Swami Rama on Rabindranath Tagore

One of the greatest masters from the Himalayas, Swami Rama is the founder of Himalayan Institute. Born in India he studied in both India & Europe and received his spiritual training in Himalayan cave monasteries and in Tibet. His best known work “Living with Himalayan Masters” reveals the many facets of the singular adept and demonstrates his embodiment of the living traditions of the East.   According to Swami Rama who met Tagore as a teenager, the key point of Tagore’s life was not sacrifice but conquest. This key point emerged from his faith that only mental and spiritual striving of man has lasting value and that he can conquer all obstacles by inner strength.                                                                                     Swami Rama,  in his book ‘Living with Himalayan Masters’ writes that as a teenager he happened to meet Tagore with his brother and disciple Dandi Swami Shivananda of Gangotri, at a small town called Rajpur while on way to Mussoorie at the foot of the Himalayas. During those days Tagore was staying in a cottage there. Swami Shivananda was from Bengal and knew Tagore and his family well; so they were invited to live in the same cottage with him for two months.                                                                                                                                         Swami Rama visited Shantiniketan in 1940. He writes “Rathindranath Tagore, the son of Rabindranath Tagore, received me and arranged for me to stay in one of the cottages next to Sri Malikji, who was a devout and committed admirer of Tagore and his institute. Tagore was known as “Gurudeva” by the students of Shantiniketan and as “Thakur” by the general public. He was a very gifted poet from Bengal, and one of the greatest poets of all times. In the realms of religion, philosophy, literature, music, painting, and education his many-sided, handsome, and towering personality was well-known to the world.”                                                                           Commenting on Tagore as per his observations during period of stay with him, Swami Rama says, “ I was able to observe his devotion to his work. He was always engaged in his daily practice or was busy writing or painting. He spent very few hours in sleep, and would not recline in the daytime. The infirmities of age did not change his habits. I looked upon him as an earnest sadhaka [spiritual seeker]. It is true that one object of all sadhakas of the world is to be somewhat godlike. It was not necessary for a godlike man like Tagore to imitate other god-men of India in order to express himself. His life was not like that of an Ascetic’s, which is as barron as a desert. Asceticism is the most ancient path of enlightenment and genuine asceticism is indeed worthy of reverence. Equally worthy is the treading of the more difficult path of remaining in the world while doing one’s duties. Tagore believed in living in the world without being of it.” A line from one of his poems, “Liberation by detachment from the world is not mine,” is highly expressive of his philosophy.                                                                                                                               Humanity has seen three kinds of great men: first, those who were gifted and great by birth; second, and those who have attained greatness by sincere and selfless effort; those who have unfortunate ones on whom greatness is thrust by the press and publicity. Tagore was in the first category- a gifted and highly talented poet and genius. He lived and practiced according to the sayings of the Upanishads: “All – whatsoever that moves in the universe – is indwelt by the Lord. Enjoy thou what hath been allotted by him. Covet not the wealth of anyone.”                      Swami Rama writes, “I admired Tagore. He was the most universal, encompassing, and complete human being I have known. He was a living embodiment of the whole of humanity, who knew both man the knower and man the maker. He believed in allowing a person to grow by satisfying both the demands of society and the need for solitude. Sometimes I used to call him the Plato of the East.”                                                                                                      Tagore’s views about the East and West were highly admired by the people of both these cultures. Swami Rama says, “Tagore did not want Westerners to become Easterners in their minds and outward behavior. He wanted the West to join hands with the East in the noble contest for the promotion of the highest ideas which are common to the whole world. According to him, the evolution of man is the evolution of the creative personality. Man alone has the courage of standing against the biological laws. Behind all great nations and noble works done in the world there have been noble ideas. An idea is that something which is the very basis of creativity. It is true that life is full of misfortunes, but fortunate is he who knows how to utilize the ideas which can make him creative. Time is the greatest of all filters, and ideas are the best of all wealth. Fortune is that rare opportunity which helps one to express his ideas and abilities at the proper time.”                                                                                                                               Tagore’s philosophies surmounted all the obstacles which at first obscure that truth. According to him death has for ages been a source of fear and misery because people have not pondered over the truth. “O! Who suffer and fear the approach of death should hear and learn the music of Tagore, which teaches how to lose yourself in the infinite and the eternal. Just tune the chords of your being and make them move in harmony with the music of the cosmos. Every woman and man should strive to secure the light of truth, and live simply and wisely for the common good.” The rhythm of music supported Tagore’s philosophy of life. Music completed his personality, but this is not all. His words and melodies are still going on in the minds of poets and musicians today.                                                                                                                        Tagore believed that all existences constitute the one organism of the entire cosmos, emitting love as the highest manifestation of its vital energy and having as its soul the center of the spiritual galaxy. The world so far talks only about the religion of God, but Tagore always talked of the religion of man. It is a religion of feeling through ecstatic experience, which represents opinion in its most intense and living stage offering a far better solution to the ills of life than philosophy and metaphysics.                                                                                            After staying at Shantiniketan Swami Rama left for the Himalayas to assimilate the ideas  he had acquired there, and then formulate certain guidelines for  his future.