33.

I am reminded of an immortal incident in Tagore’s life. Many, many years ago he visited Bulgaria, and the Bulgarians wanted to honour him. Tagore had at that time the English translation of Gitanjali with him. But he deliberately read out his poems in Bengali. There were many, many people in the audience and they all listened to his poems in rapt attention. The audience was spellbound. He did not speak one word of English; he only read out his immortal Bengali poems. This was Tagore. The audience members were so moved! Tagore knew English very, very well. But how much love and admiration he received from the people of Bulgaria! Here is the proof: when you love, admire and adore someone, you do not have to understand that person with your mind. You can easily understand him with your heart.

Whenever I think of Bulgaria, I say, “Oh, I do not have to learn their language, I do not even have to speak in English. As long as I can speak in Bengali, Bulgaria will accept me.”⁵³