Unity in Diversity

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That is what the Vedanta teaches. It does not propose any slipshod

remedy by covering wounds with gold leaf and the more the wound

festers, putting on more gold leaf. This life is a hard fact; work

your way through it boldly, though it may be adamantine; no matter,

the soul is stronger. It lays no responsibility on little gods; for

you are the makers of your own fortunes. You make yourselves suffer,

you make good and evil, and it is you who put your hands before your

eyes and say it is dark. Take your hands away and see the light; you

are effulgent, you are perfect already, from the very beginning. We

now understand the verse: " He goes from death to death who sees the

many here. " See that One and be free.

 

How are we to see it? This mind, so deluded, so weak, so easily led,

even this mind can be strong and may catch a glimpse of that

knowledge, that Oneness, which saves us from dying again and again.

As rain falling upon a mountain flows in various streams down the

sides of the mountain, so all the energies which you see here are

from that one Unit. It has become manifold falling upon Maya. Do not

run after the manifold; go towards the One. " He is in all that moves;

He is in all that is pure; He fills the universe; He is in the

sacrifice; He is the guest in the house; He is in man, in water, in

animals, in truth; He is the Great One. As fire coming into this

world is manifesting itself in various forms, even so, that one Soul

of the universe is manifesting Himself in all these various forms. As

air coming into this universe manifests itself in various forms, even

so, the One Soul of all souls, of all beings, is manifesting Himself

in all forms. " This is true for you when you have understood this

Unity, and not before. Then is all optimism, because He is seen

everywhere. The question is that if all this be true that that Pure

One--the Self, the Infinite--has entered all this, how is it that He

suffers, how is it that He becomes miserable, impure? He does not,

says the Upanishad. " As the sun is the cause of the eyesight of every

being, yet is not made defective by the defect in any eye, even so

the Self of all is not affected by the miseries of the body, or by

any misery that is around you. " I may have some disease and see

everything yellow, but the sun is not affected by it. " He is the One,

the Creator of all, the Ruler of all, the Internal Soul of every

being--He who makes His Oneness manifold. Thus sages who realise Him

as the Soul of their souls, unto them belongs eternal peace; unto

none else, unto none else. He who in this world of evanescence finds

Him who never changes, he who in this universe of death finds that

One Life, he who in this manifold finds that Oneness, and all those

who realise Him as the Soul of their souls, to them belongs eternal

peace; unto none else, unto none else. Where to find Him in the

external world, where to find Him in the suns, and moons, and stars?

There the sun cannot illumine, nor the moon, nor the stars, the flash

of lightning cannot illumine the place; what to speak of this mortal

fire? He shining, everything else shines. It is His light that they

have borrowed, and He is shining through them. " Here is another

beautiful simile. Those of you who have been in India and have seen

how the banyan tree comes from one root and spreads itself far

around, will understand this. He is that banyan tree; He is the root

of all and has branched out until He has become this universe, and

however far He extends, every one of these trunks and branches is

connected.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued