“Do you know why the Tower of Pisa leans?” “Do you know about the sieve of Eratosthenes?” asks my 8 year old son of his grandmother with much enthusiasm. It’s been three months my mother in law’s been here in Florida and I can already sense a camouflaged restlessness that surfaces in moments such as this, “No, but how about you telling me who wrote the Indian national anthem?”
“Ah lemme guess, yes Gandhi I think,” He responds with his characteristic buoyancy. Smug with the triumph and her ability to hold her own, my mom in law continues kneading the atta, and speaks with self-importance “It is Rabindranath Tagore. This time when you visit kolkata, we will plan a stopover at Shantiniketan, the school he founded at Bolpur. You will know then what a great man he was.”

In 1950 Jana Gana Mana was chosen as anthem, a song that evokes the country as composed of a multiplicity of regions integrated in a prayer to the Lord of India’s Destiny “Bharata bhagya Vidhata”, who has been the eternal guiding spirit who when the human soul fails to move forward and shrinks to a half life, Illuminates an age of awakening. Unfortunately, this song was falsely charged as being composed  as a felicitation for George V. It was an inept pro-British press that instigated such a controversy which however did not require a public refutation, since there were many who had the prudence to rise above intellectual impotence  and recognized that Jana Gana Mana had the most puissant national characteristics. It is time we acknowledge the magnitude of not just the anthem, but the man whose contribution as a writer, divine philosopher is nothing short of phenomenal.

The awe-inspiring impression of Rabindranath Tagore {1861-1941} in the hearts of Indians is colossal. Beyond the borders of India Tagore is also popular in the Spanish speaking world. In contrast, sadly enough, the fervor that was once rampant in America is largely losing ground. Why has this happened, is a question many of us have not asked ourselves. And why his works should be read is a thought we have not given ourselves to ponder over. Or are we assuming that his works are fundamentally unrelated to the modern day skepticism and pragmatic sensibilities? Are we being presumptuous? Questions only we could answer, but not before we reflect about his contribution as “Bishwa Kabi” and “Great Sentinel”, whose brilliance crossed the boundaries of the Hooghly and accomplished milestones in literary history till the Thames and the Michigan Lake.

“….. Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit… into that heaven of freedom my Father, let my country awake”….. These lines had been memorized rather blankly during our early school years in India, yet now when I look back; it makes me go through a myriad of emotions, beyond civilization and culture, our roots and the British Raj, politics, literature or mysticism to the deep-rooted values of Hinduism and more. W.B.Yeats was the leader amongst Tagorean admirers who said of him: “Mr.Tagore Like the Indian civilization itself has been content to discover the soul and surrender himself to its spontaneity.” He also said of his works, to have, “innocence, a simplicity that one does not find elsewhere in literature.”

Tagore was the 14th of the 15 children of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore. Their family in his own words was a “confluence of three cultures, Hindu, Mohammedan and British.” His books, songs, poetry are mostly full of non-sectarian insight and his visions are enlightened with spiritual autonomy. He founded Shantiniketan. It was a school with a difference, where learning was brought into a unique communion with Nature. He won the Nobel Laureate in 1913, and awarded the prestigious Knighthood in 1915 and later in 1919 resigned from Knighthood in protest against British policies, after the Amritsar Massacre.

	English Translation	English Translation
	" Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka Jaya He Bharat Bhagya Vidhata Punjab Sindh Gujarat Maratha Dravida Utkala Banga Vindhya Himachal Yamuna Ganga Ucchala Jaladhi Taranga Tubh Shubha Name Jage Tubh Shubha Ashisha Mange Gahe Tubh Jaya Gata Jan Gan Mangaldayak Jay He Bharat Bhagya Vidhata Jaye He ! Jaye He ! Jaye He ! Jaye,Jaye,Jaye,Jaye He "	Blessed be sacred land, Happy be bounteous relam, Symbol of high resolve, Land of Pakistan. Blessed be thou citadel of faith. The Order of this Scared Land Is the might of the brotherhood of the people. May the nation, the country, and the State Shine in glory everlasting. Blessed be the goal of our ambition. This flag of the Cresent and the Star Leads the way to progress and perfection, Interpreter of our past, glory of our present, Inspiration of our future, Symbol of Almighty's protection.

In 1912, Tagore came to America, to visit his son Rathindranath who was studying Agricultural Science at the University of Illinois. On his second trip in 1916, Tagore lectured fundamentally on the need for spiritual consciousness as opposed to the materialism that dominated the West. However, he did get paid handsomely for disapproving of materialism, to which the Minneapolis Tribune called him “the best businessman who ever came to us out of India.”

Tagore and Albert Einstein met in Berlin on July 14th 1930. The poet and the scientist spoke of the mysteries of creation and melody, human psychology and the elements all at once. Tagore beautifully explained how “melody and harmony are like lines and colors in pictures.” To which Einstein said,” It is a beautiful comparison; line is also much older than color. It seems that your melody is much richer in structure than ours.”

Tagore was truly a pioneering writer who was able to make the Indian vision global. He came across as the “ancient oriental wizard” with his long white hair and exotic wisdom. Unfortunately, little is remembered of his inestimable contribution to literature, humanity, the meaning of life and the universe at large. Yeats finds in his writings, “a mystery that was growing through the centuries like the courtesy of a Tristan or a Pelanore.”

When the ship sails with a light wind, and beyond the briary hedge and tangle of matted underbrush and undulating driftwood we understand the voice of our very own Tagore, and pass on our perception to our children, we would be committing ourselves to an extremely fulfilling and enriching odyssey of the mind and spirit.