influence of vedic thought - a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson !

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OUR beloved benji comments ...

 

Einstein liked Buddhism because it seemed 'rational'

and 'scientific' to him. Buddhism reflects common Hindu values with

the theological > apparatus stripped away.

 

well, i know of one poet who was so influenced by Vedic thought that

he composed this wonerful poem on Brahma

 

BRAHMA by Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

If the red slayer thinks he slays,

Or if the slain thinks that he is slain,

They know not well the subtle ways

I keep, and pass, and turn again.

 

Fear 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;

And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

 

The strong gods pine for my abode,

And pine in vain the sacred Seven;

But thou, meek over good!

Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

 

Brahma was composed in 1856 and represents the maturity of Emerson's

comprehension of some of the fundamental concepts of Vedic thought.

According to Professor Frederic Ives Carpenter, those sixteen lines

probable express those concepts "more clearly than any other writing

in the English language-perhaps better than any writing in Hindu

literature itself."

 

enjoy!