Hoje, dia 7 de Maio de 2006, comemoram-se os 145 anos de Rabindranath Tagore. Morreu em 1941, mas lendo aquilo que ele escreveu, e absorvendo todos os ideais que estiveram na base da sua forma muito própria de viver e observar o mundo, diria que Tagore não morreu. Tagore está vivo, e recomenda-se. A grande descoberta da minha vida, até agora. Um homem pelo qual valeria a pena morrer. Para os que não conhecem a figura, dizer que ganhou o Prémio Nobel da Literatura em 1913, e que é, juntamente com Ghandi, a grande figura da cultura, filosofia e política da Índia. Por falar em Ghandi, foi Tagore quem popularizou o termo Mahatma (alma grande). Deixo aqui alguns pensamentos deste filósofo, ensaísta e poeta universal:
«All the convergent influences of the world run through this society: Hindu, Moslem, Christian, secular; Stalinist, liberal, Maoist, democratic socialist, Gandhian. There is not a thought that is being thought in the West or East that is not active in some Indian mind.»
«In my view the imposing tower of misery which today rests on the heart of India has its sole foundation in the absence of education. Caste divisions, religious conflicts, aversion to work, precarious economic conditions - all centre on this single factor.»
«To get on familiar terms with the local people is a part of your education. To know only agriculture is not enough; you must know America too. Of course if, in the process of knowing America, one begins to lose one's identity and falls into the trap of becoming an Americanised person contemptuous of everything Indian, it is preferable to stay in a locked room.»
«When we were together, we mostly played with words and tried to laugh away our best opportunities to see each other clearly ... Whenever there is the least sign of the nest becoming a jealous rival of the sky [,] my mind, like a migrant bird, tries to take ... flight to a distant shore.» [carta a Victoria Ocampo]
«[Gandhiji] condemns sexual life as inconsistent with the moral progress of man, and has a horror of sex as great as that of the author of The Kreutzer Sonata, but, unlike Tolstoy, he betrays no abhorrence of the sex that tempts his kind. In fact, his tenderness for women is one of the noblest and most consistent traits of his character, and he counts among the women of his country some of his best and truest comrades in the great movement he is leading.»
«We who often glorify our tendency to ignore reason, installing in its place blind faith, valuing it as spiritual, are ever paying for its cost with the obscuration of our mind and destiny. I blamed Mahatmaji for exploiting this irrational force of credulity in our people, which might have had a quick result [in creating] a superstructure, while sapping the foundation. Thus began my estimate of Mahatmaji, as the guide of our nation, and it is fortunate for me that it did not end there.»
|
No comments:
Post a Comment