The Gita within Walden

About this book

Looks at the connections between Thoreaus Walden and the work that influenced it the Bhagavad-Gita. This book explores and interprets the myriad connections between two spiritual classics Henry David Thoreaus 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.