God in the Mystic Poetry of Khawaja Ghulam Farid and American Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson

Abstract

The poetry of Khawaja Ghulam Farid has a world of meanings. Contemporaneously in the West, there was a parallel line of poets who were greatly influenced by Eastern thought and philosophy in their Transcendentalist poetry. Their poetry also contains ideas about the reality of God. Ralph Waldo Emerson is considered as ‘The Father of Transcendentalism'. The present study attempts to explore how far the poetic thought of Khawaja Farid is reflected in the transcendentalist poetry of Emerson who is the leading poet of this movement. The affinities between the mystic philosophy of the Unity of Being embraced by Khawaja Farid and Transcendentalist Monism have been traced and it has been explored how this philosophy places man about God. This comparative study highlights the philosophical and spiritual affinities between Khawaja Farid and Transcendentalist Emerson and points out the differences of thought as expressed through their respective poetry.