What Is Transcendentalism?
It’s all about spirituality. Transcendentalism is a Humans
ophy that began in the mid-19th century and whose founding members included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. It centers around the belief that spirituality cannot be achieved through reason and rationalism, but instead through self-reflection and intuition. In other words, transcendentalists believe spirituality isn’t something you can explain; it’s something you feel. A transcendentalist would argue that going for a walk in a beautiful place would be a much more spiritual experience than reading a religious text.
The transcendentalism movement arose as a result of a reaction to Unitarianism as well as the Age of Reason. Both centered on reason as the main source of knowledge, but transcendentalists rejected that
It’s all about spirituality. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that began in the mid-19th century and whose founding members included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. It centers around the belief that spirituality cannot be achieved through reason and rationalism, but instead through self-reflection and intuition. In other words, transcendentalists believe spirituality isn’t something you can explain; it’s something you feel. A transcendentalist would argue that going for a walk in a beautiful place would be a much more spiritual experience than reading a religious text.
The transcendentalism movement arose as a result of a reaction to Unitarianism as well as the Age of Reason. Both centered on reason as the main source of knowledge, but transcendentalists rejected that notion. Some of the transcendentalist beliefs are:
Humans are inherently good
Society and its institutions such as organized religion and politics are corrupting. Instead o
being part of them, humans should strive to be independent and self-reliant
Spirituality should come from the self, not organized religion
Insight and experience are more important than logic
Nature is beautiful, should be deeply appreciated, and shouldn’t be altered by humans
Major Transcendentalist Values:
The transcendentalist movement encompassed many beliefs, but these all fit into their three main values of individualism, idealism, and the divinity of nature.
Individualism:
Perhaps the most important transcendentalist value was the importance of the individual. They saw the individual as pure, and they believed that society and its institutions corrupted this purity. Transcendentalists highly valued the concept of thinking for oneself and believed people were best when they were independent and could think for themselves. Only then could individuals come together and form ideal communities.
Idealism:
The focus on idealism comes from Romanticism, a slightly earlier movement. Instead of valuing logic and learned knowledge as many educated people at the time did, transcendentalists placed great importance on imagination, intuition and creativity. They saw the values of the Age of Reason as controlling and confining, and they wanted to bring back a more “ideal” and enjoyable way of living.
Divinity of Nature:
Transcendentalists didn’t believe in organized religion, but they were very spiritual. Instead of believing in the divinity of religious figures, they saw nature as sacred and divine. They believed it was crucial for humans to have a close relationship with nature, the same way religious leaders preach about the importance of having a close relationship with God. Transcendentalists saw nature as perfect as it was; humans shouldn’t try to change or improve it.
1) Transcendentalists talks about Individual’s relation with Nature. What is Nature for you? Share your views.
➡️As a nature in transcendentalism, I believe that what appears to be real is nature. There is a belief in the mind of man that there is only one God who created the whole world. Religion is a spiritual thing. Books of religion, many books of literature tell us that there is only one God who created this world. I think it's a religious thing. But many books also say that nature created this world in its own way due to changes in the atmosphere. The idea of transcendence is to believe in what we see. That looking beyond what we see is called romanticism. While transcendentalism is the opposite concept. Or believing in real nature without believing in spirituality. Nature has given us everything. There is a certain kind of system of nature. From which the whole world is going well. In all worlds, the creatures in nature are living their own lives in their own way. Be it man, bird, beast, tree or any natural resource. It works according to its own system. Man is also a part of nature. So man should behave accordingly without interfering with the natural system. Charles should follow Darwin's theory of evolution. That nature has caused the origin of all living beings by changing themselves. Not that there is a spiritual God who is following and regulating this world. He takes care of us. He bears the fruit of good deeds with us. That is a myth. Transcendentalism says that nature is the only true reality. All should follow the law of nature and have faith in nature. Nature never discriminates against anyone. It has equal justice for any poor man or any rich man. Happiness and sorrow are the rules of the world. Sometimes there is happiness, sometimes there is sorrow. There is no role for nature or God. It is a part of life. So nature is everything around us. Man has created the material world for his own happiness and convenience. But nature has given man the freedom to be useful in his own way and to behave in his own way. If man interferes in it, it destroys nature or destroys man.
2.) Transcendentalism is an American Philosophy that influenced American Literature at length. Can you find any Indian/Regional literature or Philosophy came up with such similar thought?
➡️India is a religious country. Many religions have developed in India and many religion books have also been made. The heritage of India is a very ancient heritage. And in the heritage of India he has found many religion books and religion stories. Along with it many new religions have also been found. In which Hinduism, Muslimism, Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism etc., many religions have become a community in India. Most people in India believe in religion and spirituality. Even in modern times we see this in large numbers. Religious sentiments are more prevalent among Indians. So they have more faith in religion. It has a high proportion of people who believe in Krishna and Rama in particular. Indian literature includes all these religion books. It deals with the existentialism of man. The origin of man has been spoken of. And there is a lot of literature that is spiritual and connected to God. When the transcendentalism movement began within America. Transcendentalism, a 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, humanity, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths. It has also affected India. Due to which the religious sentiments in India have also had an effect on religious beliefs.
