Ans: Mysticism is not really a coherent philosophy
of life, but more a temper of mind. A mystic vision is intuitive; he feels the
presence of divine reality behind and within the ordinary world of sense of
perception. He feels that God and the supreme soul animating all things are identical.
He believes that all things in the visible world are but forms and manifestations
of the one Divine life, and that these phenomena are changing and temporary, while
the soul that informs them is eternal.” The human soul too is eternal. Transcendentalism
is closely connected to mysticism, for it emphasizes the intuitive and
spiritual above the practical.
Walt Whitman is basically a transcendentalist;
young of myself has been regarded as a prolonged expression of an experience
that is essentially mystical. It is believed that Whitman is greatly influenced
not only by Emerson but by oriental mysticism. But there is a big difference between
Whitman’s mysticism and the mysticism of Orient. Oriental mystic believes that communication
between soul and god is possible only through the mortification or conquest of
the senses and the physical appetites. On the other hand Whitman believes that
spiritual experiences are possible without sacrificing the physical appetites.
There is a great deal of sexual elements in Whitman’s poetry, especially in the
early poetry- section-5 of “Song of Myself” is a case in the point where the
sexual connotations are inseparable from the mystical experience. Here
Whitman’s overjoyed revelation of union of his body with his soul has been
depicted mystic expression. The poet has a feeling of fraternity and oneness
with God and his fellowmen. He says:
“And I know the hand of God is
the promise of my own
And I know that the spirit of God is the
brother of my own
And that all ----- of the
creation of love.”
As a mystic Whitman believed that
there is no deference between creator and the creation. His “self” is a universal
self. He sees people of both sexes, all ages, many different walks of life;
even animals are included. The poet along with the divine spirit not only loves
them all; he is also a part of them.
In section 11 of Song of Myself,
once again a mystical experience is symbolically conveyed through a piece of
sensuous experience. In section 24, the poet becomes the spokesman of the
“forbidden voices” of ‘sexes and lusts voices indecent.’ He loves his body and
is sensitive to another’s touch. Both the lady and the prostitute enjoy equal
position in his poetry, for the inner reality, the soul has been created by the
same God. “If anything is scared, the human is scared,” he says in “I Sing the
Body Electric.” He celebrates all the organs of the body- male and female.
Whitman does not reject the
material world. He seeks the spiritual through the material. He does not
subscribe to the belief that objects illusive. There is no tendency on the part
of the soul to leave this world for God. Whitman does not belittle the
achievements of science and materialism. In section 23 of Song of Myself, he
accepts the reality of materialism and says-
“Hurrah for positive science!
Long live exact demonstration.”
Whitman praises not merely life,
but absolute worth of every particular and individual person. Thus, his comic
consciousness in the result of the expansion of the ego. The “I” assumes an
enlarged universal connotation embracing the smallest and the greatest things
in the universe as a perfect and of great value.
Song of Myself bears an inverted
mystical experience. While the traditional mystic attempts to annihilate
himself and mortify his senses in preparation for his union with the divine;
Whitman magnifies the self and glorifies the senses in his progress towards the
union with the absolute. In this poem, the poet enters a mystical trance by
observing a spear of summer grass.
Whitman seldom lost touch with
the physical reality even in the mist of his mystical experience. Physical
phenomena for him were symbols of spiritual reality. He believed that “the
unseen is proved by seen”; thus he makes use of highly sensuous and concrete
imagery to convey his perception of divine reality. He finds a purpose behind
any natural objects- grass, sea, birds, flowers animals etc.
Whitman is a mystic as much as he
is a poet of democracy and science, but a “mystic without a creed.” Whitman’s
mystical experience of his self comes through various stages. The first stage
may be termed “Awakening of self”, the second “the purification of self.
“Purification involves an acceptance of the body and all its functions. This
acceptance reflects the poet’s goal to achieve mystical experience through
physical reality. True, Whitman’s brand of mysticism is not identifiable with
the selflessness of the Christian variety or the passivity of the Oriental.
What we may call Whitman’s mysticism is “democratic” mysticism- available to
every man on equal terms and embracing contradictory elements. Thus Song of
Myself is perhaps the best illustration of Whitman’s mysticism.