Spiritual Message for the Day – All Life is One by Sri Swami Chidananda
Baba Times Digest© | 24 June 2014 17:42 EST | New York Edition
All Life is One
Divine Life Society Publication: Life is One by Sri Swami Chidananda
There was a poet who once wrote, "You cannot pluck a little flower without the shaking of a star." All life is one. There is one common consciousness which links the life of all beings into one great cosmic unity.
There was once a Sufi mystic who was established in this state of cosmic consciousness. He was a gardener. One day a friend of his came to visit him. In the conversation that they were having he was distracted and the sharp gardening tool which he was using hit his leg. His friend was startled , for he saw, oozing out of the wound in his leg, not red blood but a thin, pale fluid. It was the sap of plants. This Sufi mystic was in an absolute rapport, a perfect harmony with all life. He was at one with the plants, He had entered into their very consciousness. His life and their life was entirely one.
Many other stories could be told about mystics who have attained this state of absolute consciousness with all life. One such cosmic being was sitting in that state one day in the courtyard of a great temple situated on the bank of a river. A ferryboat was carrying passengers across the river. One disembarking passenger queried the ferryman regarding the cost of the fare. First there was a discussion. Then hot words. Then a lively argument. Suddenly the passenger lunged forward and hit the ferryman. And this mystic sitting nearby was so sensitive that the blow caused him to fall over unconscious. It was as though the passenger has delivered the blow on him.
There is another poem in which the poet says,
"One touch of nature makes all life kin." The poet here refers to the original nature in which all forms of life are related to the One. Vedanta proclaims the oneness of all existence. Vedanta declares that there is one divine principle present in all things. The first Sloka of the first Upanishad says, "Whatever exists is pervaded by the one great Cosmic Being. That Being permeates, saturates and pervades all things in the universe." Even modern science is now confirming this great truth. At the back of all this diversity the back of all this multifariousness, there is something common to all life. If you touch it, you experience cosmic consciousness.
The Vedantic method is deductive; the scientific method is inductive. The Vedantic method starts with the one and proceeds to the many. The scientific method starts with the many and proceeds to the one. Now it seems almost as though modern science, especially modern physical science, is proposing a theory which corroborates nearly verbatim the central thesis of the ancient Sakta school of philosophy in India. The Sakta philosophy states that energy or force is the very nature of pure Consciousness. Man borrows light from another Source of intelligence. Without this light the intellect would be inert, for it is that light which illumines the intellect and enables it to function. Man borrows it from pure Consciousness. It is, therefore, pure Consciousness which lies behind man’s intellect. Pure Consciousness alone is real.
The intellect is conscious when man is in the waking state, semiconscious when he is in the dream state and unconscious when he is in the deep sleep state. This consciousness is not continuous. The consciousness of ‘I am’ , on the other hand , is always present even in the deep sleep state. "I slept well," you say on waking up in the morning. So the consciousness is continuous. You affirm the existence of an ‘I’ at all times: waking, dreaming and sleeping. The ‘I’ principle is the substratum upon which all the three states of your consciousness are supported. This ‘I’ principle is common to all sentient beings . It is a mysterious factor which binds life into one great cosmic unity. Ponder upon it. For eventually you must know everything about it.
Excerpts from:
All Life is One - Life is One by Sri Swami Chidananda
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