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American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation How Indian Spirituality Changed the West
In February 1968 the Beatles went to India for an extended stay with their new guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It may have been the most momentous spiritual retreat since Jesus spent those forty days in the wilderness.
With these words, Philip Goldberg begins his monumental work, American Veda, a fascinating look at India’s remarkable impact on Western culture. This eye-opening popular history shows how the ancient philosophy of Vedanta and the mind-body methods of Yoga have profoundly affected the worldview of millions of Americans and radically altered the religious landscape.
What exploded in the 1960s actually began more than two hundred years earlier, when the United States started importing knowledge as well as tangy spices and colorful fabrics from Asia. The first translations of Hindu texts found their way into the libraries of John Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson. From there the ideas spread to Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and succeeding generations of receptive Americans, who absorbed India’s “science of consciousness” and wove it into the fabric of their lives. Charismatic teachers like Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda came west in waves, prompting leading intellectuals, artists, and scientists such as Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Allen Ginsberg, J. D. Salinger, John Coltrane, Dean Ornish, and Richard Alpert, aka Ram Dass, to adapt and disseminate what they learned from them. The impact has been enormous, enlarging our current understanding of the mind and body and dramatically changing how we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos.
Goldberg paints a compelling picture of this remarkable East-to-West transmission, showing how it accelerated through the decades and eventually moved from the counterculture into our laboratories, libraries, and living rooms. Now physicians and therapists routinely recommend meditation, words like karma and mantra are part of our everyday vocabulary, and Yoga studios are as ubiquitous as Starbuckses. The insights of India’s sages permeate so much of what we think, believe, and do that they have redefined the meaning of life for millions of Americans—and continue to do so every day.
Rich in detail and expansive in scope, American Veda shows how we have come to accept and live by the central teaching of Vedic wisdom: “Truth is one, the wise call it by many names.”
522 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
151 people are currently reading
971 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
November 9, 2013
Amazing, awesome book! The kind that made me extra eager for my nighttime reading fix! We met Phil the author at Bhaktifest. He was the MC for a session there about the Beatles influence on bringing Eastern spirituality to the West - with a very cool 4 piece band of yogi rockers doing the Beatles songs. Anyway, we got autographed copy from him there.
Took me a long time to get through the book. It has great depth and no wasted words. It is as thorough and well-researched as it is enlightening and captivating. I loved it. Folded down about a million pages to refer back to particular points. I gained a lot of perspective on the oneness movement. And he has a superb writing style; what a way with words!
A few keepers...
The three classic paths of enlightenment in the Bhagavad Gita: Jnana, karma, and Bhakti. Intellect, action, devotion.
Three kinds of Vedic transmitters: pandits, acharyas, and gurus. Scholars, scholars who also address personal concerns of students, and those with higher spiritual attainment aka divine incarnations (sometimes) whose mere presence or darshan has spiritual impact.
Fowler's six stages of faith.
Gotta get to know Phil!
Took me a long time to get through the book. It has great depth and no wasted words. It is as thorough and well-researched as it is enlightening and captivating. I loved it. Folded down about a million pages to refer back to particular points. I gained a lot of perspective on the oneness movement. And he has a superb writing style; what a way with words!
A few keepers...
The three classic paths of enlightenment in the Bhagavad Gita: Jnana, karma, and Bhakti. Intellect, action, devotion.
Three kinds of Vedic transmitters: pandits, acharyas, and gurus. Scholars, scholars who also address personal concerns of students, and those with higher spiritual attainment aka divine incarnations (sometimes) whose mere presence or darshan has spiritual impact.
Fowler's six stages of faith.
Gotta get to know Phil!
August 27, 2013
"American Veda" is an extremely well-researched and well-written exploration of how India's ancient spiritual wisdom seeped into the cultural bloodstream of America. The vast majority of the information in this book was brand-new to me. It was fascinating to learn how Ralph Waldo Emerson, and later Henry David Thoreau and other nineteenth-century writers and poets, were responsible for disseminating the wisdom of the East to the unawakened masses in the West. Then came Swami Vivekananda's momentous trip to the U.S. in 1893, which was also the birth year of Paramahansa Yogananda, who came to America in 1920 and undoubtedly had the greatest impact of all the saints, sages and swamis who visited these shores. A must read for anyone who is on a spiritual path, or wants to start one.
September 24, 2014
This was a fantastic insight into the history of yoga in the west. I also love how Goldberg gets into some of the more practical teachings of indian philosophies in his course the great yogic transmission.
June 12, 2023
I had no clue how much of what I know of America has been rooted in Hinduism - and neither will you, until you read this book.
The depth of its penetration is astounding. This book catalogs it all, in a fantastically digestible format.
This book itself took me a long time to read, because it mentioned so many other books in the process that I wanted to read, and thus would put this on pause to read a referenced book within, and then transition back.
Fascinating in every capacity.
The depth of its penetration is astounding. This book catalogs it all, in a fantastically digestible format.
This book itself took me a long time to read, because it mentioned so many other books in the process that I wanted to read, and thus would put this on pause to read a referenced book within, and then transition back.
Fascinating in every capacity.
April 4, 2022
This book filled me with wonder and curiosity. I feel like I just completed a semester course in the subject. While it is often lacking critical analysis, the sheer depth of the research is commendable and for those who have knowledge of Vedanta and some of its practices, the implications are great. I love that I now have a library of new books to read from the book's timeless references.
February 4, 2022
tldr: this book reads as an endless Wikipedia-esque iteration of various names and dates. If you want an expansive, insightful view on comparative religion and comparative philosophy, nothing I've found so far can hold a candle to Alan Watts' work. Go there instead.
Serves as a reference for a lot of philosophical and/or spiritual personalities that had influence in the United States since the late 1800s. To be honest, it just reads exactly if I was perusing the Wikipedia page autobiographies for all these people. I would have had the same experience just spending a day Wikipedia-ing all these various teachers, gurus, swamis, and philosophers.
