CHAPTER X

RABINDRANATH TAGORE: BENGALESE MYSTIC-POET

The prize for the year 1913 has been awarded:

Rabindranath Tagore, born 1861: “For reason of the inner depth and the high aim revealed in his poetic writings; also for the brilliant way in which he translates the beauty and freshness of his Oriental thought into the accepted forms of Western _belles-lettres_.”[91]

As a Bengalese, Rabindranath Tagore, to whom the Nobel prize was given in 1913, is a British subject. Thus, for the second time, the honor came to Great Britain through the writings of one whose formative years, like those of Kipling, had been spent in India and whose typical writings were associated with that country. On the contrary, the words and thoughts of this mystic-poet are so exotic, sometimes so unlocalized in form and spirit, that they belong to world literature, rather than to a distinctive country. Possibly no other prize winner has been so idealistic, so international in his appeal as this author of _The Gardener_, _Sadhana_, and _The King of the Dark Chamber_.

In his biographical study,[92] Ernest Rhys suggests that the award was given to Tagore because of the enthusiasm of a Swedish Orientalist for his writings before they were known in English. The year before the award, however, Yeats had praised the poems of Tagore[93] and other poet-critics had found him an inspirational influence. To the winner, the announcement gave mingled gratitude and regret; the latter he expressed in his sentence, “They have taken away my refuge.”[94] His life had been so untouched by external struggles that he was, in truth, “a child of Nature.” In _My Reminiscences_, he writes: “From my earliest years I enjoyed a simple and intimate communion with Nature. Each one of the cocoanut trees in our garden had for me a distinct personality.... On opening my eyes every morning, the blithely awakening world used to call me to join it like a playmate.”[95]

Born in Calcutta, May 6, 1861, he came into a rare inheritance for his later work as religious leader and writer. Like all children of the higher social classes in India, he was environed from his birth with poetic atmosphere. His blessing, as a newborn babe, was spoken in verse; as he grew older many of his studies were in poetic form. The family name was Thakur, Anglicized into Tagore; his father and grandfathers had been identified with education and civil reforms. Raja Sir Sourindra Mohun Tagore was founder of the Bengal Music School; another, Abanindranath Tagore, was a noted painter and leader in art-movements. His father might have been a Maharaja (a great king) but he preferred to be Maharshi (a great sage), thus he was more closely linked with the people than with nobility. He insisted upon paying debts which his father, a prince, had left. He would have made himself a pauper but the creditors refused to accept such sacrifices, so he had a certain amount of property. He devoted himself to spiritual teachings and traveled through India on such missions, gaining the respect of all classes.

[Illustration:

_Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._

RABINDRANATH TAGORE]

The son who won this Nobel prize was the youngest in a family of seven brothers and three sisters. He was lonely as a child, for his mother died when he was young and he was often left with men-servants for days. The return of his father marked the “gala-days”--_his_ presence pervaded the whole house. Nature was the boy’s comrade and he would often dig with a bamboo stick in the ground to find any possible “mysteries.” Perfumes affected his senses and left vivid memories, as he tells in his _Reminiscences_. The school life, after he was six years, was a brief period of unhappiness. He was, perhaps, stubborn to a degree and was ranked as the lowest in his class because he refused to answer orally, but he thought out problems so well, in written work, that he amazed his teachers and was given first place. The Oriental Seminary, the Normal School, the Bengal Academy--all seemed to him “prison-houses.” At home he studied, with a tutor, history, sciences, and English literature. At first, he laughed, somewhat scornfully, at English poetry because of the unusual sounds.

An influence of this formative age was his nephew--older than he was, Jyotiprokash, who read _Hamlet_ to the lad and urged him to write verses and poetic imaginings. He saw a future for this boy with his fancies and love of Nature. A teacher at the Normal School, also, inspired him to write, asking him to complete lines or stanzas which had been begun by another. Although his father was often separated from the boy, he realized the child’s promise and his sensitive nature; he gave him a vacation trip into the Himalayas, stopping at Bolpur, the Peace Cottage, where his father often retired and where the son was to have his own home later. In his “blue blank-book,” that he carried always with him, were written poems suggested by scenery and incidents of this trip. His father taught him botany and astronomy, as well as English, Sanskrit, and Bengali. Back in Calcutta he “played truant from school,” sometimes, and caused his older sister to write in despair of the fulfillment of their hopes for him; that he would be “the only unsuccessful man in the family.”[96] For a year he went to London to study law but he was homesick and returned to Bengal.

