Swadharma

This semester, I’m taking an English class which is basically focused on analyzing poetry. I didn’t actually plan on taking this class — I didn’t get into all the classes I wanted, and this seemed to be a class to fill my first year writing requirement that fit into my schedule nicely. However, I’ve had one of those stereotypical ‘oh my gosh I love this class I’m going to major in this’ college breakthroughs and (much to my father’s dismay), I may possibly major in English.

Anyway, Darshana, the Hindu Students’ Group at Wellesley, has also started a Bhagavad Gita study group this semester, and for the first time I’m actually reading the Gita. What really struck me about a lot of the verses is how poetic they are and how much I see in common between them and some of the poetry that I love. Although we read exclusively Western authors in my class, and all religious allusions are Christian, I feel like some of the poems are religious on a universal level.

This passage from Chapter 2 of the Gita, in which Krishna addresses Arjuna, reminded me a lot of a poem by George Herbert, who was a Welsh poet and clergyman:

“Oh mighty Arjuna, even if you believe the Self to be subject to birth and death, you should not grieve. Death is inevitable for the living; birth is inevitable for the dead. Since these are unavoidable, you should not sorrow. Every creature is unmanifested at first and then attains manifestation. When its end has come, it once again becomes unmanifested. What is there to lament in this?”

This is the Herbert poem, titled ‘Life’:

I made a posy, while the day ran by:
“Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie
My life within this band.”
But Time did beckon to the flowers, and they
By noon most cunningly did steal away,
And wither’d in my hand.

My hand was next to them, and then my heart:
I took, without more thinking, in good part
Times gentle admonition:
Who did so sweetly death’s sad taste convey,
Making my mind to smell my fatal day;
Yet sug’ring the suspicion.

Farewell dear flowers, sweetly your time ye spent,
Fit, while ye lived, for smell or ornament,
And after death for cures.
I follow straight without complaints or grief,
Since if my sent be good, I care not, if
It be as short as yours.

If you like ‘Life’, some of my other favorite Herbert poems are ‘Affliction’, ‘The Flower’, and ‘Love (III)’, and they all deal with religion in an interesting way. Also, you might want to take a look at Wordsworth’s ‘Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey’. It’s a little long but there are a lot of idea that echo Hindu philosophy so beautifully.

I’ve read some poems that absolutely blow my mind in terms of how they deal with religion; or even if they don’t directly address religion, I think they speak to a lot of what being human means, and to me that’s very spiritual. There are also awesome poems that blur the line between romantic love and divine love, but those of you who don’t like poetry are probably put off enough for today, so I’ll stop here.

Related posts:

1. Inspiration for a tough time
2. Go Not To the Temple….
3. Science and Religion
4. Parallels in Hinduism and Islam
5. Question of the Week: Religion and Existentialism