Rabindranath a Visionary

8/14/2019 Rabindranath a Visionary

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RABINDRANATH: A VISIONARYTheword 'KAVI' doesnot merelymeana writer of poems,but a personwho is kntrwledgeable, philosopher,a visionary. Therecan beno doubt that Rabindranathwasone of thegreatest'KAVI' of all ages.A poem s difficult to translate.A song s not translatable.Rabindranath's yrical geniuscanbe comprehended nly when he is read nthe original. However ranscendingatl barriers of time and space,whatreachesus n Fanslations hisphilosophyandvision. t wasthis very vision,which stirred he heartsof the ikesof Yeats.To understandRabindranath'sphilosophyandthe world-view it

gives ise to, lets irst look at two world-views,whichare widely accepted.One s materialistic, mechanistic. t regardsonly matter and tslaws as real. It is the one held by mostscientists ven oday. Hence tspurportedname, he Scientific world-view. Theother egardsonly spirit asreal and hematerialworld as unreal.Most mysticsof all ageshaveprofessedt. Forbrevity, we will call it the spiritual world-yiew.Obviously, n theseextremeorms,the two are completelycontradictory.Our name Scientific' and Spiritual' for them efer to the above-mentionedextremestandsakenby mostpractitionersof the respectivedisciplines.THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD-VIEW

Of all humanactivities,Scienceodayoccupiescenter-stage.No otherenterprise ivesus somuchpower o conffoland changenature.The scientific method nvolves&e processof abstraction.As far aspossible,it severs he connections f entity being observedrom everythingelse.Thiseven ncludes heconscious bservingmind.This cutting out of the mind makes he scientific picture of theworld necessarily eficient.Sglsdinger,oneof &e architectsof twentiethcenturyphysicssays:o_ I believe t to be tue that I actuallydo cut outmy mind when I construcr he real world aroundme.And I am not awareofthis cutting out. And then,I am very astonished hat the scientific pictureofthe world is very deficient. It givesme a lot of factual information, putsallour experience n amagnificentlyconsistentorder, but it is ghastly silentabout all andsundry hat is really near to our heart, hat really matters o us.It cannottell us a word about red and blue, biuer and sweet,physical painanddelight; it knowsnothingof beautiful and ugly, goodor bad, godand


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etendty. _' (Scrodinger:Nafire and he Cneeksp. 95 Cambridge;emphasismine.)This very cutting out of themind createsalienation. t leads oan illusion of anobjectively existingreality independentof us, he consciousobservers.We then feel thatnature beingoutside us can be changedandmolded o any mannerwithout feelingthe reciprocal effect. Moreastonishingly,we tendto forget that mind andhenceconsciousnessasbeenexcluded rom the scientific picture from thevery beginning.We try toidentifu it with matterandexplain t in terms of physical laws.Obviously,such attempts ail.Themechanisticoutlookhas ed to greatmaterialprogress.However, t hasalso createdacuteproblems n virtually all walks of life. Atindividual level, it hasresulted n degradationof health,bothphysicalandpsychological.At the levelof the societyasawhole, t has edpeople o setwrong priorities in industy, economics,environmentalpoliciesetc.

THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.VIEWAs professedby mostmystics, he spiritual world-viewnegateseverythingmaterial as unreal.It regardsonly spiritual experienceas rue. Asa result, he mystics endto neglectscience.However,on a close ook, wecan say, heir conceptof so-calledpure' Brahmanor Afinan separaterom

matter is also an abstraction. t is certainlynot what Upanishadssuggest.nfact, itis probablyemptier in its content hanpurely materialistic view of theworld. Radhakrisnanays ____people lookupon he soulasa sortofjack-in-the{ox, somehow he chief agentof all activities. _. Anothermisconception f the Upanishaddefinition of the soul_ is that whichregards he Atnan as an abstractunity excludingall the differences. f it isso, t is certainlyanonentity _ _ __' (S.Radhakrishnan:ndian Philosophy:Vol. , p.384,385.) Rabindranathwashowever ntellectually far moreperceptive han both suchscientistsandmystics taking the extremestands.TAGORE AND SCIENCE

Rabindranathwas keenlyawareofthe limitations ofthescientific method.For the analytical eature of this method, hehadthis tosay: By pluckingher petals,you do not gather he beautyof a flower.'(R.T.: StrayBirds).We can statehis positionthus:


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The existenceof theUniverse is boundwith us,the consciousandperceirriogbeings.Like all otherenterprises,scie,lrces necessarilyahumanenterprise.The reality it talks about is NOT a pre-existingone,butthe one CONSTUCTEDby thehumansandthe,trvoare nseparable.He expressed is conviction in his conversationswith Einsteinin 1930: this world is a humanworld; the scientificviewof it is also hat ofscientificman.'The dea of apassively lowing time,whichwas verymuchcurrent in Physics n Tagore'sdayswas anathemao him. He believed nactiverole of ahuman being n determininghis own future. In his ownwords: Time is awealth of change.But clock in its parodymakes t merechangeandno wealth. R.T.: StrayBirds.)