In his _Reminiscences_ at fifty, he recalled the years between sixteen and twenty-three as those of unrest and “extreme wildness.” He was the victim of the impulses of strong, young manhood; for a time he was an epicure rather than a mystic. He delighted in silk robes and luscious foods and romances in love. An expression of this time may be found in the poem, “The Gleaming Vision of Youth,” in _The Gardener_. Other reflections are in _Sandhya Sangit_ and _The Songs of Sunrise_, more philosophical. Two poems, “The Eternity of Life” and “The Eternity of Death,” indicate the period of transition from this time to the years of religious meditation. At twenty-three he married happily; at the request of his father, he went to oversee the family estate at Shilaida, on the Ganges. Here, with intervals of travel, he remained for seventeen years, living close to the people and to Nature, and writing some of his tales and poems. One of his most famous love poems, showing mingled sensuous and spiritual strains, is “The Beloved at Noon and in the Morning.”

In a house boat on the Padma he often spent hours of meditation, long evenings of reverie, that were pictured in the background of his idyllic song, “Golden Bengal.” He studied the poverty, trials, and simple idealism of the people; he knew elementary medicine and cared for the sick; he was saddened by the loss of rice crops in destructive rains; he was determined that tenants should not suffer unduly from tax-gatherers. He brought upon himself the jealous criticism of British magistrates in the district and was called a revolutionary and visionary disturber. He had already formulated his ideas of both a small republic and the school at Bolpur when he was interrupted in his plans by domestic sorrows. He journeyed to England and the United States for recuperation and inspiration.

The first grief was the death of his wife for whom he had a deep love. Within a few months his daughter died of tuberculosis. Shortly afterwards came another poignant sorrow in the loss of his youngest son. With the serenity of a mind that recognizes Nature as mother and friend, he turned toward more intimate relations with spiritual and religious thoughts. These are revealed especially in _Gitanjali_, the first book by which he became well known to English readers. It was written in English with vigor and grace, with distinctive structure. In 1912-13 he came to the United States, partly for a change of scene, partly to add to his knowledge of industrial improvements and agricultural equipment, that he might apply this information in his school at Bolpur. His older son was with him, to learn methods of harvesting. In his biographical study of Tagore, Basanta Koomar Roy[97] tells interesting facts about the visit to this poet and discussion, with him, of the possibilities that he might win the Nobel prize. He was then at Urbana, Illinois, with his son. He was impressed with the sunshine of our climate--“enchanted American days” he called them. He liked the superior engineering and business abilities of Americans but he deplored their lack of culture. He was urged to translate more of his writings into English and was assured that, should he win the Nobel prize, it would increase international brotherhood and world peace, as well as raise India among the nations. Sceptical of the probability he said, should it come to him, he would use the money to start an industrial department in his school at Bolpur.

Ten months later the award was made to Tagore. Some of his compatriots were his most severe critics, complaining that he “dabbled” in too many forms of literature. He admitted the charge but averred that poetry represented “the deep truth” of his life. As a poet he has revived the work, in kind, of the Vaishnava poets of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of mystic writers like the Upanishads who lived between 2000 and 1000 B. C. He adapted the beauties of these poets to modern interpretation. He was indebted, also, to Kabir, the mystic of the fifteenth century, and to Ramprosad of Bengal, of the eighteenth. In his form and spiritual progress he has shown marked originality, following the work of Bengalese like Raja Ram Mohun Roy and Bankim, who had cleared away many obstacles of British domination over native expression.

Much has been written about the school at Bolpur to which, true to his promise, he has devoted funds from his award. In his essays, _Sadhana, or the Realization of Life_, are found several of the “student addresses” made here; the war caused changed conditions and frustrated some of the founder’s hopes. This school was started in 1902, approved by his father, and with the goal, “To revive the spirit of our ancient system of education ... to make the students feel that there is a higher and a nobler thing in life than practical efficiency.” At first, such a venture met with curiosity and some scorn. Parents sent here unmanageable or backward boys. They had simple surroundings and lived and slept outdoors; they sang chants as the birds begin their morning songs; they had time for individual prayer and thought, clad in white silk robes. They enjoyed games and long walks, simple food, no wine or meat, music in the evening and plays, written by Rabindranath Tagore; they wrote and illustrated school papers. There was self-government and close, brotherly relations between boys and teachers. Their scholastic work became satisfactory to the University at Calcutta. The boys were happy, often refusing to go home for their vacations, unless compelled to do so by their parents.

