Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

As I sipped the precious nectar of this poem, my hands rose in worship, with my inner man shouting "Amen" to its noble sentiments.


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.



I interpret the word "free" in the line "Where knowledge is free" to mean "unfettered, unchained, unrestricted," as opposed to "without cost." Whether one is talking about the secrets of nature, or the great mystery of one's life, knowledge cost someone something. Whether one is talking about the original discovery, or the sharing of the discovery at a later date, knowledge had a price in time, effort and trust.