Rabindranath Tagore

The 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore is on 9th May, 2011. His actual date of birth is 6th May 1861. He was born in Calcutta, India, in a wealthy Brahmin family at Jorashanko, Calcutta. However his birthday is observed according to the Bengali calendar, on 25th Baisakh.

He is the first non-European to get the Nobel Prize for literature, in 1913. He was a literary giant, a poet, a musician, a dramatist, an essayist, an artist, a philosopher, a social reformer, an educationist and much more. That is why he is acclaimed the world over as 'Gurudev'. He is known as the renaissance man. He was a prophet.

On the way to England in 1912 he began translating, for the first time, his latest selections of poems, 'Gitanjali', into English. Gitanjali is a collection of Bengali poems, which are in the form of offerings made to God. Prior to that time, all his works had been written in his native language, Bengali. During the long sea voyage from India, he translated the poems of Gitanjali into English.

One of Tagore's friends, Rothenstein, a famous painter, came to know of the translations, and went through the notebook. He was astonished! Was it possible for someone to write such poems? He immediately took it to the famous poet W.B. Yeats, who later wrote the introduction to the Gitanjali when it was published in 1912. Soon the whole world came to know of Rabindranath Tagore and his works. It was like opening the door of Indian culture and spiritualism to the western world. His spiritual approach was such that the whole world got awestruck.

In 1915 he was presented the knighthood by the British Government. In 1919 he renounced his knighthood as a protest against the Jalianwallah Bagh massacre by British troops at Amritsar, in Punjab, India. Even he wrote a famous song pertaining to this renouncement. Two of his songs have become the national anthems of India and Bangladesh, the only poet to have achieved this distinction. His total works is so voluminous that it is not possible to complete them in one lifetime, let alone digesting them. In his works, one is sure to find an answer to any and every question or query, that he may come across in life.

He tried to mix the eastern culture with that of the west. He founded a university at Shantiniketan known as Viswa Bharati, in 1901. He later travelled all over the world and had discussions with such eminent personalities like Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw etc. It is said that one evening Tagore and Bernard Shaw were having discussions at Bernard Shaw's place. It went on for hours. It was quite late at night. Bernard Shaw's wife never used to come out when her husband had discussions with other people. As it was quite late at night, Bernard Shaw's wife came to the sitting room. Bernard Shaw asked her what was the matter? To this she replied that whoever comes to talk to her husband, they don't stay long. Possibly they get bored and leave soon. So she has come out to see the man who could spend several hours with her husband with such interest, without getting bored.

He died in 1941 in Calcutta, at the age of 80. In his name an international award for promoting universal brotherhood and fraternity has been initiated by the government of India on May 7, 2011.

He was a creative genius. He possibly came ahead of his time. His works have started finding more relevance now. His works are getting analyzed and cultured extensively in the educated world. His philosophy is being studied for the welfare of mankind. His message of humanity and universal harmony has reached the farthest corners of the globe. He rose above religion, caste, creed and colour. We, as Indians, can't help feeling proud of him. But no, not only Indians, but every citizen of this world must feel proud that a man of such supernatural stature once set his footprints upon this earth.

Rabindranath Tagore with his daughter 1n 1887, at the age of 26

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