Influence of India on Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism

Dr. Rachna Yadav¹ & Revant Gautam²

¹Associate Professor

Maharaja Agrasen Himalayan Garhwal University

(Supervisor)

²Research Scholar

Maharaja Agrasen Himalayan Garhwal University

During the 1800s, Ralph Waldo Emerson emerged as a prominent figure who led Transcendentalism as its main advocate. In early 19th century America, the movement of Transcendentalism embraced self-reliance and spiritual links between people and nature through instinctive understanding (Chopra a137). In his works Self-Reliance and The Over-Soul, Emerson shows that people possess inherent divinity and their experiences connect to all being which matches ancient Indian philosophy. His interest in Hindu texts led him to bring Vedantic concepts like Brahman to Americans, including Eastern spiritual wisdom into Western intellectual life (Chopra a137). The evaluation of Emerson’s text encounters reveals how Indian metaphysical ideas formed his ideas about the soul, spiritual insights, and cosmic understanding.

The research will determine the level at which Indian philosophy shaped Emerson’s writings. This research will base its findings on studying the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Emerson’s own essays while consulting Transcendentalism and Eastern philosophy information from secondary sources.

References

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• Bhagavan, B. S. S., and R. Prabhakar. “R.W. Emerson’s Transcendentalism and Advaita Vedanta: A Comparative Study.” International Journal of Research (IJR), vol. 10, no. 3, Mar. 2023, pp. 200–210. IJR, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10023716.
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• Chopra, Ankita. “Impact of Gitopanishads on Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson.” International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT), vol. 10, no. 8, Aug. 2022, pp. a137–a145, ijcrt.org. ISSN 2320-2882.
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• Shade, Rose Marian. The World as Illusion: Emerson’s Americanization of Maya. Master’s thesis, California State University, Northridge, May 1975. Tomizuka, Ryohei. “The Moment of Transition: Plasticity in Ral Waldo Emerson’s Writings.”