On the Shores of Eternity: Poems from Tagore on Immortality and Beyond (Hardcover)

by Deepak Chopra (Author) "The scrawled note came from a stranger, but it had a familiar ring: "I thought I was getting over my fear of death, until I..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
To realize that death is an illusion, you either have to be very sophisticated or very simple. Tagore was both. I am awed by his use of language, pure crystals of wise innocence. Every word is personal, every word is universal. Those who met Tagore during his eighty years described him as one of the greatest souls of our age; Einstein considered him a sage. From what we learn in these poems, he certainly lived his own words. He kissed the infinite, he was not afraid to lose everything. And in this book, he allows us to approach death not with dusty words but with a silence that washes the soul.
--From the Introduction by Deepak Chopra

In this hauntingly beautiful volume, Deepak Chopra presents new English versions of poems by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, a lifelong source of inspiration for Chopra and the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

When Tagore writes, "Death, my death / Whisper to me! / For you alone have I kept watch day after day," romantic ecstasy surges through every word. For Tagore the soul was more real than any object, and he sang of death as a joyful voyage home to the eternity from which we sprang. In these poems we experience a dramatic alternative to the fearful Western view of death. Through the magic of Tagore's lyricism we begin to understand that by becoming familiar with death, and watching it grow closer, we can come to live fully in the present moment. As Tagore tells us so eloquently, "If you weep because the sun has gone out / Your tears may blind you to the stars."

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Bengali

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Harmony (November 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 060960564X
• ISBN-13: 978-0609605646
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #269,134 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars comforting, April 29, 2000

By	Karen Michaels (Carlsbad, California) - See all my reviews

This book begins with a narrative written by Dr. Chopra. His words were humble as he noted that he dared to tamper with the wisdom of Tagore. When I passed through his words and started reading the poetry of Tagore, I was mesmerized. The poetry is not really about death, but the immortality of life which begins each day when the eyes are opened and ends each day with the onset of sleep. It is a book which addresses how we, as humans, can look at what is going on around us and then decide what choice(s)to make. What is so incredible is that, each day, we are given the chance to make new choices for the same old problems. (Just like in the movie GroundHog Day starring Bill Murrey.) The trick is to selectively forget how yesterday's choices were unsuccessful and painful as we accept, within our bones, not our minds, our new choices. Conversely there are those of us who refuse to allow the beauty of a successful choice to preceed us as we broadcast our success(es) in bright primary colors. In our glee, we stamp out the memory of that natural process which allowed us to step into the universe and be filled with the knowledge which is aready there; knowledge which is just patiently waiting to be used.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but don't give up Tagore's Gitanjali, May 20, 2000

By	M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Most of the poems in this book were translated by Tagore himself with the help of Yeats. On the Shores of Eternity complements rather than replaces Gitanjali. Especially interesting are the fragments from Tagore's notebooks which are not in Gitanjali. E.g. "Words cling to the dead like dust / Silence washes their souls." Tagore's poetry still shows him to be a worthy recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature.

On the other hand, I was not impressed by the introduction by Chopra ... whether it is helpful to you will depend upon your background in mysticism and literature. He makes too much of Tagore's friendly relationship with death - St. Francis wrote of "our Sister Bodily Death". Tagore's mysticism is in the long tradition of the collective world - east or west - his uniqueness is the superb poetry in which he shares his experience; this is not the emphasis of the introduction. But who cares - the poems are well worth pausing over.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lost in the Translation, February 5, 2000

By A Customer

I was very disappointed in this translation. Bringing the language into modern form distorted the meanings and lost the beauty and simplicity of the original. I recommend Gitanjali if you want to experience real Tagore.