More
from and about
Rabindranath Tagore
(biographical info at bottom of page) |
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They who
are too busy doing good find no time to be good. |
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Children
are living beings--more living than grown-up people
who have built shells of habit around themselves. Therefore
it
is absolutely necessary for their mental health and development
that they should not have mere schools for their lessons, but a
world whose guiding spirit is personal love.
Clouds come
floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but
to add color to my sunset sky.
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The same stream of life that
runs through my veins
night and day runs through the world and dances in
rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots
in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless
blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves
of leaves and flowers.
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Those who are
near me do not know that you are nearer to me
than they are
Those who speak to me do not know that my heart is full with
your unspoken words
Those who crowd in my path do not know that I am walking
alone with you
Those who love me do not know that their love brings you to
my heart
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Religion
is not a fractional thing that can be doled out in fixed weekly or
daily measures as one among various subjects in the school
syllabus. It is the truth of our complete being, the consciousness
of our personal relationship with the infinite; it is the true
center of gravity of our life. This we can attain during our
childhood by daily living in a place where the truth of the
spiritual world is not obscured by a crowd of necessities assuming
artificial importance; where life is simple, surrounded by
fullness of leisure, by ample space and pure air and profound
peace of nature; and where men live with a perfect faith in the
eternal life before them.
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My dearest life, I know you are not mine
forever; but do love me even
if it’s for this moment. After that I shall vanish into the
forest where
you cast me, I won’t ask anyone for anything again.
Give me something that can last me till I die. |
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Never
be afraid of the moments--thus sings the voice of the everlasting. |
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Whatever
we understand and enjoy in human products instantly
becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin... Let me feel
with unalloyed gladness that all the great glories of man are
mine. |
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The
roots below the earth claim no rewards for making the branches
fruitful. |
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Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of
Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new
religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a
revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in
the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at
seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not
finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his
many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a
project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and
increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an
experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic
ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian
nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and
visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was
his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British
Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as
a protest against British policies in India.
Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his
translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the
West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across
continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world
he became the voice of India's spiritual heritage; and for India,
especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.
Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was
first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are Manasi
(1890) [The Ideal One], Sonar Tari (1894) [The Golden Boat], Gitanjali
(1910) [Song Offerings], Gitimalya (1914) [Wreath of Songs],
and Balaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]. The English
renderings of his poetry, which include The Gardener (1913), Fruit-Gathering
(1916), and The Fugitive (1921), do not generally correspond
to particular volumes in the original Bengali; and in spite of its
title, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), the most acclaimed
of them, contains poems from other works besides its namesake.
Tagore's major plays are Raja (1910) [The King of the Dark
Chamber], Dakghar (1912) [The Post Office], Achalayatan
(1912) [The Immovable], Muktadhara (1922) [The Waterfall],
and Raktakaravi (1926) [Red Oleanders]. He is the
author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels,
among them Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916) [The
Home and the World], and Yogayog (1929) [Crosscurrents].
Besides these, he wrote musical dramas, dance dramas, essays of all
types, travel diaries, and two autobiographies, one in his middle
years and the other shortly before his death in 1941. Tagore also
left numerous drawings and paintings, and songs for which he wrote
the music himself.
From Nobel
Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier
Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
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