"In the night we stumble over things and become acutely conscious of their separateness, but the day reveals the unity which embraces them. And the man whose inner vision is bathed in consciousness at once realizes the spiritual unity which reigns over all racial differences, and his mind no longer stumbles over individual facts, accepting them as final. He realizes that peace is an inner harmony and not an outer adjustment, that beauty carries the assurance of our relationship to reality, which waits for its perfection in the response of our love." - Selected Quotations of Rabindranath Tagore, Compilation by Alan Smolowe.

Rabindranath Tagore or "Gurudev", as he is more popularly called, was born in a distinguished Bengali family in Kolkata, West Bengal on 1861. His father's name was the Maharishi Debendranath Tagore, a well known Hindu reformer and mystic and his mother was Shrimati Sharada Devi.

He spent his childhood at No. 6 Dwarkanath Tagore Lane, Jorasanko. Born into the Jorasanko branch of the Tagore clan, Tagore was exposed to the publication of literary magazines, in-home musical recitals, and theatrical performances. Tagore was also influenced by older brothers Dwijendranath (a philosopher), Satyendranath (the first Indian appointed to the elite Indian Civil Service), and Jyotirindranath (a musician, composer, and playwright). His female relatives included sister Swarna Kumari Devi (a novelist) and Kadambari (Jyotirindranath's wife, whose 1884 suicide troubled Tagore for years afterward).

Tagore's earliest poetic collections Manasi (l890), Chitra (1895) and Sonar Tari (1895) used conversational Bengali instead of the usual archaic literary form.

In 1901 he founded the famous Shantiniketan near Kolkata. This was designed to provide a traditional ashram and Western education. He began with 5 pupils and 5 teachers (three of whom were Christians). His ideals were simplicity of living and the cultivation of beauty.

He strongly protested Lord Curzon's decision to divide Bengal on the basis of religion. Wrote a number of national songs and attended protest meetings. He introduced the Rakhibandhan ceremony, symbolizing the underlying unity in undivided Bengal.

In 1912, Tagore visited Britain again and his own English translation of Gitanjali was published under Yeats' auspices. A lecture tour of Britain and the USA followed.

In 1913, he was awarded the famous Nobel Prize and used the prize money to improve his school at Shantiniketan.

Apart from his poetry, he held major exhibitions of his paintings in the West. He was also a noted composer. His works and his life influenced film director, Shri Satyajit Ray, who had been one of his pupils.

Tagore was not politically motivated and tried to harmonise the views of east and west.

In August 1941, Shri Rabindranath Tagore moved to Kolkata from Shantiniketan ashram to undergo an operation.

In 1941 itself, he passed away in the very house in which he was born. He continued to lead the Adi Brahmo Shomaj until his death.

Two of his songs are now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: the Amar Shonar Bangla and the Jana Gana Mana.

Over his lifetime, Tagore interacted with with many notable personalities - including Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Subhas Bose and Rolland. Particularly famous was the famous Tagore-Einstein dialogue that occurred at Einstein's home in Kaputh, Berlin on July 14, 1930; the conversation's second stage occurred when Einstein visited Tagore at the home of their common friend, Dr. Mendel. They probed a variety of subjects, including epistemology, ontology, music theory and creativity.