In addition to his work as educator for boys, Rabindranath Tagore has been a strong influence for more training and freedom for the women of India. He believes that the life of woman, in a generic sense, is more full and harmonious than that of man. He found the ideas of both Hindu teachers and Christian missionaries were extreme, as he viewed them, but he advocated education and broadened opportunities. As an Oriental he has poetized the love of the home, the coming of the woman at the end of the day, “with a pitcher of nectar,” to bring comfort to the home. His poetic play, _Chitra_, much discussed and puzzling in passages to a Western mind, is a frank exposition of his philosophy regarding the sensuous and spiritual qualities of women. Other expressions are in _The Home and the World_ (1919) and _Personality_ (1917) and in plays like _Sanyas_, and _The King and the Queen_ (in _Sacrifice and Other Plays_, New York, 1917). That he is a lover of children, and able to interpret their thoughts and fancies with unmatched beauty, is evident to all readers of Sir Rabindranath Tagore’s writings (he was knighted in 1915). His own simplicity of nature and life, his imagination in its purity and freedom, make him an intimate comrade for boys and girls. The year after he received the Nobel prize, the original, unrhymed poems, _The Crescent Moon_, were translated, with effective illustrations in color. _Stray Birds_, with frontispiece in color by Willy Pogany (1921), is another appealing and typical book, but more mature and philosophical.

The periods of childhood, from babyhood to school days and letter-writing, are unfolded in _The Crescent Moon_ in delightful pictures. Especially intuitive are “Baby’s World,” “Paper Boats,” “The Little Big Man,” and “The First Jasmines.” Humor enlivens many of these fancies and questions of the child, as in “Twelve O’Clock” and “Authorship”; the latter raises a query--_why_ the mother allows father to waste “heaps of paper” without a protest, while a single sheet, taken for a paper boat, may bring a remonstrance to the child. There is emotional beauty and Oriental philosophy in “The Beginning.” “Where have I come from?” asks the child, and the mother:

She answered half crying, half laughing, and clasping the baby to her breast,-- You were hidden in my heart as its desire, my darling.... In all my hopes and my loves, in my life, in the life of my mother you have lived. In the lap of the deathless Spirit who rules our home you have been nursed for ages.... As I gaze on your face, mystery overwhelms me; you who belong to all have become mine.[98]

During the twelve years since the Nobel award, Tagore has translated several of his earlier poems, plays and tales and has written _My Reminiscences_, one of the most illumining autobiographies of the last decade. He has expanded his ideas on government, education and religion in books like _Nationalism_ and _Creative Unity_. He has written _Prayers for Mother India_--that she may be raised from her chronic want to a place of influence and success. He has urged united

## action by the people of England and those of India to bring about this

material union. He has said, “One section of the human race cannot be permanently strong by depriving another section of its inherent rights.” Taking as his text that mooted line from Kipling,

Oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet--

Tagore said, at a banquet in London: “I have learned that, though our tongues are different and our habits dissimilar, at the bottom of our hearts we are one.... East is East and West is West--God forbid that it should be otherwise--but the twain must meet in amity, peace and mutual understanding; their meeting will be all the more fruitful because of their differences; it must lead both to holy wedlock before the common altar of Humanity.”

In the sympathetic, analytical study of _Mahatma Gandhi_ by Romain Rolland, there are some excellent sentences of comparison of these two religious leaders of modern India. “Tagore looked upon Gandhi as a saint,” says M. Rolland, and he deplored his political activities, especially his non-coöperation doctrine. Tagore seeks and finds harmony in coöperation. He wrote, “My prayer is that India may represent the coöperation of all the peoples of the world. For India, unity is truth, and division evil.” In summary, the French writer says, “To my mind Gandhi is as universal as Tagore, but in a different way. Gandhi is a universalist through his religious feeling; Tagore is intellectually universal. While venerating him, (Gandhi) we understand and approve Tagore.”[99] In _Creative Unity_, Tagore has included an essay upon “The Nation” in which he stresses “the fight” to-day between “the living spirit of the people” and the methods of organizing nations.

