Walden and Environmental Aesthetics: Thoreau's Eco-Spiritual Sojourn to the Wilderness

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 19, 2020 WALDEN AND ENVIRONMENTAL AESTHETICS: THOREAU’S ECO-SPIRITUAL SOJOURN TO THE WILDERNESS Dr Sthitaprajna1, Dr Sailesh Mishra2, Ms. Monalisa Mishra3 1,2,3 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, ITER, Siksha ‗O‘ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, India Email: [email protected]

Received: May 2020 Revised and Accepted: August 2020

ABSTRACT: This paper attempts to analyze the life and works of Henry David Thoreau in vivid detail and explores how his Walden offers us a framework to establish eco-criticism as a genre of critical theory. Thoreau continues to be environmentally resonant because his detailed study and careful description of nature, his sympathy for non-human creatures, and his perception of the interrelatedness of all living things invigorated a tradition of ecological awareness in the history of American intellectualism. Thoreau chose Walden as a metaphoric experimentation for promoting a harmonious living with nature and his book as well as his life is a message to reconnect with nature. For Thoreau the most practical view of life is the most spiritual. But his yogic renunciation and excessive love for nature has its roots in Indian eco-spiritual philosophies. The paper also argues that Indian eco-spiritualism had a deep impact on Thoreau‘s experiments with wilderness. KEYWORDS: Thoreau, Walden, Indian philosophy, eco-spirituality, eco-criticism, yogi I. INTRODUCTION Nature and the environment have always been the interest of academic discourse. This paper attempts to examine the life and beliefs of the hermit of Walden pond and explore how Thoreau chose Walden to offer us a framework to establish eco criticism as a genre of critical theory. Moreover, it also reflects how Thoreau‘s concept of experimenting with wilderness had its roots in Indian eco spiritual philosophies. Walden was Thoreau‘s spiritual and mystical muse. Walden Pond is very significant not only for the cultural movement in American history but also for the history and evolution of the environmental movement. We will look into Walden as Thoreau‘s metaphor to understand the links between the human and the nonhuman world where nature has an overwhelming presence. Walden is also a fundamental work on ecology and anticipates most of the theoretical implications of the contemporary theory of eco criticism. The tradition of nature writing in America, as many argue, stems from Thoreau's masterwork. Together with Emerson‘s essay Nature, their works have been seminal in discussing nature. Though many works have been done on Thoreau as a nature writer and Thoreau as a transcendentalist but scholars have largely passed over Hindu eco spiritual influence on Thoreau. William E. Channing‘s Thoreau: the Poet-Naturalist (1966) depicts Thoreau as a nature writer. Umesh Patri‘s Hindu Scriptures and American Transcendentalists (1987) focuses on the impact of Hindu Scriptures on American Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau from a philosophical point of view. But Robert Kuhn McGregor‘A Wider View of the Universe (1997) and Buell‘s The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture (1995)) are of special interest to me because they discuss Thoreau from an ecocritical and Indian perspective. Thoreau as a nature writer is thoroughly discussed by many writers like John Elder‘s American Nature Writers (1996) and Bridget Keegan‘s Literature and Nature: Four Centuries of Nature Writing (2001). However, the impact of Hindu and Buddhist ecospirituality on Thoreau has largely been undermined. A groundbreaking work, Walden captures the true beauty and meaning of the human-nature relation, and remains unequalled in its attempt to define ecocriticism. Thoreau‘s book is the embodiment of ecocritical discourse where his message is to reconnect with nature. Thoreau continues to be environmentally resonant because his detailed study and careful description of nature, his sympathy for non-human creatures, and his perception of the interrelatedness of all living things helped start a tradition of ecological awareness in the history of American intellectualism. His ―grand philosophic aloofness, his hatred of materialism, his lack of ambition, his yogic renunciation and austerity, his love of solitude, and his excessive love of nature also made him one of the most controversial writers of his time.‖(Patri 98) Thoreau‘s inherent interest in the transcendental unity of nature prompts his readers to enjoy a meaningful and benign relationship with environment. The eco critics were especially interested in the Romantic definition of nature because of their steadfast and deep love for nature and were revolutionary in their demand for

