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PRosE

a daY in ThE ashRaM

- C.F. Andrews
Not to be republished
C.F. Andrews - Charles Freer Andrews
[1871–1940] was an English priest of the
Church of England. He was an educator and
©KTBS
Indian freedom fighter. He became Mahatma
Gandhi’s closest friend and associate.

Andrews reveals his experience while he
stayed in the Ashram. Shantiniketan was
founded by Rabindranath Tagore. It is a school
with a difference, where students learn with
great joy.

c.f.andrews

1. Words cannot picture to you
the beauty of Shantiniketan.
Our own poet and teacher, whom
we call Gurudeva, has named it
in his song, “The darling of our
hearts,” and it is worthy of the
name. All who have visited the
Ashram, old and young alike,
have felt its inner beauty growing
shanthinikethan more and more upon them.
2. If I were to describe to you
one day in the Ashram with the boys, that would perhaps best bring
home to you its inner beauty. Long before sunrise, like the birds in
our own amloki groves, our boys are awake. The choristers are the
first to rise, and they go round the Ashram, singing their morning
hymn. You can hear the voices in the distance, drawing nearer
and nearer; and then the sound dies away, as the choir passes on
to another part of the Ashram, and then again it comes nearer and
nearer. The beauty of the sound in the silent morning air and the
sense of joy and reverence which it brings, give peace to the soul.

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