After all these years...

Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

Netflix (26 episodes; 2015)

Even though Tagore wrote these stories more than a hundred years ago, it remains fresh and relevant to today. 

Rabindranath lived at a time when India, as well as the rest of the world, was rapidly changing. His motherland, after missing the bus of the Industrial Revolution, thanks to the British East India Company and the British Empire, was doing catch up. Starting with the First Indian Rebellion @ Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, India had awoken. After being plundered by foreign forces repeatedly, it tried to make social and political changes. Many leaders emerged. Some approached them through political means, others through armed hostility and yet some via passive aggression. Tagore infiltrated the minds with his literary work.

This collection of twenty stories in twenty-six episodes cover a range of issues. The stories were authored by Tagore between 1890 and 1941, just before his death. They talk about the mistreatment of young widows, the evil dowry system, caste system, freedom in terms of Independence and free from incumbrances of life and society. Woman empowerment is a recurring theme, and his characters are mostly strong female characters.


Tagore's seminal novel ' Choker Bali' (Dust in the Eye) starts the series. A young widow tries to seduce the man who turned down her marriage as a revenge to her widowhood and the restrictions imposed on her by society. Atithi (Guest) is about a runaway boy who feels trapped, growing up in a restrictive home environment. He grows up in a zamindar's house only to run away again when marriage is proposed upon him with the landlord's daughter. There are just too much to learn from the world than to be exclusively tied down in one place.

It is a joy to see how each story segues into another. There is usually a common place where the path of the characters of one story meet with another, and the camera leads on to the next one.

'Maanbhajan' (Fury Appeased) is about another woman empowerment story. Left by her husband for an actress, the wife, fascinated by the theatre, becomes a famous actress herself in a poetic 'tit-for-tat' move. 

The series also includes a light comedy (Detective and Dhai Aakhar Prem Ka), a delve into the paranormal (Kankal and Monihara), a retelling of Satyajit Ray's 'Charulata' (Nastarinh), loneliness (Waaris), inclusiveness (Kabuliwalla), familial sacrifice (Shasthi), servile loyalty (Wafadaar), on domineering familial hierarchy (Aparchita and Mrinal ki Chitti) and the futility of vengeance (Dalia).

Rabindranath Tagore differed with some of the views held by Gandhi. Even though both fought for freedom, Tagore also wanted escapism from the clutches of unreasonable traditional beliefs. He also had the impression that we should embrace modernity Interestingly, Gandhi, who opposed the introduction of railways into India, used the Indian trains to disseminate all his ideologies to the masses. Both of them also had contrary outlooks of sex and relationships. Whilst Gandhi experimented with sexual abstinence, Tagore was freewriting about domestic issues and intrafamilial problems.

The series was a feast for the eyes. Kudos for the cinematography for bringing out the best in the outdoor camerawork can do. Viewers are transported back to the 1920s pre-Independent pre-Partition Bengal, complete with the serene and tranquil greenery, the props and costumes that befit the era. It is a joy to view the old Victorian-styled buildings and bulky antique furniture. It is highly recommended.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. 

FALSE RELIGION

 By Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

Those who in the name of Faith embrace illusion,
Kill and are killed.
Even the atheist gets God’s blessings –
Does not boast of his religion;
With reverence he lights the lamp of Reason
And pays his homage not to scriptures,
But to the good in man.

The bigot insults his own religion
When he slays a man of another faith.
Conduct he judges not in the light of Reason;
In the temple he raises the blood-stained banner
And worships the devil in the name of God.

All that is shameful and barbarous through the Ages,
Has found a shelter in their temples –
Those they turn into prisons;
O, I hear the trumpet call of Destruction!
Time comes with her great broom
Sweeping all refuse away.

That which should make man free,
They turn into fetters;
That which should unite,
They turn into a sword;
That which should bring love
From the fountain of the Eternal,
They turn into poison
And with its waves they flood the world.
They try to cross the river
In a bark riddled with holes;
And yet, in their anguish, whom do they blame?

O Lord, breaking false religion,
Save the blind!
Break! O break
The altar that is drowned in blood.
Let your thunder strike
Into the prison of false religion,
And bring to this unhappy land
The light of Knowledge.



