seeking without being in the least aware of its moral perversion,-in fact feeling dangerously resentful if it is pointed out.”

“What India has been, the whole world is now. The whole world is becoming one country through scientific facility. And the moment is arriving when you also must find a basis of unity which is not political. If India can offer to the world her solution, it will be a contribution to humanity. There is only one history — the history of Man. All national histories are merely chapters in the larger one.”

“Knowledge is partial, because our intellect is an instrument, it is only a part of us, it can give us information about things which can be divided and analysed, and whose properties can be classified part by part. But Brahma is perfect, and knowledge which is partial can never be a knowledge of him.”

“I saw, all of a sudden, an odd-looking bird making its way through the water to the opposite bank, followed by a great commotion. I found it was a domestic fowl which had managed to escape impending doom in the galley by jumping overboard and was now trying frantically to swim across. It had almost gained the bank when the clutches of its relentless pursuers closed on it, and it was brought back in triumph, gripped by the neck. I told the cook I would not have any meat for dinner. I really must give up animal food. We manage to swallow flesh only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing we do. There are many crimes which are the creation of man himself, the wrongfulness of which is put down to their divergence from habit, custom, or tradition. But cruelty is not of these. It is a fundamental sin, and admits of no argument or nice distinctions. If only we do not allow our heart to grow callous, its protest against cruelty is always clearly heard; and yet we go on perpetrating cruelties easily, merrily, all of us ⎯ in fact, any one who does not join in is dubbed a crank. … if, after our pity is aroused, we persist in throttling our feelings simply in order to join others in their preying upon life, we insult all that is good in us. I have decided to try a vegetarian diet.”

“While God waits for his temple to be built of love, men bring stones.”

“To Indians the idea of the transmigration of the soul from animal to man, and man to animal, does not seem strange, and so from our scriptures pity for all sentient creatures has not been banished as a sentimental exaggeration. When I am in close touch with Nature in the country, the Indian in me asserts itself and I cannot remain coldly indifferent to the abounding joy of life throbbing within the soft down-covered breast of a single tiny bird.”

“The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing, But Man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.”

“In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play, and here have I caught sight of him that is formless.”

“A very important factor which is making it almost impossible for Hindu-Muslim unity to become an accomplished fact is that the Muslims can not confine their patriotism to any one country. I had frankly asked (the Muslims) whether in the event of any Mohammedan power invading India, they (Muslims) would stand side by side with their Hindu neighbours to defend their common land. I was not satisfied with the reply I got from them… Even such a man as Mr. Mohammad Ali (one of the famous Ali brothers, the leaders of the Khilafat Movement-the compiler) has declared that under no circumstances is it permissible for any Mohammedan, whatever be his country, to stand against any Mohammedan.”

“When we rejoice in our fulness, then we can part with our fruits with joy.”

“There are two religions in earth, which have distinct enmity against all other religions. These two are Christianity and Islam. They are not just satisfied with observing their own religions, but are determined to destroy all other religions. That’s why the only way to make peace with them is to embrace their religions.”

“Ah me, why did they build my house by the road to the market town?”

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.”

“Please is frail like a dewdrop, while it laughs it dies. But sorrow is strong and abiding. Let sorrowful love wake in your eyes.”

“Time is the wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.”

“In India, the measure of a singer's freedom is in his own creative personality. He can sing the composer's song as his own, if he has the power creatively to assert himself in his interpretation of the general law of the melody which he is given to interpret.”

“Reason tells us that creation never can be perfectly happy. So long as it is incomplete it must put up with imperfection and sorrow. It can only be perfect when it ceases to be creation, and is God. Do our prayers dare go so far?”

“Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living the immortality of love.”

“It sometimes strikes me how immensely fortunate I am that each day should take its place in my life, either reddened with the rising and setting sun, or refreshingly cool with deep, dark clouds, or blooming like a white flower in the moonlight. What untold wealth!”