Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore's birth anniversary falls on the 25th day of the Bengali month of Boishakh, or Pochishe Boishakh which is near May 7 on the Gregorian calendar.

Robindronath, popularly called as Gurudev/ Kobiguru or Biswakobi (in Bengali) needs no introduction. He was an Indian polymath – poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

As the author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European as well as the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".

Shantiniketan and Visva Bharati

Gurudev despised rote classroom schooling: in "The Parrot's Training", a bird is caged and force-fed textbook pages—to death. Visiting Santa Barbara in 1917, he conceived a new type of university: he sought to make Santiniketan the connecting thread between India and the world and a world center for the study of humanity somewhere beyond the limits of nation and geography.

The school, which he named Visva-Bharati, had its foundation stone laid in 1918. Gurudev employed a brahmacharya system: gurus gave pupils personal guidance—emotional, intellectual, and spiritual.

Best Regards,

Dr. T. P. Singh

(त्रिभुवन सिंह)

---

Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the posts are a collection of facts, articles and vedic texts from various sources which appear to be true as a common body of knowledge. The author or website has not further investigated the facts to be true. The author or website under no circumstances can be made responsible for any error or omission whatsoever. We have no intention to hurt anyone's sentiment or belief system. Also there is no intention of the author to promote any organisation or belief system for any monetary or non-monetary benefit or reward. (image credit: www.moneycontrol.com)