The Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore

In this autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore readers will find a new document of absorbing interest. Ranking amongst the small number of authentic histories of the soul, this book is one of the few classics bequeathed to us by mystics and saints of yore. Devendranath Tagore’s spiritual quest into his own self traces the history of not only his life, but of the stages of development of the reformist schools of Hinduism in Bengal – the Tatwabodhini Sabha, set up by Devendranath, and its merger later with the Brahma Samaj of Raja Ram Mohun Roy. Devendranath subsequently became a leader of the Samaj, which flourished under his able guidance. The book brings out all the travails of life and society in the mid-nineteenth century Bengal. Son of the illustrious Dwarkanath Tagore and father of the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Devendranath Tagore was a true son of the soil who laboured to eliminate the decadence that had steeped into the Hindu religious practices, especially idolatory, superstitions and elaborate ritualism associated with the brahmanical order of the day and he spent his entire life fighting against such practices and working for a better modern social order.