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Posted by Respect Origins States of India

Freedom Knows No Bounds.

Its the 4th of July, 2017. The United States celebrates this great day in commemoration of the Declaration of Independence, which, for erstwhile Colonies, marked the final departure from Colonial Rule towards absolute freedom and the formation of a United States of America. Its an emotional day that rekindles a sense of patriotism, purpose and devotion to one’s country.

Freedom is precious to all and universally respected by all. In India, over a century ago, a Humanist, a Poet, Painter, Composer, a Renaissance Man from Bengal, wrote verses that inspired generations that were under British Rule. One collection of his verses, called the “Gitanjali”, in 1913, brought him the unique honour of being the first non-European to ever be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The poem was Titled: Chitto jetha bhoyshunyo, in Bangla, which translated into English as, “Where the Mind is Without Fear”.  Great minds reveal their genius through art, words and deeds. These lines inspire in different ways. To me, they communicate an appeal to all mankind to seek freedom through reason.

Read on…

Where the Mind is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls.
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
-Poet Laureate Rabindranath Tagore

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States of India, Vasudhaiva Kutumbukam: One World, One People., West Bengal

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