Tagore Rabindranath Rabindranath Tagore : (1861-1941), founded Vishwa Bharati at Santiniketan in 1901: wrote fifty dramas, hundred books of verse, forty volumes of fiction, & several books of essays & philosophy. He wrote in Bengali but translated much of his work into English. The English translation of his Gitānjali won him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. He was knighted in 1915; he returned this honour in protest against the martial law regime in Punjab resulting in the Jāllianwāla Bagh massacre in 1919. “Sri Aurobindo’s grandfather, Rajnarayan Bose, had organised a secret society (enrolling young Rabindranath as a member) & also established an institution for revolutionary propaganda & action, but the climate of the time being what it was, neither the secret society nor the institution could prove effective…. Bande Mataram was first sung from the Congress platform by Rabindranath in 1896, but it made then no electric impact on the audience.” [K.R.S. Iyengar, Sri Aurobindo – A Biography & a History] C.F. Andrews: One day the Lokamāṇya came to the Poet Rabindra Nath Tagore & said to him: “I can manage to put Rs fifty thousand in your hands if you can go to England at this time.” The Poet said, “You know I cannot do any political work. I am only a poet.” Lōkamānya replied, “I do not want you to do any political work, but simply to be present in England in this year, because it is necessary that the name of India should stand high in the minds of the English people & your presence will effect this object.” The Poet could not go…. [Reminiscences on Lōk. Tilak, S.V. Bāpat, 1924] Hemendranath: In one of his essays in Nārāyaṇa (q.v.), Das wrote: ‘Rabindranath has imported many things from the West. That no doubt has added to the rich variety & wealth of Bengali literature but has not helped to develop & preserve Bengal’s individual culture & its national genius. Under no circumstances, should we suffer ourselves to be led by the glamour of the West.’ [H. Das Gupta Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, “Builders of Modern India” Series, GoI, 1977] Sri Aurobindo: I think partly at least it is Tagore who has made the idea current on the Continent that Buddha is the beginning & end of the Indian Spirit. – I think partly at least it is Tagore who has made the idea current on the Continent that Buddha is the beginning & end of the Indian Spirit. Formerly, Rolland (q.v.) never thought about Asia; he was busy with his European unity & European culture etc.” – [On the report that Tagore believed that if internationalism is fulfilled nationalism will care of itself] Internationalism is all right, we accept it on its own plane. But we must have nations first…. In this way sometimes people injure the very cause for which they stand. I should be on good terms with my neighbour, but that does not mean that I should allow him to come into my house & occupy it. [A.B. Purani: Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo, 2007: 308-09, 276-77, s/a p.593-94; CWM Vol.16]
... Rabindranath Tagore. Drawing by Satyajjt Roy The Parrot's Training Introduction This unusual story drives home its message by a kind of literary reductio ad absurdum. It is a satire, full of wit and sarcasm, and can be regarded as a preface to a revolution in education. Rabindranath Tagore dreamed of creating a garden of learning where... divine. In 1901, Rabindranath Tagore established a new school at Shantiniketan, a school without walls. It was to be a place where children would be free to live under the canopy of the sky and listen to the wind and the birds. Tagore maintained that 'here is an inherent harmony between man and nature and that man can learn from nature by an intimate friendship with it. Tagore also conceived of... together, they learn from each other; the growth of the pupil is intertwined with the growth of the teacher. In Indian terminology, a school has to be an "ashram", and Rabindranath Tagore looked upon Shantiniketan as an ashram. Tagore was a true teacher, rightly known as Gurudev, since he placed children Page 303 in the centre of his ashram and put himself at their disposal. He interwove ...
... very Indian Mirror Street. When he was five years old, his father, Prithwi Singh Nahar, in order to provide better education to his children, took them to Santiniketan, established by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Abhay Singh's sister, Sujata Nahar, narrates a notable incident during their stay at Santiniketan in an article written by her: "On the eve of the Durgapuja holidays, the Harijans of S... the cardinal principles of Jainism which advocates no discrimination between caste and creed and the fact that all are equal. Everybody realised their mistake and kept quiet." Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore had special love and affection for Abhay Singh, and wrote a beautiful poem on Page 149 him, which we all will hear in the form of a song a little later. His father, Prithwi... Broad-minded, ever smiling, soft spoken but ready to meet and interact with people, Abhay Singh always came forward to help the poor and downtrodden people. He was very fond of music. Songs of Rabindranath Tagore, Ramprasad, Rajanikanta and Nazrul were his favourites. After the Mother left her physical body in 1973, he had to face a lot of opposition and obstacles in the Ashram, but always maintained ...
... atmosphere of his earlier heroic youth and I sang to him, "Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindranath." Today I saw him in a deeper atmosphere of a reticent richness of wisdom and again sang to him in silence, "Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindranath!" 29 May 1928 RABINDRANATH TAGORE ... Part V: Talks and Interviews with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Champaklal's Treasures - Edition-II Rabindranath Tagore’s Account of His Interview with Sri Aurobindo At the very first sight I could realise that he (Sri Aurobindo) had been seeking for the soul and had gained it, and through this long process of realisation had accumulated within him a silent ...
... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 6 Rabindranath Tagore Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 ...
... Book Two Table of Illustrations Page Frontispiece Mirra at the turn of the century 45 Rabindranath Tagore; autographed in March, 1930 (courtesy Abhay Nahar) 48 Abanindranath Tagore, detail of a dry-point by Mukul Dey 55 A sketch by Nandalal Bose, from Abhay's autograph book 58 Nandalal Bose (courtesy Mrs Jamuna Sen) ...
... Acharya of Mymensingh was one of the vice-presidents. Then there were Subodh Chandra Mullick, Bepin Chandra Pal, Page 323 P. Mitter, Surendranath Banerji, Gaganendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore, Chittaranjan Das, Aravindo Ghose, Satish Chandra Mukherji, A. Rasul, Aswini Kumar Dutt, Radha Kumud Mukherji, etc. And Dr. Nilratan Sarkar, that enemy of death. Add a galaxy of eminent ... low-rung bureaucrats. Quite apparent to him were the disastrous effects of the system on body, mind and character of the Indians. These effects were apparent to others as well. To counter them Rabindranath Tagore established the Santiniketan School at Bolpur in 1901; B. B. Upadhyay was one of the first to help him. Satish Mukherji founded the Dawn Society in 1902 in Calcutta ; it sought not only to develop... and not machines." The public interest in national education grew apace. In the second week of February 1908, a special conference was held at Pabna, attended by about ten thousand men. Rabindranath Tagore was in the chair. He delivered a stirring speech, in the course of which he said, "The control and direction by foreigners of education in India is a most unnatural phenomenon not to be met with ...
... ' at their residence. K. K. Mitra and Lilabati were married at Calcutta in April 1881. A large number of guests attended the marriage party, but the bride's father, Rajnarain Bose, did not. Rabindranath Tagore composed a song for the occasion, and Narendranath Dutta, better known as Swami Vivekananda, sang at the ceremony. The Mitras had three children: Kumudini, Basanti and Sukumar. Kumudini... and variety of the articles, the calibre of the writers and the quality of the writing. From the literary point of view the chief ornament of the number is the brief poem Dukhabhisar, by Sj. Rabindranath Tagore. It is one of those poems in which the peculiar inimitable quality of our greatest lyric poet comes out with supreme force, beauty and sweetness. Rabindra Babu has a legion of imitators and many... remarkable educational experiment which this original mind is developing in the quiet shades of Bolpur." The Santiniketan School was established in the wide open spaces of Bolpur in 1901 by Rabindranath Tagore. He had seen the great harm done by a system of education which was cut off from Indian life, for its sources lay outside India. "In every nation," he pointed out, "education is intimately connected ...
... my love, with your love. You will see all problems solved, everything done. Forget all else, forget the world. Remember me alone, be one with me, with my love…. ” ¹One is reminded of Rabindranath Tagore's Lo, from within our heart, 0 Mother, thou hast come forth in this wonder-form of yours! I gaze and gaze and my eyes turn not aside. Lo! The door of thy golden temple is flung ...
... problems solved, everything done. Forget all else, forget the world. Remember me alone, be one with me, with my love.. ," 2 Published February 1978 2 One is reminded of Rabindranath Tagore's lines: Lo, from within our heart. O Mother, thou hast come forth in this wonder-form of thine. I gaze and gaze and my eyes turn not aside. Lo! The door of thy golden temple ...
... about a Planned Political Reception [1] [Telegrams from Aravinda Ghose and Chittaranjan Das, Harrison Road, Calcutta, to Kaminikumar Chanda, Silchar, and from Aravinda Ghose and Rabindranath Tagore, Harrison Road, Calcutta, to Muktear Library, Netrakara:] JOIN PALS RELEASE DEMONSTRATION NINTH HELP PURSE WIRE AMOUNT. Page 168 [2] [Telegrams from Aurobindo, Harrison ...
... possible emphasis that the country must declare the sovereignty of the child and the youth. At a deeper level, however, we need to remind ourselves of the most instructive parable of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, where the training of the parrot is so designed that under the weight of the learning materials, the parrot itself gets suffocated and becomes dead. The lesson that has to be learnt is that... child is to be trained to learn how to live and live greatly, but not to weaken it and to smother his breathing power. The greatest educational reformers in the world have striven, like Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, to invent a new mode of education that employs life itself as the teacher of life. Experiments of the past that aimed at this invention have given us precious lessons, not all of which have... assimilated. We need to impart to coming generations a new spirit, vision and capacity which will enable them to be at once patriotic and universal — something that was visualized by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore for the aims of Vishwabharati. Men and women of the future have to be universal, and our national system of education must nurture such new types of human beings. This is the task, which is both ...
... brilliantly employed in some of his most outstanding studies in modern and early Bengali literature. As a critic of Tagore's works, he is recognised as an authority. His originality of thought and literary talents were recognised and commended by Rabindranath Tagore himself four decades ago. His monograph on the Poet was published on the occasion of his last centenary in 1961. ...
... Socialist Revolutionary Party; Boxer rebellion in Peking. - Sri Aurobindo makes first contacts with revolutionary Page 584 groups in Maharashtra and Bengal. 1901 - Rabindranath Tagore founds his school at Santiniketan. January 21 - Death of Queen Victoria; accession of King Edward VII April 30 - Sri Aurobindo marries Mrinalini Bose. September 9 — US President... 23 — India's capital is transferred from Calcutta to Delhi. 1913 - Danish physicist Niels Bohr modifies Rutherford's model of the atom with the help of quantum mechanics. December - Rabindranath Tagore receives the Nobel prize for literature. 1914, March 29 -Mother meets Sri Aurobindo. Page 588 ...
... 1925,June 16 - Deshbandu Chittaranjan Das passes away. 1926,Nov. 24 -Sri Aurobindo withdraws completely to concentrate on his work. 1928, Feb. 16 - Rabindranath Tagore meets Sri Aurobindo. 1928,Nov. 17 -Lala Lajpat Rai passes away a few weeks after having been assaulted by the police during a demonstration at Lahore. 1929,Dec. ... -Sri Aurobindo's declaration in support of the Allies. 1941,March - Sub has Bose, having escaped from detention in Calcutta, arrives in Germany. 1941,Aug. 7 - Rabindranath Tagore passes away. 1942,March 31 - Sri Aurobindo publicly supports Cripps' proposals; the Congress turns them down. 1942, April - The Japanese overrun Burma and bomb ...
... brilliantly employed in some of his most outstanding studies in modern and early Bengali literature. As a critic of Tagore's works, he is recognised as an authority. His originality of thought and literary talents were recognised and commended by Rabindranath Tagore himself. His monograph on the Poet was published on the occasion of his birth centenary in 1961. He is no inconsiderable ...
... "I shall not let you go." × The poem composed by Rabindranath Tagore on the occasion of Sri Aurobindo's arrest: "Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee!". ... Mahommedan!. NIRODBARAN: But what was this man trying to prove? He seems to be trying to establish some connection between the development of your poetry and that of Tagore. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): Yes. NIRODBARAN: He said that Tagore wrote his "Jete nahi dibo" 7 when you came back to India and that it was as if a new glimpse of his "Aurobindo Rabindrer laha namaskar." 8 I don't see... daughter doesn't allow her father to return to his place of activity and then he philosophises about love, etc. What is the connection there? SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know. He makes out that Das, Tagore, I and others were writing under the same influence, with the same bhava, on the same subject! But how can he say that some new poems were added to Songs to Myrtilla? None were added. PURANI: ...
... Racine, Racine who, in spite of Moliere and Corneille and Hugo, stands as the most representative French poet, the embodiment of French resthesis par excellence. Such a great name is Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali literature. We need not forget Bankim Chandra, nor even Madhusudan: still one can safely declare that if Bengali language and literature belonged to any single person as its supreme... becoming grim and Dantesque are part of the gifts that Tagore has brought us and made a living element of our literary and even social character. Tagore is modern, because his modernism is based upon a truth not local and temporal, but eternal and universal, something that is the very bed-rock of human culture and civilisation. Indeed, Tagore is also ancient, as ancient as the Upanishads. The... onary status, into the arcana of Thor and Odin, godlings of an elemental Nature. In such a world Tagore is a voice and a beacon from over the heights of the old world declaring and revealing the verities that are eternal and never die. They who seek to kill them do so at their peril. Tagore is a great poet: as such he is close to the heart of Bengal. He is a great Seer: as such humanity will ...
... Children's University 1.Objectives of the university would be formulated in the light of the guidance that we can derive from Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and Sri Aurobindo and also many other pioneering educationists of Gujarat, India and the other parts of the world. 2.Ideal of nationalism which is in harmony with the ideal of internationalism; ...
... Man's universal urge to-day finds expression in the immortal line of Tagore: O Infinite, Thou dwellest in the finite. We believe that the entire future of humanity depends on this line of spiritual practice and its realisation in this life. And in this respect Rabindranath the poet has almost become to us the seer Rabindranath. (2) In the consciousness of the artist of the past each... conglomerations of many heterogeneous sounds. From this standpoint it will be no exaggeration to say that Rabindranath Tagore has modernised the Bengalis and Bengali literature and the Bengali heart. Madhusudan brought in Blank Verse. But by creating and introducing the metre of stresses Tagore brought about a speciality in modernism. In words, rhythms and concepts he has brought in a freedom of movement... shape in Swinburne and Maeterlinck have induced some echoing waves in the works of Tagore here and there. Some of the things, specially characteristic of the West, were fused into his inspiration, became his own and formed part of the being of the pure Bengali race: these have grown now its permanent assets. Rabindranath's experience has, so to say, travelled across space to embrace the universe. On the ...
... me, saying, "Read it." It was a Bengali book written by Rabindranath Tagore, and entitled: Aurobindo Ghose. That was my first acquaintance with Sri Aurobindo, if my memory serves me right, for I was only running eight, and we were living in Santiniketan. I can't say that I understood all I read (I), but I did understand that Rabindranath was addressing Aurobindo Ghose as a Rishi. The childish impression ...
... variety of the articles, the calibre of the writers and the quality of the writing. From the literary point of view the chief ornament of the number is the brief poem Duhkhabhisar , by Sj. Rabindranath Tagore. It is one of those poems in which the peculiar inimitable quality of our greatest lyric poet comes out with supreme force, beauty and sweetness. Rabindra Babu has a legion of imitators and many... which the subtle spiritual discernment of Plato discovered to be the real meaning of what we call inspiration. And of this unattainable force the best lyrics of Rabindranath are full to overflowing. The article Shantiniketane Rabindranath by Sj. Jitendranath Banerji is another feature of great interest. The writer has a good descriptive gift and the passages which describe the Shantiniketan are... depth and mystery of a poem like this, the haunting cadences subtle with a subtlety which is not of technique but of the soul, and the honey-laden felicity of the expression, these are the essential Rabindranath and cannot be imitated, because they are things of the spirit and one must have the same sweetness and depth of soul before one can hope to catch any of these desirable qualities. We emphasise this ...
... child of nine. My father wanted his children —we were eight —to have a broader education. To that end we were taken to Santiniketan, the campus of poet Rabindranath Tagore's "Vishwabharati" (World University). Our family lived in the house of Tagore's Page 9 eldest brother which our father had rented. Thus, our formative years were spent in a clean open air, and we imbibed the cultural ...
... Part I music special in Cambridge. 1921 Extremely impressionable, he took up one line after another, studied LLB to become a barrister, deposited fees for CA. Meanwhile, Rabindranath Tagore urged him to take up music as a career; Subhash and Rolland added their weight to this suggestion. Dilip wrote, "Rolland finally persuaded me to direct all my energies to the cultivation of a... Page 26 and letters appraising his literary, musical and spiritual attainments by men of eminence including such contributors as Mahatma Gandhi, Romain Holland, Rabindranath Tagore, Aldous Huxley, Pandit Nehru, S. Radhakrishnan, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and others. Papa Ramdas and Mother Krishnabai visited Dilip's ashram, found him and Indira Devi completely absorbed... Edison Company of America to make his first long-playing disc. Page 23 Subhash Chandra Bose arranged a felicitation programme at the Rammohan Library, where Poet Rabindranath and novelist Sarat Chandra Chatterjee came to bless him. Toured Europe giving lectures on music. At Nice (France), he met Madame Calve, a famous prima donna who had found solace in Swami Vivekananda ...
... truth of beauty. What do you mean by Truth? There are truths of various kinds and they are not all beautiful. 10 September 1933 The Good and the Beautiful In one of his recent essays, Rabindranath Tagore says that goodness and beauty are so intimately correlated that they are always found together. "The good is necessarily beautiful," he says, and "Beauty is the picture of the good; goodness... or unattractive. Human beauty is not always the picture of the good, it is sometimes the mask of evil—the reality behind that mask is not always goodness. These things are obvious, but probably Rabindranath meant good and beauty in their higher aspects or their essence. 9 September 1937 Page 703 Experience of Beauty In a recent poem, Harin makes the following observation on Beauty:... felt from time to time on the other planes also. A great equality and the view of the Divine everywhere is necessary for this to come fully. 10 March 1934 As you say, there is a truth behind Tagore's statement. 1 There is such a thing as a universal Ananda and a universal beauty and the vision of it comes from an intensity of sight which sees what is hidden and more than the form—it is a sort ...
... Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Poet, A Great Man TAGORE is a great poet: he will be remembered as one of the I greatest world-poets. But humanity owes him another – perhaps a greater – debt of gratitude: his name has a higher value, a more significant potency for the future. In an age when Reason was considered as the highest light given to man, Tagore pointed to the Vision... existence here below. And Tagore is one of the great prophets and labourers who had the vision of the shape of things to come and worked for it. Only it must be noted, as I have already said, that unlike mere moral reformists or scientific planners, Tagore grounded himself upon the eternal ancient truths that "age cannot wither nor custom stale" – the divine truths of the Spirit. Tagore was a poet; this... breath of things, the birthright of human beings. When Modernism declared with a certitude never to Page 97 be contested that Matter is Brahman, Tagore said with the voice of one who knows that Spirit is Brahman. Tagore is in direct line with those bards who have sung of the Spirit, who always soared high above the falsehoods and uglinesses of a merely mundane life and lived in the ...
... Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Poet, A Great Man TAGORE is a great poet: he will be remembered as one of the greatest world-poets. But humanity owes him another—perhaps a greater—debt of gratitude: his name has a higher value, a more significant potency for the future. In an age when Reason was considered as the highest light given to man, Tagore pointed to the Vision... here below. And Tagore is one of the great prophets and labourers who had the vision of the shape of things to come and worked for it. Only it must be noted, as I have already said, that un-like mere moral reformists or scientific planners, Tagore grounded himself upon the eternal ancient truths that "age cannot wither nor custom stale"—the divine truths of the Spirit. Tagore was a poet; this... breath of things, the birthright of human beings. When Modernism declared with a certitude never to Page 369 be contested that Matter is Brahman, Tagore said with the voice of one who knows that Spirit is Brahman. Tagore is in direct line with those bards who have sung of the Spirit; who always soared high above the falsehoods and uglinesses of a merely mundane life and lived ...
... personal gift to the Nationalist leader to be used for his personal benefit, and they have questioned the suitability of the form which the appreciation of his services has taken. Among others Sj. Rabindranath Tagore while associating himself with the appeal wrote to us suggesting that the question of the advisability of introducing this European form of material recognition into the more spiritual atmosphere ...
... I. We have rich crop of valuable results of pioneering experiments which have been carried out by five leading educationists of the country: Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo The results of the experiments conducted by them remain as yet to be pooled together and the conceptions behind their experiments need ...
... June 1916 the Richards met Rabindranath Tagore, who had come to Japan on a lecture tour. Mirra made a fine pencil sketch of him on 11 June, the day he delivered a speech at the Imperial University in Tokyo, ‘The Message of India to Japan.’ Tagore had become world-famous in 1913, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his volume of poetry Gitanjali. ‘I met [Rabindranath Tagore] in Japan. He claimed to... little or nothing is known, and the poet Hayashi, still more mysterious. She also painted or drew some of the places she visited – among them the Daiunji temple – and people she met, such as Rabindranath Tagore. ‘The art of Japan is a kind of a direct mental expression in physical life. The Japanese use the vital world very little. Their art is extremely mentalized; their life is extremely mentalized... Richard wrote two more books which he considered to be one opus, To the Nations and The Lord of the Nations. To the Nations was translated by Sri Aurobindo and carries an introduction by Rabindranath Tagore that concludes: ‘When gigantic forces of destruction were holding their orgies of fury I saw this solitary young Frenchman, unknown to fame, his face beaming with the lights of the new dawn and ...
... NIRODBARAN: Indian painting is not yet so bad as European. People are not following the leaders of modernism here, Rabindranath Tagore as a painter is not much imitated. Perhaps because of Abanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose. SRI AUROBINDO: They, I suppose, praise Rabindranath but don't encourage others to follow him. (Laughter) In Europe, apart from vulgarisation, there is dictatorship ...
... Quand je serai aussi grand que mon père, alors je prendrai ma première leçon; aujourd'hui raconte-moi, ma mère, où se trouvent les vastes landes enchantées. Un poème de Rabindranath Tagore Page 309 ...
... spirit of blending head, heart and hand so as to create new types of human beings that would be self-reliant, chaste, truthful, non-violent and devoted servants of the country and the world. Rabindranath Tagore established in Shanti Niketan a school and a Brahmacharyashram where, like the ancient Upanishadic Guru, he lived and taught as a companion of the children who Page 143 came and... impart education to a living mind... And then I left school when I was thirteen and in spite of all the pressure exerted on me by my elders, I refused to go to my studies in that school. Rabindranath Tagore, therefore, created in Shanti Niketan a new living image of freedom and harmony with Nature and personal and intimate relationship between the teacher and the pupil that existed in the Upanishadic... to put before them something which would be interesting to them. That experiment of Shanti Niketan was a living criticism of our present system of education, a system in which Rabindrananth Tagore as a young boy had felt terribly miserable. As he explained later about the school where he went as a child: It could not be possible for the mind of a child to be able to receive anything in ...
... them was the Gaekwad of Baroda, his former employer, who said: ‘Mister Ghose is now an extinct volcano: he has become a yogi!’ In 1908 Rabindranath Tagore had published in Bande Mataram his poem, still well known in India, beginning with the lines: ‘Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee! / O friend, my country’s friend, O voice incarnate, free, / of India’s soul! …’ Now he complained to Dilip K... religious songs, after having studied mathematics and music in Cambridge. He spoke several Indian languages besides English, French and German. Among his acquaintances were Mohandas K. Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Romain Rolland, Bertrand Russell, Georges Duhamel and Subhas Chandra Bose. He would become the author of not less than seventy-five books in Bengali and twenty-six in English. It was Ronald... music in the house of a Countess in Nice, was probably attended by an acquaintance of Paul Richard, who went to see Dilip the next day in his hotel. Dilip knew him from hearsay, mostly from Rabindranath Tagore who had met the Richards in Japan and had spoken in great praise of Paul. To Dilip’s amazement, Paul Richard confessed ‘in the revealing stillness of midnight’ that he often thought of committing ...
... Rabindranath Tagore This is not to undervalue the intellect - it is to attune it to the integral personality, ponderable and imponderable. The intellect must have a definite play: Else we sink mostly into rank vitalism and uncurbed emotionalism and invite the fanatic and the obscurantist more than the seer. Its importance is implicit in the conversations with Tagore and... at the same time steeped in rich traditions, deeply Indian but no less widely international for that. While being a revelation of the core of Romain Rolland, Gandhi, Bertrand Russell, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, his book is also a subtle disclosure of his own being — a kind of indirect mental autobiography written with the aid of five world figures. 1. Revised and enlarged... his full growth. Tagore has a calmer and brighter atmosphere, a less wounded exquisiteness of being, a certain happy poise, some actualised neighbouring of the Ideal - but it is a sort of natural neighbouring and is thus not quite aware of the rigours as distinguished from the graces of art, while it is bathed more than Rolland's edged heroism in sweetness and light. Tagore was a finer artist ...
... end. Rabindranath Tagore This is not to undervalue the intellect - it is to attune it to the integral personality, ponderable and imponderable. The intellect must have a definite play: else we sink mostly into rank vitalism and uncurbed emotionalism and invite the fanatic and the obscurantist more than the seer. Its importance is implicit in the conversations with Tagore and Sri Aurobindo... modern and at the same time steeped in rich traditions, deeply Indian but no less widely international for that. While being a revelation of the core of Romain Rolland, Gandhi, Bertrand Russell, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, his book is also a subtle disclosure of his own being - a kind of indirect mental autobiography written with the aid of five world-figures. I said "five", but though... growth. Tagore has a calmer and brighter atmosphere, a less wounded exquisiteness of being, a certain happy poise, some actualised neighbouring of the Ideal - but it is a sort of natural neighbouring and is thus not quite aware of the rigours as distinguished from the graces of art, while it is bathed more than Page 175 Rolland's edged heroism in sweetness and light. Tagore was a finer ...
... Surely he did not go just to see the Balcony. It is said he could see the Mother there. Let us now travel back down the corridors of Time to Shantiniketan. Kobi spent a few years there. Rabindranath Tagore was there. They could have revelled in each other’s poetry (if they would). Kobi was at that young age (and till the end) not only a great poet. He was also an excellent painter and a good cook... Some tried to dissuade them from this ultimate “carnivorism”. But the two would not let such a bargain go waste merely because of the queasiness of a few mere men. Finally the Guru himself — Rabindranath Tagore — had to intervene. The next gastric outing was at the expense of one of their neighbours. That young man planted a coconut seedling, tended it lovingly. The plant grew into a tree. First ...
... of great experiments connected with basic education or Nayi Talim, or with Swami Vivekenanda's message of man-making education, creative education conceived and experimented upon by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, radical experiments in integral education conducted in the light of Sri Aurobindo, as also pioneering experiments conducted in different parts of the world under the inspiration of Rousseau ...
... . His learning and patriotism are so profound that in his acquittal we discern the hand of providence." We forego the pleasure of quoting from Bengali newspapers. Page 371 Rabindranath Tagore was in Bolpur, at his Santiniketan Ashram, when the news of the arrest of Sri Aurobindo reached ' him. Then and there he wrote his inspired 'Salutation' poem, in which he called him 'the voice ...
... Swarajya as the goal (vi) Tilak and Sri Aurobindo (vii) The Mantra of Bande Matram (viii) Birth of new literature, art and science (ix) Bankim Chandra, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore (x) The Revolutionaries (xi) The coming of Gandhi (xii) The role of Annie Beasent (xiii) Jalianwala Bagh (xiv) Chittranjan Dass (xv) Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal ...
... And —pardon me for mentioning this —it was in the Indian Mirror Street that most of my brothers and sisters (including me!) were born. 2.It was the prevailing custom to marry very young. Rabindranath Tagore was twenty-two years old and his wife Mrinalini was eleven when they married ; Debendranath was twelve to fourteen while his wife was six years old; Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's age was eleven... ceremony he performed according to Brahmo rites in Midnapore was when he married his eldest daughter Swarnalata to Krishna Dhan. "The function was a grandiose affair," he notes. "Both Debendranath Tagore and Keshab Chandra Sen 1 came to Midnapore. A harmonium, just as it was becoming popular in Calcutta, was brought from there and was played during the musical interlude. The marriage ceremonies were ...
... Page 102 (An Idea, a Form, a Being That sprang from the blue and fell In the muddy grey river of Hell Unpierced by Heaven's seeing.) In our country also Rabindranath Tagore's name needs no mention. A spiritual aspiration pervades his poetic inspiration. It is evident that this spiritual aspiration is the source of his poetic creation. But let us listen to Madhusudan ...
... the bright moonlight. I don't know what the exact phase was, but perhaps: "Today is the eleventh day of the bright phase. See the sleepless moon Sailing alone on her dream-boat." (Rabindranath Tagore) No, it was not the 'eleventh' day: that would have occurred on the 20 th . For Saraswati Puja, which is always held on the 5 th day of the waxing moon, was performed on the 14 th . But ...
... Dilip Kumar is one of the few (if not the only) disciples who took such liberties with his guru and brought out the human side of Gurudev. __________________________________ 1. Poet Rabindranath Tagore once wrote: "Dilip Kumar possesses one great gift; he wants to hear which is the reason why he can draw out things worth hearing. Wanting to hear is not a passive quality but an active one; it ...
... feel and foresee this distant dawn behind the horizon as the Forerunners of the new Spirit, among whom he included Rabindranath, because he saw in Tagore's the first beginnings, "a glint of the greater era of man's living", something that "seems to be in promise." "The poetry of Tagore," Sri Aurobindo says, "owes its sudden and universal success to this advantage that he gives us more of this discovery... Evolution and the Earthly Destiny Rabindranath and Sri Aurobindo "TAGORE has been a wayfarer towards the same goal as ours in his own way." Sri Aurobindo wrote these words in the thirties and their full significance can be grasped only when it is understood that the two master-souls were at one in the central purpose of their lives. Also there is a further... of life." Characterising Tagore's poetry, in reference to a particular poem, Sri Aurobindo once wrote: "But the poignant sweetness, passion and spiritual depth and mystery of a poem like this, the haunting cadences subtle with a subtlety which is not of technique but of the soul, and the honey-laden felicity of the expression, these are the essential Rabindranath and cannot be imitated because ...
... and foresee this distant dawn behind the horizon as the Forerunners of the new Spirit, among whom he included Rabindranath, because he saw in Tagore's the first beginnings, "a glint of the greater era of man's living", something that "seems to be in promise". "The poetry of Tagore," Sri Aurobindo says, "owes its sudden and universal success to this advantage that he gives us more of this discovery... Seer Poets Rabindranath and Sri Aurobindo "Tagore has been a wayfarer towards the same goal as ours in his own way." Sri Aurobindo wrote these words in the thirties and their full significance can be grasped only when it is understood that the two master-souls were at one in the central purpose of their lives. Also there is a further bond of natural affinity... life." Characterising Tagore's poetry, in reference to a particular poem, Sri Aurobindo once wrote: "But the poignant sweetness, passion and spiritual depth and mystery of a poem like this, the haunting cadences subde with a sub-dety which is not of technique but of the soul, and the honey-laden felicity of the expression, these are the essential Rabindranath and cannot be imitated because ...
... feel and foresee this distant dawn behind the horizon as the Forerunners of the new Spirit, among whom he included Rabindranath, because he saw in Tagore's the first beginnings, "a glint of the greater era of man's living", something that "seems to be in promise." "The poetry of Tagore," Sri Aurobindo says, "owes its sudden and universal success to this advantage that he gives us more of this discovery... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 2 Rabindranath and Sri Aurobindo "TAGORE has been a wayfarer towards the same goal as ours in his own way." Sri Aurobindo wrote these words in the thirties and their full significance can be grasped only when it is understood that the two master-souls were at one in the central purpose of their lives. Also... of life." Characterising Tagore's poetry, in reference to a particular poem, Sri Aurobindo once wrote: "But the poignant sweetness, passion and spiritual depth and mystery of a poem like this, the haunting cadences subtle with a subtlety which is not of technique but of the soul, and the honey-laden felicity of the expression, these are the essential Rabindranath and cannot be imitated because ...
... Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore. × Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore. × Shonār Tari by Rabindranath Tagore. ... J doubts that her poems have enough poetry. The doubt is absurd—they are poetry sheer and pure. Our saying and feeling don't matter much, you see. Sri Aurobindo, Tagore, etc., etc. must acclaim. I can't answer for Tagore—... Please acclaim, acclaim! clamo, clamavi, clamabo. 58 December 14, 1936 [This medical report was written by Dr. Becharlal.] P complains of i... meaning, much more than intellectual poetry which is much more abstract. The nature of the intellect is abstraction; spirituality and mysticism deal with the concrete by their very nature. He says Tagore's poem: "All the pooja [worship] accomplished in life..." 54 is vastly more appealing to him than "O Beauty, how far wilt Thou lead me?..." 55 How is this less concrete than the other? ...
... Vol. 7 The Language of Rabindranath IF Bengali has become a world language transcending its form of a provincial sub-tongue, then at the root of it there is Rabindranath. To-day its richness has become so common and natural that we cannot conceive immediately that it was not so before Tagore's mighty and ceaseless 'creation worked at it for half a century... goddess of speech who inspired Tagore is a maker of miracles. It was Tagore who, it might be said, all by himself worked this mighty change and transformation. Directly – and more indirectly, that is to say, through an impalpable influence – it was his personality that lay behind this achievement. Should a catalogue be ever made of the new words coined by Rabindranath, it would be a very instructive... are found in Rabindranath. Prodigality, luxuriance and even complexity are hall-marks of Tagore's style. Bankim's is more simple and straight and transparent, less decorating and ambulating. There is in Bankim what is called decorum, restraint, stability and clarity, qualities of the classics; he reminds us of the French language – the French of Racine and Voltaire. In Rabindranath's nature and atmosphere ...
... interesting anecdote about Rabindranath Tagore. ‘Some time after I had settled here in December 1927, Tagore who was on a boat passing by Pondicherry stopped to pay a call on Sri Aurobindo. Nolini took him upstairs where at the other end of the meditation hall Sri Aurobindo was standing to receive him. [Sri Aurobindo had already withdrawn at that time.] As soon as Tagore entered and saw Sri Aurobindo... Drawings. Vasudha would become her personal assistant till illness prevented her from carrying out her duties any longer. Together with Dilip K. Roy came Sahana Devi, ‘whose music used to send Rabindranath Tagore into the seventh heaven of rapture.’ (Iyengar). At that time the women members of the Ashram numbered ‘hardly a dozen.’ It is, however, important to point out that this was the only Ashram in... Aurobindo extended his arms and caught Tagore’s hands. Then they sat down for a talk. The Mother sat on a stool near Sri Aurobindo. ‘Nolini was also present at the meeting and that is how we came to know what happened there … When the interview was over, Nolini brought Tagore down, followed by the Mother who halted near the bottom of the staircase. Later Tagore asked Nolini: “Who was that lady sitting ...
... Jaydev: an eminent poet contemporary of Lakshmana Sena, king of Bengal (c. 1180-1202 A.D.). He wrote the famous lyric Gita Govindam. Nishikanta's poem Rajhansa was in Jaydev's metre. Rabindranath Tagore also highly praised this song. Sahana and a few other ladies used to prepare a dish for Mother and Sri Aurobindo once a week. What remained was returned and the ladies shared the... resonance. Roerich Nicholas (9.10.1874-13.12.1947), the Russian artist, settled in India. He ceaselessly pursued refinement and beauty. It was to "Kalyaniya Dilipkumar Roy" that Rabindranath dedicated his book Chhanda. The quote is from the very first letter to J.D. Anderson, I. C. S., Professor of Bengali at King's College, Cambridge, where they met on 14 July 1912. Anderson passed... about Geetashri—one of the finest notation books written in Bengali. tal = rhythm, measure. Atulprasad Sen (1871-1934). Bengali poet, lyricist and singer. Not influenced by Tagore, he evolved a distinct style of his own, and earned a special place in the world of Bengali songs—much helped by Dilip himself who brought his songs to the public. Atulprasad's experiments with lyrics ...
... pure and free delight. There are both of these birds in man himself, the objective one with its business of life, the subjective one with its disinterested joy of vision." That is how Rabindranath Tagore interprets the two-bird metaphor of Mundaka Upanishad. He seems to tell us that the act of seeing is more imaginative, more creative, more real than the act of knowing. The delight of the... as is the clumsy Method of Comparative Study followed by Western scholars. Talking of the two birds as stars and metres and priests is an absurdity of the latter kind. In that respect Rabindranath Tagore is certainly closer to the original when he identifies the relationship of the two birds with each other as that one of the infinite being and the finite self, though putting these two... jemal - like , in quite good contrast to the dynamic lyricism of a spiritual symbolist possessing a strong jelal - character. In the robustness of this sense we could conclude, to adapt Tagore, that the stronger is the symbolism the less symbolic it is — because then it becomes real with the tangibility of a flaming rock and of a dense bright flame. In comparison, then, T.S. Eliot's ...
