Self Reliance

Self reliance was first published in 1841 and later on it’s revised edition was published in
1847 in the form of essays in which Ralph Waldo writes about ‘’individualism ,personal
responsibility and nonconformity.’’ In this essay he wrote about three thing firstly he talked
about ‘’reliance on your personal responsibility, secondly gave advice being gentle toward
society but not being coward and focuses on being unapologetic about their own childlike
attitude. Emerson encourages the reader living life by their instinct even if they have devil’s
. Here he is exaggerating the idea to give a shock and new idea to audience. He says that an
individual guided by intuition on instinct is following the universal spirit : ‘’Trust thyself’’,
according to Emerson being honest in their relations is leaded by instinct and he urges his
readers to follow their own voice rather than imitating others ,he cited the honesty and
purity of Christ and encourages Americans to stay at home and develop their own culture
and focusing on individuality rather than societal norms. The concept of not imitating others
nonconformity was also given by all the great men of the world , here we can relate the idea
of Emerson’s ‘’Trust thyself’ with ‘’Khudi (ego) ‘’ concept of Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal. In
all his poetic works he said about enlightenment of souls, which he says is possible when
you will know your instinct and follow it. According to Iqbal man is responsible of all his
doings in this world and even here after. He is caretaker of all possibilities of his life and
even can shape them in desired way. He says ‘’ your nature is caretaker of all possibilities of
life ( Teri fitrat ameen hai mumkinat-i-zindgi ki). He had a firm belief in the fact that human
being is a master of his destiny whether it’s seen or unseen. He gives God like attribute to
human being and insists on a fact that man is a creator of his own new universe, the same
idea is discussed earlier given by Ralph Waldo.