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 19, 2020 preservation of nature. Their radicalism sprang from their worldview of reclaiming nature and preserving nature in its pristine form. For Thoreau, nature definitely was the binary opposite to the new capitalist machinery as Anderson puts it: ―... his first gambit is to slay the dragon Materialism that was plaguing the Americans of his time‖ (Anderson 19). He could clearly visualize the consequences of dissociating oneself from nature and turning towards machines. He always wanted his fellowmen to live a life of harmony with nature and he was the greatest critic of the railways. In one of his poems he writes: What‘s the railroad to me? I never go to see Where it ends. It fills a few hollows. And makes banks for the swallows, It sets the sand a-blowing, And the blackberries a-growing. (Walden 107) He further critiques his country‘s growing passion for materialism saying, ―Men think that it is essential that the Nation have commerce... . We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us‖ (82). He questions whether America is genuinely making progress by seeking luxuries. ―Most of the luxuries,‖ as Thoreau recounts, ―and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind‖(17). He thus goes on to say, ―Simplify, simplify.‖ In the name of development and improvements, the nation is ―tripped up by its own traps, ruined by luxury and heedless expense‖ (82). So rather than a rigid economy what he prescribes is ―simplicity of life and elevation of purpose‖ (82).

Thoreau believes in a minimalistic and simple life. He lists food, clothing, and shelter, emphasising simplicity in everything. He himself practised vegetarianism as an ethical choice and simplicity. By simplifying life through saving time or ―amount of life‖ which comprise the true cost of things, he diverts the theories of Adam Smith from a purely materialistic end towards spiritual goals. Smith argued for the ―freedom of the individual‖ Thoreau extends this and advises to ―use that freedom for spiritual advancement.‖ (Schneider, 99-100)

Emerson and Thoreau illustrate an easy, care-free relationship with nature. Like Thoreau, Emerson‘s essay reflects is his philosophy of Transcendentalism. Emerson can be rightly considered the pioneer of nature study because of his tremendous work on the aesthetic valuation of nature, bringing back a renewed interest in nature and ecology. His interest nevertheless, was not on the scientific study of nature. Like Thoreau, Emerson recommends a life of leisure, amidst nature appreciating and enjoying it, thereby redirecting a new found interest in nature writing. Thoreau attacks the work culture of his times, steeped in materialism.

The eco critics have huge takeaways from his unique position in the field of nature writing. One of the aspects of his position is that he was ―the first major Anglo-American creative writer to begin to think systematically of native culture as providing models of environmental perception‖ (Buell, Environmental 211).

He was never comfortable with the idea of exploiting nature for materialistic benefits. He was, thus, always at odds with his neighbours mainly because they were oblivious to the incessant deforestation going during his times. Thoreau ―proposed that the banks of Concord River would be public land and also the preservation of a forest in every township of 500 – 1000 acres.‖ (Buell, Environmental 212-213) These views put Thoreau surprisingly ahead of his times, in tune with modern ecological thinking and environmentalism.

Walden celebrates nature and relates in great detail his surroundings and the meaning he finds in them. For example, when he describes the eyes of a young partridge he says, ―The remarkably adult yet innocent expression of their open and serene eyes is very memorable. All intelligence seems reflected in them. They suggest not merely the purity of infancy, but a wisdom clarified by experience‖ (191). The famous ant war is a narrative masterpiece and a factual observation of nature in its own right. The description of the animals like the fox hunt, owls, jays and rabbits are evidences of the writer‘s compelling narrative and plain and powerful admiration for nature. He, thus, writes, ―It is remarkable how many creatures live wild and free though secret in the woods, and still sustain themselves in the neighbourhood of towns.‖ (192)

His act of declaring his individuality and personal sovereignty at Walden pond romanticizes the isolation and majesty of nature, and emphasizes its importance to balance out society. In Walden, Thoreau very meticulously describes his life in the wilderness, talking about the remarkable creatures and the green forest surrounding him. His days in Walden were spent peacefully, in harmony with nature. Walden makes him hopeful that humans can coexist with nature in harmony. His philosopical broodings over living in tune with nature springs from his experiential dynamics in Walden. Walden teaches him the meaning of life, nature and living amicably with nature and with one‘s soul.