[Borrowed with thanks from Jonson Chong's blog, Malaysian X]

http://www.magickriver.org/2008/08/false-religion-by-rabindranath-tagore.html

A great thinking poet

Rabindranath Tagore (Documentary, 1961)
Written, narrated, directed: Satyajit Ray
It is said that Ray is related to Tagore. The Tagores were initially from the Banerjee clan but over time they became to be called Thakur as they were Brahmins and headed the society. Thakur became Tagore. Born in a wealthy family in Bengal, he was born with a silver spoon as the thirteenth child to a 45year old mother. He did not really shine in his childhood and even in adulthood, he did not complete his tertiary education.
Gradually wisdom came to him in his late twenties and the turning point came when there was tragedy in his family - 3 deaths in family; his wife, his daughter and his son.
His fame spread worldwide when his poem 'Gitanjali' was praised by Yeats which made Tagore the first non-European recipient of Nobel prize for Literature. He was also knighted by the Queen which he renounced after 1919 English massacre of Indians in Punjab.
Rabindranath's influence went beyond poetry. He had intellectual discourse with scientists and thinkers. He worked at the ground level to improve the well being of the Indian poor. His songs were patriotic in nature to stir the nationalistic spirit in the pre-Independence India. He established centres for learning of Indian arts.
His compositions made part of the national anthem of India, Bangladesh and even Sri Lanka.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore

When Einstein Met Tagore

I do not pretend to fully understand the discourse that happened between these two pillars of human civilisation, one from the literary wing and the other from a man of science. Read and try to understand, if you can...

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/27/when-einstein-met-tagore/by Maria Popova

Collision and convergence in Truth and Beauty at the intersection of science and spirituality.

On July 14, 1930, Albert Einstein welcomed into his home on the outskirts of Berlin the Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. The two proceeded to have one of the most stimulating, intellectually riveting conversations in history, exploring the age-old friction between science and religion. Science and the Indian Tradition: When Einstein Met Tagore recounts the historic encounter, amidst a broader discussion of the intellectual renaissance that swept India in the early twentieth century, germinating a curious osmosis of Indian traditions and secular Western scientific doctrine.

The following excerpt from one of Einstein and Tagore’s conversations dances between previously examined definitions of science, beauty, consciousness, and philosophy in a masterful meditation on the most fundamental questions of human existence.

EINSTEIN: Do you believe in the Divine as isolated from the world?

TAGORE: Not isolated. The infinite personality of Man comprehends the Universe. There cannot be anything that cannot be subsumed by the human personality, and this proves that the Truth of the Universe is human Truth.

I have taken a scientific fact to explain this — Matter is composed of protons and electrons, with gaps between them; but matter may seem to be solid. Similarly humanity is composed of individuals, yet they have their interconnection of human relationship, which gives living unity to man’s world. The entire universe is linked up with us in a similar manner, it is a human universe. I have pursued this thought through art, literature and the religious consciousness of man.

EINSTEIN: There are two different conceptions about the nature of the universe: (1) The world as a unity dependent on humanity. (2) The world as a reality independent of the human factor.

TAGORE: When our universe is in harmony with Man, the eternal, we know it as Truth, we feel it as beauty.

EINSTEIN: This is the purely human conception of the universe.

TAGORE: There can be no other conception. This world is a human world — the scientific view of it is also that of the scientific man. There is some standard of reason and enjoyment which gives it Truth, the standard of the Eternal Man whose experiences are through our experiences.

EINSTEIN: This is a realization of the human entity.

TAGORE: Yes, one eternal entity. We have to realize it through our emotions and activities. We realized the Supreme Man who has no individual limitations through our limitations. Science is concerned with that which is not confined to individuals; it is the impersonal human world of Truths. Religion realizes these Truths and links them up with our deeper needs; our individual consciousness of Truth gains universal significance. Religion applies values to Truth, and we know this Truth as good through our own harmony with it.

EINSTEIN: Truth, then, or Beauty is not independent of Man?

TAGORE: No.

EINSTEIN: If there would be no human beings any more, the Apollo of Belvedere would no longer be beautiful.

TAGORE: No.

EINSTEIN: I agree with regard to this conception of Beauty, but not with regard to Truth.

