Page:Rabindranath Tagore - A Biographical Study.djvu/152



At the close of we find the philosophy of the great renunciation put into its simplest terms. We give up all our worldly possessions, our sensual ties, our affections, powers, and honours, one by one. There is an end of getting and having. This ego, the small self, may desire to appropriate to itself a little of the uncontainable wealth of the universe. To what end? Can the house detach a piece of surrounding air or a stretch of overarching sky and say. This is mine, and mine only? As well may the soul try to take for itself what is free element, or the individual try to detain the universal. For everything in the universe, says the Upanishad, is enveloped by God. Each living thing is part of the commonwealth of