DIVERSITY, UNITY, DIVINITY
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From the viewpoint of eternity, everything in
the world always appears only more or less temporary. All our experiences of
its changing diversity must seem fleeting and insubstantial. Yet to all of us
living and acting in this world, it mostly shows itself to be stable and often
inert.... a real existence for us, which has its own momentum and laws, packed
with an endless variety of things and thoughts, challenges and goals.
THE FACT OF NATURAL DIVERSITY
Diversity characterises everything that makes
up the natural world, not excluding human beings or our societies. Human
culture and civilisation has always aimed at finding a greater purpose in all
this to fulfil it. Without the millions of species of different organisms,
plants and animals, the ecology of nature becomes impoverished and can suffer
serious breakdowns. Without the many sorts of human activity, the ever-changing
pattern of occupations, enterprises and pastimes, the present level of world
development could not have been achieved. Thus, variety is clearly 'the spice
of life'.
The lesson I see in the fact of this
diversity is to perceive everything for what it is and to respect and enjoy its
uniqueness. Each moment in as unrepeatable historical event.
Each thought, word and deed has specific meaning and consequences in its
specific context. Each person is a special individual acting in a private
drama. Life's richness comes from this profusion of nature and life and is
experienced best through wonder and expanding one's vision all the time to
include others and to appreciate their otherness for what it is, not liking
them for what we want them to be.
Without this basic experience of diversity, I
cannot see how the truth can be known or the unity of all beings be realised.
As Sathya Sai Baba urges that we should. At the same time, unity must be sought
and realised.
UNITY IN SCIENTIFIC THEORY
Because each object or being has its own raison
d'être or function (it's dharma), also in cases where science is unable to
determine what it is - we must always examine carefully the multifarous
facets of nature and their interrelations before we can build up any sound
conception of the unity that is expressed in and through all the many things. The
sciences all work on the assumption that all the apparently distinct and
different natural phenomena they study in great detail are the expressions of
underlying universal laws. Thus, natural science always searches for unity in
nature. Its most general theory necessarily assumes a constant energy that is
inherent to any physical event that can occur. This uniform energy, though it
can never be observed as such is always an assumption. Yet it is a necessary
one, as there simply must be a unifying factor in all things and events.
However, the sciences have so far failed to
explore the nature of human unity. Neither group unity not social unity are
much understood and even less is know to the psychological sciences of the
experience of unity and its importance to the growth of a healthy personality.
Without the guiding vision that we can experience increasing unity with all
that it - and without the insight that 'Unity is Divinity' - it is impossible
to see how unity of pupose in human society can be
understood and generated.
SOCIAL UNITY & DIVERSITY
Both unity within a nation and international
unity are important. As Baba has pointed out,
Ideas of unity, like most other sublime ideas
also propounded by Baba have existed throughout the ages. But Baba's renewal of
the call for human unity and, further, our own union with Divinity, is
effective because of the power of love is daily demonstrated in practice by him
in many ways.
Unity means true understanding of other put
into action, which makes it an expression of love. The many amazing
manifestations of this beneficial power worldwide - both direct and subtle in
nature - have been spreading and reinforcing faith in spirituality since the
time of Shirdi Sai Baba. Astute observers can discern
the influence of Sathya Sai Baba's teachings in the revival in many lands of
selfless spiritual practices both within the older religions and in a range of
newly emerging forms.
PURE IDEAS AND UNITY
An idea of unity is somehow present in the
human mind, just as is the idea of good and God (even though a person denies
that these ideas are true). The fact that such ideas are inherent in us, as if
imprinted in our souls, led thinkers like Socrates, Plato and others to
conclude that they reflect a higher reality. We are constantly reminded of that
reality to some extent by the diverse phenomena of the sensory world in which
we are repeatedly reborn. The higher ideas, such as those of beauty, virtue,
truth and goodness, are gradually developed and enlarged in our minds when we
see examples of them in the outer world. Our perception becomes purified
through such ideas or ideals of unity, until the oneness of humanity, of all
creation and of God becomes increasingly evident to us.
Practising the ideas of unity involves
repeatedly seeing ourselves as part of a greater unit, be it a team, a nation,
an organisation, a nation, the world civilisation or God and acting according
to it. By making room for others' progress rather than pushing oneself ahead,
by competing only so as to excel and not to beat other and also by self-control
and avoidance of selfish individualisation, unity with others comes to be an
experience and a reality.
UNITY AND DIVINITY
Diversity is not in contradiction to unity,
but to division and disharmony. Unity is found precisely in diversity and
vice-versa. The greatest instance of diversity in unity is, of course, the
entire Cosmos. All the elements of the universe - a bewildering complex of
vastly different entities - are held together as one coherent, regulated whole.
What other cause can be conceived as capable of designing, creating and
maintaining this unitary diversity than Divinely Omnipresent God? That Infinite
Consciousness and Love is certainly no 'superfluous idea', as materialists
still assert. In short, Unity is Divinity.
Unity and diversity are found at all the
different levels of cosmic evolution, while the highest expressible idea, Baba
tells us, is Advaita or the teaching of the
individual's realisation of unity with the Godhead in non-discriminating total
Being-Awareness-Bliss. By wondering at and venerating all the manifestations of
the Divine Will, recognising and embracing whatever is unique, different and
good for its purpose, we approach unity.
(Robert Priddy. May 1994)
The above material is the copyright of Robert Priddy,