Produced by Chetan Jain at BharatLiterature
By
Rabindranath Tagore
Author of 'Gitanjali'
1916
To
Ernest Rhys
Author's Preface
Perhaps it is well for me to explain that the subject-matter ofthe papers published in this book has not been philosophicallytreated, nor has it been approached from the scholar's point ofview. The writer has been brought up in a family where texts ofthe Upanishads are used in daily worship; and he has had beforehim the example of his father, who lived his long life in theclosest communion with God, while not neglecting his duties tothe world, or allowing his keen interest in all human affairs tosuffer any abatement. So in these papers, it may be hoped,western readers will have an opportunity of coming into touchwith the ancient spirit of India as revealed in our sacred textsand manifested in the life of to-day.
All the great utterances of man have to be judged not by theletter but by the spirit—the spirit which unfolds itself withthe growth of life in history. We get to know the real meaningof Christianity by observing its living aspect at the presentmoment—however different that may be, even in importantrespects, from the Christianity of earlier periods.
For western scholars the great religious scriptures of India seemto possess merely a retrospective and archælogical interest; butto us they are of living importance, and we cannot help thinkingthat they lose their significance when exhibited in labelledcases—mummied specimens of human thought and aspiration,preserved for all time in the wrappings of erudition.
The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiencesof great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system oflogical interpretation. They have to be endlessly explained bythe commentaries of individual lives, and they gain an addedmystery in each new revelation. To me the verses of theUpanishads and the teachings of Buddha have ever been things ofthe spirit, and therefore endowed with boundless vital growth;and I have used them, both in my own life and in my preaching, asbeing instinct with individual meaning for me, as for others, andawaiting for their confirmation, my own special testimony, whichmust have its value because of its individuality.
I should add perhaps that these papers embody in a connectedform, suited to this publication, ideas which have been culledfrom several of the Bengali discourses which I am in the habit ofgiving to my students in my school at Bolpur in Bengal; and Ihave used here and there translations of passages from these doneby my friends, Babu Satish Chandra Roy and Babu Ajit KumarChakravarti. The last paper of this series, "Realisation inAction," has been translated from my Bengali discourse on"Karma-yoga" by my nephew, Babu Surendra Nath Tagore.
I take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to ProfessorJames H. Woods, of Harvard University, for his generousappreciation which encouraged me to complete this series ofpapers and read most of them before the Harvard University. AndI offer my thanks to Mr. Ernest Rhys for his kindness in helpingme with suggestions and revisions, and in going through theproofs.
A word may be added about the pronouncing of Sādhanā: the accentfalls decisively on the first ā, which has the broad sound of theletter.