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California State University, Northridge the World As - .... -~-·· ---- -~-~-. -· --. -· ·------ - -~- -----~-·--~-~-*-·----~----~----·····"'·-.-·-~·-·--·---~---- ---~-··i ' CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE THE WORLD AS ILLUSION \\ EMERSON'S AMERICANIZATION ·oF MAYA A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English by Rose Marian Shade [. I I May, 1975 The thesis of Rose Marian Shade 1s approved: California State University, Northridge May, 1975 ii _,---- ~---'"·--------------- -------- -~-------- ---·· .... -· - ... ------------ ---······. -·- -·-----··- ··- --------------------·--···---··-·-··---- ------------------------: CONTENTS Contents iii Abstract iv Chapter I THE BACKGROUND 1 II INDIAN FASCINATION--HARVARD DAYS 5 III ONE OF THE WORLD'S OLDEST RELIGIONS 12 IV THE EDUCATION OF AN ORIENTALIST 20 v THE USES OF ILLUSION 25 Essays Nature 25 History 28 The Over-Soul 29 Experience 30 Plato 32 Fate 37 Illusions 40 Works and Days 47 Poems Hamatreya 49 Brahma 54 Maia 59 VI THE WORLD AS ILLUSION: YANKEE STYLE 60 VII ILLUSION AS A WAY OF LIFE 63 NOTES 70 BIBLIOGRAPHY 77 iii I I ABSTRACT THE WORLD AS ILLUSION EMERSON'S AMERICANIZATION OF MAYA by Rose Marian Shade Master of Arts in English May, 1975 One of the most important concepts that Ralph Waldo Emerson passed on to America's new philosophies and religions was borrowed from one of the world's oldest systems of thought--Hinduism. This was the Oriental view of the phenomenal world as Maya or Illusion concealing the unity of Brahman under a variety of names and forms. This thesis describes Emerson's introduction to Hindu thought and literature during his college days, reviews the_concept of Maya found in Hindu scriptures, and details Emerson's deepened interest and wide reading in Hindu philosophy in later life. The major portion of the thesis demonstrates how Emerson incorporated the concept of Maya into his essays :and poems, with an examination of the prose works Nature, iv ,.---------- ·--··--- ---------·--- .. -- .. -·· ... ·-·--·---·--·· ...... -...... -~-- -· ..... ---· .. ---: -·-· ---------····- ·-----·--- . ····------····- ---- ---------- -----··--- -···----, 11 11 11 11 11 I"History, . The Over-Soul, "Experience, Plato, " "Fate, " l I "Illusions," and "Works and Day's, " ·and the poems l "Hamatreya," 11 Brahma," and "Maia." The Hindu sources of I ' jthe ideas in the poems are particularly stressed as well I las the manner in which Emerson used this material. I The thesis then describes how Emerson Americanized the concept of Maya in his own philosophy, taking what 1appealed to him from Hinduism and transmuting it to suit I !his own ideas. The final chapter deals with the practical I application of this philosophy to Emerson's own life. v r·_, ______ ,_, ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ~-------------~~ I~ I, Chapter I THE BACKGROUND One of the remarkable phenomena of nineteenth- ' I century America was the infusion of Hindu thought into I practical Puritanical, Yankee New England. And no j East Indi: merchant imported more Orientalism than Ralph Waldo Emerson, who, writing in "India ink," indelibly l! I impressed his thought upon American literature, philosophy/ and "new" religions. One of the most important concepts that he passed on through his essays, lectures, and poems to America's ·new philosophies and religions was a concept gleaned from one of the world's oldest systems of thought--Hinduism. This was the view of the world of matter as Maya or Illusion concealing the unity of Brahman under a variety of names and forms. This infusion of Hindu philosophy into-a Christian setting can best be illustrated in his essays "Plato," "Experience," "Fate," "Illusions" and "Works and Days," and in his poems "Hamatreya," "Brahma," and "lVIaia." The way in which Emerson borrowed from Hindu mythology and scriptures and Americanized Maya makes an interesting story, illustrative of the American penchant for putting foreign resources to practical use. 1 2_ -..-:----·--········ -······-······ .. ......... ... ... .. .... .... .. ........ ..... .· .................. -·---------·----:·· .............................--- .... r Emerson's Transcendental phllosophy, whlch was to ! . become the leading intellectual movement of the 1830s, l l found few of its mystical roots in native soil. Born I May 25, 180J, the son of a Unitarian minister, Emerson was: I I j reared in sharp-eyed, down-to-earth Yankee New England, j where he was exposed to a rationalistic type of Christi­ l anity that had veered away from mysticism. He was also l! exposed at an early age to the harsh reality of the I I phenomenal world with the death of his father, Dr. William! Emerson, who left the family penniless. Emerson's widowed mother was left with five sons to rear and educate in the manner expected for gentlemen's! sons in those days. It was not easy, but the boys' Aunt I I I Mary Moody Emerson, a free~ranging thinker herself, became! r a guiding intellectual mentor, exposing young Waldo to ! ll_ ideas and concepts from her own wide reading. One of I these would be Hinduism. I 1 The Harvard education traditional to his family I 1 was somehow provided for Emerson and his brothers and the I shy, serious and unworldly young man followed family I I tradition a few steps further into Harvard Divinity Schooli and the pulpit of the Unitarian ministry. I When in 1832 his own emerging individualism caused'' Emerson to resign his Boston pastorate and retire to Concord, he was soon launched upon a career as essayist, philosopher and lecturer that was to make him one of the most influential literary men of his day. 3 r~~s:c-:~:::~:~::-:::i~:::i::t~~~~:~;!:~n d::~:: ::::son. s I followed, he and such literary and philosopher friends I ! as Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson, i George Ripley, and Margaret Fuller, were to turn the town of Concord, Mass., into the center of the Transcendenta~ list movement in America. An interest in the Hindu religion was mutually shared by several in the group, but Emerson was the leading disseminator of its concepts. The Transcendental movement had originally developed as a revolt against historical Christianity during the l8JOs among various Boston Unitarian clergymen who quested for a more authentic religious experience. They rejected form, creeds, rites and verbal explanations I in favor of a direct mystical encounter with truth and theiI universe. 1 Throughout his writings, Emerson formulated his own ideas of the nature of the reality he himself encountered, but guiding his intuition always were the ideas and philosophical theories he had gleaned eclecti­ cally from his wide reading. Influences upon Emerson and Transcendentalism included contemporary German idealism, Plato, the Neo- platonists, the Swedish mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, as well as Oriental mysticism. Emerson was among the first major authors of the modern, Western world to read and assimilate the Hindu and other Oriental literatures being. 4 r·-------· ·-- ··~ ..... ·-- ·----· ·------··- -· -~----· --···· ....... ..... - .. -·--·· ... - . ···-·· ·-· -· --··- ............................ ---------··--·- --···-------·~----------, l translated for the first time into European languages by i ! scholars of his day. Gradually throughout his life, he I assimilated and incorporated this Oriental idealism with I i I Western thought. Historically, it has been said, this was perhaps his greatest distinction. 2 Even before Emerson delved seriously into Hindu I thought, he had been indirectly influenced in this I direction by the writings of the Neoplatonists Plotinus, I Hermes Trismegistus, Porphyry, Proclus, Synesius, and I I Jamblichus, who had been translated by Thomas Taylor. These Alexandrian philosophers, half Greek and half Oriental in their concepts, combined Platonic idealism with a strong tinge of Oriental mysticism.3 Because his reading of such Hindu scriptures as the Bhagavad Gita did not take place until the 1840s when his first two books had been published and the major premises of his philosophy established, the Oriental influ~tice upon Emerson's work has not ·been sufficently stressed. It can be shown, however, that Emerson was Ii I acquainted with the Hindu concept of the world as 11. 1 us1on:. I during his college years. Additionally, it has been revealed in recent years that Emerson was probably already; j an "Orientalist" by the age of eighteen and that many articles on India and translations of Hindu scriptures were available to him through copies of The Edinburgh Review he borrowed from libraries between 1820 and 1825. 4 Chapter II INDIAN FASCINATION--HARVARD DAYS Emerson's serious study of Hindu beliefs probably came through correspondence with his Aunt Mary, but there were influences at Harvard as well. As early as 1820, passages from Emerson's Journals begin to show an interest I in the Orient, guarded at first by his initial aversion to I what he seemed to view as a strange heathen religion, fullll of superstition. While still a college junior in his seventeenth year, Emerson wrote: The ostentatious ritual of India which wor­ I shipped God by outraging nature, though softened !J as it proceeded West, was still too harsh a discipline for Athenian manners to undergo. 1 But a fascination for the East was evidently felt by Emerson as well, as subsequent passages record. Shortly after he had heard Edward Everett mention the 1 Orient in a lecture in 1820, Emerson wrote: "As we go back, before the light of tradition comes
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