 People, welcome to my channel, I am Arpata Karwa and in this video lecture I am going to talk about the most important American movement called Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism was an American movement which started in 1830s. During 1830s you must be aware that Romanticism was in the full bloom and Romanticism as a movement was spreading in England and all over the world. Similarly, Transcendentalist and Transcendentalism as a movement spread in America. All the major followers of Transcendentalism formed a club which is called Transcendentalist Club and the members of this club were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thiorau, Walt Whitman and Margaret Fuller or four of them were the core member of this group. And these people were against the Puritan Orthodoxy. As you must be aware of this thing that Puritan people are the one who are very orthodox about their religious views. They are so much into religious strictness and rigidness that they think that anybody who doesn't believe in what they believe will go to hell. Transcendentalists were non-conformist. They said that just because you tell us something, you are telling us that it is written in Bible, we would not accept it. Amos Alcott Bronson was a very very famous writer who commented on Emerson's writing saying that Emerson's church consists of one member that is himself. So this line actually states the core philosophy of Transcendentalism. They were against organized religion and they thought that religion is a very subjective thing. Religion depends upon each person's connection to his God. So religion is very subjective and there are no actual set of rules that you must be followed if in order to reach heaven or in order to know God. So that was the religious belief of Transcendentalism. Have you ever had this feeling of taking an umbrella on a perfectly sunny day? And then suddenly when you take that umbrella after 4-5 hours you see that okay, it started raining. And then you find that okay, oh my God, that was the intuitive power which told me to take the umbrella along with me in spite of my reason telling that there is no use of the umbrella. If you have gone through such an experience then you can connect to what the Transcendental philosophy is all about. Transcendentalists believed that divine can be known only through emotion, through intuition and not through reason. So you cannot use your brain and know God. You need to use your emotion and intuitive powers for that. Also they championed individualism. They thought that individual is the spiritual center of the universe. They believed that individual is very important. In an essay by Emerson, he says that man is not a farmer or a professor or an engineer but he is all. So they give extreme influence and importance to individual's presence in society. And they think that it is through individual that the society will progress. Other than that we also find a very important philosophy that is closely related to Transcendentalism. And that philosophy is that how everything is connected to soul. So all the things are connected on the level of soul. So there is God which is called over soul and God's presence is there in all of us thus we all are connected. So the idea of Vasudev Kutumbakam is somewhere related to Transcendental philosophy. We also find that in one of the works of Emerson, he says that when you look at nature and you look at soul, you find that there are dissimilarities, there are chaotic things which is there all around. But later when you try to diminish the anomalies and you look deeper, you see that everything is connected on the grass-loot level. And thus he says that the earlier we used to say know thyself and now we say study nature, both of them are same. Because when you study nature, you will know about the natural laws and those laws are similar to the laws of your soul. Similarly if you study yourself, you will come across certain things which will lead to your knowledge about nature and other things. So you can see that nature plays a very important role in the Transcendental philosophy and as they were connected to Romanticism, we can see that they found solace in nature and they thought that it is only through nature that you can know God and you can know yourself and you can know the soul which resides within you. If you have seen the movie or read the book, Eat, Pray, Love, you must be aware of what I am speaking because Transcendental philosophy is very much connected to what that book speaks about. Eat, Pray and Love is a book by Elizabeth Gilbert. If you don't like reading books, then you can even see a movie which has Julia Roberts in it. The book was made into a movie which Julia Roberts as the main heroine and the book and the movie both revolves around the story of a girl who is divorced and she tries to discover herself physically and spiritually both. So she travels to Italy, then she travels to India and in the later part of the movie she travels to Bali and while going to all three places she tries to discover herself. So when she goes to Italy, she eats all the brilliant cuisines and all the lovely dishes and when she is eating those mouthwatering dishes, she is able to appreciate the beauty which is present near her and that is the idea of Transcendentalism also. They think that beauty is all nearer and we just need to realize that thing. When she goes to India, she meditates, she goes to an ashram in India, there she meditates and she attends the satsang and through meditation and through satsang she is able to know herself, she is able to know the soul, she is able to calm her mind and she is able to set a connection with herself. Later when her meditation process is done she goes to Bali, there she finally falls in love with a guy and then finally she embraces life in its old form and through this movie you can see how this movie is revolving around the idea of Transcendentalism and this is what Transcendentalists also say that you need to discover yourself in everyday life, you need to connect with yourself. Individual is the center of universe, individual is very important, you don't need to think about what society would say all you need to care about is your relationship with your soul, your relationship with nature, your relationship with God so that is the major idea around which Transcendentalists work. Now let's look at the major writers who were connected to this movement, the first one is Valdo Emerson. Ralph Valdo Emerson was the person who started this Transcendental Club and he has written a wonderful work called American Scholar that American Scholar essay was written by him when he gave a lecture in Fibata Kappa University and we also find that this work is called Intellectual Declaration of Independence so intellectual declaration of independence such a big title has been given to this work other than that we find that in this work he talks about the duty and influences which are there on the American Scholar so American Scholar is the person who will wake America from the sluggard intellect from the iron lids under which American thought is there they also present the idea that you know it is the duty of American Scholar to celebrate hope to make America free from the learnings of the foreign land so everybody in America is looking at the foreign countries and using their own views whereas Ralph Valdo Emerson says that American Scholar must be aware of his own responsibility about his own connection with soul and only by having a connection with the soul he will be able to actually awake the entire America and just like waves follow the moon similarly people will follow the thought of American Scholar so that is the basic idea given in his work he also has given a beautiful statement where he says beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue so you must remember that this quote is by Ralph Valdo Emerson the second important American transcendental thinker is Walt Whitman Walt Whitman is known as the father of freewards and he has written a spectacular work called Leaves of Grass in this work Leaves of Grass he has a poem which says I celebrate myself and what I assume you shall assume because every atom that belongs to me as good belongs to you and by these lines he is trying to convey the idea that every person has all the potential nobody is greater than any other person because I have the atomic structure the same atomic structure even you have and the same mind even you have so what I assume you shall assume because every atom that belongs to me as good belongs to you so if I am celebrating myself then you too need to celebrate yourself the third transcendental thinker is Henry David Thiorau Henry David Thiorau has written a work called Walden and we find that nature plays a very very important role in all the works of Henry David Thiorau Henry David Thiorau has written this beautiful poem where he says that I went to the woods because I wanted to live deep I wanted to live deliberately and suck out the marbles of life so you can see the pleasure that he receives even from the thought of going into the woods and connecting with nature so that is the philosophy of American scholar and of other works by the transcendental thinkers so this is it about transcendentalism before you leave I would like to mention one very important thing and this is that transcendental club has started a magazine which was called Dial Magazine this was a question which was asked several time in net exam that mention a magazine which is associated with transcendentalist and the magazine is Dial Magazine it was started by the transcendental club members so you must remember that Dial Magazine is associated to transcendentalism and in that magazine they used to publish their views, essays and poetry which were influenced by the transcendental ideals and which were influenced by the works of these writers so that's it for this video lecture we will meet soon in the next video lecture till the time we meet next happy learning keep loving literature and don't forget to subscribe this channel if you like this video do give it a big fan thumbs up share it with other net aspirants and do comment about how you like this video other than that you can also follow me on the social media platforms you can get the links of all the social media platforms in the description box below you can also visit my website and get the list of all the important writers that you must study if you are preparing for UGC net English literature if you like that link then you can join my online audio course the registration has already started let's meet in the next video lecture bye bye happy learning keep loving literature