Rabindranath Tagore
Seek the infinite within the finite world.
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, songwriter, novelist, educator and painter whose essays and lectures develop a philosophy of unity between the individual, nature and humanity. Drawing on the Upanishads, devotional song and long years among Bengali villagers, he founded a school and then a university at Santiniketan and became one of the earliest and sharpest critics of aggressive nationalism.
How can we belong to the whole world without losing our own home?
Biography
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, songwriter, novelist, educator and painter whose essays and lectures develop a philosophy of unity between the individual, nature and humanity. Drawing on the Upanishads, devotional song and long years among Bengali villagers, he founded a school and then a university at Santiniketan and became one of the earliest and sharpest critics of aggressive nationalism.
02 /Philosophy
Tagore holds that the infinite is not reached by fleeing the world: it is realised in finite things, relationships and joy, as the Upanishads suggest when they see all things pervaded by the divine.
03 /Reading guides
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
04 /Bibliography
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
A first reading.
Devotion in everyday life
Follow how Gitanjali joins devotion, ordinary labour, nature and freedom of mind in short prose poems.
Gitanjali: Song OfferingsSelf, nature and the infinite
Examine how Sadhana rereads the Upanishads to connect the individual, nature, love and action.
Sadhana: The Realisation of LifeNation and humanity
Weigh Tagore’s critique of the Nation as a machine of power against his call for social cooperation and reform.
Nationalism