Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was a Bengali poet, composer, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and painter who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. He is the pre-eminent literary genius not only of his native Bengal but also of South Asia—possibly the whole of Asia.
Tagore displayed an extraordinary combination of talents. He experimented with various forms of art and sought an outlet first in music, then in drama, opera, and ballet and, toward the end of his life, in painting. Tagore was a talented theatrical artist, a playwright, and a producer of plays. He also inspired and directed the revival and full development of the art of dance in modern India. Tagore is extraordinary for his versatility, exceptional range, and complexity of a creative perspective.
Born in Calcutta, Tagore went to study law in England at age 17 but found the weather depressing. He returned to Calcutta after a year and concurrently wrote, composed music, painted, and did political work. He gained worldwide attention with the English translation of the spiritual verse Gītāñjali (1910; Song Offering,) which featured an appreciatory foreword by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats.
Tagore’s first book was a volume of poetry, Kabi-Kahini (1878; The Tale of the Poet,) followed by novels, short stories, and dramatic works. In addition to Gītāñjali, his major works include Binodini (1902; Eng trans 1964, the first modern novel by an Indian writer,) the collection of poems about childhood The Crescent Moon (1913,) and his best-known play, Chitra (1914.) He also wrote Jivan Smriti (1911; My Reminiscences, 1917) and Chhelebela (1940; My Boyhood Days.)
As a philosopher, Tagore challenged the binarism of India’s spiritual values and the spirit of the West. He held that one’s native culture could be reconciled by acknowledging and absorbing the good in other cultures. Taking into consideration the great conflicts of his time, Tagore articulated his vision of the “universal man.” He wrote, “The unity of human civilization can be better maintained by linking up in fellowship and cooperation of the different civilizations of the world.” And, “Let the mind be universal. The individual should not be sacrificed.”
Tagore’s versatile genius wielded a profound influence on the psyche of the Bengali people. He introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. Only a few literary giants—Shakespeare, Dante, Pushkin, and Goethe—have had as comparable an impact on a people’s language, literature, and cultural identity as Tagore has. He also culturally and politically inspired India and Bangladesh, where he remains the subject of great pride and admiration.
Tagore has the rare distinction of writing the national anthems of three countries: India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. He was knighted in 1915 but resigned the honor in 1919 as a protest against British policy in Punjab.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Rabindranath Tagore
The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation. They have to be endlessly explained by the commentaries of individual lives, and they gain an added mystery in each new revelation.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Love adorns itself; it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Joy
All that is not given is lost.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Generosity
You can’t cross a sea merely by staring into the water.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Action, Procrastination
I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can’t make it through one door, I’ll go through another door—or I’ll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Adversity
God seeks comrades and claims love, the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Obedience
Where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Change
The burden of the self is lightened with I laugh at myself.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Laughter
Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Friendship
We gain freedom when we have paid the full price…
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Freedom
If you shut your door to all errors, truth will be shut out.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Truth, Mistakes
Music fills the infinite between two souls.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: One liners, Music
With begging and scrambling we find very little, but with being true to ourselves we find a great deal more.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Being Ourselves
Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of humanity.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Hope, Children
We are hidden in ourselves, like a truth hidden in isolated facts. When we know that this One in us is One in all, then our truth is revealed.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Truth
By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Flowers, Beauty, Admiration, Appreciation
Do not say, “It is morning,” and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Morning
Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not look for allies in life’s battlefield but to my own strength.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for the patience to win my freedom.
Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone;
But let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Courage
I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy, I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Life, Vice, Act, Joy, Dream, Service
You are invited to the festival of this world and your life is blessed
—Rabindranath Tagore
Love’s gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Gift
The truth comes as conqueror only because we have lost the art of receiving it as guest.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Truth
When I stand before thee at the day’s end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Life and Living
O Woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of men; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their own hearts… . You are one-half woman and one-half dream.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Woman
God respects me when I work; but God loves me when I sing.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: One liners, Singing
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Time Management, Value of Time, Time, Carpe-diem
Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Freedom
Life is given to use, we earn it by giving it.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Service
I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Topics: Carpe-diem
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