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Rabindranath Tagore Thoughts on Self

The self of mine that limits my truth within myself confines me to a narrow idea of my own personality. When through some great experience I transcend this boundary I find joy.

The negative fact of the vanishing of the fences of self has nothing in itself that is delightful. But my joy proves that the disappearance of self brings me into touch with a great positive truth whose nature is infinitude.

My love makes me understand that I gain a great truth when I realize myself in others, and therefore I am glad. This has been thus expressed in the Isopanishad – He who sees all creatures in himself, and himself in all creatures, no longer remains concealed.

Rabindranath Tagore

(Source: from the Forward by Rabindranath Tagore to The Philosophy of the Upanishads by S. Radhakrishnan)