Creative Unity

WE STAND BEFORE this great world. The truth of our life depends upon our attitude of mind towards it - an attitude which is formed by our habit of dealing with it according to the special circumstance of our surroundings and our temperaments. It guides our attempts to establish relations with the universe either by conquest or by union, either through the cultivation of power or through that of sympathy. And thus, in our realization of the truth of existence, we put our emphasis either upon the principle of dualism or upon the principle of unity. The Indian sages have held in the Upanishads that the emancipation of our soul lies in its realizing the ultimate truth of unity. They said: Ishavasyam idam sarvam yat kinch jagatyam jagat.Yena tyaktena bhunjitha ma gradha kasyasvit dhanam. (Know all that moves in this moving world as enveloped by God; and find enjoyment through renunciation, not through greed of possession.) The meaning of this is, that, when we know the multiplicity of things as the final truth, we try to augment ourselves by the external possession of them; but, when we know the Infinite Soul as the final truth, then through our union with it we realize the joy of our soul. Therefore it has been said of those who have attained their fulfilment, - 'sarvarn eva vishanti' (they enter into all things). Their perfect relation with this world is the relation of union.