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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 was 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 entire universe metaphorically, the poem is based.
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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.
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 a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
The Upanishads are late Vedic Sanskrit texts of Hindu philosophy which supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy. They are the most recent part of the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, and deal with meditation, philosophy, consciousness and ontological knowledge; other parts of the Vedas deal with mantras, benedictions, rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices. While among the most important literature in the history of Indian religions and culture, the Upanishads document a wide variety of "rites, incarnations, and esoteric knowledge" departing from Vedic ritualism and interpreted in various ways in the later commentarial traditions. Of all Vedic literature, the Upanishads alone are widely known, and their diverse ideas, interpreted in various ways, informed the later traditions of Hinduism.
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern 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, rather than believing in a distant heaven. Transcendentalists saw physical and spiritual phenomena as part of dynamic processes rather than discrete entities.
Vedānta is one of the six (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, the speculations and philosophies contained in the Upanishads, specifically, knowledge and liberation. Vedanta contains many sub-traditions on the basis of a common textual connection called the Prasthanatrayi: the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. Some scholars believe Brahma Sutra of vyasa is an interpolation from Madyamaka school of Buddhism.
Advaita Vedānta is a school of Hindu philosophy and "spiritual experience." The term Advaita refers to the idea that Brahman alone, pure consciousness, is ultimately real, while the transient phenomenal world is an illusory appearance (maya) of Brahman, and the true self, atman, which is self-luminous pure awareness, is identical with Brahman. In this view, jivanatman or individual self is a mere reflection of singular Atman in a multitude of apparent individual bodies.
"Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations:
Nature is an 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.
"Concord Hymn" is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson written for the 1837 dedication of the Obelisk, a monument in Concord, Massachusetts, commemorating the Battle of Concord, the second in a series of battles and skirmishes on April 19, 1775, at the outbreak of the American Revolution.
Satcitananda is an epithet and description for the subjective experience of the ultimate unchanging reality, called Brahman, in certain branches of Hindu philosophy, especially Vedanta. It represents "existence, consciousness, and bliss" or "truth, consciousness, bliss".
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 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 amongst the Transcendentalists, though he had a mental breakdown early in his career.
Param Brahma in Hindu philosophy is the "Supreme Brahman" that which is beyond all descriptions and conceptualisations. It is described as the formless that eternally pervades everything, everywhere in the universe and whatever is beyond.
In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists. It is the pervasive, infinite, eternal truth 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 in the universe.
The transparent eyeball is a philosophical metaphor originated by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The transparent eyeball is a representation of an eye that is absorbent rather than reflective, and therefore takes in all that nature has to offer. Emerson intends that the individual become one with nature, and the transparent eyeball is a tool to do that. In the essay Nature, Emerson explains that the meaning behind the transparent eyeball is similar to a scientific standpoint on the Bible.
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 Jabali Upanishad, also called Jabalyupanishad, is a Sanskrit text and one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism. It is attached to the Samaveda, and classified as is one of the Shaiva Upanishads.
The Paingala Upanishad is an early medieval era Sanskrit text and is one of the general Upanishads of Hinduism. It is one of the 22 Samanya (general) Upanishads, and its manuscripts survive in modern times in two versions. The shorter version of the manuscript is found attached to the Atharvaveda, while the longer version is attached to the Shukla Yajurveda. It presents a syncretic view of Samkhya and Vedanta schools of Hindu philosophy.
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