The Heart of God

”[Tagore’s] lyrics…display in their thought a world I have dreamed of all my life long.” – W.B. Yeats“In common with thousands of his countrymen I owe much to one by his poetic genius and singular purity of life has raised India in the estimation of the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi“The entire Indian civilization spoke through the poetic wisdom of Rabindranath Tagore.” – Deepak Chopra

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was one of India’s greatest poets. He wrote successfully in all literary genres, but focused primarily on poetry, publishing more than 50 volumes of verse. Born in Calcutta, he was a Bengali writer who traveled to five continents during his lifetime. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 and knighted in 1915, but gave up his knighthood after a British massacre of peaceful demonstrators in India in 1919. He was a powerful social reformer and his writings were used for the national anthems of both independent India and Bangladesh. His death is memorialized in India to this day.

Bashabi Fraser is an award-winning poet, translator, and educator. She is the co-founder and director of the Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies at Edinburgh Napier University. She has authored and edited 23 books including Bengal Partition Stories: an Unclosed Chapter and a biography of Rabindranath Tagore. She was awarded a CBE for her writing and academic achievements in 2021.

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was a physician, writer, philosopher, and founder of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Gabon in 1913 which he ran until his death. In recognition of his many years of humanitarian work, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.

Rev. Herbert F. Vetter Jr. (1923-2014) served First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as associate minister and minister at large from 1967 to 1990, during which time he founded and directed the Cambridge Forum, a public affairs series and public radio program. In retirement, he founded Harvard Square Library, a digital library about Unitarian Universalism and liberal religion.