By Dr. J. Das
This world is fraught with the problem of disunity, in spite of the fact that all people would like to live in unity. What is it in human nature that creates a situation that he does not like, yet he continues to propagate it? In order to understand this problem, it is essential to understand the basic nature of our Being. Being consists of three basic attributes: 1. Existence, 2. Consciousness and 3. Bliss. On careful analysis, it becomes obvious that no one can exist without Existence. Similarly, no one can exist without Consciousness. And it is the basic nature of the Self-existent Consciousness to be Blissful. These three attributes belong to God. The fact that we also share the same attributes, attests to the fact that God dwells in us as Pure Being. This being so, it becomes obvious that all of us are really united, and therefore should live in unity. What then happens to create the disunity and all its attendant problems that we face daily in our lives?
The first problem that afflicts us as human beings is ignorance of the above attributes, which consists of our Real or Essential Being or Nature. This ignorance can be more properly stated as Nescience. This nescience is brought about by the great illusory power of Maya. Maya, in itself, is a vast topic and requires to be discussed elsewhere. Once this ignorance has established itself in the human heart, a person begins to identify with his personal ego. His personal ego requires satisfaction because it has developed desires and cravings. He uses his five sense organs as instruments to satisfy them. We all know of people being selfish and self-seeking, and they will endeavour to promote their own welfare at the expense of others. This appears to be a common human nature. Once this has taken hold of a personality, it is very easy to see that disunity must be the end result.
People, by their very nature, like to follow the path of least resistance when using their minds. Anything that requires effort seems to be beyond their capability, as long as it has to do with self-improvement. James Allen in his book: ‘The Gift of Inner Peace” states: “When mental energy is allowed to follow the line of least resistance, and to fall into easy channels, it is called weakness; when it is gathered, focused and forced into upward and difficult directions, it becomes power; and this concentration of energy and acquisition of power is brought about by means of self-control.” He again states: “Man is; and as he thinks, so he is. A perception and realization of these two facts alone – of man’s being and thinking – lead into a vast avenue of knowledge which cannot stop short of the highest wisdom and perfection.” As human beings, are we not capable of following such simple and straightforward precepts in order to improve ourselves?
Weakness of the mind is prevalent, and we can see it everywhere around us. People develop undesirable habits that they have a difficult time controlling. Examples are smoking and alcoholism. Just as we can say that people are alcoholics, just so we can say that people are chocoholics because they crave chocolates. Similarly, we can think of foodoholics, smokeoholics, greedoholics, hateoholics, prideoholics, egoholics (egomania), sleepoholics, lustoholics, etc. You get the idea. All of these people, with proper thinking and effort, can do better. If doing better becomes a habit, then obviously these people will become better human beings, both for their own benefit and for the benefit of others around them. Remaining weak is a grave disservice to themselves and to others.
This discussion appears to digress somewhat from the initial subject of unity. But it was necessary to discuss the subject along these lines, to indicate a certain general weakness in human beings, that keeps them from developing into true and full human beings that they were intended to be in the first place. Just having the human form and a few human attributes is not the entire goal of life. All life must evolve and progress towards a higher level of Being. And what is the higher level of being for a human? It is really the understanding of his own nature that was stated initially as Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss. This is spoken of in Sanskrit as “Sat-Chit-Ananda.” When one realizes his essential nature, he also, at the same time, realizes that the same nature exists in all, in spite of external differences, such as race, colour, creed, religious affiliations, and other superficial attributes. Once we realize our own essential nature, it is inevitable that love must pervade our hearts. This great love was taught by Satguru Kabir for all of humanity. He said: “All the people speak of love, but there is hardly anyone who knows what it is.” It was also taught by Jesus. Lord Buddha taught it as compassion, and Confucius taught it as sympathy. The prophet Mohammed taught it as mercy. If we can manifest these attributes in our own lives, is it difficult to see that unity will prevail among all of us?
