rabindra nath  thakur   (tagore)

Tagore prize
Starting 2009, the Tagore Literature Awards will be announced in the last week of every December, after the winners of the general Akademi awards have been declared, Rao said. “We don’t want to club them,” the official added.
The Tagore awards will recognise the best literary contributions in eight Indian languages every year.
cithara paul - telegraphindia.com

IL NATALE     secondo Tagore

Il brano che riportiamo è di Tagore, premio Nobel per la letteratura 1913.    Le sue parole sembrano state scritte oggi, per noi, ma portano la data del Natale 1932.    Il poeta e drammaturgo Tagore non è giunto a una fede cristiana esplicita   ma parla del Natale cristiano come noi oggi non avremmo il coraggio di fare.

Fare una cerimonia religiosa particolare, in un giorno fissato per onorare i grandi uomini, è uno sdebitarci a poco prezzo. Non ricordandoci di loro per 364 giorni e onorandoli solo il 365°, noi facciamo piacere solo alla nostra vanità. La realizzazione della verità non sta nel riconoscere i nostri doveri: qui è facile sbagliarsi. Se cerchiamo di eliminare la nostra responsabilità ripetendo parole, rendiamo solo più difficile il cammino alla verità. Non vivendola nella nostra vita, pensiamo di salvarci presentando facili offerte di lode. Abbiamo ingabbiato dentro la ripetizione di rituali esteriori coloro che sono venuti a liberarci della esteriorità. Mi sento pieno di vergogna al pensiero di essere chiamato un giorno solo a compiere il rito celebrativo. È una mancanza di serietà molto grande ripagare con parole Colui al quale dobbiamo legarci con la vita. Parlerò della sua nascita legandola solo a una precisa data del calendario?

IL FIGLIO DEL PADRE È NATO NELLA NOSTRA VITA il giorno in cui abbiano compiuto una rinuncia in nome della verità, il giorno in cui abbiamo chiamato fratello con amore vero un altro uomo. Questo è il Natale, in qualsiasi momento avvenga! Il giorno della nascita di Gesù può arrivare nella nostra vita in qualsiasi momento, così come il giorno della sua crocifissione arriva un giorno dopo l’altro. In questo giorno particolare, in tutti i paesi, in tutte le chiese si elevano inni di lode a Colui che ha parlato a tutti gli uomini del Padre supremo. E fuori da quelle stesse chiese la terra è bagnata dal sangue per l’uccisione dei fratelli. Coloro che oggi gli elevano inni di lode nel tempio, lo rinnegano col tuono del cannone, lo deridono nella sua parola facendo piovere dal cielo la morte. C’è un’avidità crudele: è tolto con violenza il cibo ai poveri. Coloro che non hanno il coraggio di affrontare le percosse opponendosi alla violenza nel nome di Cristo, ritti davanti all’altare, inneggiano con parole formali alla vittoria del Misericordioso trafitto dalla lancia. Allora, perché questo è un giorno di festa? Come posso sapere che Cristo è nato in terra? Di che cosa posso gioire? Come posso proclamare solo a parole la nuova nascita di quello stesso Gesù che da un’altra parte percuoto con le mie stesse mani? Anche oggi nella storia umana Egli è crocifisso ogni momento.

EGLI HA CHIAMATO L’UOMO FIGLIO DEL PADRE SUPREMO. Ha detto al fratello di unirsi al fratello; ha fatto umile offerta della verità umana sull’altare. Ci ha esortato con parole eterne all’unità. Ma di secolo in secolo noi abbiamo rigettato il suo invito. Abbiamo fatto di tutto per opporci alla sua parola. Nelle formule dei Veda è scritto che Dio è Padre; per questo c’è la preghiera: «Si risvegli in noi la coscienza che Egli è Padre!». Colui che è venuto a darci la consapevolezza di questa paternità, frustrato e deriso è arrivato alla nostra porta. Non releghiamo la sua parola solo nel canto e nelle lodi. Oggi è giorno per pentirsi, non per godere. Oggi la vergogna per quello che l’uomo compie pervade tutto il mondo. Abbassiamo nella polvere il nostro capo altezzoso e dagli occhi scendano lacrime. Il Natale è un giorno di riflessione, un giorno per farci tutti umili.

