TAGORE
MARG FOR MODERN INTELLECTUAL
Tagore
was born to Devendranth and Sarada Devi as
fourteenth child in the family on 7th May, 1861. The family was well-known
for wealth, generosity, art ,knowledge, social reform etc. Tagore wrote his first work when he was
seven years old and continued till his last breath. He studied Sanskrit and English
literature deeply and even translated Shakespeare’s’ Macbeth’ into Bengali.
On one fine day the morning star of the
world expelled the gloom in his heart and filled his heart with nectar of
happiness.
His
work ‘Nirgharer Swapnabhangh’ tells
that man has to awaken to love, mingle with nature and other forms of life, selflessness and recognition that the universe was the
abode of god.
‘Chokher
bali’ gave importance to psychological portrayal. He wrote ‘Crescent Moon’ for his son Samindranath and gave literary status to Children’s
literature.
He realized the futility of the violent change after observing the revolutionary
movement in those days in Bengal.
He
triumphed over his personal tragedy in the deaths of his wife, two of his
children –Renu, Samindranath , his father Devendranath earlier and brothers and sister- in -law Kadambari devi who gave him motherly love.
His relentless effort over half a century awakened the Bengal literature into a new
dawn of consciousness. He wrote
‘janaganamana’ at the behest of his friend Asutosh Chaudhuri on the eve of
Twenty-fifth of meeting of the Congress.
He
believed in the ‘perspective of reconciliation’ as the greatest gift of India
to the World. HE SPOKE TRUTH IN THE FRANK AND FREE MANNER IN HIS LIFE AND A CHAMPION OF REGIONAL
LANGUAGES. He gave his convocation speech in Bengali In Kolkata U and
impressed one and all.
Throughout
his life he met the most famous people in the world , received their honour
and interacted with them. In 1912, he
met poets Robert Bridges, Ezra Pound and Intellectuals like Russell and H G
Wells.
He won the Nobel Prize for literature on 13
November, 1913.
He
stood for unity among China , Japan and India and opposed mechanical
civilization and narrow nationalism .
Time and again he was prepared to stand alone or even die for the sake of truth. He clothed truth in the attire of
beauty and remains a conqueror of the
world through peace and love.
Viswabharathi University came to be established on 22 December,1921.
The
friendship of Gandhi and Tagore is a rarest one like that of Marx and Engels.
Rabindra’s literature and philosophy
He
had seen the divine in every atom of the Universe and every flower was the
silent letter of love sent by the Lord. He was not for the dry philosophy which shuns the world but
for the broadmindedness to accept the diversity in human life. His heart always craved for the new peaks unclimbed and
burned bright for the new shores of beauty on the other side. His songs used to
be sung by the rural folks and boatmen.
He took the metre known as ‘Swaravritta ‘ form folk literature and added his
depth of thought and gave it the status of literature. He called
himself as ‘dasama ratna’ born
not in the age of kalidasa but in this age of machines. He was the
Leonardo Davinci , the symbol of renaissance
of India.
He was an eternal optimist, believer in
humanity and combined emotion and thought, past and present and the tradition of
the East and the West.
His stories show the abrupt ending of O Henry, the
psychological portrayal of characters like Chekhov and creation of surprising
incidents like Maupassant. His stories have the capacity to rain tears to wash away the pollution of the heart.
In
his ‘chokher bali’ he portrayed the psychological turmoil in the hear t of a widow.
His ‘Gora’ , ‘an epic in prose’ tells the
futility of blind belief in the past and his characters Gora, Sucharita, Lalita
and vinay babu remain in our mind for a
long time.
His plays
such as ‘Muktha Dhara’, ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘Dockghar’
reflect the anguish of the human soul under the weight of the age of machines. His playlet
‘Chitra’ shows the superiority of Inner beauty to external beauty. He also introduced ‘kanika’ which means small sentences like
translated into English as ‘Fire Flies’, ‘Stray birds’ treasure was multi-faceted diamond like Kohinoor.
His poetry
was a comprehensive statement, continuous practice and holy worship. He was for
universalism , infinite diversity of reaching the other shore through one’ s heart
as the tributary reaches the sea breaking through the stones. He was a ‘Mystic’ poet in close touch with the
almighty , described him as nataraja,
monarch of Singers and poet of the poets. For him India was more a dharma or an idea rather than geography. He was also a great
painter and his poetry is ‘a music of universal human soul.’
( This
article is heavily Indebted to ‘Amarendra’ C.N.Sastry’s work Viswakavi in Telugu
) 
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