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"Brahma" is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson, written in 1856. However, the poem was published in the November 1857 issue of The Atlantic . [1] It is named for Brahman, the universal principle [2] of the Vedas.
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Brahma is one of the poems composed by Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American transcendentalist of the nineteenth century. [3] The poem is composed in the form of an utterance- a form which comprises sublime or metaphysical content while adding to it the balladic quatrain-music pattern. (A dramatic form not in vogue, and distinctly different from Browning's dramatic developments). The form, therefore, is the first of its kind to include Oriental poetical material in the Western verse framework. The central speaker of the poem is Brahma Himself, [4] who according to Hindu philosophers of India, is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. The study of the vedantic philosophy, the Gita, and the Katha Upanishad is impressed upon the poem very forcefully. Body is for some certain period of time but within the body of man there is the soul that is the divine spark, eternal, everlasting and never-ending. It is a part of the over-soul who is the supreme God, the super power of the universe.
The first group of American thinkers who observed the non-western philosophy were the transcendentalists. Emerson was the leader and other prominent members of this group were Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Alcott and Elizabeth Peabody. Transcendentalism opposed the dogmatic concept of belief and urged to think freely. Transcendentalism has the principle that the answer to man's cause is an acceptance of the final liberation – a quality that the biblical religion imposed, and a quality that Hinduism attests as true, ultimately pleasurable and most importantly, to be thought out as a thinking individual- a quality that most appealed Emerson and his decision in giving up his institution of Unitarianism.
Different religions have different beliefs about their deity but the core concern of all is the Brahma, the superpower. Thus, the theme of the poem is universal: The Brahma, the superpower, has many little parts atman, the human, [5] who has to achieve salvation (linkage of atman to the Brahma), but entrapped in Maya, transient one, the physical beauty of the world. One who can overcome the Maya will certainly understand the Brahma i.e. the achievement of salvation.
Brahma is the philosophical explication of the universal spirit by that name. The poetic form of elastic quatrain is used to represent the solemn nature of the subject. Throughout the poem, the Brahma appears as the only speaker, sustaining the continuity of the work. That the spirit is the only speaker signifies not only its absolute nature but also its sustaining power, upon which the existence of the entire universe metaphorically, the poem is based.
If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.
Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
I am the hymn the Brahmin sings.
The strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven;
But thou, meek lover of the good!
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.
Pantheism is the philosophical and religious belief that reality, the universe, and nature are identical to divinity or a supreme entity. The physical universe is thus understood as an immanent deity, still expanding and creating, which has existed since the beginning of time. The term pantheist designates one who holds both that everything constitutes a unity and that this unity is divine, consisting of an all-encompassing, manifested god or goddess. All astronomical objects are thence viewed as parts of a sole deity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Friedrich Nietzsche thought he was "the most gifted of the Americans," and Walt Whitman called him his "master".
Transcendentalism is a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the New England region of the United States. A core belief is in the inherent goodness of people and nature, and while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual, people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. Transcendentalists saw divine experience inherent in the everyday. Transcendentalists saw physical and spiritual phenomena as part of dynamic processes rather than discrete entities.
"Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of his recurrent themes: the need for each person to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of his most famous quotations:
The Transcendental Club was a group of New England authors, philosophers, socialists, politicians and intellectuals of the early-to-mid-19th century which gave rise to Transcendentalism.
Nature is a book-length essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published by James Munroe and Company in 1836. In the essay Emerson put forth the foundation of transcendentalism, a belief system that espouses a non-traditional appreciation of nature. Transcendentalism suggests that the divine, or God, suffuses nature, and suggests that reality can be understood by studying nature. Emerson's visit to the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris inspired a set of lectures he later delivered in Boston which were then published.
Christopher Pearse Cranch was an American writer and artist.
"Concord Hymn" is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson written for the 1837 dedication of an obelisk monument in Concord, Massachusetts, commemorating the battles of Lexington and Concord, a series of battles and skirmishes on April 19, 1775 which sparked the American Revolutionary War. The poem was the origin of the phrase "shot heard round the world".
Frederic Henry Hedge was a New England Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist. He was a founder of the Transcendental Club, originally called Hedge's Club, and active in the development of Transcendentalism, although he distanced himself from the movement as it advanced.
Paramatman or Paramātmā is the Absolute Atman, or supreme Self, in various philosophies such as the Vedanta and Yoga schools in Hindu theology, as well as other Indian religions such as Sikhism. Paramatman is the "Primordial Self" or the "Self Beyond" who is spiritually identical with the absolute and ultimate reality. Selflessness is the attribute of Paramatman, where all personality/individuality vanishes.
The Transcendentalist is a lecture and essay by American writer and thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is one of the essays he wrote while establishing the doctrine of American Transcendentalism. The lecture was read at the Masonic Temple in Boston, Massachusetts in January 1842.
The Katha Upanishad, is an ancient Hindu text and one of the mukhya (primary) Upanishads, embedded in the last eight short sections of the Kaṭha school of the Krishna Yajurveda. It is also known as Kāṭhaka Upanishad, and is listed as number 3 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.
The Mahāvākyas are "The Great Sayings" of the Upanishads, as characterized by the Advaita school of Vedanta with mahā meaning great and vākya, a sentence. Most commonly, Mahāvākyas are considered four in number,
Jones Very was an American poet, essayist, clergyman, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. He was known as a scholar of William Shakespeare, and many of his poems were Shakespearean sonnets. He was well-known and respected among the Transcendentalists.
In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest universal principle, the Ultimate Reality of the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the non-physical, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists. It is the pervasive, infinite, eternal truth, consciousness and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes. Brahman as a metaphysical concept refers to the single binding unity behind diversity in all that exists.
The transparent eyeball is a philosophical metaphor originated by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. In his essay Nature, the metaphor stands for a view of life that is absorbent rather than reflective, and therefore takes in all that nature has to offer without bias or contradiction. Emerson intends that the individual become one with nature, and the manner of the transparent eyeball is an approach to achieving it.
Samuel Gray Ward was an American poet, author, and minor member of the Transcendentalism movement. He was also a banker and a co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among his circle of contemporaries were poets and writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller who were deeply disappointed when Ward gave up a career in writing for business just before he married.
Atmabodha Upanishad or Atmabodhopanishad is one of the 108 Upanishadic Hindu scriptures, written in Sanskrit. It is one of the 10 Upanishads associated with the Rigveda. It is a general (Samanya) or Vedanta Upanishad.
The Nrisimha Tapaniya Upanishad is a minor Upanishadic text written in Sanskrit. It is one of the 31 Upanishads attached to the Atharvaveda, and classified as one of the Vaishnava Upanishads. It is presented in two parts, the Purva Tapaniya Upanishad and the Uttara Tapaniya Upanishad, which formed the main scriptures of the Narasimha sect of the Vaishnavas dated prior to the 7th century.
Caroline Sturgis Tappan, commonly known as Caroline Sturgis, or "Cary" Sturgis, was an American Transcendentalist poet and artist. She is particularly known for her friendships and frequent correspondences with prominent American Transcendentalists, such as Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Sturgis published 25 poems in four different volumes of The Dial, a Transcendental periodical. She also wrote and illustrated two books for children, Rainbows for Children (1847) and The Magician’s Show Box, and Other Stories (1856).
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