... Education 1. John Dewey, The Child and the Curriculum, p. 9. How little of this beautiful programme has been carried over, even today, into actual teaching practice! 2. Rabindranath Tagore, Personality, chapter "My School". 3. This work may be tentatively classified under three headings: a) Philosophy of Education (Stanley Hall, Dewey. Claparède); b) Child ...
... Mother? And so I had to swallow my pain. Whatever She had done was for my good after all. So only when the proposal for taking French classes came from Her, did I understand! In the words of Rabindranath Tagore: A blow from you, ah! it's Your touch! A much yearned-for recompense! Had the Mother not spoken to me in those words, I would never have applied myself ...
... that seems extraordinarily obsessed by demons and devils. "How loathsome is God-defying bestiality under the cloak of religion, becomes quite visible if we open our eyes a little," said Rabindranath Tagore. The aim of the Jesuits, the Dominicans, and other Christian sects, was the 'soul count.' They never batted an eyelid in taking the name of the 'Apostle of Peace and Love' to indulge ...
... classical school accused Tagore of obscurity and enigmatic vagueness – all a play of whims, caprices and fancies – the clear, direct and positive certainty of the truth-seer is lacking there – Rabindranath cannot sing in unison with the Vedic sages, jyok ca Saryam drse" – "May we behold the Sun with open and undazed eyes." To some extent, perhaps, it is true that if we compare Tagore with those who stand... Star, Of the night for the morrow, The devotion to something afar – From the sphere of our sorrow. This is equally the quintessence of Tagore's message. For this reason people brought up in European culture used to call Rabindranath the Shelley of Bengal. There is a close kinship between the two in this upward urge. This spiritual aspiration was called quest in the scriptures of... Rabindranath, Traveller of the Infinite (I) IN Rabindranath, in his life as well as in his art, especially in his poetry, the thing that has taken shape is what we call aspiration, an upward urge and longing of the inner soul. In common parlance it is a seeking for the Divine, in philosophical terms it is a spiritual quest. But Rabindranath is a poet, and he is ...
... another prose poem by V. Chakkarai inspired by Rabindranath and executed with a sufficient grace. All these together make up an admirable number. The closing portion of the magazine is devoted to notes and criticisms. Several closely printed pages are given to a critical review of Professor S. Radhakrishnan's work on the Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore by Mr. J. B. Raju. The criticism gives unhappily... written is, as this criticism constantly suggests, a mere mass of imbecile inconsequence. I gather that his offence is to have done exactly what he should have done, that is, to represent the thought of Tagore,—who is a poet and not a metaphysical dialectician but an intuitive seer,—as an intuitive whole: the dry-as-dust intellectual formalism of analysis demanded of him by his critic would have been in... knows in these days. The noteworthy poem of the number is Henry Ruffy's "London Nocturne", placed, I presume as a study in significant contrasts, opposite Page 631 Mukul Dey's drawing of Tagore. It is an admirable specimen of the now dominant vitalistic or "life" school of modern poetry. Personally, this school does not appeal to me. Its method seems to be to throw quite ordinary and obvious ...
... even expounded at length, systems of Yoga and declared that Yoga is veritably a science par excellence - a science relating to those domains, which modern science leaves out of its purview. Dr. Rabindranath Tagore also spoke of Religion of Man, which also seeks to underline the experiential aspect of religion. Religion of humanism is another aspect, which has developed in recent times, which wants to install ...
... Creative Power's aspect of Joy. × W.W. Pearson, a friend of Rabindranath Tagore, who had come from Tagore's Ashram in 1923; Mother had met him with Tagore in 1916 in Japan. ...
... to tell me constantly, "Go and see Ghose Saheb; he will give you peace." But I could not get over my huff as yet; I could not forget how he had deserted us, at a critical time. I worked for Rabindranath [Tagore] for about seven years. I took up literary work. I dabbled in art. But nothing brought me peace. Probably, association with the great poet somewhat broadened my narrow and blood-thirsty patriotism... were made witty. Thus far it was easy enough; but I was a stranger to the Mother of 226 The quarterly magazine brought out by the Visva Bharati University founded by Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan. Page 154 the Ashram! So much had I heard about her, both from her devotees and her detractors! I had paid no heed to things that people said of her ...
... and wealth in the thought-substance—and this has now been achieved and, if added to the ojas , can fulfil what Madhusudan left only half done. 14 June 1932 Page 384 Rabindranath Tagore Of course Tagore's worshippers will go for Prabodh Sen, what did you expect? Literary nature (artistic generally, or at least very often) is human nature at its most susceptible— genus irritabile vatum... men were by no means so great as the stupid respect and reverence of past ignorant ages made them out to be! What chance has then Tagore? But these injustices of the moment do not endure—in the end a wise and fair estimate is formed and survives the changes of time. Tagore, of course, belonged to an age which had faith in its ideas and whose very denials were creative affirmations. That makes an immense... powers are very much on the wane, but let us not whisper it too loud. The setting of a great genius and one that, after all, created on a very high level for a very long time! 10 October 1933 Tagore, I think, is substantially right in dubbing his spiritual poems imaginative rather than spiritual. Well, yes, he mentalises, aestheticises, sentimentalises the things of the spirit—but I can't ...
... down. It was Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905), the Poet Rabindranath's father, who infused a new life into it when he took up its reins in 1843. His spiritual vision and generous character made his countrymen refer to him fondly as the Great Sage, Maharshi. Page 68 Indeed, by his erudition, bearing, character and contribution to culture, he made the Tagore family a centre of Indian... a free India which, he told his French friend, Victor Jacquemont, he expected to happen after some forty to fifty years. His grave is in Bristol. The edifice raised by Dwarakanath Tagore in 1843 —his grandson Rabindranath visited it in 1920 —is now crumbling. Raja Rammohan Roy never denied he was a Hindu; nor did his immediate successors. The Brahmo Movement was considered by them to be an improved... Indian culture. He was also uncommonly honest. His father, Dwarakanath Tagore (1794-1846), died in England. When alive, he had earned for himself the title of 'Prince' by his luxurious way of living. His lavish spending —offering costly presents and necklaces of rare jewels to Queen Victoria, who received him in audience — left the Tagores with more debts than assets. Then it was that Debendranath showed ...
... journal, who submitted all his editorials to Sri Aurobindo for approval. A few times between 1927 and 1950 Sri Aurobindo granted interviews to certain eminent men of the times. The poet Rabindranath Tagore came to Pondicherry on 29 May 1928. After meeting Sri Aurobindo he wrote: "At the very first sight I could realise that he had been seeking for the soul and had gained it, and through... such a concentration of supramental light that there is no sign of decomposition and the body will ¹ A line from "Homage to Aurobindo", a poem published in 1907 (see p. 93). ² Rabindranath Tagore, "Aurobindo Ghosh", Modem Review, Vol. XLIV, No. 1 (July 1928), p. 60. ³ The prize had been awarded to Sri Aurobino on 11 December. His message to the university is published in On Himself... are being published from Pondicherry. Page 238 ‘Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindranath.’¹ "Today I saw him in a deeper atmosphere of a reticent richness of wisdom and again sang to him in silence, 'Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindranath.’ ”² In 1929 Sylvain Levy, the French indologist, met Sri Aurobindo and in September 1947 Maurice ...
... any harm, he remained a very simple man." Rabindranath 1.Jyotirindranath Tagore, Rabindranath's fifth elder brother. 2. My Reminiscences. Page 83 acknowledges that he owed his own love for children to his father and to Rajnarain. In 1924, after the death of Sri Aurobindo's brother Manmohan, Rabindranath delivered the Memorial Address. "First,... which Tagore, then a very young man, became a member, and also set up an institution for national and revolutionary Page 82 propaganda, but this finally came to nothing." The secret society was called Sanjibani Sabha (Life-giving Society) and code-named HAM-CHU-PA-MU-HAF (I) Formed in 1876, Sanjibani had several members of the Tagore family, including the Poet Rabindranath, then... the ritual — Rajnarain Bose was its high priest — there, we were all initiated into Bharat-deliverance." This, according to Tagore, "was basking in the fire of excitement." Sri Aurobindo was to become the fire. "Although gentle and humane," wrote Rabindranath about Rajnarain in his Jivansmriti, 2 "yet was he full of fire. That fire sprang from his intense love of the country. He ...
... beauty in all possible ways. Many have contributed to the creation of beauty in poetry and there are works which are supreme in poetic beauty. There is no doubt that Tagore is one of the foremost among them. But the especiality of Rabindranath lies in the fact that the poet in his inner soul permeated his whole being. Even if he had not written any poetry his life itself would have been a living work of... and their use, then, at the root of it all, directly or indirectly the personality of Rabindranath was undoubtedly at work. Among Indians, the Bengalis are supposed to have particularly acquired a capacity for appreciation of beauty. That this acquisition has been largely due to the contribution of the Tagore family can by no means be denied. We do not know how we fared in this respect in the past... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7 Rabindranath the Artist (I) TO-DAY we just want to study Rabindranath the man and not the poet Rabindranath. The poet may raise a slight objection – he may say that if we want truly to evaluate him we must consider him as a poet. What he has done or not done as a man is insignificant; he has stored ...
... him. Years later Tagore admitted that when he had heard of Nishikanto reading Sri Aurobindo’s works he had realized that Nishikanto would go out of his hands. It is essential to note that Tagore wasn’t Sri Aurobindo’s critic. Years ago when Sri Aurobindo was imprisoned Tagore had written a laudatory poem on him: “Aurobindo, accept the salutation of Rabindranath.” In 1928 when Tagore had visited Pondicherry... Nishikanto also inspired Tagore to conduct experiments with his poetry and very soon he created a new genre of poetry which was published in his book Punashchya [Post Script]. Years later in 1940 Tagore wrote to Buddhadev Basu that he was repentant for mercilessly correcting Nishikanto’s Tukri and added that it should be preserved in its best, i.e. original form. [4] If Rabindranath had seen the prospects... the atmosphere of his earlier heroic youth and I sang to him: “Aurobindo, accept the salutation of Rabindranath.” Today I saw him in a deeper atmosphere of reticent richness of wisdom and again sang to him in silence: “Aurobindo, accept the salutation of Rabindranath.” [5] But at the same time Tagore knew that it wouldn’t be possible to suppress the rebel in Nishikanto, who was inclined to break all ...
... his chosen path — which is to follow and be of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. They are Humility and Gratitude . I think it is these two that teased him to often recite the following lines of Rabindranath Tagore (in a slightly modified form) during his last days. যাবার সময় এই কথাটি বলে শধু যাই যা দেখেছি, যা পেয়েছি তুলনা তার নাই। (At the time of departing I have but one thing to say: There ...
... some of them tend to lump together as spiritual poetry all outpourings in verse on any "spiritual" theme or topic. Thus, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Ramatirtha, Swami Shivanand, J. Krishnamurthy, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, are all categorised as "spiritual" poets by virtue of the themes of their poetic compositions. The epithet "spiritual" in the term "spiritual poetry", as Nolinida uses it, ...
... curious stroke of fate, the judge at his trial was one Mr. Beachcroft whom he had beaten to second place in Greek and Latin in the I.C.S. competition, Rabindranath Tagore addressed to him a long stirring poem opening, "Aurobindo, Rabindranath bows to you." During his political career he began the practice of Yoga and rapidly went through the traditional spiritual experiences which had been ...
... social conditions of his times. He shone like the full moon in the sky of Bengali literature. Rabindranath Tagore Page 44 In fact a galaxy of writers graced Bengal's literary firmament. But outshining them all, like the midday sun, was: — Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). He took up where Bankim left off. He was a poet in whom there was "the double seeking... Indian artists discarded copying the Western style. Leaving the beaten track they cut out their own path. The leaders of this new direction were Rabindranath's nephews: Abanindranath Tagore (Aban Thakur, 1871-1951) and his elder brother Gaganendranath Tagore (1867-1938). It was the help of Ernest Benfield Havell, who was the Art School's Principal from 1896 to 1906 and who recognized that the whole... exhibited. The effect on us was overwhelming." And Suzanne Karpeles, an authority on Indo-Chinese culture, whom Mother called Bharatidi, remained a life-long friend of Pratima Debi Tagore. AND.... And in 1916, Rabindranath Tagore had met Mirra. Page 77 4 Mirra among the Artists In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, European consciousness ...
... Francois Martin (north-east section of the present Ashram block) where they remain for the rest of their lives. 1928 Publication of The Mother. February 16 Meeting with Rabindranath Tagore. 1929 April Publication of Kalidasa. 1930-1938 The limited correspondence with disciples begun after Sri Aurobindo's retirement in 1926 assumes very ...
... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7 Tagore the Unique IT is no hyperbole to say that Tagore is to Bengali literature what Shakespeare is to English, Goethe to German, Tolstoy to Russian, or Dante to Italian and, to go into the remoter past, what Virgil was to Latin and Homer to Greek or, in our country, what Kalidasa was to ancient Sanskrit.... Properly speaking Tagore may not be classed Page 177 with them. But just as Shakespeare may be said to have led the English language across the border or as Tolstoy made the Russian language join hands with the wide world or as Virgil and Goethe imparted a fresh life and bloom, a fuller awakening of the soul of poetry, to Latin and to German, so too is Tagore the paramount and versatile... endeavouring to revive that line and naturalise it; even then the soft elegance, the lyric grace so natural to the language has attained almost its acme in Tagore. To be sure, among us Tagore is the one without a second. Page 178 ...
... many lectures on India and Indian women. She came back to India, this time as if she were returning to her own motherland. Now she called India "our country" and Indians "our people". Rabindranath Tagore would remark later, "When she uttered the words our people, the tone of absolute kinship which struck the ear was not heard from any other among us." She re-opened her school and could... Indian culture, Indian values, Indian spirit. One of her great interest was in the revival of ancient Indian art. Among her friends were the great artists of the Bengal renaissance, Rabanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose. Another of her dreams was the blossoming of Indian science. She encouraged her friend, the great scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, to publish his important book Plant Response ...
... 1011 – by the Nazi regime, that is. If all this is rather vague, the following facts are historical. As we remember, in one of Hitler’s books which survived the war, a German translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nationalism, a dedication was written. It went as follows: “20.04.21. logapore, wodan wigiponar. Herrn Adolf Hitler, meinem lieben Armanenbruder. B. Steininger. ” The last sentence, the one ...
... François Martin (north-east section of the present Ashram block) where they remain for the rest of their lives. 1928 — Publication of The Mother. February 16 Meeting with Rabindranath Tagore. 1929 — April Publication of Kalidasa. 1930-1938 — The limited correspondence with disciples begun after Sri Aurobindo's retirement in 1926 assumes very large proportions during ...
... Questions put to Yuddhishthira on the bank of the lake and his answers. Messages received by Prophet Muhammad from the Angel. Page 50 Account of Rabindranath Tagore's experience of his opening to poetic inspiration. "Powers of the Mind" -from Swami Vivekananda. Topic for deep study and reflection: how to progress continuously? Study ...
... Society's study centre. P. Mitter, Surendranath Tagore, A. Rasul, S. G. Deuskar, Debabrata Bose and others met here every Sunday evening, and discussed revolutionary subjects. Bengal, of course, had secret societies running in its blood. Remember Rajnarain Bose who formed one in which Tagore brothers were members? Both Jyotirindranath and Rabindranath wrote rousing patriotic songs, a testimony to... too were taught to wield lathi and sword. A worshipper of Shakti, she was the foremost organizer of physical education in Bengal. The Tagores had a tradition of physical training. There was a wrestling pit in their compound at Jorasanko and, as a young lad, Rabindranath practised wrestling. "I was neither the founder nor the leader [of the revolutionary movement in Bengal]," Sri Aurobindo said candidly... Okakura. 1 They had already started it before I went to Bengal and when I was there I came to hear of it. I simply kept 1. Baron Kakujo Okakura (1862-1913), a Japanese artist friend of the Tagores. Page 313 myself informed of their work." He was still going and coming between Bengal and Gujarat. Before openly joining politics Sri Aurobindo was pushing the movement from ...
... Rishi by V.S. Srinivasa Sastri. What an inspiring calendar of modern Rishis: Rammohan, Keshab Chunder Sen, Debendranath Tagore, Vidyasagar, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Narayana Guru, Dayanand, Bankim Chandra, Ranade, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Subramania Bharati, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo: these are among the more well-known names of the last one hundred and fifty... imperious, sky-arching hill. The representative men of the East and the West have already paid their homage to Rishi Aurobindo. As early as 1907, Rabindranath addressed this poem to Sri Aurobindo, then only thirty-five: O Aurobindo, Rabindranath bows to thee!... When I behold thy face, 'mid bondage, pain and wrong And black indignities, I hear the soul's great song Of rapture unconfined... Aurobindo in the atmosphere of his earlier heroic youth and I sang to him, "Aurobindo, accept the salutations from Rabindranath." Today I saw him in a deeper atmosphere or reticent richness of wisdom and again sang to him in silence, "Aurobindo, accept the salutations from Rabindranath!" After his darshan of Sri Aurobindo in April 1950, K.M. Munshi wrote: "A deep light of knowledge and wisdom ...
... the splendour of the gardens, the landscapes and the buildings, about the cleanliness and politeness but also the mental rigidity of the people, about her encounters with persons of all kinds, Rabindranath Tagore and the son of Leo Tolstoy among them. But she was silent about her intimate but fierce struggle with the Asura who was her companion, except that at the end of those four years she had not ...
... 16 JUNE 1940 PURANI: It was Tagore and not Sailen Ghose who appealed to Roosevelt yesterday. (Laughter) I don't know how Suvrata could confuse your name and Tagore's. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): Perhaps because my name also has bin as in Rabindranath and the second syllable of Tagore has a similar sound to Ghose. (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: Dilip says that ...
... a new basis. The powers behind a few of them may be mentioned here : (1) Raja Rammohan Roy (2) Swami Dayanand Saraswati, (3) Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, (4) The Theosophical Society, ( 5 ) Rabindranath Tagore, ( 6 ) Mahatma Gandhi, ( 7) Jawaharlal Nehru, (8) Sri Aurobindo. These great men have tried to live, according to their faith, the aspect of Indian culture which appeared to them the most... scientific knowledge and research. This is a crucial step fraught with immense consequences to the culture of India and that of the world. Of the three great men, Tagore, Gandhi and Nehru, none believed in renunciation of life. Tagore seeks aesthetic harmony and delight in life. To Gandhiji life is austerity, penance, tapasya, an adventure, a new discovery every moment. Some of these attempts at cultural... evolves during the course of its history. Culture is, more truly, a living organism that must change according to changing conditions. When a culture becomes rigid, i.e. unable to change, it becomes what Tagore calls Achalayatana', inert, a dead mass. ____________ ¹ Speeches Page 32 Like all organisms, a culture lives, grows, matures, decay and dies. But there is a difference which ...
... application of the British policy of divide and rule, but the sundering of the soul of a people. This single event brought about united opposition from all groups, political and non-political. Poet Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Gurudas Banerjee, a judge, and the Maharajas of Mymensingh and Cassimbazar all joined in the protest. This triggered off a tremendous awakening and manifested in a sudden outburst of the... soon as the idea was sown, it attained rapid prosperity. It must be noted that there were many other secret societies in Bengal already flourishing. Rajnarain Bose had already formed one in which the Tagore brothers were members, and Sarala Ghosal founded several clubs where not only boys but girls too were taught to wield lathi and sword. Sarala Ghosal was indeed the foremost organiser of physical education ...
... de France, issues of 1959-60. Satprem. Sri Aurobindo or The Adventure of Consciousness. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1987. La Suisse journal. Geneva, 10 April 1967. Tagore, Rabindranath. Personality. London: MacMillan & Co., 1917. Page 178 Home ...
... organised in Calcutta and in the principal towns of the mofussils." Abanindra Nath Tagore, the great artist, in his Bengali book, Gharoya, describes, in his picturesque way, the unprecedented upheaval of national feeling in which they all participated under the leadership of his uncle, Rabindranath Tagore. Rabindranath sang out in rousing strains the agony of outraged nationalism. He took an active... immortal poet Rabindranath Tagore, who later achieved world renown as a Nobel- Laureate, and from Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya, the fiery champion of Hinduism and militant Nationalism in Bengal, who had made a profound impression on Rabindranath and Bepin Pal, and helped the former in organising his Shantiniketan as an eductional institution, modelled on the ideals of ancient India. Rabindranath, who was... The first incipient outline of an unprecedented synthesis was thus traced, and the perennial founts of India's mighty spirituality were unsealed. Bankim, Page 182 Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Jagadish Chandra Bose, and a few others evoked various powers of the soul of India and considerably helped the expansion and enrichment of her culture. In the field of politics ...
... Bande Mataram, and the greatest novelist in Bengali literature. Dr. Rajendra Lal Mitra, Sri Ramkrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda, Yogi Vijay Krishna Goswami, the world-poet Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, the gifted pioneer of the new school of Indian Art, Jagadish Chandra Bose, the greatest Indian scientist 79, etc. etc., - an unbroken line of outstanding personalities who enriched... God and humanity. The times were big with a great future. The new spirit of religious awakening brought in by Ram Mohan was "developed on original lines" by Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, father of Rabindranath Tagore, and by Sri Aurobindo's maternal grandfather, Rishi Rajnarayan Bose. Debendranath went closer to the heart of the spirituality of the land, and Rajnarayan, discarding the eclecticism... fully believed in the legitimacy of the use of force against the alien rulers of India, and in the necessity of forming secret societies for that purpose. Rabindranath Tagore has narrated in his Memoirs how he and his brother Jyotirindranath Tagore became members of the Secret Society established by Rajnarayan Bose where the members had to take oath that they would destroy by the use of force the enemies ...
... Inc.) 64. Bichitra: a Bengali magazine edited by Sri Upendra Nath Gangopadhyay. All eminent writers of Bengal used to con- tribute to this magazine, including Sarat Chandra Chatterji, Rabindranath Tagore and others. 65. Raskāna: devoid of the sense of Rasa. Rasa is savour, a sentiment expressed or flavour contained in a writing. 66. Kabiraj Gopinath: a profound scholar of Indian philosophy... square brackets are Sri Aurobindo's. 126. Somnath Maitra, an eminent Professor of English, Presi- dency College, Calcutta, younger brother of Sisir Kumar Maitra. He translated many works of Tagore into English. He was Dilip's and Prithwi Singh's friend. After losing his little daughter of nine, his former life lost its charm. He asked permission to come to the Ashram in September 1935 and stayed ...
... Poet, Philosopher and Mystic. In that book Mr. Langley writes: "Sri Aurobindo is both a poet and a speculative thinker. The same is true of Rabindranath Tagore but the thought of Sri Aurobindo appears to me more comprehensive and systematic than that of Tagore." I use this comparison just to show that students of philosophy, without becoming devotees or disciples of Sri Aurobindo, have given him ...
... own (specially when he smiled or laughed) that could only be felt by a closer acquaintance. Let us make a closer acquaintance. Bula-da had his education at Shantiniketan, was quite close to Rabindranath Tagore. It seems he sang quite well too — nothing surprising if his aunt Sahana-di was anything to go by. Bula-da like many of the old sadhaks was uncompromising in quality of work. A straight line ...
... much as you please." Some warning voices This behaviour pattern had been noticed by many eminent and perceptive personalities long before partition. The great poet, Rabindranath Tagore, in an interview to The Times of India published on April 18, 1924: "Another very important fact which according to the poet was making it almost impossible for Hindu-Mohammedan unity to become ...
... I send you one more poem. But there seems to be hardly any originality in the idea itself—boat, boatman, etc., reminds one of Rabindranath, doesn't it? I would like to have your opinion. In the ideas and images there is not much originality and I cannot say Tagore is not there in his ubiquitous glory. But it is well written all the same. March 20, 1934 Last night in a half-sleepy ...
... held after the death of Manmohan Ghose in January 1924 Tagore, in his presidential address, paid him rich tributes. Speaking of his long-standing relationship with the late Manmohan's family he said, "I was in England when Manmohan, Aurobindo and their other brothers arrived with their mother. So I saw them even in their earlier days." Rabindranath was there for his studies; his first sojourn in England... could intuitively grasp the inner significance of the poem .... A poet is of no particular race," averred the Poet, "he is a poet of all countries." Winding up Page 193 his speech, Tagore said simply, "Today I pay my respect to his memory. I have some acquaintance with his poetry which he would often read out to me. I used to listen in delighted wonder. ..." Sri Aurobindo also ...
... agitation nor the trial of Surendranath Banerjee in 1883 that provoked students' demonstrations was Bande Mataram sung as a battle-cry. It was first sung from the Congress platform by Rabindranath Tagore in 1896, but it made then no electric impact on the audience. Nine more years passed, and on 7 August 1905, thousands of students drawn from all communities gathered at noon at the College... declared: "Who knows but what is sedition today may be divine truth tomorrow? Mr. Aurobindo Ghose is a sweet soul." Likewise, messages poured upon Sri Aurobindo. Most celebrated of all was Rabindranath Tagore's poem in Bengali which first appeared in the Bande Mataram of 8 September 1907, and the following lines are from an English rendering by Kshitish Chandra Sen: O friend, my country's... Bursting its rocky cage, - the voice of thunder deep Awakening, like a clarion call, the clouds asleep. Amid this song triumphant, vast, that encircles me, Page 244 Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee. 41 The students of the Baroda College - his own students of but yesterday - sent this message: "We the students, past and present, of the Baroda ...
... you?” I said: “Obviously!”’ 16 This visitor was William W. Pearson, a follower of Rabindranath Tagore. Pearson was mentioned by name in the police report about Tagore’s first visit to Japan and suspected of being influenced by the pan-Asian propaganda of Richard and Okawa. He visited Pondicherry from Tagore’s Vishva Bharati in April 1923, when Mirra was forty-five. A.B. Purani visited Sri Aurobindo... religious songs, after having studied mathematics and music in Cambridge. Besides several Indian languages he spoke English, French and German. Among his acquaintances were Mohandas K. Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Romain Rolland, Bertrand Russell, Georges Duhamel and Subhas C. Bose. He would become the author of no less than seventy-five books in Bengali and twenty-six in English. His attention had been ...
... measure is no mere administrative proposal but a blow straight at the heart of the nation". This single event brought about united opposition from all groups, political and non-political. Poet Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Gurudas Banerjee, a judge, and the Maharajas of Mymensingh and Cossimbazar all joined in the protest. It triggered a tremendous awakening and it manifested in a sudden outburst of the genius ...
... immobile pose and an insipid, by which I suppose he means a calm passionless face. 1 He turns for comfort to the Hellenic nobility of expression of the Gandharan Buddha, or to the living Rabindranath Tagore more spiritual than any Buddha from Peshawar to Kamakura, an inept misuse of comparison against which I imagine the great poet himself would be the first to protest. There we have the total ...
... recognised to be the first of these pioneers and he was followed by many other great men such as Dwarkanath Tagore, his son Debendranath, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Dayanand Saraswati, Sri Ramakrishna, Keshav Chandra Sen, Bankim Chandra Chatterji, Swami Vivekananda, Balgangadhar Tilak , Rabindranath Tagore, and others. The list is by no means exhaustive and I have given the names of only those who were Sri... Jatin, it appeared, had become too rigid a disciplinarian and was losing his hold on the youth. Sri Aurobindo formed a committee of five consisting of P. Mitter, Sister Nivedita, C.R. Das, Surendranath Tagore and Jatin to be in overall charge of the revolutionary work in Bengal. Although some differences continued, the work under P. Mitter's leadership increased enormously. Hundreds of young people joined ...
... sedition and that he was disinclined to make any defence. I sent Barin back that very day with a strong letter that we must defend the case and that I was coming to Calcutta as soon as possible. Rabindranath [Tagore] published his famous poem, "Aurobindo, accept the salutation of Rabindra." There was a great commotion in the country. The main point in the case was whether Aurobindo Ghose was the Editor... then, should I not marry?" Aurobindo married, be it noted, in April 1901. And, in 1903, he initiated his Bhavani Mandir movement, and pushed it vigorously. One afternoon, subsequent to Rabindranath's visit to Sri Aurobindo, [described above], Bhupal Babu, Aurobindo's father-in-law, came to see us in the Wellington Square house. The Chief had not as yet returned from his college. Bhupal ...
... PART I The Life Divine : Some Aspects " Sri Aurobindo is both a poet and speculative thinker. The same is true of Rabindranath Tagore, but the thought of Sri Aurobindo appears to me more comprehensive and systematic than that of Tagore."¹——G. H. LANGLEY ( Sri Aurobindo: Indian Poet, Philosopher, Mystic " Royal India Pakistan Ceylon Society, David Marlowe Ltd., ) ... stirring of the spirit of India, Bharat Shakti. ___________ ¹ I am inclined to give these quotations because we in India have hesitation and are slow in recognising greatness in our midst. Tagore got his place in our country after he won the Nobel Prize. Bat greatness does not depend upon its recognition : it is those who recognise it that stand to gain. ² Doubt has been expressed in... them. If, for instance, J. C. Bose retires into his laboratory to solve scientific problems and does not participate in a political demonstration or in a jail-going programme, is he an escapist ? If Tagore continues his literary activities and does not ply the charkha or go to prison, can he be called an escapist ? Ramdas, the great saint of Maharashtra, was a great Page 11 patriot ...
... her Paris days. 5. The Mother used to wear kimonos while she was in Japan. 6. She came back from Japan in 1920.7. The Mother established the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926. 8. The Mother met Rabindranath Tagore while in Japan. 9. Dalai Lama met the Mother in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in the sixties of the twentieth century. Etc. It is to be observed that in this case 'The Mother' remains the... s thoughts continue to turn round her but the circle of divevergence has become very much smaller. Thus, in the just preceding third stage our thoughts touched in their wanderings Paris, lapan, Tagore and Dalai Lama, although all connected with the Mother in some way or other, but in this fourth stage all the thoughts main very close to "The Mother". For example, the flow of thoughts in the sadhaka' ...
... Raghunath Panigrahi, the celebrated singer, agreed to compose all the Sanskrit slokas from Kalidasa's poem. Sahana-di took charge of the songs of Rabindranath. Tarit Chaudhuri, a Rabindra-sangeet singer, sang some very beautiful compositions of Tagore under Sahana-di's direction. I remember the day of the programme. The curtains were drawn and the programme started. The extraordinary lines... descriptive support. Lines from Sri Aurobindo's epic poem, Savitri, in the Mother's own voice, slokas from the great poet Kalidasa's Ritu Samhar set to music, songs of nature from the Poet of poets, Rabindranath, all these were woven into something quite impressive. When the script was ready, I myself was moved to read it. How was I able to prepare such a script? The words of the Mother echoed in my ears:... choreography, in addition to the direction and everything else connected with the programme. I could not say anything to Her. In the midst of lines from such luminaries like Sri Aurobindo, Kalidasa, Rabindranath, music by such talented musicians like Bhubaneswar Mishra, Raghunath Panigrahi, Maya Mitra and Sahana-di, Tarit-da and Sunil-da, I just wondered how my ordinary dance-compositions would look! Moreover ...
... happy and full of praise when she went there herself and saw the two Indian artists' work of copying the murals of Ajanta. These two boys were students of Abanin-dranath Tagore, whom she knew so well. Artist Abanindranath Tagore and his students owe her a lot. Her critical articles in Indian magazines and periodicals contributed in a great measure to the understanding of Indian art by the then... frequent visitor to that cultural centre. What enhanced the character of the young Rabi to the eyes of Sister Nivedita was that when Tilak was arrested by the Government on a charge of sedition, Rabindranath raised money to help finance his defence. Also at a mammoth protest meeting held in the town hall he read out an essay on 'gagging.' As Nivedita wrote in a letter of 7 th april 1910, after... critic, besides being a revolutionary who dreamed of One Asia, a dream he set forth in his book Ideals of the East. So between Okakura and Nivedita and Page 550 Sarala Ghosal and the Tagores, Jorasanko became a lively centre for revolutionary activity; just as it had become a cultural centre with Havel, Justice Woodroffe, Okakura, Ananda Coomaraswa-my, Nivedita and Abanindranath. ...
... collect a considerable body of literature, including poetry, written in English by Indians. For some time it was called "Indo-English literature" but since the popularity and the great triumph of Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali which earned him world-recognition, the course of English literature has been more and more influenced—especially after the two world wars—by other cultural currents, from the East ...
... photographs are admirable. Suhrawardy has imagination and occasionally a subtle ____________________ 1. Justice Khitish Chandra Sen, a poet and litterateur. He translated into English Rabindranath Tagore's famous poem to Sri Aurobindo. 2. Udayshankar (8 December 1900 - 26 September 1977), a renowned dancer and choregrapher. He joined London's Royal College of Arts and completed the five-year... can be fulfilled —there is no hurry. ____________________ 1. Pramatha Chowdhuri (7 August 1868 - 2 September 1946). In 1899, he married Indira Devi, daughter of Satyendranath Tagore, an elder brother of Rabindranath. He knew thoroughly English and French literatures. He founded the magazine Sabuj Patra and wrote under the Pseudonym Birbal. A powerful group of new writers gathered around Sabuj... turned down in the block of the Bharatavarsha press? If so, the objection may disappear. December 20, 1931 Tagore is always Tagore (I hope you won't find this saying too cryptic). As for the pictures, if people are pleased with them, (as they are by Tagore's music), they serve the purpose of their existence, and what more can be said for any of the creations of this Prakriti ? ...
... (b) Parables from the Bible. (c) Questions put to Yudhishthira on the bank of the lake and his answers. (d) Messages received by Prophet Muhammad from the Angel. (e) Account of Rabindranath Tagore's experience of his opening to poetic inspiration. (f) "Powers of the Mind" — from Swami Vivekananda. 3. Topic for deep study and reflection: how to progress continuously? 4. Study ...
... y, I was almost cured....¹ During the sojourn in Japan, she had tuberculosis, which was cured only after her return to Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry. In passing, it may be mentioned that Rabindranath Tagore, who also happened to be in Japan at that time, came to know Mother, and struck by the clarity of her vision, he invited her to come and organise education ___________________________ ...
... a big difference between the two. So Rabindranath became very fond of him because he showed a great power of genius. Abanindranath and Nandalal also grew very fond of him. But as he grew older, somehow he felt that Shantiniketan was not the place for him. He was then twenty or twenty-one years old. However, he stayed on as long as he could; Tagore used to call him very often to his house. He... tell you later on about it. Even now, though he is not well, he is very fond of it, so don't tempt him with rasagollas! So Tagore used to invite him, call him, read out his own poems which were very striking. Tagore used to ask for his judgment and his opinions. One day, Tagore had written a Bengali novel and he asked Nishikanto: "I have a hero - a character, what name do you suggest for him?" He said... just the important part. He was, before coming here, in Shantiniketan. In fact, he was brought up there from when he was a young boy. And he was a great favourite of Tagore and Nandalal Bose the great artist, as well as Abanindranath Tagore. Nishikanto was both a poet and an artist. I think he does some sketches even now; if you are interested, when you go to Corner House, you can pay him a visit and ...
... Aurobindo Ashram in 1928. Before, he had scribbled a few so-called poems which were defective in every way. His style, diction and rhythm were all halting, so much so that the great Nobelist Rabindranath Tagore who spoke highly of Dilip Kumar's musical talents, never gave him a word of encouragement about his poetical utterances. Thus when D.K. joined the Ashram he had to start from scratch, so... the new-born poet himself: "I posted a bunch of my [new] poems to Tagore and Page 205 requested him to tell me frankly what he thought of them. 'Also, please guide me once more in my poetic aspirations', I added, 'and indicate the errors, if any, in my chhanda (rhythm and metre).' Kind as ever, Tagore replied to me... he commented on my Bengali poems thus: 'Now let me ...
... from them cannot be put into words, for it was more of a fellowship in spiritual faith. With some of the Indians in Japan, like Rash Behari Bose, there grew an acquaintanceship; and when Rabindranath Tagore visited Japan and was widely welcomed as the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize, the Richards came to know him, as related earlier, and were photographed with him. Showing this portrait to... Four years earlier, Kakuzo Okakura, one of the leaders of the Japanese renaissance and preservers of her cultural heritage, had died at Akakura. He had visited India, and won the friendship of Tagore. Mirra felt at ease at Akakura, a deep waking dream of unfathomable peace, melting into an immensity vast and calm, losing even the remotest traces of the obtrusive consciousness of separative ...
... of outside visitors, however, Sri Aurobindo did make one or two exceptions and on May 29,1928, he had a brief meeting with Rabindranath Tagore. The Poet was then on his way to Europe by sea and he disembarked at Pondicherry to meet Sri Aurobindo. Shortly afterwards, Rabindranath wrote an account of the meeting in Bengali and followed it up with an English version which appeared in The Modern Review... him in silence, "Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindra."' For many years very little had been written about Sri Aurobindo and he had receded from the public view. This appreciation by Tagore, whose name was widely known in the country, attracted a good deal of attention. On reading it many felt that Sri Aurobindo was not, after all, an 'extinct volcano'! A disciple once asked Sri Aurobindo ...
... creative impulse; a new spirit in poetry, even though primarily lyrical, is moved always to seize upon and do what it can with them,—as we see in the impulsion which has driven Maeterlinck, Yeats, Rabindranath to take hold of the dramatic form for self-expression as well as the lyrical in spite of their dominant subjectivity. We may perhaps think that this was not the proper form for their spirit, that... course and makes its own shaping experiments. And it is interesting to speculate whether the new spirit in poetry will take and use with modifications the old dramatic and narrative forms, as did Rabindranath in his earlier dramatic attempts, or quite transform them to its own ends, as he has attempted in his later work. But after all these are subordinate issues. It will be more fruitful to take... over to our ears with some flourish of the trumpets of renown, Thompson, Masefield, Hardy, do not occur at all or only in a passing allusion. But still the book deals among contemporary poets with Tagore, A. E. and Yeats, among recent poets with Stephen Phillips, Meredith, Carpenter, great names all of them, not to speak of lesser writers. This little book with its 135 short pages is almost too small ...
... (Victor Gollancz, London, 1934). Tagore, Rabindranath. Personality (Macmillan, London, 1948). The Religion of Man (Allen &Unwin, London, 2 nd Impression, 1932). Collected Poems and Plays of Tagore (Macmillan, 1936). Tagore, Satyendranath, & Indira Devi. (Trs.) The Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, Introduction by Evelyn Underhill (Macmillan ...
... Lytton 346, 347 Strong, L.A.G. 294 Swinburne, Algernon Charles 9 Synthesis of Yoga, The 20, 24, 25, 210, 283, 293-295,347.359,400 Tagore, Rabindranath 3-5, 13, 17, 19, 47, Tasso 381,383 Tate, Allen 314, 366,390-392, 414, 419 Tennyson, Alfred Lord 315, 344, 345, 396, Thompson, Francis 270,311 ... Ariosto31,383 Arnold, Sir Edwin 335 Arnold, Matthew 292,311,312,412 Arya 14 , 15,31,328,359,416 Atkinson,WilliamC.382 Aurobindo, Sri Tagore on, 3-5; Paul Richard on, 5; life-sketch, 6-16; Sri Aurobindo's yoga, 19-26; his politics, 27-30; his philosophy, 30-39; his poetry, 39-55; the call of Savitri, 55-57; Sri Aurobindo on the recasting ...
... account of Eric is largely based on my review of the play in The Aryan Path. 113. Prime of Edur,p.91. 114. ibid., p. 18. 115. Collected Poems and Plays of Rabindranath Tagore, pp. 409-10. See Iyengar, Urvasi (Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, 1949). 116. Collected Poems and Plays, Vol. I, p. 42. 117. Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, VIII, p. 123... 138. Letters of Sri Aurobindo Second Series, pp. 68-9. 139. Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, No.7 (1948), pp. 191-2. 140. Introduction to One Hundred Poem-ofKabir, ed. by Rabindranath Tagore, p.xix. 141. Savitri, p. 829. 142. ibid., p. 831. 143. ibid., p. 852. 144 See Sri Aurobindo, On Yoga, II, Tome Two, Section on 'Visions and Symbols'... incarnated as Savitri; my point is that even the apparently 'rhetorical' lines sound right and are properly evocative in the given context. 181. See The Autobiography of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, p. 150. 182. Essays and Studies (1959), p. 1. 183. Savitri, p.32. 184. ibid ., p. 110. 185. ibid.,p.804. 186. ibid.,p.276. 187 ...
... Abanindranath and other members of the Tagore household followed him. A sea of people joined in. They were all heading for the bank of the Ganges. After bathing in the river they all began tying a rakhi to one another. The public roared in unison Vande Mataram ! Along the entire stretch of the Ganges there resounded the cry of Vande Mataram . Rabindranath headed now for the mosque. There too he... be rid of the British. Rabindranath played an important role in this first agitation in 1905 against the partition of Bengal. He was a great proponent of the festival of Rakhi-bandhan (a festival of bonding between brothers and sisters). On Rakhi-bandhan day, on Rabindranath’s inspiration, everyone decided to celebrate this festival with much enthusiasm. Rabindranath set out from his house. ... session of the Congress held in Calcutta Vande Mataram was sung for the first time. Two years after Bankimchandra’s passing in 1894, when the Congress session was held once again in Calcutta, Rabindranath himself sang Vande Mataram . But even then the country was not galvanised by the living mantric power of this song. (Amalesh Bhattacharya) Balendranath Thakur wrote in 1887 in Bharati and ...
... rising sun. I I have given you many quotations and extracts from-poets and others in this letter. I shall finish up with one more. It is from the Gitanjali; it is a poem, or prayer, by Rabindranath Tagore: — 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 ...
... of the anthem. The Merits and Defects of "Jana Gana Mana" Let us proceed to ask: does Tagore's Jana Gana Mana fulfil the several desiderata we have mentioned? There is no denying its noble sentiment, poetic merit and musical charm. After all, it was the incomparable Rabindranath who composed it, and it has a fine accent of country-wide friendliness as much as of gentle devotion to... perplexing problem. Once we understand, first, the prerequisites of the ideal national anthem and, secondly, the living associations and potencies of Bankim Chandra's Bande Mataram on the one hand and Tagore's Jana Gana Mana on the other, there cannot remain the slightest doubt that nothing except Bande Mataram can be the creative cry and the sustaining call on the lips of resurgent India. We... country, no aim is there to make an exhaustive inventory of places and races: the aim is to give a notion of India in her broad and general entirety moving in rhythm to the will of the Lord. Yes, Tagore's piece has a fineness deserving respect. But has it the qualities that are wanted in the ideal national anthem for India? Unfortunately it fails on every count. There is not the intense con ...
... great stories and dramas, written in India in Arabic and Persian; h) Bare outline of stories and dramas written in modem Indian languages; i) Indian authors in English: Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. Class X The curriculum of class X will be devoted to Indian Art. Special reference to: a) Indian concept of Art; illustrations in Poetry, Music... Bible. (c) Questions put to Yuddhishthira on the bank of the lake and his answers. (d) Messages received by Prophet Mohammad from the Angel. (e) Account of Rabindra Nath Tagore's experience of his opening to poetic inspiration. (f) "Powers of the Mind" from Swami Vivekananda. 3. Topic for deep study and reflection: how to progress continuously? ...
... into expression. The work of Bankim Chandra is now of the past, because it has entered already into the new mind of Bengal which it did more than any other literary influence to form; the work of Rabindranath still largely holds the present, but it has opened ways for the future which promise to go beyond it. Both show an increasing return to the Indian spirit in fresh forms; both are voices of the dawn... of the Indian mind and the direction in which it is turning. Especially the art of the Bengal painters is very significant, more so even than the prose of Bankim or the poetry Page 27 of Tagore. Bengali poetry has had to feel its way and does not seem yet quite definitively to have found it, but Bengal art has found its way at once at the first step, by a sort of immediate intuition. Partly... seek more than they find, suggest and are calling for more than they actually evoke. At present we see a fresh preparation, on one side evolving and promising to broaden out from the influence of Tagore, on the other in revolt against it and insisting on a more Page 29 distinctively national type of inspiration and creation; but what will come out of it, is not yet clear. On the whole ...
... took our presence very seriously. She set about organizing life for us in the way it was possible at the time. She put my brother and me in the charge of Sisir Kumar Mitra, a historian from Rabindranath Tagore’s university called Shantiniketan. The mornings were spent in his rooms. It was not very specific teaching, but he loved us very much — and we spent mornings on a bench on the terrace under the ...
... why the educational situation has deteriorated particularly over the past 50 years. He referred to the great thinkers like Socrates, Plato, Diogenes, Rousseau, Bernard Shaw, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. He said that in spite of the great agreement among these thinkers, he wondered why their great ideas had not got implemented. He said that what is needed is action. He asked ...
... si va nell' eterna dolore Per me si va tra la perduta gente.¹ Word-music in Bengali poetry means Rabindranath. To adapt a well-known English phrase, one may say that Rabindranath is poetry and poetry Rabindranath; there is no need to bring in any other artist. We get this in Rabindranath's early work: The measures flow in a firmer, more close-knit order in ¹ In the midway... In sheer charm of style Rabindranath stands without a peer. Not mere grace or charm but the sweetness, the honeyed essence that he has lavished in unstinted measure has no parallel in literature. It is this quality of sweetness that has made the fame of Bengali language and literature, from Vidyapati and Chandidas right down to Rabindranath. But the possibilities of this language... goddess" in Virgil. One hears as if the rumbling of the clouds in the opening lines of Meghnadbadh: Page 94 We have of course moved a long way off from Madhusudan, and from Rabindranath as well. Bengali verse has enlarged its scope to a surprising degree; in variety as in scope it has grown almost immeasurably. But that is another story. Ezra Pound has made an astonishing ...
... that the creation of beautiful poetry in Bengali has been considerable. But, as a contrast, what about the seer-poets? Rabindranath? Perhaps the power of poetry has reached its acme in Rabindranath. But what about the mantric power in his creation? In spite of having Rabindranath, it may well be asked to what extent we get the true Aryan speech in our varied and rich creation. Page 112 ...
... ‘forced into public view by the Government’s action in prosecuting him as editor of Bande Mataram.’ 42 It was then that Rabindranath Tagore published in Bande Mataram his still well-known poem in honour of Aurobindo, with the following opening lines: Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee! O friend, my country’s friend, O voice incarnate, free, Of India’s soul! … 43 The moderate... lives, total dedication and secrecy to the society. P. Mitra would become president of a council of five consisting of Aurobindo, C.R. Das, whom Aurobindo had known in England, Surendranath Tagore of the famous Tagore family, and Sister Nivedita. Sister Nivedita (1867-1911) was the foremost Western disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She was born Margaret Noble in northern Ireland. In 1895 she met the Swami... father during this period of mental and moral experimentation cast Rajnarain into anguished introspection. He found support in the Vedanta philosophy, and, after coming into contact with Debendranath Tagore, became a member of the revived Brahmo Samaj.’ 3 It was the time of the Bengal Renaissance. The whole of India was dominated by the colonial masters, the British, under Queen Victoria, Empress ...
... that was to culminate in the partition of India forty years later. Bengal responded to its partition by massive and unanimous protests, in which many personalities took part, such as Rabindranath Tagore, Surendranath Banerji, Bepin Chandra Pal, Ashwini Kumar Dutt The ideal of Swadeshi, which called for the boycott of British goods, spread widely. In March, 1906, Barin Ghose with a... sedition law; he had turned thirty-five the day before. He owed his acquittal a month later to the government's failure to prove that he was the editor of the dreaded journal. It was then that Rabindranath Tagore wrote his famous poem to Sri Aurobindo, whom he saluted as "the voice incarnate, free, of India's soul." A few days after his arrest, Sri Aurobindo, released on bail, resigned his post... in Maharashtra and Bengal, and tried to coordinate their action with the help of his brother, Barindra Kumar Ghose, and Jatindranath Banerjee; at Sri Aurobindo's initiative, P. Mitter, Surendranath Tagore, Chittaranjan Das and Sister Nivedita soon formed the first secret council for revolutionary activities in Bengal. Although an effective coordination between the various groups remained elusive, some ...
... of their torpor of inactivity and despair; a sombre, whiskered professor recited menacingly Rabindranath's famous poem "Salutation"* — Probably the finest tribute that has been written about him so far; a _________________________ *This magnificent poem, entitled Namaskar, was written by Rabindranath in Bengali in 1907, when Sri Aurobindo was arrested on 'a charge of sedition. To quote a few... few lines from Sri Khitish Chandra Sen's translation published later in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry: "Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee! O friend, my country's friend, 0 voice incarnate, free, Of India's soul!.... When I behold thy face, 'mid bondage, pain and wrong And black indignities, I hear the soul's great song Of rapture unconfined....." etc. Page... anything very tangible?" But I have often marvelled whether we can possibly assess today the full impact on us and posterity of the light he had achieved and constantly radiated — the light which made Rabindranath write after his interview with him in 1928: "At the very first sight I could realise that he had been seeking for the soul and had gained it ...His face was radiant with an inner light and ... I ...
... logical or practical thought or to express the physical and superficial, could not at all hope to manifest.’ 33 The best known Ashram poets were: Dilip Kumar Roy, as a poet characterized by Rabindranath Tagore as ‘the cripple who threw away his crutches and started running’ since he wrote under Sri Aurobindo’s guidance and inspiration; Arjava, the Sanskrit name of the British mathematician John Chadwick; ...
... contemporary relevance to the needs of developing modern India, and particularly in developing a new system of education in India. The writings of Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo have underlined the importance of the Upanishads, and have even advocated the redesigning of contemporary Indian system of education in the light of the Upanishads. The ...
... tributaries that form the Gangetic delta. The Hooghly, regarded as the true Ganga, is one of these tributaries. The main channel proceeds to Bangladesh as the river Padma, so dearly loved by Rabindranath Tagore, the great poet of India. Like the Ganges, the vast networks of rivers flowing throughout India are sacred to its people. The same goes for the region south of the Gangetic Plains in ...
... stated in the writings of the nationalist leaders who inspired and led the movement of national education in India, such as those of Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. These writings gave a clear expression of the deeper self and the real psychic entity within. They pointed out that, if we ever give it a chance to come forward, and still ...
... present writer's long article "Urvasi" (Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, 1949) for a historical study of the Urvasi-Pururavas myth from Rig Veda and Satapatha Brahmana to Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore. Page 99 ...the quiet maiden East, Of some great poem out of dimness grew, Slowly unfolding into perfect speech. The grey lucidity and pearliness Bloomed more ...
... (1916-17) and Kyoto (1917-20). They made friends with Japanese intellectuals as also with the leaders of certain New Life movements (the 'still-sitting' movement in Kyoto, for example). They met Rabindranath Tagore too, during his triumphant tour of Japan, and he was impressed by them both. Mirra's mystic aura and intense sincerity and spiritual poise coupled with her capacity to deal expertly with outer ...
... eight is a case Filled with beautiful saris. Number nine holds stationery, book marks and notebooks used in Mother’s French classes plus a Corona typewriter that was given to the Mother by Rabindranath Tagore while she was in Japan. Also in this room is a stunning standing brass oil lamp with sixty-five wick lamps. On the top sits an ornate brass peacock. It was given by the poet and Film star ...
... 'wonderfully composed' as Hemendra Prasad Ghosh has recorded in his diary. It•was at this time, on September 8, 1907, whilst the trial was going on in Kingsford's Court, that a Bengali poem by Rabindranath Tagore entitled "Namaskar" (Salutation) appeared in the *Bande * Mataram. This is a famous poem in the Bengali language; here are the opening lines from an English translation by Khitish Chandra Sen: ...
... down to conventionality became tiring. The predominant influence of Sanskrit literature has given to the poetry of Rabindranath its richness, its music as of a thousand-stringed lyre, but it has also given his poetry its non-restraint, its rhetorical and verbal excess. Rabindranath's poetry sweeps us forward on the surge of the dynamic flow of words and music, the rush and rapture of its ideas, so... in bright glimmerings and large flashes rather than in deep ultimate words and great lighted images. A comparison of some of the best suggestive lines of Rabindranath and Sri Aurobindo will show our meaning as to the difference. Here is Rabindranath: And here is Sri Aurobindo: Page 408 Then something in the inscrutable darkness stirred; A nameless movement, an... neighbouring the sky and clothed in eternal snow and light, whilst the poetry of Rabindranath is like a mighty river, sounding and scintillating at its start but widening and deepening in its onward flow, its movement answering the call of the infinite wash of waters towards which it is for ever flowing. In Rabindranath's poetry the poetic word radiates itself with infinite suggestions striving towards ...
... authentic poetry and even convey the inner spirit of the celebrated French sonnet, Correspondances. Or take William Radice on whose behalf you penned the TLS letter. What he has done for Rabindranath Tagore is essentially nothing different. He has created a profound impression on you just because his versions have true poetic power and convey the imaginative richness and depth of the Bengali master... insists that ultimately we do not have to turn away from earth for our fulfilment - a fulfilment always placed by earlier spirituality in a perfect Beyond where after terrestrial life we have to go. You, Tagore, William Blake one and all are of this supra-terrestrial outlook, no matter how much you may value sparrows and 'the eye of the peacock" and "our humble mother the dust" in the Creation which according... never truly incarnated here and even whose supposed incarnation is limited to a single instance in the whole of earth's history, a uniqueness which you yourself consider "indeed absurd" (as I am sure Tagore also, though not Blake, did). This rather incoherent blend of Christianity and non-Christianity, which is further complicated by a mixture Page 125 with it of the Hermetic-Alchemi ...
... Sri Aurobindo Tagore's letter to Nishikanto praising his book. Sri Aurobindo was very glad and exclaimed, "Oh", and at the end said, "That is wonderful!" During the sponging when Satyendra and others came in Purani said, "'Nirodbaran is feeling triumphant today." Satyendra didn't understand and looked sideways. He didn't know yet about Tagore's letter. SRI AUROBINDO: Because of Tagore's eulogy on ... (Sri Aurobindo enjoyed this very much.) EVENING SRI AUROBINDO: Why does X say that Tagore has been rude to Nishikanto? NIRODBARAN: Where? I haven't seen anything. SRI AUROBINDO: He has written that to me. Also that Tagore has said that Sisir Mitra came here out of emotion. NIRODBARAN: But Tagore has written only two letters to Nishikanto and there was no mention of these things. SRI... Then the letter was produced. Sri Aurobindo translated it into English and said, "You can't say more than that." NIRODBARAN: Purani is also triumphant because he thought Tagore would write again. PURANI: Yes, I felt that. Tagore is very polite in that way. Anyhow he has been forced to admit Nishikanto's quality. SATYENDRA: In view of his first letter, there seemed no chance of his writing anything ...
... do you find Gaganendranath Tagore? SRI AUROBINDO: He has rather brilliant fancy than true imagination. Sometimes he is imaginative, but mostly he is fanciful. In Bengal art, these are the three great artists. PURANI: Gandhi is now going to Shantiniketan. It seems the tie between Gandhi and Tagore will get stronger now. You know that it was through Gandhi that Tagore got Rs 60,000 for his Shantiniketan... collection of Nandalal Bose's and Abanindranath Tagore's paintings for Sri Aurobindo's inspection SRI AUROBINDO(after seeing one or two of Abanindranath's) : Obviously, on the whole he is a greater. PURANI: Jayantilal says that in some individual paintings Nandalal has shown greater genius, and he considers him potentially a greater artist than Tagore but his potentialities haven't fulfilled themselves... Shantiniketan. When Gandhi went to Delhi and saw that Tagore had come there at such an old age to collect money, he said to him, "You go back. I will arrange for the money." And he asked Birla to pay the sum. In America people generously donate money for such public things. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. NIRODBARAN: But in America people who give away their wealth are businessmen. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but ...
... 17 JANUARY 1940 Nirodbaran read out Tagore's letter to Nishikanto, in which Tagore says that Nishikanto's expression and rhythm are of a very high order and that he is a real artist but he complains of one thing—lack of variety: Nishikanto is like a one stringed lyre while the poetic mind demands a variety of tunes. Tagore quotes the Upanishad's "Raso vai sah" (He is verily the... is not a great poet? Milton is not understood by many. He is not a great poet then? NIRODBARAN: Tagore doesn't raise the question of understanding in this letter. He demands variety. SRI AUROBINDO: What does it matter if there is no variety? Homer has written only on war and action. Can Tagore say that he is a greater poet than Homer? Sappho wrote only on love: is she not a great poet? Milton... than A.E. I think it is because of Yeats' variety. SRI AUROBINDO: No, it is because of his more perfect poetic style and expression. NIRODBARAN: Tagore means to say that everybody must have variety like himself. Nishikanto saw in a vision that Tagore was satirising Nishikanto's expressions like "light-fountain" before people and saying, "What is this light-fountain?" PURANI: But why? When he first ...
... a departure both from Tagore and the old tradition. Disciple : In his novel-writing also it is found that Shorot Chatterji was far superior to Tagore as a story writer. Disciple : But he criticized Dilip's story on the ground that there was very little action in his story. In fact he said that the story must have a story, not mere discussions. But in Tagore's own story there is very... was a talk about the music of Bhismadeva. N started the topic by stating that Tagore long ago started a campaign against classical music saying that it was Page 287 dead. The reason he gave was that classical music was only a performance of mere technic and cleverness; there was no soul in it. Tagore therefore started emphasizing the importance of words and their meaning in music... – because he does not understand a word of music. Page 288 Disciple : Tagore is very particular about the tune of his own songs and nobody is allowed to make any change in the notation of his songs. That is why Dilip does not sing his song. Sri Aurobindo : I believe Tagore is not much of a musician, is he? Disciple : By no means, because he happens to be great ...
... Francis, 150, 164 St. Peter, 382 St. Teresa, 150 St.. Thomas Aquinas, 150 Stalin, 106, 125 Sumeria, 223 Sun-yat-Sen, 242 TACITUS, 87 Tagore, Rabindranath, 195, 197-8, 200-1 Tantras, the, 63, 216, 248 Thales, 329 Thebes, 91 Thor, 201 Tibet, 177n Times Literary Supplement, the, 254 Toynbee ...
... 191,194 Surrender, 75, 170, 223, 231, 271 Subconscient, 256-7 Synthesis of yoga, 2, 68, 74, 99 Subconscient, descent into, 82 Subliminal consciousness, 257-60 Tagore, Rabindranath, 60 Subtle physical, 157-8, 207, 216-7, 258 Telepathic phenomena, 258 Testing, 88 Theon, Max, 28-30, 32, 33-8 Theon, Madame, 29-34, 38 Tiemcen ...
... shashyashyamala ’.” A surprised Mahendra then asks: “Who are you?” Bhavananda answers: “We are the children.” “Children? Whose children?” “The Mother’s children.” Let me tell you now what Rabindranath said about his own country, India. Pankaj Mallick writes: At number 1 Garsten Place at the main entrance to the Radio station, from the gate upto twenty feet in length and eight feet in width... was A. S. Bokhari and the director of the Calcutta station was Ashoke Sen. Once on Mr. Bokhari’s and Mr. Sen’s invitation the ‘Vishvakavi’ (the World-Poet) visited the radio station. When Rabindranath arrived everyone got busy to welcome him with due honour and respect. I was among the various people and artists present that day. Mr. Bokhari and Mr. Sen were showing the poet the way. Quite... Eighteen ninety-three turned into a memorable year as it witnessed two voyages in opposite directions by two sons of India out of their love for the country. We know that Bankim Chandra, Rabindranath, Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo looked upon their country as the Divine Mother. And that is why they have all unveiled the real face of India to the world. When Vivekananda returned from the West ...
... suppose. SRI AUROBINDO: As they say in the Upanishad, the Supreme Being with the golden beard, etc. When Sri Aurobindo was lying down, Nirodbaran read to him a letter from Tagore to Sahana on mystic poetry. NIRODBARAN: Tagore says: "Mostly we see that those whose spiritual realisation is new cannot express that new experience in the simple and easy old ways. In their manner of expression there is... common vessel." SRI AUROBINDO: The artist can base his poem on heaven: why necessarily on earth? Does Tagore mean to say that everybody understands or appreciates all poetry? How many appreciate Milton and other great poets? Besides, one must have the power of understanding. NIRODBARAN: Tagore further writes about the Ashram poets; "Among you, Nishikanto alone has proved his easy mastery over language... but it is not consciously written with a view to making it unintelligible. It is not a laboured work. On the contrary, if one tries to make it easily intelligible it becomes laboured. NIRODBARAN: Tagore goes on: "The sculptor who erects a chapel does it on the common soil. He does not think that unless he constructs it on Kanchanjunga his art is in vain." SRI AUROBINDO: Can't he have a private ...
... another letter from Tagore in reply to his. Nishicanto, advised by Dilip wrote to Tagore informing him of the refusal of Viswa Bharati to publish his book. SRI AUROBINDO: Why? Tagore didn't know about it? NIRODBARAN: They say he may not have as it is under the management of the committee with which Tagore has nothing to do. SRI AUROBINDO: What does he write? NIRODBARAN: Tagore says the same ... also saw him doing pranam, and you patting him. SRI AUROBINDO: Do you see many visions of him? CHAMPAKLAL: I have had three or four. While Sri Aurobindo was lying in bed, Nirodbaran read out Tagore's letter. SRI AUROBINDO: It seems Nishikanto was vexed because his book was not published. NIRODBARAN: Nishikanto told me he didn't write about any vexation but he must have been vexed and a little ...
... Japan she met Rabindranath there. She said about Rabindranath that he was "a man of high culture and very refined taste." Rabindranath wanted Mother to go with him to Shantiniketan in order to take up his work. But Mother knew that her work was at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. That is why she did not go to Shantiniketan. She once recounted that she sat for meditation with Rabindranath. They were both... both meditating. Mother kept rising and Rabindranath also rose with her. They had both risen quite high. Then Rabindranath decided to settle there and did not wish to go any higher. Once Mother sat down to eat with her husband and Rabindranath. Rabindranath was served some little fried birds and he was eating them with great relish. Mother and her husband were vegetarians and so they did not take... birds. Page 239 A little later Mother's husband, who did not know good English, jokingly told Rabindranath: "Poet's eating little birds?" Rabindranath was not very happy to hear this. He turned to Mother and said: "Please ask your husband to mind what he says." Rabindranath gave a typewriter to Mother. I think it is still there among her things that are kept at Nanteuil. ...
... impression of power. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, power is his main element. NIRODBARAN: X says Nishikanto lacks substance: he means intellectual substance such as he finds in A.E. or Tagore. PURANI: I thought Tagore's poetry hadn't much substance of this kind; most of it is fine and decorative. NIRODBARAN: It is rather strange that X doesn't like Yeats, SRI AUROBINDO: He doesn't? NIRODBARAN:... creative force. NIRODBARAN: What about Arjava (J. Chadwick)? SRI AUROBINDO: He has none. EVENING SRI AUROBINDO: I think Tagore's "Parash Pathar" ("Philosopher's Stone") and "Urvasie" have the creative force, though it is not usual for him to have it. Tagore has created something here, not character but a world, not an outer world but an inner one, a reality of the inner life of man. It is... poetry. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, that is the skeleton of English poetry. NIRODBARAN: Sahana says some of Tagore's dramas have creative force. SRI AUROBINDO: Which? NIRODBARAN: She doesn't remember which. But don't you think "Sacrifice" has it? SRI AUROBINDO: When people talk of Tagore's dramas, they mean particularly "Sacrifice". Of course, that is the best of the lot, but there too the characters ...
... you can't paint a subject which is not literary. NIRODBARAN: Tagore places a great value on words and he has developed his new Bengali music with importance given to katha and his own particular sur which nobody is allowed to vary. SRI AUROBINDO: Is Tagore a musician? NIRODBARAN: If I am right, Dilip also agrees with Tagore about the value of words and their place in music. SRI AUROBINDO:... say. The treatment is, as you say, his own technique which is a departure from old tradition. Tagore has brought in a new element of feeling and imagination and, as he is a genius, his poetry is beautiful. But Tagore can diffuse himself fifty or sixty lines and even then his idea doesn't come out. After Tagore, Bengali poetry has become wishy-washy. There is no intellectual backbone. NIRODBARAN: Motilal... to read it. That is due, I think, to his new technique. Unless one knows the chhanda, one will stumble. It is not Tagore's simple and smooth chhanda. SRI AUROBINDO: There are two things in Dilip's poeetry—subject and treatment. As regards the subject, he follows the pre-Tagore Bengali poetry—which is intellectual poetry—perhaps due to his father's influence, which I liked and miss in later poetry ...
... I lost myself entirely in you. That feeling is still throbbing inside. It was as if my whole being had fallen at your feet and been making this prayer intensely. I shall simply send this song of Rabindranath with slight changes made by me and offer my humble prayer through the song: O Mother, do accept me now, Don’t turn me back again, Possess my rebel heart, With me remain! The days ...
... possible to dwell on her many experiences in Japan and I shall merely mention that they were a perfect preparation for the great work ahead of her on her return to India. Incidentally, when Rabindranath Tagore visited Japan in 1919 he met the Mother. The poet was so impressed by her personality that he requested her to come to Shantiniketan and take charge of the institution. The Mother could not accept ...
... 19 DECEMBER 1939 Sisir Maitra had presented a copy of The Life Divine to Tagore and asked him to read it. Tagore told him that his eyesight was bad. But Maitra forced the issue saying, "You said you were waiting to hear his word. This book is his word." Then Tagore replied that he would try. SRI AUROBINDO: Tan Sen4 has written to Dilip praising him, saying, "You have... people don't understand The Life Divine but that they find it difficult to apply to life. SRI AUROBINDO: Somebody has said—I don't know who—ideals are to be held but not to be applied. SATYENDRA: Tagore can make a last attempt. NIRODBARAN: I think I too will again make an honest attempt to understand it. SRI AUROBINDO: But it is, I think, easier than books by Kant or other philosophers. EVENING ...
... there was no place in the world like the Ashram, and there were no Gurus like Sri Aurobindo and the Mother! V Like Dilip, Vasudha, Sahana Devi also - whose music used to send Rabindranath Tagore into the seventh heaven of rapture - arrived in Pondicherry in November 1928. At that time the women inmates - the sadhikas - numbered hardly a dozen. What immediately struck Vasudha, Sahana... it may make. 20 Next Vasudha, Sahana wished to make a votive offering of her dance. She was no dancer, - "but why should the Mother not see the little I could do?" After a dance-recital of Tagore's "In the steps of the Dance", the Mother herself gave Vasudha, Sahana the idea of a dance on Radha, along the lines of her own Radha's Prayer. And so with the march of the years Vasudha, Sahana ...
... with Tagore over Nishikanto's book Alakananda. Tagore's point is that he can't believe that a man can remain unmoved and calm and tranquil amidst pain and suffering, sorrow and distress. If a man falls from a height, how can he escape being hurt?" he asks SRI AUROBINDO: It is not a question of being hurt. The question is of remaining unmoved and unshaken by the hurt. NIRODBARAN: Tagore himself... me." Anilbaran asked me, Was Hydari hinting to me?" (Laughter) SATYENDRA: Where did he learn this art? SRI AUROBINDO: You mean it may be a Yogic Sidhi. (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: It seems Tagore was asked his opinion of The Life Divine and he said, "All that about sadhana in solitude I don't understand." Charu Dutt replied, "How is that? You yourself had to retire to a boat to write poetry... SRI AUROBINDO: Why shouldn't he have? If he hasn't he should be sent to Finland and he will see many people there remaining calm and tranquil in the midst of all knocks and attacks. NIRODBARAN: Tagore says Nishikanto's poetry is not for the mass, that it is not within their experience. By 'mass' he means himself and a few hundred people like him, Dutt said, while the rest, like Dutt himself, understand ...
... not? The inner being can have the vision and express it, without the outer having the least awareness of it. NIRODBARAN: Can one who is not a mystic write mystic poems? Tagore —or Harin before he came here? SRI AUROBINDO: Tagore had a tradition of religious tendencies in his family. Harin had a mystic part in him. Unfortunately, he had many other parts also. Reading his earlier poems I predicted... Aurobindo 12 DECEMBER 1938 This talk took place before the others had come up, when Nirodbaran was all alone with Sri Aurobindo. Nirodbaran read out some of Tagore's last poems, which were supposed to express spiritual experiences. NIRODBARAN: Is there anything here? ; SRI AUROBINDO (smiling) : Nothing much, except that he speaks of some light in the first... AUROBINDO: Well, if he was getting into another world, why on earth doesn't he say so? The poem is hazy. The Vaishnava poets have clearly stated their experiences. NIRODBARAN: Dilip told me that once Tagore in an agony of pain tried hard to concentrate and ultimately he separated himself from his pain and got relief. Isn't that a spiritual experience? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, that is a spiritual experience ...
... subtle-physical body 116 plane 209 Sufi 70 sukshma sharira 116 Sun of Truth 38,86 Supermind 51,58 Supernature 12,128,208,273,315 Swinburne 42,127 T Tagore, Rabindranath 34, 70 Tantra 273 Tennyson 66,216,259 Thibaudet 62 Thompson, Francis 20,22,27,108 transformation power of true 273 translation 210 true soul 28,160 ...
... Nolini brought Tagore down, followed by the Mother who halted near the bottom of the staircase. Later Tagore asked Nolini: "Who was that lady sitting near Sri Aurobindo? Is she his secretary?" Nolini answered: "She is the Mother." Tagore exclaimed: "Oh, Mirra Richard? I could not recognise her." If I remember aright, the Mother had passed through an illness just before Tagore's visit. She... with Tagore. Tagore had the habit of meditating every morning at a fixed hour. The Mother once told us: "I could follow him in his meditation and know exactly what was happening. On the mind-level he used to get a touch of Sat-chit-Ananda." The Mother left Japan in 1920 and came to join Sri Aurobindo. Several years later — some time after I had settled here in December 1927 — Tagore who... took him upstairs where at the other end of the meditation hall Sri Aurobindo was standing to receive him. As soon as Tagore entered and saw Sri Aurobindo he flung his cap away and ran towards him and made as if to embrace him. Sri Aurobindo extended his arms and caught Tagore's hands. Then they sat down for a talk. The Mother sat on a stool near Sri Aurobindo. Nolini was also present at ...
... idiot say about it? NIRODBARAN: He may not have read it. SRI AUROBINDO: But can a novel be written in a poetic style? NIRODBARAN: Tagore's is not a novel but a novelette, one may say. SRI AUROBINDO: One can write a romance in such a style. PURANI: Tagore is doing so many new things. They say he has written mystic poems about death after his recent serious illness—what death is like, one's... Sandhane (In Quest). According to Dutt she has taken a long stride from Rakta Golap (Red Rose), her last book. SRI AUROBINDO: I see! NIRODBARAN: Dutt says Rakta Golap is an imitation of Tagore's poetic-prose novel Char Adhyaya (Four Chapters). Only the style is very good. That is true to some extent. She gave most of her attention to style and tried to make it poetic. And Sandhane she... the best story-writers. PURANI: I mean like Chatterjee. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but he is not a novelist. NIRODBARAN: No. PURANI: You have seen Patrika's review of Nishikanta's book? While Tagore has praised his chhanda and bhasha, people call it halting and Sanskritised. SRI AUROBINDO: Stupid review! EVENING Satyendra said something about the Commonwealth. Sri Aurobindo then spoke ...
... I first saw Sri Aurobindo and Mother. And I was but four years old when my father P.S. Nahar took his family to Santiniketan, the educational establishment of the Poet Tagore. The Nahars' acquaintance with the Tagores was of long standing. My grandfather Puran Chand Nahar was one among the train-load of people who went from Calcutta to Santiniketan in November 1913 to felicitate the Poet... both Indian and European music. But it was his literary talents and appreciation of art that brought him closer to the Tagores and on more intimate terms with them. He was in the group of young talented writers of Sabuj Patra, a magazine which had very close links with the Tagores. From the end of 1929 up to the end of 1934 we spent our impressionable ages surrounded by trees. The Nichu Bangla ...
... NIRODBARAN: Yes. PURANI: He means he found it as intoxicating as Ganja? NIRODBARAN: Oh no, Brahmos don't touch Ganja. PURANI: He was the same man who came here with Tagore and was not allowed to accompany Tagore during his interview with you. He was very angry. I remember the story of a Brahmo. He was asked by somebody where some particular theatre was; he said he didn't know. He realised... Australian soldiers are being sent to England. They ought to have been out there. Then Purani brought in the talk about Nandalal Bose's coming here and said that it must be due to consideration for Tagore that he has suspended his coming for this Darshan. SRI AUROBINDO: Artists can't keep their resolutions! ...
... poem. Tagore coined the word তৃণাঞ্চিত but he laments that people have not accepted it. Why a blot? There are many words in Greek poetry which occur only once in the whole literature, but that is not considered a defect in the poem. It is called a hapax legomenon , "a once spoken Page 656 word" and that's all. তৃণাঞ্চিত for instance is a fine word and can adorn, not blot Tagore's poetry... as they last,—unless you are one of her acknowledged favourites and then you can make hay of her laws and (sometimes) defy even her caprices provided you are quite sure of the favour. In this case, Tagore perhaps feels the absoluteness of some usage with regard to these particular words? But one can always break through law and usage and even pass over the judgment of an "arbiter of elegances",—at one's ...
... they sell or not is not my look out." He believes that you gave some Force to Tagore which made Tagore change his mind about his poetry. I also believe this. SRI AUROBINDO: You mean I put my Force on him? Anybody who has some poetic feeling will appreciate the book. NIRODBARAN: But did you put your Force on Tagore or not? SRI AUROBINDO (smiling a little) : In a way. Has the book been sent ...
... was composed of extraordinary lines from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother touching upon India's past, present and Her future. Interspersed with these lines were patriotic songs in Bengali and Hindi by Rabindranath, Dwijendralal and Dilipkumar Roy, poems by Ashram poets set to music and hymns from the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita. The Mother had already seen this programme that was performed... put up on 15 th August, we informed the Mother. She was happy with the idea. Manoj, Richard and Jhumur read the lines from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Sahana-di recited the Bengali poems from Rabindranath. The programme was put up on the beach, in the Gandhi Square, under a large pandal that was especially erected for the occasion. The lieutenant governor Shri B.D. Jatti and other dignitaries expressed ...
