Walt Whitman as a prophet of his own religion?

Many times I have heard that religions are different ways that lead to the same goal: to guide people on how to live and reach transcendence. After reading Walt Whitman’s “Song of myself” I found several lines that reminded me of Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. Was Walt Whitman influenced by any religion when he wrote “Song of myself”? Is Walt Whitman at the same level of Jesus and Buddha? Should we be waiting for the second coming of Walt Whitman?

•  “In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass”

This verse can be traced in section 47. To me it depicts the idea that God and human beings are part of the same thing:  that God lives within us and we all are part of God as well. It reminds me of the Genesis 1:26-31 where the Bible says “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” in the sense that he sees God in him  and in every person because God created all man as equals and each one of us are part of his creation. Following this idea of all humans belonging to God, it also reminds me of the concept of Brahma in the Hindu culture, that is where all souls emanate from. Again, all humans being one with “God” as if there were no distance.

• ""The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me"

This verse can be traced in section 21. The connection between happiness and suffering is a connection that has been widely discussed in Buddhism. According to Buddhism, suffering and happiness are both extremes of the same thing, suffering as the lack of happiness and vice versa. Buddhism asserts that suffering is inherent in life and that experiencing suffering is the first step to start understanding and looking for happiness.

•  “I am he bringing help for the sick as they pant on their backs,”
  By God, you shall not go down! hang your whole weight upon me.”

These verse can be traced in section 40 and 41. When reading those lines, it is hard not to think of Jesus whose miracles in which he heals suffering people are countless in the Bible. Also, the image of Jesus carrying the Cross –which represents all the sins and suffering in the world- means that we can rest in him and find peace, consolation and hope, as expressed in the second verse.

However, there are some verses that depict the contrary, that Walt Whitman did not want to be a spiritual leader, a role model as Jesus or Buddha, for example in sections 2 and 47

• “He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher”.
       

   “You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, not

  look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,

  You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,

  You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.”

After reading those verses, I felt that although I found some lines that prompted me to make connections between “Song of myself” and different religions, Walt Whitman’s true desire was not to preach others on how to live and how to reach enlightenment –as religions do-, but to joyfully express his vision and to celebrate life, nature, the universe, everyone and everything through this song. He is also inviting people to “do their own journey” and not to get influenced by others who can tell you how life is according to their experience. That is why in section 6 when the child asks “What is the grass”, Walt Whitman answers “How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.”, because he wants the child to discover things by himself and to do that he has to “destroy the teacher”.

Additionally, I kept on doing some research about it and found the article “Walt Whitman’s use of Indian sources: A reconsideration”, in which it is asserted that:

“Since uniquely Hindu ideas are only minimally present in the first edition of Leaves of Grass, and since Whitman does not appear to have read extensively about Indian religion before its publication, it is reasonable to conclude that Hinduism did not have a significant impact in the formation of his philosophy” (Preston, N. 2012:6)

The author of the article makes it very explicit and clear when it states that Walt Whitman was not really influenced by Indian sources when he first wrote “Leaves of Grass”, although he had some knowledge of its culture.

References

Tran, T. C. (2004). The Buddha and the Way to Happiness. Infinity Publishing. Chicago.

Preston, N. (2012). Walt Whitman's Use of Indian Sources: A Reconsideration. The journal of cultural sciences, (627), 256-245.