The Gita within Walden: A Social Movement PerspectiveThis book explores and interprets the myriad connections between two spiritual classics, Henry David Thoreau s Walden and the Bhagavad-Gita. Evidence shows that Thoreau took the Gita with him when he moved to Walden Pond, and the books have much in common, touching on ultimate ethical and metaphysical questions. Paul Friedrich looks at how each work speaks to fundamental problems of good and evil, self and cosmos, duty and passion, reality and illusion, political engagement and philosophical meditation, sensuous wildness and ascetic devotion. His examination moves through several stages, from an analysis of key symbols, such as the upside-down tree, to an exposition of social, ethical, and metaphysical values, to a consideration of the many sources of these syncretic works. This book should be of lively interest to those concerned with the origins of Indian and American thought, activism, and poetry. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
absolute action alluding American Arjuna ātman Bean-Field beans Bhagavad Bhagavad-Gita bhakti Bleeding Kansas Brahma Buitenen caste Cavell chapter classics Concord Concord River Confucius context courage culture dark inertia death denial of opposites discipline divine Edgerton egalitarianism elitism Emerson essay essence ethical evil faith field Friedrich Gita and Thoreau Gita and Walden Gita poet Gita within Walden Gita's Henry David Thoreau Henry Thoreau Hindu hypocrisy Iliad Indian individual infinite infinitude John Brown Journal knowledge Kouroo Krishna Laws of Manu liberation from delusion light Mahābhārata Mahatma Gandhi material world means metaphor metaphysical Miller nature notably one's parable passage philosophy poetic political purity Rāmānuja reader reality rhetoric Rig Veda ritual sacred Sanskrit Sargeant scriptural sense sentences song soul spirit stand stanza symbol synecdoche texts things Thoreauvian transcendent Transcendentalist translation tropes University Press Upanishads upside-down tree values Vedas versus Walden Pond warrior Wilkins word yoga Zaehner