"Purusha"

[Guest guest]

UNIVERSAL MAN <br><br>"There was a time when we

prayed for special concessions, we expected that the

laws of nature should be held in abeyance for our own

convenience. But now we know better. We know that law cannot

be set aside, and in this knowledge we have become

strong. For this law is not something apart from us; it

is our own. The universal power which is manifested

in the universal law is one with our own power.

<br><br>It will thwart us where we are small, where we are

against the current of things; but it will help us where

we are great, where we are in unison with the

all.... Thus we find that, just as throughout our bodily

organization there is a principle of relation by virtue of

which we can call the entire body our own, and can use

it as such, so all through the universe there is

that principle of uninterrupted relation by virtue of

which we can call the whole world our extended body and

use it accordingly. And in this age of science it is

our endeavour fully to establish our claim to our

world-self. We know all our poverty and sufferings are owing

to our inability to realize this legitimate claim of

ours. Really, there is no limit to our powers, for we

are not outside the universal power which is the

expression of universal law. We are on our way to overcome

disease and death, to conquer pain and poverty; for

through scientific knowledge we are <br>ever on our way

to realize the universal in its physical aspect. And

as we make progress we find that pain, disease and

poverty of power are not absolute, but that it is only

the want of adjustment of our individual self to our

universal self which gives use to them.<br><br>It is the

same with our spiritual life. When the individual man

in us chafes against the lawful rule of the

universal man we become morally small, and we must suffer.

In such a condition our successes are our greatest

failures, and the very fulfilment of our desires leaves us

poorer. We hanker after special gains for ourselves, we

want to enjoy privileges which none else can share

with us. But everything that is absolutely special

must keep up a perpetual warfare with what is general.

In such a state of civil war man always lives behind

barricades, and in any civilization which is selfish our

homes are not real homes, but artificial barriers

around us. Yet we complain that we are not happy, as if

there were something inherent in the nature of things

to make us miserable. The universal spirit is

waiting to crown us with happiness, but our individual

spirit would not accept it. It is our life of the self

that causes conflicts and complications everywhere,

upsets the normal balance of society and gives rise to

miseries of all kinds.... <br><br>We have seen that in

order to be powerful we have to submit to the laws of

the universal forces, and to realize in practice that

they are our own. So, in order to be happy, we have to

submit our individual will to the sovereignty of the

universal will, and to feel in truth that it is our own

will. When we reach that state wherein the adjustment

of the finite in us to the infinite is made perfect,

then pain itself becomes a valuable asset. It becomes

a measuring rod with which to gauge the true value

of our joy."<br><br>by RABINDRANATH TAGORE