Sadhana: The Realisation of Life
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~49,700 words · 236 passages
Cite this work
- APARabindranath Tagore. (n.d.). Sadhana: The Realisation of Life. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rabindranath-tagore/sadhana-the-realisation-of-life
- MLARabindranath Tagore. Sadhana: The Realisation of Life. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rabindranath-tagore/sadhana-the-realisation-of-life.
- ChicagoRabindranath Tagore. Sadhana: The Realisation of Life. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rabindranath-tagore/sadhana-the-realisation-of-life.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Sadhana (1913): lectures on the Upanishads for a Western audience.
Context and history
Tagore explains what it means, in the Indian tradition, for the individual and the whole not to be separate. He does it without terminology and with everyday examples, because he delivered them at Harvard to people who knew nothing of it.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
India; but whom amongst all these classes did she look up to and choose to be the representative of men? They were the rishis. What were the rishis? They who having attained the supreme soul in knowledge were filled with wisdom^ and having found him in union with the soul were in perfect harmony with the inner self; they having realised him in the heart were free from all selfish desires, and having experienced him in all the activities of the world, had attained calmness. The rishis were they who having reached the supreme God from all sides had found abiding peace, had become united with all, had entered into the life of the Universe.1 Thus the state of realising our relationship with 1 Samprapyainam rishayo jnanatriptah Kritatmano vftaragah prasantah te sarvagam sarvatah prapya dhirah Yuktatmanah sarvamevavi^anti. c INDIVIDUAL AND UNIVERSE 15 all, of entering into everything through union with God, was considered in India to be the ultimate end and fulfilment of humanity. Man can destroy and plunder, earn and accumu late, invent and discover, but he is great because his soul comprehends all. It is dire destruction for him when he envelopes his soul in a dead shell of callous habits, and when a blind fury of works whirls round him like an eddying dust storm, shutting out the horizon. That indeed kills the very spirit of his being, which is the spirit of comprehension. Essenti ally man is not a slave either of himself or of the world; but he is a lover. His freedom and fulfil ment is in love, which is another name for perfect comprehension.…
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