His insight showshim to be far aheadof his times.Thescientific developme,nt speciallyafter his death estifieshis convictions.TheNobel aureatescientist lya Prigoginewith his research n Chaoshasshown imitations of deterministic,mechanisticworld-view. In his book'Order out of Chaos'hehas histo sayaboutTagore'sconversations ithEinstein: Curiouslyenough,hepresentevolutionof sciences running nthe directionstatedby thegreat ndianpoet.'Regardinghemodernconceptionof time n science, e says:'In a Universe n which tomorrow s not continued n today, ime is to beconstructed.In 'Only an llusion': Lecturegivenat J.N.U.,Delhi 1982.)In his profoundbook 'Doing Physics',Martin Kriegerexpressesollowing opinionaboutnatureof sciencen generalandPhysicsin particular.'I am claimingaswell that Physics s subject o a culturalanalysis.ts technical eatures o matterhowmathematical r mechanisticaresubject o thekinds of interpretationperfonnedby critics of literatureand art and by archeologistsndanthropologists Sciences subjectto the slme ind of discoursehatother hrman activitiesaresubject o,whateverclaims o truth eachmaymake.' (Emphasismine.)While concludinghis book,he says:Rather hana traditionalepistemology asedon sightand on passiveobjects,here in physics) heepistemologys basedontouchandgrasp- in effectworking with yourhands.' Theparallel with Rabindranath's hinking is obvious.Tagorenever disregardedscience. Hewrote one of the firstscienceprimers in Bengali: Vishva Parichay'. Hewas he first in India topromote modern agriculturalmethodsat his Sriniketan.)Howeverheopposedhe notion of the scientists hat the experimentallydsmonstrable


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truth was the only truth and heresultantmonopolyover truth that theyclaimed.TAGOREAND SPIRITUALITY

'I feel the embrace f freedom n the thousand ondssf dslightI will nevershut hedoorsof my ssnses.'Rabindranathnever supportedanyreligious dosmaunderthegrnseof spirituality. In fact,he alwaysrebelledagainst igid structures n allwalksof life. (SeeWilliam Radice n his introduction o R. T.: Selectedpoems;p.19,20,Penguin)The materialworld for him was real.The deal ofIndividual Mokshaas statedby most mysticsnever attractedhim. He firmtybelievedthat nothingworthwbilecould be achievedn isolation.This isclearlybrought out inmany of his poerns.Consider his one:'Deliverance?Where s this deliveranceo be found? Ourmasterhimself has oyfully taken upon him the bondsof creation;he isboundwith us all forever.Come out of thy meditationsand eaveaside hy flowers andincense!What harm is there f thy cloths become atteredand stained?Meethim and standby him in toil and n sweatof thy brow.' (Gtanjali: Poem 1)

TAGORE'S VISIONRabindranathwas keenly awareof the dualities hat are theessenceof all life, whether hey about body andmind,world and spirit,etemaland temporal, nfinite andfinite or transcendent nd mmanent.Hehimself defined themto betke main subjectof all his writings. This isbeautifullyexpressedn oneof hispoems:Incense earnso disappearn scent,Scent19gling o incense.Melody seeks o fetter herself in rhythm,While therhythm flows back to melody.Ideaseeksts body in form,Form ts freedomn the idea.The nfinite seeks he touch of the finite,The finite its releasen the infinite.What dralna s this betweencreationanddestruction-This ceaselesso and fro between dea and form?Bondages striving after freedom,And freedomseekingrestnbondage.


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These dualitiesarenotto be looked upon as contradictory.Allthe creation n the Universehas beenpossible hroughharmonizingof suchcontrary orces.'Creation is the harmony of contrary forces-the forcesofattractionand repulsion.Whenthey oin hands, all the fire andfight arechangednto the smileof flowersand hesongsof birds.When here s onlyoneof them triumphantand theotherdefeated, hen eitherthere s the deathof cold rigtdity or that of suicidalexplosion.' R.T.:CreativeUnity, p. 68;Rupa:2402)In his own works,Rabindranathalways ried to achieve hisharrnony.'_ _ _ _ all my writings have dwelt (with the subject of) the delightofattaining he nfinite within the finite _' (R.T.:My Reminiscences.)He was not an vory tower thinker and always ried to puthisideas n practice.Onehas ust to considerhe reforms he nitiatedonhisZamndai, his work at ShantiniketanandSriniketanand he efforts he tookfor Visva-Bharati ill the very end of his life.

TAGORE'S RELEVANCE TODAYRabindranath'swritingswerefree creationsof a genius.Surelytheywere not written to giveanyspecificmessage.However, oday'ssituationmakes hem infinitely morerelevantthan the time whentheywerewritten. Human societyhas acedproblems n all ages.However,whatis new and dangerous s thealienation createdby the now obsoletemechanisticworld-view. It hasmademanyproblemsmoreacute nsteadofsolving them.Also, it hasglvenriseto manynew ones hroughwrongmodels of development.On the otherhand, sterile spirituality hasinadvertently mpaired human nitiative in solving them. What is neededortheir s,olutions scientific as well as rynnpatheticunderstanding,

harmonizing scienceand spirituality.Rabindranath'swritingsassure s thathumanbeingsdopossessthe free creativemind necessaryor suchharmonizing.He regardedhumancreativity to be counterpartof the creativity of the Universeas a whole.Thisalongwith the centralrole he assignedo human beings n shaping heir ownUniverseconstitutedwhathe calledas he 'Religionof Man' or 'Poet'sReligion.' It givesus the freedom o make or break our own future.We willnot break t if while using it we hannonize t with the limitations we have at


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thematerial evel, that is, if we alwayskeep in mind ourposition in and ourconnectedness ith the whole Universe.

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Rabindranath a Visionary