When Arthur Schopenhauer called the Upaniṣads "the highest reading the world can offer; it was the consolation of my life and will be the consolation of my death," he wasn't exaggerating. At least not for himself.
The influence of Vedānta on Western thought is deeper and older than most people imagine.
Schopenhauer: Europe's first Vedāntin philosopher
His main work, "The World as Will and Representation," has evident parallels with Vedānta. The "veil of Māyā" appears explicitly. But Schopenhauer was pessimistic where Vedānta is liberating.
The American Transcendentalists
Emerson and Thoreau were profoundly impacted by Indian texts. Emerson's "Over-Soul" concept is practically Brahman with an American name. Thoreau wrote in Walden about bathing his intellect in the "stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy" of the Bhagavad-Gita.
Erwin Schrödinger: Vedānta and quantum physics
Perhaps the most surprising connection. Schrödinger, Nobel Laureate in Physics, was a devoted reader of Vedānta. He wrote: "Multiplicity is only apparent. In truth, there is only one mind." And: "Consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown." This is Advaita Vedānta in physicist's language.
T.S. Eliot
The poet studied Sanskrit and Indian philosophy at Harvard. "The Waste Land" ends with a Sanskrit word repeated three times: "Shantih shantih shantih" -- the peace that surpasses all understanding.
What these connections teach us
It's not about "proving" Vedānta by citing Western celebrities. But these connections show something important: truth has no nationality. When an Austrian physicist, an American poet, and a German philosopher independently arrive at insights that mirror the Upaniṣads, that says something about the universality of human investigation.
Want to study Vedanta in depth?
Join a Study Group →