Thoreau’s Walden and the Bhagavad-Gita convey an empowering awakening of one’s consciousness, revealing the self’s capability for individual freedom; although at a first glance, Walden’s emphatic individualism stands at odds with the latter’s principle of oneness. While the nature of the Gita is revelatory and mystical, Walden differs from it in that it primarily consists of Thoreau’s personal reflections and meditation. Thus, the works have decidedly different starting points. However, this apparent contrast becomes negligible in light of their common underlying principles and professed ends. There are different roads to the truth, and each person must find their own by way of detachment and meditation, in sacrifice of comfortable tradition, ignorance, and useless earthly goods. Both works exhort the reader to sublimate their awareness into a higher truth, and to live accordingly.
We all have a unique place and role in life, different dharma so to speak, so there is no single way to achieve liberty and immaculate tranquility. As Krishna tells Arjuna, “By meditating on the self, some men / see the self through the self; / others see by philosophical discipline; / others see by the discipline of action.” (Gita, II.53) The variety of manners in meditation reflects on the variety of people that exist. Moreover, each person should reflect on the value of tradition, since it may be more of an obstacle than a valuable inheritance. In Krishna’s words, “Arjuna, the realm of sacred lore / is nature—beyond its triad of qualities, / dualities, and mundane rewards, / be forever lucid, alive to yourself.” (II.45, p. 38) The speaker points out how one must see beyond tradition when it obscures the higher truth of the self. Thoreau a...
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...for it is there that the infinite spirit manifests itself as well: through his fellow human beings. The philosopher has tapped into the eternal consciousness, and now wants to show others how they can transform their views and lives through meditation and experience of the perfect equilibrium. As the Gita puts it, “When ignorance is destroyed / by knowledge of the self, / then, like the sun, knowledge / illumines ultimate reality.” (V.16, p. 61) Thoreau has bathed in the light, and now he wants to show anyone willing how to retrace their path, chart a new one if necessary, in order to lead a good, dignified life in full appreciation and participation in the ineffable, perennial fount of life: the infinite spirit.
Works Cited.
The Bhagavad-Gita. Translated by Barbara Stoler Miller. New York: Bantam, 2004.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. New York: Norton, 1992.
Thoreau, among the most heralded writers of the North American continent, may have lived on his little as possible, but the grandeur of his writing style suggest quite the opposite. This does coincide with a key part of Transcendentalism - putting matters of the mind and spirit far above any materialistic preference. Chapter 5 of Thoreau’s memoir Walden explains his reasonings for isolation through several rhetorical strategies that emphasize the splendor of aloneness and nature.
This excerpt from "Walden" by Henry D. Thoreau uses the literary element of word choice to express the importance of living simply and taking life slow. He uses bold and eloquent words to evoke a sense of peace and relaxation. He stresses the importance of living a life without unnecessary anxiety, for it causes nothing but stress. To understand and appreciate what is truly wonderful in life, we must forgo our rushing mindsets
When thinking about the transcendental period and/or about individuals reaching out and submerging themselves in nature, Henry David Thoreau and his book, Walden, are the first things that come to mind. Unknown to many, there are plenty of people who have braved the environment and called it their home during the past twenty years, for example: Chris McCandless and Richard Proenneke. Before diving into who the “modern Thoreaus” are, one must venture back and explore the footprint created by Henry Thoreau.
To conclude, Thoreau believed that people should be ruled by conscience and that people should fight against injustice through non-violence according to “Civil Disobedience.” Besides, he believed that we should simplify our lives and take some time to learn our essence in the nature. Moreover, he deemed that tradition and money were unimportant as he demonstrated in his book, Walden. I suggested that people should learn from Thoreau to live deliberately and spend more time to go to the nature instead of watching television, playing computer games, and among other things, such that we could discover who we were and be endeavored to build foundations on our dreams.
Walden represents a religion of nature not yet fully formed. While Thoreau tries to immerse himself in poverty, he becomes ineffectual when he is hypocritical. Barring the contradictions, Thoreau emphasizes the beauty of nature that the less observant miss. With observing eyes, Thoreau captures the parallels of man and beast that can inspire, if not divinity, more humanity in viewing nature.
Throughout our history, we have repeatedly tried to exploit the environment (i.e. nature) in order to perfect our lives. We not only manipulated the materialistic and economic aspect of our world, but we have also struggled to use the moral and the spiritual in making progress within ourselves. Instead of relying on ourselves to accomplish this purpose, we have unfortunately sought help from society's traditional institutions. These institutions, in turn, have tired to manipulate us for their own good, resulting in more harm than help. During the nineteenth century, authors such as Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne recognized this and have tried to stop it through their writings. To this end, they have adopted Ralph Waldo Emerson's view that people choose to deny the power of reason, or their own mind. He believed that until people choose to see the "light" of reason, they will remain morally dead. With the achievement of reason, external institutions will remain useless and they will understand that the spirit they so vehemently desired is indeed within them and will without a doubt eliminate their moral darkness. Therefore, Emerson affirmed that the only eternal law is that of experience and that "the one thing in the world of value is the active soul-the soul, free, sovereign, active." This essay will discuss how these authors (Melville, Hawthorne, and Dickinson) composed writings that mimicked Emerson's view of life to accentuate individualism against subjugation.