I wouldn't describe the book as bad, and the author's prose is engaging enough. It just lacked in any interesting argument or perspective. It was just a book rattling off endless fun facts and life stories of various people, names and dates, names and dates. Again, if I need a reference, Wikipedia or its high-class cousin, Encyclopedia Britannica, will do just fine. I was hoping for an incisive analysis of the change of American attitudes and philosophy, but quite frankly it didn't offer anything terribly interesting, just more names and dates of people who came to America to teach Vedanta/Vedic philosophy.
One thing I really didn't enjoy was that the author seemed too personally enamored of these characters to allow his book to be appropriately critical of the many abuses that some teachers and gurus inflicted. He takes a really weak, non-committal stance on even the grossest characters that any person firmly grounded in reality should easily be able to denounce. For example, Osho (Bagwan Sri Rajneesh) gets a shrug and pass on his exploitation, diamond-encrusted watches, FLEET of Rolls Royces, and the nonconsenual drugging of members of his ranch, because, well, it's fine because others got so much spiritual benefit, I guess. Another guru who had multiple credible accusations of raping underage girls is treated very lightly by Goldberg in a sort of mealy-mouthed he-said-she-said brushing off of the allegations as just one of many potential truths. Anyway, his spiritual teachings enlightened others, so you know, maybe it's all just water under the bridge? Please. How spineless. Not to mention the lovely, classic victim-blaming when he bemoans that excesses and abuses may have happened when previously isolated sannyasis were now suddenly exposed to the libertine west with its American girls wearing "short skirts"...
I also found his treatment of the Vedic philosophy's influence on Western science and medicine totally lacking. I think perhaps there has been a great influence, but Goldberg doesn't offer anything for me to sink my teeth into. He just talks about how the founder of TM tried to enlist scientists to help study meditation, which had mixed results in terms of anything scientifically credible. He talks about how there happens to be a statue of Shiva outside CERN. (Cool...what does that show...?) And then he just talks about Deepak Chopra, not dwelling on the uncomfortable fact that Chopra is one of the many who misuse physics that they never specialized in order to push their spiritual ideology as a science in and of itself. Goldberg mentions very briefly that most scientists think this appropriation of quantum physics is poppycock, before scurrying away and basically saying, well, SOME other people think its credible, so... The only interesting part was about Bohm, but it was cut too short.
tldr: this book reads as an endless Wikipedia-esque iteration of various names and dates. If you want an expansive, insightful view on comparative religion and comparative philosophy, nothing I've found so far can hold a candle to Alan Watts' work. Go there instead.
Serves as a reference for a lot of philosophical and/or spiritual personalities that had influence in the United States since the late 1800s. To be honest, it just reads exactly if I was perusing the Wikipedia page autobiographies for all these people. I would have had the same experience just spending a day Wikipedia-ing all these various teachers, gurus, swamis, and philosophers.
I wouldn't describe the book as bad, and the author's prose is engaging enough. It just lacked in any interesting argument or perspective. It was just a book rattling off endless fun facts and life stories of various people, names and dates, names and dates. Again, if I need a reference, Wikipedia or its high-class cousin, Encyclopedia Britannica, will do just fine. I was hoping for an incisive analysis of the change of American attitudes and philosophy, but quite frankly it didn't offer anything terribly interesting, just more names and dates of people who came to America to teach Vedanta/Vedic philosophy.
One thing I really didn't enjoy was that the author seemed too personally enamored of these characters to allow his book to be appropriately critical of the many abuses that some teachers and gurus inflicted. He takes a really weak, non-committal stance on even the grossest characters that any person firmly grounded in reality should easily be able to denounce. For example, Osho (Bagwan Sri Rajneesh) gets a shrug and pass on his exploitation, diamond-encrusted watches, FLEET of Rolls Royces, and the nonconsenual drugging of members of his ranch, because, well, it's fine because others got so much spiritual benefit, I guess. Another guru who had multiple credible accusations of raping underage girls is treated very lightly by Goldberg in a sort of mealy-mouthed he-said-she-said brushing off of the allegations as just one of many potential truths. Anyway, his spiritual teachings enlightened others, so you know, maybe it's all just water under the bridge? Please. How spineless. Not to mention the lovely, classic victim-blaming when he bemoans that excesses and abuses may have happened when previously isolated sannyasis were now suddenly exposed to the libertine west with its American girls wearing "short skirts"...
I also found his treatment of the Vedic philosophy's influence on Western science and medicine totally lacking. I think perhaps there has been a great influence, but Goldberg doesn't offer anything for me to sink my teeth into. He just talks about how the founder of TM tried to enlist scientists to help study meditation, which had mixed results in terms of anything scientifically credible. He talks about how there happens to be a statue of Shiva outside CERN. (Cool...what does that show...?) And then he just talks about Deepak Chopra, not dwelling on the uncomfortable fact that Chopra is one of the many who misuse physics that they never specialized in order to push their spiritual ideology as a science in and of itself. Goldberg mentions very briefly that most scientists think this appropriation of quantum physics is poppycock, before scurrying away and basically saying, well, SOME other people think its credible, so... The only interesting part was about Bohm, but it was cut too short.
tldr: this book reads as an endless Wikipedia-esque iteration of various names and dates. If you want an expansive, insightful view on comparative religion and comparative philosophy, nothing I've found so far can hold a candle to Alan Watts' work. Go there instead.
August 28, 2012
Very thorough. Too thorough. So much so, in fact, that I didn't finish this veritable encyclopedia of the transcontinental transmission of Vedantic truth. The author gets too caught up in trying to present everything relevant to the subject that after a while it just becomes tedious--and the published edition is a heavily abridged version of the first draft!
Mostly, I was interested in his main idea that America has been receptive to and influenced by Indian thought and spirituality for much longer, and to a much more profound extent, than we typically think. And I wanted to see through what thinkers and artists those ideas reached the American public. The author certainly delivers, but I think that I would have been much happier with a flowchart.
