Socrates and Tagore

"Socrates is said to have brought down philosophy from heaven to live among men upon earth. A similar exploit may be ascribed to Tagore. The Spirit, the bare transcendental Reality contemplated by the orthodox Vedantins, has been brought nearer to our planet, close to human consciousness, in Tagore's vision, being clothed in earth and flesh and blood, made vivid with the colours and contours of the physical existence. The Spirit, yes by all means, but not necessarily asceticism and monasticism. So Tagore boldly declared in those famous lines of his: 'Mine is not the deliverance achieved through mere renunciation. Mine, rather, the freedom that tastes itself in a thousand associations.'" — Poets and Mystics