If one were to prophesy which type of Sir Rabindranath Tagore’s writings will survive among many peoples, the chances are in favor of his mystical prose-poems and his national songs. The latter have kept alive the love of home-country and faith in India. They are sung by boatmen on the Ganges, by the peasants in the fields, by students and groups at all kinds of festivals and conferences. These songs are of two kinds; one is a wistful idealization of the “Motherland,” with graphic pictures of scenery, homes, and religion; the second type is the “Song of Consecration,” of sacrifice and valor, exampled in “Follow the Gleam,” to which many young Nationalists have marched and died. Bitterness is absent from nearly every line by this poet-patriot; there is spiritual excitation, strong appeal to love of home and broader idealism. It has been said that contradiction is evident between some of these national songs and the broad humanism of many other writings, notably those in the _Gitanjali_. Those who know the man personally, and who are familiar with the tenets of Hindu philosophy which he embodies, as well as the spiritual ideals of the Upanishads, do not find it difficult to reconcile the two creeds, as he has united them in his “Ode to the Earth” and some of the essays in _Sadhana_.

While it is gratifying to note that Rabindranath Tagore, as prize winner, found incentive to write more idealistic literature, yet it is evident that he never has surpassed the earlier books of distinctive quality, books that maintained the classic traditions of his native literature but gave them new form and significance, as _The Gardener_, _The Post Office_, _King of the Dark Chamber_, _Gitanjali_, and _The Elder Sister_. When he was in the United States he read, at colleges and other places, many passages from _The Gardener_ and _Gitanjali_. The two books have similar tone and melody; both are difficult to translate into adequate English because much of the mysticism is lost in concrete words--the same is true of his plays when they are staged without sustaining the “illusion” of the Oriental atmosphere. In native language the rhythm and music surpass and interpret the words; the swaying movement accompanies many odes and invocations. A song that may be chanted with the music of the flute, and thus appreciated, is one of the mystical lyrics beginning:

I am restless, I am athirst for far-away things, My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirts of the dim distance. O Great Beyond, O the keen call of my flute! I forget, I ever forget, that I have no wings, that I am bound in this spot, evermore.[100]

_Gora_, a so-called “novel” by Rabindranath Tagore, has been issued this current year. It tells the story of a Hindu youth, a Brahmin, whose full name is Gourmohan Babu. He cherishes a large-souled ambition to “unify” India but he cannot break down the barriers of his religious fanaticism enough to consent to the marriage of his younger brother, Binoy Babu, to a girl of a lower Brahmin caste. The romantic interest vibrates from the love affairs of Gora to that of his brother. The chief merit of the book is not its art as fiction, for that is negative, but the graphic presentation of religious tenets and native customs. The author seems, at times, to be seriously concerned about the development of his hero and the more tolerant brother; in other places, he introduces an element of whimsical humor and kindly irony as in the unexpected sequel of Gora’s parentage. Poetry and essays or short tales, rather than fiction of long-sustained plot, are the forms of writing best adapted to his gifts.

As _The Gardener_ represents the youth of Rabindranath Tagore, with normal desires fused with spiritual longings, so _Gitanjali_ is the expression of the mature philosopher-poet, still responsive emotionally but seeking for “joy eternal.” He has preserved for world literature, the philosophy and poetry of earlier teachers like Chaitanya Deva, usually called “Nimäi,” the Hindu poet, who lived near Bolpur, the home of Tagore. In addition to these revivals of the earlier tenets and aspirations in poetry, Rabindranath Tagore has become an international humanist. He has never lost his joy in Nature and in solitude but he has walked forward into the vision of a united brotherhood and a spiritual commonwealth.

FOOTNOTES:

[91] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1913.

[92] _Rabindranath Tagore_ by Ernest Rhys, New York, 1915.

[93] _Gitanjali_, with Introduction by W. B. Yeats, London and New York, 1913.

[94] _Rabindranath Tagore: a Biographical Study_ by Ernest Rhys, New York, 1915, Preface, xiv. By permission of the Macmillan Co.

[95] _My Reminiscences_ by Rabindranath Tagore, New York, 1917, p. 225. By permission of the Macmillan Co.

[96] _Rabindranath Tagore_ by Basanta Koomar Roy, New York, 1915, p. 52.

[97] _Ibid._, pp. 189-193.

[98] _The Crescent Moon: Child-Poems_ by Rabindranath Tagore, translated from the original Bengali by the author, New York, 1913, 1916. By permission of the Macmillan Co.

[99] _Mahatma Gandhi: The Man Who Became One with the Universal Being_, by Romain Rolland, translated by Catherine D. Groth, New York, 1924. By permission of the Century Co.

[100] _Gitanjali: Song-Offerings_ by Rabindranath Tagore, New York, 1916. By permission of the Macmillan Co.

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