Sadhana

Sadhana

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sadhana, by Rabindranath Tagore #10 in our series by
Rabindranath Tagore
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Title: Sadhana The Realisation of Life
Author: Rabindranath Tagore
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6842] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of
schedule] [This file was first posted on January 31, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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This eBook was produced by Chetan Jain at BharatLiterature.

SADHANA
THE REALISATION OF LIFE

By
Rabindranath Tagore
Author of 'Gitanjali'
1916

To
Ernest Rhys

Author's Preface
Perhaps it is well for me to explain that the subject-matter of the papers published in this
book has not been philosophically treated, nor has it been approached from the scholar's
point of view. The writer has been brought up in a family where texts of the Upanishads
are used in daily worship; and he has had before him the example of his father, who lived
his long life in the closest communion with God, while not neglecting his duties to the
world, or allowing his keen interest in all human affairs to suffer any abatement. So in
these papers, it may be hoped, western readers will have an opportunity of coming into
touch with the ancient spirit of India as revealed in our sacred texts and manifested in the
life of to-day.
All the great utterances of man have to be judged not by the letter but by the spirit--the
spirit which unfolds itself with the growth of life in history. We get to know the real
meaning of Christianity by observing its living aspect at the present moment--however
different that may be, even in important respects, from the Christianity of earlier periods.
For western scholars the great religious scriptures of India seem to possess merely a
retrospective and archaelogical interest; but to us they are of living importance, and we
cannot help thinking that they lose their significance when exhibited in labelled
cases--mummied specimens of human thought and aspiration, preserved for all time in
the wrappings of erudition.
The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can
never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation. They have to be endlessly
explained by the commentaries of individual lives, and they gain an added mystery in
each new revelation. To me the verses of the Upanishads and the teachings of Buddha
have ever been things of the spirit, and therefore endowed with boundless vital growth;
and I have used them, both in my own life and in my preaching, as being instinct with
individual meaning for me, as for others, and awaiting for their confirmation, my own
special testimony, which must have its value because of its individuality.
I should add perhaps that these papers embody in a connected form, suited to this
publication, ideas which have been culled from several of the Bengali discourses which I
am in the habit of giving to my students in my school at Bolpur in Bengal; and I have
used here and there translations of passages from these done by my friends, Babu Satish
Chandra Roy and Babu Ajit Kumar Chakravarti. The last paper of this series,
"Realisation in Action," has been translated from my Bengali discourse on "Karma-
yoga" by my nephew, Babu Surendra Nath Tagore.
I take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to Professor James H. Woods, of
Harvard University, for his generous appreciation which encouraged me to complete this
series of papers and read most of them before the Harvard University. And I offer my
thanks to Mr. Ernest Rhys for his kindness in helping me with suggestions and revisions,

and in going through the proofs.
A word may be added about the pronouncing of Sadhana: the accent falls decisively on
the first a, which has the broad sound of the letter.

CONTENTS
I. THE RELATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL