Vivekananda and Rabindranath (contd-1)

 Prof. Jagadish  Bhattacharya, formerly professor , dept. of Bengali,  Bangabasi College, discussed at length the relation between Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda in his article, " Vivekananda O Rabindranath" published recently in his centenary issue edited by Tapabrata Ghosh and published by Bharbi. Jagadish Bhattacharya mentioned that  to know the relation between Vivekananda and Rabindranath one has to see it in the perspective of the relations of Rabindranath with Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and Nivedita.
Rabindranath called Vivekananda as a great man. His  attitude was also similar to Vivekananda about the means of attaining the goal by India. Both of them thought that the welfare of India was dependent on the  union of the ideas of East and West. He mentioned in his article " Purba O Pashchim" of the book Samaj written in 1315, similar idea as vivekananda did.

When Rabindranath was in Geneva in Aug.,1930, he met the French Nobel Laureate Romain Rolland, the biographer of Vivekananda,  and discussed with him about the two greatmen Ramakrishna and Vivekananda at the perspective of Christianity as depicted in the Bible. Romain Rolland asked in relation to the controversy of Old Testament and New Tstament developed in their discussion;
" Do you think that Vivekananda In india tried to check the abuses in this line ?" rabindranath replied;
" So far as I can make out Vivekananda's idea was that, we must accept the facts of life...we must rise higher in our spiritual experience in the domain where neither good nor evil exists. It was because Vivekananda tried to go beyond good and evil that he could tolerate many religious habits and customs which have nothing spiritual in them"
All these utterances of Rabindranath showed how deep regard he had on Vivekananda.
The novelist Sourendramohan Mukhopadhyay narrated that after the demise of Swami Vivekananda, they had a condolence meeting   in 1902 in South Subarban School where Rabindranath mentioned so far as he remembered ;
" The notions of Vivekananda towards the fallen, deprived and exploited human being are unerring.We have to accept those ideals."[ desh 29Bhadra, 1369].
To both of them Budhadev is the ideal person.