... Gandhiji is, of course, Tagore. Tagore celebrated the senses and he represents for me the complement to Gandhiji in the modern Indian mind. Tagore's Brahmo background ensured that he would apprehend the unique and essential truths of Vedanta. But the poetry of the Vedic hymns and of the Upanishadic utterances convinced Tagore that the world ought not to be denied or negated. So Tagore engaged with Maya... which exercised an important influence on Tagore. Tagore's example complements the Mahatma's. Both had a deeply felt inner life and in both, this inwardness co-existed with a deep concern for the people at large.Jn Gandhiji it took the form of an austere sense of Duty. In Tagore it took an aesthetic form, a love of Beauty and of God. Both Gandhi and Tagore together account for the best in modern i... to be only the emanation of the One Self, the Godhead, from which we come. Tagore's entire career offers the modern Indian intellectual an important balance to Gandhiji. It allows one to be in the world and to take interest in what is happening around Page 327 one. Indeed Tagore's own institution building is based on his recognition of this principle of unity in diversity ...
... to dislike the present famous authors. Forster also, they say, is philosophical. NIRODBARAN: Like Tagore, they don't seem to like intellectual novels; but Tagore's own novels are intellectual. SRI AUROBINDO: Do people want stupid rather than intellectual novels to be written? PURANI: Tagore in his novels analyses in detail the various psychologies which common people can't understand. Sarat ...
... decades, I find it still difficult to decide what it is that drew a man of my temperament to one whose ways were so utterly different. Was it his genius? His "face radiant with an inner light", as Rabindranath had so aptly described? Or, was it the magnetism of a mystic aureole that engirdled him, an overwhelming sublimity that conquered one even when it baffled definition? Or, was it the ocean of peace ...
... when I wrote to him that Tagore had recently — in a letter to me published in my Anami — recanted his faith in the Divine, having been overwhelmed by the modem craze for Humanity with a big H, he asked me almost with a motherly solicitude not to criticize Tagore adversely for his volte face. "I do not think," he wrote, "that we should hastily conclude that Tagore's passing over to the opposite... would not listen and importuned again: "Tagore's Golden Book will be incomplete without Sri Aurobindo's tribute. Even a message of two lines or a couplet coming from him will be looked upon as a boon of his Grace" .— etc. But Sri Aurobindo's Grace was not like Caesar's, amenable to flattery. "I take Pramatha Choudhuri's remark — that Tagore's Golden Book will be incomplete without my... my contribution — as a complimentary hyperbole. The Golden Book will be as golden and Tagore's work and fame as solid without any lucubration from me to gild the one or buttress the other." But when he found it "impossible" to find even a few minutes for such an important work — for Tagore was then at the peak of his fame — he not only went on encouraging the poems of such as we but went on actually ...
... listening to a common dance tune and cold and dull to the music of Tansen. They would also prefer (even many who pretend otherwise) a catching theatre song to one of Tagore's lyrics—which proves to the hilt, I suppose, that Beethoven, Tansen, Tagore are pale distant highbrow things, not the real, true, human, joy-giving stuff. In the case of Yogic or divine peace, which is not something neutral, but intense... artist with the spirit of artistry in his very blood will certainly be artistic in everything. But there are artists who have no taste and there are artists who are not born but made. Your example of Tagore is a different matter. A mastery in one department of art does not give mastery in another—though there may be a few who excel equally in many arts. Gandhi's phrase about asceticism is only a phrase ...
... revolution, give it a push at the right time, and see it safely through. Decades earlier, Sri Aurobindo's grandfather, Rajnarain Bose, had organised a secret society (enrolling young Rabindranath Tagore himself as a member) and also established an institution for revolutionary propaganda and action, but the climate of the time being what it was, neither the secret society nor the institution... listening to both points of view, and then by setting up a supreme controlling committee of five consisting of Barrister P. Mitter, Chittaranjan Das, Sister Nivedita, Jatin himself and Surendranath Tagore, to be in overall charge of revolutionary work in Bengal. Although this committee was no conspicuously successful in its work of coordination, the movement itself spread — presently fanned to a ...
... through uniformity of dress, language, life style etc. Tells him, 'It would be a poor world, not worth living in.' Meets Rabindranath Tagore in Tokyo. Sketches him. Meditates with him. He tells her he found what was written in the Arya to be impracticable. Photographed with Tagore and others at Kamakura in Kyoto, in front of the colossal Daibutsu Buddha. Declines invitation to assist him at Shantiniketan ...
... devotional at all. Devotionalism is not the sine qua non. I don't think one could designate Tagore's Urvasie as devotional, but I am inclined to rank it among his finest rishi-creations. It is necessary to say, in passing, that Tagore the poet was on many occasions a rishi but Tagore the man was on the whole far from it. To be a rishi as a man one must be something more than intellectually... would not. So too would I deem Tagore a rishi in his intensest ecstasy of utterance only where he reveals, in the light of his own word-plane, realities of the inner being or of Supernature. And here I should like to point out that in the true rishi-poems there is illumination as well as rapture, a seerhood no less than the soul's lyricism. Certain poems of Tagore's Gitanjali have this double quality... missionary can have his bellyful of wedded debauchery without the least tarnishing of his halo! My correspondent asks me to say something also about the term "rishi" and decide if it can be applied to Tagore. Well, Sri Aurobindo has explained its root meaning and applied it to Bankim Chandra Chatterji for his discovery of the mantra of India's renascence in the song Bande Mataram, that cry of obeisance ...
... there is a sufficient record of the meeting or interview to throw light on Sri Aurobindo's views or to reveal a facet of his personality. Towards the end of 1920, Sarala Devi, a niece of Rabindranath Tagore, met Sri Aurobindo on two days. She was a well-known litterateur and was then deeply concerned with Gandhiji's non-cooperation movement. Purani has provided a record of the interview from which ...
... I wonder how Tagore could take it up. SRI AUROBINDO: To keep up with the times. Nobody has really succeeded in prose-poetry except to some extent in France. Whitman has succeeded in one or two instances—but only when he has approached nearer poetic rhythm. I read somewhere that modern poets are giving up prose-poetry now and going more towards irregular free verse. PURANI: Tagore says that his ...
... : Tagore also says that even if the artist sees a heavenly vision he will build his heaven on earth. Sri Aurobindo : He may, but it is not necessarily so. Disciple : About art Kelelker’s contention is that it is a Page 237 vessel. His idea is that the food is more important than the vessel in which it is served. Sri Aurobindo : Perhaps that is Tagore’s idea... (The talk centred round Tagore's letter to Nishikanta concerning poetry.) Sri Aurobindo : Take Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven. Everybody does not understand it : does it follow that Thompson is not a great poet? Or take the Upanishads. They deal with one subject only and have one strain : can we say, therefore, that it is not great poetry? Disciple : Tagore does not raise the question... you get the essence of pure poetry! Disciple : Some of the moderns have themselves written Page 243 long poems. Among Indian poets Tagore would score high as he has great creative force. Sri Aurobindo : Tagore is essentially a lyrical poet, and has no more creative force in his poetry than in his drama. One of his long poems, debatār grāsh I remember, was very ...
... 1969 Friends, shall I greet you with namaskar or "bonjour" or "good morning" or "salaam"? Sisir was telling me just now that, in Shantiniketan, Rabindranath instructed the teachers to greet the students with namaskar. According to Tagore, the teachers must greet the students with namaskar - that way, it can help to awaken the soul in the students. And here, Pranab, as you know very well ...
... Samiti, Lonavala, 1999. Swami Swahananda, Chhandogya Upanisad, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, 1965. Swinburne, R., The Evolution of the Soul, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986. Tagore, Rabindranath, The Religion of Man, George Alien Unwin Ltd., London, 3rd edition, 1949. PAGE–151 Tamini, I.K., The Science of Yoga, The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai, 2001. Tantia ...
... thing they are on dizzy heights out of the reach of common man and for another they are idolised more as philosophy than as poetry. Doubtless, our Vaishnava poets sang of God and Love Divine; and Rabindranath, in one sense, a typical modern Vaishnava, did the same. And their songs are masterpieces. But are they not all human, too human, as the mad prophet would say? In them it is the human significance... Aurobindo shows any organic adaptation to music and melody. His thought is profound; his technical devices are commendable; but the music that enchants or disturbs is not there. Aurobindo is not another Tagore or Iqbal, or even Sarojini Naidu." – The Times Literary Supplement, July 8, 1944. Page 62 poetry is not merely beauty but power, it is not merely sweet imagination but creative ...
... 1894, do a literary critique of Bankim and Michael Madhusudan Dutta in a series of articles in the Induprakash! Then again, Mano, almost immediately upon his return, in October 1894, wrote to Rabindranath: "Aurobindo is anxious to know what you think of his book of verses, 1 but I have explained to him how busy you are just now; and that you will write later when you have a little more leisure to... ('Topic Aurobindo'). So now let us take a fuller look at it and at him. Dinendra Kumar Roy (1869-1943) was a rising Bengali man of letters. His articles in Bharati, a magazine edited by the Tagores, had aroused appreciation in Bengal's literary circles. When Sri Aurobindo felt the need to speak Bengali fluently with the right pronunciation and to correct and perfect his knowledge of the language ...
... are filled with a sense of contradiction. We used to speak of Tagore advancing in years and we speak now of Gandhi growing old: nothing strange is felt by us in our utterances. Sri Aurobindo, however, makes any calculation in terms of age a falsity. Fundamentallly such a calculation errs because of Sri Aurobindo's mysticism. Both Tagore and Gandhi can be called great, but their greatness is of the... the human and not the divine type. The essence of Tagore is the poet, of Gandhi the moralist, of Sri Aurobindo the mystic. Though Tagore and Gandhi cannot be considered devoid of mysticism, the mystical Reality is in them an indirect power. The indirectness is shown by their predominant aims. The mystic in quest of the divine Spirit does not hold it as his predominant aim to write a Gitanjali or to ...
... letter? PURANI: Harin wrote to Dilip that if they want something new in Bengali they must get rid of Tagore's influence. Tagore is dominating too much. SRI AUROBINDO (smiling) : That is not untrue. I didn't see that letter. PURANI: Yes, it is there. Dilip also made comments, after which Tagore can't like him. Then you also wrote to Dilip that he has brought some new element in his poems, the element... other poet had done before. SRI AUROBINDO: Bhakti? I couldn't have said that. PURANI: Perhaps the psychic element, and you didn't include Tagore. SRI AUROBINDO: About this new poetry, is it true that it is not Bengali? NIRODBARAN: I don't know. Tagore admits that there may be a spiritual element. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, he admits this? NIRODBARAN: Yes. But, though he may not understand it... NIRODBARAN: He had a two hours' talk with Sisir and was so much moved by Sisir's account of the Ashram that he embraced him. SRI AUROBINDO: Did Sisir meet him after going from here? NIRODBARAN: Yes. Tagore seems to be saying that what we are writing here is neither Bengali nor Sanskrit. That won't do in Bengali poetry. Of course Nishikanto is excluded. PURANI: He wants everybody to follow him. He ...
... particular case. It can be applied to any case. DR. MANILAL: It seems Tagore has advised Gandhi to give up politics. SRI AUROBINDO: Why? Gandhi could as well ask Tagore to give up poetry. DR. MANILAL: And Gandhi has replied that life is impossible without politics. Perhaps because of the factions in the Congress, Tagore advised him like that. ...
... subjects. The State had to guarantee security to the people in exchange for taxation. Taxation in ancient India served to secure social and political objectives. "In our country," observed Rabindranath "it was the duty of the king to wage war, to maintain peace and to administer justice, but supplying the other needs of the people, from imparting education to supplying drinking water, was the... wanted the entire removal of the foreign control. But the irresponsible Government did not care. Why should they? Hadn't they found a human cattle farm for their own profit? As Prince Dwarakanath Tagore put it in 1836, "They have taken all which the natives possessed : their liberty, property, all held at the mercy of Government." But a few Britons saw the trouble that was brewing due to the ...
... looked upon all who are truly great—only portray one's own reactions of them, and very imperfectly at that. I would go further and submit that the greater a personality, the more he must elude us. Rabindranath once told me that we understand more than we think we do. To me the statement never seemed cryptic. For whenever, in my life's gropings, I have met a truly great soul, the impression left on me ...
... journal's microfilms, courtesy Nehru Memorial Museum & Library) 367 Sri Aurobindo photographed after his acquittal in the Bande Mataram Sedition case (from Abhay Singh's collection) 381 Rabindranath's homage to Sri Aurobindo in the Bande Mataram 386, 446 Maps of Bengal and India (by Maryse Prat) 408 A few Nationalist leaders at Surat (from Abhay Singh's collection) 428 ...
... used to be mostly akṣaravṛtta . (I remember how my brother Manmohan would annoy me by denouncing the absence of melody, the featureless monotony of Bengali rhythm Page 142 and tell me how Tagore ought to be read to be truly melodious—like English in stress, with ludicrous effects. That however is by the way.) What I mean is that variety of melodic bases was not conspicuous at that time in... principle; it is what I am trying to do with quantitative efforts in English. Is it true that the laghu-guru is to the Bengali ear as impossible as would be to the English ear the line made up by Tagore: "Autumn flaunteth in his bushy bowers"? In English such a violence could not be entertained for a moment. It was because Spenser and others tried to base their hexameters and pentameters on this flagrant... syllabic nor quantitative nor anything else; it is simply English prosody—that is to say, everything together, except what it pretends to be. As to the other, you and Prabodh Sen and Anilbaran and Tagore and the rest are already in such a tangle of controversy from which there seems no hope of your ever getting out that I don't propose to add any cord of my own to the knot, and probably, if I tried ...
... Sahana sent some of her poems to Tagore, he said that the world creation is full of a variety of rasa. The poet's mind should not be confined to one single প্রেরণা 202 , however vast it may be. 203 [Sri Aurobindo underlined "however vast it may be".] But Tagore's poetry is all from one প্রেরণা. He may write of different things, but it is always Tagore and his prerana repeating themselves... poetic fame and a lot of readers, if he is only a poet, Tagore's advice may be good for him. Nishikanta and Harin have more variety, perhaps. But on the whole don't you think we are likely to be lacking in this rasa and variety? It is not a necessity of spiritual poetry; but if it so happens, I don't see that it matters so terribly. Tagore says that it is unbecoming for a poet to mention that... of your stress rhythm had to be mentioned in order to be grasped. Obviously. Tagore being a master of chhanda, says this? Also an inventor of new metres. Dilip seems to have made chhanda a mathematical business; that's why many complain that his poems can't be read. Is it true? Once Tagore wrote to Sahana that he couldn't appreciate Dilipda's language and style (didn't say whether ...
... etc. He says Tagore's letter has a double value as he had to praise Nishikanto in spite of himself. Dilip says it is very funny how people make contradictory statements. As for Satyen Datta's innovations and discoveries in rhythm, Tagore appreciates them very much but when we make these experiments, he says, "What is all this nonsense they are doing about rhythm?" SRI AUROBINDO: Tagore himself made ...
... and Grace, 569; Sakti and Supermind, 569; supramental change & transformation, 570; an Earthly Paradise, 570,659 System of National Education, A, 337, 353 Tagore, Debendranath, 16, 26 Tagore, Rabindranath, 15, 16-17, 62, 147, 220,244,247,273,550,571, 615 Tandon, Purushottamdas, 534 Tegart, Sir Charles, 287 Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, 442,443ff Telang... deportation, 237; on Minto-Morley Reforms, 240ff, 261, 340ff, 364; on Morley's biparita buddhi, 241; prosecution as editor, 244ff; Madras Standard on, 244; Indian Patriot on, 244; Mahratta on, 244; Rabindranath on, 244; failure in health, 248; on Govt. vs. National Education, 249; on Brahmacharya-Yoga, 251; dissatisfaction with "national" education, 25 1ff; as teacher of National College,... Poems and Plays, 717; contributions to Bulletin, 718ff; on perfection of body, 718-9; Mind of Light, 720H, 743; on the world situation, 721-2; on Korea and Chinese aggression, 721-2; interviews to Tagore, Levi & others, 723; on Golconde, 723-4; Brahmabandhab on, 728; Gandhiji on, 730; Justice Chatterjee on, 730; Munshi on, 731; on Yogic cure of maladies, 732; on leaving his body, 732; the Bhrigu a ...
... of the experience of beauty. The first is an experience of Tagore during his childhood. A private school was run for the children of the Tagore-family. Among the subjects taught anatomy was also included. One day, the teacher of anatomy brought the bone of a human hand isolated from the human skeleton for the lesson. Tagore felt terribly shocked at the sight of the bone unrelated to human body... The ripples in the lake do not merely indicate the force of surface-tension and the pressure of the wind, but the poet's image about them is not merely something unreal and therefore untrue. Tagore in his book Sadhana says that a thing of beauty generally has two sides; one, outer or merely objective and Page 91 another, inner or subjective. He takes the rose for an illustration... Divine to them is "bhuvan sundara", the All Beautiful. He is "nikhil rasāmrta sindhu", "the ocean of the entire ambrosia of delight"; He is "akhila saundarya nidhi" — "the treasure of all beauty". Tagore says: "vairāgya sādhane mukti, se āmār noy." 1 —"the liberation that is attained by renunciation is not for me"; I feel the embrace of freedom in thousandfold bonds of delight". He wants to keep ...
... survive in an arrested senility or fall into a refined decadence. The most considerable representatives of this new and free form of poetic rhythm are English and American, Carpenter and Whitman. Tagore's translations of his lyrics have come in as a powerful adventitious aid, but are not really to the point Page 163 in the question at issue; for these translations are nothing but a rhythmically... is an indulgence, a minor variation which has yet its definite place and serves certain purposes which could not otherwise be fulfilled with any adequacy. It is perhaps the only method for the work Tagore intended, a poetic translation of poetry reproductive of the exact thought and spiritual intention of the original; for a version in the fixed measures of another language not only substitutes another... a far-off minimised shadow, echo, illusion of it, if the same or a similar spirit is at work: it can never have the same power, but it may have some echo of a similar suggestion. When for instance Tagore writes in English,— Thou settest a barrier in thine own being and thou callest thy severed self in myriad notes. This thy self-separation has taken body in me. The great pageant of thee and ...
... colonies between themselves. Italy is to take Tunis, Corsica and Morocco, while Germany will get West Africa. After some time Purani spoke about Tagore's new interpretation of an ancient Indian history of the Ramayana period—Itihasher Dhara. Tagore seems to hold that: (l) Rama, Vishwamitra and Janaka are the three forces combined into one that moulded the ancient social life; (2) the fact that Sita ...
... for a time, has always turned into a catastrophe. Still Asia had failed in life, she had fallen in the dust, and even if the dust in which she was lying was sacred, as the modern poet of Asia [Rabindranath Tagore] has declared, – though the sacredness may be doubted, – still the dust is not the proper place for man, nor is to lie prostrate in it his right human attitude.” 42 “The need of a developing ...
... and fulfilment, whether in relation to man or collective man or global humanity. Over a decade after Sri Aurobindo had concluded his series of articles on Human Unity in the Arya, Rabindranath Tagore said in the course of his Hibbert Lectures: "On the surface of our being we have the ever-changing phases of the individual self, but in the depth there dwells the Eternal Spirit of human unity ...
... that independence became the accepted goal of the Congress. Sri Aurobindo met Tagore once during this year (1906) at Tagore's Jorasanko Street residence, where he went in answer to the poet's invitation for dinner. A Japanese artist, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose and some other prominent people were present. Tagore visited the Sanjivani office now and then where he occasionally met Sri Aurobindo.... On 23 September 1907 Apurva Bose was sentenced to three months as the printer of the Bande Mataram . Sri Aurobindo was acquitted. Tagore (and also many other Nationalists) came to see Sri Aurobindo at No. 12 Wellington Street. Tagore had published his "Homage to Aurobindo" while the prosecution was going on, in anticipation of a sentence. But, as Sri Aurobindo was acquitted, when ...
... Recollections and Diary Notes Champaklal Speaks Mother on Herself in Japan 1944-12-18 Showing a group photograph taken in Japan in which she is seen with Tagore and others, Mother told Sri Aurobindo: “This one is Mahalakshmi, sweet, lovable, tender, docile; beauty, harmony.... I would like to see this woman, to meet her again. I would like to see this creature ...
... from all the provinces. Rabindranath inaugurated the Page 392 Conference by singing the Bande Mataram song. Sister Nivedita was present. Sri Aurobindo also. In his book, The Liberator, Sisir Kumar Mitra reports the remembrances of a boy volunteer in charge of Sri Aurobindo's camp there. The boy was none other than Kalimohan Ghose, a co-worker of Rabindranath at Santiniketan when my ...
... nature of the experience of beauty. The first is an experience of Tagore during his childhood. A private school was run for the children of the Tagore-family. Among the subjects taught anatomy was also included. One day, the teacher of anatomy brought the bone of a human hand isolated from the human skeleton for the lesson. Tagore felt terribly shocked at the sight of the bone unrelated to a human... rainbow. The ripples in the lake do not merely indicate the force of surface-tension and the pressure of the wind, but the poet's image about them is not merely something unreal and therefore untrue. Tagore in his book Sadhana says that a thing of beauty generally has two sides; one, outer or merely objective and Page 74 another, inner or subjective. He takes the rose for an illustration;... The Divine to them is "bhuvan sundara", the All Beautiful. He is "nikhil rasamrta sindhu "—"the ocean of the entire ambrosia of delight"; He is "akhila saundarya nidhi"—"the treasure of all beauty". Tagore says: "vairagya sadhane mukti, se amar noy,"—"the liberation that is attained by renunciation is not for me"; I feel the embrace of freedom in thousandfold bonds of delight." He wants to keep the ...
... 55, 85. 87, 90. 95, 99-100, 106, 200 svadharma, 177 , 182,250 Swadeshi movement, 17.35,39. 40(fn), 156,180,183, 195 Swaraj, 17,35,56,93.180,209 inner, 53 T Tagore, Rabindranath, 17,27, 193, 194,215 Tagore, Surendranath, 13 Tamil (language), 109 Tamil saints, 146 Tantra, 105 Taoists, 190 tapasyd, III taxes, 221 terrorism, 56, 93, 246 theosophy, 94, 200 Tibet, 251 -253 Tilak ...
... creative in his prophetic poems. NIRODBARAN: You wrote to X that where life is concerned, Shakespeare is everywhere and Blake nowhere. SRI AUROBINDO: Quite true. PURANI: That is almost like Tagore's stand, his plea for variety, covering a lot of life. NIRODBARAN: But can one compare two or more poets and decide who is greater? SRI AUROBINDO: How can one? NIRODBARAN: You have said that... criterion? SRI AUROBINDO: Is there any criterion? NIRODBARAN: Then how to judge? SRI AUROBINDO: One feels. NIRODBARAN: But different people feel differently. We say Nishikanto is a great poet. Tagore may not concede it. SRI AUROBINDO: So can there be any standard? Doesn't each one go by his own feeling or liking or opinion? PURANI: Abercrombie tries to give a general criterion. One point... else has written some short poems on the French Revolution which seem to have creative force. SRI AUROBINDO: Poems on the French Revolution? Who on earth is the author? NIRODBARAN: I suppose Tagore will score highly in the matter of creative force. He has a lot of it. SRI AUROBINDO: Where? Where has he created? He is essentially a lyrical poet and has no more creative force in his poetry than ...
... an almost gigantic originality. Rammohan Ray arose with a new religion in his hand, which was developed on original lines by men almost greater one thinks than he, by Rajnarain Bose and Debendranath Tagore. The two Dutts, Okhay Kumar and Michael Madhu Sudan, began a new Prose and a new Poetry. Vidyasagara, scholar, sage and intellectual dictator, laboured hugely like the Titan he was, to create a new... culture, but of original culture. Of these perhaps the most finished patterns were Madhu Sudan's friends, Page 94 Gourdas Byshak, and that scholarly patron of letters, Rajah Jyotindra Mohun Tagore. At the same time there arose, as in other parts of India, a new social spirit and a new political spirit, but these on a somewhat servilely English model. Of all its channels the released energies... the last of the original geniuses. Since then the great impulse towards originality has gone backward like a receding wave. After Bankim came the Epigoni, Hemchandra Banerji, Nobin Sen, Robindranath Tagore, men of surprising talent, nay, of unmistakable genius, but too obviously influenced by Shelley and the English poets. And last of all came the generation formed in the schools of Keshab Chandra Sen ...
... Chandidasa's works published in 1897. On 17 October 1898, Sri Aurobindo's brother Manmohan wrote in a letter to Rabindranath Tagore: "My brother . . . has just published a volume of poems at Baroda." This book evidently is Songs to Myrtilla . In another letter Manmohan tells Tagore: "Aurobinda is anxious to know what you think of his book of verses." This second letter is dated 24 October... The manuscript and the second edition contain a dedication and a Latin epigraph, which Sri Aurobindo later deleted. They are reproduced here 1 Manmohan Ghose's letters to Tagore are reproduced and discussed in Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research , volume 12 (1988), pp. 86–87, 89–91. Page 693 from the manuscript: To my brother Manmohan ...
... shape so as to have a hold on you. November 10, 1934 P.S. was telling me that cultivation of literature here hasn't much sense, since none will be able to get first class, or outclass Tagore. He must always remain the only brilliant star in literature. Others won't even get a chance to shine by his side, not to speak of outshining him. Only Dilip can be somehow given a second class privilege... about my philosophy to my great surprise. It is not a question of first class or second class. One has to produce one's best and develop—the "class" if class there must be will be decided by posterity. Tagore himself was once considered second class by any number of people and the nature of his poetry was fiercely questioned—until the Nobel prize and consequent fame ended their discussions. One has not ...
... syllabic character. (2) I did not think or hear that Tagore invented the mātrā-vṛtta —I could not, because I never heard of the mātrā-vṛtta at that time. What I understood was that the svara-vṛtta was not recognised as a serious or poetic metre before Tagore,—it was used only for nursery rhymes etc. or in some kinds of loose popular verse. Tagore did not invent, but he popularised the svara-vṛtta... svara-vṛtta fixed itself on an equal throne by the side of akṣara-vṛtta . I mention it only as a point of literary history of which I was a contemporary witness. I suppose, as usually happens, Tagore's share in the revolution was exaggerated and there were others who played a large part in its success. (3) Mātrā-vṛtta is therefore to me a new development, not as an invention perhaps, but as... assiduously reading Bengali literature; at that time what you now call svara-vṛtta was regarded as mere popular verse or an old irregular verse-form. Afterwards with the advent and development of Tagore's poetry, one began to hear of two recognised principles of Bengali metre, Swara (I was going to say Kshara) and Akshara. Is it Anilbaran's contention that only these two are real and legitimate? Whatever ...
... source". Among the Great consists of accounts of Dilip's meetings and excerpts from his correspondence with five eminent contemporaries — Romain Rolland, Mahatma Gandhi, Bertrand Russell, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. Dilip began working on his manuscript sometime during the late 1920s. Around September 1928, he sent portions of it, including a life sketch written by him, to Sri ... inter-caste marriages to be invalid unless sanctioned by custom.) Patel's bill was condemned by the orthodox and considered inadequate by reformers. But certain eminent Indians, among them Rabindranath Tagore and Lala Lajpat Rai, believed that it was a step in the right direction. Sri Aurobindo was asked his opinion of the bill by Lotewalla, Managing Director of Hindustan. His reply, undated, ...
... book I was then reading. At the age of nineteen, I met the greatly revered Babu Debendranath Tagore, and became a Brahmo, which I still am [in 1889]." Sri Aurobindo remembered, "My grandfather started being a Brahmo and ended by writing a book on Hinduism and proclaiming it the best religion. Debendranath Tagore became rather anxious and feared he might run into excess of zeal." Then Rajnarain fell... Brahmoism, but he lauded Hinduism ! The day at the end of 1872 when he gave a 1, Karmayogin, N°7, August 1909. Page 75 lecture on the 'Superiority of Hinduism,' with Maharshi Tagore in the Chair, the hall was packed to capacity and overflowed across the street. Because, "people thought, what can anybody say in favour of this rotten Hinduism? It is our duty to hear him." It ...
... AUROBINDO: Then why does he object? NIRODBARAN: Can't say. He continues that such sensibility about poetry may be due to European influence from which Tagore also is not free. "Why should Ishwar Gupta be our ideal when he is not even a greater poet than Tagore?" he asks. SRI AUROBINDO: What about Bengali prose? Are there no such expressions there? NIRODBARAN: I think there are, especially in modern ...
... Europe from the ashes of the age of rationalism and she has already, in literature at least, found the path of her salvation: India, that ancient home of an imperishable spirituality, has still, Rabindranath and the Bengal school of painting notwithstanding, to find hers, has yet to create the favourable imaginative, intellectual and aesthetic conditions for her voice to be heard again with the old ...
... into hiding. I have said that there were three Page 40 permanent residents in that house. Of these three, Suresh Chakravarti, at Ganen Tagore's instance, disappeared among the Tagore family, in the house of Gaganendranath Tagore. Bejoy removed to a friend's in Calcutta itself. And I decided to leave for an obscure little village in distant Barisal; there I put up with a friend... practically every day Ramchandra Majum-dar, Biren Ghosh and Saurin Bose (a brother-in-law of Sri Aurobindo) who came with us to Pondicherry and stayed here many long years. A frequent visitor was Ganen Tagore of Ramakrishna Mission who acted as the link with Sister Nivedita. There were a few others who came once in a while. Sri Aurobindo had his own novel method of education. It did not proceed by the ...
... not seem to admit wit even. They say Forster is also philosophical. Disciple : They do not seem to like intellectual novels like those of Tagore. Sri Aurobindo : If not intellectual, will they write stupid novels? Disciple : Tagore in his novels analyses various psychological movements which common people can't understand. Sharatchandra can be said to be a non-intellectual writer ...
... quote a short letter written by Rabindranath Tagore in connection with a review of his novel, The Home and the World, in the November, 1919, issue of The Modern Review. The letter has been recently acquired by us Page 414 Sri Aurobindo with disciples, 1918-20 and we quote it only because it throws further light on Rabindranath's attitude towards Sri Aurobindo... combined, and I still repeat my Namaskar which I offered to him when he was first assailed by the trouble which ultimately made him an exile from the soil of Bengal. Yours sincerely, Rabindranath Tagore In 1920 Joseph Baptista, a barrister of Bombay, wrote to Sri Aurobindo at the instance of Tilak, requesting him to accept the editorship of a paper they wanted to bring out as a mouthpiece ...
... November (the Siddhi day) - and, from 1939, a fourth day, 24 April (the day of the Mother's second coming), was added. Also, he occasionally broke the rule of retirement in favour of visitors like Rabindranath Tagore and Sylvain Levi. Further, since the Mother and one or two disciples kept in constant touch with Sri Aurobindo and since he answered in detail the letters from his disciples posing their problems ...
... am not disappointed. 10 August 1933 Gandhi, Tagore and the New Creation A friend writes: "Tagore and the Tagorians have by now all but given up Sri Aurobindo for lost—as one irreclaimable.... They no longer have the faith they once had that Sri Aurobindo was going to inaugurate a new era of creation in the world of fact." I feel that Tagore has come to this conclusion after reading your Riddle... is no sign of light anywhere. Tagore too has just written an article of despair in which he forebodes gloomily an end of the world, pralaya-kalpānta, as perhaps the quickest and most satisfactory solution to the mess we are in. Add to this my own lack of devotion and faith.... I do sometimes even feel that in the end you will give up this wicked world and wish with Tagore for the pralaya and retire into... of a riddle than an explanation. For formerly he Page 209 wrote enthusiastically to me about you as a creator. I suspect also that Romain Rolland's retraction has something to do with Tagore's retraction. But I expect sooner or later he will write somewhere about your becoming a thorough introvert. There of course the whole Bengal intelligentsia (such as it is) will agree with him. Are ...
... will always be with you. My mother had sent all my things, including the marble idol of Radha which I used to worship. Also lots of books: Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, some sanskrit books, Gandhi, Tagore, Saratchandra Chatterji, Kakasaheb Kalelkar, K.M. Munshi, the poets Kalapi, Meghani and other great men and women. There were two books I cherished most. In my girlhood I often read the Bhagavad Gita ...
... far he has been successful, I am not a musical expert and cannot pronounce. It was the Mother who gave him the advice and impulse to create something new. If Tagore's most recent verdict is sincere, he has succeeded in doing it, since Tagore speaks of him as a creator in music. A new creation need not be on one line only, each creator follows his own line, otherwise he would be more of an imitator... enthusiasm of the vital without which it would be difficult to do any poem, picture or music of a creative kind. That intensity is not harmful. 7 October 1933 The Mother finds the pictures of Tagore hideous and monstrous, she would not dignify them with the name of art. But it is not because they depart from tradition. The Mother does not believe in tradition—she considers that Art should always ...
... of art is arrived at here—for example, a clay elephant, a brazen object, a garment, a golden object, horse or mule chariot, are works of art." Q. Some great artists, like Sj. Abanindra Nath Tagore, say that Yoga is opposed to arts because Yoga demands withdrawal of senses from the outer world whereas for art senses are the indispensable means of perceiving the outer world of Rupa (form) which... of the Spirit. Of that manifestation beauty and art are an integral part. Moreover, it is not true to say that the artist perceives the outer world merely-with his physical sense. As Sj. A. Tagore admits later on in his book (Bagishwari lectures.) the artist has several eyes. For example:— i)The ordinary physical eye. ii)The keen, bird's eye. iii)The mental eye. ... of seeing is closely connected with Yoga. So that Yoga instead of crippling the art-faculties should on the contrary develop, stimulate and enhance them. Q. I was in fact, struck by Sj. A. Tagore's unconscious support and tribute to Yoga, for, later on he quotes Kabir's idea of Sahaja-samadhi and advocates it as the ideal condition for the artist! In that song Kabir speaks of keeping ...
... the Supramental Age (1958) Srivastava, R.S. Contemporary Indian Philosophy (1967) Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Phenomenon of Man (1960); translated by Nemard Wall. Tagore, Rabindranath. The Religion of Man (1931) Toynbee, Arnold. Civilisation on Trial (1948) Vama, V P. The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo (1960) Walker, Kenneth. A Study of Gurdjieff's ...
... to epiphanies of love". The epiphanies of love are above the seas of light and part of the goal reached. 1933 Tagore and The Life Heavens The other day Prithwi Singh said that Tagore has said your Life Heavens was not poetry proper. I am very much intrigued by Tagore's dictum. I am always ready to admit and profit by criticism of my poetry however adverse, if it is justified—but I should... too intellectual, dealing in ideas more than in vision and feelings? Or is it that the spiritual genre is illegitimate—spiritual subjects not proper for poetic treatment? But in that case much of Tagore's poetry would be improper, not to speak of much of Donne (now considered a great poet), Vaughan, Crashaw etc., Francis Thompson and I do not know how many others in all climes and ages. Is it the dealing... Housman declares to be the essence of poetry? I am at sea about this "poetry proper". Did he only use this cryptic expression? Was there nothing elucidatory said which would make it intelligible? Or has Tagore by any chance thought that I was trying to convey a moral lesson or a philosophical tenet—there is nothing of the kind there, it is a frequent experience on the spiritual path that is being described ...
... written by one Debabrata Roy Chowdhury, who says, "Nishikanto's poetic life grew up in the shadow of Tagore's poetry; so his poems of those days are colourless like a shadow-grown tree.... Today he has found the direction towards the Beyond in the shelter of Sri Aurobindo." SRI AUROBINDO: Tagore won't like that. NIRODBARAN: In this same issue has come the second instalment of your life by Girija ...
... brother of all Indians. Small contributions helped fill the kitty, coming as often from remote villages or poor labourers as from the educated elite. Swarnakumari Devi, well-known litterateur and Rabindranath's elder sister, gave Rs. 100. The Basumati reported on 18 July about the touching contribution of one rupee from a blind beggar, and related the story of a poor schoolboy. "The boy used to spend... —was at once hushed into perfect silence. Even the European sergeants ... adopted the posture of attention and began to listen with undivided attention." It was Ullaskar singing a patriotic song by Rabindranath. Sri Aurobindo had left standing instructions with Barin and his group that they were not to admit anything immediately if they were caught by the police, reminisced Nolini, one of the arrested ...
