Ekla Chalo Re - Being Human

"Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na Ase Tobe Ekla Cholo Re" (Bengali: যদি তোর ডাক শুনে কেউ না আসে তবে একলা চলো রে, Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na Ase Tobe Ekla Cholo Re, "If no one responds to your call, then go your own way alone"), commonly known as Ekla Chalo Re, is a Bangla song written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1905.

Originally titled as "Eka", the song was first published in the September 1905 issue of Bhandar magazine. It was influenced by Harinaam Diye Jagat Matale Amar Ekla Nitai Re, a popular Bangla Kirtan song of Dhapkirtan or Manoharshahi gharana praising Nityananda, disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Ekla Chalo Re was incorporated in the "Swadesh" (Homeland) section of Tagore’s lyrical anthology Gitabitan.

The song exhorts the listener to continue his or her journey, despite abandonment or lack of support from others. The song is often quoted in the context of political or social change movements. Mahatma Gandhi, who was deeply influenced by this song, cited it as one his favorite songs.


Here is the translation in prose of the Bangla original rendered by Rabindranath Tagore himself -

If they answer not to thy call, walk alone. 

If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,
O thou unlucky one,open thy mind and speak out alone.

If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the wilderness,
O thou unlucky one,trample the thorns under thy tread,
And along the blood-lined track travel alone.
If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled with storm,
O thou unlucky one,with the thunder flame of pain,
Ignite thy own heart and let it burn alone.

The original song in Bangla is as follows -
যদি তোর ডাক শুনে কেউ না আসে তবে একলা চলো রে।
একলা চলো, একলা চলো, একলা চলো, একলা চলো রে॥
যদি কেউ কথা না কয়, ওরে ওরে ও অভাগা,
যদি সবাই থাকে মুখ ফিরায়ে সবাই করে ভয়—
তবে পরান খুলে
ও তুই মুখ ফুটে তোর মনের কথা একলা বলো রে॥
যদি সবাই ফিরে যায়, ওরে ওরে ও অভাগা,
যদি গহন পথে যাবার কালে কেউ ফিরে না চায়—
তবে পথের কাঁটা
ও তুই রক্তমাখা চরণতলে একলা দলো রে॥
যদি আলো না ধরে ওরে ওরে ও অভাগা,
আলো না ধরে যদি ঝর বাদলে আঁধার রাতে দুয়ার ধেয়ে ঘরে-
তবে বজ্রানলে আপন বুকের পাঁজরা জ্বালিয়ে একলা জ্বলো রে।।

This song reminds me of the teachings of the Buddha, to stand on your own feet, and relieve yourself of the crutches - in various forms - both material and spiritual. The Buddha quite succinctly had rendered this idea of his, in the following verses of the Dhammapada -

By self alone is evil done, by self one is defiled;
By self is evil left undone, by self alone one is purified.
Pure and impure on self alone depend;
No one can make another pure
- Verse 165 -Dhammapada.

It certainly is in the hand of man, in his total control, what he is to be. He has to walk alone, and burn his heart with the pain, and light the path on his way in the dark wilderness, as Tagore puts it. This is not a gesture of cutting oneself off from others. Neither it is a stance of an egoic obstinacy. This idea comes out from the sense of being a complete human - standing on one's own feet. It is about not being a creeper. It is about being the light, being the creator. It is in the words of Erich Fromm - being productive, grounded in love. Also to be noted is the possibility of man to do so, is taken as a possibility. By Fromm, the Buddha, Tagore, Plato and the Neo-Platonists, it is considered that Man can really walk alone, and it is a possibility of him to realize the Truth - all by himself. That is a major jump in human imagination, revived from the ancients both in the European Renaissance during 1400-1600 AD and the Bengal Renaissance started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1775–1833) and ended by Tagore (1861–1941)

This spirit of Humanism has been beautifully put forward by Pico della Mirandola in "Oration on the Dignity of Man", explaining the Biblical myth of Adam.
"Adam, we have not given you a fixed place, nor an appearance of your own, nor any particular privilege, so that the place, the appearance and the privileges which you may desire, you yourself may obtain and keep according to your desires and your feelings. The well-defined nature of the other creatures is limited by the laws we have decreed, but you who have no such constraints that will determine your own nature according to the free will into whose hands I have given you. I have placed you in the middle of the world so that from there you can better understand all that is in the world. We have made you neither celestial nor terrestrial, neither mortal nor immortal, so that, as the free and supreme modeller and sculptor of yourself, you can sculpt yourself into the shape which you have chosen. You can degenerate and fall towards the inferior beings who are animals; you can, if you so decide, regenerate yourself and rise towards the superior beings who are divine"

Fernand Schwarz in his book,"The Spirit of the Renaissance" observes - "The miraculous character of man is due to his unique place in the center of an ordered universe: he can overturn and ruin everything, just as he can redeem everything in a liberating transfiguration. His humanity is not given to him from outset: he has to forge it for himself; it is a choice and an effort. It is his actions which shape it. He can choose good or evil, play the part of the angel or the best. He is responsible for his infinite freedom. Situated between the diabolical and the divine, he has the responsibility to find the right path: that of glorification of the work which utilizes the given order to create a ladder of ascent. The ambiguity of human nature obliges man to face this uncertain and perilous adventure.
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