Ralph Waldo Emerson's Brahma

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"

Today is an appropriate day to recall the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson who died on 27th April 1882 at the age of 79.

A transcendentalist and a believer in non-conformity, he drew on Hinduism and a sense of the mystical oneness of the individual, nature and God. He swam naked in Walden Pond daily at the age of 77.

Emerson was laid to rest in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Mass.,  close to the writers Thoreau and Hawthorne.

Brahma 

If the red slayer thinks he slays,

Or if the slain thinks he is slain,

They know not well the subtle ways

I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Far or forgot to me is near;

Shadow and sunlight are the same;

The vanquished gods to me appear;

And one to me are shame and fame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;

When me they fly, I am the wings;

I am the doubter and the doubt

And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

The strong gods pine for my abode,

And pine in vain the sacred Seven,

But thou, meek lover of the good!

Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

1803-1882

"Life is a journey, not a destination"