30.

Three or four hours before Tagore left this earth, before he passed behind the curtain of Eternity, he recited the poem ‘Samukhe Shanti Parabar’ — “In front of me is the ocean of peace.” He did not set it to music; somebody else did. The words he uttered are most haunting.

Now there is a serious controversy. Some people are of the opinion that this poem he recited was his final song, but others say that another work was his final song. In that song he was seeing the great soul, the supramental soul. He was envisioning this great soul coming to him.

Santiniketan has chosen ‘Samukhe Shanti Parabar’ as the final song and they sing it each year on the anniversary of Tagore’s death. I also feel this is the right one, the last one before he left for his celestial abode. In this poem, he is leaving the earth and seeing the ocean of peace in front of him.⁵⁰