Where is the Light?

 (e-content developed by Dr N A Jarandikar)

“Light, oh, where is the light?” is a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore. Rabindranath Tagore is a well-known Indian poet, dramatist, and novelist. He wrote in Bengali and English. “Gitanjali” is his famous poetry collection, for which Rabindranath Tagore was honored with the Nobel Prize.

The poem “Light, oh, where is the Light?” is taken from “Gitanjali.” It deals with the poet’s feelings of doubt and faith towards God.

The speaker in the poem says that there is no light. The lamp is there, but without a flame. The speaker goes on explaining the darkness in his life, mentioning that the sky is full of clouds. Rain is pouring continuously, and the clouds thunder and the wind howls. Time is passing, but the deep night does not pass. Like the dense night, the speaker’s life is filled with darkness. The speaker argues that “Death would be preferable.” For a moment, the speaker observes lightning in the sky, but that light, the speaker says, “makes the darkness thicker.”

Here, the speaker is using “light” as a metaphor. The speaker is not talking about common light but is referring to divine light, essentially talking about God.

As God is absent in life, the speaker says there is darkness. The absence of God is due to doubt. However, in the poem, Pain’s envoy assures the speaker, “God stays awake for you.” In other words, as there is sorrow in life, God must be there. God is there to test your patience. The speaker experiences God through lightning. Just like lightning, God shows His existence for an instant. So, the speaker realizes that one must have faith in His existence. He convinces his mind that the lamp needs to be ignited with “The fire of longing.” Here, the word ‘longing’ is associated with passion, love, and faith. In short, if you love your own life, God is visible to you.