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A BOOK OF MEDITATIONS
121

Passage after passage in the Upanishads may be recalled telling of that splendour, and the responsive gleam it kindles in the thought of the men living to grow daily more wise beneath its creative rays:

"The Sun is the honey of the gods. The heaven is the cross-beam, and the sky hangs from it like a hive; the bright vapours are the swarming bees. The eastern sun-rays are the cells. Like bees the sacred verses of the scripture brood over the Rig Veda sacrifice like a flower. From it, so brooded upon, sprang as its nectar, essence, fame, glory and splendour of countenance; vigour, strength, and health. That essence flowed out, and went toward the sun; and out of it is formed the rosy light of the rising sun."

In his fourth discourse Rabindranath turns to the hard problem of Self. It is characteristic of his understanding of human nature that he should show so keen a sympathy with the egoistic desire of the creature to go free in its own right. "The whole weight of the universe cannot crush out this individuality of mine. I maintain it in spite of the tremendous gravitation of all things." Again: "We are bankrupt if we are deprived of this specialty, this in-