TAGORE: Why not? Truth is realized through man.

EINSTEIN: I cannot prove that my conception is right, but that is my religion.

TAGORE: Beauty is in the ideal of perfect harmony which is in the Universal Being; Truth the perfect comprehension of the Universal Mind. We individuals approach it through our own mistakes and blunders, through our accumulated experiences, through our illumined consciousness — how, otherwise, can we know Truth?

EINSTEIN: I cannot prove scientifically that Truth must be conceived as a Truth that is valid independent of humanity; but I believe it firmly. I believe, for instance, that the Pythagorean theorem in geometry states something that is approximately true, independent of the existence of man. Anyway, if there is a reality independent of man, there is also a Truth relative to this reality; and in the same way the negation of the first engenders a negation of the existence of the latter.

TAGORE: Truth, which is one with the Universal Being, must essentially be human, otherwise whatever we individuals realize as true can never be called truth – at least the Truth which is described as scientific and which only can be reached through the process of logic, in other words, by an organ of thoughts which is human. According to Indian Philosophy there is Brahman, the absolute Truth, which cannot be conceived by the isolation of the individual mind or described by words but can only be realized by completely merging the individual in its infinity. But such a Truth cannot belong to Science. The nature of Truth which we are discussing is an appearance – that is to say, what appears to be true to the human mind and therefore is human, and may be called maya or illusion.

EINSTEIN: So according to your conception, which may be the Indian conception, it is not the illusion of the individual, but of humanity as a whole.

TAGORE: The species also belongs to a unity, to humanity. Therefore the entire human mind realizes Truth; the Indian or the European mind meet in a common realization.

EINSTEIN: The word species is used in German for all human beings, as a matter of fact, even the apes and the frogs would belong to it.

TAGORE: In science we go through the discipline of eliminating the personal limitations of our individual minds and thus reach that comprehension of Truth which is in the mind of the Universal Man.

EINSTEIN: The problem begins whether Truth is independent of our consciousness.

TAGORE: What we call truth lies in the rational harmony between the subjective and objective aspects of reality, both of which belong to the super-personal man.

EINSTEIN: Even in our everyday life we feel compelled to ascribe a reality independent of man to the objects we use. We do this to connect the experiences of our senses in a reasonable way. For instance, if nobody is in this house, yet that table remains where it is.

TAGORE: Yes, it remains outside the individual mind, but not the universal mind. The table which I perceive is perceptible by the same kind of consciousness which I possess.

EINSTEIN: If nobody would be in the house the table would exist all the same — but this is already illegitimate from your point of view — because we cannot explain what it means that the table is there, independently of us.

Our natural point of view in regard to the existence of truth apart from humanity cannot be explained or proved, but it is a belief which nobody can lack — no primitive beings even. We attribute to Truth a super-human objectivity; it is indispensable for us, this reality which is independent of our existence and our experience and our mind — though we cannot say what it means.

TAGORE: Science has proved that the table as a solid object is an appearance and therefore that which the human mind perceives as a table would not exist if that mind were naught. At the same time it must be admitted that the fact, that the ultimate physical reality is nothing but a multitude of separate revolving centres of electric force, also belongs to the human mind.

In the apprehension of Truth there is an eternal conflict between the universal human mind and the same mind confined in the individual. The perpetual process of reconciliation is being carried on in our science, philosophy, in our ethics. In any case, if there be any Truth absolutely unrelated to humanity then for us it is absolutely non-existing.

It is not difficult to imagine a mind to which the sequence of things happens not in space but only in time like the sequence of notes in music. For such a mind such conception of reality is akin to the musical reality in which Pythagorean geometry can have no meaning. There is the reality of paper, infinitely different from the reality of literature. For the kind of mind possessed by the moth which eats that paper literature is absolutely non-existent, yet for Man’s mind literature has a greater value of Truth than the paper itself. In a similar manner if there be some Truth which has no sensuous or rational relation to the human mind, it will ever remain as nothing so long as we remain human beings.

EINSTEIN: Then I am more religious than you are!

TAGORE: My religion is in the reconciliation of the Super-personal Man, the universal human spirit, in my own individual being.