" {FN29-2}
I agreed. "The idealistic and hero-worshiping instincts of the young
are starved on an exclusive diet of statistics and chronological
eras."
The poet spoke lovingly of his father, Devendranath, who had inspired
the Santiniketan beginnings.
"Father presented me with this fertile land, where he had already
built a guest house and temple," Rabindranath told me. "I started
my educational experiment here in 1901, with only ten boys. The
eight thousand pounds which came with the Nobel Prize all went for
the upkeep of the school."
The elder Tagore, Devendranath, known far and wide as "Maharishi,"
was a very remarkable man, as one may discover from his AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Two years of his manhood were spent in meditation in the Himalayas. In
turn, his father, Dwarkanath Tagore, had been celebrated throughout
Bengal for his munificent public benefactions. From this illustrious
tree has sprung a family of geniuses. Not Rabindranath alone; all
his relatives have distinguished themselves in creative expression.
His brothers, Gogonendra and Abanindra, are among the foremost artists
{FN29-3} of India; another brother, Dwijendra, is a deep-seeing
philosopher, at whose gentle call the birds and woodland creatures
respond.
Rabindranath invited me to stay overnight in the guest house. It
was indeed a charming spectacle, in the evening, to see the poet
seated with a group in the patio. Time unfolded backward: the scene
before me was like that of an ancient hermitage-the joyous singer
encircled by his devotees, all aureoled in divine love.
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