The Journal of University Grants Commission, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2018 THE IMPACT OF HINDU PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS ON T. S. ELIOT'S WRITINGS Damaru Chandra Bhatta Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus Email:
[email protected] Abstract: The main objective of this article is to explore the impact of the Hindu philosophical thoughts on T. S. Eliot's writings. This researcher has compared Eliot's thoughts to the ones of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita and the Patanjali Yoga Sutras of the Hindu philosophy. Eliot treid to find a permanent solution to the universal problems of bondage, suffering and desperateness. He found the spiritual remedy of such problems in perennial Hindu philosophical thoughts such as in selfless action, detachment, impersonality/ disinterestedness, self- sacrifice and surrender, generosity, compassion, self-control, the paths of action, devotion and knowledge, non-dual (advait) thinking, the concepts of karma and rebirth, circular time, consciousness and power, issues of life’s ephemerality, double Selves (the individual self and the Infinite or Eternal Self), bondage/suffering and liberation and the like. These reverberations of Hindu philosophical thoughts justify their impact on Eliot's writings. In other words, his writings were immensely influenced by Hindu philosophical notions and practices and Eliot employs them as antidote to the worldly disease of the spiritually hollow people living in the modern wasteland. He wanted to inspire humanity to follow such spiritual concepts in order to establish permanent peace and happiness in the mundane world. Keywords: upanishad, karma, bhakti, knowledge, ignorance, bondage, suffering, transience, immortality, duality, non-duality Introduction T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) is one of the twentieth century's major poets of the West.