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.