Sadhana

By Rabindranath Tagore

All the great utterances of man have to be judged not by the letter but by the spirit-- the spirit which unfolds itself with the growth of life in history. We get to know the real meaning of Christianity by observing its living aspect at the present moment-- however different that may be, even in important respects, from the Christianity of earlier periods. For western scholars the great religious scriptures of India seem to possess merely a retrospective archaeological interest; but to us they are of living importance, and we cannot help thinking that they lose their significance when exhibited in labelled cases-- mummied specimens of human thought and aspiration, preserved for all time in the wrappings of erudition. The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation. They have to be endlessly explained by the commentaries of individual lives, and they gain an added mystery in each new revelation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Jan 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781625585356

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was an Indian poet, composer, philosopher, and painter from Bengal. Born to a prominent Brahmo Samaj family, Tagore was raised mostly by servants following his mother’s untimely death. His father, a leading philosopher and reformer, hosted countless artists and intellectuals at the family mansion in Calcutta, introducing his children to poets, philosophers, and musicians from a young age. Tagore avoided conventional education, instead reading voraciously and studying astronomy, science, Sanskrit, and classical Indian poetry. As a teenager, he began publishing poems and short stories in Bengali and Maithili. Following his father’s wish for him to become a barrister, Tagore read law for a brief period at University College London, where he soon turned to studying the works of Shakespeare and Thomas Browne. In 1883, Tagore returned to India to marry and manage his ancestral estates. During this time, Tagore published his Manasi (1890) poems and met the folk poet Gagan Harkara, with whom he would work to compose popular songs. In 1901, having written countless poems, plays, and short stories, Tagore founded an ashram, but his work as a spiritual leader was tragically disrupted by the deaths of his wife and two of their children, followed by his father’s death in 1905. In 1913, Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first lyricist and non-European to be awarded the distinction. Over the next several decades, Tagore wrote his influential novel The Home and the World (1916), toured dozens of countries, and advocated on behalf of Dalits and other oppressed peoples.

Reviews for Sadhana

[Jonathan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

great...thank you.

[mausergem_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a series of articles written by Rabindranath Tagore, he explains  the concepts of Upanishads and other Indian religious texts to Westerners. He delivered these lectures at Harvard university. Being an Indian we directly or indirectly follow many of these concepts in our daily lives without knowing the logic behind them like the important of doing one's duty.The lectures are different and will need repeated reads to fully grasp all their messages but it's worth the effort. A 5/5 read.