Mostly, I was interested in his main idea that America has been receptive to and influenced by Indian thought and spirituality for much longer, and to a much more profound extent, than we typically think. And I wanted to see through what thinkers and artists those ideas reached the American public. The author certainly delivers, but I think that I would have been much happier with a flowchart.
November 19, 2025
एकम् सत् विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति|
As someone who is Hindu and genuinely passionate about the Vedas, American Veda felt like a journey I didn’t know I needed. Philip Goldberg clearly loves India’s spiritual heritage.. you can feel it on every page..and the book is so well-researched that I kept pausing just to take things in. Although the title suggests it’s about the Vedas in America, it leans more toward yoga teachers, yoga movements and how yoga shaped American culture. So yes, it’s a bit more yoga-centric than truly Veda-centric! But honestly, I still learned so much that I didn’t mind. There are so many beautiful quotes and unexpected insights that I kept bookmarking page after page.:-) And tons of valuable takeaways that I will keep revisiting for a long!!!
Goldberg covers a wide range of influential gurus from the late 19th century to the early 21st century who brought unique perspectives and styles, shaping American thought and culture. Vivekananda’s electric presence in 1893 Chicago, Yogananda patiently building a foundation for yoga and meditation in Los Angeles, Krishnamurti rejecting every spiritual hierarchy, Satchidananda offering a prayer at Woodstock, Prabhupada chanting in public parks, Maharishi turning mantra meditation into a global movement, Neem Karoli Baba’s quiet devotional influence as carried through Ram Dass and also those who came in early part of 21st century such as Amma, Sadguru, Sri Sri Ravishsnkar. Also, the more complicated chapters involving Muktananda, Rajneesh and Sai Baba, whose communities later faced serious allegations. The book doesn’t shy away from these darker moments!
From Adolle Huxley to Deepak Chopra, from Alan watts to Krishna Das, he discussed all. What surprised me most was how far Vedic and yogic ideas reached. Goldberg talks about physicists like Bohm, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and Oppenheimer, as they also found something familiar.. almost comforting in Vedantic ideas about unity and consciousness and found commonalities between science and Vedas. Psychologists like Jung and Maslow borrowed from the Upanishads and yoga when thinking about the mind and human potential. Doctors like Herbert Benson took simple practices like breathing and mantra repetition and turned them into what we now call the “relaxation response.” And I loved seeing Ken Wilber in the mix too (planning to read his brief history book soon) , blending Western psychology with the non-dual wisdom I am still studying.
Reading all this made me realize that Vedic thought quietly shaped so much of how Americans talk about health, the mind, stress, purpose and the search for meaning and it touched American writers and public figures. Emerson and Thoreau were among the earliest admirers.Their work cite the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and Hindu cosmology with a kind of reverence. Their fascination became the foundation of American Transcendentalism. Both W B Yeats and T S Elliot were so taken with Indian spiritual ideas that Yeats co-edited The Ten Principal Upanishads with Shri Purohit Swami and many of his poems echo Vedantic ideas about unity, the self and cosmic cycles and Elliot used Sanskrit words in his poems and he ends “The Wasteland” with Shanti Shanti Shanti!! Annie Besant immersed herself deeply in Gita and Upanishads, later shaping both spiritual and political movements with those ideas. And these are just few names out of some hundreds more out there who were influenced by Vedas deeply. Later writers like Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith (loved his World Religions book) and eventually many 21st-century authors carried these ideas forward in their own ways.
And the influence didn’t stop with literature.. even American political dignitaries felt the pull. John Adams read Indic texts with intense curiosity, Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Alice Roosevelt Longworth explored Eastern philosophy and several later leaders, thinkers and policymakers privately turned to Indian scriptures during challenging moments. I had never realized how woven these ideas truly were into American intellectual life!
And then there’s music! Goldberg beautifully explains how Indian ideas flowed into Western music, especially through the Beatles. George Harrison learning from Ravi Shankar, their time with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the sitar, the raga-rock sound — all of it feels like this magical cultural bridge. It’s amazing how songs like “Norwegian Wood” or “Within You Without You” weren’t just music; they were invitations to explore something deeper. Jazz players like John and Alice Coltrane took that exploration even further, creating this soulful, meditative “spiritual jazz” that still feels so fresh. And the influence continues today in everything from fusion music to kirtans….
Goldberg makes clear which resonated deeply with me that the Vedas are not about converting anyone or replacing anyone’s faith. Instead, they offer a way of becoming a better version of the person you already are. Whether one is Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or follows no formal religion at all, these teachings speak to universal human experiences. Goldberg shares countless stories of people who remained devoted to their own traditions yet found that Vedic ideas deepened their faith, made their worship more meaningful, or brought more clarity and purpose into their everyday actions.
Even with its yoga-heavy focus, American Veda made me feel proud and excited. It reminded me how timeless our scriptures are… and how beautifully they continue to shape the world in ways both big and quiet. How Eastern wisdom found a home in the West! It’s a rewarding and meaningful read. I strongly recommend! And just as author ends this book with,
लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु|
As someone who is Hindu and genuinely passionate about the Vedas, American Veda felt like a journey I didn’t know I needed. Philip Goldberg clearly loves India’s spiritual heritage.. you can feel it on every page..and the book is so well-researched that I kept pausing just to take things in. Although the title suggests it’s about the Vedas in America, it leans more toward yoga teachers, yoga movements and how yoga shaped American culture. So yes, it’s a bit more yoga-centric than truly Veda-centric! But honestly, I still learned so much that I didn’t mind. There are so many beautiful quotes and unexpected insights that I kept bookmarking page after page.:-) And tons of valuable takeaways that I will keep revisiting for a long!!!
