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.

– Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore

I have always been fascinated by the simplicity of this poem. How, through exquisite imagery, Tagore expresses his profound thoughts! The original Bengali poem was titled “Prayer”. It really is a plea, not for the political independence India sought when this poem was written, but for freedom from tyranny and dogma, a prayer that is relevant even to this day.