The present book of mine on Rabindranath, his Gitanjali and Nobel award had a title which I used as ‘A Gift of Magi to the West’ needs an explanation.
The word ‘Magi’ refers to a group of wise men from the East (Persia) representing Zoroastrianism. They were religious and God-fearing. They had knowledge of astronomy. They followed a miraculous guiding star and could understand the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem. These wise men or magi came to Bethlehem with gifts to Jesus, greeting him as the Prophet of God. Since then the Christians considered the day as holy for making birthday gifts in honor of Jesus. The birth of Jesus was similar to Adam. Allah created Jesus like Adam to suggest that he has power to do so.
In 1962 and also for further periods, I was a teacher in the department of English at Kushtia College. It was a time when I used to teach English stories to my students. The Gift of the Magi was written by an American writer, O. Henry in 1905. The story impressed me most as it upheld a human love of a man and his wife who apparently could be taken as ‘fools’ from materialistic point of view but they excelled everybody turning the whole thing into a matter of ‘divine grace.’ What apparently looked a big loss at once turned into a big spiritual gain. They proved themselves as the ‘Magi’ of all time and of all ages. “The Gift of the Magi” is a short story by O. Henry first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been popular for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time.
The story was initially published in The New York Sunday World under the title “Gifts of the Magi” on December 10, 1905.
‘On Christmas Eve, Della Young discovers that she has only $1.87 to buy a present for her husband Jim. She visits the nearby shop of a hairdresser, Madame Sofronie, who buys Della’s long hair for $20. Della then uses the money to buy a platinumpocket watch chain for Jim. When Jim comes home from work that evening, Della admits to him that she sold her hair to buy him the chain. Jim gives Della her present— a set of ornamental combs, which she will be unable to use until her hair grows back out. Della gives Jim the watch chain, and he tells her that he sold the watch to buy the combs. While the gifts that Jim and Della gave each other can’t be used, they know how far they went to show each other their love and how invaluable their love truly is. The story ends with the narrator comparing these sacrificial gifts of love with those of the biblical Magi.’ The story ends with a comment by the author:
“The magi, as you know, were wise men—wonderfully wise men—who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”
“Gitanjali” of Tagore is a kind of gift of magi because it contained the wise sayings of the Bauls and these were assimilated by the Poet into a poetic form and these were spiritual in nature. During the time of Rabindranath, the West, particularly England turned into materialism so much so that it became a ‘God ‘to them. The whole of the west was under the influence of materialism.
Wordsworth once wrote, ‘The World is Too Much with Us’ in reaction against materialism. The British looked for colonies to explore and expand their products. The west was going away from the way of God. WB Yeats, T.S. Eliot and many other modern poets sharply reacted to the way of life the West was upholding. Love song of Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land by Eliot were a sharp criticism against the practice of materialism. They became far away from the teachings of Jesus Christ. Under such circumstances, Rabindranath made a Gift of his noblest and finest work, Gitanjali or Song Offering to the West for their return to the way of God. Gitanjali was practically the representation of the wise sayings of the Bauls who had also their origin in the East. They were known as Sufi and were the followers of Dewan Hafiz, Jalaluddin Rumi and Omar Khayyam and many others. The word Sufi came from the Greek word Sophia. It means one who is wise and understands mysticism that pervades the universe. Gitanjali changed Andre Gide and C.F. Andrews and many others. The West looked for such kind of thing and Rabindranath came with the sayings of the Baul as the Gift of the Magi to the west for a change over.