... or in the future like Blake's poetry. Nobody appreciated Blake in his own time—now he ranks as a great poet,—more poetic than Shakespeare, says Housman. Tagore wrote he could not appreciate Dilip's poetry because it is too "Yogic" for him. Is Tagore unselect, one of the public at large? I don't agree at all with not publishing because you won't be understood. At that rate many great poets would have... reckoned by the plaudits or the reactions of the greatest number. I am only just reading Khagen Mitra's স্বাজাত্য―this is only a splenetic comment on your quotation from Tagore. 2 November 1936 Mystic poetry will ever remain for Tagore mystic and mysterious and occupy a second place. That is another matter. It is a question of personal idiosyncrasy. There are people who thrill to Pope and find... it and dissect the corpse. One can't explain it, one can only feel and live the truth behind it. 3 December 1936 Spiritual Poetry and Popular Taste In a recently published lecture on art, Tagore writes [in Bengali]: The question naturally arises, "Why has this [mathematical delight] not been made the subject of poetry?" The reason is that the experience of it is confined to very few ...
... this Western or secular light forced the native vein of mysticism underground; it was necessary and useful, for it added an element which was missing before; a new synthesis came up in a crest with Tagore. It was a neo-mysticism, intellectual, philosophical, broad-based, self-conscious. Recendy however we have been going on the downward slope, and many, if not the majority among us, have been pointing... In the lotus with twin petals he is out and astir; One sees all this easily, only when one has ascertained the petals of his lotus. Now, coming at last to the modern age, in Tagore we have the full-fledged intellectual mysticism. Here is the modern seer and prophet: Within the finite, O Infinite, thou playest thy notes, That is why so sweet is thy manifestation ...
... vital plane. But when one gets the clue one finds that everything is a linked whole. That I have seen many times in my own case. It is this world from which Tagore's painting came, – what Europeans call the Goblin world. Disciple : Does Tagore see them before drawing them? Sri Aurobindo : I do not think so. Some see them but do not draw them. But they come to him. Anybody who has the least ...
... tautness he brings in one or two places. Tagore's original is on the whole better expression and more transparent to the spiritual sense and substance. As for Yeats's letter to Rothenstein 1 think it is ridiculous in saying: "Tagore does not know English, no Indian knows English" - as well as patently self-contradictory when he ends with the declaration that Tagore "has published, in recent years, and... eclipse came about is not clear from Yeats's letter. He attributes it to Tagore's "sentimental rubbish" and this is intrinsically nothing to do with English as such. The contents of Tagore's post-Gitanjali writing was poor and no amount of good English could have essentially helped. Besides, the fault did not lie in Tagore's attempting English poetry: even the Gitanjali is not poetry proper: it... Temenos, which has among other valuable contents, nine poems of Tagore's, translated by William Radice and originally published by Penguin about a year and a half ago. I had learned from Arabinda Basu that you had expressed to him your keen appreciation of Radice's renderings which had for the first time given you a sense of Tagore's greatness as a world-poet. Although Basu had some copies of Temenos ...
... poem by poem as he has also done in your case. If Dilip published the opinions, it was his own doing." SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so. I cannot write a public appreciation for a member of my own Ashram. Tagore has given his appreciation. That should be enough. ...
... The Spirit of Auroville Barun Tagore wrote me from Paris on 17.7.74: Dear Hutaben, I hope by now you must have received my postcard. Your brochure on Matrimandir is simply excellent. I showed it to some of my friends and they like it very much. Someone told me: "At last the truth is coming—it is so simple." So see how the Mother's Force is working ...
... people had suggested that since the booklet concerned the Matrimandir, it should be printed in Auroville itself. So the brochure Matrimandir—the Mother's Truth and Love was printed at Auropress. Barun Tagore was in charge of it in those days. I sent the manuscript to Pourna Prema, the Mother's grand-daughter, because I wanted to know whether the Mother had disclosed to her anything new or similar in ...
... this Western or secular light forced the native vein of mysticism underground; it was necessary and useful, for it added an element which was missing before; a new synthesis came up in a crest with Tagore. It was a neo-mysticism, intellectual, philosophical, broad-based, self-conscious. Recently however we have been going on the downward slope, and many, if not the majority among us, have been pointing... In the lotus with twin petals he is out and astir; One sees all this easily, only when one has ascertained the petals of his lotus. Now, coming at last to the modern age, in Tagore we have the full-fledged intellectual mysticism. Here is the modem seer and prophet: Within the finite, 0 Infinite, thou playest thy notes, That is why so sweet is thy manifestation ...
... I myself attended a number of meetings, particularly at Hedua, in Panti's Math and College Square, in the evening after college hours. At one of those meetings in Panti's Math, I had a view of Rabindranath as a leader and high-priest of nationalism, calm and handsome and sweet-tongued and self-possessed but breathing words of fire charged with strength and enthusiasm. On another day I chanced to see... thousand. In those days ten thousand people could easily listen to those superhuman voices. But why need we go so far? You have all listened to the voice of our Sahana, a voice that held the heart of Rabindranath enthralled. Let me here tell you an amusing story in this connection, though it belongs to a much Page 324 later date. There was a musical soirée at the residence of one of ...
... first as his crutches (He had his leg in a plaster-cast) and later independently, as just Her children. She wrote a message in his Report-Diary. (These messages were brought out in book form by Borun Tagore.) Sometime during this period he cut off most of his connections with the Playground activities. Not many noticed his retreat — but a legend was lost. ...
... predominantly based on reason and knowledge like that of the Indian Aryans. But Christ appeared on the. scene with the emotional gift of the psychic being. Page 79 Again, if in Rabindranath we get at the fountainhead of some of the deepest, purest inspiration, we see on the other hand an effort and aspiration for intuition in Madhusudan. Intuition and inspiration do not necessarily ...
... "rishi" means one who brings about the creative expression of the secret divine spirit of things, either in word or action, preferably in both, as the composers of the Veda did. You have asked about Tagore. If Page 6 he attained, on the plane proper to him, a supreme creative pitch in his poetry of the inner life or of mystical and spiritual realities, he could be hailed as a rishi.... of Bankim Chandra would make him a rishi in his vivid and visionary national anthem while the emotional patriotism of Iqbal in his richly imaginative "Hindustan Hamara" wouldn't. So too would I deem Tagore a rishi in his intensest ecstasy of utterance only where he reveals, in the light of his own word-plane, realities of the inner being or of Super-Nature. And here I should like to point out that in... the soul's lyricism. Certain parts of Gitanjali have this double quality - so do others that are not devotional at all. Devotionalism is not the sine qua non. I don't think one could designate Tagore's "Urvasie" devotional, but I am inclined to rank it among his finest rishi-creations. It is necessary to say, however, that the poet in one could be on many occasions a rishi but as a man one might ...
... list, he played the sitar remarkably well and had the charge of the Ashram Orchestra. 39 . Indira Devi. 40 . Roxy – a cinema-cum-Theatre Hall of Calcutta where Dilipda sang. Tagore used to bring his Santiniketan Dance Troupe to perform there, Uday Shankar’s first dance was staged there under Haren Ghosh, an impresario friend of Prithwi Singh and Dilipda. Page 268... Dilipda. 42 . Keshav Chandra Sen (1838-1884) joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1857 and launched a dynamic program of social reforms. He was given the title of ‘Acharya’ in 1862 by Devendranath Tagore. He went on to form the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in 1878. 43 . King Antigonus (382 BCE-301 BCE), son of Philip and founder of the Antigonid dynasty in 306 BCE. He died in the Battle of Ipsus ...
... prosperity.... I found it touching: "God bless You" ( Mother laughs ). I remember, long ago, right at the beginning (I think I had just moved into Sri Aurobindo's house), someone, I forget who (did Tagore have a sister?... 1 ), she was a tall and strong woman, rather awe-inspiring, who had come to spend a day in the Ashram, and she said to me, "Why don't you keep some rooms and rent them out to visitors... depths: it becomes disgusting, it all rises up.... Every day there come two or three things ... Anyway. × It was not Tagore's sister but a relative of his, Sarala Devi Choudhurani, a revolutionary whom Sri Aurobindo had known in Bengal. ...
... go through before it saw the light. Conceived in the Black and White Club, begotten, it is said, by Sir Andrew Fraser on the brain of Mr. Blair, the first attempt at delivery with Sjt. Pradyot Kumar Tagore as midwife ended in an abortion. Even the second time with an older and more experienced hand at work the pains of parturition were excessive. Not a single leader of the people or prominent political ...
... suppose in this province Tagore's verdict can be taken as final. 4 January 1932 It is a great mystery to me. Comparing Jyotirmayi's original turn, expressions, speed with her past work—what a miraculously rapid development! But, my dear sir, it often happens like that. I believe you were not here when Dilip's poetry blossomed; but it was quite as sudden. Remember Tagore's description of him as... from the electric shock it gave me. 11 September 1934 Prithwi Singh was telling me that cultivation of literature here hasn't much sense, since none will be able to get first class, or outclass Tagore. He must always remain the only brilliant star in literature. Others won't even get a chance to shine by his side, not to speak of outshining him. Only Dilip can be somehow given a second class privilege... about my philosophy to my great surprise. It is not a question of first class or second class. One has to produce one's best and develop—the "class" if class there must be will be decided by posterity. Tagore himself was once considered second class by any number of people and the nature of his poetry was fiercely questioned—until the Nobel prize and consequent fame ended their discussions. One has not ...
... attitude - is your comparison of Sri Aurobindo's 'The white-fire dragon bird of endless bliss. Drifting with burning wings above her days' with Tagore's 'morning sparrow'. I am totally un- Page 76 moved and unimpressed by Aurobindo's super-bird. Tagore's sparrow performs perfectly the symbolic function (see Coleridge's definition of the symbol which reveals the eternal 'in and through the... neither wanted nor needed super-flies, and neither I think did Tagore, nor Kalidasa, for the task of the poet is to see the eternal in the world as each day creates the marvels daily before our eyes. To the 'Man of Imagination' (Blake's phrase again) 'Nature is one continued vision of Fancy or Imagination.' It has been unsurpassable,' Tagore wrote. Not so to Sri Aurobindo, he always wanted something better... the eye of the peacock, 'our humble mother the dust' - all of which Tagore loved and valued, for these are the forms worn by the mysterious self of the Bhagavad Gita and other texts of course. I feel that if you were to show Sri Aurobindo a sparrow, he would say, 'That's nothing, I will show you a super-bird.' To which I, Tagore, William Blake, would reply, 'I don't need a super-bird, this is the ...
... vast has been won by Madhusudan, Bankim and Rabindranath in Bengali literature during the current period of English influence. The day Bankim produced his artistic beauty, 'Kapalkundala', and Madhusudan penned – In a battle face to face, When Birbahu,¹ the hero sovereign, Kissed the dust and departed to the land of Death – the day Rabindranath could declare – Not mother, not daughter... poetry reached that fourth stage or the highest status. Nevertheless, it may be asked if there has been the acme of literary creation that exceeds even the best creations of Madhusudan, Bankim and Rabindranath, I mean, the "truly classic literature" (littérature vraiment classique) of Sainte Beuve which will literally shine in letters of fire in the hearts of all men in all climes and times? Is there ...
... His modern paintings seem to be like that: for example the village minstrel. SRI AUROBINDO: They tried to be grotesque, didn't they? PURANI: Yes. Purani again showed some of Nandalal's and Tagore's paintings that have come out in Viswa Bharati. About Nandalal's painting of Arjuna represented as Purusha Sinha (Man-lion), Sri Aurobindo said, "All I can say is that it is queer. His goat is better ...
... Swami Vivekananda Speaker : Shri Sunil Kumar Paper III: Gandhian Values in Education Speaker : Professor Ramjee Singh Paper IV : Educational Philosophy of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Speaker : Professor Sisir Kumar Das Paper V : Educational Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo Speaker : Ms. Deepti Page 660 19 January, 2002 Session IV Theme:... at reconstruction and reform of rural, social, and political organization based on equality, empowerment of the weak and the oppressed, decentralization and brotherhood. -Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore established at Shantiniketan an experimental institution for a new aim and mode of education where the beauty and sublimity of Nature can serve as a living partner of teaching and learning and... are all varied. The concept of patriotism may be commonly sought but the concept of sense of pride of nationalism and of vasudhaiva kutumbakam may not be grasped or embraced by all its citizens. Tagore writes 'Life finds its truth and beauty not in any exaggeration of sameness but in harmony'. *Discipline, of course, is a sine-qua-non of a healthy and progressing society but obedience and submission ...
... and his wife decided to go to Pondicherry. But it was not openly mentioned. The plan was to go to Calcutta on a sort of belated honey-moon. After a short stay at the Grand Hotel and a meeting with Tagore, he and his wife visited the village of Sunamukhi where Pagal Harnath had been born and had died a few months earlier. They went back to Calcutta and from there started for Puri of the Jagannath... genius from India, to which it must belong, without making it a native of England, for English learned as a foreign language can never nourish the invisible roots of poetry. I feel this even about Tagore, and so did Yeats. I do not believe that we can - or if we could, that we have the right to - write poetry in a language other than our own." Ms. Raine's comment sparked off the discussion... memorable English poetry should fail to be produced." When Raine comments: "I have read no poetry by an Indian that does not seem to an English reader to be written by a foreigner. This I find even with Tagore, certainly with Sri Aurobindo, and also with most of your poems", Sethna refutes this criticism and finally counter-argues: "If you didn't see an Indian name under a poem, would you infallibly know ...
... and our departure from him. It is he and not the subject-matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning.¹ In India, the foundation of Shantiniketan by Rabindranath Tagore, dates back to 1901. The object of education is to give man the unity of truth. Formerly when life was simple all the different elements of of man were in complete ...
... what of the reverse cases—the many fine prose translations of poets so much better and more akin to the spirit of the original than any poetic version of them yet made? One need not go farther than Tagore's English version of his Gitanjali . If poetry can be translated so admirably (and therefore legitimately) into prose, why should not prose be translated legitimately (and admirably) into poetry? After ...
... only obstacles in their way which prevented them from throwing themselves into the current. But the rest of the audience were visibly moved by the passionate eloquence which flowed from the lips of Rabindranath. What matters it what resolutions may be passed or rejected? Swaraj is no longer a mere word, no longer an ideal distant and impossible; for the heart of Bengal has seized upon it, and the intellect ...
... free India would have been enough for me if offered as an unbroken whole. 7 July 1947 Page 368 × Rabindranath Tagore remarked to someone in 1931 that Sri Aurobindo told him in 1928 that he would "expand" after two years.—Ed. × ... Sadhana in Pondicherry (1910-1950) Letters on Himself and the Ashram Remarks on the Current State of the Sadhana (1931-1947) 1931 I am surprised at Tagore's remark 1 about the two years ; he must have greatly misunderstood or misheard me. I did tell him that I would expand only after making a perfect (inner) foundation here, but I gave no date. I ...
... What is your opinion in this matter? Sri Aurobindo : These are two things which must be kept apart. There are first those who want to work for political ____________________ ¹ Rabindranath Tagore Page 27 freedom and they fix that as their final goal. Secondly, there are those who want to organise the future life of the community in India. These two require different... some ideal of human perfection; for, after all, freedom is not the ultimate goal but a condition for the expression of the cultural Spirit of India. In Swami Shraddhananda, Pandit Madanmohan Malavia, Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi – to name Page 15 some leaders – we see the double aspect of the inspiration. Among all the visions of perfection of the human Spirit on earth, I found the synthetic ...
... usually pass it. Often well-known films have been rejected as they were out of tune with our life here. I remember the film based on Rabindranath's story, Hungry Stones. It came to the Ashram and was rejected because the film seemed to overstress Tagore's story with several overdramatic and frightening scenes which I felt would not be quite appropriate for the children of the Ashram. My... My rejection shocked and disheartened many here. Satyabrata's father Nolini Sen did not hesitate to express himself: "How could you reject Rabindranath's Hungry Stones, Pranab?" Then Satyabrata hired a theatre outside and arranged for the screening of the film there. The amusing part of it all was that after seeing the film Nolini Page 121 Sen came and told me: "No you were ...
... Approach And A Study APPENDIX III SAVITRI VOL. II "Then Spring, an ardent lover, leaped through leaves". — Book IV, Canto I. Compare: Tagore's song to the "Spring". "Hetâ sapane Shyam dekhâdile boneri kinâre". "To see her was a summons to adore, To be near her drew a high communion's force." —Book IV, Canto 2. Compare:... labour which are possible on die path". — Letters of Sri Aurobindo "Heaven's wiser love rejects the mortal's prayer" — Book VI, Canto 2. Page 387 Compare: Tagore's : "My desires are many and my cry is pitiful But ever didst thou save me by hard refusals" — Gitanjali. "Lingering some days upon the forest verge Like men who... bud of the mystical Name". Rose of God "Where leads the march, whither the pilgrimage? — Book X, Canto 4 Page 395 Compare : Tagore's Balaka: "Not here, not here—where elsewhere other where?" "Because thou knowest the wisdom that transcends Both veil of forms and the contempt of forms," — Book X, Canto 4 ...
... he say about "The Hound of Heaven" then? An ordinary dog? SATYENDRA: That is not interesting. SRI AUROBINDO: There is nothing about my life here. It is all about my poetry, also the poetry of Tagore, Das, Monomohan, etc. He also says "Love and Death" and "Baji Prabhou" are ballad poetry. (Laughter) People are funny. Somebody criticising "Love and Death" said it was all Keats, and Girija says ...
... first time". Now, unlike that anonymous baby visiting you, you are visiting me in your own identifiable shape. I am delighted to learn that you, standing at my door, hear me singing a famous song of Tagore's, whose gist is: "Whatever comes to me, O Lord, even if it be unpleasant, is a boon from Thee." This gist echoes in general what I have put in that credo of mine, the poem "Triumph is All". Let... For ever in my heart I hear A time-beat of eternal bliss. White Omnipresence! where is fear? The mouth of hell can be Thy kiss. Page 121 Yes, my poem answers to Tagore's memorable faith, but there is a further shade in it beyond the religious approach which reads God's Will even in unpleasant events. This further shade is a direct recognition of the Divine's open... me an adept in Tagorian Bengali. I suppose that in the subliminal realm we are acquainted with things which are outside our ken in normal life . By some sort of poetic empathy I must have entered Tagore's "plane" of consciousness, the Gandharva world of magical rhythms, and felt at home in his creative activity. In waking life my contact with Bangla bani is very limited. From hearing Nirod and some ...
... Chandana-di (Sanat-da's wife) who stayed on the first floor in Nanteuil, played the guitar very well and also had a small organ. I used to often go to their house and play the organ and sing songs of Rabindranath and Chandana-di would play whatever she had learnt on the guitar. Together we used to make short, simple compositions that were not so bad. Therefore, I requested Chandana-di to play some compositions ...
... timid and moderate and this was the first attempt of the kind by Indian students in England. In India itself Aurobindo's maternal grandfather Raj Narayan Bose formed once a secret society of which Tagore, then a very young man, became a member, and also set up an institution for national and revolutionary propaganda, but this finally came to nothing. Later on there was a revolutionary spirit in Maharashtra ...
... read Teachings of Sri Aurobindo . He was startled to discover that we have no creed, and he was very glad. (Sri Aurobindo began to laugh, much amused.) NIRODBARAN: Mitra says that Devendranath Tagore started Shantiniketan for a spiritual purpose, and he made rules, one of which was that idol-worship wouldn't be allowed there. SRI AUROBINDO: Then that is the place where there are creeds, not ...
... intervene since he considered the Prince as his son. It seems he has selected Nehru as the second candidate after Bhave. SRI AUROBINDO: Nehru is not scientific—an anticlimax! NIRODBARAN: No news of Tagore! SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he is getting better. Something strange about him: when you think he is getting better, he suddenly begins to die and when you think he is dying he gets better. (Laughter) ...
... for art-creation? Sri Aurobindo : We were speaking of the experience of beauty. But if you speak of art-creation then one can say that form is indispensable for that. Disciple : Tagore agrees here that form is indispensable for the creation of beauty in art. Sri Aurobindo : But even there the form which gives the experience of beauty is not something apart from the Spirit... Aurobindo : Yes, the training of the physical instrument is absolutely essential because without it the work of art cannot take the perfect body. Disciple : If we look at a man like Tagore , do you think that in a case like him also the physical instruments have to be trained, or can one say that the force which is working in such people creates its own instruments? Sri Aurobindo... instrument ready. Even then a lot of training is necessary. Even if the force created its own instrument the work would be uneven – very good at times but very bad at other times. Disciple : Tagore did a lot of work before he became established as a poet. . Sri Aurobindo : Shakespeare studied all the existing dramas before he wrote his own. One cannot play the violin without ...
... Aurobindo shows any organic adaptation to music and melody. His thought is profound, his technical devices are commendable but the music that enchants or disturbs is not there. Aurobindo is not another Tagore or Iqbal or even Sarojini Naidu." I confess the words fairly take my breath away. They deny inspiration altogether and in all its forms to Sri Aurobindo's poetry. For, evidently, music in poetry does... produce and therefore most clinchingly proves the inspired poet? Sri Aurobindo's being very strikingly successful in it gives the lie, with quintessential force, to the charge that he is less a poet than Tagore or Iqbal or even Sarojini Naidu. Page 161 ...
... Page 203 After a pause : the topic changed. Sri Aurobindo turned to 'X' and said : "So Subhas has met Nehru." Disciple : Yes, Nehru may act as a mediator and Tagore may be the peace-maker between the two parties. Sri Aurobindo : Subhas speaks of direct action after six months. But what sort of direct action? It seems, Gandhi will leave him to form his... much influence or capacity to make it successful, or an all India movement. Neither does he himself believe in non-violence. His own followers don't seem to know their own mind. Disciple : Tagore wants Subhas to compromise with Gandhi, for he knows that Gandhiji is an international figure. Sri Aurobindo : Not only that, his word counts; he has not lost the force yet. I think, if he ...
... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 5 Tagore VIGIL In the boundless heavens the Great Ascetic, Vast Time keeps vigil. He keeps vigil For a manifestation till now unconceived, unimagined, That none has yet known, That has revealed itself nowhere. In the air ...
... movement. It is the only epic in French. But as yet, I think, it has not been given its proper place. It does not deal with a story but with episodes. PURANI: It is a pity Tagore has not written an epic. SRI AUROBINDO: Tagore? He has not the epic mind. But he has written some very fine narrative poems. A few of William Morris' narratives are also very fine—his Sigurd ihe Volsung and Earthly Paradise ...
... death the real truth about the Ultimate Journey of man, about what happens beyond the portal of the physical dissolution of the body. And in our present time the great poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, being confronted with the sad fact of repeated deaths in his family, could not but be puzzled by the inscrutable mystery and raised similar questions in a more elaborate way: "Has he ...
... 1934 Nirodbaran's Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo April 1934 I send a poem. I wasn't happy about it ; it has too much of Rabindranath in it, I think. I fear your opinion of it is correct. Evidently you have the writing capacity, but it does not come to much—at least in poetry—unless you have something to write of your own. For that you must wake ...
... but because I am not ready. If the unripe goes amid the unripe what can he do? ² Your Sejdada ³ . ¹ “The Fossilised House" or "The Home of Conservatism" - name of a play by Rabindranath Tagore. ² A Letter of Sri Aurobindo, Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education , Vol. XIV, No. 3 (August 1962), pp. ii-xxii (slightly edited). ³ Elder brother Page... "In 1909 I got a yogic fancy for taking only rice, ghee and plantains which I carried out though desire for meat was there in the vital being." Talk about the paintings of Abanindranath and Rabindranath Tagore. 7 April. Talk on Indian political constitutions and institutions. 14 April. Sri Aurobindo spoke about one of his own experiences: "When I got first the Cosmic Consciousness – I call it... in its place. One has to offer his free self to the Divine; afterwards the Divine will chose the action in you." 7 March. Talk on Hindu-Muslim unity and Khilafat. Discussion about the poetry of Tagore and of Harin Chattopadhyaya and about a letter of Mahatma Gandhi to Mahomed Ali. 8 March. A letter from Kesarlal Dixit about coming to the Ashram; another from Rajani Kanta Palit about the illness ...
... very powerful!" And he always spoke of Napoleon. He used to say, "Napoleon, you see..." ( Mother shows that Napoleon had a big stomach. ) And he had a visit from Tagore when Tagore was in Japan and he told me, "Have you observed how Tagore stands quite upright, like this, with his head erect?" Then I told him, "But he doesn't have a big stomach!" He said to me, "It will come." ( Laughter ). There ...
... October 10, 1933 I am feeling as well as well can be. I enclose herewith Tagore's translation of Harm's poem with his letter. You will note his apology: Tagore had rendered Shelley's "I cannot give thee what men call love" which was very mediocre. This poem I think you will find good, but surely Tagore's powers are on the wane/ don't you think. His contention that he could not keep any rhymes... translation of an unwilling Tagore who reasonably fears that qua translation Buddhadev's rendering will be adjudged as superior. 1 will send you tomorrow his translation of Shelley. But I don't mean, mind you, that this translation is as indifferent as the former: only I had expected a better achievement at the hands of Tagore. But please send me back this letter of mine with Tagore's translation I will show... I am glad to see that your metrical gambols with Tagore (pulling his solemn throne of reputation as a prosodist from under him) has not come in the way of his expressing his appreciation of your poetry. I have only had just time to read the first stanza of your poem but I see it is in your finest manner. April 1933 ? Tagore's Man about to leave Heaven for Earth (in Ta gore's ...
... I did what I could in my own way. I had not seen dancing of any kind anywhere except on the Bengali stage. Still, I felt a magnetic pull towards it. I started preparing a dance tuned to Rabindranath Tagore’s song, “Along with the rhythm of the dancing”. The Mother saw it in the Meditation Hall upstairs. This was the first time she saw my performance. It was in 1931. After it, she drew up a plan... Bernard Shaw, Wells etc. Tagore thinks by vision, imagination, feeling and intuition, not by the reason — at least that is true of his writings. C. R. Das himself would not be an intellectual — in politics, literature and everything else he was an ‘intuitive’ and ‘emotive’ man. But, as I say, these would be distinctions not ordinarily current. In ordinary parlance Tagore, Das, and everybody of the... the third door on the right side. That door would remain closed and just behind it, from the adjacent room, Sri Aurobindo would hear our song. I had sung in many big gatherings, had danced before Rabindranath on the stage without ever knowing what nervousness was. I first started singing D. L. Roy’s “Shall I worship you in the form of an idol?” — Dilip was playing on the harmonium. I found that my voice ...
... as the Saxon phrase goes, only God's acre out of which will grow the real, vigorous, popular organisation. 49 After the Pabna session of the Bengal Provincial Conference, held under Rabindranath Tagore's presidentship, there was a gleam of joy that the two parties could come together again on a common platform and pass agreed resolutions. Page 272 Bengal had given the lead in... were jealous as of old, and at last there was the split at Surat" - "a monstrous and unnatural division... a quarrel among comrades-in-arms"!50 But once again Pabna had given the lead to India, Rabindranath and Surendranath had helped the cause of unity, and it was as though the "martyrs of Nationalism" had not suffered in vain. Would India now follow the lead given by Bengal at Pabna? The Surat ...
... another which makes a man eminent among his fellows. That kind of greatness [ scientific, literary, political ] has nothing to do with the psychic. It consists in a special mental capacity (Raman, Tagore) or in a great vital force which enables them to lead men and dominate them. These faculties are often but not always accompanied by something in the personality Daivic or Asuric which supports their ...
... stars, flawless touch, flame and fragrance, etc. Page 216 Throughout his life Tagore tried to feel and express the Divine in terms of an aesthetics which is not purely based on Indian tradition. In trying to find a purer aesthetics, Tagore sometimes depends too largely on the western romantics like Shelley and Keats, and he seems to have been neglecting... situation and coloured by an individual consciousness. Rhetoric for Sethna is a way of "beyonding". One has the impression that the poet is involved in a process of purification, and unlike Tagore and Whitman Sethna is singularly free from the sexual connotations in his quest for the beyond. There is a conscious effort at discovering a purer aesthetics based on Mother-cult. The poet ...
... Harin's poetry, but if everybody who has that is to be accounted a reincarnation of Shelley, we get into chaotic waters. In that case, Tagore must be a reincarnation of Shelley, and Harin, logically, must be a reincarnation of Tagore — who couldn't wait till Tagore walked off to Paradise or Shelley must have divided himself between the couple. It may be that after- wards I leaned at a time towards ...
... movement some one asked Abanindranath Tagore, why he was not giving up his painting for the sake of the country and take to politics. He said : I believe, I serve the country through my painting in which I have some capacity, that, at Page 134 least, is something I know; whereas I would be only a bad politician. Disciple : Tagore narrowly escaped the Charkha. But it seems ...
... marriage Sethna decided to go to Pondicherry. But it was not openly mentioned. The plan was to go to Calcutta on a sort of belated honeymoon. After a short stay at the Grand Hotel and a meeting with Tagore, he and his wife visited the village of Sunamukhi where Pagal Harnath had been born and had died a few months earlier. They went back to Calcutta and from there started for Puri of the Jagannath... genius from India, to which it must belong, without making it a native of England, for English learned as a foreign language can never nourish the invisible roots of poetry. I feel this even about Tagore, and so did Yeats. I do not believe that we can - or if we could, that we have the right to - write poetry in a language other than our own." Page 359 Ms Raine's comment... memorable English poetry should fail to be produced." Raine comments: "I have read no poetry by an Indian that does not seem to an English reader to be written by a foreigner. This I find even with Tagore, certainly with Sri Aurobindo, and also with most of your poems." Sethna refutes this criticism and finally counter-argues: "If you didn't see an Indian name under a poem would you infallibly ...
... time. If you say that such expressions should not be used, that is different. But how are they vulgar? Since when has Bengal become so puritan? It seems to be a Brahmo Samaj influence. NIRODBARAN: Tagore never uses such words. In Sanskrit they are used extensively. SRI AUROBINDO: Has Bhattacharya been to Shantiniketan? NIRODBARAN: But he is a Sanskrit scholar. Why then does he object? Some people ...
... alien. But an exception was made in her case, and she was allowed to continue her work. During the war years, she gave courses in various parts of India and met many leaders of India, including Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru. After the war, she went back to Europe. In 1949 she attended the International Montessori Congress at San Remo, the eighth congress of its kind since 1925. In the ...
... Bernard Shaw, Wells etc. Tagore thinks by vision, imagination, feeling or by intuition, not by the reason—at least that is true of his writings. C. R. Das himself would not be an intellectual; in politics, literature and everything else he was an "intuitive" and "emotive" man. But, as I say, these would be distinctions not ordinarily current. In ordinary parlance Tagore, Das and everybody else of ...
... When the French heard of Wilde's imprisonment, they said about the English people: "Comme ils sont bêtes!" ("How stupid they are!") At the time of the Gandhi movement, someone asked Abanindranath Tagore to give up painting and take to politics. He answered, "I am serving the country through my art. Painting is at least something I know well, but I would be a very bad politician. Now Purani brought... seriously. SRI AUROBINDO: How do you expect anyone to take it seriously? If I were asked to spin, I would offer passive resistance myself—complete Satyagraha. (Laughter) I wonder what Abanindra Tagore and D would have done. NIRODBARAN: It seems Nandalal Bose did spinning. SRI AUROBINDO: Isn't he a man of an ascetic temperament? There was somebody who even wrote that the Chakra referred to ...
... PURANI: Viswanath brought a proposal from Arthur Moore. Moore said to him, "Why don't you bring out a Sri Aurobindo memorial Volume on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, just as they have done for Tagore and Gandhi?" Viswanath replied, "It needs plenty of money." To this, Moore said, "All right, I will offer Rs. 500." (Sri Aurobindo kept silent.) Various people will be asked to contribute. Perhaps... SRI AUROBINDO: Isn't Memorial meant for those who have gone away? Does Moore want me also to go away? (Laughter) PURANI: Well, we'll call it then an Anniversary Volume. NIRODBARAN: For Tagore it is all right, because he is on the point of going away. SRI AUROBINDO: He has been going away for the last twenty years. It is like in the theatres: "Today: Last Night Performance." NIRODBARAN: ...
... Proposed Work". The Age of Kalidasa. Circa 1898-1902. See Chapter II of "A Proposed Work". This piece was published in The Indian Review of Madras in July 1902, and reprinted as a booklet by Tagore & Co., Madras, around 1921. Sri Aurobindo revised the text and republished it along with Kalidasa's Seasons in a booklet entitled Kalidasa in 1929. The Historical Method. Circa 1900-1903... Proposed Work". Sri Aurobindo published this essay in his weekly journal, the Karmayogin , in three instalments in July and August 1909. It was reprinted as a booklet entitled Kalidasa's Seasons by Tagore & Co., Madras, around 1921. The text was revised by Sri Aurobindo and published along with "The Age of Kalidasa" in Kalidasa in 1929. Hindu Drama. Circa 1901-3; manuscript revised, probably... the journal in his absence. The eighth chapter was published in the journal's last issue. Other chapters, if they were written, have been lost. The eight essays were published as a booklet in 1921 by Tagore & Co., Madras. This apparently was a pirated edition; in 1924 the "only authorised edition" was published by the Arya Publishing House, Calcutta. In this edition, Sri Aurobindo added the subtitle "Some ...
... proves that it is capable of being useful today. The most striking example however, so far as the field of painting is concerned, is that of the great Bengali artist, Abanindranath Tagore. In his autobiography A. Tagore has described how he used to see a flood of forms, all colourful, around him when he was trying to paint the ''Krishna-Charit" series. It seemed as if the brush was slower than the... expression. The other experience came to him after the death of his mother. When his mother died A. Tagore felt deeply sore because he had not drawn his mother's portrait. He sat quietly and tried to recall in memory his mother's form. All unexpectedly it appeared before his inner vision and A. Tagore was excited and became nervous and tried to draw the portrait in a hurry. Suddenly the vision disappeared... European, are given it is not suggested that there should be in the world of art a return to the past whether of Europe or of India. This is not desirable, neither is it possible. In the words of A. Tagore "such an effort would be a forced marriage— (Rāksasa Vivāha) Page 62 between the present and the past"..."As a carriage cannot move backwards so cannot life" Bagishwari Lectures) ...
... justice to the event. March 23, 1934 I have just received a letter from Biren Roy Chowdhuri13 who had a talk with Tagore in which he told him a good many things about you and his conception of you. Briefly it is this, Biren writes, "Rabindranath has a strand of atheism in his composition: he admits the nirākār brahma [formless Brahman] on the one hand and this material world of... atrophied by his protracted seclusion in his meditative cage'—to quote Tagore—so that they have no longer the faith they once Page 41 had that Sri Aurobindo was going to inaugurate a new era of creation in this world of fact." Just think of Tagore saying this in his similesque way! I feel Tagore has come to this conclusion after reading your "Riddle of this World"... as he too is hurt that Tagore should be so limited. Page 127 But if three people write, will not the style of the poem be a little disparate? Apropos I threaten you with a long letter after the 15th doubting your line, "Tagore is on the same path as ours " I think that this doubt at least will be healthy as Prithwi Singh also was telling me that Tagore is aesthetic and not ...
... AUROBINDO: Good Lord! I didn't know that I had put all that philosophy into the poem. Jyotin has built a big superstructure on a small poem. SATYENDRA: That is the commentator's job. PURANI: Tagore also says that critics give meanings to his poems which he never intended. He tells them, "They are simply poems. Why don't you take them like that?" SRI AUROBINDO: What I have described is a condition ...
... thumb seem to indicate the individuality of persons and no two patterns are alike. I showed my hand twice or thrice but the readings about the future didn't come true. NIRODBARAN (after a lull) : Tagore will present a copy of his entire works to the Ashram. Sisir Mitra told him that since he gets a copy of every new book of yours, he should also present us with his own books. SRI AUROBINDO: Does ...
... to the ashram? First, which part of India do you come from? We come from Bengal. And when we were young, my father took us to Rabindranath, at Shantiniketan. That's where we were raised, in nature. Satprem: Rabindranath Tagore. Sujata: Rabindranath Tagore, yes! (Laughter) And then my mother passed away. My father loved her, truly loved her – and nothing held him anymore. So he left... (Laughing) Yes. Towarnicki: That's what I wanted you to explain. In fact, how did you come across that story? Well, one day I was reading our Bengali poet, whom you all know, Rabindranath [Tagore]. And he said (I don't remember to whom) that he had met many women in his life, and he had found that there were two types of women: the vine-women and the root-women. The vine-women are ...
... external doubt in man which is the penalty of his native ignorance...." 76 (4)In 1931, when the Golden Book of Tagore was being compiled, the great savant Pramatha Choudhuri wrote to DK urgent letters to induce Sri Aurobindo to contribute something. For he averred: "Tagore's Golden Book will be incomplete without Sri Aurobindo's tribute. Even a message of two lines or a couplet coming from him... But Sri Aurobindo's Grace was not like Caesar's, amenable to flattery. He wrote back: "I take Pramatha Choudhuri's remark - that Tagore's Golden Book will be incomplete without my contribution - as a complimentary hyperbole. The Golden Book will be as golden and Tagore's work and fame as solid without any lucubration from me to gild the one or buttress the other." 77 (5)DK: O Guru, I could not... down on us, males! She says man is such a foul seducer and poor woman (poor? a modern woman? good Lord?) such a guileless, simple and trustful tendril! I retaliated in banter and reminded her what Tagore had sighed over in the 'twenties: "We are a much maligned sex, Dilip! The fair one would have it that we pursue and harry her. But between you and me, do you think that the most leonine of lions could ...
