This poem expresses the intimacy many are yearning for, both
in personal and spiritual terms. For those who have a Faith Tradition, Tagore,
is expressing it in terms of our unique
relationship with the Source of all life – Ultimate Reality. Ultimately we will ‘stand’ face to face with this
Source. Paradoxically, this does not have to be an ‘after death’ experience, it
is an experience we can have in this life. It can happen momentarily, as with a
sunrise, the face of a child, a beautiful view. These are examples of those
moments of transcendence that can happen. However, they are fleeting and in
times of crisis and change , these can seem more difficult to encounter. In
short we are searching for our ‘soul’ – a term that is not the property of any
religion but of all humanity.
This searching for ‘soul’ has become more prevalent and urgent in recent
times. The great changes in both Science and Technology have challenged and changed many
of the old certainties that have held sway for centuries. The growth in modern
communications, allied to the exponential growth of computers, means that we have more information at our
fingertips and that this information can be shared in seconds around the world. We are
living in times that are changing faster than either individuals or institutions can either
keep up with or manage and this can be both challenging and unsettling.In addition, the old patriarchal paradigm is broken, women are no longer willing , nor should they be, to accept an inferior status, The feminine attributes and gifts are , after millenia of suppression , beginning to assert their equality.
For many of our Institutions, particularly Religious, these unsettling times can
give rise to great anxiety and panic. Thus we see an ever increasing growth in
fundamentalism and conservatism as Institutions and Organisations try to avoid the chaos of change
and cling on relentlessly to old and outdated theology, worship and ideas. This is
particularly true of male dominated Institutions, which applies to most of the
formal Faith Traditions and certainly those in Western Religions. These resist and
even deny any ideas and advances that suggest that we could benefit by acknowledging the on-going
evolution of Creation and the importance of
balancing the patriarchal dominance with the feminine aspect of our
humanity.
Yet both Science and the Universal Wisdom of the Mystics, along with the wisdom
of the aboriginal peoples of the world, acknowledge and recognise that there is both
Chaos and Conservation and that these two are a natural part of nature, the
environment and the human experience. At the moment, modern humanity is over-focused, and arguably
obsessed with the patriarchal and masculine side of its psyche. Part of the solution
could be for humanity to tap into and balance its feminine and masculine gifts
in order to find a new and wiser way through this quantum leap. In this respect
we have much to learn from the wisdom of the
ancients and the aboriginal peoples who both recognise and celebrate the
feminine aspect of the Divine. This could result in us finding the balance
required that will enable us to cherish, respect and appreciate the richness of
both the feminine and masculine. In this way mutual respect will grow and the
oppression, abuse and our disastrous failure to acknowledge and accept the great talents and
gifts of women will cease.
There is nothing too
surprising in all this. If we just look at history. In the middle ages the invention of the printing press brought about terrific changes. The spread of
information and ideas was rapid and played a huge part in the turmoil and chaos of the
Reformation in Western Christianity. At that time the Catholic Church tried to
cling on to the old ways and to suppress the growth and spread of new reformist
ideas. However, like the famous story of King Canute, the (formal) Church failed to stem the tide.
Instead it resisted the necessary reforms and the ensuing conflict let to centuries of war,
dispute, torture and general disharmony between peoples and Faith Traditions.
Now we have entered the
Digital Age, with rapid changes in technology and communication.
Information and ideas move around our planet in seconds and all forms of
authority are struggling to contain and control the pressure for reform and change. Modern
people do not communicate in the old ways, hence the dying spasms of post (snail mail) and
the growth of email, Facebook, Snapchat , blogs etc.
Yet, in the West, our
Churches , Mosques and Synagogues still
rely to heavily on written texts , which are interpreted ,mainly, by males from a very conservative standpoint.. In addition, many outdated and outmoded rites and rituals are retianed and these often fail to appeal to so many. This is particularly true for both the young and the discerning older people. This is very evident in Christianity but
history shows that both Islam and Judaism will too face this disenchantment
with Patriarchal Religion. Certainly for Christianity , it is little
wonder that churches are almost empty and cinemas, shopping malls and dance
studios and clubs are filling up. Many people find worship boring and
irrelevant to modern times and modern issues of injustice, oppression, violence, prejudice and the growing gap between rich and poor. They are searching for answers to questions that very
often the main stream churches don’t or
won’t address.
Our task, both as individuals and as members of communities and traditions, is to first take responsibility for our own life and its journey. This is the primary task of maturing into adulthood. Too often we remain in child mode and thus subservient to patriarchal authority. Then we need to model this in our relationships and our communities. The Face-to Face encounter, in Tagore's Poem, is similar to Buber's I : Thou relationship of modern psychology. It is a relationship of mutual respect and adulthood. Ancient Wisdom and modern psychology assert that this is a surer and safer path to finding our true self - our soul
