Is Rabindranath Tagore a philosopher?

The caption which I intend to name here is supposed to be confusing primarily since the name of Rabindranath Tagore has been established as a great philosopher of east and the most towering genius the world had given birth so far. Nevertheless, I don't have doubt about the confusion around his name whether he is to be called a philosopher in strict sense because Tagore himself creates such confusion over his own identification.

He writes, "Nature, the soul, love, and God, one recognizes through the heart, and not through the reason … Reason is a tool, a machine which is driven by the spiritual fire". In many of his writings, he didn't accept logical intervention of human proclivity.

Instead, he believes that reason or logic in most part doesn't genuinely trace out human truth because truth lies in human mind not in argument or in a form of debate. Philosophy is a true sense is cognitive exercise and logic is perhaps the only tool that makes it possible. 

As a result, a clear demarcation between philosophy and poetry has been essentially prominent because philosopher never allows poetic-truth or any form of truth that drags into poetic image.  Then, what should be the actual findings after his name? Can't Tagore be called a philosopher then? 

Corderidge's interesting observation, "No man as ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time, a profound philosopher" has made a bridge between poetry and philosophy. And it also makes the view that how poetry and philosophy are intimately projected.

Yes, at the same time, I have no doubt that his philosophical analysis and fundamental question over life and universe is unhesitatingly worth understating; so his position could never be doubted that he is a philosopher and perhaps a first-rate philosopher in history whose remarkable foot step had been over powered by the later researchers.

To quote Amartya Sen, "his essay, moreover, ranged over literature, politics, culture, religious belief, philosophical analysis, international relations, and much else." 

I have no doubt again that much of his writings are critically exposed by Tagore himself and others and his poetic idealism has never been short of those philosophers living in west. To be honest, Tagore's idealistic interpretation of life and nature is ontologically spiritualistic which had a great resemblance with Hegel's objective idealism and F H Bradley's metaphysical occultism.

Rabindrnath Tagore's profundity of knowledge both in poetry and philosophy is rather limitless and perhaps there has been little area of human intervention that actually goes beyond of his cognition.

Except his poetic talent his marvelous journey to the world of knowledge is epoch-making. He is the best music composer, short story writer, painter, critic, play writer, essayist, humanist, and philosopher. First Nobel laureate of Asia, Tagore becomes a world citizen and a peace emissary during the Weimar day. He travels so many countries to diffuse tension among super powers, visits number of countries to understand their culture and way of life.

The question is really important thus: what actually Rabindranath wants to understand from nature and life; can he really create a distinct branch of human understating that makes him a philosopher? If so, what is its name?

In his philosophical lecture at Manchester College at Oxford, he says religion of man is to understand the inner voice of divinity. This entire universe, he believes, is an explication of divine voice and it is always preaching to the nature that the individual being is a part of universal soul.

This should the business of human soul to grasp the unity of the universal being. He writes: "on the surface of our being we have the ever changing phases of the individual self, but in the depth there dwells the Eternal Spirit of human unity beyond our direct knowledge." This teaching is the core of Upanishad.  Sadhana or Realization of Life is his first English book is perhaps a wonderful philosophical discourse that discloses unvarnished truth or divine beauty.         

Although Upanishad becomes the centre of Tagore's philosophy but he makes the synthesis between Upanishad's spiritualism and social humanism and definitely these have been reflected in all his wonderful creation. His life has also been synthesized by the great work of Vedic spiritualism, Muslim culture and European humanism. His faith on spiritualistic monism has never been slackened off because the message of Isha Upanishad particularly declares one and only spiritual unity and, this unity is the root of all causes.

Again, Muslim culture though it is alien to Indian life; but it has a great influence on Hindu society because of its long contiguity. Very lastly, European humanism teaches him largely and he learns how to develop an impartial ethics from here.

Eighteenth centuries Indian renaissance is in most part owe to the British non-idealistic trend. Brahma dharma, founded by Raja Rammahan Roy, a new version of Hinduism becomes the centre of advanced and reformed Indian life. Tagore's family takes to this new chapter of Hinduism; as a result polytheistic belief has been overridden by his ancestors. With that, his literary mode poem, song, dance drama, letters, novel for example touches the unvarnished sublimity of absolutism. 

At least two conversations between Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein help us to understand his socio-scientific position and also the idea that invariably makes him an idealist. Tagore meets Russell four times between 1912 and 1913. Russell was an agnostic and philosophically vibrant with non-idealistic form; so obviously there had been psychological dissymmetry between these two giants.

For obvious reason, their meeting at London was not pleasant and most of their discussion was dry and insipid. As a strong repercussion following their meeting Russell writes to Ottoline Morrell his lover on June 19, 1913, "Here I am back from Tagore's lecture, after walking most of the way home.

It is unmitigated rubbish -cut and dried-conventional stuff about the river becoming one with the Ocean and the man becoming one with Brahma.  … I spoke to him before the lecture -afterwards I avoided him." Russell doesn't believe in one and only stuff that the root of all causes.

"The Essence of Religion" an essay of Russell is published in the Hibbert Journal that is supposed to be an inspirational note of Tagore. Tagore writes to Russell thus, it "reminded me of verse in the Upanishad". Very interestingly, Russell at Cambridge was a disciple of F H Bradley who was an enlightened idealist. Certainly, idealism sees everything in the world as a necessarily connected phenomenon. Russell as an epistemological realist could never accept Tagore's philosophy of divinity. 

Most important debate between Einstein and Tagore had been taken place at Berlin, Germany on 14 July, 1930. It is meaningful in a sense that this debate revolves round most important epistemological issue "realism versus anti-realism" where Einstein takes hold realism and Tagore the other. Other than this issue, they extensively discussed on the idea of beauty, consciousness and science.

Truth is always 'human truth' because he doesn't believe in isolated divinity. He believes that, "there cannot be anything that cannot be subsumed by the human personality". Accordingly, as an anti-realist, which is close to an empiricist, Tagore never agrees with the fact that object can exist outside of human mind. Even beauty is not independent of man. If there is no human being in the world then the beauty of Apollo Belvedere would no longer be beautiful, he argues.

The centre of human feeling is human mind because truth is realized through man. Tagore strongly argues that truth lies in the harmony between objective and subjective aspect of reality. Einstein on the other hand did accept very little part of his argument though he also believes in divine beauty. 

Perhaps the overlapping point they held together is the cosmic beauty which is undulating form one part to other. The point very lastly Tagore mentions is "my religion is the reconciliation of the Super-personal Man, the universal human spirit, in my own individual being."

Now, as a philosopher what we actually make a judgment over his whole creation? Tagore's philosophy of love and faith is sometimes criticized by western rational mind but truly the essence of humanity lies in human love and of course it becomes more vibrant with the interaction of individuals.

This proclamation of humanistic philosophy binds all men together. He thinks about the crisis of humanity and civilization, moot over solution of international crisis and war, and also hopes that this world will be free from all evils. Satyajit Roy, a great film maker in the world, writes in 1961for UNESCO Courier, "On August 7, 1941, in the city of Calcutta, a man died.

His mortal remains perished, but he left behind a heritage which no fire consumes. It was the heritage of words and music and poetry, of ideas and ideals, and it has the power to move us today and in the days to come."


The writer is Professor and Chairperson, Department of Philosophy, Jagannath University.