... the poet Tagore, the educationists James H. Cousins and C.R. Reddy, his former pupil K.M. Munshi, and several others met Sri Aurobindo at Pondicherry and had fruitful discussions with him. After his interview, James H. Cousins noted: "I retain a flavour of gentleness and wisdom, breadth of thought and extent of experience that marked him out as one among millions." 32 Tagore's impressions... of History. 21 Sri Aurobindo continued to be a controversial figure even when he was in prison and when he came out a year later, he was hailed as a prophet, as a leader of humanity. What Tagore says about the prophet and his true role now applied to Sri Aurobindo: Then comes the great prophet; and in his life and mind the hidden fire of truth suddenly burns out into flame. The ...
... when he writes lyrics he is superb NIRODBARAN: Have you seen Iqbal's poems? Some hold he greater than Tagore. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know what his poems are like Persian or Urdu. But the translations give me the impression that they haven't got as great and original a substance as Tagore's poetry. PURANI: Do present conditions permit the writing of an epic It is said that epic subjects may ...
... 385 –Viziers of Bassora 385 Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, 32n Srotas, 330 St. Augustine, 290, 338 Stone Age, 155 SunahsheIta, 318 Surra, 221, 327 TAGORE,97 Tantras, the, 182-3, 326 Tertullian, 290n – De Carne Christi, 290n Troy, 399 UNITED STATES, THE, 362 Upanishads, the, 188, 221, 246, 272-3, 27.5, 284, 297, 310-11, 320, 334 ...
... meditations and then the critical faculty also arose in me. What I mean is that I did not know intellectually about painting but I caught the Spirit of it. 31-3-1926 (An album of Abanindranath Tagore came and was shown to Sri Aurobindo .) Sri Aurobindo : Are these pictures of Abanindranath his latest ones? They have given me a peculiar impression. Disciple : They are his paintings... style. I mean his Krishna Lila paintings. Sri Aurobindo : All arts in general and poetry and painting in particular belong to the vital plane. Disciple : Does not poetry – like, that of Tagore – come from the mental plane? Sri Aurobindo : No. It does not come from the mental plane; at best it is from the vital mind – or vital mental – that it comes. Page 218 ... lost much. It .is surprising low this ugliness is spreading everywhere. Is the art of Bengal also like this? Disciple : Perhaps the art in Bengal is not so bad as the poetry – except that of Tagore. Sri Aurobindo : Bad in what way? Disciple : They are trying to be Eliotian (imitators of T S Eliot). Page 222 Good poetry is not being read. X's book came out and ...
... said Poet Tagore, "and power of imagination Manmohan could take his pupils to the inner soul of poetry and make them enjoy its beauty." It was indeed a different Professor Ghose at his desk from the one often seen going up and down the stairs of the College hat in hand, eyes downcast, and wearing an absorbed, unsmiling, and pensive look. No, he did not invite familiarity. Lamented Tagore, "The gift ...
... eternal or is striving after and approaching these things. Spiritual perfection can only come by a life based on that search and that achievement. 1 The Collapse of Twentieth-Century Idealism Tagore, of course, belonged to an age which had faith in its Page 417 ideas and whose very denials were creative affirmations. That makes an immense difference. Your strictures on his later d ...
... height which Petrarch hasn't. SRI AUROBINDO: Petrarch is a great poet all the same. There are people who hold that Petrarch has a greater perfection of form than Dante. NIRODBARAN: But say if Tagore had written only "Urvasi" and nothing else, could he have been called a great poet? SRI AUROBINDO: Urvasi is not such a great poem that it could take its place in world literature. NIRODBARAN: ...
... Painters must create from the soul-centre. I may be permitted to point out that there are at least three "Indian modelers" in the field of painting The late Abanindra Nath Tagore, Sj. Nandalal Bose and Late Goganendranath Tagore. It is a wrong belief that Nandalal belongs to the socalled "Shantiniketan school" or to "the Indian national school" of painting, Abanindra Nath and Nandlal do not represent ...
... Manomohan Ghose not only gave his explanations and comments, he also helped us in appreciating poetry. He taught us The Princess. This was his comment on the book. "You know what this work is like? If Tagore had cared to write a poem on female emancipation, it would have been something like this book of Tennyson's. But even in this arid expanse there are some oases, as for instance these charming lines:... in my school days; it happened in college, and to a large extent thanks to Professor Manomohan Ghose. In our school days, the mind and heart of Bengali students were saturated with the poetry of Tagore: In the bower of my youth the love-bird sings, Wake up, O darling, wake; Opening thy lids that are lazy with love, Wake up, O darling, wake... Page 438 This poetry... novelist Prabhat Mukherji through one of his characters, a sadhu, describing the charms of the Divine Name: It has the sweetness and the sugar Of sandesh and rasogulla. Indeed Tagore's poetry drips liquid sugar. To young hearts enraptured by such language and feeling, Wordsworth's Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray: And when I crossed the wild, I chanced to see at break of ...
... reproducing Yugantar articles in the Bande Mataram. The charge failed as Bepinchandra Pal refused to give evidence, for which Pal had to undergo six months' imprisonment. Poet Tagore's celebrated homage to Sri Aurobindo. His call on Sri Aurobindo. About the middle of December Sri Aurobindo attended the Midnapur District Conference as leader of the Nationalist... made for her coming to Pondicherry. 1919 Published a letter in Annie Besant's New India on Morley-Minto Reforms, signing as. 'Indian Nationalist'. Poet Tagore with his Secretary Wrote Pearson met Mother in Japan and offered her entire charge of Santiniketan. Mother's smiling 'No'. 1920 January 5: Wrote to Joseph Baptista why he could... Ashram to Mother. The Ashram, as such, began to take shape under Mother's guidance. 1928 February 16 : Sri Aurobindo made an exception in the case of Poet Tagore and broke out of his seclusion to meet the Poet as desired by the latter. The Poet arrived at Pondicherry by boat. The historic record of impressions. Publication ...
... later Indian writings, in the Tantras and the Puranas, as also in the figures of the Vaishnava poet. It is also notable that a certain element of this tradition appears even in the modern poetry of Tagore. Just as the Vaishnava poetry of Bengal uses images and figures which to the devout mind communicate the love of he human soul for God, even though to the profane they may appear to be nothing but... poetry. He has also suggested that, that, considering the past evolution of English poetry and considering the trends that are visible in greater poets like Whitman, Meredith, Carpenter, A.E. and Tagore, that language, too, may turn to the discovery of mantric poetry and even the expression of that poetry through the vehicle of the English language. It is also remarkable that Sri Aurobindo himself ...
... and go into hiding. I have said that there were three permanent residents in that house. Of these three, Suresh Chakravarti, at Ganen Maharaj's instance, disappeared among the Tagore family, in the house of Gaganendranath Tagore. Bejoy removed to a friend's in Calcutta itself. And I decided to leave for an obscure little village in distant Barisal; there I put up with a friend of mine, Satish Chandra ...
... grotesqueness of line and conception. We have not left ourselves the space to do justice to the really great art represented in the book, the wonderful suggestions of the landscape in Sj. Abanindranath Tagore's "Slaying of the Enchanted Deer", the decorative beauty of the "Last Days of Dasarath", and the epic grandeur and grace and strange romantic mystery of "Mahadev receiving the Descent of the Ganges" ...
... vital-physical sensation of the object. You will perhaps understand what I mean if you read ____________________ 1. Rabindranath Tagore's homage to Sri Aurobindo when the latter was arrested for the first time in the Bande Mataram sedition case in 1907. In this poem, Rabindranath saluted Sri Aurobindo as "the voice incarnate, free, of India's soul." Page 249 the poem quoted on pages... article on Tagore as a poet of suffering—though that is not perhaps the whole of Tagore. But the poet is sensitive to criticism and he took Anilbaran's stricture on this part of his poetry rather ill, a controversy threatened that was likely to be a little acrimonious—especially as I think he was hurt by the criticism coming from here. That is why I asked Anilbaran not to reply to Tagore's retort—thinking... poetry. You give as examples of uchchv ā s Page 248 among other things Madhusudan's style, Tagore's poem to me, 1 a passage from Govindadas. I don't think there is any thing in Madhusudhan which an English poet writing in Bengali would have hesitated to father. Tagore's poem is written at a high-pitch of feeling perfectly intelligible to anyone who had passed through the exaltation ...
... of years. Basing himself on his close observation and personal experience, he makes an illuminating contrast between the styles of Tagore and Sri Aurobindo and remarks apropos: "Tagore was a conversationalist par excellence. Those who have heard or talked to Tagore, recall their experience as 'great'. When we read his talks, we can well imagine how brilliant he must have been with his rich similes... mentality cannot possibly recognise it as such? ' "To that he wrote back: 'But Lady Emphatic is right. For I Page 8 did indeed smile to you though it was not the broad smile of a Tagore or the childlike smile of a Gandhi. But I assure you I will try to be more convincing in future.' " 16 So this is Sri Aurobindo who has to make special effort to make his supposed smile look ...
... It's like that famous Nirvana—you can find it behind everything. There's a psychic nirvana, a mental nirvana, even a vital nirvana. I think I already told you about the experience I had with Tagore in Japan. Tagore always used to say that as soon as he started meditating he entered Nirvana, and he asked me to meditate with him. We sat together in meditation. I was expecting to make a very steep ascent ...
... theosophist and a mystic, he lectured at several places, particularly introducing Savitri to general audiences. RAMESHWAR GUPTA: Professor of English, he studied Sri Aurobindo and Tagore and has publications both in English and in Hindi. Savitri in World Literature (pages 467-83) has been taken from Eternity in Words: Sri Aurobindo s Savitri. A. N. Dw1VEDI: ...
... missionary than the Jam Sahib, with his smile and his bat. 'Great Indians come to us frequently, men of high scholar ship, rare powers of speech, noble character — the Gokhales, the Bannerjees, the Tagores. They come and they go, unseen and unheard by the mass of the people. The Jam Sahib has brought the East into the heart of our happy holiday crowds, and has taught them to think of it as something ...
... favour, as happens with some people. Bharatidi was a cultured French lady, a well- known Indologist, more especially the Mother’s close associate in early days. Her sister was an intimate friend of Tagore’s. Our rupture took place over a minor difference of opinion. I realised later on that I had made a faux pas. I should have submitted to her, since she was superior to me in many respects and particularly ...
... 89n. –Savitri, 8n., 26-3In., 36-37n. –The Life Divine, 36, 37n. –The Mother, 103 Sukta, 271 Supervielle, 46 –Alter Ego, 46 TAGORE, 70, 162-5, 309 Taj, 190 Taraka, 281 UPANISHADS, THE 18, 50, 52, 76, 152, 190, 256, 287 VAITARANI, 103 Varuna, 132, 138-40, 144 ...
... there had been a previous arrangement they could have gone to their help in time. NIRODBARAN: The Assistant Secretary of Viswa Bharati has written to Sisir that the Committee has decided to present Tagore's works to the Ashram. SRI AUROBINDO: What is his name? NIRODBARAN: Kishori Mohan Santara. SRI AUROBINDO: Santara? Where is he swimming? 1 NIRODBARAN: In his atheism. He is a staunch ...
... Circular came into effect banning any participation in politics by students and teachers; in 1909 he founded the Barisal Seva Samiti. Some visitors did not figure in that police report. Rabin-dranath Tagore, a family friend, would drop in now and then. We also know that Ramsay MacDonald and his wife visited 6 College Square. Then there were the students. How they adored Sejdal With reason, of course ...
... Professor Indra Sen, who has come for the Philosophical Conference at Madras, says that nowadays anybody who has written on any subject, economics, social reform, is being called a philosopher. Gandhi and Tagore are being called philosophers. SRI AUROBINDO: Karl Marx is also a philosopher and all the communists too. PURANI: Yes. Indra Sen is asking if by the supramental descent the whole of humanity ...
... rhythms maintains the universe,—each rhythm corresponding to a plane of being. The delight which is the basis of all creation throws itself out in the form of this grand universal symphony. Tagore in his Sādhanā writes: "Music is the highest of the arts because the singer has everything he requires within him. His idea and his expression are brother and sister; very often they are born as ...
... Nehru put into Shaw's hands are known by botanists to have had at least five thousand years of ancestors behind them, in the land of Arjuna and Tilak, Kapila and jagadish Chunder Bose, Vyasa and Tagore, Sri Krishna and Sri 'Aurobindo. Page 88 Further, the mango is fraught with the flavour and bouquet of the typical Indian genius. This genius combines in its unity a large diversity ...
... are Page 41 rather affected, maniéré. There is no simple spontaneity— too much attempt to be something or show something that is put on. Probably she has tried too much to put on Tagore-colour to be herself. However I will look at her poems when I have leisure—it may not be very soon—and see what they are like. April 16,1930 The message on faithfulness... December 8, 1930 It is again a beautiful poem that you have written, but not better than the other. Why erect mental theories and suit your poetry to them whether your father's or Tagore's? I could suggest to you not to be bound by either but to write as best suits your own inspiration and poetic genius. I imagine that each of them wrote in the way suited to his own inspiration and... the habit of the human mind, put that way forward as a general rule for all. You have developed an original poetic turn of your own, quite unlike your father's and not by any means a reflection of Tagore's. Besides, there is now as a result of your sadhana a new quality in your work, a power of expressing with great felicity a subtle psychic delicacy and depth of thought and emotion which I have not ...
... Urdu and Persian by a dynamic colourful passion of religious thought, the other in Bengali by a deep and exquisitely imaged devotionalism, and both by an intonation inspired and measured: Iqbal and Tagore. But there is a third that is coming more and more to the front—the sole Indian poet whom, as Francis Watson reported in a radio talk from England in 1951, Yeats had singled out as writing creatively ...
... December 1, 1922. The letters are included at the end of this conversation. × Even in 1928, when Tagore came to Pondicherry to visit Sri Aurobindo, he repeated his intention to go out of Pondicherry and launch an external action. But probably on the way, Sri Aurobindo realized... just what Mother was ...
... simply love artists like Tagore atheists like Russell or Sarat Chatterjee, because they depict beautiful things and stand up for noble values. But if and when they do that, they are standing up for the Divine values without knowing it. Do you see my point?" "I do, Mother," I answered. "Only, I am afraid, it leaves the central problem no nearer solution. For if, say, our Tagores and Russells and Sarat... course of their seekings and proddings. Is it not so?" "Quite", she answered. "But that is just where Yoga comes in. For Yoga is, in effect, a high-pitched endeavour to catch and retain what the Tagores and Russells and Sarat Chatterjees may at best glimpse fugitively but can not hold, far less possess. I have often said that the Divine visits us in the midst of our self-regarding petty pursuits and... spontaneously shows that the Divine is more in you than in many another who cannot love or feel for others. The very fact that you are stirred so much by the loftiest sentiments whether of poets like Tagore or atheists like Russell or great Yogis like Sri Ramakrishna shows that the Divine values move you to your depths, no matter who advocates them. Never mind what the atheists or the artists say when ...
... Education, Ministry of HRD Speakers (15 minutes each) : Professor S.K. Das, Former Tagore Professor of Bengali Language and Literature, University of Delhi, on "Educational Philosophy of Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore" Professor (Ms.) Deepti , Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational ... 19, Gurudwara Rakab Ganj New Delhi -110001 39.Cedric M. Kenny C/o Promilla Modi 5, Eastern Avenue Maharani Bagh, New Delhi -110065 40.Choudhury, I.N. 183, Tagore Park, Delhi -110009 41.Das, Sisir Kumar B-II-101 Paradise Apartments 40, LP. Extn., Delhi 110092 42.Datta, P. Principal, Kulachi Hansraj Model School Ashok Vihar, Delhi... SatyaMarg Chanakyapuri New Delhi- 110021 209.Verma, Anita Reader, Sri Venkateswara College University of Delhi (South Campus) New Delhi 210.Vij, D.R. 36, Tagore Park Jalandhar 144008 211.Vohra, Gautam 75 Paschimi Marg Vasant Vihar New Delhi - 110057 Page 747 212.Walters, Madhuri Tutor, Jamia ...
... common enough, viz., to express the spirit in terms and rhythms of the flesh. Tagore did that liberally, the Vaishnava poets did nothing but that, the Song of Solomon is an exquisite example of that procedure. There is here, however, a difference in degrees which is an interesting feature worth noting. Thus in Tagore the reference to the spirit is evident, that is the major or central chord; the... Mystic Poetry I WOULD like to make a distinction between mystic poetry and spiritual poetry. To equate mysticism and spirituality is not always happy or even correct. Thus, when Tagore sings: Who comes along singing and steering his boat? It seems a face familiar. He goes in full sail, turns nor right nor left; The waves break helplessly at the sides ...
... is common enough, viz., to express the spirit in terms and rhythms of the flesh. Tagore did that liberally, the Vaishnava poets did nothing but that, the Song of Solomon is an exquisite example of that procedure. There is here, however, a difference in degrees which is an interesting feature worth noting. Thus in Tagore the reference to the spirit is evident, that is the major or central chord; the... Mystic Poetry I WOULD like to make a distinction between mystic poetry and spiritual poetry. To equate mysticism and spirituality is not always happy or even correct. Thus, when Tagore sings: Who comes along singing and steering his boat? It seems a face familiar. He goes in full sail, turns nor right nor left; The waves break helplessly at the sides! ...
... mightier arc of interpretation and realisation, it would be the crowning of one and the opening of a new and greater cycle. The poets of yesterday and today, Whitman, Carpenter, the Irish poets, Tagore, but also others in their degree are forerunners of this new spirit and way of seeing, prophets sometimes, but at others only illumined by occasional hints or by side rays of a light which has not... sweetest way— hampered by the austerity of its wisdom or the excess of its sense and passion. But if it is rarely that this sweetest way is found—yet do we not get near to it sometimes in Yeats and Tagore?—at least this new turn of the poetic voice is characteristically an endeavour to see and to say our inmost in the inmost way. The natural turn of poetry, that which gives to it its soul of superiority ...
... chance. Tagore's Gitanjali is not in verse, but the place it has taken has some significance. For the obstacles from the other side are that the English mind is apt to look on poetry by an Indian as a curiosity, something exotic (whether it really is or not, the suggestion will be there), and to stress the distance at which the English temperament stands from the Indian temperament. But Tagore's Gitanjali ...
... fine aristocratic face, and another the 'Inune' who came from Australia and Polynesia. It was the tall people with classical features that gave Samurai Culture to Japan. I met a Japanese painter at Tagore's place – he was of the first type – what magnificent features! The other is the usual Mongolian type. Disciple : The dictator's psychology is an authority complex. People under the dictator... fine aristocratic face, and another the 'Inune' who came from Australia and Polynesia. It was the tall people with classical features that gave Samurai Culture to Japan. I met a Japanese painter at Tagore's place – he was of the first type – what magnificent features! The other is the usual Mongolian type. Disciple : The dictator's psychology is an authority complex. People under the dictator ...
... in my school days, it happened in college, and to a large extent thanks to Professor Manmohan Ghose. In our school days, the mind and heart of Bengali students were saturated with the poetry of Tagore: In the bower of my youth the love-bird sings, Wake up, O darling, wake; Opening thy lids lazy with love, Wake up, O darling, wake... This poetry belongs to the ...
... before starting the recording and worked either with students or with Ashram artistes. Let me give you an example of one such programme: Theme: Rabindra-sangeet; Voices: Manoj Dasgupta, Arup Tagore, Malay Bhattacharya, Smriti Ghosh, Sujata Mahatma, Shobha Mitra. Accompaniment: Romen Palit - sitar, Debi- prasad - sarod, Tublu - flute, Ramesh Rawal - tabla. Date and time of broadcast - 8.5.1970 ...
... defence of my unlovable marbleness—which is also unintentional, for I feel nothing like marble within me. But obviously I can lay no claims to the expansive charm and grace and lovability of a Gandhi or Tagore. For one thing I have never been able to establish a cheerful Page 49 hail-fellow contact with the multitude, even when I was a public leader; I have been always reserved and silent except... unsatisfactory or invisible to you—but I suppose it becomes naturally a smile of the silence rather than a radiant substitute for cordial and bubbling laughter. Que voulez-vous ? I am not Gandhi or Tagore. All that I really wanted to say was that the inwardness and silence which you feel at the time of Darshan and dislike is not anything grim, stern, ferocious (Nrisinha) or even marble. It is absurd ...
... audience was small and went little beyond the class that followed him into battle, the geniuses, the literary men, the women, the cultured zamindars and those men of the stamp of Rajah Jyotindra Mohan Tagore, men of an extraordinary and original culture, who were then so common in Bengal, but are now almost obsolete. The great poet died with a limited audience and before the full consummation of his fame ...
... to the awakening and stimulating influence of Bankim on the national mind. Young Bengal gets its ideas, feelings and culture not from schools and colleges, but from Bankim's novels and Robindranath Tagore's poems; so true is it that language is the life of a nation. Many are carrying on the great work in prose and poetry: Hemchandra, Nobin, Kamini Sen, Robindranath and Robindranath's sister, that ...
... down through the Vaishnava art and poetry, found its most gracious and lucid embodiment in the poets of Bengal, has now taken, enriched by new elements, a large and living development in the lyrics of Tagore and the paintings of the Calcutta school and has yet a vital part to play in the spiritual future of India. Another article contains a full and discriminating account, copiously illustrated by numerous ...
... 117n. -Thoughts & Glimpses, 1O9n. -The Mother, 1O8n. -Essays on the Gita, 22n. -Savitri: A Legend & a Symbol, 129n., 163n., 165-6n., 225 Sridhara,21 Sutras, the, 68 TAGORE, 209 Tamas, the, 37,152 Tilak, 2 I Tintoretto, 210 Titan,45-6,66,80,209,226,253,349 Titian, 210 UDDHAVA, 99, 101 Ulysses, 293 Page 433 Upanishads ...
... levels detracts nothing from his status as the most spiritual of English singers, the first among them to be a Yogi in the oriental sense. Even in an oriental poet like Tagore the overhead language-stir is mostly absent. Tagore is the ideal psalmist of the emotions - emotions not feverishly uncontrolled and rendered a confusing flame as in so many devotee-poets of the West but harmoniously psychicised... prose-poetry it rises head and shoulders over the Yeats-Purohit team-work; but its most choice quality is the overhead breath - a quality which we might expect from an Indian like Tagore in the mystical prose-poetry of Gitanjali. Tagore, however, gets the overhead afflatus to a recognisable degree no more than once - in a semi-reminiscence of the Upanishad's verse about the Transcendental. As he originally... acquired. The poetry written by Harindranath Chattopadhyaya before he turned Marxist and started versifying proletarian slogans is haunted by the Unknown as puissantly as anything composed by Tagore. His lyrics are a colourful subtlety that lays keen fingers on truths of the inner life, yet instead of plucking the word native to those truths the fingers bring back a creative impress for handling ...
... whole of the Indian Spirit ! Disciple : I believe Tagore is partly responsible -for that, as it is he who many times has insisted on the gospel of Buddha – whatever that may be, for various people have different ideas about it – as the only way for the salvation of humanity. Sri Aurobindo : I think partly at least it is Tagore who has Page 65 made the idea current ...
... fixed a cordon, an iron curtain almost. Even among ourselves, personal contacts like meeting one another or the paying of visits had been reduced to the barest minimum. To use the poetic language of Tagore, we seemed to be blossoming forth Like a flower in the air, stemless And sufficient unto itself... But after following out this line for some distance, the Mother could see that the ...
... The Indians were not used to it. The historian Will Durant sums up in his History of 1. The Liberator (1954), by Sisir Kumar Mitra. He was a professor of History at Vishvabharati, Tagore's University at Santiniketan. 2.Dr. K. M. Munshi (1887-1971), eminent novelist, writer, politician, and founder of the well-known Institute of Indian culture, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Page ...
... of sound and language over significance. In order to equal or surpass Tagore he has to develop a power of deep feeling and deep Page 49 significance equal to his other powers and arrive at a perfect equation or balance between sound + language and sense. In the greatest poets every line, every phrase tells. Tagore himself does not by any means always arrive at that perfection, but... and developed gloriously in this age by Tagore, Atulprasad, 27 my father, 28 etc. (there are heaps of the lesser fry) is a spectacle somewhat difficult not to be proud of nationalistically, forgive me. And now I see in Nishikanta such an ease in writing songs that I can't help thinking that a long background of songs is partly responsible for it. Tagore you must know has written more than four... recitation (yatra, kathakata 52 etc.) is made to resound with Page 136 this sur ? But Tagore I can quite admit does not remember his own arguments in favour of one point of view when he looks askance at it, what ? That is quite luminous and, after Tagore had expressed it so well it is surprising he should forget it at his convenience. But that is after all a thing ...
... began editing the Bangadarshan , a magazine which made a profound impression and gave birth to that increasing periodical literature of to-day, of which Bharati , the literary organ of the cultured Tagore family, is the most finished type. Since then Bankim has given us some very ripe and exquisite work, Chandrashekhar, Krishna Kanta's Will, Debi Chaudhurani, Anandmath, Sitaram, Indira and Kamal Kanta ...
... 1937 Well, perhaps Tagore does feel the mixed emotions he speaks of towards you and your recent success in Calcutta would only be a sort of weight in the balance. Men's feelings and motives are usually mixed like that and of the more sordid motives they are not always conscious. Page 284 August 1937 (Incomplete letter) As for Tagore, well, as I said before... about it when the Gramophone Co. decides the date and you are about to start. I am expecting the records to be a great success. P.S. It is sad to learn that we are under the displeasure of Tagore—we will hope however that he will come round and extend to us his "pardon" and poetic blessing once more. I have thought of the name "Nilima" for Heddy Miller as a symbol of her aspiration.... from the heights wrapping the purple cloak of his misunderstood benevolence and magnanimity around his wounded heart with a dignified but sorrowful calmness. It is rather astonishing to learn that Tagore objected to Ramakrishna's being regarded as a great man! It is good that he should have changed his mind under whatever influence. But great men make such blunders in their estimate of con- temporaries ...
... 9-10, 108 Stalin, 267 Stalinism, 262 Stendha1, 88 Supervielle, Jules, 198 -"Alter Ego", 199-200 -"Lui Seul", 201 -"Saisir", 201 Surya,166 Syria, 284 TAG ORE, RABINDRANATH, 53, 62n., 64, 66, 97-102, 222-3, 226-30, 288 -Balaka, 228 -Gitanjali, 99n -"The Golden Boat", 64n -"Salutation", 266n Tantras, the, 28-9, 165 Terence, 239n The Eternal ...
... duty or from stern discipline. There is hardly any place for austerities in the temperament of the Bengalis. They cannot accept from the bottom of their hearts the stoic ideal of Mahatma Gandhi. Rabindranath is the model of a Bengali. The Deccan has produced Shankara; Nanak and Surdas appeared in the North; but in the fertile soil of Bengal were born Sri Chaitanya, Chandidas and Ramprasad. The cult ...
... to find a shelter or go under cover, it may not even be desirable. Then one throws off one's masks, one comes out in the open and acts in the way so vividly described in these lines of Rabindranath: There began a scramble As to who should be the first to give up his life; That was the only hurry. Or else, the way the Light Brigade ...
... Wordsworth in my school days, it happened in college, and to a large extent thanks to Professor Manmohan Ghose. In our school days, the mind and heart of Bengali students were saturated with the poetry of Tagore: . In the bower of my youth the love-bird sings, Wake up, O darling, wake; Opening thy lids lazy with love, Wake up, O darling, wake. . . This poetry belongs to the type ...
... unfathomed and unspoilt Pierian spring. And this is how it should be. In this age, even in this age of modernism, a few Page 194 poets have actually shown how or what that can be, – a Tagore, a Yeats or A.E., by the bulk of their work, others of lesser envergure, in brief scattered strophes and stanzas - such lines, for example, from Eliot Who are those hooded hordes swarming ...
... was doing whatever was necessary. There are two types of men in Japan. One is tall, with a long nose and finely cut aristocratic face. It was they who gave the Samurai culture to Japan. I met at Tagore's place one of this type: he had magnificent features. The second type is the usual Mongol type. They haven't a particularly handsome face. Purani now brought in the question of the dictator and ...
... in support of Catholicism. It was this that disgusted Pavitra. My grandfather started by being a Brahmo and ended by writing a book on Hinduism and proclaiming it the best religion. Devendranath Tagore became rather anxious and feared he might run into an excess of zeal. After this the talk turned to politics and the work of the Leftists. SRI AUROBINDO: The Leftists will probably pass laws ...
... perturbed by anything whatsoever? SRI AUROBINDO: Why not? DR. MANILAL: Practicable, Sir? (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: Is it only a theory, then? An ideal not realisable in practice? As with Tagore who is reported to have said that yogic realisations are only ideals, not realisable, not meant for practice? DR. MANILAL: Has anybody achieved it. Sir? SRI AUROBINDO: It is one of the aims of ...
... SRI AUROBINDO: No, no, a secret society which I and some others joined along with some Rajput Thakurs. While in Bengal the revolutionary party was started by Okakura and joined by Nandy, Suren Tagore and others. The Swadeshi movement started before the Bengal Partition. I was coming and going between Bengal and Gujarat. Gujarat was very moderate at that time. With Pherozeshah Mehta it was just ...
... possible to find a shelter or go under cover, it may not even be desirable. Then one throws off one's masks, one comes out in the open and acts in the way so vividly described in these lines of Rabindranath: There began a scramble As to who should be the first to give up his life; That was the only hurry. Or else, the way the Light Brigade of England acted at Balaclava in the Crimean ...
... balancing of elements—though they may satisfy the outer sense. Art demands in the artist not merely the analytical faculty but the power of synthesis. Art has to be organic if it is to be living. Tagore has noted in his reminiscences how he felt shocked at the sight of a bone of human hand which the teacher of anatomy brought to the class one day. The hand disconnected from a living or a dead body ...
... known by his three sayings. The three sayings were those I had written to my wife. A Zamindar – disciple of that Yogi – found me out and bore the cost of the book "Yogic Sadhan." Disciple : Tagore never spoke at any time about Ramakrishna and Vivekananda except recently when he wrote a very ordinary poem on Ramakrishna during his centenary. He used to tell girls that Ramakrishna used very often ...
... during its spell over him that he is granted the contact of a deeper and higher state of consciousness than the ordinary. Poetry at such moments is not a mere conspiracy by Dante and Shakespeare and Tagore to crown colourful invention king of our hearts: no doubt, we recognise that its primary work is to bring delight by vision and emotion and not offer demonstrable or verifiable truth, but the delight ...
... Richard's and the Mother's, was a great patriot but he did not like the modern tendencies of Japan; so he used to say, "My soul has become a traitor." PURANI: Have you read Noguchi's letters to Tagore defending Japan's aggression? SRI AUROBINDO: No; but there are always two sides to a question. I don't believe in fanatical shouts against imperialism. Conquests of that sort were at one time regarded ...
... have kept aloof after that Poona affair. SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so. Gandhi's originality lies in bringing Ahimsa into politics. Otherwise non-cooperation is nothing new. EVENING NIRODBARAN: Tagore is having a relapse again and passing restless nights. SRI AUROBINDO: This time it is difficult to escape, it seems, in spite of Gandhi's wish. NIRODBARAN: I read the Czech pamphlet. SRI ...
... the poor." What do you say, Purani? You too can go into trance or send Nirod into trance! He was by no means a conversationalist as we understand and use the term. Tagore, for example, was one . Those who have heard or talked to Tagore, recall their experience as "great". When we read his talks, we can well imagine how brilliant he must have been with his rich similes and metaphors, his sparkling ...
... had that accident and broke His leg, had transformed the intense pain that He suffered into ananda. That reminded me, yesterday, of another incident that I had reported to Sri Aurobindo. Once, Tagore was bitten by some very vicious ants and he was having intense pain. He didn't know what to do, but, by a great effort of mental concentration, he succeeded in cutting off the mind from the body... life get arranged in such a way that it appears that the Divine is pursuing the sadhak and not the other way round. 278The name of God in the mouth of the atheist. 279Rabindranath Tagore. 280This is not a story, nor is it a dream - in Bengali. 281 CWSA, Book VI, Canto 2.461. Page 228 I'll give you another very small instance. A young girl fell seriously ...
... yourself from outside in a dispassionate way, see yourself as in a mirror, you immediately recognise how ridiculous your little person is. I remember I read in French, translated of course, a line from Tagore which amused me very much. It was about a little dog. The dog was seated in the lap of its mistress and considered itself to be the centre of the universe. Yes, the picture struck in my mind. I knew ...
... dispassionate way, see yourself as in a mirror, you immediately recognise how ridiculous your Page 96 little person is. I remember I read in French, translated of course, a line from Tagore which amused me very much. It was about a little dog. The dog was seated in the lap of its mistress and considered itself to be the centre of the universe. Yes, the picture stuck in my mind. I knew ...
... yet remember the beautiful movement that impelled each one of those who were fortunate to be there at that time. One is reminded of a parallel movement, although on a different field, described by Tagore in his well-known lines: There was a scuffle and scramble A great hurry as to who would be the first to throw away his life. Well, it was ...
... Disciple : But one can know what they mean by some criterion. Mother : By what criterion? If you ask them they say "it is something wonderful but can't be described by the mind." I was with Tagore in Japan. He claimed to have reached the peace of Nirvana and he was beaming with joy. I thought : "here is a man who claims to have got the peace and reached Nirvana. Let us see." I asked him to ...
... (1894-1962). Meghnad Saha (6.10.1893 - 16.2.1956), a physicist. Satyendra Nath Bose (1.1.1894 - 4.2.1974) is well known for his Bose-Einstein statistics. He was also vice-chancellor of Tagore's Visvabharati at Santiniketan for two years. Page 267 teacher was my brother Abhay. He was what you would call a normal bright boy, but by no means anywhere near the brilliance of ...
... repeats the same vision of things in "different garbs". When Sahana sent some of her poems to Tagore, he replied that the poet's mind should not be confined to a single preraṇā, however vast it might be. But Tagore's poetry is all from one প্রেরনা. He may write of different things, but it is always Tagore and his preraṇā repeating themselves interminably. Every poet does that. Page 594 ... that stars come in almost every one of his poems. This seems to be one point against spiritual poetry. Another is that spiritual poetry is bound to be limited in scope and lack rasa vaicitrya, to use Tagore's expression. Ordinary poems (and novels) always write about love and similar things. Is it one point against ordinary (non-spiritual) poetry? If there is sameness of expression in spiritual poems... He hints that a poet's creation should not be confined to spiritual inspiration dealing with things spiritual and mystic. Well, and if a poet is a spiritual seeker what does Tagore want him to write about? Dancing girls? Amal has done that. Wine and women? Hafiz has done that. But he can only use them as symbols as a rule. Must he write about politics,—communism, for instance, like modernist ...
... overflooded, has tended more and more to take up and subdue the original motives until the thought and spirit, turn and tinge are now characteristically Indian. The works of Bankim Chandra Chatterji and Tagore, the two minds of the most distinctive and original genius in our recent literature, illustrate the stages of this transition. Side by side with this movement and more characteristic and powerful ...
... the national spirit is seeking to satisfy itself in art and, for the first time since the decline of the Moguls, a new school of national art is developing itself, the school of which Abanindranath Tagore is the founder and master. It is still troubled by the foreign though Asiatic influence from which its master started, and has something of an exotic appearance, but the development and self-emancipation ...
... against going astray (any more than they are invariably apt to write better in it than foreigners of genius, like Conrad, Santayana, Madariaga, Maurois, Saurat, Cape-tanakis, Nehru, R. K. Narayan, Tagore, Radhakrishnan, Sri Aurobindo). But the doctrine remains true and, provided the writer has sufficient mastery over the elements of the language and a living sense of its genius, individual idiosyncrasy ...
... till the end of the nineteenth century, British rule was accepted as a beneficent development. Raja Rammohan Roy publicly thanked God for having placed India under the British rule. Prasanna Kumar Tagore declared: "If we were asked what government we would prefer, English or any other, we would one and all reply English by all means, even in preference to a Hindu government". The national ...
... yet remember the beautiful movement that impelled each one of those who were fortunate to be there at that time. One is reminded of a parallel movement, although on a different field, described by Tagore in his well-known lines: There was a scuffle and scramble, A great hurry as to who would be the first To throw away his life. Well, it was a picture worth contemplating ...
... pp. 538, 539 46. Ibid., p . 381 47. Ibid., pp. 398, 399 48. Ibid., p. 485 49. Ibid., pp. 546, 547 50. Ibid., pp. 554, 555 51. Rabindranath Tagore, The Religion of Man (1931), p. 17 52. Arnold Toynbee, Civilisation on Trial (1948), pp. 262-63 53. S. Radhakrishnan, Religion in a Changing World (1967), p. 119 ...
