Oneness

Copyright © 2013 Martha S. G. Orton

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The author would like to thank the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry, India, for permission to use quotations from the works of Sri Aurobindo and also the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research for permission to re-publish portions of the author’s previously published work.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-8366-1 (sc)

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Contents

Introduction

I. Seeking Oneness

II. Brahman, the Reality

III. Brahman/Sachchidananda

IV. An Innate Sense of Oneness

V. Much More than a Mental Concept

VI. The Problem of Separation

VII. The Problem of Perception

VIII. Affirmation of Oneness

IX. The Outer and the Inner

X. The Individual and the Universal

XI. Higher Reaches of Mind

XII. Oneness within the Individual Being

XIII. Pervasive Oneness

XIV. The Process

XV. Going beyond Words

Notes

Bibliography

To

S. A. & M.

His semblances he turns to real shapes

And makes the symbol equal with the truth:

He gives to his timeless thoughts a form in Time.

He is the substance, he the self of things….

Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book I, Canto IV

Introduction

Harmony in life is generally regarded as a highly desirable and worthy ideal. Most of us seek harmony in our relationships with others and also among the various parts of our own being. On a larger scale, societies strive to develop harmony among their various parts and nations to attain it with other nations. Yet harmony is very often experienced as an elusive goal, even though a great deal of time, attention and effort are expended in its pursuit. Nevertheless, human beings have an inherent urge for harmony, a sense that this is the true and natural state of our own being and of life as a whole. Our urge for harmony can be seen as an expression of our inherent, though mostly unrecognized, sense of the reality of Oneness. This deeply concealed knowledge is the source of our discomfort with conflict and our motivation for seeking resolution and attaining harmony.

The sense of division which people feel within themselves, and also between themselves and others, can be identified as the cause of deep disquiet within individuals and the essential cause of external conflict between individuals, societies and nations. This sense of division persists, even though many of our societal, religious, ethical, and spiritual belief systems assert the reality of an inherent brotherhood/sisterhood, essentially an underlying Oneness. These same systems generally espouse solutions which are intended to solve the problem, yet the sense of division remains, in spite of the efforts of many sincere people through many centuries. Most of the solutions advocate recognition of equality in some way. The admonition to treat others as one would want to be treated oneself, the Golden Rule of Christianity, is a prime example of this. The egalitarian ideals of the American Declaration of Independence and the cry of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity of the French Revolution reverberate from the ideals of the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, in America and Europe. In the spiritual traditions of the East, Oneness is asserted as a truth. Nevertheless, the actual realization of Oneness and putting this into practice in life in the world continue to remain serious challenges, ones which can even seem insurmountable.

Yet no amount of belief maintained at the mental level, no amount of idealism expressed however lucidly by the intellect, and no array of egalitarian laws or ethical principles can truly solve the sense of separation and bring about the realization of Oneness. It is the realization of Oneness which is the natural extension of the principle of equality and brotherhood/sisterhood. Oneness is its full reality and expression. A lasting knowledge of Oneness can develop only through a deep and integral realization within the inner being of each individual. This true knowledge of Oneness can transform the consciousness, and each individual transformation can have the effect of a pebble dropped into a pool, rippling outwards and, joined by the realization of many enlightened individuals, truly change the world. Only the full realization of Oneness can end division and conflict and result in a real and lasting harmony.

Inner realization is very much the field of spirituality, whether Hinduism, Buddhism, mystic Christianity, Sufism, or any other system of belief and practice. The term yoga, most associated with Hinduism, means union in Sanskrit. It is generally distinct from the common use of the term to mean a form of physical exercise which is, properly speaking, called hatha yoga. The purpose of the practice of yoga is to achieve union. If we ask Union with what? the answer is simple—with all, everything. This understanding is based on the Hindu concept of Brahman: The Divine is all; all is the Divine. It is very simple, yet at the same time vastly complex and difficult to realize. There are several significant steps to be taken: (1) to conceive of this at the mental level; (2) to experience this as reality in the inner consciousness; (3) to realize this (i.e., to have the lasting unwavering experience of this true reality).

The realization of Oneness as the truth of the universe has been experienced by many individuals through the ages, some of whom have written about it and many of whom have not. One of those who has written with exceptional clarity and wideness of vision on the nature of the reality of Oneness, and the implications of this great truth, is Sri Aurobindo, the great Indian revolutionary, philosopher, poet, sage. This present attempt at writing on the subject of Oneness is based on some of my modest gleanings from his works. Readers are ardently advised to read Sri Aurobindo’s works themselves, particularly The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, and Letters on Yoga.

In attempting to write on any one aspect of a philosophy, the writer finds oneself pulling a thread from the edge of a much larger fabric. If you pull long enough, you end with having the whole cloth in your hands. This is something of what happened for me when writing my first book on Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, The Quest for Knowledge and Mastery: A Comparative Study of Motivation in the Light of Sri Aurobindo (Puducherry: Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research, 2008), a few elements of which are included here. In the present exploration I have tried to set some limits in order to keep the focus directly and clearly on the subject of Oneness. While related threads are included, some of these are not explored as much as one might want and this is largely intentional. For a fuller picture of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy it is always best to go to the source itself.

The present book is a revised and expanded version of my earlier book Journey to Oneness (Puducherry: Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research, 2011), now enlarged primarily by the addition of a new chapter, Affirmation of Oneness. It begins with an exploration of Oneness as the reality of existence and proceeds to consider the meaning and implications of the search for Oneness and the realization of inner truth. The process involved in this quest at the individual level is examined and also the goal of extending the realization of Oneness into an integral effect on life in the world.

Martha Orton

I

Seeking Oneness

Throughout his philosophical writing Sri Aurobindo emphasizes the reality of Brahman and explains the implications of this reality. Honoring this as the ancient Vedic realization that the Divine is all, and all is the Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes the meaning of Brahman with great depth and richness of explanation. In discussing Brahman, writers and thinkers are generally comfortable with referring to it as a concept. Doing so enables discussion of Brahman in language that we know and are adept at using, language that is a common currency, the words familiar to us in philosophical discussion and intellectual discourse. While pointing out quite clearly that Brahman cannot be described at all adequately in the language of our ordinary expression, the language of the mind and its operations, Sri Aurobindo nevertheless enlightens us about the