Tagore went to the West, particularly to America in 1921 to raise support for his dream project of starting one International University [Vishwa Bharati]. But he was a bit scared as it will cannibalize his life mission of Santiniketan which he already started. Particularly he was afraid about ‘Organization’. In his letter to C.F. Andrews he wrote:
Santiniketan has been the playground of my own spirit. What I created on its soil was made of my own dream-stuff. Its materials are few; its regulations are elastic; its freedom has the inner restraint of beauty. But the International University will be stupendous in weight and rigid in construction; and if we try to move it, it will crack. It will grow up into a bully of a brother, and browbeat its sweet elder sister into a cowering state of subjection. Beware of organization, my friend! They say organization is necessary in order to give a thing its permanence, but it may be the permanence of a tombstone. (p.148)
This letter of mine will seem to you pessimistic. The reason is I am unwell and utterly home-sick; and the vision of home which haunts my mind night and day is “Amader Santiniketan.” [Our Santiniketan] But the big towers of the International University obstruct its view. I am tired, to the marrow of my bones, trying all these months for a purpose and working in a direction which is against the natural current of my inner being.
In Tagore I find an echo of my own struggle. I am afraid of any kind of Organization. At the same time, I know that without some organization no institution will function properly as it demands some discipline and rule and regulation. About this I wrote one article: Structural problem. As I was thinking about Tagore’s inner struggle and my own experience I said to myself in Tamil : desire for porridge and desire to keep a big mustache won’t go together. This is a Tamil proverb which says that one cannot desire to handle two opposite values simultaneously together in life. We have to choose one. And as I further reflected as inspiration came, I wrote the Secular 571 song. But I found one of my own solutions for this. To keep the balance, drink the porridge and wash the mustache so that we may find a middle path to handle any two opposite values in life.
Gurukulam, 3-10-2021
Tagore went to the West, particularly to America in 1921 to raise support for his dream project of starting one International University [Vishwa Bharati]. But he was a bit scared as it will cannibalize his life mission of Santiniketan which he already started. Particularly he was afraid about ‘Organization’. In his letter to C.F. Andrews he wrote:
Santiniketan has been the playground of my own spirit. What I created on its soil was made of my own dream-stuff. Its materials are few; its regulations are elastic; its freedom has the inner restraint of beauty. But the International University will be stupendous in weight and rigid in construction; and if we try to move it, it will crack. It will grow up into a bully of a brother, and browbeat its sweet elder sister into a cowering state of subjection. Beware of organization, my friend! They say organization is necessary in order to give a thing its permanence, but it may be the permanence of a tombstone. (p.148)
This letter of mine will seem to you pessimistic. The reason is I am unwell and utterly home-sick; and the vision of home which haunts my mind night and day is “Amader Santiniketan.” [Our Santiniketan] But the big towers of the International University obstruct its view. I am tired, to the marrow of my bones, trying all these months for a purpose and working in a direction which is against the natural current of my inner being.
In Tagore I find an echo of my own struggle. I am afraid of any kind of Organization. At the same time, I know that without some organization no institution will function properly as it demands some discipline and rule and regulation. About this I wrote one article: Structural problem. As I was thinking about Tagore’s inner struggle and my own experience I said to myself in Tamil : desire for porridge and desire to keep a big mustache won’t go together. This is a Tamil proverb which says that one cannot desire to handle two opposite values simultaneously together in life. We have to choose one. And as I further reflected as inspiration came, I wrote the Secular 571 song. But I found one of my own solutions for this. To keep the balance, drink the porridge and wash the mustache so that we may find a middle path to handle any two opposite values in life.
Gurukulam, 3-10-2021
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