... মধুর গোপনে and the "heart to heart words intimate". I do not suppose it could have been done otherwise, however, or done better; and what you write now is always good poetry—which is what I suppose Tagore meant to say when he wrote "তোমার আর ভয় নাহি". And after all I have said nothing about Huxley or Baudelaire! 11 July 1931 Your translations are very good, but much more poetic than the originals: ...
... SATYENDRA: But are there no criteria by which to know the truth? THE MOTHER: What criteria? If you ask them, they say their experience is something wonderful but can't be described by the mind. I met Tagore in Japan. He claimed to have reached the peace of Nirvana and he was beaming with joy about it. I thought, "Here is a man who claims to have found peace and reached Nirvana. Let us see." I asked him ...
... perseverant soul are to be subserved; we must not build a system that would suffocate or smother that little child—that little prince. This essential point is brought out forcefully by Rabindra Nath Tagore in his short story "The Parrot's Training". It is so instructive that we may recount it in full. "Once upon a time there was a bird. It was ignorant. It sang all right, but never recited scriptures ...
... justified because to the soul and Shakti in man nothing is impossible." Each commented on some aspect or the other of the diamond-faceted personality of Sri Aurobindo, but it was left to the Poet Tagore to have the widest and deepest insight into the Man of the Moment. Page 380 "O Friend, O my country's friend, you are the voice incarnate of India's soul!... Unobstacled ...
... spiritual side in all A. E.'s work, moves between earth and the life of the worlds behind in Yeats' subtle rhythmic voices of vision and beauty, echoes with a large fullness in Carpenter. The poetry of Tagore owes its sudden and universal success to this advantage that he gives us more of this discovery and fusion for which the mind of our age is in quest than any other creative writer of the time. His... poetry is too subtle, too remote, goes too far away from the broad, near, present and vital actualities of terrestrial existence. Yeats is considered by some a poet of Celtic romance and nothing more, Tagore accused in his own country of an unsubstantial poetic philosophising, a lack of actuality, of reality of touch and force of vital insistence. But this is to mistake the work of this poetry and to mistake ...
... find Tagore's crude paintings being hailed as great masterpieces by really great artists and art'-critics. Do you think there ever can be some standard of art-values or will it always remain a field of mere personal likes and dislikes ? A. In spite of earnest desire and efforts of some leaders there have been unfortunately, up to now, no universal art-values. Tagore's art should ...
... age is not yet. It is with Sāvitrī that the new age may be said to have arrived. Among the precursors of this new age may be counted Whitman, Carpenter, Yeats, A. E. Meredith, Stephen Phillips, Tagore in whose works one can see clear indications of the new spirit and experiments with many forms of poetic expression. The nature of this change may be said to consist in the deepening and enlarging... in poetry there is already the commencement of such a greater leading; the conscious efforts of Whitman, the tone of Carpenter, the significance of the poetry of A. E., the rapid, immediate fame of Tagore are its first signs. The idea of the poet who is also Rishi has made again its appearance". (P.P.) This new poetic departure will not necessarily be the old, ordinary, outer vital emotional and mental... the self of man and i the large soul of humanity. At the subtlest elevation of all that has yet been reached stands, or rather, wings and floats in a high intermediate region, the poetry of Tagore not in the complete spiritual but amid an air that with its seekings and glimpses found in a psycho-spiritual haven of subtle and delicate soul experience transmuting the earth-forms by the touch of ...
... rational man be led to kowtow to what his reason cannot label or docket? I recall a remark Tagore made years ago. He and Bertrand Russell had once gone out for a stroll in Cambridge. As they passed by King's College Chapel Page 124 they heard a choral hymn being sung by the boys: lovely music! Tagore suggested to Russell that they step inside the Chapel. "Nothing doing," replied the... mathematician, "I can't let myself be influenced by music and incense and coloured gleams trickling through the stained-glass windows and be made to feel what my reason holds suspect." And how Tagore laughed! But it is not a laughing matter — not to the much-maligned mystic, anyway. For whatever the scientist and rationalist in man may say, the mystic knows what he feels not because ...
... England he met Bernard Shaw. Dilip thought that his father D. L. Roy was the foremost poet of India, even greater than Rabindranath. Dilip told Bernard Shaw that his father had unfortunately died very early otherwise he would have been an even greater poet than Rabindranath. Bernard Shaw listened to him and kept silent for a while. Then Shaw said: "Let it be Dilip. You remember Darwin's ...
... intuition of the self of man and the large soul of humanity. And at the subtlest elevation of all that has yet been reached stands or rather wings and floats in a high intermediate region the poetry of Tagore, not in the complete spiritual light, but amid an air shot with its seekings and glimpses, a sight and cadence found in a psycho-spiritual heaven of subtle and delicate soul experience transmuting ...
... Sri Aurobindo came to Me CHAPTER III Reorientation It was Tagore who first told me that even as a child he had been imbibing things which had to lie for a long time in his subconsciousness as seeds before they could come to full flowering. He told me, as I have recorded elsewhere, that some of the best things in life work in us like a leaven, an invisible ...
... came about also in the next phase a reaffirmation of all that was Indian as also impulsion to fresh creativity in the field of spirituality, literature, poetry and art. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Tagore, on the one hand, and Dayananda, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, on the other, gave a new impetus not only to a new awakening but also to creation of new forms of culture on the basis of the original ...
... is possible in Hyderabad which has a Nizam. Page 57 But how to do the same in an Indian Constitution? Sri Aurobindo : Sir Akabar's is as good as any. My idea is like what Tagore once wrote. There may be one Rashtrapati at the top with considerable powers so as to secure a continuity of policy and an Assembly representative of the nation. The provinces will contribute to a ...
... reverence. Because of this passion for music, I was able to bring back with me When I came to settle in the Ashram quite a collection of raga-raginis and various types of Bengali songs like songs of Tagore, Nazrul, Atulprasad, Ramprasad, Kirtans and many folk-style songs, and these proved to be of great help in my later life. I used to learn Kathak in Calcutta from Gopal-da, a student of ...
... itself or replace it if destroyed. Finally, the artistic awakening has been commenced by that young, living and energetic school which has gathered round the Master and originator, Sj. Abanindranath Tagore. The impulse which this school is giving, its inspired artistic recovery of the past, its intuitive anticipations of the future, have to be popularised and made a national possession. Page 246 ...
... which has a Nizam, but how to do the same in an all-India constitution? What then is your idea of an ideal government for India? SRI AUROBINDO: Sir Akbar's is as good as any. My idea is like what Tagore once wrote. There may be one Rashtrapati at the top with considerable powers so as to secure a continuity of policy and an assembly representative of the nation. The provinces will combine into a ...
... 40 The Traveller To be sure Sri Aurobindo never did anything haphazardly. He had a programme all chalked out which he was following. When Sarala Devi Chowdhurani, Tagore's niece, and Sri Aurobindo's fellow worker of the revolutionary days, came to meet him towards the end of 1920, Sri Aurobindo hinted as much. "As for myself, I have a personal programme," he told her ...
... in their lives. Sri Aurobindo said: "To everyone I give a pointed look." Every Darshan had always an air of mystery, an air of sublimity, which could not be expressed in words, seeing which, Rabindranath said: "You have the Word, and we are waiting Page 210 to accept it from you." After a Darshan, one of our doctors, trying to be poetic, said, "Sir, you looked grand at the ...
... religion and even in a broader sense with science, and yet it will at the same time develop more intensely the special beauty and peculiar power of its own insight and its own manner. The poetry of Tagore is already a new striking instance of what differently seen and followed out might have been a specifically philosophic and religious truth, but here turned into beauty and given a new significance... Vaishnava poetry of North and South had behind it an elaborate Yoga or practised psychical and spiritual science, without which it could not have come into birth in that form. Today much of the poetry of Tagore is the sign of such a Sadhana, a long inheritance of assured spiritual discovery and experience. But what is given whether directly or in symbol or in poetic image is not the formal steps of the Sadhana ...
... century, the Indian master-artist 23 Coomaraswamy, The Transformation of Nature in Art ( 2nd ed.), New York pp. 5-6. 24 Savitri, p. 112. Page 250 Abanindranath Tagore affirmed this spirit by advising the modem Indian artist to assimilate the essence of the past but have the courage to tread new ground. The modem shilpa-yogin 's sādhanā, he said, is sajāg-sādhānd... prescribed images of the Gods, a vast adventurous embrace of all life as the field of Yoga, and hence as providing fit subjects for the shilpa-yogin' s contemplation and 25 Abanindranath Tagore, Bageshwari Shilpa Prabandhābali, Calcutta, Allahabad, Bombay, 1969, p.1. (Author's translation). 26 Questions and Answers, CWM, Vol. 3, p. 105. 27 Ibid., Vol. 6, p. 83. ...
... alien origin. In Perseus the Deliverer, Polydaon the priest of Poseidon is the central figure; his very sanctity makes him wrong-headedly to assume (like Raghupati the priest in Tagore's play, Sacrifice) a cruel and vengeful role, demanding Andromeda's innocent blood. Page 47 The central action of the play is Andromeda's releasing the prisoners in an act... Baroda period. Urvasie is an Aurobindonian narrative version of Kalidasa's play, Vikramorvasie. The Urvasie myth goes back to the Veda, and it has been treated variously by poets and dramatists. Tagore's lyric, Urvashi, 115 has been described as "a sheer melodious and poetic cry", a hymn celebrating the Woman Beautiful, the archetypal Helen, glorious Aphrodite whose virtue, whose swabh ā va, ...
... medal but had consented to this official visit for the purpose. There was therefore no question of Mr. Reddy coming for a personal visit. The last visit of that kind Sri Aurobindo received was from Tagore very long ago. The only exception made to his rule of seclusion has been for the giving of instructions and receiving the report of a disciple entrusted with some work or some mission. It is difficult ...
... salt" to plumb the ocean. The hiatus between a seer-poet and mediocrity is, if anything, greater. That is why they never once "woke up when He came and sat close to them" — to exploit a simile of Tagore's. And then did not Sri Aurobindo himself give us his own vision of humanity: The conscious doll is pushed a hundred ways And feels the push but not the hands that drive. (Savitri II ...
... room comforted and recompensed. When I reached my desk, I. was horrified to see the state of my torn books. I lifted these books to put them in good order. These were my favourite books,—books of Tagore and Whitman, of Shakespeare and Kalidasa, Ramayana and Mahabharata. And beneath them all were a few torn pages of the Gita. As I took these pages in my hand, I tumbled and sat down in my chair. I felt ...
... meant to serve both as an initiation and a training; it was to be his work and also his test. But the student had had to pass through another, perhaps somewhat minor, ordeal of a preliminary nature. Tagore has a well-known poem based on this episode. I begin my story with that narrative, giving it almost verbatim as it appears in the Upanishad (Chhandogya, IV.4). Jabala Satyakama, says the Upanishad ...
... an almost gigantic originality. Rammohan Ray arose with a new religion in his hand, which was developed on original lines by men almost greater one thinks than he, by Rajnarain Bose and Devendranath Tagore.......The calm, docile, pious, dutiful Hindu ideal was pushed aside with impatient energy, and the Bengali, released from the iron restraint which had lain like a frost on his warm blood and sensuous ...
... Perhaps not. Vallabhbhai is not likely to understand more than others that a spiritual life can be led by me without a view to a comeback hereafter for the greatest good of the greatest India (or world). Tagore expected the latter and is much disappointed Page 35 that I have not done it. 9 March 1935 Will you come out of your retirement after the supramental descent? That will be decided ...
... But the Mukerjee quoted there must have lived for many years Page 5 outside India (in America, I believe) and has become completely westernised; otherwise he would not give Gandhi and Tagore as the two most popular figures in India . On the contrary it is outside India that they are most popular; and for foreigners these two men seem to be the only ones who represent Indian genius. This ...
... recognised by us. But there are eyes and eyes. Once in a while we experience the "artifice of eternity". There are also eyes that draw "peacefulness from tarns on mountain tops". Abanindranath Tagore affirmed that "every artist must first weave to his own design a dream-catcher's net." In that endeavour he must develop a sight almost yogic in character and from that should come the arts of painting ...
... meant to serve both as an initiation and a training; it was to be his work and also his test. But the student had had to pass through another, perhaps somewhat minor, ordeal of a preliminary nature. Tagore has a well-known poem based on this episode. I begin my story with that narrative, giving it almost verbatim as it appears in the Upanishad (Chhandogya, IV.4). Jabala Satyakama, says the Upanishad ...
... Savitri III Yoga There have been great fighters in modern India like Tilak, philosophers like Vivekananda, poets like Tagore, and 'mahatmas' like Gandhi. But Sri Aurobindo was all these, and a yogi as well. To the question, what is yoga, it is not possible to return an easy or facile answer, and unfortunately the word 'yoga' is being bandied ...
... this is more related to the adventurously imaginative style of Francis Thompson and we feel that for all its magnificence the knowledge is not directly Yogic. A similar impression we get vis-à-vis Tagore's lyrical soars, high and intense though they are, as in the lines of a somewhat Overhead breath he has translated thus into English prose-poetry: "There, where spreads the infinite sky for the soul... the Spirit's ether and a moved felicity of articulation. Sri Aurobindo comes also at times recognisably with turns that have been admirably practised by the Thompsons and Iqbals, the Shelleys and Tagores of man's aspiration; but every now and then come effects of the direct Yogi, tranquilly amazing, as in There looked out from the shadow of the Unknown The bodiless Namelessness that saw ...
... August 10, 1933 (A disciple:) I am disconcerted at what is happening in the world. Everywhere misery is rampant, people are losing faith in everything and even the intellectuals like Tagore, Russell and Rolland are clamouring for an end of the age____ Even if all smashed, I would look beyond the smash to the new creation. As for what is happening in the world, it does not upset... clean-cut or irreconcilable difference between them is ignorance: here and not elsewhere, not by going to some other world, the divine realisation must come. 97 * * * March 24, 1934 Tagore, of course, belonged to an age which had faith in its ideas and whose very denials were creative affirmations.... Now all that idealism has been smashed to pieces by the immense adverse event and everybody ...
... is more related to the adventurously imaginative style of Francis Thompson and we feel that for all its magnificence the knowledge is not directly Yogic. A similar impression we get vis- à -vis Tagore's lyrical soars, high and intense though they are, as in the lines of a somewhat Overhead breath he has translated thus into English prose-poetry: "There, where spreads the infinite sky for the soul... the Spirit's ether and a moved felicity of articulation. Sri Aurobindo comes also at times recognisably with turns that have been admirably practised by the Thompsons and Iqbals, the Shelleys and Tagores of man's aspiration; but every now and then come effects of the direct Yogi, tranquilly amazing, as in There looked out from the shadow of the Unknown The bodiless Namelessness that saw ...
... Parvati's Tapasya Uma - Abaninidranath Tagore Parvati's Tapasya Introduction Her aim was nothing less than to win the heart of the supreme ascetic, silent and motionless in his abode of ice and snow. The great Shiva clothed in ashes, whom neither desire nor grief can touch, whose meditation is like Infinity contemplating Infinity, by whom worlds ...
... he wanted to intellectualise and logicise my "wooden head". But that would be a very short-sighted human view of the Divine's multi-dimensional work. I am reminded, however, of a narrative poem by Tagore about Guru Govind Singh. The Sikh Guru adopted a Pathan boy whose father he had killed in a flare of temper. He brought him up well-versed in all Shastras and proficient in the art of warfare. Every ...
... inherent value of popularity or for some other reason. Indeed, a national language cultivated and enriched by its nationals can force itself on the world's attention and fairly become a world language. Tagore was able to give that kind of world importance to the Bengali language. It may be questioned whether too many languages are not imposed on us in this way and whether it will not mean in the end ...
... medium as if it were his mother-tongue, with a spontaneous ease, power and beauty, the author a brother of the famous poetess Sarojini Naidu, one of a family which promises to be as remarkable as the Tagores by its possession of culture, talent and genius, challenging attention and sympathy by his combination of extreme youth and a high and early brilliance and already showing in his work, even though ...
... once a politician of profound constructive power — a gigantic philosophical intellect whose chief work. The Life Divine, has been hailed as epoch-making — a still more towering Master of Yoga, whom Tagore in the East and Rolland in the West called the custodian of the future — Sri Aurobindo was a figure to dominate the world's gaze. For six years he led his country's fight for political freedom ...
... a single good poem and had no power over rhythm and metre before he came here, suddenly, not after long "assiduous" efforts, blossomed into a poet, rhythmist and metrist after he came here? Why was Tagore dumbfounded by the "lame man throwing away his crutches and running freely" and surely on the paths of rhythm? Why was it that I who never understood or cared for painting, suddenly in a single hour ...
... effort and his fullness and unity with all cosmic experience and with Nature and with all creatures. The note which has already begun and found many of its tones in Whitman and Carpenter and A. E. and Tagore will grow into a more full and near and intimate poetic knowledge and vision and feeling which will continue to embrace more and more, no longer only the more exceptional inner states and touches which ...
... Disciple : Did you read Gandhiji's opposition to council entry ? Sri Aurobindo . Yes, he is opposed to it because it is against Ahimsa ! It is negative and not constructive. The same was said by Tagore about non-cooperation ! Disciple : C. Rajgopalachari says one yard of Khaddar means one step towards Swaraj. Sri Aurobindo : It will be a very long way in that case. Disciple :... food, cleaned their own latrine " etc. Disciple . Sir Sankaran Nair has lost his case against O'Dwyer. Sri Aurobindo : It was a foregone conclusion. 17-6-1924 Disciple : Tagore's internationalism seems to have received a rude shock in China at the passing of the Japanese Exclusion Bill. Disciple : It seems from his writing that he is an internationalist first and looks... Aurobindo : Do you want me to prophesy ? But the Page 49 modern tendency seems : to be towards .some kind of internationalism. Disciple : What do you think of Tagore's idea of India becoming the meeting-ground of the West and the East ? Sri Aurobindo : What do you mean by the meeting of the West and the East ? You mean like the meeting of the tiger and the ...
... After the day's hard work, you can understand my disappointment when with all froth and bubble of joy I opened the letter to find that not a line of your hand was there! I had to sigh and say: (Tagore) "For this have I kept awake all night and done sadhana," or (Nishikanta) "I have endured mosquito-bites all over my body for this and it has come back without receiving your gracious look," or (Nirod)... be omniscient. He asks: "Suppose an Englishman were to write a poem in Bengali, what would you say?" It would depend on the Englishman and how he did it. Dilip argued: "The Gitanjali of Tagore was appreciated and highly praised by many English poets. Conrad's prose ranks as high as any great English writer's. Sarojini Naidu and some others were praised by Gosse, Binyon and De la Mare." ... have no literary merit or literary perception and Eliot has? Eliot is a theorist, a man who builds his poetry according to rule. God save us from such fellows and their opinions. 165 As for Tagore, his work is said to have been appreciated because it was "derivative", (though what exactly he means by "derivative", I don't know. I suppose he means a translation). What difference does that ...
... richness of their experience; the untouchables have made themselves as worthy of respect as the Brahmins. As we read of their experience and listen to their words, there come to mind the lines of Rabindranath: But, as I have said in the beginning, in one respect the realisation of these Siddhacharyas has gone farther than that of the Upanishadic seers, they have taken two or three steps ...
... is more related to the adventurously imaginative style of Francis Thompson and we feel that for all its magnificence the knowledge is not directly Yogic. A similar impression we get vis-à-vis Tagore's lyrical soars, high and intense though they are, as in the lines of a somewhat Overhead breath he has translated thus into English prose-poetry: "There, where spreads the infinite sky for the soul... the Spirit's ether and a moved felicity of articulation. Sri Aurobindo comes also at times recognisably with turns that have been admirably practised by the Thompsons and Iqbals, the Shelleys and Tagores of man's aspiration; but every now and then come effects of the direct Yogi, tranquilly amazing, as in There looked out from the shadow of the Unknown The bodiless Namelessness that saw ...
... such poems can be perfectly well understood by those who are not mystics or Yogis. Yours are certainly not more esoteric or Yogic than Nishikanta's with his frequent incursions into the occult and if Tagore could be knocked over by the Rajahansa poem, that shows that Yogic poetry can be appreciated by him and by others. I take it that it is a transition to a new style of writing that meets with so much... vague, though inspiringly vague, the other in which the experience is revelatory and intimate, but the utterance it finds is veiled by the image, not thoroughly revealed by it. I do not know to which Tagore's recent poetry belongs, I have not read it. Page 98 The latter kind of poetry (where there is the intimate experience) can be of great power and value—witness Blake. Revelation is greater ...
... circle or in the future like Blake's poetry. Nobody appreciated Blake in his own time—now he ranks as a great poet—more poetic than Shakespeare, says Housman. Tagore wrote he could not appreciate D's poetry because it is too "Yogic" for him. Is Tagore then unselect, one of the public at large? D says that your case is different, because you don't care for publication! It is not for that reason. ...
... Who can say? Who could answer his question? He had but to see a sadhu or a sannyasin, and he would rush to him with his question. "Have you seen God?" He rushed to Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, "Have you seen God?" The Maharshi did not give him a plain answer. Nobody, really, ever gave him a plain answer. But it is a law of Nature that when a question burns within, a response is bound to ...
... have been similar to those of modern times. But their widely differing outlook and activities need not be inferior to ours. True, Valmiki and Rabindranath are not peers of the same grain. On that account we cannot definitely assign a higher status to Rabindranath. To consider the Vedic seers inferior to the modern scientists simply because they do not resemble there is nothing but a stark superstition ...
... Brigitte Hamann mentions several occasions on which he used Listian language. 699 Intriguing, moreover, is the following fact: “In Hitler’s partially surviving personal library, there is a book by Tagore on nationalism with a handwritten dedication on the occasion of his 1921 birthday: ‘To Mr Adolf Hitler, my dear Armanist Brother, B. Steininger’. Babette Steininger has been identified as an early ...
... striking lucidity of versatile intellectual exposition, R. K. Narayan has made by its help the novelist's art a rare blend of the simple and the subtle, Sarojini Naidu has been enchantingly lyrical in it, Tagore has given with it to his Gitanjali an immortal poignancy, Vivekananda has forged from it a thrilling Page 101 clarion of the Vedanta calling both the East and the West to God-knowledge ...
... was clear that it happened to be a moonlit night. The waves danced and sparkled all round in the bright light of the moon. I do not know what was the exact phase. Perhaps it was, in the words of Tagore, "The Eleventh day of the bright phase, When the sleepless moon went Sailing alone on her dream-boat." All else looked so remote now—the police and the city with its spite ...
... these two epics form a Book of Origins for much of the later literature in India, and classical dramatists like Bhasa, Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti as also poets of our own time like Subramania Bharati, Tagore and Sri Aurobindo have freely taken deep draughts from this veritable Ganga-Yamuna confluence of the great Indian epic tradition. The literary epics from the days of Virgil in Europe ...
... detracts nothing from his status as the most spiritual of English singers, the first among them to be a Yogi in the oriental sense. Even in an oriental poet like Tagore the overhead language-stir is mostly absent. Tagore is the ideal psalmist of the emotions — emotions not feverishly uncontrolled and rendered a Page 129 confusing flame as in so many devotee-poets of the West... ry it rises head and shoulders over the Yeats-Puro-hit team-work; but its most choice quality is the overhead breath — a quality which we might expect from an Indian like Tagore in the mystical prose-poetry of Gitanjali. Tagore, however, gets the overhead afflatus to a recognisable degree no more than once — in a serm-rerniniscence of the Upanishad's verse about the Transcendental. As he originally... acquired. The poetry written by Harindranath Chattopadhyaya before he turned Marxist and started versifying proletarian slogans is haunted by the Unknown as puissantly as anything composed by Tagore. His lyrics are a colourful subtlety that lays keen fingers on truths of the inner life, yet instead of plucking the word native to those truths the fingers bring back a creative impress for handling ...
... Aurobindo shows any organic adaptation to music and melody. His thought is profound, his technical devices commendable, but the music that enchants or disturbs is not there. Aurobindo is not another Tagore or Iqbal or even Sarojini Naidu." The words fairly take one's breath away by their sweeping ineptitude. For, they deny inspiration completely and in all its modes to Sri Aurobindo's poetry. In poetry... demands for success is the clinching proof of the genuine poet. Sri Aurobindo's being very striking in its music gives the lie, with quintessential force, to the charge that he is less a poet than Tagore or Iqbal or even Sarojini Naidu. None of these has produced blank verse in English. And no other Indian has anything to show in this "tricky" medium, which would bear comparison with the ...
... le in English than in Bengali poetry. You give as examples of ucchvāsa among other things Madhusudan's style, Tagore's poem to me, a passage from Gobinda Das. I don't think there is anything in Madhusudan which an English poet writing in Bengali would have hesitated to father. Tagore's poem is written at a high pitch of feeling perfectly intelligible to anyone who had passed through the exaltation ...
... aims at reconstruction and return of rural, social, and political organizations based on equality, empowerment of the weak and the oppressed, decentralisation and brotherhood. Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore, the great poet of modem India, established at Shantiniketan an experimental Institution for a new aim and mode of education where the beauty and sublimity of Nature can serve as a living partner ...
... of Nature that facilitates the exercise of the faculties of the total being by means of the concrete urge of experience. This was the main thesis of the original experiments of Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore. The interrelationship between humanity and environment, the interrelationship between humanity and human evolution, humanity and the theme of integration — these are all interrelated themes, and they ...
... Harin's poetry, but if everybody who has that is to be accounted a reincarnation of Shelley, we get into chaotic waters. In that case, Tagore must be a reincarnation of Shelley, and Harin, logically, must be a reincarnation of Tagore - who couldn't wait till Tagore walked off to Paradise or Shelley must have divided himself between the couple. It may be that afterwards I leaned at a time towards a... (3) Three pieces of jolly news! Dilip Kumar: O Guru, three solid pieces of jolly news: first, a Muslim writer named Abul Fazl comes to congratulate me because in my recent controversy with Tagore, he opines, the latter had very much the worst of it. Then comes a savant who praises my Bengali novel, Dola. Last, though not least, turns up a Zamindar who implores me to draft for him an address ...
... in the poem. Tagore coined the word তৃণাঞ্চিত 82 but he laments that people have not accepted it. Why a blot? There are many words in Greek poetry which occur onlyonce in the whole literature, but that is not considered a defect in the poem. It is called a "hapax legomenon", "a once-spoken word" and that's all. তৃণাঞ্চিত for instance is a fine word and can adorn, not blot Tagore's poetry even ...
... brave, when I discovered, to my utter humiliation, that it was not that I could not change but that I would not. "This," I wrote to him, "makes me feel convinced that I am a misfit here, that I am, as Tagore said to me once, an artist first and last — not a Yogi. But the trouble is, Guru, that though I loved art passionately once upon. a time, I failed to find it satisfying. Besides, I believed sincerely... adjudicate on our net achievements, individual or collective, unless and until he himself faces up to what we were struggling against. Which reminds me — let me add, parenthetically — of a remark of Tagore's about human judgements in general. He said, in his inimitable vein of irony: "Scientists, technicians, philosophers and skilled workers of various denominations, Dilip, are more fortunate than us ...
... June 1938 Why can't you understand oceans and rocks aspiring to winged release? Haven't you read Tagore's "Balākā" where the earth, hills, rocks yearn to fly also, seeing the flight of a flock of cranes? Surely you have! I am not an expert in Tagore. In English, rocks might just manage to aspire to be birds, but it would be regarded as fanciful—if oceans started that ...
... aspects of His Vision PART V Psychology " While Tagore awakened the latent music in me, another Indian, Sri Aurobindo, brought me to religion. He opened the way to my religious consecration. Indeed, my debt to India is very great, and is due in part to Tagore and in part to Sri Aurobindo.'" Gabrid Mistme " Psychology is necessarily a ...
... action that chase each other across the modern field or clash upon it. He is a reader of poetry as well as a devourer of fiction and periodical literature,—you will find in him perhaps a student of Tagore or an admirer of Whitman; he has perhaps no very clear ideas about beauty and aesthetics, but he has heard that Art is a not altogether unimportant part of life. The shadow of this new colossus is ...
... possibilities of nothing else than attractive variations on the same theme of longing reveries at play around deplorably unchanging realities "Not here but otherwhere" - these words from a poem of Tagore sum up all past religion and spirituality's vision of soul-fulfilment. If there is a strong vein of this vision in the music you speak of, you have to guard against falling under its spell. But I must ...
... background, - basic education has been declared to be a failure, Shanti Niketan itself came to be declared as a university for purposes of instruction and examination, — a notion abhorrent to Gurudev Tagore, the founder of the Shanti Niketan, and the rest has been adjudged and almost condemned by the application of the criteria flowing from the Macaulayan system. There does not even seem to be any prospect ...
... them naturally to the Maheshwari line. A Dante, on the other hand, or a Byron has something in his matter and manner that make us think of the stamp of Mahakali. Virgil or Petrarch, Shelley or our Tagore seem to be emanations of Beauty, Harmony, Love – Mahalakshmi. And the perfect artisanship Page 209 of Mahasaraswati has found its especial embodiment in Horace and Racine and our ...
... mixture of rice and pulses boiled together]. It was very tasty." Untouchability, which had taken such a rigid form in Hindu society, was unbearable to most enlightened men. So, in his Ashram, Tagore tried to break that rigidity with some novel schemes. But were mere outward reforms going to change anything basic in a society which seemed to have lost its spirit, Page 373 but ...
... pamphlet in 1949. Included in War and Self- Determination since 1957 (See 28, 100). SABCL : Social and Political Thought, Vol . 15 2 . THE AGE OF KALIDASA Tagore & Co., Madras, 1921 Written during the Baroda period (1893-1906). First appeared in the Calcutta Review . Published in book form with Kalidasa's. " Seasons " since 1929 under the... Kalidasa" has been given in Volume 3 and, in a more complete form, in Volume 27. SABCL: The Harmony of Virtue, Vol. 3 Translations, Vol. 8 37 . KALIDASA'S "SEASONS" Tagore & Co.. Madras, 1921 First appeared in three issues of the Karmayogin, July 31to August 14, 1909. Parts of an early draft of the essay have been found among Sri Aurobindo's Baroda papers... in two volumes, of the University Edition, On Yoga I: The Synthesis of Yoga. SABCL: The Synthesis of Yoga, Vols. 20, 21 89 . A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION Tagore & Co., Madras, 1921 An incomplete series of articles from the Karmayogin, February 12 to April 2, 1910. The first edition was unauthorised. In 1924 an authorised edition was issued ...
... we hear constantly today of the "philosophy" of a poet, even the most inveterate beautifier of commonplaces being forcibly gifted by his admirers with a philosophy, or of his message,—the message of Tagore, the message of Whitman. We are asking then of the poet to be, not a supreme singer or an inspired seer of the worlds, but a philosopher, a prophet, a teacher, even something perhaps of a religious ...
... affiliate them naturally to the Maheswari line. A Dante, on the other hand, or a Byron has something in his matter and manner that make us think of the stamp of Mahakali. Virgil or Petrarch, Shelley or our Tagore seem to be emanations of Beauty, Harmony, Love—Mahalakshmi. And the perfect artisanship of Mahasaraswati has found its especial embodiment in Horace and Racine and our Kalidasa. Michael Angelo in his ...
... 450, 534, 571-2, 595, 686 Surendra Nath Jauhar 165, 288, 417, 507, 538, 624, 689, 709, 733, 747, 797, 817 Suvrata (Mme Yvonne Gaebele) 321, 418 Syed Mehdi Imam 617 Page 923 Tagore, Rabindranath 5, 175, 183, 262, 582 Tan Yun-shan, Prof 532 Tandon, Purushottamdas 226 Tara Jauhar 691, 710 Tea Ceremony 194-5, 287-8, 319, 321 Teilhard de Chardin 732 Teresa, Saint ...
... is being remedied by new influences. The entrance of the pure Celtic temperament into English poetry through the Irish revival is likely to do much; the contribution of the Indian mind in work like Tagore's may act in the same direction. If this change is effected, the natural powers of the English spirit will be of the highest value to the future poetry. For that poetry is likely to move to the ...
... Then a strange thing happened. When we were in the Vital, my body suddenly became young again, as it had been when I was eighteen years old!... There was a young man named Pearson, a disciple of Tagore, who had lived with me in Japan for four years; he returned to India, and when he came to see me in Pondicherry, he was stupefied. 4 'What has happened to you!' he exclaimed. He hardly recognized ...
... as She remarked with her ever-present humor, That the superman shall be born of a woman is a great indisputable truth 1... The true domain of women is spiritual. We forget it too often. 19 Even Tagore, who was passing through Japan, was struck by Mothers clarity of vision and invited her to organize the education in his ashram at Shantiniketan—but what interested her was the Ashram of the world ...
... a lot of time and effort to preparing material for these three levels. With the first lot of smaller children, I started with my own compositions or with what I had learnt in Calcutta, songs by Rabindranath and other patriotic types of songs. For the middle and the upper level groups, I began collecting material from Sahana-di and some from my own collection. Conducting all the three levels of classes ...
... In the spiritual life, even more than in other fields since the possibilities and the pitfalls are greater here, a proper assessment of oneself is salutary and helpful. Two generations ago Tagore said that although India was lying in the dust the very dust in which she lay was holy. Obviously it was in his mind that this dust had been trod by the feet of Rishis and Saints and Avatars. Sri ...
... together and a bringing of them into true relation and oneness. A first opening out to this new way of seeing is the sense of the work of Whitman and Carpenter and some of the recent French poets, of Tagore and Yeats and A. E., of Meredith and some others of the English poets. There are critics who regard this tendency as only another Page 212 sign of decadence; they see in it a morbid brilliance ...
... And in poetry there is already the commencement of such a greater leading; the conscious effort of Whitman, the tone of Carpenter, the significance of the poetry of A. E., the rapid immediate fame of Tagore are its first signs. The idea of the poet who is also the Rishi has made again its appearance. Only a wider spreading of the thought and mentality in which that idea can live and the growth of an ...
... Seers that had reached its largest voice in the Gita broke through the religious turn; but the zest for a divine fulfilment on earth could not quite subdue the growing discontent and weariness to which Tagore has given tongue so memorably in his poem on the migrating cranes: "Not here, not here, somewhere afar is our home!" To effect a switch-over to the Here and Now, an age of Science, emphasising ...
... get done — now or later it becomes possible. Drive out the dark despair and go bravely on with your poetry, your novels and your Yoga. As the darkness disappears, the inner doors too will open." Tagore once said of the poetry of my father, Dwijendra Lal Roy, that he passed from the serious to the light moods with an astonishing ease of transit. The same might be said of Sri Aurobindo's letters... All right: I am ready to face it." "O Guru," I wrote, "three solid pieces of jolly news: first, a Muslim writer named Abul Fazl comes to congratulate me because in my recent controversy with Tagore, he opines, the latter had very much the worst of it. Then comes a savant who praises my Bengali novel, Dola. Last, though not least, turns up a Zamindar who implores me to draft for him an address... again down on us, males! She says man in such a foul seducer and poor woman (poor? a modem woman? good Lord!) such a guileless, simple and trustful tendril! I retaliated in banter and reminded her what Tagore had sighed over in the 'twenties: 'We are a much maligned sex, Dilip! The fair maid complains that we pursue and harry her. But between you and me, do you think that the most leonine of lions would ...
... education and in the context of the great experiments which came to be initiated and developed under the inspiration of leaders like Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo. As a result, methods of lecturing and the use of blackboard have remained the only methods of education in our country. If the same old system and old methodologies... as speedily as possible. XVIII. Let us not forget the Essentials — Care of the Living Soul of the Child Page 34 Let us not forget the essentials. Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore has given us an instructive short story "The Parrot's Training", the moral of which is that whatever structures we may build for education, whatever facilities and opportunities we may create for students ...
... was willing to pay to be able to count on his father's admiration and approval—made him feel humble, then strangely exalted. * * * Page 582 PARROT'S TRAINING RABINDRANATH TAGORE PRESENT BY SISIR KUMAR DAS There are four essentials that we must not forget while restructuring or reforming the educational system. Firstly, we must reognise that the child and its... perseverant soul are to be subserved; we must not build a system that would suffocate or smother that litde child, that little prince. This essential point is brought out forcefully by Rabindra Nath Tagore in his short story 'The Parrot's Training". It is so instructive that we may recount it in full. Once upon a time there was a bird. It was ignorant. It sang all right, but never recited scriptures ...
... men perfected their rifle-shooting skills. The idea of establishing these secret societies was not new in Bengal. Even my maternal grandfather Rajnarayan Bose had founded a society of which Rabindranath Tagore too had been a member for some time. But though they had great dreams and aspirations, they lacked the strength to realise them. For that, young men were needed, young men strong in body and... after this incident that he inserted the poem in his novel Anandamath. Everyone read the book, admired Page 137 and praised it, but no one remarked upon 'Bande Mataram'. It was Rabindranath Tagore who was the first losing this song in public at a Congress meeting, many years later. But the nation forgot about it once again until there came the partition of Bengal. 'Bande Mataram' was revived... knowledge and refined perception of India's art and literature, religion and philosophy. She also realised the need to educate our women. She knew and had exchanges with all the great minds of the age - Rabindranath, Jagadish Bose, Abanindranath, Tilak, all of them. It was largely due to her that Jagadish Bose received international scientific acclaim. It was she who helped Abanindranath awaken his artistic ...