Indian religious
Transcendentalism has been directly influenced by Indian religions Thoreau in Walden spoke of the Transcendentalists' debt to Indian religions directly:
Henry David Thoreau
In morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavat Geeta, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Brahmin, priest of Brahma, and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water-jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.
In 1844, the first English translation of the Lotus Sutra was included in The Dial, a publication of the New England Transcendentalists, translated from French by Elizabeth Palmer પેઅબોડી.
Pawar Pramod:
In the path of Pawar Pramod, he is a literary scholar born in 1976 in Gunjoti, Tq. Omerga in the region of Osmanabad in India. He holds a Ph. D. in English from the University of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad – India. He is an AssistantProfessor and Head of the English Department of Sant Dnyaneshwar Mahavidyalaya, Soegaon; in the District of Aurangabad. He has authored several books and articles and is also the editor-in-chief of Epitome : International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research. He practices Hinduism, studied Sanskrit and has published several works in English and Marathi. Some of his published works include: Marm, Sparshanter, Drink Love’s OASIS, Movementsfor the Still Heart etc. Pawar Pramod Ambadasrao’s work that has been chosen for this study is Ubiquity published in Yaounde-Cameroon in 2017.The choice of Pawar’s Ubiquity for this paper alongside some selected poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson is due to their elaborate depiction of transcendentalism in their poetry. Both seem to find solace in the confines of nature, religion and love in a world where in feelings have been drained and dried as a result of materialism, unfair competition and the untrammeled quest for success. A detail analysis of their poems will go a long way to savour and understand the beauty and convergence of American and Indian Poetry. Their poetry will be analysed in this paper in the light of the following transcendentalist features: nature, religion, independence, and the quest for redemption.
1] Nature
Pramod Pawar in his Ubiquity expresses his admiration and frustration about nature. The theme of nature runs across Ubiquity. Pramod’s transcendentalism is glaring when he hints on the unity and inseparable link that binds people and other creatures. The philosophy of the oversoul can be deduced from the following lines extracted from Part III of Ubiquity:
Who is I in me?
All that I can see
Can you see I in you?
Can you see I in you?
(Ubiquity 34)
The rhetorical questions in the excerpt above can be interpreted as the speaker’s concern about the feeling of oneness that is normally expected to exist amongst people. Through this poem, Pramod Pawar can be seen as a moral voice appealing to his audience for the need to be united so that meaning and love can be experienced in human experiences. Being part of the oversoul, it is incumbent for all and sundry to strive for unity in order to fulfill the divine purpose for which we have been created.Still on the subject of nature as one of the tenets of transcendentalism, one acknowledges that in Ubiquity, Pramod Pawar expounds on the aspect of time and beauty. These are elements of nature that profoundly influence or impact life. In his usual controversial but philosophical way of juxtaposing words, he muses about life thus:
Truth is time
Time is external
I mean the truth
I mean the truth …
Time heals wound when you are born
Time begets new life when you die
Time is permanent, beauty not ….
Time defeats beauty, all, all a lie
Beauty enslaves time, all, all a lie.
Beauty enslaves time, all, all a lie.
Beauty is physique, but time external
(22-23)
Pramod Pawar in the except above philosophizes on the aspect of time and beauty. By stating that “truth is time” shows how time alone plays diverse roles. As the adage goes, “no matter how long you keep a lie, someday the truth will come out.” Time alone according to Pramod reveals any lie or evil that is hidden from men. The passage of time itself is an eternal teacher that brings to the lime-light what has been stashed from the sight or knowledge of men. The passage of time itself is an external teacher that brings to the lime-light what has been stashed from the sight or knowledge of men. The repetitive use of the phrase “I mean the truth, I mean the truth” (22) is suggestive of the poet’s strong conviction of the ability of time to expose the truth even in a world in which falsehood is the order of the day.In the next stanza, the speak evokes the curative attribute of time. “Time heals wounds…” In this case, Pramod evokes this perennial adage about time to reinforce the ability of time to heal wounds. One strongly shares this view about the ability of time to heal wounds. Wounds that are inflicted on our minds like death of a loved one, betrayal, disappointment in love, loss of a job etc. may only be healed by the passage time which might only help us to forget or get to endure such an emotional hurt. The beauty of nature is again seen in this case as “time” being an indispensible element of nature is portrayed in this poem as a healer of wounds.
Still on the aspect of time, the speaker in the poem intimates that “time is permanent, beauty not…” (23). In this case the speaker adds that “Time defeats beauty” (23). By comparing time and beauty, Pramod Pawar seeks to persuade his audience about the importance and indispensability of time as opposed to beauty which is but ephemeral. This again can be seen as another dimension of transcendentalism which is that of the excessive celebration of nature as depicted in Pramod’s Ubiquity.
