©Harris Manchester College, Oxford* Oxford, England May 3, 2010

I have been to this city many times, but only as a visitor, during my long 16 years’ of stay in Britain. This is the first time I am here to do some research for a few months. The readers may be asking why this special note. Many of Tagore’s fans normally celebrate his birthday, May 7; especially in places like Kolkata with readings of his poetry, singing his songs, staging plays he wrote. To me, however, the best way to celebrate Tagore is to reflect on his ideals which are so very universal in nature. I was struck by this thought as I crossed the road from the Balliol College dorm where I stay and saw a building called Harris Manchester College. I had to go in, since I immediately remembered reading, a long time ago, Tagore’s slim volume, The Religion of Man, which contains the Hibbert lectures, an annual event where leading scholars were invited to give “non-sectarian lectures on theological issue.” Tagore gave these lectures at Manchester College (as it was known then), Oxford, way back in May, 1930. It is interesting to note that Radhakrishnan, who was the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University, also gave the Hibbert lectures the year before, in 1929, titled, “An idealist view of life.” It is almost 80 years now, but Tagore’s message on religion resonates so very clearly even today that, if only we could follow it in the spirit he talked about, we would most probably see far less strife than we do in our world of today.

Tagore's letter to Dr. Carpenter-1* (Click to read in full)

Tagore's letter to Dr. Carpenter-2* (Click to read in full)

Tagore's letter to Dr. Carpenter-3* (Click to read in full)

As a working scientist, the chapter, “The Four Stages of Life,” appealed to me greatly, especially when he writes, “For science may truly be described as mysticism in the realm of material knowledge. It helps us to go beyond appearances and reach the inner reality of things in principles which are abstractions; it emancipates our mind from the thraldom of the senses to the freedom of reason,”— the best description I ever read of a link between mysticism and science. Talking about science and freedom, Tagore goes on to say, “The final freedom of spirit which India aspires after has a similar character of realization. It is beyond all limits of personality, divested of all moral or aesthetic distinctions; ….. Though science brings our thoughts to the utmost limit of mind’s territory it cannot transcend its own creation made of a harmony of logical symbols. In it, the chick has come out of its shell, but not out of the definition of its own chickenhood.”

Differentiating between science and religion, Tagore says, “As science is the liberation of our knowledge in the universal reason, which cannot be other than human reason, religion is the liberation of our individual personality in the universal Person who is human all the same.” Beautifully put and a true eye-opener! It goes way beyond what Francis Collins, a leading geneticist, who headed the Human Genome Project and wrote a book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. I may be wrong, but I doubt very much whether Collins ever read The Religion of Man.

I remember writing an article (The changing face of biology, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 1997, vol. 22, 29-36) before the human genome was sequenced, on a rather speculative topic, namely, where biology was going to go in the next 20 to 50 years. Under the subheading, “Message of Universality,” I said: “I may have missed it, but I have not come across any in-depth discussion of one particular aspect of this discovery. I like to call it the ‘Grand Unification’ aspect. What I mean by this is the following: it was the first time that one could see instantly that the life process, irrespective of its source, has a single origin, in the long string of four letters, A, C, T, and G in an intertwined double helix. It is unbiased: race, color, creed, and religion independent. It transcends all kingdoms—animal, human, plant, and bacteria. One is left with this sense of wonder that, in the scheme of things, all living objects owe their existence to those two strands. By any criterion, this signifies unity in nature. One may sense here a philosophical undertone, but an abstraction it is not. It is real; it can be seen and touched. It can be quantified.”

But, I realize this is not the kind of message that most people can interpret as unity in the broadest sense. However, while reading The Religion of Man, it is clear what he espouses is his message that is buried deep in his heart. He says he offers here “the evidence” of his “own personal life brought into a definite focus.” In a sense, though, we all need to bring together our images that are often very blurred in our mind and our wavering thoughts that buffet us every day of our lives into, not only definite, but also into sharp focus.

I think it is most appropriate that, reviewing the book, News Chronicle said, “Rich in profound thoughts and poetic speech ….. he has never written anything so penetrating and illuminating on the nature of things ……..Dr. Tagore has seen visions, and he can paint them for us with a compelling charm due to utter simplicity and fidelity.”

This is not an isolated example of Tagore’s writings but, analyzed properly, I found many of his ideas were far ahead of his time. If only we could get into the inner meanings that he was striving at, the world would be a much better place. It is time that we looked at Tagore’s writings in a new perspective in relation to what is happening in the world. If we did that in an unbiased way, without pre-conceived ideas and prejudices, we would most probably come to a deeper understanding of the workings of the human mind, irrespective of which part of the world we come from, and provide the kind of leadership in all spheres of life that we so badly need. We need to go beyond the culture of “individualism” that is so paramount in the West and attempt a true unification of our inner values and virtues.

©Harris Manchester College, Oxford*