DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52538#0043
33
He would hold his life as secluded as that of a Hindoo
devotee;
“What is fame to a living man. If he live aright the
sound of no man’s voice will resound through the aisles of his
secluded life. . . . His life will be a hallowed silence, a
pool. ’ ’ * * * §
Silence is natural when the mind is fixed in contempla-
tion :
“ Silence is the communication of a conscious soul with itself.
If the soul attend for a moment to its own infinity, there is
silence.”f When deeper thoughts upswell, the jarring dis-
cord of harsh speech is hushed, and senses seem as little as
may be to share the ecstasy.” J
c. Negation of Desire.
Negation of the apparent self includes the mortifying of
every desire which characterizes that self. The Eternal One,
than which there is none other, is free from all desire, all
passion ; on the realization of man’s oneness with him, the
Infinite, follows the death of desire. Poverty of worldly
goods is, of course, implied. Thoreau chose it as voluntarily
as the Indian ascetic. Though his religion only required of the
Brahman that he withdraw to a solitary life in the forest after
he had fulfilled his duty as founder of a family, yet the Veda
relates concerning the sages :
“What shall we do with offspring, they said, we who
have this Self and this world (of Brahman)? And they,
having risen above the desire for sons, wealth and new worlds,
wander about as mendicants. Ӥ
This negation of every human passion is essential to per-
ception :
“ He who hath faith findeth wisdom, and above all he
who hath gotten the better of his passions."" ||
* Spring, p. 128-9.
f Autumn, p. 435.
I Summer; p. 348.
§ Yajur-Veda, Brih-Upan, IV, 4, 22. Max Muller, Vol. XV, p. 179-80.
|| Bhagvat Geeta, p. 24 ; cf. also, “ Laws of Menu,” p. 186 (96).
He would hold his life as secluded as that of a Hindoo
devotee;
“What is fame to a living man. If he live aright the
sound of no man’s voice will resound through the aisles of his
secluded life. . . . His life will be a hallowed silence, a
pool. ’ ’ * * * §
Silence is natural when the mind is fixed in contempla-
tion :
“ Silence is the communication of a conscious soul with itself.
If the soul attend for a moment to its own infinity, there is
silence.”f When deeper thoughts upswell, the jarring dis-
cord of harsh speech is hushed, and senses seem as little as
may be to share the ecstasy.” J
c. Negation of Desire.
Negation of the apparent self includes the mortifying of
every desire which characterizes that self. The Eternal One,
than which there is none other, is free from all desire, all
passion ; on the realization of man’s oneness with him, the
Infinite, follows the death of desire. Poverty of worldly
goods is, of course, implied. Thoreau chose it as voluntarily
as the Indian ascetic. Though his religion only required of the
Brahman that he withdraw to a solitary life in the forest after
he had fulfilled his duty as founder of a family, yet the Veda
relates concerning the sages :
“What shall we do with offspring, they said, we who
have this Self and this world (of Brahman)? And they,
having risen above the desire for sons, wealth and new worlds,
wander about as mendicants. Ӥ
This negation of every human passion is essential to per-
ception :
“ He who hath faith findeth wisdom, and above all he
who hath gotten the better of his passions."" ||
* Spring, p. 128-9.
f Autumn, p. 435.
I Summer; p. 348.
§ Yajur-Veda, Brih-Upan, IV, 4, 22. Max Muller, Vol. XV, p. 179-80.
|| Bhagvat Geeta, p. 24 ; cf. also, “ Laws of Menu,” p. 186 (96).