... far he has been successful, I am not a musical expert and cannot pronounce. It was the Mother who gave him the advice and impulse to create something new. If Tagore's most recent verdict is sincere, he has succeeded in doing it, since Tagore speaks of him as a creator or in music. A new creation need not be on one line only, each creator follows his own line, otherwise he would be more of an... the medicine to Nirod who will prepare it for you and you can take it after the evening meditation and go home and rest. No date I have read the letters. I suppose you can write to Tagore. I hope however that you will be able to put yourself right with him without any clash occurring with D. I say this only because he seems to be in such a state of frequently recurring despondency that ...
... mind. The same can be said of the Supermind. Disciple : I may illustrate the difference in types by taking Tagore and J.G.Bose – both of them are intellectuals. Sri Aurobindo ; In the case of Tagore and Bose, on the whole Page 83 you can say that Tagore has got a richer development than Bose. He is a greater personality also. Disciple : What would be the final... And then he has got this "educated" stupidity about his Guru ! What people understand by education is some kind of ideas or thoughts and restlessness without any fixity of aim. He can take yoga from Tagore if he wants a good-looking Guru ! The whole thing is that he is not prepared to take trouble. Disciple : His idea of mahāpurusa – great man – is that he can make small men do what they ...
... decoration have begun to be widely appreciated and have exercised a strong if subtle influence. Poetry has for some time commenced to speak uncertainly a new language,—note that the world-wide fame of Tagore would have been unthinkable thirty years ago,—and Page 71 one often finds the verse even of ordinary writers teeming with thoughts and expressions which could formerly have found few parallels ...
... suited to India. But we always take up Page 214 what the West has thrown off____ (A disciple:) What is your idea of an ideal government for India? My idea is like what Tagore once wrote. There may be one Rashtrapati at the top with considerable powers so as to secure a continuity of policy, and an assembly representative of the nation. The provinces will combine into a ...
... and declared that every individual soul is potentially divine; and this is the ideal that has been greatly experimented upon in the educational endeavour initiated by Swami Vivekananda. Rabindra Nath Tagore created Shanti Niketan as a cradle of the creative development of personality in its harmonious relationship with universal Nature. In basic education, too, the emphasis on human personality and ...
... say. My rapidity slowed down much after D turned turtle and the correspondence avalanche restarted. However "nous progressâmes." 7 Will you cast a glance at J's story—Russian Cat, which even Tagore liked? I shall try my Herculean best—I can't promise more. Please give me some force for poetry now—without it I don't know how to come out of this condition. All right—shall try that also ...
... less known persons sought and obtained interviews with him during these years. Thus, among well-known persons may be mentioned C. R. Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sarala Devi, Dr. Munje, Khasirao Jadhava, Tagore, Sylvain Levy. The great national poet of Tamilnad, S. Subramanya Bharati, was in contact with Sri Aurobindo for some years during his stay at Pondicherry; so was V. V. S. Aiyar. The famous V. Ramaswamy ...
... Majumdar (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan), and on The Philosophy and Religion of Sri Chaitanya, by O.B.L. Kapoor (Munshiram Manoharlal). Chaitaanya with his disciples, by Abanindranath Tagore Notes 1 Shraddha Ceremony: Traditional ceremony in commemoration of a deceased parent. 2 Samkirtana: Group dancing and chanting in the name of Krishna. A distinctly informal, u ...
... Bhagalpur, Rangpur and 1. The Karmayogin - 7th and a few subsequent issues of the paper. 2. "Aurobindo’s maternal grandfather, Rajnarayan Bose, formed once a secret society of which Tagore, then a very young man, became a member, and also set up an institution for national and revolutionary propaganda, but this finally came to nothing." - Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on The Mother ...
... our freedom in the world of deeper social relationship. Such freedom of realization is possible only because supreme Truth is Shantam, is Shivam, is Peace, is Goodness, is Love." —Rabindranath Tagore National Policy on Education 1986, in part VIII para 8.5 had made following observations: *"In our culturally plural society, education should foster eternal values, oriented towards... teacher would make our lives enjoyable, fruitful and worthwhile in the truest sense. I would like to conclude the brief presentation and discussion by reminding my fellow teachers what Gurudev Rabindranath conveys through a small earthen lamp. The setting sun was worried as to who would provide light to the universe in its absence. A little earthen lamp took up the challenge and assured the mighty... many cultures and people for several centuries. The Saks, Huns, Mughals, Pathans and Europeans invaded India through several centuries and finally settled down here itself. In poet-philosopher, Rabindranath's view, they all merged into one body and that is India. Is that vision still valid? Even in the age of globalization, a country is not worth her existence without an identity characterized ...
... received from him began to push me towards further activity, but almost all of [my efforts] were mere versifications, devoid of any originality, Sri Aurobindo remarked to Dilip that I was too much under Tagore's influence, and I must get rid of it if I wanted to be a poet with a true, individual originality. But how was I to do that? After a patient and prolonged exercise, I succeeded, but failed to tap the ...
... seems to have learned to live in a world of her own, with its own laws and correspondences and exhilarations. An analogue, perhaps, to the Parrots' Isle into which Gaffer periodically escapes in Tagore's The Post Office: a land of wonders, of hills and waterfalls, of birds flying and singing! As she was to recollect on 18 April 1956, while talking of her own childhood experiences : There ...
... who was a lifelong devotee of Kali. Besides, Vedanta does not bar Kali worship. 22. Girija surmises that Sri Aurobindo must have met Devendra Nath Tagore. There is no proof that he met him – as a matter of fact he did not see Devendra Nath Tagore. 23. Girija says that before marriage Sri Aurobindo went through śuddhi by taking cowdung etc. The fact seems to be that there was no shaving of... some ideal of human perfection; for, after all, freedom is not the ultimate goal but a condition for the expression of the cultural Spirit of India. In Swami Shraddhananda, Pandit Madanmohan Malavia, Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi – to name some leaders – we see the double aspect of the inspiration. Among all the visions of perfection of the human Spirit on earth, I found the synthetic and integral vision... does Girija explain the difference in the growth and life of the three brothers who had the same parents, went through the same environment and were educated in England together? And why is it that Tagore's son has not become a world-famous poet? So, there are factual errors, inferential errors and errors based on wrong sources. 4. In the last issue of the Udbodhan, recently printed, Girija has ...
... experience which reappears constantly in later Indian writing, the figures of the Tantras and Puranas, the figures of the Vaishnava poets,—one might add even a certain element in the modern poetry of Tagore,—and has its kindred movements in certain Chinese poets and in the images of the Sufis. The poet has to express a spiritual and psychical knowledge and experience and he cannot do it altogether or ...
... × For example, one still reads with a sense of despairing stupefaction "criticism" that speaks of Ravi Varma and Abanindranath Tagore as artistic creators of different styles, but an equal power and genius! ...
... utterance. Much of present-day English poetry drives in the same direction but with less subtlety and a more forceful outwardness of sight and tone. The Irish poets and in a different way the few Indians, Tagore and Chattopadhyay and Mrs. Naidu, who have written in English or transferred their poetical thought into that medium, aim at pure intuitivities of a more psychic feeling, sensation and life-vision ...
... p. 260, p. 269, 272, p. 277 — Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust Archives, p. 514, p. 515, p. 520 — Editions Auroville Press Publishers: p. 495 — Jean-Louis Nou, Mathura Museum: p. 96 — Abanindranath Tagore: p. 60 — Nandalal Bose: p. 74, p. 75, p. 81 — Upendra Maharathi, National Gallery of Modern Arts, New Delhi: p. 93. Page 526 Printed at Auroville Press 2005 Auroville, India ...
... known persons sought and obtained interviews with him during these years. Thus, among the well – known persons may be mentioned C. R. Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sarala Devi, Dr. Munje, Khasirao Jadhava, Tagore and Sylvain Levy. The great national poet of Tamilnad, S. Subramanya Bharati, was in contact with Sri Aurobindo for some years during his stay at Pondicherry; so was V. V. S. Aiyar. The famous V ...
... Life", there is the adventurous climbing up the slopes of Aspiration, and the sustained effort needed to reach the heights. It seems not unlike the climactic situation in Ibsen's Brand or in Tagore's The Child. In her pre-Pondicherry period the Mother had first made a painting she called "Ascent to the Truth" 3 and this painting was to inspire the Ashram children to represent the idea in sand ...
... for. February 4, 1935 Voila, je m´en réjouis [There, I am delighted]. See back!! Tagore promises. I had written to him a thundering letter: '"Your life or the preface" sort of browbeating—the bluff worked. He is terrified into prefacing. Truly I am very glad. I wired to Tagore and Saratchandra to-day exultantly. I have been receiving some firm letters of encomium on my novel... undoubtedly though Dhurjati 110 is wrong in opining there is no great difference between me and Tagore. There is and that is fundamental. I stand (whatever my worth) for the Classical style in music viz. that class of music where the singer or executant is a creator at every step in improvisations etc. while Tagore is for fining the cadre of the melody a la European music where the singer, as you know, follows... insincere? By the way what are the two parts of minati [supplication]? 1 don't know the etymology of the word. And are sābda [sound], mandir [temple] etc. made up of parts that can be separated as Tagore has done? Queer! January 15.1935 I send you only two pages more as you have three pages with you still. My poems "Poet and Rishi" and "Bidayotsabi" and Page 218 ...
... enlightened in its consciousness. Already, some faint glimmerings of that recognition are visible in the Eastern sky, "a long lone line of hesitating hue". His Birth Centenary is knocking at our door. Rabindranath's salutation to him in his political days will turn into a salutation of the whole of humanity as its lover and saviour. The long lone hue will be transformed into a full blaze of the living Sun ...
... infallible or the senses are infallible. Page 323 Russell has the doubts because he has no spiritual experience, Rolland because he takes his emotional intellectuality for spirituality, Tagore— If one is blind, it is quite natural—for the human intelligence which is rather an asinine thing at its best—to deny light; if one's highest natural vision is that of glimmering mists, it is equally ...
... line and a no-man’s-land between the two units.” She said, “Draw it again and explain it to them.” I tried. Later Vasudev and Bikhabhai left the Sports Ground for safer if not greener pastures. Barun Tagore replaced them. The two units became one — yet Barun mainly looking after the Ground and Yogananda looking after the Pool. I was assistant to both. Then did Barun blunder. The Annexe Ground was to ...
... it is so grotesque! ( Laughing ) That's enough for you to... One suddenly feels that he is becoming—oh, so absolutely ridiculous! I remember I read in French—it was a translation—a sentence of Tagore's which amused me very much. He was speaking of a little dog. He said... he compared it with something... I don't remember the details now, but what struck me was this: the little dog was sitting on ...
... what he owes me (to be offered to Mother of course). En attendant, I have been hard at work revising this and adding new things – to make it sell even better in the second edition. I have written Tagore’s death-scene day before yesterday and am going to add a letter or two of Holland – one on yourself. 1 have chosen two letters to be added to the second edition. Here they are. Please revise... others are beginning to admit now he was. I would like you to read Sajani’s tribute to him which I enclose herewith. You know the Tagorites cut him for a long time because he (my father) called Tagore effeminate and an “actor “. JVow many say he had to protest as he (my father) stood for virility in literature, as Sajani too says. He will issue a royal edition of his poems and songs only. The ...
... suffers no wrong; it consents to be worshipped in passionate Dionysiac temples as in fanes of Apollonian calm, to lust on Sappho's lips and deny the gods with Lucretius just as excellently as to weave Tagore's song-garlands for an immortal Beloved and, through Dante, hear even the mouth of hell declare God's mercy. Else it would be curious that the largest poetic splendour the modern ages have witnessed ...
... genius from India, to which it must belong, without making it a native of England, for English learned as a foreign language can never nourish the invisible roots of poetry. I feel this even about Tagore, and so did Yeats. I do not believe that we can - or if we could, that we have the right to - write poetry in a language other than our own. 8 Strong words! But for the fact that we know ...
... that Sri Aurobindo's Force?" Page 484 What is Sri Aurobindo's force? It is not a personal property of this body or mind. It is a higher Force used by me or acting through me. "And Tagore, Lenin and other greats. Is the Divine Force working in them too?" Of course it is a Divine Force, for there is only one force acting in the world, but it acts according to the nature of the instrument ...
... Utanka encounters every sort of experience and danger in order to procure the presents of Veda's choice before being free to leave his preceptor's home. Kacha and Devayani - Abanindranath Tagore Another picture of ideal studentship is brought out in the story of Kacha and Devayani. Devayani's father Sukracharya, was Kacha's teacher. She fell in love with Kacha, but he had taken the vow ...
... physical Tapasya even at this age! It cannot be denied, anyway, that Sri Aurobindo was not meant for such hard and rough gymnastics. There are some things which cannot be conceived of, for instance Tagore or Dilip courting jail during the Non-cooperation movement. Manilal's prescription did some good all the same; for the soft and mellow frame got a firm nervous tone and the muscles developed fine ...
... that was the tragedy of Tagore and Yeats too when they wrote in English. But then words are not frozen icebergs. They are capable of growing and acquiring newer warmer shades of meaning and newer powers of expression, newer associations and subtleties, rich in many proportions. Indeed for English a new possibility been opened out by Sri Aurobindo, a possibility which Tagore could not open out even... that she did not have facts with her. It is also strange that several decades ago a critic in the The Times Literary Supplement said that Sri Aurobindo's poetry did not have the magical rhythm of Tagore, Iqbal and Sarojini Naidu,—which only shows that he was not perceptive of the deeper and subtler rhythms that go far beyond just the lyrical. However, in his defence it may be said that much of ...
... regarding the exhibition in Indian Embassies for the Centenary was read. Mother said, "C'est bien." In reply to the specific question about quotations from C. R. Reddy, Romain Rolland and Rabindranath Tagore, Mother remarked that it should be in such a way that they are not prominent. * * * 6.5.72 "Nothing?" I nodded my head. * * * 7.5.72 Offering of ...
... ourselves by spiritual means from attacks from outside, but not enter into mental or outward conflict with others. If his friends are meant to come here, it must happen otherwise. 30 March 1936 What Tagore or others think or say does not matter very much after all as we do not depend on them for our work but on the Divine Will only. So many have said and thought all sorts Page 692 of things ...
... without ever thinking of our household expenses. Moreover, I have neither the patience nor the inclination to read such a big volume. I went to a bookshop and found a Mahabharata by Sourendra Mohan Tagore, a neat and smaller edition for seven and a half rupees. I bought it and read it. A few days later when the topic of the Mahabharata came up again I brought out the book with some diffidence and placed ...
... Chitrangada exercised a strange fascination over Tagore as well as Sri Aurobindo. In the latter's rendering of the theme, Chitrangada seems to accept the inevitability of Arjuna parting from her sooner or later: Thou art not ours More than the wind that lingers for a while To touch our hair, then passes to its home. 50 Tagore brought his own insights into his subtle delineation ...
... giving him a long account of the fallow land of my heart: "I will have little to lose as I feel I have not been getting on famously in your Supramental Yoga and so am often reminded, now-a-days, of Tagore's remark in 1938: 'You and I are artists, Dilip, not Yogis by temperament'. So will you permit me to go?" — and so on. To that Gurudev wrote back: "After receiving your account of your present... comes which it surely will if you resist the temptation to run away into some outer darkness which it would have much more difficulty in reaching. The details you give do not at all convince me that Tagore was right in thinking that your sadhana was not at all in line with my Yoga or that you are right in concluding that you are not meant for this line. On the contrary, these are things which come ...
... after his affairs, his bhakti is constant and genuine. I am simply overjoyed to learn that one day your retirement can really come to an end. We had always a fear that you might never come out. Tagore expressed this sentiment saying that the world has lost you. How can the world be changed without the personal presence of the Incarnate Divine? You mean to say I am not personally present—I have... were astounded! Was that Sri Aurobindo's Force? What is Sri Aurobindo's force? It is not a personal property of this body or mind. It is a higher Force used by me or acting through me. And Tagore, Lenin, etc. who are giants—is your Divine Force working in them too? Of course it is a Divine Force, for there is only one force acting in the world, but it acts according to the nature of the ...
... with the choric movement. One finds the same thing sometimes in French vers libre, —one poem at least of the kind I have seen of wonderful beauty,—though the success is not so easy in that language. Tagore has recently attempted a kind of free verse in Bengali, not so good as his regular metres, though melodious enough, as everything must be that is written by this master musician of the word, and throughout ...
... a single good poem and had no power over rhythm and metre before he came here, suddenly, not after long "assiduous" efforts blossomed into a poet, rhythmist and metrist after he came here? Why was Tagore dumbfounded by the "lame man throwing away his crutches and running" freely and surely on the paths of rhythm? Why was it that I who never understood or cared for painting, suddenly in a single hour ...
... ( 2 ) Man Vs. Man, ( 3 ) Man divided in his own self, a state of a psychological dichotomy. The first of these, Man Vs. Nature, is only a half truth. Nature is not always antagonistic to man. Tagore is more correct when he says that the effort to divide man and Nature- is artificial like that of dividing the plant from the flower, and is therefore wrong. It is Nature that supports man giving ...
... with her past work—what a miraculously rapid development! But, my dear sir, it often happens like that. I believe you were not here when D's poetry blossomed; but it was quite as sudden. Remember Tagore's description of him as the cripple who suddenly threw away his crutches and began to run and his astonishment at the miracle. Nishikanta came out in much the same way, a sudden Brahmaputra of inspiration ...
... his South African victories and the more recent crown of the Champaran struggle - had suddenly emerged as a formidable power. National resentment against the alien rule had mounted a new dimension, Tagore had returned Page 526 his Knighthood in immitigable anguish, and in Madras S. Srinivasa Iyenger had resigned his Advocate-Generalship in February 1920. In the early months of 1920... Grace and the Guru, Cosmic Consciousness, the Vedic Gods, Yogic miracles, Ouspensky, Jacob Boehme, M. Théon, astrology, the interpretation of dreams, Kaya Kalpa, Space and Time, Russian Communism, Tagore, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya's poetry, current literature, Islamic culture, Indo-English poetry. Art, Education, medicine, psychology - all these and the Sadhana of Supramental Yoga as well! Those ...
... first sign of this remarkable achievement in poetic creation was given by the success of Tagore's Gitanjali. It showed that the expression of the Indian Spirit even in a remarkably Indian manner can find a high place in the cultural achievement of the human spirit. In fact, that which finds expression in Tagore is something of the fundamental spiritual elements and forms of Indian culture, not its ...
... first sign of this remarkable achievement in poetic creation was given by the success of Tagore's "Gitanjali". It showed that the expression of the Indian Spirit even in a remarkably Indian manner, can find a high place in the cultural achievement of the human spirit. In fact, that which finds expression in Tagore is something of the fundamental spiritual elements and forms of Indian culture, not its ...
... the national hymn, jana Gana Mana had to be played by the band as the national anthem. Mother said that Vande Mataram was not merely a song, it was a mantra. We played to her a record of Rabindranath's musical rendering of Vande Mataram and jana Gana Mana. Then I played to her Timirbaran's rendering of Vande Mataram. Mother preferred Timirbaran's rendering. It was also more suitable ...
... purity “, etc.) wrote to me not to write English verses. His argument is the old one: you can’t create first-class stuff in a learned language. And then where Tagore too has failed, etc. You know all that. What was the failure? Tagore’s Gitanjali had an immense success. I am not troubled as I write in English because 1)1 like to, 2) it puts me in a right attitude. But... because I know / have never written better poems in my life. I ask you also to note that this metre is Madhusudan’s with the rich paurush [manliness] which characterised his diction and which Tagore could not follow up because he, with all his greatness, did not have this element in his composition as my father, who had it, often used to say regretting. But I am taking your time. To resume ...
... traditions, but that, being a French subject, she had to watch her step. A couple of representative quotations in this context may suffice. K.D. Sethna wrote somewhere in 1978: ‘Two generations ago Tagore said that although India was lying in the dust, the very dust in which she lay was holy. Obviously it was in his mind that this dust had been trod by the feet of Rishis and Saints and Avatars. Sri ...
... kaleidoscope, there was a preordained change of scene, and she went to Japan with Richard. Four years there, and as we saw, four years of warm friendships and enriching new experiences - the Okhawas, Tagore, the Kobayashis, Dorothy, Zen, 'still-sitting', flowers, tea, flu! But her place was with Sri Aurobindo alone, and so she left for India, and reached Pondicherry on 24 April 1920. The past with all ...
... Dilip Kumar Roy It is again a beautiful poem that you have written, 1 but not better than the other. Why erect mental theories and suit your poetry to them whether your father's or Tagore's? I would suggest to you not to be bound by either, but to write as best suits your own inspiration and poetic genius. I imagine that each of them wrote in the way suited to his own inspiration and... the habit of the human mind, put that way forward as a general rule for all. You have developed an original poetic turn of your own, quite unlike your father's and not by any means a reflection of Tagore's. Besides, there is now as a result of your sadhana a new quality in your work, a power of expressing with great felicity a subtle psychic delicacy and depth of thought and emotion which I have not ...
... chimera.) ‘Something strange happened; when we were in the vital all at once my body became young again just like I was eighteen!’ told the Mother. ‘There was a young man named Pearson, a disciple of Tagore, who had been in Japan [at the same time as the Richards] and who had come back to India, and he came to visit me. When he saw me, he was stupefied. He said: “But what has happened to you?” He did ...
... move the higher will to do what is best. Prayer is not for receiving the answer that one desires. It is wrong on the part of human being to say, "What I pray for must be given because I pray for it." Tagore says in his Gitanjali: "My desires are many and my cry is pitiful, and yet did thou save me by hard refusals." He is telling the Divine, "By not fulfilling my desires you have saved me." So prayer ...
... after the young men associated with the journals, who decided accordingly to disperse and make themselves scarce. Of the three permanent residents at the Shyampukur office, Suresh took refuge in the Tagore family, Bejoy disappeared in Calcutta, and Nolini found a temporary asylum in the house 6f a friend in a remote village. 6 V Sri Aurobindo stayed in Chandernagore for a month and a ...
... of his poetic work appears. In fact I have had access to only two numbers of Temenos - one of them was sent by you, containing your article on Kabir and Yeats and Radice's splendid translations of Tagore. I am interested to learn of your coming visit to America. You speak enthusiastically about the people there, but when I mentioned Thomas R. Whitaker's Swan and Shadow as having been hailed as... if I should stray into your dreams I hope my presence may be auspicious and that I shall not be carrying a copy of the TLS. I might have been Page 260 carrying a very good paper by Tagore, on 'Personality' based on his interpretation of the Isha Upanishad. No doubt you know it. (1.1.1989) From K. D. Sethna Your letter of Jan.l was a pleasure with its varied looking before ...
... In the evening, she shut herself up for hours again in the Meditation Room. At times, at the request of her parents and friends she would take up the harmonium and sing devotional songs composed by Tagore and others. "She was always simply but neatly dressed and looked like a Yogini. In the matter of food, meat, fish and sweets were excluded from her diet. Only at the request of her parents she would ...
... on the Victorian, Poets concentrates on the big three - Tennyson, Browning and Arnold - and then follow four chapters on "Recent English Poetry", the focus of interest being on Whitman, Carpenter, Tagore, A.E., Phillips and W.B. Yeats, all of whom were "recent poets" enough over fifty years ago when these articles were contributed to the Arya. Whitman, not unreasonably, is given the largest amount... sensuous mortal", Ahana descends at last, and prepares to guide Man anew to Brindavan. The first Part is riotously magnificent as poetry and is very little weighted with philosophy; it is more like Tagore's Urvasi, and Ahana is invoked tantalisingly as Woman and Goddess, as Beauty and Love, as rapture and rupture, as Harlot and Virgin, and as the bane and boon of all. The second Part is less Dionysian ...
... long account of the fallow land of my heart: "I will have little to lose as I feel I have not been getting on famously in your Yoga for some time past and so am often reminded, now-a-days, of Tagore's remark in 1938: 'You and I are artists, Dilip, not Yogis by temperament.' So will you permit me to go?" To that Gurudev wrote back: "After receiving your account of your present condition... dawn comes — it surely will if you resist the temptation to run away into some outer darkness which it would have much difficulty in reaching. The details you give do not at all convince me that Tagore was right in thinking that your sadhana was not at all in line with my Yoga or that you are right in concluding that you are not meant for this line. On the contrary, these are things which come ...
... at the beginning of last year. We went on to discuss Yeats and the subject became livelier with the arrival here of your remarkable Yeats the Initiate and brought in many other topics, including Tagore in Radice's translation, and in and out of the to-and-fro of our opinions and arguments the subject of Sri Aurobindo as a poet kept moving before it took the centre of the stage and along with its... is the end of our humanity. As to "dalliance' I think of myself rather as on the field of the Great Battle in a beleaguered outpost, with little opportunity for dalliance! Rather like seeing Tagore's 'jasmin-spray' as the missiles and bullets whizz past. All the dearer its beauty indeed, but one wants rather to tell the grass and the leaves and the waters and the very soil of the earth that we ...
... opinion of the general mass of men that finally decides, the decision is really imposed by the judgment of a minority and élite which is finally accepted and settles down as the verdict of posterity; in Tagore's phrase it is the universal man, viśva mānava , or rather something universal using the general mind of man, we might say the Cosmic Self in the race that fixes the value of its own works. In regard ...
... sake? How does the Divine benefit by it? Very hungry, I suppose would like a nice goat-chop? I wonder if you know that some Sharma has gone on hunger-strike to stop the sacrifices at Kalighat. Tagore supports him. Of course, I know. But he objects to animal sacrifice; why does he make a goat-offering of himself to Kali? Is human sacrifice better than animal sacrifice? The argument is: what ...
... the industry in the world could not have made him a poet, a novelist, a prosodist, an effective writer on serious questions... None of you realise that X had talent but no genius before he came here—Tagore is right there, except in music—and even there many criticised him as shallow, limited, superficial; merely pretty, lacking in depth, power, greatness. I saw a letter of an admirer the other day who ...
... been called "the militant defender of his country, the Olympian champion of truth, the ruthless antagonist to sham"; 3 he was a leader of the Brahmo Samaj in its palmiest days, and Devendranath Tagore said of his books: "Whatever falls from the lips of Rajnarain Babu creates a great sensation in the country"; undoubtedly one of the makers of modern Bengal, he is not inaptly described as the " ...
... a velvety softness an ineffable plasticity. Any fellow who knows anything about Yoga would immediately say: What a fine experience — a very clear and spiritual and psychic experience!" But, as Tagore used to say again and again, a boon can never be given, it has to be won, that is, one has to be mature enough to assimilate it. So, for years to come, the "fine experience" was not repeated — ...
... assisted by some Ashramites who had recently joined the community, which went on growing despite the difficult financial and material times. There was Sisir Kumar Mitra, who had been a professor at Tagore’s Vishva Bharati and who now became the Head of the school; there was Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya, who would become the head of the Department of Physical Education and a very close assistant of the Mother ...
... alive, if all were like the refrain, I should say "Bury, bury - burn, burn." 86 7.NB: J doubts that her poems have enough poetry. Our saying and feeling don't matter much, you see. Sri Aurobindo, Tagore, etc., etc. must acclaim. Please acclaim, acclaim! Sri Aurobindo: Clamo, clamavi, clamabo. [In Latin: I Page 108 acclaim, I have acclaimed, I shall acclaim.] 87 8.NB: "My ...
... p. 58. 91 See, Ranajit Sarkar, In Search of Kalidasa's Thought-World , Lucknow, 1985. 92 The Harmony of Virtue , SABCL, Vol. 3, p. 223. 93 Ibid , p. 225. 94 See, Rabindranath Thakur,"Sakuntala", p. 395, in, Dipikā, ed. Sudhiranjan Das, Calcutta 1964. 95 The Future Poetry , SABCL, Vol. 9, p. 209. Page 461 and rivers, birds and beasts was ...
... mention is a signal example of a writer who erected his personality into a style and lives by that achievement—Pater and Wilde are other examples. As for Bengali we have had Bankim and have still Tagore and Sarat Chatterji. That is sufficient achievement for a single century. I have not answered your question—but I have explained my phrase and I think that is all you can expect from me. 15 September ...
... My career was much less brilliant than many others'. They ought to have progressed then farther in Yoga than myself, e.g. Mussolini, Lenin, Tilak, Brajendranath Seal, the admirable Crichton, Gandhi, Tagore, Roosevelt, Lloyd George etc. etc. All Avatars or all full of the essential principle! The inner consciousness is there. All that does not apply to me alone. There are hundreds of others. The ...
... action that chase each other across the modern field or clash upon it. He is a reader of poetry as well as a devourer of fiction and periodical literature, — you will find in him perhaps a student of Tagore or an admirer of Whitman; he has perhaps no very clear ideas about beauty and aesthetics, but he has heard that Art is a not altogether unimportant part of life. The shadow of this new colossus is ...
... reappeared in Indian experiments of education during the last hundred years and more. When Swami Vivekananda spoke of man-making education, he referred to this inmost soul and its potential divinity. When Tagore spoke of education for personality development, he referred to this very entity, which like the bird, is born twice. Sri Aurobindo spoke of the Upanishadic antar atman and of the psychic being which ...
... Ghoshal (Chaudhurani), and by 1903 a strong base had been established in Bengal, the central direction being vested in a committee of five consisting of Sister Nivedita, C. R. Das, P. Mitter, Suren Tagore and Jatin Banerjee.* Then came the Partition of Bengal, the great upsurge in Bengal and in the country as a whole, the "Bhavani Mandir" pamphlet which acted as heady wine to numerous revol ...
... My career was much less brilliant than many others'. They ought to have progressed then farther in Yoga than myself, e.g. Mussolini, Lenin, Tilak, Brajendranath Seal, the admirable Crichton, Gandhi, Tagore, Roosevelt, Lloyd George etc., etc. All Avatars or all full of the essential principle. If one has the essential principle, what does it matter if one has no urge towards spirituality? The inner ...
... recognize the great gulf between what we are and what we may and ought to strive to be,’ 16 wrote Sri Aurobindo. K.D. Sethna, in Our Light and Delight, has a witty anecdote. ‘Two generations ago Tagore said that although India was lying in the dust, the very dust in which she lay was holy. Obviously it was in his mind that this dust had been trod by the feet of the Rishis and Saints and Avatars. ...
... cases are different because of unusual or of complex elements of a considerable significance to which a short definition is not easily fitted. Writings, c. 1920 - X Yes. I am here——————————— Tagore There is not much to say. It is evident that there is in him a double being, one for the higher part of him, another for the lower nature. The higher is a very large psychic devata living in the ...
... ages and climes, poets, thinkers and mystics have deeply pondered over this mystery of death and expressed their uncertainty and misgivings in the matter in various characteristic ways. Thus Tagore, the Nobel Laureate poet, sang: Page 3 "Where is the journey's end and what is there beyond? All our hopes and desires, and all our efforts, Where do they peter out at ...
... till doomsday: whether sympathy is more likely to be nearer the truth than a cold critical appraisement. I feel no urge to swell the inconclusive babel of such a debate. So I will only repeat what Tagore told me once sighing, with a picturesque charm all his own (which I lack): "I really long to praise, Dilip! Some times it even grows on me like hunger or thirst. But I can't alas! Many there are of ...
... मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरं Madhurādhipater Akhilam Madhuram Madhuram The Charming Lord Wholly Madhuram Page 205 Chaitanya with his disciples, by Abanindranath Tagore (b) Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's experiences of Sri Krishna (A Selection) In the spiritual history of India Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486 AD-1534)is considered to be the i ...
... intellectual work and may be interesting but nothing more. Page 115 4–9–1940 Disciple : In a text-book of the Hindu University for the B.A. degree there is selection from Tagore in which he states that : Kalidas was very much touched by the immorality of his age and he deplores it in the "Raghu vansha" Sri Aurobindo : That is a new discovery – if he says so. ... not shocked. Sri Aurobindo : He is one who is attracted by beauty, even when he is attracted by a thought or philosophy it is the beauty of the thought that appeals to him. Disciple : Tagore has said in reviewing 'Shakuntala' that the love which Dushyanta felt for Shakuntala at the first sight was only passion, a result of mere physical, at most vital, attraction. But when he meets her ...
... Then a strange thing happened. When we were in the Vital, my body suddenly became young again, as it had been when I was eighteen years old!... There was a young man named Pearson, a disciple of Tagore, who had lived with me in Japan for four years; he returned to India, and when he came to see me in Pondicherry, he was stupefied.¹ 'What has happened to you!' he exclaimed. He hardly recognised me ...
... wanting. After the initial excitement had passed, there was an interfusion of the new and the old, the primacy of the West was no more accepted as a matter of course, and in the work of Bankim Chandra, Tagore and their contemporaries in Bengal and elsewhere, and in the vision of Vivekananda, a synthesis was attempted. Still later, there have been attempts at fresh and new creation, as distinct from mere ...
... times - there is presented the clash between an old ethic and a new, associated respectively with two different gods: Poseidon and Pallas Athene in Perseus, and Thor and Freya in Eric. As in Tagore's Sacrifice and Christopher Fry's Thor, with Angels, - in the former the old bloodthirsty goddess comes out of her cruel prison of stone to find a sanctuary in the woman's compassionate heart, ...
... the general mass of men that finally decides, the decision is really imposed by the judgment of a minority and elite which is finally accepted and settles down as the verdict of posterity; in Tagore's phrase it is the universal man, viśva mānava, or rather something universal using the general mind of man, we might say the Cosmic Self in the race that fixes the value of its own works. In regard ...
... aims at reconstruction and reform of rural, social, and political organizations based on equality, empowerment of the weak and the oppressed, decentralisation and brotherhood. Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore, the great poet of modern India, established at Shantiniketan an experimental Institution for a new aim and mode of education where the beauty and sublimity of Nature can serve as a living partner ...
... schemes for the future but at the same time did not like the modern trends of Japan. He used to say : "My psychic being has become a traitor.” Disciple : Have you read Noguchi's letter to Tagore defending Japan's aggression? Sri Aurobindo : No. But there are always two sides to a Page 214 question. I don't believe in such shouts against Imperialism. Conquests ...
... perversion. Disciple : Is it not true that when we suffer we turn to God ? Sri Aurobindo : Not necessarily. There are people who suffer and suffer and never turn to God. Disciple : Tagore says, "Suffering or joy, whatever you give, I put it on my head and accept with equal joy," – Page 201 Sri Aurobindo : Yes, yes. That is all right. That is like all things ...
... But once again, there has been witnessed in our own time a return to the older type of Ashram that trained people for here and now, and not only for the hereafter. In their different ways Gurudev Tagore at Shantiniketan, Gandhiji at Sabarmati and Shevagram, and in many of the Ramakrishna Mission centres, the challenges of everyday life were not ignored, although the Divine Presence was always assumed ...
... society to no one. The idea of forming secret revolutionary societies had been in the air in Bengal for a long time. Even Rajnarayan Bose, Sri Aurobindo's grandfather, had started a society which Tagore had joined when young! But these efforts did not result in any achievement. There was a secret society in Maharashtra presided over by Thakur Ramsingh, the Rajput prince. The Bombay branch was managed ...
... know this staircase climbing up to Pavitra-da’s? Yes. Well, once again, but without any effort, the dress made another man roll down, and brushed him away... Well, this second man was Barun Tagore! 22 Strangely enough! Brushed away. Completely. Like a dead leaf, you understand. Like a fallen leaf you sweep away, it does not require any effort. Page 77 But for the first... right, that’s enough. * I would like to add something that strikes me all of a sudden and that I had not realized before. The second person Mother swept away like a dead leaf, that Barun Tagore ... Here again ... He was a nasty, tiny little man, but he had such power — and the plan he had ... For he had power at Laffont’s. What he wanted to do was to catch, to seize hold of Satprem,... against Auroville, and as Satprem was not under her thumb, she turned against Satprem. What one cannot swallow up, one tries to destroy, Page 192 it is that simple and sordid. As for Barun Tagore, from Auro-press, he tried to swallow Satprem’s books and as Satprem did not give him Mother’s Agenda , he turned against Satprem, he even tried to ruin Satprem in the eyes of his publishers in ...
... certainty m the present case is in reference to "someone" whom she had known well in Japan and who later visited her in Pondicherry. The person concerned was W. W. Pearson who had been with Tagore in Japan in 1916 when the Mother too had been in that country. He visited Pondicherry on 17 April 1923.¹His surprise at finding the Mother looking like an eighteen-year-old although in fact she ...
... he read proofs, he revised poems written by others, he gave interviews though only very occasionally. Even during the years of complete retirement after 1926, he received friends and savants like Tagore, Sylvain Levi, M. Baron the Governor of Pondicherry, M. Schumann from Paris, C.R. Reddy, K.M. Munshi, and others. From behind the scenes, he helped the Mother whenever necessary with advice regarding ...
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