Santiniketon, 25 dicembre 1932

www.stefanogentili.it/documenti/irc/126_doc_indusimo.pdf

astori.it  - jesuschrist.it - cbci.org

       tagore_einstein_gandhi      

Rabindranath Tagore  

In Conversation with Albert Einstein

Tagore and Einstein met through a common friend, Dr. Mendel. Tagore visited Einstein at his residence at Kaputh in the suburbs of Berlin on July 14, 1930, and Einstein returned the call and visited Tagore at the Mendel home. Both conversations were recorded. The July 14 conversation is reproduced here, and was originally published in The Religion of Man (George, Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London), Appendix II, pp. 222-225.

TAGORE: I was discussing with Dr. Mendel today the new mathematical discoveries which tell us that in the realm of infinitesimal atoms chance has its play; the drama of existence is not absolutely predestined in character.
EINSTEIN: The facts that make science tend toward this view do not say good-bye to causality.
TAGORE: Maybe not, yet it appears that the idea of causality is not in the elements, but that some other force builds up with them an organized universe.
EINSTEIN: One tries to understand in the higher plane how the order is. The order is there, where the big elements combine and guide existence, but in the minute elements this order is not perceptible.
TAGORE: Thus duality is in the depths of existence, the contradiction of free impulse and the directive will which works upon it and evolves an orderly scheme of things.
EINSTEIN: Modern physics would not say they are contradictory. Clouds look as one from a distance, but if you see them nearby, they show themselves as disorderly drops of water.
TAGORE: I find a parallel in human psychology. Our passions and desires are unruly, but our character subdues these elements into a harmonious whole. Does something similar to this happen in the physical world? Are the elements rebellious, dynamic with individual impulse? And is there a principle in the physical world which dominates them and puts them into an orderly organization?
EINSTEIN: Even the elements are not without statistical order; elements of radium will always maintain their specific order, now and ever onward, just as they have done all along. There is, then, a statistical order in the elements.
TAGORE: Otherwise, the drama of existence would be too desultory. It is the constant harmony of chance and determination which makes it eternally new and living.
EINSTEIN: I believe that whatever we do or live for has its causality; it is good, however, that we cannot see through to it.
TAGORE: There is in human affairs an element of elasticity also, some freedom within a small range which is for the expression of our personality. It is like the musical system in India, which is not so rigidly fixed as western music. Our composers give a certain definite outline, a system of melody and rhythmic arrangement, and within a certain limit the player can improvise upon it. He must be one with the law of that particular melody, and then he can give spontaneous expression to his musical feeling within the prescribed regulation. We praise the composer for his genius in creating a foundation along with a superstructure of melodies, but we expect from the player his own skill in the creation of variations of melodic flourish and ornamentation.

In creation we follow the central law of existence, but if we do not cut ourselves adrift from it, we can have sufficient freedom within the limits of our personality for the fullest self-expression.
EINSTEIN: That is possible only when there is a strong artistic tradition in music to guide the people's mind. In Europe, music has come too far away from popular art and popular feeling and has become something like a secret art with conventions and traditions of its own.
TAGORE: You have to be absolutely obedient to this too complicated music. In India, the measure of a singer's freedom is in his own creative personality. He can sing the composer's song as his own, if he has the power creatively to assert himself in his interpretation of the general law of the melody which he is given to interpret.
EINSTEIN: It requires a very high standard of art to realize fully the great idea in the original music, so that one can make variations upon it. In our country, the variations are often prescribed.
TAGORE: If in our conduct we can follow the law of goodness, we can have real liberty of self-expression. The principle of conduct is there, but the character which makes it true and individual is our own creation. In our music there is a duality of freedom and prescribed order.
EINSTEIN: Are the words of a song also free? I mean to say, is the singer at liberty to add his own words to the song which he is singing?
TAGORE: Yes. In Bengal we have a kind of song-kirtan, we call it-which gives freedom to the singer to introduce parenthetical comments, phrases not in the original song. This occasions great enthusiasm, since the audience is constantly thrilled by some beautiful, spontaneous sentiment added by the singer.
EINSTEIN: Is the metrical form quite severe?
TAGORE: Yes, quite. You cannot exceed the limits of versification; the singer in all his variations must keep the rhythm and the time, which is fixed. In European music you have a comparative liberty with time, but not with melody.
EINSTEIN: Can the Indian music be sung without words? Can one understand a song without words?
TAGORE: Yes, we have songs with unmeaning words, sounds which just help to act as carriers of the notes. In North India, music is an independent art, not the interpretation of words and thoughts, as in Bengal. The music is very intricate and subtle and is a complete world of melody by itself.
EINSTEIN: Is it not polyphonic?
TAGORE: Instruments are used, not for harmony, but for keeping time and adding to the volume and depth. Has melody suffered in your music by the imposition of harmony?
EINSTEIN: Sometimes it does suffer very much. Sometimes the harmony swallows up the melody altogether.
TAGORE: Melody and harmony are like lines and colors in pictures. A simple linear picture may be completely beautiful; the introduction of color may make it vague and insignificant. Yet color may, by combination with lines, create great pictures, so long as it does not smother and destroy their value.
EINSTEIN: It is a beautiful comparison; line is also much older than color. It seems that your melody is much richer in structure than ours. Japanese music also seems to be so.
TAGORE: It is difficult to analyze the effect of eastern and western music on our minds. I am deeply moved by the western music; I feel that it is great, that it is vast in its structure and grand in its composition. Our own music touches me more deeply by its fundamental lyrical appeal. European music is epic in character;

it has a broad background and is Gothic in its structure.
EINSTEIN: This is a question we Europeans cannot properly answer, we are so used to our own music. We want to know whether our own music is a conventional or a fundamental human feeling, whether to feel consonance and dissonance is natural, or a convention which we accept.
TAGORE: Somehow the piano confounds me. The violin pleases me much more.
EINSTEIN: It would be interesting to study the effects of European music on an Indian who had never heard it when he was young.
TAGORE: Once I asked an English musician to analyze for me some classical music, and explain to me what elements make for the beauty of the piece.
EINSTEIN: The difficulty is that the really good music, whether of the East or of the West, cannot be analyzed.
TAGORE: Yes, and what deeply affects the hearer is beyond himself.
EINSTEIN: The same uncertainty will always be there about everything fundamental in our experience, in our reaction to art, whether in Europe or in Asia. Even the red flower I see before me on your table may not be

the same to you and me.
TAGORE: And yet there is always going on the process of reconciliation between them, the individual taste conforming to the universal standard.

cs.brockport.edu/

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/einstein_tagore.htm

         I have no special talent.       I am only passionately curious      

albert einstein

       in questo mondo è più difficile vincere il pregiudizio che dividere l'atomo       

albert einstein

IMPORTANTE MANOSCRITTO DI EINSTEIN NEGLI ARCHIVI DELL'UNIVERSITA' DI LEYDE - OLANDA
un saggio di 16 pagine in tutto. risale al 1924 e descrive la trasformazione degli atomi di un gas a temperature molto basse. Tale processo è attualmente conosciuto come condensazione Bose-Einstein. Negli anni Venti Einstein giro' in lungo e in largo l'Europa per tenere conferenze e letture sulle sue teorie.   adnkronos.com 2005