Goldberg covers a wide range of influential gurus from the late 19th century to the early 21st century who brought unique perspectives and styles, shaping American thought and culture. Vivekananda’s electric presence in 1893 Chicago, Yogananda patiently building a foundation for yoga and meditation in Los Angeles, Krishnamurti rejecting every spiritual hierarchy, Satchidananda offering a prayer at Woodstock, Prabhupada chanting in public parks, Maharishi turning mantra meditation into a global movement, Neem Karoli Baba’s quiet devotional influence as carried through Ram Dass and also those who came in early part of 21st century such as Amma, Sadguru, Sri Sri Ravishsnkar. Also, the more complicated chapters involving Muktananda, Rajneesh and Sai Baba, whose communities later faced serious allegations. The book doesn’t shy away from these darker moments!
From Adolle Huxley to Deepak Chopra, from Alan watts to Krishna Das, he discussed all. What surprised me most was how far Vedic and yogic ideas reached. Goldberg talks about physicists like Bohm, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and Oppenheimer, as they also found something familiar.. almost comforting in Vedantic ideas about unity and consciousness and found commonalities between science and Vedas. Psychologists like Jung and Maslow borrowed from the Upanishads and yoga when thinking about the mind and human potential. Doctors like Herbert Benson took simple practices like breathing and mantra repetition and turned them into what we now call the “relaxation response.” And I loved seeing Ken Wilber in the mix too (planning to read his brief history book soon) , blending Western psychology with the non-dual wisdom I am still studying.
Reading all this made me realize that Vedic thought quietly shaped so much of how Americans talk about health, the mind, stress, purpose and the search for meaning and it touched American writers and public figures. Emerson and Thoreau were among the earliest admirers.Their work cite the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and Hindu cosmology with a kind of reverence. Their fascination became the foundation of American Transcendentalism. Both W B Yeats and T S Elliot were so taken with Indian spiritual ideas that Yeats co-edited The Ten Principal Upanishads with Shri Purohit Swami and many of his poems echo Vedantic ideas about unity, the self and cosmic cycles and Elliot used Sanskrit words in his poems and he ends “The Wasteland” with Shanti Shanti Shanti!! Annie Besant immersed herself deeply in Gita and Upanishads, later shaping both spiritual and political movements with those ideas. And these are just few names out of some hundreds more out there who were influenced by Vedas deeply. Later writers like Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith (loved his World Religions book) and eventually many 21st-century authors carried these ideas forward in their own ways.
And the influence didn’t stop with literature.. even American political dignitaries felt the pull. John Adams read Indic texts with intense curiosity, Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Alice Roosevelt Longworth explored Eastern philosophy and several later leaders, thinkers and policymakers privately turned to Indian scriptures during challenging moments. I had never realized how woven these ideas truly were into American intellectual life!
And then there’s music! Goldberg beautifully explains how Indian ideas flowed into Western music, especially through the Beatles. George Harrison learning from Ravi Shankar, their time with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the sitar, the raga-rock sound — all of it feels like this magical cultural bridge. It’s amazing how songs like “Norwegian Wood” or “Within You Without You” weren’t just music; they were invitations to explore something deeper. Jazz players like John and Alice Coltrane took that exploration even further, creating this soulful, meditative “spiritual jazz” that still feels so fresh. And the influence continues today in everything from fusion music to kirtans….
Goldberg makes clear which resonated deeply with me that the Vedas are not about converting anyone or replacing anyone’s faith. Instead, they offer a way of becoming a better version of the person you already are. Whether one is Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or follows no formal religion at all, these teachings speak to universal human experiences. Goldberg shares countless stories of people who remained devoted to their own traditions yet found that Vedic ideas deepened their faith, made their worship more meaningful, or brought more clarity and purpose into their everyday actions.
Even with its yoga-heavy focus, American Veda made me feel proud and excited. It reminded me how timeless our scriptures are… and how beautifully they continue to shape the world in ways both big and quiet. How Eastern wisdom found a home in the West! It’s a rewarding and meaningful read. I strongly recommend! And just as author ends this book with,
लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु|
February 25, 2013
A decent starting point, and I enjoyed the chapters on Vivekananda and Yogananda) but the central argument sort of breaks down, and the second half of the book devolves into a guru-per-3-pages format, to the point where it seemed more like a narrative catalog than a monograph. That said, I left the book wanting to read more to fill in the gaps (for example, the ambivalent relationship between yoga and modernity, or cultural commodification) and that's never a bad thing.
July 18, 2023
This is a fantastic book. When the west was busy plundering the east for its wealth, the east was stealthily conquering the mind and hearts of the baby boomers through its time-tested spiritual traditions. Beginning with Swami Vivekananda in 1892, the book speaks of a myriad of Swamis and God men and women, who ingrained eastern philosophy from which the west gained substantially. A truly mesmerizing read.
January 20, 2012
Like a college survey course titled The Influence of Indian Spirituality on American Culture. I found it very readable, and gave me huge lists of people and topics to probe into further. I strongly recommend the spiritually curious to read this book.
October 6, 2017
Om Satyam Shivam Sundaram
by Mark Chmiel
If you’ve ever …
put your faith in a guru
traveled to India and were blown away and never took a single drug
recited a mantram throughout the day
memorized part of chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita
had a mid-Seventies practice of TM
acknowledged 1970 seed planted from radio frequent blessing of My Sweet Lord
engaged in a conversations where such words as Atman, samadhi, and sattva were common
quoted often one of your Gujarati-American students who told her classmates, “I look at you and see God”
went off-script after having read Be Here Now
smiled with a Namaste and palms together several hundred times
underwent 190+ hours for Yoga Teacher Training
learned how to play the sitar
intuited that the Katha Upanishad had a special message for you
wished you spoke Gujarati, Hindi or Bengali like your parents
challenged yourself by attempting ekāgratā while driving the car
heard one of your pre-med students say that her life dream was really singing and dancing in classical Indian style
gave friends Library of America edition of Whitman’s Poetry and Prose
felt goosebumps even at the 57th listening to Krishna Das’s Ma Durga
said at least ten times, various social situations: “I’m spiritual, not religious”
asked a seventy-year-old Catholic nun to tell your circle about the several weeks she spent in training with ninety-something Mr. Iyengar in India
cited skillfully Maharajji, Yogananda, and Ramakrishna
enjoyed Isherwood’s candor in his book, My Guru and His Disciple
chanted with cheerfulness Hare Kṛṣṇa while walking down Michigan Avenue, a stunningly sunny Saturday morn
facilitated a nine-month reading group of the Bhagavad Gita, with Eknath Easwaran’s three-volume commentary optional
spent long retreats at California ashram
meditated while seated before classic b/w photo of Sri Anandamayi Ma
wondered if N. Finkelstein’s immersion in half of the Collected Works of M. K. Gandhi affected the scholar in ways he himself wasn’t aware of
filled a notebook with the Holy Name
learned to appreciate Jesus through Prabhavananda
fused three of your students into the fictional character Tanya Chatterjee
understood the links of Thoreau to Gandhi, and Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr.
saw activism at its collective best as karma yoga
noticed how one of your students resembles the young Vivekananda
responded to the question at La Dolce Via, “What do you want your life to be about?” with Om Satyam Shivam Sundaram
…you may enjoy Philip Goldberg’s American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation—How Indian Spirituality Changed the West.
by Mark Chmiel
If you’ve ever …
put your faith in a guru
traveled to India and were blown away and never took a single drug
recited a mantram throughout the day
memorized part of chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita
had a mid-Seventies practice of TM
acknowledged 1970 seed planted from radio frequent blessing of My Sweet Lord
engaged in a conversations where such words as Atman, samadhi, and sattva were common
quoted often one of your Gujarati-American students who told her classmates, “I look at you and see God”
went off-script after having read Be Here Now
smiled with a Namaste and palms together several hundred times
underwent 190+ hours for Yoga Teacher Training
learned how to play the sitar
intuited that the Katha Upanishad had a special message for you
wished you spoke Gujarati, Hindi or Bengali like your parents
challenged yourself by attempting ekāgratā while driving the car
heard one of your pre-med students say that her life dream was really singing and dancing in classical Indian style
gave friends Library of America edition of Whitman’s Poetry and Prose
felt goosebumps even at the 57th listening to Krishna Das’s Ma Durga
said at least ten times, various social situations: “I’m spiritual, not religious”
asked a seventy-year-old Catholic nun to tell your circle about the several weeks she spent in training with ninety-something Mr. Iyengar in India
cited skillfully Maharajji, Yogananda, and Ramakrishna
enjoyed Isherwood’s candor in his book, My Guru and His Disciple
chanted with cheerfulness Hare Kṛṣṇa while walking down Michigan Avenue, a stunningly sunny Saturday morn
facilitated a nine-month reading group of the Bhagavad Gita, with Eknath Easwaran’s three-volume commentary optional
spent long retreats at California ashram
meditated while seated before classic b/w photo of Sri Anandamayi Ma
wondered if N. Finkelstein’s immersion in half of the Collected Works of M. K. Gandhi affected the scholar in ways he himself wasn’t aware of
filled a notebook with the Holy Name
learned to appreciate Jesus through Prabhavananda
fused three of your students into the fictional character Tanya Chatterjee
understood the links of Thoreau to Gandhi, and Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr.
saw activism at its collective best as karma yoga
noticed how one of your students resembles the young Vivekananda
responded to the question at La Dolce Via, “What do you want your life to be about?” with Om Satyam Shivam Sundaram
…you may enjoy Philip Goldberg’s American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation—How Indian Spirituality Changed the West.
October 29, 2019
Panoramic in Scope with Narrative Irregularities: "American Veda" is a singularly ambitious and panoramic report and, in some cases, review of the many ways in which Indian spirituality has impacted and informed American culture and cultural precepts over the past two-hundred-plus years.
Readers new to this field of inquiry may initially be overwhelmed by the vast number of names, events, organizations and statistical information presented in this seemingly comprehensive book. Readers who have a good command of US social and intellectual history and/or a strong bent toward serious spiritual inquiry may find Goldberg's work very helpful. And, to the author's credit, copious endnotes provide serious readers with additional material and leads to supplement the chapters' many narrative threads.
Because this work is being used as a teaching tool, two aspects of Goldberg's work caused this reviewer concern. First is the issue of the author's voice. Goldberg seems to be entrenched in hippie-era slang circa 1970. As a point of fact, the verbal phrase "turn on" instead of "introduce" peppers the book's pages—to the extent that this reader almost started tracking the instances of its appearance. What can I say? "Bummer drag, man." Also, in an attempt to contextualize certain events, the author sometimes makes sweeping and sensationally-worded statements about US history. These passages would benefit from a more careful rewording.
The second and more serious concern, regarding Goldberg's book, has to do with the nuanced "details" of events and cause-effect relationships and how they are reported. The author, perhaps because of the sheer scope of material covered, has in several instances become mildly confused. For example, Goldberg reports that the meeting between the XIV Dalai Lama and a delegation of Jewish Rabbis, "Chronicled by Rodger Kamenetz in the best seller "The Jew in the Lotus," [that] the purpose of the trip was to learn why so many Jews were drawn to the East." In contrast, Kamenetz himself writes, "In 1989, the same year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent efforts, the Dalai Lama turned for the first time to the Jewish people for help. 'Tell me your secret,' he said, 'the secret of Jewish spiritual survival in exile.'" Readers, using this text as a teaching tool, need to be aware that the narrative contains such irregularities.
Read the book; enjoy it. I am hopeful that—with a more careful and, perhaps, scholarly peer review, as well as a much closer editing— "American Veda" might become a trusted resource for serious students of Indian spirituality in the West for years to come.
Readers new to this field of inquiry may initially be overwhelmed by the vast number of names, events, organizations and statistical information presented in this seemingly comprehensive book. Readers who have a good command of US social and intellectual history and/or a strong bent toward serious spiritual inquiry may find Goldberg's work very helpful. And, to the author's credit, copious endnotes provide serious readers with additional material and leads to supplement the chapters' many narrative threads.
Because this work is being used as a teaching tool, two aspects of Goldberg's work caused this reviewer concern. First is the issue of the author's voice. Goldberg seems to be entrenched in hippie-era slang circa 1970. As a point of fact, the verbal phrase "turn on" instead of "introduce" peppers the book's pages—to the extent that this reader almost started tracking the instances of its appearance. What can I say? "Bummer drag, man." Also, in an attempt to contextualize certain events, the author sometimes makes sweeping and sensationally-worded statements about US history. These passages would benefit from a more careful rewording.
The second and more serious concern, regarding Goldberg's book, has to do with the nuanced "details" of events and cause-effect relationships and how they are reported. The author, perhaps because of the sheer scope of material covered, has in several instances become mildly confused. For example, Goldberg reports that the meeting between the XIV Dalai Lama and a delegation of Jewish Rabbis, "Chronicled by Rodger Kamenetz in the best seller "The Jew in the Lotus," [that] the purpose of the trip was to learn why so many Jews were drawn to the East." In contrast, Kamenetz himself writes, "In 1989, the same year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent efforts, the Dalai Lama turned for the first time to the Jewish people for help. 'Tell me your secret,' he said, 'the secret of Jewish spiritual survival in exile.'" Readers, using this text as a teaching tool, need to be aware that the narrative contains such irregularities.
Read the book; enjoy it. I am hopeful that—with a more careful and, perhaps, scholarly peer review, as well as a much closer editing— "American Veda" might become a trusted resource for serious students of Indian spirituality in the West for years to come.
September 6, 2016
This should be required reading not only for anyone in a yoga teacher training program, but for any person interested in American intellectual and cultural history. This captivating book covers a huge range of areas where ideas and spiritual practices from India have influenced writers and poets, scholars and scientists, artists and musicians, and thinkers of all types during the last two centuries of American history. Reading Goldberg's overview will expand your mind!
July 9, 2017
Blandly recites the content of like 5,000 Wikipedia entries, with no critical analysis, and links it all together with hacky segues like "but the torch of leadership had been passed to JFK's generation, and an even younger one, the baby boomers, was wading into its teenage years in uncharted waters." Loves to tell you who shows up on Time covers and its Most Influential People list.
Cannot be forgiven for calling Doug Henning "snazzy" (whut?).
Cannot be forgiven for calling Doug Henning "snazzy" (whut?).
February 7, 2017
I wanted to like this so badly as the topic is truly fascinating (I'm a yoga teacher and a librarian, so by nature, I devour everything good on yoga!). But this took some really long tangents, felt very disjointed, including many unnecessary details. Skimmed much of it.
April 14, 2021
Great book, the author just missed a MAJOR figure in bringing the Vedas to the West, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
November 1, 2024
In February 1968 the Beatles went to India for an extended stay with their new guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It may have been the most momentous spiritual retreat since Jesus spent those forty days in the wilderness.
With these words, Philip Goldberg begins his monumental work, American Veda , a fascinating look at India’s remarkable impact on Western culture. This eye-opening popular history shows how the ancient philosophy of Vedanta and the mind-body methods of Yoga have profoundly affected the worldview of millions of Americans and radically altered the religious landscape.
What exploded in the 1960s actually began more than two hundred years earlier, when the United States started importing knowledge as well as tangy spices and colorful fabrics from Asia. The first translations of Hindu texts found their way into the libraries of John Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson. From there the ideas spread to Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and succeeding generations of receptive Americans, who absorbed India’s “science of consciousness” and wove it into the fabric of their lives. Charismatic teachers like Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda came west in waves, prompting leading intellectuals, artists, and scientists such as Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Allen Ginsberg, J. D. Salinger, John Coltrane, Dean Ornish, and Richard Alpert, aka Ram Dass, to adapt and disseminate what they learned from them. The impact has been enormous, enlarging our current understanding of the mind and body and dramatically changing how we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos.
Goldberg paints a compelling picture of this remarkable East-to-West transmission, showing how it accelerated through the decades and eventually moved from the counterculture into our laboratories, libraries, and living rooms. Now physicians and therapists routinely recommend meditation, words like karma and mantra are part of our everyday vocabulary, and Yoga studios are as ubiquitous as Starbuckses. The insights of India’s sages permeate so much of what we think, believe, and do that they have redefined the meaning of life for millions of Americans—and continue to do so every day.
Rich in detail and expansive in scope, American Veda shows how we have come to accept and live by the central teaching of Vedic “Truth is one, the wise call it by many names.”
With these words, Philip Goldberg begins his monumental work, American Veda , a fascinating look at India’s remarkable impact on Western culture. This eye-opening popular history shows how the ancient philosophy of Vedanta and the mind-body methods of Yoga have profoundly affected the worldview of millions of Americans and radically altered the religious landscape.
What exploded in the 1960s actually began more than two hundred years earlier, when the United States started importing knowledge as well as tangy spices and colorful fabrics from Asia. The first translations of Hindu texts found their way into the libraries of John Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson. From there the ideas spread to Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and succeeding generations of receptive Americans, who absorbed India’s “science of consciousness” and wove it into the fabric of their lives. Charismatic teachers like Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda came west in waves, prompting leading intellectuals, artists, and scientists such as Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Allen Ginsberg, J. D. Salinger, John Coltrane, Dean Ornish, and Richard Alpert, aka Ram Dass, to adapt and disseminate what they learned from them. The impact has been enormous, enlarging our current understanding of the mind and body and dramatically changing how we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos.
Goldberg paints a compelling picture of this remarkable East-to-West transmission, showing how it accelerated through the decades and eventually moved from the counterculture into our laboratories, libraries, and living rooms. Now physicians and therapists routinely recommend meditation, words like karma and mantra are part of our everyday vocabulary, and Yoga studios are as ubiquitous as Starbuckses. The insights of India’s sages permeate so much of what we think, believe, and do that they have redefined the meaning of life for millions of Americans—and continue to do so every day.
Rich in detail and expansive in scope, American Veda shows how we have come to accept and live by the central teaching of Vedic “Truth is one, the wise call it by many names.”
July 17, 2017
Considering the fact that I have been practicing mindfulness exercises to reverse the detrimental effects of a scattered mind (thanks to the internet), I figured I should know more about the tradition that is best known for this practice. I knew that America had been influenced significantly by the Hindu tradition, what with its pluralism, "spiritual but not religious" people, and meditation becoming more normalized in the average crowd. What I didn't know was when it started.
Goldberg's American Veda is really helpful for tracing the birth of Hinduism in America (late 1800s, Emerson) and the subsequent normalization of Vedantic terms (guru, transcendance, inner peace, truth is one) and practices (yoga, meditation, etc.) since the 1960s. The book also had good principles that a lot of Christians could learn from as far as religious cultural engagement goes. For example, the first gurus who arrived from India were very intentional about contextualizing Vedantic terms (moksha, samadhi, ananda) into non-exotic English terms (freedom, awareness, bliss) so that many of their students would not be weirded out by uncomfortable foreign vocabulary. For evangelistic purposes, Christians could let go of the many Christian "lingos" that have become part of their subculture so people can actually understand what they're talking about.
The only two complaints I have for Goldberg is 1) while he is a great journalist and biographer, he is not a very good storyteller. There were instances where I felt like the chapters were nothing more than short biographies that were stapled together, and 2) I felt like he was a little biased against religions that claim absolute truth since he is all for the universalizing of all religions. Though the picture he paints for the future of "all religions becoming one" at the end is based on a Vedantic understanding of truth (which he himself acknowledges). So does he actually want all religions to live together in harmony? Or does he want Hinduism to win out?
Goldberg's American Veda is really helpful for tracing the birth of Hinduism in America (late 1800s, Emerson) and the subsequent normalization of Vedantic terms (guru, transcendance, inner peace, truth is one) and practices (yoga, meditation, etc.) since the 1960s. The book also had good principles that a lot of Christians could learn from as far as religious cultural engagement goes. For example, the first gurus who arrived from India were very intentional about contextualizing Vedantic terms (moksha, samadhi, ananda) into non-exotic English terms (freedom, awareness, bliss) so that many of their students would not be weirded out by uncomfortable foreign vocabulary. For evangelistic purposes, Christians could let go of the many Christian "lingos" that have become part of their subculture so people can actually understand what they're talking about.
The only two complaints I have for Goldberg is 1) while he is a great journalist and biographer, he is not a very good storyteller. There were instances where I felt like the chapters were nothing more than short biographies that were stapled together, and 2) I felt like he was a little biased against religions that claim absolute truth since he is all for the universalizing of all religions. Though the picture he paints for the future of "all religions becoming one" at the end is based on a Vedantic understanding of truth (which he himself acknowledges). So does he actually want all religions to live together in harmony? Or does he want Hinduism to win out?
September 22, 2019
There are some really annoying things about this book, but as I was finishing it, I realized how much it has added to my ‘want to read’ list. Hence, five stars.
Most annoying thing: Too many puns, too much effort to be all hip and accessible. Either the editor was really insecure about this book finding an audience and layered a bunch of this stuff in there or the author was. The tone does not fit the topic.
Anyway, the book is a bit different than I thought it would be. It begins with Emerson and the transcendentalists (who I discovered in my mid-20s on a vacation alone in the woods and have read constantly since that day). But instead of following how these effects on our culture evolved through US history, with each new teacher and movement that came from India, it focuses on each teacher from India (or American who traveled to India) and their influence as if in a way they are islands unto themselves. You get much more of a feeling of each teacher creating their own pool of action and influence rather than a view of US culture changing as a result.
Thus, the book feels more like a list of influencers and less a representation of their effect and the digestion of their teachings in the US. For example, when talking about the influence of each teacher, the author often says ‘and thousands read that book’ as evidence of impact. I think he misses something essential in the process of creation, culture change and originality by not following the story as a river through US history. Veda here in the US is not and can never be the Veda of India. It is the conversation between the two that might offer the best insights and controversies (IMHO).
Anyway, I certainly learned a lot and have more reading to do. And I am still looking for that book I thought this one would be.
Most annoying thing: Too many puns, too much effort to be all hip and accessible. Either the editor was really insecure about this book finding an audience and layered a bunch of this stuff in there or the author was. The tone does not fit the topic.
Anyway, the book is a bit different than I thought it would be. It begins with Emerson and the transcendentalists (who I discovered in my mid-20s on a vacation alone in the woods and have read constantly since that day). But instead of following how these effects on our culture evolved through US history, with each new teacher and movement that came from India, it focuses on each teacher from India (or American who traveled to India) and their influence as if in a way they are islands unto themselves. You get much more of a feeling of each teacher creating their own pool of action and influence rather than a view of US culture changing as a result.
Thus, the book feels more like a list of influencers and less a representation of their effect and the digestion of their teachings in the US. For example, when talking about the influence of each teacher, the author often says ‘and thousands read that book’ as evidence of impact. I think he misses something essential in the process of creation, culture change and originality by not following the story as a river through US history. Veda here in the US is not and can never be the Veda of India. It is the conversation between the two that might offer the best insights and controversies (IMHO).
Anyway, I certainly learned a lot and have more reading to do. And I am still looking for that book I thought this one would be.
April 4, 2024
Transmission: customs, rituals, history
Translation: interpret life events, meaning, purpose
Transaction: Create and sustain moral and ethical communities
Transformation: Ongoing growth towards a more complete person
Transcendence: Enlarge the boundaries of the self and touch the infinite
One truth many paths.
Truth is one, the wise call it by many names.
God can be conceived as a formless Absolute and in numerous forms and manifestations.
Individuals can awaken to their divine nature through any number of pathways and practices, no single one is right for everyone.
Spirituality is a developmental process, moving through a progressive series of steps.
Fully realizing one true nature brings an end to suffering in the state of liberation or enlightenment.
Each religion is the face of the one Truth which manifests itself under different signs and symbols.
Vedanta philosophy offers a way for understanding the divine that does not offend ones sense of reason or require faith in the miraculous. It is experience oriented not belief oriented. It does not threaten non believers with damnation and its tent is so wide that it accommodates people of any faith and of no faith.
Translation: interpret life events, meaning, purpose
Transaction: Create and sustain moral and ethical communities
Transformation: Ongoing growth towards a more complete person
Transcendence: Enlarge the boundaries of the self and touch the infinite
One truth many paths.
Truth is one, the wise call it by many names.
God can be conceived as a formless Absolute and in numerous forms and manifestations.
Individuals can awaken to their divine nature through any number of pathways and practices, no single one is right for everyone.
Spirituality is a developmental process, moving through a progressive series of steps.
Fully realizing one true nature brings an end to suffering in the state of liberation or enlightenment.
Each religion is the face of the one Truth which manifests itself under different signs and symbols.
Vedanta philosophy offers a way for understanding the divine that does not offend ones sense of reason or require faith in the miraculous. It is experience oriented not belief oriented. It does not threaten non believers with damnation and its tent is so wide that it accommodates people of any faith and of no faith.
August 6, 2019
Anyone in the Western world who has experienced deep insights into true nature has Emerson, Alan Watts, Ken Wilber, Krishnamurti, The Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Ram Das and many others to thank for either sparking the interest in things Nondual, or for sparking the spark that sparked the interest in things Nondual.
Like Indra’s net, or like the interconnectedness of the quantum world, everything influences everything else. American Veda points this out clearly while giving the best researched and written account of the history of the East’s psycho-spiritual impact on the West.
It’s a story of evolution, whereby a culture transforms for the better by the influence of other cultures, and individuals benefit from the light they’ve been seeking but perhaps were not initially aware of where to seek (spoiler alert: Within).
Perhaps it’s ok to simply end with an old Hindu poem.
Know in thyself and all one self-same soul,
Banish the dream that sunders part from whole.
-author unknown
Like Indra’s net, or like the interconnectedness of the quantum world, everything influences everything else. American Veda points this out clearly while giving the best researched and written account of the history of the East’s psycho-spiritual impact on the West.
It’s a story of evolution, whereby a culture transforms for the better by the influence of other cultures, and individuals benefit from the light they’ve been seeking but perhaps were not initially aware of where to seek (spoiler alert: Within).
Perhaps it’s ok to simply end with an old Hindu poem.
Know in thyself and all one self-same soul,
Banish the dream that sunders part from whole.
-author unknown
October 1, 2018
A comprehensive history of the evolution of Yoga in the west, mainly the United States. Philip Goldberg covers all the main characters both western and eastern whose various influences have led to the current ubiquity of Yoga in its myriad interpretations in the west. Goldberg covers not just the individuals but also their specific influences that have contributed to the current cauldron of Yoga thought. The only spoiler for me is that Goldberg does not necessarily separate the wheat from the chaff, perhaps due to the need to be comprehensive, as a result of which the pure (true to the yoga philosophy) forms are diluted with the impure (physical exercises and their various branches) forms, but that is strictly a personal view. There is little doubt however about the overall value of this volume.
September 4, 2020
Very much enjoyed Philip Goldberg's historical overview of the influence of Vedanta on American life through the ages.
At times it reads somewhat like a catalog, but to no fault of the author, as there are so numerous points to cover and Mr. Goldberg does a fine job providing the reader with links for further inquiry.
What emerges here is a very comprehensive summation of the many ways in which the the practical, metaphysical and philosophical traditions of India have influenced and have helped to shape the American landscape, sometimes in ways that are surprising to discover.
What also emerges is up to the reader, and many will likely find something to be inspired by or illuminated with. Recommended!
At times it reads somewhat like a catalog, but to no fault of the author, as there are so numerous points to cover and Mr. Goldberg does a fine job providing the reader with links for further inquiry.
What emerges here is a very comprehensive summation of the many ways in which the the practical, metaphysical and philosophical traditions of India have influenced and have helped to shape the American landscape, sometimes in ways that are surprising to discover.
What also emerges is up to the reader, and many will likely find something to be inspired by or illuminated with. Recommended!
August 3, 2020
Really, this is 3.5 stars. The early chapters lay out an interesting thesis about early and 19th Century American thought and literature and the influence of "Vedic" thought. The argument gets shakier after that, and the organization (person to person to person) makes insight a little harder to grasp. The chapter on science was especially frustrating. But this book compiles an impressive amount of material and is a good reference text for timelines, names, and dates that are important to Western adoption of these texts and ideas.
May 30, 2024
Goldberg’s book is a fascinating and meticulously researched history of the introduction to and effect on American culture of Indian spirituality. From the mysticism explored by 1800s’ transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau to the early twentieth century introduction of Vedanta to America by Swami Vivekenanda to the assorted gurus both legitimate and not that brought yoga, meditation, and Eastern thought to the west, Goldberg covers and contextualize it all. The book is an excellent tool for the curious aspirant to create an introductory framework by which to further explore this area.
August 8, 2021
This book does an excellent job of covering the topic of Indian spirituality in America. The author has a broad knowledge of the topic both from research and personal experience. I was impressed with the layers and layers of thoughtful insights throughout the book. Most of the major and important events and people were mentioned with interesting backstories and insights of the times. This book is highly recommended.
August 24, 2025
This had lots of good information but it took me ages to get through and it was sometimes a little dry. The first half worked better for me when it was more rooted in history but the more up to date section from the 2000s is a little dated now. More gravitas and sensitivity was needed in the abuse sections and it was published before we knew about Jois.
July 26, 2018
This book is very interesting and informative. I've only read a little over a hundred pages, but what I did read gave me a lot of other writers to check out. I may come back to this in the future when I need more suggestions or information on other philosophers.
October 31, 2018
It is nearly impossible to separate Vedantic influences from modern American spirituality. The knowledge of this history can help us better respect the origins and enjoy the fusions that have emerged. I think this book should be required reading for all Yoga teachers in the Western world.
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