Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-05

CONTINUED From Third Page.l
stranger to us. His volume "Sadhana:
The Realization of Life" consists of
series of lectures delivered at Harvard
University some eighteen years ago. He
brought. his son later to the universe
ty at Urbana, ILL.,, to study new meth
DDS !. Of agriculture. He himself has
studied our institutions and our ma
tional mind He is trying in many
ways to do for the world what Emer-
son did for the American people-to
awaken every one to a consciousness OF
their soul.
In doing this he does not move on
air; he treads the earth and takes
cognizance of its institutions. He has
not given idle words to India. He has
gone forth rendering service in the way
of educating his countrymen to better
methods of living and livelihood at the
same time making them aware OF their
divinity
Sees Why World Advances.
Through his efforts there has been
established an agricultural school, where
standards Of living are measured in the
light of the most advanced scientific
methods. Tagore is not blind to what
advances civilization has made under
the lettering hand of national develop
ment. But he does not wish to be
blinded nor to have his people blinded
by the tempting rewards of material
success. He realizes the splendid
achievement of physical conquest which
has gone on in the world. But he
sounds the tocsin. Throughout all of
his writings the spiritual fiber of the
man Is evident
Tagore Is not an aScetic. He has
fhrnII0h ut II
period and has written some of the
most appealing love poems. But what
ever approach he makes toward what
ever aspect of life, he never fails to
eXalt the subject. There are sugges-
lions in his past life of a certain Byronic
exuberance. 1t may be that all saints
have to pass through such stages into
the clear vision of life The peaceful
serenity of Tagore's writing would show
that he found himself after testing life.
But always in his formative years he
had his fathers wisdom before him. He
mad a hard, unyielding boyhood-one
out Of which Q rebel might have come.
But he grew into understanding through
. certain pantheistic response he gave
to nature.
Tagore was born in Calcutta in 1861.
His mother died when he was quite
young, and so at first he was left much
10 himself, when he was not put under
the surveillance of the servants.
Lonely in Childhood.
Many times he has confessed that
loneliness was the chief feature of his
His school experiences were
saddened by the i'll treatment of cruel
masters, who were stern disciplinarians
and hurt the lads Sensitiveness more
than they harmed him physically. His
rather suddenly became aware of this
ana removed him, putting him in charge
OF tutors. His mind was active and
reached out eagerly for the best of the
Bengalese writings, and when at the
age OF IL he accompanied his father
up into the Himalaya Mountains he had
Teao most OF the important native
Curiously, he who might be accounted
a master Of the English language found
little sympathy with 1t during these
formative years, and there was ALWAYS
q struggle with his instructors when
the English hour arrived. At the age
OF ~ he was sent to England, where
In the years to follow he was not only
tutored In preparatory schools, but re-
ceived his university training in Eng
hsh literature. His perception into the
spiritual values Of English writers Is
Tagore was married when only %.
and his father put him in charge of q
large estate, where he had q rich op-
portunity TO study first hand social and
economic conditions of the working
classes Of India. When some years
after death removed his wife, his
daughter and one of his sons he wrlng
a victory from this seeming spiritual
oeIeat: For there was born In his mind
the idea OF a.akening the spirit of
India through education, and on his
sorrow arose the FIRST ideas for San
Knighted by King.
Since that time Tagore has been
potn q political and an educational
force in India. His power and infiu-
ence and value were recognized by the
British crown when he was knighted.
But Tagore would much rather lead
a contemplative life. Public honor
frightens him. When during 1913 he
was awarded the Nobel Prize for his
ldeahstic literature" he was heard to
exclaim in the same breath with his
acceptance (Which he regarded more
as recognition of his own country
than as personal honor: They have
taken away my shelter" The Nobel
award went toward the further expan-
sion Of his school.
AT his Santiniketon School the stu
dents are brought up in the same close
communion with nature that he had
when as youngster he went up into
the mountains with his father and es-
capped the severer hours of discipline.
Tagore's students have classes out of
doors. II they hear the call of a
strange bird while in class, they rise
from their seats and follow the call,
reciting their lessons as they go. They
have hymns and professionals OF
thanksgiving for different tokens of
life. They act plays in the forest.
School Is not prison, but a release.
Which recalls not only the many plays
which Tagore himself has written with
deltcacy and flneSSe Of technique, but
also that he was an actor himself as a
young man, and might have won dis
ttnction on the stage had he chosen to
follow the bent.
Life Is Call Of School.
Life, life, is the call in his school,
1t Is the call also through the halls of
the Visva-BharaE, his Internat ional
University. In both institutions the
teachers are made to realize that the
prime object of education Is the ex-
pansion of the mind Of man into truth
from the diverse angles of world ap-
proach.
Is there any hope for such a point
of view in the Western world, where
the cult of self-worship of the ma
ton is paramount? 1t has been Ia
cores hope for years that there is.
1t is time that the East and West
should meet, should give to each other
what Is best in each. Every move he
has made for years has been in the
desire to bridge the gap between civili-
cations. He approaches America now
with the same purpose.
Tagore has been an artist since he
was young; at 10 he had tried all the
forms which later he was to bring to
perfection; poetry, drama, story telling,