The Beautiful Poems from Gitanjali

Rabindranath Tagore, was an Indian poet, philosopher, and Nobel laureate. He was born in Calcutta, into a rich family, the son of the philosopher Debendranath Tagore. He began to write poetry as a child; his first book emerges when he was 17 years old. After a brief stay in England to study law, he returned to India, where he rapidly became the most important and popular author of the regal era, writing poetry, short stories, novels, and plays. He was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in literature.

Gitanjali is  a composed works of over hundred poems, full of life, full of encouragement and full of insights. Gitanjali speaks of life, from birth  to the death, the life and man’s quest for answers from God. Be it song or rain, nature or god, each poems show the ease of feelings. In this post, we have published few of the most beautiful poems from Gitanjali.

Mind Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up

into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason

has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Purity

Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing

that thy loving touch is upon all my limbs.

I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing

that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind.

I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my

love in flower, knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart.

And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it

is thy power gives me strength to act.

Song Unsung

The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day.

I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.

The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set;

only there is the agony of wishing in my heart.

The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by.

I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice;

only I have heard his gentle footsteps from the road before my house.

The livelong day has passed in spreading his seat on the floor;

but the lamp has not been lit and I cannot ask him into my house.

I live in the hope of meeting with him; but this meeting is not yet.

Friend

Art thou abroad on this stormy night

on thy journey of love, my friend?

The sky groans like one in despair.

I have no sleep tonight.

Ever and again I open my door and look out on

the darkness, my friend!

I can see nothing before me.

I wonder where lies thy path!

By what dim shore of the ink-black river,

by what far edge of the frowning forest,

through what mazy depth of gloom art thou threading

thy course to come to me, my friend?

Gitanjali is really an ocean of such wonderful poems. If your have not read the book yet, simply visit our online bookstore to order books online and get such fabulous poetry collection delivered to your. This book is showcased in our featured array of famous authors books. Simply indulge your passion for poems or reading at Shilalekhbooks.com

Bapu and His Hind Swarajaya

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , also known as Mahatma Gandhi or Bapu (Father of Nation), was one of the greatest leaders of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil defiance, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, human rights, and freedom across the world.

The son of a senior government administrator, Gandhi was born and raised in a Bania community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. Gandhi became famed by fighting for the social rights of Muslim and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using new techniques of nonviolent civil disobedience that he developed. Returning to India in 1915, he set about organizing peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong adversary of "communism" he reached out widely to all religious groups. He became a leader of Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led countrywide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and cultural peace, ending untouchability, increasing economic independence, and above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from British domination.

Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule is a book written by Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1909. It is a book in which he expresses his views on Swaraj, Modern society, Mechanisation etc.Mohandas Gandhi wrote this book in his native language, Gujarati, while traveling from London to South Africa onboard SS Kildonan Castle between November 13 and November 22, 1909. In the book Gandhi gives a judgment for the problems of kindness in modern times, the causes, and his remedy. The Gujarati edition was banned by the British on its publication in India. Gandhi then translated it into English. The English edition was not excluded by the British, who rightly concluded that the book would have little impact on the English-speaking Indians' subservience to the British and British ideas.

Gandhi's nonviolent struggles in South Africa and India had already brought him to such a level of infamy, adoration, and argument that when asked to write an autobiography midway through his career, he took it as an opportunity to explain himself. Although accepting of his status as a great leader in the struggle against racial discrimination, violence, and, just then, colonialism, Gandhi feared that enthusiasm for his ideas tended to exceed a deeper understanding. He says that he was after truth entrenched in devotion to God and attributed the turning points, successes, and challenges in his life to the will of God. His attempts to get closer to this divine power led him to seek purity through simple living, dietary practices, celibacy, and ahimsa, a life without aggression. It is in this sense that he calls his book The Story of My Experiments with Truth, offering it also as a reference for those who would follow in his track. 

You can buy this inspiring book at our online bookstore, Shilalekhbooks.com. The books has been showcased in our featured array of famous authors books. Simply visit our online bookstore to order books online from our wide range of English, Hindi and Punjabi books, and get such astounding books delivered to you.

Book Review - Gitanjali By Rabindranath Tagore

Shri Rabindranath Tagore is one of the greatest poets to come from India. For his beautiful, deep and insightful verses, which expressed his prosaic thoughts, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In this post, we will review his one of the greatest creations, GITANJALI, which means SONG OFFERINGS.