...ing Henry David Thoreau into a prominent American Romantic writer. Such elements include his writings about life in Nature having great solitude; he became friends with the surrounding plants and animals. Secondly, he wrote about what was occurring day to day at Walden’s Pond which showed him as being individualistic. Moreover, there was the idea that God can only be found in nature, and pantheism was constant idea in his book. Finally, Thoreau wrote about intuition as a means of obtaining knowledge, and his use of senses as a tool for building intuition. These ideas time and time again show the various aspects of Thoreau being portrayed as an American Romantic which has lead to a great historical achievement as a writer that he well deserves.
Fender, Stephen. Introduction. Walden. By Henry David Thoreau. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997. Print.
In the chapter The Village from the book Walden, Henry David Thoreau states that society loves to hear and spread gossip all around the town. Thoreau goes on to claim that because the citizens in the town are so focused on getting the next scandal, they have missed out on getting in touch with who they are and nature. He also subtly suggests that people should follow in the same footsteps as himself by removing themselves from society so that they can only focus on themselves and nature. I qualify this claim that gossip distracts society from finding their true selves because not all gossip is distracting or bad but I do agree with Thoreau on the fact that people get engulfed in gossip and become distracted from more important things in life.
Henry David Thoreau’s Walden encompasses a variety of themes and elements which cultivate an astounding work of American literature. “Spring” is focused on the changing of the season from winter to spring, and Thoreau’s analysis of Walden Pond and the area surrounding the pond. Thoreau looks at the pond from a spiritual aspect, describing the relationships between life and nature with an abysmal passion. Without Thoreau’s incorporation of precise literary elements, and integration of the themes of solitude, newness of life, and transcendentalism to clearly outline the spiritual revelations he obtained from his retirement at Walden Pond, the readers of his work would not be able to completely grasp the concepts Thoreau presents.
Thoreau and Emerson both believe that to transcend and achieve this oneness with nature, man must educate himself mentally and spiritually. While both writers recognize the importance of books and reading as a precursor to spiritual growth, they also both feel that one ca...
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau explains how a relationship with nature reveals aspects of the true self that remain hidden by the distractions of society and technology. To Thoreau, the burdens of nineteenth century existence, the cycles of exhausting work to obtain property, force society to exist as if it were "slumbering." Therefore, Thoreau urges his readers to seek a spiritual awakening. Through his rhetoric,Thoreau alludes to a "rebirth" of the self and a reconnection to the natural world. The text becomes a landscape and the images become objects, appealing to our pathos, or emotions, our ethos, or character, and our logos, or logical reasoning, because we experience his awakening. Thoreau grounds his spirituality in the physical realities of nature, and allows us to experience our own awakening through his metaphorical interpretations. As we observe Thoreau¹s awakening, he covertly leads us to our own enlightenment.
In chapter two of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, entitled "Where I Lived, and What I Lived for", there are two themes that run throughout the narrative. The key theme that emerges continually is that of simplicity with the additional theme being that of freedom. Thoreau finds himself surrounded by a world that has no true freedom or simplified ways, with people committed to the world that surrounds them rather than being committed to their own true self within nature.
He enjoys his mornings and bathing in the pond. This is the source of a strength not experienced before by him, and Thoreau realizes that he is awakening new feelings and emotions. The beginning of the day is not just that, but actually the beginning of a new life for Thoreau. He criticizes society for the life it leads, which is “meanly, like ants.” He doesn’t hide his disappointment when he states that modern life “is frittered away by detail.” The new experiences at the pond make Thoreau advocate for a new type of life which is more akin to a joyful celebration of nature and of life itself. In Walden the reader is able to discern how Thoreau makes use of nature and aspects of life in his own process of discovery and self-growth. He understands that all creation exists in order to contribute to man’s quest for perfection and self-discovery. Thoreau claims that nature is nothing else but the endless source of physical and spiritual rebirth and invigoration to man. Everything in nature has spiritual value, full of symbols of the
Nature in which people of the entire universe mostly depend upon is found as the true source of happiness in their own life. This great spectacle of the nature is what most of the people appreciate a lot. However the development taking place all over the world does not seems that people are now appreciating the creation of the mighty God. To live happily we the people have to be associated with nature as both Emerson and Thoreau believes in order to live a happy life people must learn to live in harmony with nature without destroying the nature. Both Emerson and Thoreau tends to have similar ideas upon the nature. Emerson states that the first important influences upon the mind of human is nature because nature has no beginning and has no ending but it is like a circular power that keep on returning again and again to the same place where as Thoreau believes that the harmony which the people get from the nature is far greater and the law of nature is to give happiness to the people. However the contrast appears when both Thoreau and Emerson have different ideas upon the manipulation of human mind by the nature.