The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore
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The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) by Kalyan Sen Gupta (z-lib.org)
Self, Art, Evil and Harmony
93 Here Tagore is telling us not only what he believes to be the case but something that, for pragmatic reasons of mental or spiritual health it is good to believe. We are more likely to flourish as human beings if we develop the positive feeling that the potentiality of the good outweighs actual evils, that the direction of humanity is from evil to good. Pessimism is not only mistaken, it is a symptom of mental aberration: For we feel that the good is the positive element in man’s nature, and in every age and every clime what he values most is his ideal of goodness. We have known the good, we have loved it, and we have paid our highest reverence to men who have shown in their lives what goodness is. 46 Indeed, unless we maintain a positive faith in and reverence for good, we will be without the inspiration to consider evil as a challenge and to fight against it for the goal of harmony in human existence. Scepticism or nihilism, one might say, is a self-fulfilling prophecy, for by weakening our resolve to work towards harmony and goodness, it guarantees that these will never be attained. Let us summarize the preceding discussion. The world – our life as a whole – is in essence beautiful or harmonious, despite features analogous to the jagged holes or the wrinkles of the cloth or tree. It requires, however, an appropriate aesthetic perspective in order to perceive this harmony. That perception, nevertheless, should not exclude the commitment of the man of action, of the person who works within society to combat and overcome the evils that assail it. This is a commitment that requires faith, the not unreasonable and surely healthy conviction that people are not condemned to selfishness but may succeed, as in fact they have progressively been doing over the centuries, in establishing harmony within and among themselves, and indeed with the whole universe in which they find themselves. Notes 1 ‘Vichitra’, song 27, Gitabitan, Calcutta: Visva Bharati, 1997, p. 555. 2 Thoughts from Rabindranath Tagore, The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, ed. Sisir Kumar Das, 3 vols, New Delhi: Sahitya Academy,1999, vol. 3, p. 40. 3 ‘Puja’, song 582, Gitabitan, p. 229. 4 Quoted from Sashibhusan Das Gupta, Upanishader Patabhumikay Rabindranath, Calcutta: A. Mukherjee & Co., 1961, p. 4. 5 ‘Pantho’, in Parishesh, Rabindra Rachanabali, 15 vols, Calcutta: West Bengal Government, 1961, vol. 2, p. 877. 6 ‘Ratri’, in the book of poems, Nabajatak, Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 3, pp. 718–19. 7 Charles Baudelaire, ‘The Painter of Modern Life’, in The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays, trans. J. Mayne, London: Phaidon, 1964, p. 27. 8 Michel Foucault, ‘What is Enlightenment?’, trans. Catherine Porter, in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, New York: Pantheon, 1984, p. 46. 94 The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore 9 ‘Puja’, song 75, Gitabitan, p. 36. 10 R. Rorty, Philosophical Papers, vol. 3, Truth and Progress, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 322. 11 ‘Letter to Amiya Chakraborty’, in Sahityer Pathe (in Bengali), Calcutta: Visva Bharati Publishing Department, 1968, p. 7. 12 ‘What is Art?’, Personality, The English Writings, vol. 2, p. 353. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid., p. 352. 15 Ibid., p. 354. 16 ‘Fact and Truth’, Sahityer Pathe, p. 51. 17 Sahitya, Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 13, p. 781. 18 ‘What is Art?’, Personality, pp. 349–62. 19 ‘Ebar Phirao More’, in the poetical work Chitra, Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 1, pp. 472–4. 20 Patraput, poem 12, Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 3, pp. 371–3. 21 I have collected all the above information and quotations from a recent work by a very eminent scholar of Rabindranath, Shankho Ghosh’s, Daminir Gan, Calcutta: Papyrus, 2003, pp. 22–6. 22 R. Rorty, Philosophical Papers, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 197. 23 Ibid. 24 References to Baudelaire are from Abu Sayeed Ayyub, Modernity and Rabindranath (in Bengali), Calcutta: Dey’s Publishing, 1980, and Tagore’s Quest (in English), Calcutta: Papyrus, 1980. Ayyub has tried to illuminate Tagore’s quest for the good through contrasting him with Baudelaire, who saw only ‘the tedious sight of immortal sin’. 25 Kadi o Komal, Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 1, p. 149. 26 Chitra, Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 1, p. 464. 27 Kadi o Komal, p. 195. 28 Sonar Tari, Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 1, pp. 448–9. 29 Chitra, Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 1, pp. 472–3. 30 The English Writings, vol. 1, p. 190. 31 Ibid., p. 317. 32 Ibid., p. 178. 33 ‘The Second Birth’, Personality, p. 380. 34 Martin Heideger, Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson, Oxford: Blackwell, 1960, sections 51–2. 35 ‘The Problem of Evil’, Sadhana, The English Writings, vol. 2, p. 299. 36 Ibid. 37 Shanti niketan (in Bengali), Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 12, pp. 231, 231 and 235. 38 Utsarga, poem 31, translated by Tagore, The English Writings, vol. 1, p. 337. 39 Rabindra Rachanabali, vol. 3, pp. 708–9. 40 ‘The problem of Evil’, p. 298. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 43 See especially Popper’s The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London: Hutchinson, 1959. 44 ‘The problem of Evil’, p. 300. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibid. In this context, one might note another simile Tagore uses in response to those who see only the dark aspect of life. ‘If we find that some poet is describing the beautiful smile of a girl, we must appreciate that it is worth describing. But if, just after that, he tells us of a dentist who on examination finds caries in her teeth, then it is of course news, but not so urgent as to be communicated to all. If we find him passionately dwelling just on that, it is quite reasonable to doubt, there is caries also in his outlook’ (‘Adhunik Kavya’ (‘Modern Poetry’), Sahityer Pathe, p. 119). Self, Art, Evil and Harmony 95 |
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