Gora by Tagore

I finally finished reading Gora by Tagore...although a slow read (the man has some very interesting things to say that you actually need to think about), very interesting book. Probably need to read it a few times to get everything out of it. The man brilliantly makes a comment on so many aspects of society, human nature, women, individuals, religion etc just by telling a story. Not only were his ideas advanced for his time, they are advanced for today as well. While people have been putting out similar ideas for the last few decades, the reality is, the amount of openness, tolerance and equality for all that he refers, has still not been adopted by most of the world. Even in parts of the world where it has seemingly been adopted officially, the lay person has yet to truly make it part of their ideals and live by it.

Some interesting excerpts from his book:

" Those who merely live according to rule do not advance society, they only carry it along...God never under any conditions binds His creation with fetters; He awakens it through constant changes to ever new life."

"I have understood today that the course of human life is like that of a great river which, by the force of its swiftness, takes quite new and unforseen channels where before there was no current--such varied currents and unpremediated changes are part of God's purpose to our lives. Life is not an artificial canal to be confined within prescribed channels. When once this is clearly seen in our own lives then we shall not be able to be misled by any mere fabrications."

"We want divine men --supermen, and we shall get them too if only we can desire them with all our hearts and all our minds. But if we want them in a foolish manner, then we need must be content to burden the earth with demons to whom no evil doing is foreign, and whom we allow to earn their livelihood by shaking the dust of their feet on our heads."

Sigh...unfathomable for me to have that kind of intellectual brialliance :)