Gitanjali (Song Offerings)

Other Indians came to see me, and their reverence for this man sounded strange in our Western world, where we hide both great and small matters under the same veil of obvious comedy and half-serious depreciation original: "depreciation." Here meaning a tendency to belittle or mock things rather than show open respect.. When we were building the great cathedrals, did we have a similar reverence for our great men? "Every morning at three o'clock—I know because I have seen it," one man said to me, "he sits immovable in contemplation, and for two hours does not wake from his reverie deep, meditative state upon the nature of God. His father, the Maharshi original: "Maha Rishi." A title meaning "Great Sage," referring to Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905), a philosopher and religious reformer., would sometimes sit there all through the following day. Once, while on a river, he fell into contemplation because of the beauty of the landscape, and the rowers waited for eight hours before they could continue their journey."

He then told me about Tagore's family and how, for generations, great men have come from its cradles. "Today," he said, "there are Gaganendranath and Abanindranath Tagore Nephews of Rabindranath and prominent artists who founded the Bengal School of Art., who are artists; and Dwijendranath, Rabindranath's brother, who is a great philosopher. The squirrels come from the branches and climb onto his knees, and the birds alight upon his hands."

I notice in these men's thoughts a sense of visible beauty and meaning, as though they held to that doctrine of Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), a German philosopher. that we must not believe in any moral or intellectual beauty that does not eventually express itself in physical things. I said, "In the East, you know how to keep a family illustrious." The other day, the curator of a museum pointed—