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"LOVE ALL SERVE ALL" "HELP EVER, HURT NEVER" Sai Baba

Unity Of All Life

The unity of all creation is a fundamental Truth. The masters, sages and mystics of various spiritual traditions say that everything created in this world is interrelated and belongs to the one and indivisible whole. This is the only reality.

Unfortunately, this single most important truth of the world is largely forgotten today.

The message of the Upanishads is that God is the innermost essence of every created thing, both animate and inanimate, of everything we can and cannot see, and of every force or spirit that moves life and everything in the universe. We are all one with God, and with one another.

It is written in the Isha Upanishad:
Those who see all creatures in themselves
And themselves in all creatures know no fear.
Those who see all creatures in themselves
And themselves in all creatures know no grief.
How can the multiplicity of life
Delude the one who sees its unity?

The Daoist sages maintain that Dao is Oneness or the Whole manifesting as the multiplicity of all things. In the Daode Jing, the Daoist patriarch Laozi said: “Dao existed before words and names, before heaven and earth, before the ten thousand things. It is the unlimited father and mother of all limited things. Therefore, to see beyond boundaries to the subtle heart of things dispense with names, with concepts, with expectations and ambitions and differences. Dao and its many manifestations arise from the same source: subtle wonder within mysterious darkness. This is the beginning of all understanding.”

Daoism asserts that we are transient, individual manifestations of Dao. We are all one, and only experience this separateness from one another because we live in a world of duality. This duality is created by the interaction of two complementary and opposing forces, which they call yin and yang, in a dynamic relationship.

Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180 and is regarded as one of the greatest emperors in Roman history. He was also a philosopher famed for his “Meditations”, which reflect his stoic beliefs. Marcus Aurelius saw the universe as one, of which we are all part. He said: “All things are interwoven with one another; a sacred bond unites them; there is scarcely one thing that is isolated from another… The world order is a unity made up of multiplicity: God is one, pervading all things; all being is one…”

The Harvard medical scientist and psychologist Joan Borysenko Ph.D. noted: “A mystic sees beyond the illusion of separateness into the intricate web of life in which all things are expressions of a single Whole. You can call this web God, the Dao, the Great Spirit, the Infinite Mystery, Mother or Father, but it can be known only as love.”

Oneness is fundamental to the teachings of Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), the greatest German Dominican mystic. He proclaimed that God is One and said: “All things are contained in the One, by virtue of the fact that it is one. For all multiplicity is one, and is one thing, and is in and through the One. The One is indistinct from all things.”

Yunus Emre (1238-1320) was a Sufi mystic and poet whose philosophy exerted a profound influence over the Turkish way of life. Yunus Emre said: “The universe is the oneness of Deity, The true man is he who knows this unity.”

We see everything in the physical world as discrete things, and experience ourselves as individuals, separate and distinct from every other individual. What we consider as real is in fact unreal. Albert Einstein called this an “optical illusion”. He said: “A human being is part of the whole that we call the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.”

This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures, and the whole of Nature in its beauty. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.

The Hindu sages describe this “the dream of waking life” by the Sanskrit term maya (illusion). They say this feeling of separateness is an illusion and dream. By way of analogy they explain that we are all waves from the same ocean of divine consciousness. The wave is different from the ocean when it exists as a waveform. Yet, the wave belongs to the ocean, its existence as a wave is always associated with the ocean, and cannot be separate from it. The waveform is bound by time, space and causation. It is real only for a time. When it was in existence, the waveform was not a delusion.

When the wave subsides, the waveform vanishes. The wave has merged with the ocean, as will other waves, all of which are part of the whole. The illusion is its momentary existence when it was seen as a wave having a separate, independent and permanent existence.

The late Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest from India, illustrated this unity with the following words:
“How does one seek union with God?
The harder you seek, the more distance you create between Him and you.
So what does one do about the distance?
Understand that it isn’t there.
Does that mean that God and I are one?
Not one. Not two.
How is that possible?
The sun and its light, the ocean and the wave, the singer and his song: Not one. Not two.”

Martin Buber (1878-1965) was one of the foremost Jewish religious thinkers and one of the world’s most influential philosophers. He was asked, “We are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves. How can I do this if my neighbour has wronged me?”

Buber answered, “You must understand these words rightly. Love your neighbour as something which you yourself are. For all souls are one. Each is a spark from the original soul, and this soul is inherent in all souls, just as your soul is inherent in all the members of your body.

“It may come to pass that your hand will make a mistake and strike you. But would you then take a stick and chastise your hand because it lacked understanding and so increase your pain? It is the same if your neighbour, who is of one soul with you, wrongs you because of his lack of understanding. If you punish him, you only hurt yourself.”

Our differences and discord with others invariably stems from this perception of separateness resulting from identification with our physical form. The inability to recognise the underlying oneness of all life results in the mindset of “We” and “They”.

We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, rather we are spiritual beings having a physical existence expressing ourselves in materiality. This is an important distinction because when we identify ourselves solely with our body and ego, we are predominantly influenced by superficial, external and temporal factors that are not a part of our true spiritual nature.

We all belong to the one and same race of humanity but racial, cultural and religious diversity and ethnicity have given rise to discrimination, prejudice and hatred worldwide. This is the delusion from which humanity suffers. This is the cause of many of the problems in the world.

We are all sparks of divine consciousness and we come from the same source. We are part of one unified Consciousness that is common to all and which pervades everything. This reality makes it obligatory on us to live so as to experience solidarity with all life.

Sai Baba tells us to “Cultivate that attitude of oneness, between men of all creeds, all countries and all continents. That is the message of Love I bring. That is the message I wish you to take to heart.”

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