Rabindranath the Artist (I) TO-DAY we just want to study Rabindranath the man and not the poet Rabindranath. The poet may raise a slight objection – he may say that if we want truly to evaluate him we must consider him as a poet. What he has done or not done as a man is insignificant; he has stored up in his poetry whatever eternal and everlasting was there in him, in his true being and real nature. The rest is of no real significance or value. In that respect he may not have a good deal of difference from others, any marked speciality. The greatest recognition of a poet lies in his poetical works. To give prominence to his other qualities is to misunderstand and

The Culture of the Body THERE are, as we know, three elements in the culture of the body: first, the body must remain healthy; secondly, it has to become strong; and finally, it must be efficient. First, the question of health. The body must remain free from disease, which means that all its organs must function without let or hindrance, as in the heart's function of the circulation of blood, the lungs in their work of respiration, the digestive system in its work of assimilation and elimination. Besides, if there is any defect or shortcoming in any part of the body, it too has to be remedied; if there is an irregularity or disfunction in the shape or movement of a

Rabindranath, Traveller of the Infinite (I) IN Rabindranath, in his life as well as in his art, especially in his poetry, the thing that has taken shape is what we call aspiration, an upward urge and longing of the inner soul. In common parlance it is a seeking for the Divine, in philosophical terms it is a spiritual quest. But Rabindranath is a poet, and he is a modern poet. He cannot be wholly included in the older category, fixed in a mould of clear definition. To be sure, the special characteristic of his consciousness is to keep as far as possible the aim, the ideal, the goal and the Deity of the worship indivisible and indefinable. To make'

I Tried Sannyas NOT once, not twice, but thrice, – three times did I have the urge to take to the life of an ascetic, sannyasa. But whether it was the bad luck of asceticism or out of my own good luck, I had to give up the idea .on all the three occasions, though each time it happened in a different way. This was how it came about the first time. I had just come out of jail. What was I to do next? Go back to the ordinary life, read as before in college, pass examinations, get a job? But all that was now out of the question. I prayed that such things be erased from the tablet of my fate, sirasi ma likha, ma likha, ma likha. But before I could come to any final decision as to

SWEET - MOTHER (New Talks) In Her Company ALL of you, I suppose, sometime or other attend the meditation, the evening meditation at the Playground. If not all, at least a good many or most of you. Perhaps a few of the younger ones do not. When the. Mother was giving this collective meditation in the Playground, almost always there used to happen a strange phenomenon. She has spoken of it, Sri Aurobindo also referred to it, some of you may recall. Among the people who attended the meditation, mostly our Ashram-people, there used to be present strange guests in the company: invisible beings from other worlds, gods, various degrees and kinds of gods, great gods