A Comparative Study of Kannadasan and Ralph Waldo Emerson

The present study is designed to estimate the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson from American Literature with Kannadasan of Tamil Literature in the light of Vedanta. It is an effort to study the authors’ select poems that contain the philosophy of Vedanta. Both poets show their interest in Vedanta with their respective languages and culture. Emerson’s Essay “Over-Soul” and Kannadasan’s poetry “He is Only God” are the epitome of the paper. Kannadasan’s “Arthamulla Indumatham” is an attempt to prove the existence and the work of God in all existence in the cosmos. The select writers belong to different countries and centuries and yet their point of view of God looks the same. They believe in the soul in animate and inanimate objects as said in Vedanta. Emerson calls God a ‘Universal soul’ who encompasses entire objects of the world. Kannadasan views God as a ruler who dominates and activates everything and every work in the world. Thus, their belief in the presence of the Supreme Soul or God in every individual soul and all things becomes dominant throughout their writings. Hence, this present study aims to find the ideas of Vedanta in the writing of Emerson and Kannadasan and the parallel ones among their writings.