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 19, 2020 In the chapter ―Solitude‖ Thoreau talks of those ideal visitors, God (an old settler and original proprietor) (118) and Nature who provide better company than human visitors:

An elderly dame too dwells in my neighbourhood, invisible to most persons, in whose odorous herb garden I love to stroll sometimes, gathering simples and listening to her fables; for she has a genius of unequalled fertility, and her memory runs back farther than mythology...(119).

He, therefore, says: ―I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning when nobody calls.‖(118) He begins with a mystical flavour where we find the author‘s nearly complete identification with nature: ―the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself.‖ (112)

For Thoreau the most practical view of life is the most spiritual. But he is not enough of a transcendental purist to reject physical reality entirely. For him the seer must be able to see physical reality accurately— but also to see the symbolic spiritual meaning contained in the physical. He thus complains that most people‘s ―morning work‖ is merely housekeeping rather than the true seeing that morning light invites (36). Later he makes this invitation more explicit saying: ―Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.‖ (79) For him dawn or the rising sun is a state of mind—a state of visual, intellectual and spiritual alertness. As he writes, ―All memorable events transpire in the morning time... The Vedas say, ‗All intelligences awake with the morning‘ (80) ... We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn‖ (81).

II. THOREAU’S ECO SPRITUALITY It is interesting to observe how the American Transcendentalists anticipated the concerns of ecospirituality. Their inspiration came from the organic worldview of religions like Hinduism and Buddhism which enabled them to make a definite departure from the pastoral tradition in American writing that is identified with ―masculine colonial aggression directed against women, indigenes and the land‖ (Garrard 49). The Transcendental writers, Emerson and Thoreau, were profoundly influenced by the Indian spirituality. What gives the Transcendental writers an interesting dimension is the oriental wisdom with a touch of eternity, which is clearly accomplished by these writers in dealing with issues of spirituality and a life filled with nature‘s bliss. Connecting rightly with nature gives a spiritual contemtment and abundance in life. Thoreau‘s eco spirituality was created in the art of pure perception. In Walden, the reader is led through the forms of nature to the great formless which is the sustaining matrix. Of all the Oriental tradition, Thoreau was most influenced by Hindu scriptures and Hindu philosophy which shaped his spiritual life. And the one book which most inspired Thoreau and which he quoted most in his Walden is the Bhagavad Gita, the celestial Hindu song where Lord Krishna Arjuna about the philosophy of karma, action and spiritual enlightenment. Thoreau studied Hindu literature in Emerson‘s library. He read the Bhagavad Gita during his stay at Walden and he translated some episodes from Mahabaratha like ―The Transmigration of the Seven Brahmans.‖ He also read the Vedas and the Upanishads. According to Kuhn McGregor, ―Thoreau‘s studies were, on the surface, in the field of morality‖ and aiming at a ―more perfect intellectual life‖ moving to an intensive study of the stories of creation, further leading him ―to develop a view of nature unique in the Western society of his time.‖ (96-100)

The Judeo-Christian world view postulated that only ―God and humanity possessed a spirit‖ and the new natural sciences ―promoted the objectification of the world.‖ (McGregor 100) Emerson, however, asserted that the ―world of God and spirit extended to plants and animals‖ nevertheless, denying the ―value of the objective, sensate world.‖ Thoreau‘s firmly believed that the ―spiritual and natural world were inseparable and present all around him‖ which ―was there to be understood.‖ (McGregor 100) His understandings of these ancient beliefs in modern context led him to ―challenge the notion that nature existed only for the use of humankind‖ and he began to explore ―each part of nature he encountered with reference to the principles that held all the parts together.‖ (McGregor, 100)

The influence of Hinduism had a major impact on Thoreau‘s life. His holistic view on nature was primarily shaped by his readings of the Hindu scriptures. The universality and a spiritual appeal of his book largely comes from the wisdom of the East. Nature was never a lifeless or inanimate object. In that sense, Walden the pond itself serves as a metaphor of human soul. The pond is seen as an extremely powerful symbol of nature as something living and animate. The organisation of the chapters of the book finds an apt abalogy in the cyclic occurrence of seasons—starting with summer and culminating with spring—which signifies nature‘s revival and

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 19, 2020 renewal after a cold winter. Spring is a powerful metaphor for spiritual reawakening. Nature is construed as a powerful spiritual partner in human evolution. Ecology is not a mere subsidiaty object to be used by humans. It has an overwhelming influence on our entire existence. So nature is not dead; it is alive and symbolically corroborates with the Hindu concept of rebirth. This gives rise to the curious Hindu concept of rebirth or reincarnation.

