The Violin String Bound to Sing
Story★★★★There’s a lovely passage in Rabindranath Tagore, in which he bids us look at a violin string, lying on a table. It is free to move in any direction we choose. But it is not free to sing. Take it up and bind it in the violin, and when it is bound, its music can be evoked. When it is gripped it is free to sing. And the law that runs everywhere, comes to its climax in religion. Jesus offers to all men complete liberty, liberty throughout the entire structure of human society. But it is always a liberty that is conditioned by an inward loyalty. He says: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me . . . to preach deliverance to the captives.” He also says, “Follow Me.”
The point
Rabindranath Tagore reflects that a violin string lying free on a table cannot sing; only when bound in the violin is it free to produce music. Applied to religion: Jesus offers freedom through loyalty, paradoxically enabling true liberty.