Autumn festival is the English version of Tagore’s Bengali play

Sarodotsav. The translation was first published in The Modern Review in

1919. Later it was published in the form of book by A.C. Sarkar from the
Brahmo Mission Press in the same year. Taogre himself translated some of
his plays which include Malini, Chitra, The Cycle of Spring, The Sacrifice,
The King and the Queen, The Autumn Festival and Red Oleanders. The
Autumn Festival is the first to be translated by him.

Rathindranath Tagore, the son of Rabindranh Tagore in his diary on 26

May 1918 writes ‘Father finished translating Autumn Festival at one sitting.
In the afternoon he showed to Andrews.’ The Bengali version of the play was
to be produced in autumn 1918, but the main actor Dinendranath was sick, so
the English version was staged. In 1919, the Bengali version was staged in
Calcutta, and in 1921, again the original drama was staged in Calcutta with
some additions and alterations. From all these details it is clear that Tagore
was busy with this drama and touched it up several times and the English
version was also lying in this process since 1918.
 Translation is not merely a mechanical process for Tagore as he almost
recreated the play in the process of translating it. Sujit Mukherjee in the essay
“Translation as Perjury” rightly points out, “Rabindranath took so many
liberties with every Bangla original while rendering it into English that very
often a poem got rewritten rather than merely rendered. Generally he abridged
or otherwise modified the original poems, sometimes even incorporated
changes. Some are only partial translations of the original, while sometimes
parts of the same original have been used to produce two separate poems in
translation. In a few cases, two or three original poems have been telescoped
into a single translation. The earlier volumes in particular contain a number of
pieces that are practically new poems using old material, yet they are not that
far removed from the source to earn consideration as distinct and independent
entities…. The outcome was the uneasy occupation of an isthmus, between
translation and creation that characterizes all of Rabindranath’s poetry
in English” (Mukherjee, “Translation as perjury” in Translation as
Discovery, p.103)

Tagore belongs to a period in which English has almost attained the

status of the world language. As a person who had been to England in the
youth and as a writer who began to write when the people of India considered
English as a language of National integration, he believed that the writings in
English can reach many people than writing in Bengali, his mother tongue.
The initial problems of writing in a foreign language can be seen in some of
his beginning translations but soon he mastered the felicitious expression in
English. When he got the noble prize in “arguably” 1913, the entire world had
became his audience and he had to address more general and universal themes
afterwards. Though he had his roots deep in the Indian tradition, he had to
satisfy the aesthetic demands of the western world also. Having reached the
state of being a seer, he might not have influenced by the views and reviews

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of many journals and intellectuals, but it is obvious that his urge for reaching
out the audience of the entire world began to increase further and further.
Amindya Sen asserts the same in his essay “Tagore’s Self Translations” when
he says (pp.254-260).

“The poet-translated was some obligation to satisfy the aesthetic

demands of readers belonging to a country whose hospitality had moved him
over a significant part of the last eighteen months. How far reviews in daily
news papers, weekly magazines and literary Journals could affect the
approach of a poet of his stature may easily be questioned but here the urge to
reach out to foreign, monolingual and spectators (in case of plays such as The
Post Office) by conforming to their preconceived notions regarding the poet
from the East was grater than that of being rigorously true to the vocation of a
faithful translator. “There could be virtually no place for the rational,
humourous, patriotic and satirical Tagore, one who could touch upon social
themes and lash out at their evils with unflinching clarity and protest against
injustices of the colonists and Indians alike; the translations, to acknowledge
their hospitality and cater to their expectations (or for some other reason) had
to consciously project an otherworldly image of this Indian poet.” (Sibabrata
Chattopodhyay, (p.257).

Tagore also observes in his essay:

“The poetry of mysticism – the poetry which is

inspired by, and seeks to express, the soul’s direct
vision of reality – is, or should be, the crown of
literature, since it claims to fulfill the secret
purpose of all art… The mystic poet, in fact, if he
would fulfill his high office as revealer of reality,
must be at once – and in supreme degree – an
artist, a lover, and a seer” (p.320)

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In another essay entitled “Poet and Saint” Tagore once again points out:
“Here is a Saint who is not afraid to live, a Saint
who dares to mingle with common things of the
world, fearing no defilement from their touch, and
a Poet, the very closeness of whose contact with
Earth lifts him ever nearer to Heaven” (p.14).

