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Work #235 · Mid (the major philosophical prose statement)

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life

Rabindranath Tagore
1913 (the Hibbert Lectures, Harvard; published 1913) · English (delivered and written in English)
Lectures in eight chapters · Bengali Hindu philosophical-religious thought / Brahmo Samaj

Sadhana — the realisation of life. Tagore's 1913 Harvard lectures presenting Vedantic-philosophical religious thought for Western audiences

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Sadhana: The Realisation of Life (Mid (the major philosophical prose statement))
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Cyclical
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Cosmic-ordering
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Reversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life

The temporal life of sadhana — the ongoing realisation of the soul's cosmic identity.

Space

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life

The cosmic-natural space as the theatre of divine presence; the inward space of realisation.

Matter

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life

The embodied human life as the medium of realisation; nature as the manifestation of the divine.

Observer

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life

The realising soul — embodied, plural, both active in spiritual practice and passive in receiving cosmic identity. Brahman/cosmic Self as framework.

Energy

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life

The energies of love, action, beauty, infinite-realisation as the dynamic content of sadhana.

Information

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life

The Vedantic tradition's philosophical wisdom preserved through Tagore's cross-cultural reformulation.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life

Sadhana's presentation of Hinduism for Western audiences has been criticised as partially orientalising (mediated through the Brahmo Samaj reformist tradition rather than presenting traditional Hindu thought directly). The relation between Sadhana's philosophical-religious framework and Tagore's subsequent critique of nationalism (Nationalism, 1917) and his political-cultural work is the central interpretive theme. Subsequent Indian scholarship has restored Tagore to the Bengali literary-cultural tradition against orientalising Western reception.