Zitate von Rabindranath Tagore

„Wolken schweben aus anderen Tagen in mein Leben, nicht länger, um Regen oder Sturm abzuwerfen, sondern um meinem Sonnenuntergangshimmel Farbe zu verleihen.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

„Müde schlief ich auf müßigem Bette // Im Wahn, daß die Arbeit ein Ende hätte. // Am Morgen, da wachte ich auf und fand, // Daß mein Garten voll Blumenwundern stand.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

Geheimes Wachsen, in: Lyrik des Ostens, Carl Hanser Verlag, München 1952, S. 223, Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.286211/page/n221
Engl.: "I was tired and sleeping on my idle bed and imagined all work had ceased. In the morning I woke up and found my garden full with wonders of flowers." - Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Macmillan & Co., London 1913, Nr. 81, Wikisource

„Ich will jedoch nicht zögern, das Große in Europa anzuerkennen, denn Großes hat es ohne Zweifel. Wir können nicht anders als es von Herzen lieben und bewundern – dies Europa, von dem sich in Kunst und Literatur ein unerschöpflicher Strom von Schönheit und Wahrheit ergießt, alle Länder und Zeiten befruchtend; dies Europa, das mit titanischem Geiste in nie ermüdender Kraft die Höhen und Tiefen des Weltalls durchmißt, das unendlich Große und unendlich Kleine mit seinem Wissen umfaßt und alle Kräfte von Herz und Verstand dazu verwendet, die Kranken zu heilen und all das Elend zu mildern, das wir bis jetzt in hoffnungsloser Resignation hinnahmen, dies Europa, das die Erde dahin bringt, uns mehr Frucht zu spenden, als möglich schien, indem es mit Güte und Gewalt alle großen Kräfte der Natur in den Dienst des Menschen zwingt.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

Nationalismus, Neuer Geist-Verlag, Leipzig 1918, S. 77 f., Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/nationalismusdeu00tago/page/77
Original engl.: "I must not hesitate to acknowledge where Europe is great, for great she is without doubt. We cannot help loving her with all our heart, and paying her the best homage of our admiration, – the Europe who, in her literature and art, is pouring an inexhaustible cascade of beauty and truth fertilizing all countries and all time; the Europe who, with a mind which is titanic in its untiring power, is sweeping the height and the depth of the universe, winning her homage of knowledge from the infinitely great and the infinitely small, applying all the resources of her great intellect and heart in healing the sick and alleviating those miseries of man which up till now we were contented to accept in a spirit of hopeless resignation; the Europe who is making the earth yield more fruit than seemed possible, coaxing and compelling the great forces of nature into man's service." - Nationalism, The Macmillan Company, New York 1917, S. 82 f., Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/nationalism00tagogoog/page/n89

„DER GLEICHE Strom des Lebens, // der Tag und Nacht durch meine Adern // fließt, fließt durch die Welt und tanzt in // rhythmischen Maßen.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore, buch Gitanjali

Gitanjali (Sangesopfer), Kurt Wolff Verlag, München o. J., Nr. 69, Projekt Gutenberg-DE http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/gitanjali-6916/2
Engl.: "[The] same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures." - Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Macmillan & Co., London 1913, Nr. 69, Wikisource

„Das Hauptziel des Lehrens ist nicht, Bedeutungen zu erklären, sondern an die Tür des Geistes zu klopfen.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

Jivansmriti (Meine Lebenserinnerungen), zitiert nach Christine Kupfer: Bildung zum Weltmenschen. Rabindranath Tagores Philosophie und Pädagogik, Transcript, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-2544-8, S. 303, Google Books https://books.google.de/books?id=ur7WBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA303&dq=%22das+hauptziel%22
Engl.: "The main object of teaching is not to explain meanings, but to knock at the door of the mind." - My Reminiscences, The Macmillan Company, New York 1917, S. 116, Internet Archive https://archive.org/stream/MyReminiscences-English-RabindranathTagore/tagorememory#117

„Weine nicht, wenn die Sonne aus deinem Leben untergeht, denn die Tränen lassen dich die Sterne nicht sehen.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

„Sie können das Meer nicht einfach überqueren, indem Sie stehen und auf das Wasser starren.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

„Ich schlief und träumte, das Leben sei Freude.
Ich erwachte und sah, das Leben war Pflicht.
Ich handelte, und siehe, die Pflicht war Freude.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

„Es ist sehr einfach, glücklich zu sein, aber es ist sehr schwierig, einfach zu sein.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

„In love all the contradictions of existence merge themselves and are lost. Only in love are unity and duality not at variance.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

Sādhanā : The Realisation of Life http://www.spiritualbee.com/spiritual-book-by-tagore/ (1916)
Kontext: In love all the contradictions of existence merge themselves and are lost. Only in love are unity and duality not at variance. Love must be one and two at the same time.
Only love is motion and rest in one. Our heart ever changes its place till it finds love, and then it has its rest. But this rest itself is an intense form of activity where utter quiescence and unceasing energy meet at the same point in love.
In love, loss and gain are harmonised. In its balance-sheet, credit and debit accounts are in the same column, and gifts are added to gains. In this wonderful festival of creation, this great ceremony of self-sacrifice of God, the lover constantly gives himself up to gain himself in love. Indeed, love is what brings together and inseparably connects both the act of abandoning and that of receiving.

„Compulsion is not indeed the final appeal to man, but joy is. And joy is everywhere“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

Sādhanā : The Realisation of Life http://www.spiritualbee.com/spiritual-book-by-tagore/ (1916)
Kontext: Compulsion is not indeed the final appeal to man, but joy is. And joy is everywhere; it is in the earth's green covering of grass; in the blue serenity of the sky; in the reckless exuberance of spring; in the severe abstinence of grey winter; in the living flesh that animates our bodily frame; in the perfect poise of the human figure, noble and upright; in living; in the exercise of all our powers; in the acquisition of knowledge; in fighting evils; in dying for gains we never can share. Joy is there everywhere; it is superfluous, unnecessary; nay, it very often contradicts the most peremptory behests of necessity. It exists to show that the bonds of law can only be explained by love; they are like body and soul. Joy is the realisation of the truth of oneness, the oneness of our soul with the world and of the world-soul with the supreme lover.

„Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

„Clouds come floating into my life from other days no longer to shed rain or usher storm but to give colour to my sunset sky.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

292
Quelle: Stray Birds (1916)

„Want of love is a degree of callousness; for love is the perfection of consciousness.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

Sādhanā : The Realisation of Life http://www.spiritualbee.com/spiritual-book-by-tagore/ (1916)
Kontext: Want of love is a degree of callousness; for love is the perfection of consciousness. We do not love because we do not comprehend, or rather we do not comprehend because we do not love. For love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us. It is not a mere sentiment; it is truth; it is the joy that is at the root of all creation. It is the white light of pure consciousness that emanates from Brahma. So, to be one with this sarvānubhūh, this all-feeling being who is in the external sky, as well as in our inner soul, we must attain to that summit of consciousness, which is love: Who could have breathed or moved if the sky were not filled with joy, with love?

„It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

„If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore

„If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

6
Stray Birds (1916)

„Men are cruel, but Man is kind.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

219
Stray Birds (1916)

„You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.“

—  Rabindranath Tagore