The translations made by Tagore himself have come under fire by

critics like Mahasweta Sengupta who feels that his English translations do not
convey the cultural values of the source language that is Bengali, but care
more towards the target language and culture that is English. But Autumn
Festival proves that they have completely misunderstood him. The Bengali
version of Autumn Festival has two scenes. First scene is laid in the road and
the second in the forest near the river Vetasini. In the English version the
whole drama is compressed into one scene only i.e., ‘The Forest near the
River Vetasini’. Sibabrata Chattopadhyay observes that

“This similarity in form in ‘The Autumn Festival

‘and ‘Rinsodh’ was the result of a continuous
process of revision of the original. We note that at
least six units of lengthy dialogues of the original
were omitted entire or cut short in the English
version first, then in ‘Rinsodh’”.(p.1)

Rabindranath Tagore’s Autumn festival is a short one act play which is

highly symbolical as well as mystical through out. As a typical Indian
mystical seer, Tagore believes that there is a close relationship between man
and the nature and they act and react on each other. In his entire work, he
asserts that the mind of the man and the nature have a perfect communication.
He describes the man as a part of the nature as it is he who begets the yielding
of the nature. Tagore conceives Autumn festival as his mystical manifesto of
the man-nature relationship.

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 In Bengal Autumn Festival is celebrated during the times of Durga
Puja. It is significant of the victory of Good over Evil. The prominence of
Durga puja increased gradually during the British Raj in Bengal. In the first
quarter of the 20thcentury, the tradition of Baroyari or Community puja was
popularized in Bengal. Saradotsav or Durga Puja is one the most important
events in the Bengali society’s calendar. It is an important socio-cultural
annual religious festival worshipping goddess Durga and celebrating her
victory over the mythological demon named Mahishasura. The ancient
scriptures depict goddess Durga as a warrior goddess carrying different
weapons in her ten arms and riding on a lion. Her appearance is also
interpreted as an embodiment of feminine power in Indian culture and society.

Tagore conceives ‘the Autumn’ as a symbol of self-sacrifice and

harmony. The entire play Autumn Festival makes sense only in a symbolical
way. It begins with Lukeswar, a person who always craves for the worldly
wealth, who demands Upananda to pay the deft which Upananda’s master, a
vina player, owes to him. Surasen, the musician is also a symbol of harmony
of the world. He takes up suffering voluntarily for the sake of Upananda, an
orphan. But it does not mean that one has to neglect the worldly
responsibilities. He asks Upananda to learn illuminating the manuscripts as
one has to fill one’s own stomach primarily. Thus Surasen is a person who
accomplishes a perfect balance between the mundane and the artistic pursuits.
Sanyasi, (the king Vijayaditya) realizes the same when he says

“I hear the undying music of his life through you

my boy go on with your writings”. (p.2)

Repaying the debt which his teacher owes to Luckeswar was a moral
responsibility to Upananda though he never gets disheartened by the threats
and black mailings of Luckeswar. Thakurdada, a popular stock character in
the plays of Tagore is also a matured person like the Sanyasi, spiritually.

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Tagore never thinks that life is an ascetic activity and he never encourages the
renunciation of the world. He says that he writes out of joy and his central
theme has been to grasp the infinite in the finite and the eternal in the humane.
Thakurdada almost becomes a voice to the dramatist when he sings

“Over the green and yellow rice fields sweeps the

shadows of the autumn clouds followed by the
swift-chasing sun. The bees forget to sip their
honey; drunken with light they foolishly hover
and hum. The ducks in the islands of the river
clamour in joy for nothing.” (p.2)

Tagore believes that the Nature is the ultimate teacher to the man. So
the Sanyasi affirms “I have came out to fling to the four winds my books”
(p.3). He learns the true spirit of the season of Autumn. Thakurdada reflects
the same when he says,

“The first breath of the autumn to pay his

debts” (p.3).

