The spirituality of Rabindranath Tagore, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda

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Rabindranath Tagore's spirituality, focused on the indwelling

presence of God, " leads human existence from partiality to fullness. "

 

In " The Spirituality of Rabindranath Tagore: `The Religion of an

Artist,' " Sitansu Sekhar Chakravarti explores the spiritual dimension

of one who has been a poet, a novelist, an educator, and a social

reformer. According to Chakravarti, spirituality for Rabindranath

Tagore is the dynamic principle that touches every aspect of life and

is the guiding principle that " leads human existence from partiality

to fullness. " Life's journey, for Tagore, achieves its fulfillment

through the creative interaction of an artist or a poet, and not

through renunciation of the world. He characterizes his spirituality

as that of an artist. This implies a change in one's attitude to the

world; one should move away from an egoistic appropriation of the

world, which results in experiences of the world as a source of

suffering and happiness, to an artistic experience of the world,

where it is the source of unconditional joy (ananda). Tagore writes,

" Joy flows through the universe, / The sun and moon drink of it / A full

measure. / The light of the joy of goodness / Stays ever

effulgent... Why are you all by yourself, confined to / Your own ego? "

Integral to the spirituality of Tagore is the Upanishad notion that

everything is Brahman, and Brahman is blissful. Tagore was also

influenced by the Vaisnava and Baul traditions, which focused on the

indwelling presence of God. Thus, in many of his writings Tagore

stresses the need to respond to the call from within, from " the man

of the heart. " The relationship between the man of the heart and the

individual is very intimate. The intimacy is often described as the

relationship of the lover and the beloved. It is this inner intimacy

that also enables one to experience unity with the external world.

According to Chakravati, it is this unitive experience of the inner

and the outer that characterizes the religion of an artist, and this

is indeed the very core of the spirituality of Rabindranath Tagore. "

 

Hindu Spirituality (Vol.II): Post Classical and Modern, pages xxvi

K R Sundarajan and Bithika Mukerji

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2003

ISBN: 8120819373

 

 

Ramakrishna, convinced that " Brahman and Sakti are identical " ,

invites us all to participate in the divine play with spontaneity and

joy as Her children.

 

" In chapter 15, " Sri Ramakrishna: At Play in His Mother's Mansion, "

Walter Neevel explores the spiritual dimensions of a mystic from

Bengal who has remained highly influential in the modern and

contemporary phases of Hindu self-understanding. Neevel focuses on

the " mother-child " relationship as the very core of Ramakrishna's

mystical dimension, when this relationship, instead of becoming

" regressive or pathological, " remains a source of " creative

experiencing, " which is " seen most clearly in the spontaneous and

joyful play of a young child while her or his mother is close at

hand. " The notion of Divine Mother is an essential aspect of the

spirituality of Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna's mystical experiences seem

to authenticate both " Brahman with attributes " (saguna Brahman)

and " Brahman without attributes " (nirguna Brahman), a point that has

divided the followers of different Vedantic schools. " The eternal,

unchanging, formless Brahman … is real, but so is the dynamic Sakti

at play. " Ramakrishna says: " Brahman and Sakti are identical. If you

accept the one, you must accept the other. It is like fire and its

power to burn…. One cannot think of the Absolute without the

Relative, or the Relative without the Absolute. " According to Neeval,

Ramakrishna's ideal was not jnani but vijnana, or " full knowledge, "

which realizes the reality of both Brahman and Sakti, of both the

eternal (nitya) and the Play (lila) aspects of the one that becomes

all. It is in the affirmation of non-dual Brahman and the affirmation

of the reality of the manifold world as creative expressions of Sakti

that we find Ramakrishna moving away from the traditional Vedantic

formulations. Highlighting the theme of creation as the Play (lila)

of the Divine Mother (Sakti), Ramakrishna seems to invite us all to

participate in the divine play with spontaneity and joy as Her

children. "

 

Hindu Spirituality (Vol.II): Post Classical and Modern, pages xxvi-xxv

K R Sundarajan and Bithika Mukerji

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2003

ISBN: 8120819373

 

 

For Vivekananda, one of the central features of Hindu religion is its

emphasis on " direct experience " of the ultimate Reality.

 

" In the chapter on the spirituality of Swami Vivekananda, Anantanand

Rambachan explores the spiritual dimensions of one of the most

influential interpreters of Hindu tradition in recent times.

" Vivekananda was the first to offer to the Western world a detailed

and systematic exposition of some of the central claims of the Hindu

tradition. " His participation in the 1893 Parliament of the World's

Religions constitutes one of the landmarks in the history of modern

Hinduism; at this time Hinduism came to assume a mission for the

world with a spiritual message of universal relevance and meaning.

For Vivekananda, one of the central features of Hindu religion is its

emphasis on " direct experience " of the ultimate Reality. Religion is

to be realized, not simply to be heard or repeated like a parrot, and

there is a diversity of spiritual paths to direct, personal experience

of the ultimate Reality… On the theme of diversity of religions,

Vivekananda holds the view that all religions are true and meaningful

since they are diverse expressions of the same Reality and

appropriations of one Ultimate Truth. The goal of all religions,

Vivekananda points out, is a " final unitive experience, " which for

him is highlighted in the Hindu philosophical school of Advaita

Vedanta. Thus, for Swami Vivekananda, the advaitic experience

(nondualistic experience) is the final goal toward which all

religions are progressing, representing different points along the

journey, a " staircase model " by which he is able to advocate

tolerance, reject claims of exclusivism, and affirm the relative

importance of various religious traditions of the world. The

important contribution of Vivekananda is that in the face of the

Christian exclusivism of his times, he affirmed that Hinduism

included a variety of independent ways of liberation, and that Hindu

spirituality, especially in its Advaitic form, had global significance

and relevance. "

 

Hindu Spirituality (Vol.II): Post Classical and Modern, pages xxv-xxvi

K R Sundarajan and Bithika Mukerji

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2003

ISBN: 8120819373

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