  EINSTEINJAHR 2005 

 
Tagore in the United States : A Brief Discussion
by Dr. Rajat Chanda, Bell Laboratories, New Jersey, USA
(Translated with kind permission from the Bengali by Monish R. Chatterjee)
Recently I have heard certain questions being raised pertaining to Rabindranath Tagore's relationship with the United States. Some have expressed interest in this matter as well. Hence,this rather brief discussion.
Tagore had sent his eldest son Rathindranath and Santosh Chandra, the son of a friend to study agriculture and animal husbandry in the United States when the boys were respectively seventeen and eighteen years old. His intention was to have them acquire scientific knowledge to help solve the problem of persistent food shortage in India. In those days (1905) it was far more common for the sons of affluent families to travel abroad (typically England) to study law or prepare for civil service by completing the ICS (Indian Civil Service) examinations (translator's note: in this, as in many other matters, these aspects of Tagore's thoughts and visions were clearly precursors of attempts at national reconstruction and development which became a hallmark of Mahatma Gandhi 's activities later. Tagore's and Gandhi's views and methodologies, however, were not often convergent). Sometime later, Rabindranath sent his youngest son-in-law Nagendranath Gangopadhyay to the United States for the same purpose. It was extremely rare in those days to choose the United States for higher studies over England, Germany, France or Japan. Rathindranath has recounted in his Pitrismriti and On the Edges of Time that no one from the University of Illinois was present to receive him at the railway station because they had presumed that two students were due to arrive from Indiana (instead of India)!
Tagore traveled to the United States for the first time near the end of 1912, accompanied by Rathindranath and his daughter-in-law Pratima Devi. Even though he was then over fifty, his name was hardly known in the West. From New York, they traveled to Urbana, the small town where Rathindranath had studied at the university. This time Rathindranath began graduate studies in biology (translator's note: his intentions to pursue a doctoral degree, however, were never fulfilled- see The Myriad-Minded Man (MMM) by Krishna Datta and Andrew Robinson). Rabindranath, meanwhile, read from translations of some of his essays in Bengali at the local Unitarian Church. These were his first lectures outside India. Perhaps because his own Brahmo faith had Unitarian influences, his audiences seemed to have liked these writings. Near the beginning of 1913, he read a few more essays in Chicago, and then proceeded to Rochester, New York, to attend a conference on religions. Here he presented a lecture under the title Race Conflict. Thereafter, he went to Harvard to present a few more talks. After traveling to a few more cities he returned to Urbana. After six months there, the poet grew tired mentally. It had been planned originally that they would stay there a while, and Rathindranath would finish his research in the meantime. It was not to be. The chief outcome of this trip was a major change in Tagore's conceptions for the Brahmacharya Ashram at Santiniketan. He felt deeply the need to establish a technical division and a hospital there, and educate the students in science. In his new conception, Jagadananda Roy (a science teacher and writer of popular science- translator) and Rathindranath would carry out experimental research in laboratories. The idea of establishing a university at Santiniketan also germinated in his mind at this time.
Realizing that receiving (British) government money for his work at Santiniketan might interfere with his freedom (translator's note: in a related letter, he asserted "no one is going to put chains on my feet"- see MMM), Rabindranath worked tirelessly for the rest of his life to raise much-needed funds for carrying out his novel experiments in education from within and outside India. His efforts to use his students in the production of plays and dance-dramas even in old age were also motivated by the same desire. Unfortunately, he continued to face acute financial woes again and again.
In 1916, Major J.B.Pond of the J.B.Pond Lyceum proposed to Tagore that he would receive a compensation of $12,000 if he agreed to present lectures at several U.S. cities in accordance with an itinerary drawn up by his organization. On account of his Nobel Prize, and the fact that many of his writings had by then been translated into several European languages, Rabindranath was at this time an internationally renowned figure. Accompanying Tagore on his trip this time were C.F.Andrews, William Pearson and Mukul De, a young painter. Beginning with Seattle, Rabindranath traveled across the United States, lecturing in city after city, sometimes repeating the same talks, until he arrived in New York. In a letter written during that tour, he wrote (to paraphrase a delightfully rhyming bon mot), "I travel, I roar, I earn, I dissipate". At length, the arrangement became sufficiently unbearable, and Rabindranath was forced to cancel his contract despite a high financial loss. The lectures he presented on the tour may be found in his books Nationalism and Personality. At the time of the tour, Europe was engaged in World War I. He repeatedly warned that the spirit of extreme and virulent nationalism would drag the world towards destruction, and advocated vigilance and restraint. Judging by the events that followed twenty or twenty-five years later, it is eminently clear that Tagore's prophesies were right on the mark. The seed of World War II may be found dormant within the events of this period. Sometime later, Bertrand Russell spoke sternly against narrow nationalism and the institution of war and was imprisoned. Many in Europe and America were greatly piqued by Tagore's pacifist and anti-nationalist message. This might well be the primary reason behind the erosion of his popularity in the West.
