University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

Sadhana, by Rabindranath Tagore, is a book that has had an important and beautiful influence on my life. Tagore was a renowned educator, writer, composer, poet, playwright, and philosopher in his native Bengali as well as in English. He was also a great and dignified person of the world and the 1913 recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature. It is a pity that more people in the United States do not know about or read him these days. Sadhana encapsulates in poetic prose some basic insights of Tagore's and of Eastern philosophy while explaining that such insights can inform and enrich the realities of everyday modern life. Sadhana was one of the books that led me on the path that brought me to Penn State as an instructor of international literatures. And as part of this development, Sadhana led me to visit India in 1991, an invaluable journey for me.