Before coming back on 18th May from Western Hills, the President Gilbert Reid of the Committee of Religions invited Rabindranath on 14th May and informed;
" herewith the formal invitation which I mentioned to you early after your arrival...we desire a message from you that will help on the moral and spiritual regeneration of China. From your wide experience you will be able to emphasize those great principles that belong to the whole human race. Then as your farewell message, you are free to point out what China needs along these religious lines.... It is your presence that we all wish...our committee will be reay to welcome you at any time before half past three in the room adjoining the theater. Over 900 hundred have been applied for and distributed among these various organisations. I am sure you will have one of the most sympathetic and appreciative audiences you have ever ever had."
As per scheduled programme Rabindranath came back to Peking. A group students of Peking National University approached him unexpectedly to listen a few words from him. Due to incivility of a few young students of similar age group, Rabindranath cancelled three of his proposed lecture and left Peking. He asked them with astonishment ;
" What do you want from me ? Why do you ask me to give you a speech ? I wish I could have come to you today in my true capacity as a poet, you would not then have asked me for a speech, but for something better, a poem But one thing I have gained, a sensitivity of mind which has never been impaired, the touch of life and of nature, who spoke to me. You may call me uneducated, uncultured, just a silly poet; you may grow great as scholars and philosophers ; and yet I think I would have the right to laugh at your pedant scholarship. "
In this speech he gave a fine touch of irony of their materialistic view. Lastly he said;
" I have kept the spirit of the child fresh within me; because of this I have found entry to my mother's chamber wherein a light burns in the dark, where some symphony of awakening light sang to me from the distant horizon, in response to which I also sang."
The lecture was published in Talks in China, titled, "To a Surprise Gathering of students in the National University, Peking."
In the afternoon, the acting Vice-Chancellor Chiang mon Lin ( CHIANG MON-LIN was born on January 20, 1886, in Chekiang Province in
East-Central China. He received his traditional classical education in his
native province and passed Civil Examinations under the Imperial Government with
the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Hsiu-Tsai). He earned his Bachelor of Letters
degree from the University of California and, in 1917, his Ph.D. from Columbia
University. On returning to China, he was appointed Professor of Education at
National Peking University and from 1923 was concurrently Acting Chancellor. In
1928, shortly after he became President of National Chekiang University, he was
called to serve as the first Minister of Education in the National Government of
China formed in Nanking. During his two years in that post, Dr. CHIANG is
credited with laying the foundation of popular education in China ) of Peking University and other teachers bade farewell to Rabindranath in a tea party.In reply to his address he said; " I feel today a discontent, as of something not accomplished, as of my mission not completed. Though he got enough love and respect from the Chinese.
" herewith the formal invitation which I mentioned to you early after your arrival...we desire a message from you that will help on the moral and spiritual regeneration of China. From your wide experience you will be able to emphasize those great principles that belong to the whole human race. Then as your farewell message, you are free to point out what China needs along these religious lines.... It is your presence that we all wish...our committee will be reay to welcome you at any time before half past three in the room adjoining the theater. Over 900 hundred have been applied for and distributed among these various organisations. I am sure you will have one of the most sympathetic and appreciative audiences you have ever ever had."
As per scheduled programme Rabindranath came back to Peking. A group students of Peking National University approached him unexpectedly to listen a few words from him. Due to incivility of a few young students of similar age group, Rabindranath cancelled three of his proposed lecture and left Peking. He asked them with astonishment ;
" What do you want from me ? Why do you ask me to give you a speech ? I wish I could have come to you today in my true capacity as a poet, you would not then have asked me for a speech, but for something better, a poem But one thing I have gained, a sensitivity of mind which has never been impaired, the touch of life and of nature, who spoke to me. You may call me uneducated, uncultured, just a silly poet; you may grow great as scholars and philosophers ; and yet I think I would have the right to laugh at your pedant scholarship. "
In this speech he gave a fine touch of irony of their materialistic view. Lastly he said;
" I have kept the spirit of the child fresh within me; because of this I have found entry to my mother's chamber wherein a light burns in the dark, where some symphony of awakening light sang to me from the distant horizon, in response to which I also sang."
The lecture was published in Talks in China, titled, "To a Surprise Gathering of students in the National University, Peking."
