Emerson excitedly introduced other Americans to Hinduism, perhaps most notably his young protege, Henry David Thoreau. Theroreau was not busy earning a living or raising a family like Emerson. Instead he was living in the woods outside Concord, composing some of the greatest classics of American literature, such as Walden. And reading the Bhagavad Gita.
" What extracts from the Veda I have read fall on me like the light of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course through a purer stratum Thoreau wrote enthusiastically.
In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, since where composition, years of the gods have elapsed and in comparison with which our modern world its literature seem puny and trivial.
If Hinduism influenced Thoreau, he certainly returned the favor! Thoreau's great essay, " On Civil Disobedience", had a profound effect on a Hindu born a century later. Mahatma Gandhi acknowledged Thoreau as a major inspiration for the movement he founded calling for nonviolent resistance to British rule in India.
No comments:
Post a Comment