Gitanjali is a collected works of over hundred poems, full of life, full of encouragement and full of insights. Gitanjali speaks of life, from birth to the death, the life and man’s pursuit for answers from God. Be it song or rain, nature or god, each poems show the ease of feelings. Simple recurring lines add to certain poems, while other poems are just a collection of sentences connected together. However as said, it is the content which forms the magic of the whole collection when read as one. Rain forms a significant characteristic of this book, with many poems dedicated to rain itself. While one poem explains the pleasure of approaching rain, the other brings about the holiness of a rainy night. Tagore did not have need of too many words to express his meaning. His command over his views automatically flows through his pen with ultimate ease.

Most of the poems signify human existence and emotion that a person goes through. Sharing one of the poems from the collection:

Let all the strains of joy

mingle in my last song

the joy that makes the earth

flow over

in the riotous excess of the grass,

the joy that sets the twin brothers,

life and death,

dancing over the wide world,

the joy that sweeps in

with the tempest,

shaking and waking all life with laughter,

the joy that sits still

with its tears

on the open red lotus of pain,

and the joy

that throws everything

it has upon the dust,

and knows not a word.

It is really a beautiful book with lovely words weaving themselves into divine songs and poems, and there is truth and sincerity through and through. It reaches out, becomes alive in your soul, and sets things a-stirring in the way that is most desired by all lost and thirsty.

You can buy this marvelous book at our online bookstore, Shilalekhbooks.com, showcased in our featured array of famous authors books. Simply visit the online bookstore to order books online and get such sensational books delivered to you.

Book Review - Pinjar By Amrita Pritam

Pinjar is a novel written by Amrita Pritam whose literal meaning in Punjabi language is Skeleton. The writer through this story brings light upon the problem faced by women during the time of partition of India. There were rites, rape cases, abduction of young women of opposite community.The women were used just as a symbol of sex for the pleasure of men. Amrita Pritam understood the compassion of the subject matter on which she wrote the novel and she has handled it with utmost respect.The story vividly captured the trouble and misery of Puro as victim of situations while the story moves on an emotional ride with twists and turns which leaves the reader wonder struck as what will happen the next.

The writer in this novel has used her adaptability to represent the sorrow and compassion for the characters in the novel. She has written with courage, infatuation and full devotion. She was herself one of the eye- witness of the partition of India in August 1947 and its consequences. She portrays the pathetic and falling standard of our human spirit in her novel. The novel has accurately brought up the complex role of Puro who is facing all the dilemma in the world in the early ages of her life. She has been kidnapped by a Muslim lad, her family has left her to die,her name has been distorted, her religion has been transformed, she has been married to Rashida who abducted her .In short she has been reduced to only a skeleton with no soul inside her. Still she endeavors for the pleasure of others.No other women facing similar pain and sorrow could have brawled against it with so much confidence.

The story starts with the scene of Puro who is happy and cheerful and is busy doing her daily tasks. She has been engaged to a wealthy, handsome man,Ramchand by her father.Her delighted life turns upside down when she is kidnapped by a Muslim mysterious man named as Rashida. Rashida's family was once disdained by Puro's when a few generations before ,Great grandaunt of Rashida was abducted and kept for three days by Great-granduncle of Puro's. Now Rashida's family took the payback and finally won in their motto by successfully capturing Puro and keep inside his house. There is some kind of gender variation present in the story which depicts the gender treatment at that time,though Puro is shown heroic as she saves the life of Lajjo,Taro. No women has been shown interested in education or earning for the family. Puro and her sisters does their household works and play with their friends in the fields while the brothers are much more educated than them and are pursuing their higher studies. The girls have no role to play in deciding their future husband .Even the elder female members of the family like Puro's mother have no decision over Puro's kidnapping and agrees with what Puro's father speaks.

Thus, such is the heart touching story of PINJAR. You can buy this book online in India at our online bookstore, Shilalekhbooks.com. Visit our store to explore the world of such sensational Hindi ,English, and Punjabi books online. You will find a lot to snatch up in our famous authors books section as well in other sections.

Short Review - Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Bronte. It was her first and only published novel, as she died aged 30 the following year. The decision to publish came after the success of her sister Charlotte's novel, Jane Eyre. After Emily's death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering Heights, and arranged for the edited version to be published as a posthumous second edition.

One of the most sensational creations by Emily Bronte, this book speaks to the death of loving notions; even the comparatively happy conclusion does not seem to come from a grand love or burning romance, but from quiet acceptance. The only winning relationship does not begin in secret and it is never dramatic; it is a quiet adjustment of two people towards one another, a co-evolution.

