Thursday, January 10, 2013

What is the critical appreciation,figures of speech and summary of the poem 'Upagupta'?I really want to know about this poem...please help me...

The scholar John Strong has written a great deal about the
saint, Upagupta. Many believe that this is the source of inspiration for Tagore's poem.
Others believe that Upagupta is the Lord Buddha himself, while there is a very strong
and distinct Krishna presence in the poem (Mathura, the flute, the description of him as
being "beautiful," the hearing of lovers, as well as the fact that the manner in which
Upagupta speaks in the poem is really reminiscent of how he spoke to Arjuna in
demonstrating his status as Vishwaroopa in the Gita.)    The imagery is what grabs me in
the poem. Tagore's initial description of how the ascetic is asleep on the ground and
hears the anklets of the young and beautiful dancer is powerful along with the closing
ideas of the storms raging in the end of the first stanza. Such imagery is continued in
the second stanza when the ascetic comes back into town and hears "love- sick koels" as
well as the "mango branches." The nighttime settings in both stanzas are punctuated by
the contrasting vision of the girl, who is beautiful in the first stanza, horrifically
riddled with pain and sores in the second. Yet, the transcendent vision of the ascetic
is constant, who applies healing paste to her body and tells her "I am here."  If we
examine the poem as representative of the spiritual dimension of Hinduism, there is much
here which could put the poem in the same type of caliber as depicting the power of
spirituality as seen in the Gita or Mahabaratha. The most basic elements jump out at the
reader. The benevolence of the young dancer who is rebuffed, for all practical purposes.
This is something that is unique, as we already know that the subject, Upagupta, is an
ascetic. The idea that he would rebuff her generosity is quite powerful. Yet, he does so
with the warning that "When the time is ripe, I will come to you." This helps to bring
to light the Hindu or even Eastern belief that one does not choose their time, but
rather their time chooses them. The figure that we see in the second stanza, as isolated
and rejected, riddled with pain and scars is horrific enough. Yet, this is countered
with the ascetic who approaches her with taking care of her. Yet, in my mind, the genius
is not here. Tagore's genius comes in the last line which does not pretend to offer any
other conclusion other than the statement of "The time has come, at last, to visit you,
and I am here." This statement and its ideas are profound. We, as the reader, do not
know what happens to the woman. Is she healed? Does she die? Perhaps, the larger
question is whether this even matters. She has achieved a certain level of salvation, of
moksha, or liberation. This is what we are left with, that the vision of the divine has
come to the realm of the mortal. This is very reminiscent of any of the Hindu gods, such
as Vishnu (Krishna and Buddha avatars), descending from their abodes to bless their
mortals who have proven worthy, whose acts in this life have fed their own karma and
ensured that the spiritual atman has been, to an extent, fulfilled. In a body of work
that is highly political and literary, Tagore's poem is reminiscent and containing much
of what makes the Indian lexicon of writing as something that encompasses a sense of the
spiritual in almost any realm.

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