Tagore and Vaishnav Hinduism

How Vaishnav Hinduism influenced Tagore literature

Rajat Das Gupta (Kolkata)

rajatdasgupta@yahoo.com & dasguptarajat@hotmail.com )

My book of Tagore translation THE ECLIPSED SUN (TES) was published in January 2002 more on insistence of a few North Indian friends of mine while I went there on an Audit assignment rather than my creative urge as a literary quack while my Audit profession put me poles apart from the aesthetic world. Conscious of my shortcoming, as a rule some explanatory note preceded my translation of every piece of the poems/songs I laid my hand on to prepare the mind of my prospective readers who would generally be wider apart than me from the lofty height of Tagore’s dispensation due to linguistic barrier. Yet, my quackery was sometimes naïve and I had left out some important dimensions of Tagore literature which a real erudite certainly would not.

I realized such an omission of mine in TES while in March 2011 I happened to have in hand an article by Dr. Jaba Chatterjee in the faculty of Bengali literature at Rishi Bankimchandra College at Naihati (an hour’s journey from Calcutta). Subject of her article was influence of the Vaishnavite cult on Tagore’s literature which I totally omitted in my TES, very unpardonably. In her dissertation Dr. Chatterjee particularly mentioned the following 2 songs by Tagore which are part of my TES, to illustrate impact of Vaishnavite cult on Tagore. So, I shall try to make good my earlier lapse by restructuring my the then introductory notes related to these songs with the historical context which Dr. Chatterjee’s article reveals. The songs are as follows :

1) Tomay natun kore pabo bole

Harai kshne khan

O mor bhalabashar dhan

……………………………..

…………………………………

[Note: With our limited perceptions we lose sight of God in our daily life. However,

we do glimpse Him at times to realize that He is our dearest who had created

humans to whom He occasionally flashes the mysterious intent behind His

wonderful creation of life, but only to be left again to the mundane. Is this

hide and seek His mirth, never giving us the final answer to our eternal

quest of mystery behind our existence? Now, the problem with Tagore’s

poems and songs often is, we cannot freeze it to any particular

interpretation and because of occurrence of the lines “Endless Thou art /

So delude as null to covert”, I am tempted to invoke the scientists’ Big Bang

theory here behind Creation if of course it means that the debut of myriad

manifestation in Nature, as we see, started from explosion of a single atom

and the Universe, now in an expansion mode will start shrinking again

as it will reach the maximum possible physical inflation and then will start

its reverse course to be again reduced to an atom, maybe this process to

continue ad infinitum. My earnest request to the readers is they may please

take my interpretation of the Big Bang theory with many a pinch of salt, if

not with a lot of laughter too. However, assuming I have even marginally

grasped the Big Bang, are we not still dwelling on the mundane? Where is its

spiritual dimension? I got a lot of spiritual stuff in the said article by Dr. Jaba

Chatterje.

In her article she has mentioned the following song of Tagore and also

another close to it ( No: 2- To Unite with me / Is Thy eternal journey)both of

which are part of TES and both as an impact of Vaishnavite cult She also

gives examples of a good number of other songs of Tagore influenced by the

Vaishnavite poets (e.g. from Joydeb’s (12^th Century) Geetagovina.(in Sanskrit)

& Bidyapati of 15^th Century (who wrote in Maithili) and quoted them in their

respective languages in original, in vogue in those periods in Eastern India,

including Bengal.

The crux of Dr. Chatterjee’s paper is, though human enigma about

evolution of life on this earth is primordial going with an awe, the devotional

blend in it assumed Tsunami height in Bengal, history of which is nearly a

millennium old whose impact deeply influenced Tagore literature since mid

19^th Century onward which may be noted in a large number of his songs/poems

of which, quite a few in my TES occur (besides the 2 nos. mentioned in this

passage), unwittingly hitherto of their Vaishnavite link, and the reader

may hopefully relate this introduction to those also. I am thankful to

Dr. Chatterjee for making available her erudite paper to me without which my

introductions would remain deficient as in my original TES.

To get anew again

I lose Thee now and then;

O my precious love, Thy flight

Is only to be back to my sight.

Thou art not to remain,

Endlessly behind the curtain;

Mine Thou art for ever –

Drown in the temporal for frolic mere.

On Thy search trembles my mind,

Passion waves my love thou to find.

Endless Thou art

So delude as null to covert;

Such is Thy pleasure

To leave me in desolation tear.

2. Amar Milan lagi tumi ascho kabe theke

Tomar surya Chandra tomay rakhbe kothay dheke

…………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………….

[Note: Since his evolution in nature Man is trying to grasp the mystery of Creation or God and that supreme hour of His perception is nearing us more we delve into

His obscurity.]

To unite with me

Is Thy eternal journey;

Thy moon, sun and star

Between us can’t be a cover.

Many an evening and morn

Convey Thy footsteps’ vibration;

Pass Thy secret messenger’s call

My heart to enthrall.

O Traveler! My heart inundates

As Thy heavenly joy there resonates.

Does there appear

The supreme hour;

My bindings are all over

With Thy fragrance the breeze does appear?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Unlock Their Minds

Times of India

Unlock Their Minds

Narain D Batra

Monday, March 21, 2011

University campuses in the United States are increasingly becoming wireless, enabling students to use their laptops or mobile devices from anywhere. Classrooms are getting “smart” in the sense that teachers can connect to internet sources from their classrooms, besides using other instructional tools. Many professors put up their class notes and other teaching materials online. Online discussions and wikis are becoming common teaching tools. 



An institute of higher education with graduate and postgraduate research programmes needs a sophisticated environment of virtual learning that allows its students and faculty to access not only its own databases but also global intellectual resources. Some universities such as MIT, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, University of California at Berkeley, for example, have made available their courses including video lectures online to the public. Through their open courseware, these universities have established global collaborative relations with other institutions and in the process built up their social capital and enhanced their reputation. 
 
MIT offers more than 2, 000 free courses online, including many courses on India, for example, “A Passage to India: Introduction to Modern Indian Culture and Society” and “Music of India”. As of today, its open courseware site has received 70 million visits from 215 countries. Some of its faculty members have become global brands. 
 
India’s technology elites are not lagging behind. Taylor Walsh, in a recent book, Unlocking the Gates, has profiled India’s “National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning” a collaborative project of seven IITs and IISc, Bangalore, which at present offers 229 courses mostly in science and technology. 



Making a classroom “smart” and globally available requires the university to have a professional studio/ staff to help faculty members to digitise and upload their lectures and other teaching materials online, apart from having enough server space to accommodate requests for access from the general public. It is an expensive undertaking. Some universities have developed virtual campuses for their graduate programmes, supplemented with periodic on-campus residencies during which students and faculty members make presentations, hold symposia and seminars. 
 
Of the various instructional methods used for teaching by American professors, the use of computer-aided instruction especially at the undergraduate level is limited to PowerPoint or video primarily to break the monotony of a long lecture. PowerPoint gives teachers an illusion of mastery of their subject matters but its excessive use can be a barrier to engaging students in class. Some students resent the technology because it tends to shut them out of live exchange. No one has come up with an equally good alternative to the lecture-discussion method that has been at the heart of the teaching-learning experience since ages. 



Lecturing is done primarily to establish an intellectual and personal relationship with students even if the same material may be available in the textbook. Sometimes lecturing becomes a necessity especially when a tough topic and fundamentals have to be explained. When the textbook along with supplementary readings is brought to bear upon a discussion topic in the classroom, you see the beginning of learning, which is further enhanced through projects, term papers, weekly essay assignments and the stimulus of quizzes and midterm and final examinations. 



Nonetheless, online teaching is raising some interesting possibilities. While in classroom discussions some students, especially girls, hesitate to participate, I have found that most students participate very enthusiastically in online discussions. Many of them express themselves freely whenever free-style discussion is encouraged. Online discussion creates a level playing field between the extrovert and the shy type. 



Of course, students and professors miss a lot when there are no face-to-face encounters, dramatic moments which occasionally result in witticism, humour and other delightful confrontations that enhance teaching and learning, and make the dialogue such a joy. 
 
Information technology causes stress on the campus because no one can always keep up at the cutting edge of technology. Even younger faculty members who have grown up with the internet feel stressed; information technology is not always user-friendly. 
 
Teaching online requires a different attitude because communication between students and teachers is asynchronous. Many adult students find working on their own time a great advantage. But how to get one’s point across without facial gestures and vocal cues is a challenge. Classroom liveliness and vibrancy, the thrill of being with students, are absent online. Lecturing is performance and some of us become teachers because it gives us a sense of participation in the learning process. 



Physical presence and face-to-face meetings can bring out the best in students. The adrenaline rush that one feels in the class when there is something unexpected, the laughter, the body language and voice inflection and the instant feedback, all are absent in the virtual classroom. How to bring one’s personality into the virtual classroom is a serious challenge. 



Global exposure can be an incentive for some professors to improve their teaching but the jury is still out on whether a smart online presentation is all that we mean by good teaching. But how can one disagree with the MIT’s motto “Unlocking Knowledge, Empowering Minds,” whatever it takes, virtual or real? 



(The writer is professor, communications and diplomacy, Norwich University)