Upon arriving in New York on a tour of the United States in 1920 Tagore observed that the enthusiasm and ebullience with which he had been received during his preceding visit were palpably lacking this time around. He gave a few lectures in New York and at Harvard, no doubt, but there was a clear absence of sincerity and warmth all around him. This time his efforts at fund-raising for Visva-Bharati met with even more dismal results. Not many seemed to be eager to pay much heed to the message of India's "mystic" poet, nor had any interest to know about Visva-Bharati. Feeling imprisoned within the walls of the sky-hugging luxury hotel, he became quite weary and restless. He attempted to arrange a meeting with Mrs. Carnegie; she declined. The Rockefellers, likewise, spurned his overtures (translator's note: in this context, it is tempting to cite an incident that occurred during Tagore's stay at Yama Farms, a retreat for American millionaires and their guests- intellectuals of world stature. It turns out that late one day, while two emigre Russian artists were busy sketching him, Tagore pulled out a handkerchief from inside his robe, and a dime fell out. Tagore apparently said to his visitors, "Isn't it odd, an old gentleman gave me this as he was waiting for his car. Do I look like a tramp?" The infamous dime, it seems, was given to him as alms earlier that day by a stranger! Upon further inquiry, it was determined that the benevolent donor was none other than John D. Rockefeller, who had mentioned giving the dime to "an old Negro!". Readers may draw their own conclusions about America's super-rich from this incident. To find out more, see MMM). About a month later, he received an invitation from the Junior League; however, here, too, he was unsuccessful in raising any money. One professor wanted to know the British government's attitude towards Santiniketan. It gradually became clear to Rabindranath that his relinquishment of the Knighthood in 1919 in protest of the Amritsar massacre had not pleased Americans either. On a more positive note, the American Poetry Society gave him a warm reception.
Later, in Chicago, Tagore stayed for a few days at the home of Mrs. Moody, wife of a professor at the University of Illinois. The English version of his Chitra was dedicated to her. Meanwhile, Major Pond of the Lyceum had arranged for fifteen lectures in Texas. During this lecture tour Rabindranath met Leonard Elmhirst for the first time. This young Englishman (translator's note: Elmhirst had a degree in agriculture from Cornell University) later helped Rabindranath considerably in his rural development project at Sriniketan, a hamlet near Santiniketan. He accompanied Tagore on his journey to South America in 1924, and when Tagore fell ill on board the ship, took care of him for two months in Argentina. Elmhirst's American friend, Dorothy Straight, who later became his wife, provided funds for the work at Sriniketan (translator's note: she apparently did so more out of her fondness for Elmhirst than for her interest in Tagore or his educational projects- see MMM). Overall, Tagore received little by way of funds or recognition from this tour of the United States. Compared with England, the lack of idealism he witnessed there became recurrent in his memory for years afterwards.
In 1929, Canada's Council of Education invited Tagore to discuss his ideas on Education and Leisure. This was his first formal recognition as an educator from outside India. In Vancouver, he met Canada's Governor General, Lord Willingdon, who later became Viceroy of India.
During the tour of 1929, Rabindranath received invitations from several U.S. cities, and eventually arrived at Los Angeles. It was the encounter with immigration officials at this port of entry that offended Tagore greatly (translator's note: he was detained for half an hour, asked questions such as if he had any criminal record, and finger-printed, among other acts of humiliation). Abruptly cutting his visit short, he decided to go to Japan instead. "I am sorry I must take back this memory of American bad manners he said later. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that he was detained for several hours by U.S. customs in 1912.
Following his tour of the Soviet Union, Tagore returned to the U.S. for what would be his last visit in late 1930. He waited in vain for a month and a half to meet with the Rockefellers. One business organization welcomed him at a lavish dinner reception (with 500 invited guests). Commenting on the reception, the Saturday Review observed that even though there were several well-known business and wealthy personages listed among the invitees, there was not one recognizable writer or poet among them. The Review wondered if such a thing could have happened in France, for instance. Rabindranath had a meeting with President Herbert Hoover, arranged by the Ambassador of Great Britain. There were several exhibitions of his paintings; however, no lectures were organized. Most Americans were presumably wary of the possibility that Tagore might compliment the Soviet socialist experiments. Once again, his hopes of raising funds for education in the U.S. were dashed.
In conclusion, it may be said that during the first third of this (the twentieth) century, the United States lagged considerably behind Europe both culturally and intellectually. Few Americans had any interest about the civilization or heritage of Oriental cultures (translator's note: with a few exceptions, such as the historian and scholar Will Durant). Sadly, such interest is generally lacking even today. It is true that the writings of Ralph W. Emerson (translator's note: and also Henry D. Thoreau), the famed Boston brahmin who had great regard for Indian culture, inspired many educated Bengalis at the time. However, while Tagore met first-rate intellectuals and thinkers in many countries of the world who pointed him in new directions, and illuminated him further in his efforts at uniting the East and the West, such individuals were sorely lacking in the United States. The Hindu Poet's speeches on race relations and his exhortations about the consequences of narrow nationalism did not make much impact in American minds. We have seen already that his efforts at fund-raising for Santiniketan were largely futile. For these reasons, we find virtually no mention of the United States anywhere in Tagore's writings. Likewise, Tagore, too, is largely forgotten today in the United States.*
* Some material has been taken from Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay's Rabindra Jivan Katha.
cs.brockport.edu

tagore_1    tagore 1a      tagore 2

altri autori           home