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.
Give Me Strength
This is my prayer to thee, my lord---strike,
strike at the root of penury in my heart.
Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and
sorrows.
Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in
service.
Give me the strength never to disown the poor
or bend my knees before insolent might.
Give me the strength to raise my mind high above
daily trifles.
And give me the strength to surrender my strength
to thy will with love.
-- Rabindranath Tagore
(From Geetanjali, 1910)