200. DSC 251- Brahma
'Brahma' is a short poem written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1856 and published in November 1857 in "The Atlantic". It contains 4 stanzas, 16 lines that is separated into four sets of four lines or quatrains. The poem is named for Brahman, the universal principle of the Vedas. Emerson was born in 1803 and died in 1882. He was a transcendentalist who believed that he could learn about life from nature through experience and intuition. The transcendental philosophy derived from Indian metaphysics and philosophy. The main theme of the poem is "creation and knowledge." The other themes are spirituality and identity, unity of existence, nature of reality, and the transcendence of physical reality. Brahma is worshipped in India among the Hindus. They are a trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma is the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the destroyer. Hindus ardently pray to the forms of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara. Ralph Waldo Emerson has written a poem on Brahma. Born in 1803, Emerson was brought up in Boston Massachusetts. His ancestors had been in America for seven generations dating back to one of the early immigrants from old to New England. Many of them including his father was a clergyman. Though poor he was given a proper education by his widowed mother and aunt and he graduated from Havard and became a clergyman of Boston Church. But by 1832, he resigned because he could not conduct religious ritual in which he did not believe. He was the leading light of the transcendalists. Transcendentalism encouraged individualism and self-reliance. It is a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s. He established a reputation as a sound and original thinker, orator and author and eventually became known throughout the nation as the sage of Concord. Emerson was brought up amidst poverty, lacked the basic comforts of life and it was under the presence of toil and want that he realised truth and mutual faith as the greatest ideals of human life. He never undervalued the influence of books in his life and in his essay 'American Scholar' he acknowledged the indebtedness to books. The Bible shaped his mind citations from the Bible direct and oblique are strewn all over his writings. Nature too influenced Emerson. He perceived the benign influence of nature on all sensitive and responsive minds. Nature according to Emerson did not imply just natural phenomenon but also embraced all the manifestations of human nature and all shades of human relationship. The essays of Emerson on the whole are a remarked evidence of the author's continuous struggle to understand the nature of human life.
Brahma is a lyric poem in which the poet assumes the form of the Hindu God Brahma. Brahma has many meanings to it. While Emerson was writing this poem, he read the Hindu scriptures, the Upanishads, the Bhagwad Gita and from there he got the essence and the idea of writing this poem 'Brahma' the God who creates.
In Hinduism, Brahma has many meanings. The word, the letters B R A H M A can be interpreted in many ways. There are basically three: Brahma is the God of Creation. Brahman is the universal soul, the essence of all creation and Brahmin is actually a caste in Hinduism. In the past in the Hindu society people were divided into caste based on their occupation proficiency. So a priest is called as a Brahman and his major duty was to perform rituals in the temples and tell the people about the glory of the Lord. So, in all, Brahma, Brahman and Brahmin are three different words and this is something that one must understand clearly before studying this poem. Brahma is the God of Creation. Brahman is the universal soul, essence and oversoul of the universe. Brahman is a priest who talks about God.
Brahma speaks in the first fourteen lines of the poem and the next lines are addressed to the reader. So, the persona who is speaking in the poem is Brahma and Brahma is Emerson.
In Brahma is the soul of the universe. Everything merges in the Brahma. Brahma creates, destroys and recreates again. Whether it is good or evil, fame or shame, darkness or light, everything merges into Brahma. Brahma is the God. The Brahman is the oversoul which Brahma has. So, the aim in life is to see that our soul merges with that oversoul. And when that happens, salvation is achieved.
The poem has 16 lines and ABAB CDCD rhymed. The poem introduces a form of pantheism or panontheism. Pantheism is the idea that everything and every manifestation around us is god and panontheism means god is in everything and there may be the divine and non-divine things (For example saluting 'namaste' will mean saluting the god in you). And, Spinoza clearly explains pantheism in similar lines that in the beginning there was only god who came from nothing. The beginning of the poem is subtle. The first stanza talks about the red slayer. If the red slayer thinks he slays or if the slained think that he is slained. The Buddhist logic that every thing has a quality or predicate or not predicated: S is P and S is not P. This violates the Aristotelian rule of Law of excluded middle. The Hindu society is also divided into caste system based on occupational proficiency. If the Brahmins are the priests, the Khatriyas are the warriors. So, the red slayer is the warrior. He is Krishna and Kshatriya. If the red slayer thinks he is slained then they do not know the influences, nuances and subtle ways of the Lord Brahma because it is Brahma who creates, recreates or makes people do what they do. The red slayer may be Shiva, another Hindu god who is not superior to Brahma. Those who have read the Bhagwad Gita understand the concept better. It is Brahma in whom is manifested the red slayer. 'I keep, and pass, and turn again' echoes that everything is a wheel and reincarnation may also be referred here. For god there is no concept of 'far' and 'forget' things.
The second stanza is about the ultimate unity and harmony of the universe. Everything merges into the Brahman, the Creator and Lord. The shadow and the sunlight so are the fame and shame. It means that the universe is not made of conflicting forces, whether it is good or evil, far or near, fame or shame, shadow or sunlight but merges in the Brahma. To understand him, one must link our soul to the oversoul. Then only salvation is attained. And Emerson exactly says that even the rishis come running to Brahma for salvation.
In the third stanza, Brahma talks about the people who have belief in him. He says that when people start believing in the Lord, he gives them wings to fly to him. For us to understand Godhead we must understand God. In Hinduism what people believe is when the soul of a human being merges with the universal soul that is the Brahman then we get salvation or Mukti. A person should have no doubts in the Lord. The Brahmin seeks the praise of the Lord.
The first 14 lines are spoken by Brahma in the first person. The last two lines are addressed to the reader. The last lines mean that other gods like Agni, Vayuu, Indra, Yama and others also pray to Brahma for asylum, refuge, for immerging. And here Emerson is trying to bring out the essence of the Bhagwad Gita. 'Thou' is the readers here where the people are promised to be delivered success if allegiance to Brahma is given by forgetting about wealth and other pleasures. The last two lines also mean that humans have the essential goodness and this goodness should be utilised to value the importance of the Lord and union with God. These two lines are in second-person point of view addressing the reader.
The entire poem actually harps on this spiritual fact. Waldo Emerson is also known as Sage of Concord because he was the original thinker of believing that humanity's essential goodness is union with the highest God.
Alliterations (s/f/d/w) are largely used. Metaphor of Brahma as a bird, doubter or hymn in praise is used. Paradox is traced in lines 5, 6& 8.