Indian Philosophy of ‘Death’ Depicted in The Poetry of Walt Whitman

A survey of Indian philosophy is usually done in the way in which European philosophy is surveyed by its historians. Here an attempt has been made to broaden the perspective by discovering the dominant trends in their work. Philosophical search, thus, either in the West or East strives for a search within and without. The poets transformed his life into beautiful poems pregnant with occult meaning, collected in their “spiritual autobiographies”: Leaves of Grass The idea of death was something that had haunted Whitman right from the beginning. The sense of loss left a deep impression in the minds of the poets. Since they had dealt with the other aspects of life with a masterly skill, the theme of pain and loss has also been dealt with equal perfection and originality. Hence death which is physically undefeatable and yet also an inconceivable idea, is an endless source of angst for Whitman. He continued to pursue literary projects, and in 1870 he published two new collections, Democratic Vistas and Passage to India, along with a fifth edition of Leaves of Grass. He started his voyage, “Westward from Hindustan from the vale of Kashmir.”The cardinal truth of the Upanishads is “Atmanam viddhi” (know thyself). It sums up the essence of the search for Identity. That is why, Whitman instead of turning morbid in the face of death, with a serene grace calls death ‘Beautiful End.’