Everything has sprung from immortal life and is
vibrating with life, [Footnote: Yadidan kincha
prana ejati nihsritam.] for life is immense.
[Footnote: Prano virat.]
This is the noble heritage from our forefathers waiting
to be claimed by us as our own, this ideal of the
supreme freedom of consciousness. It is not
merely intellectual or emotional, it has an ethical
basis, and it must be translated into action.
In the Upanishad it is said, The supreme being
is all-pervading, therefore he is the innate good
in all. [Footnote: Sarvavyapi sa bhagavan
tasmat sarvagatah civah.] To be truly united in knowledge,
love, and service with all beings, and thus to realise
one’s self in the all-pervading God is the essence
of goodness, and this is the keynote of the teachings
of the Upanishads: Life is immense! [Footnote:
Prano virat.]
SOUL CONSCIOUSNESS
We have seen that it was the aspiration of ancient
India to live and move and have its joy in Brahma,
the all-conscious and all-pervading Spirit, by extending
its field of consciousness over all the world.
But that, it may be urged, is an impossible task
for man to achieve. If this extension of consciousness
be an outward process, then it is endless; it is like
attempting to cross the ocean after ladling out its
water. By beginning to try to realise all, one
has to end by realising nothing.
But, in reality, it is not so absurd as it sounds.
Man has every day to solve this problem of enlarging
his region and adjusting his burdens. His burdens
are many, too numerous for him to carry, but he knows
that by adopting a system he can lighten the weight
of his load. Whenever they feel too complicated
and unwieldy, he knows it is because he has not been
able to hit upon the system which would have set everything
in place and distributed the weight evenly.
This search for system is really a search for unity,
for synthesis; it is our attempt to harmonise the
heterogeneous complexity of outward materials by an
inner adjustment. In the search we gradually
become aware that to find out the One is to possess
the All; that there, indeed, is our last and highest
privilege. It is based on the law of that unity
which is, if we only know it, our abiding strength.
Its living principle is the power that is in truth;
the truth of that unity which comprehends multiplicity.
Facts are many, but the truth is one. The animal
intelligence knows facts, the human mind has power
to apprehend truth. The apple falls from the
tree, the rain descends upon the earth—you
can go on burdening your memory with such facts and
never come to an end. But once you get hold
of the law of gravitation you can dispense with the
necessity of collecting facts ad infinitum.
You have got at one truth which governs numberless
facts. This discovery of truth is pure joy to