The concept of rebirth as a metaphor seems very poignant in the context of Hindu cosmology where life is a cycle of birth and death. As the Bhagvad Gita says that there is actually no death. As we change our garbs so does the soul changes body. Thoreau‘s grand metaphoric view of rebirth, thus, can be attributed to his vast study of the Indian Scriptures. Thoreau‘s very act of experimenting to stay alone in Walden and his love for solitude reminds us of a yogi. Withdrawal from society is just another aspect of solitude.

Thoreau clearly connects to the pond. The pond is a symbolic reflection of the interrelation between the material and the spiritual world. The point is that we don‘t have to reach the heavens for spiritual truth; it can be found everywhere; around us, close to us. Walden pond proves to be ―intermediate in its nature between land and sky.‖(188) And his hut embodies the crossroad of the three main elements of nature—earth, water, and sky— symbolizing the unity of humanity, nature and God. This view is very clearly reflected in the eco-spirituality of the Vedas—the concept of the holy trinity—paramatma, prakriti, and purusha.

Thoreau was aware of the sacramental aspect of nature and endorsed a synthetic and holistic view. He was hugely influenced by the holistic vision of Indian philosophy, especially that of the Upanishads and the Bhagvad Gita. The Hindu view of nature is permeated by the awareness that the universe is constituted of pancha maha bhuta – air, water, earth, fire and space which regulate all life forms. Humans, animals and plants are all bound to each other within the great rhythm of nature.

Emerson, too speaks of a ―terrific unity‖ which is delineated in the Hindu scriptural writings of the Vedas, the Bhagvad Gita and the Vishnu Purana .The ecospiritual vision of oneness runs through all of Emerson‘s works. He was able to relate Nature to the Over-Soul as these lines from his essay reveal: ―We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animals, the tree: but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.‖ (The Over-Soul 84)

The cosmogony of the Upanishads has a profound ecocentric vision. As Chandogya Upanishad conceives the sky as the head of the universal self, the sun as its eyes, the air as its breath, the space as the body, water as the bladder and the earth as its feet, the sacred grass as its hair (Radhakrishnan 361).

The impact of Hindu scriptures which have a deep sense of eco-spirituality has not only changed Thoreau‘s thought and vision, but has also directed his way of life by orienting him to that of a Hindu way of living. A vegetarian by choice, a teetotaller and non-smoker, Thoreau never married, preferred walking and sleeping by railroad, avoided inns, never went to a church and gained inspiration from the Hindu scriptures like the Bhagvad Gita and the Laws of Manu. Unlike other children of his age, he enjoyed taking walks in forests and hillsides to pluck berries. He was a voracious reader. The only other thing he liked was observing nature. In Harvard he used his leisure roaming the fields of Cambridge and the banks of Charles River.

In many ways he seems less American and is more close to a detached Hindu Yogi. The influence of Hindu eco spiritualism, MacShane seems to suggest, made Thoreau a Yogi. He writes, ―Certainly there is no doubt that the book (Walden) is permeated with a vaguely Hindu atmosphere. There are many overt references to the sacred texts of India... And Thoreau himself follows certain Hindu customs. ...There are also many less obvious references as for example to the language of silence which is so common in India and which is invoked in Thoreau‘s silent communion with the old fisherman who joined him at the pond‖ (MacShane 322-23). Thoreau‘s deep love for India can be seen when he writes in Walden: In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagvat-Geeta, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; ... I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Bramin, priest of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas.... The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges. (248-9)