Sanyasi takes a cue from him and declares,

“Why, this is as beautiful as all these flowers,
its centre” (p.3),

The Sanyasi not only enjoys the freedom that Upananda begets
gradually by writing the manuscripts and repaying the debt but also joins his
hands to help him. For him nothing is a task or a burden as every action
becomes a play which is a source of joy when one takes up for the sake of the
others without any true of selfishness. He Observes,

“Alas! that such a boy as you must pay your debts,

and on such a day! The first breath of the autumn
has sent a shiver through the white crest of
flowering grass and the shiuli blossoms have

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 offered their fragrance to the air, as if in the joy of
reckless sacrifice, and it pains me to see that boy
sitting in the midst of all this, foiling to pay his
debts.” (p.5)

Surasen, the Vina musician who is dead by the beginning of the play is
an ideal for the Sanyasi also. Among all the fine arts, music is the most
metaphysical one which has the ability to communicate with the unseen and
universal. In Mukta-dhara, Abhijit, the prince says,

“Look at that bird, sitting on the top most branch

of the pine tree, all alone. Will it seek its nest, or
will it travel on through the darkness to the forests
of some far, strange land ? I do not know. But as
it sits so quietly gazing into the sunset sky, the
sight of it is like music. Beautiful is earth, it
sings….” (p.28)

Tagore denounces possessiveness in all of its forms. Even the king

Vijayadithya is not capable of keeping Surasen in his court permanently and
he has to search for him after wards as he wants to hear his music once again.
Surasen’s music becomes divine only because he never played it for worldly
rewards. But the harmony and joy are present every where though the people
cannot find it out as they are misguided and confused. Tagore exposes the
folly of the people through dramatic irony. Many of the utterances of the
sanyasi have spiritual overtones. When Luckeswar asks him to sit at a place
where he has hidden his big pearl, he says, “Upananda is sitting exactly on the
spot where the pearl is hidden. I was simple to think he was a fool seeking to
pay off other people’s debts. He is cleverer than he looked. He is after my
pearl. I see he has captured a sanyasi to help him. Upananda”!

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 “Luckeswar knows human nature better than any
of you here. Directly he sets his eyes upon me, I
am caught, a sanyasi false from his matted hair to
his bare foot. I have passed through many
countries and everywhere they believed in me, but
Luckeswar is hard to deceive,” (p.6)

All that the Sanyasi wants to have from Luckeswar was a handful of
rice which symbolically suggests different things for the Sanyasi and
Luckeswar. Luckeswar can’t realize that the real wealth lies wherever the
Sanyasi stays though he asks him to sit where exactly he hides his treasure.
As he never has perfect communication with nature, he cannot understand the
true nature of his fellow human beings also. He misunderstands the King’s
method of digging wells to provide water to the people for treasure hunt.

The search for the true identity is also an important theme of the play
Autumn Festival. The guise of the Sanyasi which Emperor Vijayadithya puts
on is not merely a dramatic devise of building suspense but also a reflection
of his true nature. Vijayaditya, the emperor in disguise, is seeker of inner soul
and knowledge. He is ambitious as well as ego-centred. His attempts to realise
the inner self and to overcome and control the senses become fruitful when he
wanders his empire in the disguise of a sanyasi and makes him to realize that
the true emperor emerges in the hearts of his people only with love and kind
deeds and conquering his own self first with truth. In this process, he liberates
the boy from the clutches of serfdom and he also liberates himself from the
clutches of greed.

Vijayaditya, the emperor in disguise, is seeker of inner soul and

knowledge. He is ambitious as well as ego centred. His attempt to realise the
inner self and to overcome and control the senses become fruitful when he
wanders his empire in disguise of a sanyasi and makes him to realize that the

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true emperor emerges in the hearts of his people only with love and kind
deeds and conquering his own self first with truth. In this process, he liberates
the boy from the clutches of serfdom and he also liberates himself from the
clutches of greed.

From the symbolical point of view, the play Autumn Festival rests on
the pivotal of two important symbols, the big pearl and the golden Lotus on
which Lakshmi keeps her feet. Luckeswar hides the farmer and craves for the
later. But, the Sanyasi tells him that a sanyasi who never touches the gold for
a long time can have the later one. For him love for the humanity is the
greatest wealth and one can get it by giving up one selves to all others. The
Emperor Vijayadithya seems to have taken the role of the sanyasi to learn that
art comprehensively. He knows that he is also a human being with all
weaknesses and so rebukes himself for growing too much for himself. He
wants to bring his pride low and to realize himself that he is an ordinary
person like everybody else. He avows,

“I want to convince him that he is very much so. I

must free his mind from the notion that he is a
different creature from others.” (p.9)

Upananda wants to sell himself for thousand kahan for repaying the
debt to Luckeswar, when Luckeswar insults him. He thinks that his debt is
paid with that insult that he suffer from his hands. But he gets a mystical
communication from the vina the moment when he dusts it. He says,

“In my anger, at the insult offered to me, I thought

I was right in disowning my debt to him.
Therefore I went back home. But just as I was
dusting my master’s vina its strings struck up a
chord and it sent a thrill through my heart. I felt

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 that I must do something super-human for my
master. If I can lay down my life to pay his debts
for him, this beautiful day of October will then
have its full due from me.” (p.9)

Similarly Vijayadithya (Sanyasi) says that, he is ashamed of his full

treasury if he does not pay his debt. Initially Upanand can not understand the
dismay of the Sanyasi as he thinks that the way of Luckeswar is the only
possibility in God’s world.

