Do we know our National Anthem ?

If someone ask about our National Anthem we will instantly utter out Jana-gana-mana. Obviously it is imbibed in our mind from early childhood. And every literate person might remember this Anthem. We all used to sing in our school days and occasionally after that. It was there in some of my school textbooks but only Hindi version which I never understood. I never took pain to get its meaning also. When I  was in college I never gone through it when I actually have the ability to understand it. And in school days it was so useless to sing in chorus if you don't know the actual meaning of our National Anthem. I don't remember if I have ever been taught about it in my school days , yes we learnt to complete it in 52 seconds and our band helped us in our job. Let us understand more clearly about our Indian and our one of the most prestigious literature ever....

The song Jana-gana-mana, composed originally in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on 24 January 1950. It was first sung on 27 December 1911 at the Kolkata Session of the Indian National Congress. The complete song consists of five stanzas. A short version consisting of the first and last lines of the stanz of playing time approx 20 seconds, is also played on certain occasions. The first stanza contains the full version of the National Anthem :

                                 Jana-gana-mana-adhinayak, jaya he

                                          Bharat-bhagya-vidhata.

                                 Punjab-Sindh-Gujrat-Maratha

                                          Dravida-Utkala-Banga

                                 Vindhya-Himachal-Yamuna-Ganga

                                       Uchchala-Jaladhi-taranga.

                                        Tava shubha name jage,

                                       Tava shubha asisa mange,

                                          Gahe tava jaya gatha,

                                 Jana-gana-mangal-dayaka jaya he

                                         Bharat-bhagya-vidhata.

                                         Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he,

                                         Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he !    

The following is Tagore's English rendering of the Anthem, dedicated to the ALMIGHTY  :

             Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,

             Dispenser of India's destiny.

             Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, 

             Gujarat and Maratha,

             Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal;

             It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and the Himalayas,

             mingles inthe music of Jamuna and Ganges an is

             chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.

             They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.

             The saving of all people waits in thy hand,

             Thou dispenser of India's destiny.

             Victory, victory, victory to thee.