Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Mahatma Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India.
Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of India's spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.
Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are Manasi (1890) [The Ideal One], Sonar Tari (1894) [The Golden Boat], Gitanjali (1910) [Song Offerings],
Gitimalya (1914) [Wreath of Songs], and Balaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]. The English renderings of his poetry, which include The Gardener (1913), Fruit-Gathering (1916), and The Fugitive (1921), do not generally correspond to
particular volumes in the original Bengali; and in spite of its title, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), the most acclaimed of them, contains poems from other works besides its namesake. Tagore's major plays are Raja (1910) [The King of the Dark Chamber], Dakghar (1912) [The Post Office], Achalayatan (1912) [The Immovable], Muktadhara (1922) [The Waterfall], and Raktakaravi (1926) [Red Oleanders]. He is the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels, among them Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916) [The Home and the World], and Yogayog (1929) [Crosscurrents]. Besides these, he wrote musical dramas, dance dramas, essays of all types, travel diaries, and two autobiographies, one in his middle years and the other shortly before his death in 1941. Tagore also left numerous drawings and paintings, and songs for which he wrote the music himself.
Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941.

* Based on The Great Book Of Best Quotes Of All Times

The writer is with The Daily Observer

Quotes
* Men are cruel, but Man is kind.
* You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water,
* Love's gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted.
* The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
* It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.
* The small wisdom is like water in a glass: clear, transparent, pure.
* The great wisdom is like the water in the sea: dark, mysterious, impenetrable.
* Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.
* We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.
* The biggest changes in a women's nature are brought by love; in man, by ambition.
* In Art, man reveals himself and not his objects.
* Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.
* Do not say, 'It is morning,' and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name.
* The singer alone does not make a song, there has to be someone who hears.
* Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield, but to my own strength. Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved, but for the patience to win my freedom.
* Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand with a grip that kills it.
* Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.
* Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.