“Do you think in God’s world Luckeswar is the

only possibility? I give it up. It is not in my power
to be your follower. With an infinite struggle I
have earned what I have done. To leave all that, at
your bidding, and then to repent of my rashness
till the end of my days, would be worse than
madness; it would be so awfully unlike
myself. Now then, father, you must move from
your seat.” (p.9)

That Tagore is considered a Poet of man, nature and God is amply

established whenever he makes a direct reference to the God in his writings.
For him to love the man is to have harmony with nature, to have harmony
with nature is to worship the God. Tagore finds dramatic irony very handy
through out his plays to present the dichotomy between the reality and
illusion. Luckeswar cursingly refers himself as a ghost when he haunts the
place where he hides his treasure. Sanyasi accepts his request to sit on the
same place though he knows that Luckeswar has worldly interests alone. Thus
Tagore portrays them as perfect foils to each other reflecting the diagonally
opposite temperaments. The big pearl of Luckeswar reminds the reader of the
plight of the pearl in John Steinbeck’s famous novel “The pearl” and golden
lotus of the Sanyasi reminds one of the important symbolical connections that
the lotus has in Buddist literature.

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 Luckeswar always uses the terminology of merchandise like capital,
debt, wealth and earnings. The Sanyasi uses the same words to present his
spiritual yearnings. The play Autumn Festival outwardly deals with the debt
that Upananda repays on behalf of his teacher. But it is a spiritual play which
asserts the importance of the ‘payment of debts’ of a different kind. The
Sanyasi proclaims,

“I know why this world is so beautiful; - simply

because it is ever paying back its debt. The rice
field has done its utmost to earn its fulfillment and
the Betasini River is what it is because it keeps
nothing back”. (p.10)

Thakurdada also accepts the same when he too approves, “There is one
who…. and life” [p.10] The sanyasi asserts that wherever there is
sluggishness, there accumulates debt and it ultimately becomes ugly.
Takurdada puts the same in different words when he says, “Because
where….repayment” [p.11]. The irony of the world is that the people suspect
the people who break the harmony without realizing the reason for their
suspicion. Luckeswar’s confusion is very much obvious when he cries,

“You are deep. I never thought of that. And yet

people only suspect me and not you, not even the
Rajah himself … - Father, I can’t bear Thakurdada
to steal a march on me. Let all three of us join in
this business. Look there, a crowd of people is
coming this way. They must have got news that a
Swami is here. Father, they will wear out your feet
up to the knees taking the dust of them. But I warn
you, father, you are too simple. Don’t take
anybody else into your confidence …… But,
Thakurdada, you must know business is not mere

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 child’s play. The chances of loss are eleven to one
– keep that in mind. I give it up. But no, I must
take time to decide”. (p.11)

The villagers mistake the sanyasi for a fraud and the sanyasi tells them
“A real one is difficult to find. I am playing at Sanyasi to amuse boys”, [p.11].
People taunt him by saying that he has to learn the magic from popular
magicians of the period where as the sanyasi wants to learn a different type of
magic which is not based on deception and illusion, but something rests on
reality and enlightenment. A true perception leads the people to harmony and
a perversion definitely lands them in confusion. Luckeswar screams,

“I can’t stand this. You must take away your

charm from me. My accounts are all getting
wrong. My head is in a muddle. Now I feel quite
reckless about that golden lotus, and now it seems
pure foolishness. Now I am afraid Thakurdada
will win, and now I say to myself let Thakurdada
go to the dogs. But this doesn’t seem right. It is
sorcery for the purpose of kidnapping. No, no, that
will never do with me. What is there to smile
about ? I am pretty tough, and you shall never
have me for your disciple”. (p.12)

Tagore’s plays are basically lyrical in nature and so he builds up the

climax of his plays like the climax of an orchestra. He presents the spirit of
the Autumn season in the form of a songs by the sanyasi. All these songs are
very simple striking and very much mystical in content.

The sanyasi sings :

“The breeze has touched the white sails, the boat reveals
in the beauty of its dancing speed.
It sings of the treasure of the distant shore, it lures

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 My heart to the voyage of the perilous quest
The captain stands at his helm with the sun shinning
The captain stands at his helm with the sun shining
On his face and the rain-clouds looming behind
My heart aches to know how to sing to him of tears
And smiles made one in joy.” (p.12)

The song with the image of sailing strikes the mystical nature of the
life very much like those of Bengali Vaishnav Poets and sufi mystics.

He further sings,
“I have spread my heart in the sky and found your touch in my dreams.
Take away that veil from your face, let me see your eyes.
There rings your welcome at the doors of the forest fairies ;
Your anklet bells sound
In all my thoughts
Filling my work with music.” (p.13)

As Tagore proclaims elsewhere, the world is nothing but a playground

in which the human soul plays with the eternal soul. He presents the same
theme in more perceptive and in-depth method in The King of the Dark
Chamber in a more ironic and realistic way in The Post Office and in a poetic
and mystical mode in Mukta – dhara. He presents the same in a fundamental
and lyrical form in Autumn Festival.

Tagore develops the action of his plays in the dialectical method i.e.,
the method of presenting the argument and the counter argument
simultaneously till they merge together at the conclusion. This method
demands a set of characters who act as foils to each other. The sanyasi, the
main character of the play serves as a foil to all other characters of the play.

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The dramatist introduces Rajah, another king only to present the
dissimilarities between the sanyasi (the emperor in disguise) and other kings.
Rajah suspects that Vijayaditya wants to raid on the other counties to
colomise them. Tagore always condemns imperialism and kingship. He
describes his concept of democracy in Mukta-dhara. In Autumn Festival,
Rajah, the king wants to be an emperor though he has a suspicion that, it is
nothing but a mania or madness. But, Vijayaditya, the emperor feels happy to
be a saint, at least in disguise. He proclaims,

“Simply with this rag upon my back and a few

boys as my followers, I was fully successful in
making this day glorious. But look at this
wretched man, this emperor, - he has power only
to ruin it”. (p.14)

Like Luckeswar, Rajah gets disturbed as he as he can only frighten or

get frightened. Greed forces Luckeswar to remain there and fear drives Rajah
to get frightened.

Like in the other plays, some people only get the final enlightenment in
Autumn Festival whereas the others remain unchanged. Rajah and Lukeswar
are shocked to know that the sanyasi is none other than Vijayadithya in
disguise. Luckeswar declares,

“I surrender myself to the Sanyasi. In order to be

saved from the Emperor. But I do not know in
whose hands I am now.” (p.14)

Rajah thinks that, the emperor put on the disguise only to try him. But
Vijayadithya leaves him to his memory as he knows it pretty well that the true
change should come within oneself. The final rendition makes Thakurdada to
be more critical of the things he encountered.

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 Vijayadithya deems the three Kahans which Upanand earns by hard
work as very much precious than his entire treasury. He repays the debt the
Lukeswar from his treasury not to buy Upananda but to earn him as a son by
sheer merit. But, Tagore concludes the play with a reassertion of the worldly
nature of Luckeswar. In the beginning he laments for a being too old to be
adopted by the emperor. When the emperor demands him to pay what is due
to him, he gets very much perturbed as he expects something highly
impossible to repay. The emperor demands him to pay a handful of rice which
he owes to him. But Luckeswar believes that it would be easy to fill the hand
of an emperor but not that of the saint. He gets freedom from his promise by
unwillingly referring to the saint’s hand. He can’t understand that the king has
demanded a spiritual gift than a mundane tax.

Humanism is displayed in the act of Surasen when the priest drives the
boy out thinking him to be of a low caste, by embracing him and providing
shelter to the boy. Then the boy wanted to support him with his earning and
wanted to learn vina. Surasen becomes mouthpiece of Tagore, when he says
that ‘art is not for filling one’s stomach’. Tagore has several times denounced
the opinion that ‘art is for art’s sake’. That is why Surasen has become
immortal with his work. “Even though mortal remains silent, the king could
hear the undying music of his life through the boy.”

Falsity can never be hidden and truth always triumphs and comes into
light. It is evident when, Luckeswar calls the king in disguise as ‘False
Sanyasi!’ And the king says it is hard to deceive people like Luckeswar. The
king has been digging an enormous number of wells in his kingdom. It
symbolizes the thirst for the knowledge. And the king wants to remove the
scarcity of water of knowledge. And Luckeswar was scared of his dwelling
and treasure. Luckeswar asks the sanyasi to tell his the secret of some

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treasure, so that he could end his wanderings of it. Then the king replies, ‘I
am also seeking for this’. The sanyasi is in quest of the golden lotus on which
Lakshmi keeps her feet. And he tells Luckeswar that he has to give up all
others in order to prosper. So there should not be any selfishness and
humanity has been predominantly highlighted. As renowned critic rightly
observes,

“The social orientation and application of our

thoughts, ideals, religion and philosophy was
Tagore’s greatest contribution made through his
plays than his poems and novels. Though his plays
are branded more as a symbolic than dramatic
they express the essential Tagore. His plays had to
be symbolic for the basic reason of his vision of
seeing Nature itself as involved in staging a drama
of birth, growth, death and rebirth in which men
participated as symbols of a cosmic process to
their own joy”. (Renunciation and Sacrifice in the
plays of Rabindranath Tagore, p.59)

Most of his plays are expressions of the problems in human life which
are attempted to be solved in the actual conflicts of human activity.
Rabindranath raises some problem or other in his plays and very often his
solution does not appeal to the reader. But to him the problem being
something reflective of life, a clear-cut solution is never offered by life itself.
‘Sacrifice’ and ‘Malini’ are the most well-known plays of Rabindranath
Tagore. In which one can find a conflict between orthodox religion and
conventions on the one hand and the claims of humanity on the other.” But in
the case of Autumn Festival, it is the conflict between the greed and humanity,
the conflict between the truth and falsity, conflict between the ego and
humility, between the self and selfless. The utterances seem to be childish and

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there are many children in the play. The playwright conveys through them the
innocence and pure love which is the need of the hour. Upananda says :

UPANANDA: at first I asked him to teach me to play the vina, so that

I could earn something and be useful to him. He said, ‘Baba, this art is not for
filling one’s stomach.’ And so he taught me how to use paints for copying
books.

The king is harped on doing good to people with many benevolent acts.
One such act is digging a number of wells in his country. The king is the
seeker of knowledge and acts the father to his subjects. The welfare of his
subjects is his priority Lakshman points out father, the very sight of me
suggests money to my rajah. My enemies have falsely informed him that I
keep my treasure hidden underground. Since the report, our rajah has been
digging an enormous number of wells in this kingdom. When asked for
reasons, he said it was to remove the scarcity of water from this land. And
now I can’t sleep at nights because of the fear that a sudden fit of generosity
might lead him to remove the water scarcity from the floor of my own
dwelling. (p.6)

The debate and discussion leads Luckeswar to confess that he had

accumulated large money and still he is greedy of it and is in search of great
treasure. It is ironical that the sanyasi is also in search of great treasure. Both
are greedy but the king is in search of treasure of knowledge and which will
bring peace and prosperity to his subjects and his quest is to overcome the
impact of his power.

Finally Luckeswar confesses,

“I must confess to you, father that I have piled up
a little money for myself, though not quite to the
measure of what people imagine. But the amount

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 does not satisfy me. Tell me the secret of some
treasure, which may lead me to the end of my
wanderings. Then the Sanyasi also declares that he
was also seeking the same.” (p.9)

Rajah Sompal acknowledges that the emperor has become greedy of

power and is unable to overcome it and has become intolerable. The emperor
in disguise of a sanyasi faces the truth about himself and he is also in search
of that truth.

Thus Autumn Festival is a simple play presenting the mystical belief

Tagore in the one ness of God, Nature and Humanism. By choosing a
comparatively simple theme Tagore presents his thorough conviction in the
theory that the world is created by the God out of joy and the world is
conceived in such a way that it becomes a play ground for the human soul to
play with the divine soul. As a true representative of the Renaissance in India,
he asserts that one can reach the god only through the man and to serve the
man is to serve the God. He finally believes that the mind of the men and
nature can act and react with each other. For every problem, nature provides a
solution to the man and whether he can perceive it or not depends upon his
spiritual maturity. Thus Tagore spirituality is always tinged with humanism
and thus he becomes a true heir of the Indian spirituality.

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