...You must remember the one theme that runs through all the Vedas: "Just as by the knowledge of one lump of clay we know all the clay that is in the universe, so what is that, knowing which we know everything else?"
This expressed more or less clearly, is the theme of all human knowledge. It is the finding of a unity towards which we are all going. Every action in our lives - the most material, the grossest as well as the finest, the highest, the most spiritual - is alike in tending towards this one ideal, the finding of unity.
A man is single. He marries. Apparently it may be a selfish act, but at the same time, the impulsion, the motive power, is to find that unity. He has children, he has friends, he loves his country, he loves the world, and ends by loving the whole universe. Irresistibly we are impelled towards that perfection which consists in finding the unity, killing this little self and making ourselves broader and broader. This is the goal, the end towards which the universe is rushing.
Every atom is trying to go and join itself to the next atom. Atoms after atoms combine, making huge balls, the earths, the suns, the moons, the stars, the planets. They, in their turn, are trying to rush towards each other, and, at last, we know that the whole universe, mental and material, will be fused into one.
The process that is going in the cosmos on a large scale, is the same as that going on in the microcosm on a smaller scale.
Just as this universe has its existence in separation, in distinction, and all the while rushing towards unity, non-separation, so in our little worlds, each is born, as it were, cut off from the rest of the world. The more ignorant, the more unenlightened the soul, the more it thinks that it is separate from the rest of the universe. The more ignorant the person, the more he thinks, he will die or will be born, and so forth - ideas that are an expression of this separateness. But we find that, as knowledge comes, man grows, morality is evolved, and the idea of non-separateness begins. Whether men understand it or not, they are impelled by that power behind to become unselfish. That is the foundation of all morality. It is the quintessence of all ethics, preached in any language, or in any religion, or by any prophet in the world.
"Be thou unselfish", "Not 'I', but 'thou'" - that is the background of all ethical codes. And what is meant by this is the recognition of non-individuality - that you are a part of me, and I of you; the recognition that in hurting you, I hurt myself, and in helping you, I help myself; the recognition that there cannot possibly be death for me when you live. When one worm lives in this universe, how can I die? For my life is in the life of that worm. At the same time, it will teach us that we cannot leave one of our fellow-beings without helping him, that in his good consists my good.
This is the theme that runs through the whole of Vedanta, and which runs through every other religion....
Excerpt from "Methods and Purpose of Religion"
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda: Vol.VI.
This expressed more or less clearly, is the theme of all human knowledge. It is the finding of a unity towards which we are all going. Every action in our lives - the most material, the grossest as well as the finest, the highest, the most spiritual - is alike in tending towards this one ideal, the finding of unity.
A man is single. He marries. Apparently it may be a selfish act, but at the same time, the impulsion, the motive power, is to find that unity. He has children, he has friends, he loves his country, he loves the world, and ends by loving the whole universe. Irresistibly we are impelled towards that perfection which consists in finding the unity, killing this little self and making ourselves broader and broader. This is the goal, the end towards which the universe is rushing.
Every atom is trying to go and join itself to the next atom. Atoms after atoms combine, making huge balls, the earths, the suns, the moons, the stars, the planets. They, in their turn, are trying to rush towards each other, and, at last, we know that the whole universe, mental and material, will be fused into one.
The process that is going in the cosmos on a large scale, is the same as that going on in the microcosm on a smaller scale.
Just as this universe has its existence in separation, in distinction, and all the while rushing towards unity, non-separation, so in our little worlds, each is born, as it were, cut off from the rest of the world. The more ignorant, the more unenlightened the soul, the more it thinks that it is separate from the rest of the universe. The more ignorant the person, the more he thinks, he will die or will be born, and so forth - ideas that are an expression of this separateness. But we find that, as knowledge comes, man grows, morality is evolved, and the idea of non-separateness begins. Whether men understand it or not, they are impelled by that power behind to become unselfish. That is the foundation of all morality. It is the quintessence of all ethics, preached in any language, or in any religion, or by any prophet in the world.
"Be thou unselfish", "Not 'I', but 'thou'" - that is the background of all ethical codes. And what is meant by this is the recognition of non-individuality - that you are a part of me, and I of you; the recognition that in hurting you, I hurt myself, and in helping you, I help myself; the recognition that there cannot possibly be death for me when you live. When one worm lives in this universe, how can I die? For my life is in the life of that worm. At the same time, it will teach us that we cannot leave one of our fellow-beings without helping him, that in his good consists my good.
This is the theme that runs through the whole of Vedanta, and which runs through every other religion....
Excerpt from "Methods and Purpose of Religion"
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda: Vol.VI.
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