Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In all nations there are minds which incline to dwell in the conception of the fundamental Unity. The raptures of prayer and ecstasy of devotion lose all being in one Being. This tendency finds its highest expression in the religious writings of the East, and chiefly in the Indian Scriptures, in the Vedas, the Bhagavat Geeta and the Vishnu Purana. These writings contain little else than this idea, and they rise to pure and sublime strains in celebrating it."(Essays, X, p. 120)

Brahma

If the red slayer think he slays,  

Or if the slain think he is slain,

They know not well the subtle ways  

 I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Far or forgot to me is near,   

Shadow and sunlight are the same,

The vanished gods to me appear,  

And one to me are shame and fame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;  

When me they fly, I am the wings;

I am the doubter and the doubt,  

And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

The strong gods pine for my abode,  

And pine in vain the sacred Seven;

But thou, meek lover of the good!  

Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

1856 [1857]