Wuthering Heights is many things and has much to recommend it as a novel. It is written in a gorgeous old-fashioned fictitious style that is both challenging and pleasing. The plot is convincing. It evokes strong emotions. The plot follows the relationship between a well-to-do country girl, Catherine, and the orphan boy, Heathcliff, taken in by her father and how their relationship affects everyone in their influence over a generation. Catherine marries a boy closer to her station and Heathcliff’s life then becomes one of proving himself and of illustrating the error of his loved one’s ways. It does not go well, not for anyone. This, of course, makes for an excellent tale. 

You can buy this book online at our online bookstore, Shilalekhbooks.com. Visit our store to explore the world of such sensational Hindi and English books online. You will find a lot to snatch in our famous authors books section as well in other sections.

Book Review : The Arctic Home in the Vedas By Tilak

The Arctic Home in the Vedas is a influential work on the origin of Aryans presented by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a mathematician turned astronomer, historian, journalist, philosopher and political leader of India during 1880 to 1920. The book propounds the theory that North Pole was the original home of Aryans during pre-glacial period which they had to leave due to the ice deluge around 8000 B.C. and had to migrate to the Northern parts of Europe and Asia in hunt of lands for new settlements.The idea of a lost ancient civilization located at the North Pole at a time when its climate was friendlier to human habitation is suggested in many of the world's oldest legends and Holy Scriptures.

Drawing upon his enormous knowledge of the Hindu Vedas and the Zoroastrian Avesta, Tilak makes a painstakingly detailed analysis of the texts and compares them with the geological, astronomical and archaeological facts to show the plausibility of the Arctic having been the primordial cradle of the Aryan race before changing conditions forced the Aryans southward into present-day Europe, Iran and India. Although this theory has never gained extensive acceptance among mainstream scholars since it was first published in 1903, Tilak has made a compelling case which is not easily refuted.  In support to his theory Tilak has presented certain Vedic hymns, Avestic passages, Vedic chronology and Vedic calendars with interpretations of the contents in detail. The book was written at the end of 1898 but was first published in March 1903 in Pune.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak born as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak (23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), was an Indian nationalist, journalist, teacher, social reformer, lawyer, writer  and independence activist who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called him "Father of the Indian unrest" .He was also conferred with the honorary title of "Lokmanya", which literally means "Accepted by the people (as their leader)".Tilak was great advocates of “Swaraj” a strong radical in Indian consciousness.

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Review: Karma Yoga by Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda is one of the most inspirational authors and a great leader. Swami Vivekananda Books are always an influential motivation for Youth. In this post we will review one of his best creations, Karma Yoga, which is based on lectures that Swami delivered in his rented rooms from New York in 1896. This book speaks about Karma in the Bhagavad Gita. Swami Vivekananda described Karma Yoga as a mental discipline that allows a person to carry out his/her duties as a service to the entire world, as a path to enlightenment.”Karma” this word is actually taken from Sanskrit. Technically Karma means the effects of actions.

The book is like a set of lectures by Swami Vivekananda on the subject of Karma Yoga, one of the several yogic paths to enlightenment. By working in the real world, but giving up attachment to work, we can obtain spiritual liberation. Swami Vivekananda discusses the concept of Karma in the Bhagavad Gita, and singles out the Buddha as a primary example of this form of yoga. Moreover, the book also shows righteous path towards knowledge and wisdom. “No knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside”. All knowledge, therefore, secular or spiritual, is in the human mind. In many cases it is not discovered, but remains covered, and when the covering is being slowly taken off, we say, "We are learning," and the advance of knowledge is made by the advance of this process of uncovering.

This book is an influential guide for humans, which preaches us that Karma in its effect on character is the most tremendous power that man has to deal with. Man is, as it were, a centre, and is attracting all the powers of the universe towards him, and in this center is fusing them all and again sending them off in a big current. Human being always lives for the motive some for fame, some for money or may be some for respect in the life. It seems that everyone is selfish. Hence, Swami Vivekananda suggested everyone to begin from the beginning to take up the work as they come to us and slowly make ourselves more unselfish every day.

You can buy this book at our online bookstore, which offers complete collection of Swami Vivekananda books. Moreover, you can also order books online by other famous authors. We have the largest collection of Punjabi books and Hindi books online. Visit our store and explore the ocean of knowledge, wisdom and values that comes through books.

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Shilalekhbooks is an online bookstore in India, which offers largest collection of Hindi, English and Punjabi books. The expertise of the store lies in astrology books, poetry collection, health books and Indian authors, who wrote in different languages and inspired the world with their thoughts and ideas, and made a world of difference to India by globalizing Indian literature. Our online bookstore also offers complete collection of Swami Vivekananda books and many such legendary authors.

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