In his letter to H.G.O. Blake in 1849, Thoreau defines his concept of a Yogi: "Free in this world as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chains, those who have practised the Yoga gather in Brahmin the certain fruit of their works. ...To some extent and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi‖ (Writings VI 175). He goes on to write, ―What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like the light of a higher and purer luminary, which

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 19, 2020 describes a loftier course through a purer-stratum, - -free from particulars, simple, universal. It rises on me like the full moon after the stars have come out, wading through some far summer stratum of the sky.... The Vedas contain a sensible account of God. The religion and philosophy of the Hebrews are those of a wilder and ruder tribe, wanting the civility and intellectual refinements and subtlety of the Hindoos. Man flows at once to God as soon as the channel of purity, physical, intellectual and moral is open‖ (Journal II 4).

Thoreau's communion with nature, thus was on a mystical level. It was pantheistic and eco-spiritual in nature. His exploration of the world of nature was nothing but a metaphorical self-exploration. In his Walden experiment he withdrew from society in order to explore the inner recesses of his own soul indirectly through nature. In Walden, Thoreau felt merged with nature and by that with God.

Walden is an eloquent statement about the democracy of all life-forms and its vision is steeped in the ecospirituality of Hinduism, which believes that life in all its manifestations has inherent divinity, dignity and is unique and worthy of respect.

Although the contribution of Thoreau to the genre of environmental writing has been greatly acknowledged, the transcendentalists are not credited with having developed a complete biocentric earth religion. Transcendentalism is perceived as having emphasized ―the ideal over the material, to the detriment of placing a clear priority on the value of nature for its own sake‖ (Gatta 57). Contrary to this opinion, the rejection of strong anthropocentricism and a sensitive identification with all life forms are dominant motifs in the writings of the Transcendentalists. They pioneered a life-centric vision through their writings since their earth-based spirituality collapsed the classic dichotomies of the self and the other, the sacred and the profane, symbolic nature and inert nature, the human and the divine.

III CONCLUSION

As an ecologist and a pioneer conservationist Thoreau loved nature. His collection of minute details relating to trees, birds and other aspects of nature places him in the rank of a scientist. Nature also helped him to become a poet. He wrote early in his journal that nature provided a setting for his dream: "That woodland vision for a long time made the drapery of my dreams‖ (Bode 4-5). Besides loving nature as a poet, Thoreau was attracted to nature in a special way, and this relates to his mystical temperament. He sought god in nature. He tells us that his idea behind going to Walden was not economical, but to transact some "private business"(21). This "private business," one may suppose, was to see or realize God in nature. So Thoreau's love for nature can be seen as a part of his theological system which suggests that divinity resides in both the animate and the inanimate world.

IV. REFERENCES

[1] Anderson, Charles R. The Magic Circle of Walden. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968. [2] Bode, Carl. The Portable Thoreau. New York: The Viking Press, 1974. [3] Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995. [4] Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Journals. 10 vols. Ed. E.W. Emerson and W.E. Forbes. Boston and New York: Boughton, Mifflin, 1909-14. [5] Emerson, Ralph Waldo. ―The Over-Soul.‖ The American Tradition in Literature. Ed. Perkins, Bradley Beatty & Long. 6th ed. New York: Random House, 1985, [6] Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. London: Routledge, 2004. [7] Gatta, John. Making Nature Sacred: Literature, Religion, and Environment in America from the Puritans to the Present. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. [8] MacShane, Frank. ―Walden and Yoga,‖ The New England Quaterly, XXXVII, 3(Sept 1964), pp.322-342. [9] McGregor, Robert Kuhn. A Wider View of the Universe. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997. [10] Patri, Umesh. Hindu Scriptures and American Transcendentalists. New Delhi: Intellectual Publishing House, 1987. [11] Radhakrishnan, S. The Principal Upanishads. London: Allen & Unwin, 1953. [12] Richardson, Robert D. Jr. Henry Thoreau. A Life of the Mind. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. [13] Schneider, Richard J. ―Walden.‖ The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau. Ed. Joel Myerson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. [14] Thoreau, Henry David. Writings. 20 vols. Ed. B. Torrey. New York: Ams Press, 1968. [15] Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Dehradun: Koncept Books, 2011.

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