Why Poetry Improves Meditation.

The words of poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) fall with velvety warmth from Deepak Chopra's lips. They seem perfectly crafted for this purpose, settling gently around the stillness of a meditator.

If you have seen recent episodes of The Chopra Well's show The Meditator, then you know what we're talking about. The show, which features daily guided meditations by Deepak and daughter, Mallika, has recently found inspiration in the work of Tagore, a mystical poet from Bangladesh. A prolific writer, Tagore published over 50 volumes of poetry, in addition to short stories, novels, musical dramas and more. He also drew, painted, and composed music, which makes him the quintessential polymath.

Here are a few things we find particularly interesting about Tagore:

• He was the youngest of 13 children.
• He began writing poetry at the age of 8, and secretly published his first volume at 16 under a pseudonym.
• Tagore was the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize in literature
• The British government knighted him in 1915 — a title he later resigned in protest against the country's policies in India.
• Between 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited five continents and over 30 countries. He was 71 by the time those travels were over.