Understanding the wisdom of Rabindranath Tagore’s Sādhanā: The Realisation of Life.
BY FAISAL HOQUE
“I have had my invitation to the world’s festival, and thus my life has been blessed. My eyes have seen and my ears have heard.
It was my part at this feast to play upon my instrument, and I have done all I could.”
– Gitanjali, Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore
If I had to name only one non-fictional book that has had the most profound impact on me, it would have to be Sādhanā: The Realisation of Life by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Rabindranath Thakur, Anglicized to Tagore (Bengali: রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর) (1861 – 1941), was a Bengali “renaissance man” who reshaped his region’s literature and music. He became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
Being a Bengali myself, my love affair with Tagore began in my teens. And as I have grown older, Sadhana is one book that I go back to repeatedly. It is one of those rare books that needs to be read slowly, as each sentence contains an immense amount of wisdom.
Compiled and translated by Tagore from his Bengali lectures, the book consists of eight essays, in which Tagore answers some of the most profound questions of life: Why did God create this world? Why would a Perfect Being, instead of remaining eternally concentrated in Himself, go through the trouble of manifesting the Universe? Why does evil exist? Do love and beauty have a purpose?
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