the eternal realms where it may (or may not) be merged into the godhead.
One suspects that he would prefer to have it both ways—to be “O, living
always, always dying.”^66
Whitman modi¤ed the poem’s haunting ¤nal stanza in 1871 in order
to re®ect an expanding sense of himself as a prophetic poet, steeped in
the traditions of Eastern mysticism. For the declaration, “I feel like one
who has done his work—I progress on,” in the 1860 version, he substi-
tuted the lines, “I feel like one who has done his work for the day to retire
awhile, / I receive now again of my many translations, from my avataras
ascending, while others doubtless await me.”^67 For the phrase “I depart
from materials,” he substituted “I may again return.” This revision implies
that the persona’s supposed demise represents something more than the
simple transition from the mortal life to a stage beyond death. The refer-
ence to his “avataras ascending” suggests that the persona is about to
undergo one more transition in an unending series of spiritual promo-
tions that characterize the soul’s ever-evolving existence.^68 In this context
the persona’s ascending avataras may also imply that his soul is advancing
to ever-higher stages toward a supreme godhood and, in terms of the
sacred writings of the East, that he is “raising himself to an equality with
the Supreme One.” The Hindu god Krishna has been described as “the
eighth and most important of the incarnations of Vishnu—who in his
character of Preserver of mankind was said to descend to earth in certain
earthly forms (avataras) for the purpose of protecting and extending his
religion.”^69 Whitman’s 1871 language implies some sort of parallel between
Krishna’s sacred mission and the persona’s perceived mission to demon-
strate his divine potential and to proclaim the potential divinity of all
humanity. The revised ¤nal stanza implies that when the persona has
completed his mortal tenure, he will die, saintlike, in the realm of pu-
rity, only to emerge as another manifestation of the Whitman self. In-
stead of speaking of him as being “reborn” or “reincarnated,” the term
“rebecoming” may be more consistent with Buddhist belief, which main-
tains that “in these other ‘worlds’ rebecoming is not a matter of being
born as a baby but rather of the stream of personal consciousness, which
from the point of view of an earthly observer terminates in death, con-
tinuing in another environment.” If we choose to take our clue from this
explanation, we can assume that in the course of the Whitman persona’s
series of “existences,” he will “arise, in Buddhist terms, at the breaking up
of the body after dying in a good bourn, a heaven world.”^70
160 / “So Long!”