The old and new continents had not been altogether strangers. Columbus had set out to
find the short route to India, known far and wide for her fabulous wealth, and had
stumbled upon America instead. The chests of tea of the Boston Tea Party, which set
off the War of Independence, had come from India. Moreover, the victory of the
English over the French in the eighteenth-century colonial wars in India contributed to
the success of the American colonists in their struggle for freedom begun in 1775. And
finally, Commodore Perry in 1853 made it possible for American merchant ships to
trade with the Far East and thus visit Indian coastal towns on their long journeys.
The development of Emerson's innate idealism had been aided by the philosophy of
Greece, the ethics of China, the poetry of the Sufis, and the mysticism of India.
Emerson, a keen student of the Bhagavad Gita, was familiar with the Upanishadic
doctrines and published translations of religious and philosophical tracts from the
Oriental languages. His beautiful poem 'Brahma' and his essay 'The Over-Soul' show
clearly his indebtedness to Hindu spiritual thought. But Emerson's spirit, pre-eminently
ethical and intellectual, could not grasp the highest flights of Hindu mysticism; it
accepted only what was in harmony with a somewhat shallow optimism. Emerson's
writings later influenced the New Thought movement and Mary Baker Eddy's
Christian Science.
Thoreau, Emerson's neighbour for twenty-five years, read and discussed with him in
great detail the Hindu religious classics. Thoreau wrote: 'I bathe my intellect in the
stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, in
comparison with which our modern world and literature seem puny and trivial.' He
wanted to write a joint Bible, gathering material from the Asiatic scriptures, and took
for his motto Ex Oriente Lux.
Alcott was genuine friend of Indian culture. He was instrumental in bringing out the
American edition of Sir Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia, and this made the life and
teachings of Buddha accessible, for the first time, to American readers.
The Transcendental Club, founded in Concord, near Boston, reached its height by
- The American Oriental Society was formed in 1842, with aims similar to those
of the European Oriental societies.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), a contemporary of the Concord philosophers, seems to
have come very near to Vedantic idealism. There is no reliable evidence to show that
Whitman was directly influenced by Hindu thought. He is reputed to have denied it
himself. A great religious individualist, he was free from all church conventions and
creeds. To him, religion consisted entirely of inner illumination, 'the secret silent
ecstasy.' It is not known if he practised any definite religious disciplines; most
probably he did not. Yet Swami Vivekananda once called Whitman 'the sannyasin of
America.' Leaves of Grass, which Swami Vivekananda read, breathes the spirit of
identity with all forms of life, and Whitman's 'Song of the Open Road' is full of the
sentiments that were nearest to the heart of Vivekananda. Here, for example, are three
stanzas: