American Veda

by: Philip Goldberg

A history of how yoga & the philosophy of Vedic principles came to America and left its influence in ways we might not even realize today.

Published in 2010, American Veda, explores so many different influences. For many people in the west yoga started for them in the 1960’s after the Beatles made a highly publicized trip to India to visit their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Their music eventually became highly influenced by classical Indian musical instruments such as the sitar and aimed to create psychedelic ‘Eastern’ feelings.

American Veda peals back the history of how such a mainstream band, writers, everyday people, scientists, artists and more became influenced by yoga & Vedic principles. As I read this book some of the text was very dry and slow. But if you’re kind of a yoga nerd it is overall fascinating.

One of the facts that blew me away was learning Ralph Waldo Emerson was highly influenced by eastern Hindu texts. I knew of Emerson, but couldn’t remember if I had actually read any of his works. (Please, don’t judge me). His published works didn’t just sit on shelves in dusty books but spread the ideas to other influential writers. Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and many others embraced Vedic “science of consciousness” and practiced it in their daily lives.

When you think about just the influence from these three western writers it’s not surprising that eventually Vedic influences would slowly change the way we think about the mind body connection and our place in the universe and how all things are connected.

In 1893, America had its first exposure of Vedic teaching when Swami Vivekananda gave his historic address to an audience in Chicago. To think how this one speech trickled down to influenced generations of western people, western writers, western scientists and all the way to 2025 seeing yoga studios in almost every city it kinda blows the mind.

The Vedic principles aren’t just philosophy ideas but also help us be more understanding of people with different religious beliefs. American Veda shares how important it is not to water down these principles to fit into our modern beliefs. Yes, it might take a modern translation to understand some of it, however, “The task - a delicate and sacred one - is to carefully shape the ancient ideas to fit modern society without distorting them or diminishing their value”.

I enjoyed how American Veda explained the history of all the different American yoga ashrams and Vedic houses of study. (Of which there are still quite a few still open) I did feel a little let down when it didn’t cover some of the problematic sides to some of these organizations. However, this was published before all of the hidden stories came to light and I don’t think that was the main purpose of the writer.

After reading this I learned the names of more Indian musicians, historical American study locations & retreats, places of worship in America and how the influence of meditation in our modern lives started.

Overall, I recommend this book to those looking to understand how important it is not to get swept up into the modern yoga style craze and see the deeper roots. America is such a young country compared to India and we can be thankful & honor the Vedic roots that were shared here centuries ago without watering it down.