Bengal Tagore!

Today is the birth date of polymath Rabindranath Tagore or, 'Bard of Bengal' (1861-1941); 1st non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1913, for 'Gitanjali' ('Song Offerings'). I knew the name, but nothing of the man, and his work, so was pleased to learn more about him - with some surprises.

With wonderful humility on receiving the Prize, he said:  'I know that I must not accept that praise as my individual share. It is the East in me which gave to the West'. 

Surprised to discover he had lived so close to my home in Hove; Medina Villas, 1878-8; attending public school in Brighton, then college in London, it being his father's wish he train to become a barrister. He, himself, preferred studying Shakespeare.

A preface by Yeats, in the English translation of 'Gitanjali', affirming his ability to 'discover the Soul and surrender himself to its spontaneity', did much to boost his sphere of influence to encompass a far greater orbit. A bust honours him in Dublin's St. Stephen's Green Park [picture by Osam Shakur Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glas)]. There's another in London's Gordon Square, where he was dispatched while still on his father's trajectory of going into Law. Tagore's personal preference was for studying Shakespeare. Fortunately for all of us, that 'surrender to spontaneity' won out! So, not a barrister, then, but a bloody genius! Countless poems; artworks; plays; songs, two of which became national anthems for India & Bangladesh. A lived definition of 'polymath'.

Exceptionally difficult to do him justice in one small space, especially having only just 'met' - but, I would love to share, here, what I have discovered; offered as a taster, an appetizer, to pique a hunger to learn more...

I always admire those who give voice to what I call 'soul speak': the hard-to-define language of faith, that doesn't repel, or sound forced: Rumi, Ansari, and Tagore.

Plain, simple, authentic, practical, of service. Beautiful.

Love - Tagore's guiding force. The heart of his life's service.But also the spirit behind his love poems, and art.

Knowing his primary relationship is with God; the responsibility and accountability he carries, shines out through his work. A man of principle, he refused a knighthood in solidarity with those who had suffered due to the Empire's battle for power. 

 

An excellent article by Adam Kirsch [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/30/modern-magus] reveals much about his life and work. More is understood in the writing itself; revealing doubts about himself, like the rest of us, but always seeking God's face; God's view on whatever he was unsure of. His work, and life, reveal this internal, integral, moral and spiritual compass, that accepts where we stand now, and where we need to be. 

Thank you, Rabindranath Tagore, for your beautiful gifts, bequeathed to us.