2] Religious:
Through this poetry, the reader is made to uncover the religious activities that animate the Indian religious space. The link between Hinduism and American Transcendentalism is established as seen in the aspect of intuitio and the power of meditation as a means of relating to God.Religion therefore plays a pivotal role in Indian poetry in general and Pawar’s poetry in particular. In his Ubiquity, Pawar takes his readers deep into Hindi metaphysical thoughts an beliefs. Reference is made to the Karmas which is a very important pillar in Hinduism. The poet-speaker laments in the following lines.
Who am I?
Who am I?
Just do your karmas
Just do your karmas
According to Wikipedia, Karma is a concept in Hinduism which explains casualty through a system where beneficial effects are derived from past beneficial actions and harmful actions creating a system of actions and reactions through a soul’s reincarnated lives forming a cycle of rebirth. Karmas to the poet-speaker is what he thinks he must do or follow in order to benefit from every good thing that is derived from beneficial actions. Due to unhappiness, pain and frustration, the speaker embraces religion as his ultimate source of hope and consolation in a world where in happiness in but an occasional episode in the entire drama of pain. The speaker continues by referring to another aspect of Hinduism which if attained will give him the comfort or satisfaction he badly needs. He declares again:
Every life is a hope, it’s a sin…
Every life I beg for redemption.
I long for stillness and exception
Samadhi I attain now
Samadhi I attain now…
I am for redemption
I’ve been for redemption
I yearn for redemption
I yearn for redemption …
(Pawar 41)
In the first line above, a pointer in made to the fact that every life is a sin. The aspect of sin is that which cuts across many religions and to be vindicated from sin, one needs to be redeemed by God. It is not clear whether he attains Samadhi but it is his ultimate hope to attain it so as to have a sense of fulfillment in his religions quest for redemption. According to Wikipedia, Samadhi in eastern religions e.g. Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism etc refers to a state of meditative consciousness. It is a meditative absorption or trance, attained by the practice of dhyana. In Samadhi the mind becomes still. It is a state of being totally aware othe present moment, a one-pointedness of mind. Samadhi is an exalted state of consciousnessachievable only by advanced practitioners of meditation In the realm of Indian poetry, the spirit of freedom is also expressed. Although Pramod Pawar’s Ubiquity does not make reference to the quest for political freedom like the case of Emerson in his poem above, the idea of freedom of thought and action runs across his poetry.
3] Independence:
Pawar Pramod Ambadasrao in his Ubiquity buttresses his idea of independence by stressing the need for his readers to treasure the freedom of thoughts. The individual according to him must be in full control of his/her actions. This is how the poet-speaker in Ubiquity puts it:
All begin and end into me
All begin and end into me
I am the power……. (39)
In the excerpt above, Pawar Pramod stresses the fact that he is the beginning and the end of his actions and the power to do everything that pleases him and not necessarily being controlled by others. It is this very quest for Independence that committed the consciousness of the Indians to valiantly fight for their independence after years of colonalization under the British. Like the Americans who were also under the bondage of British Imperialist, the Indians also found themselves perpetually being exploited, tortured and discriminated against by their colonial master. The rise of Mahatma Gandhi in India just like the rise George Washington in America precipitated the independence of today’s modern India.
The transcendentalism of Pramod Pawar as manifested in his quest for independence or freedom is often revealed when he passionately seeks for a safe refuge for his soul. The evocation of the symbolism of the “final door” (47) is again another pointer to the quest of freedom, happiness and fulfillment in the life of the speaker. Redemption to him is the final door which he must enter and probably behold his creator face to face and blissfully dwell with him forever. Although Mahatma Gandhi’s religious affiliation is somehow controversial, one however acknowledges that like Pawar Pramod, he is Hindi. In as much as Gandhi’s quest for freedom is more politically than religiously inclined, the quest for political intellectual and artistic freedom equally animates Pawar’s consciousness. The uniqueness of his poetic style in terms of the structure of Ubiquity is revealing of the freedom of mind of the poet to craft his own style of writing. This again is an element of independence which is a peculiar feature of transcendentalism as portrayed in Pramod Ambadasrao’s Ubiquity.
CONCLUSION:
Having explored transcendentalist trends in the poetry of Emerson and Pramod Pawar, it is evident that there is indeed a meeting point in the realm of American and Indian poetry. Although transcendentalism is a purely 19th century American literary movement, its tenets are very glaring in the 21st century publication by an Indian poet (Pramod Pawar) in his poetry entitled Ubiquity. Published in Africa by Nyaa Publishers further portrays the universality of transcendentalism as a literary movement and also the relevance of Ubiquityin the African literary and sociological context. The celebration of nature, the central place of religion in the transcendentalists’ thought, and the unflinching passion for independence are the tenets of transcendentalism that have been examined in the poems of both authors under study. It is the hope of this researcher that this paper will not only prompt more research on the works of an emerging Indian writer in the person of Pramod Pawar Ambadasrao, but will also draw the attention of literary critics across the world to the beauty of Indian and American Poetry.
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