Thursday Thoughts

Hari OM

Yesterday, I wrote of the moral imperative of working towards Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - a universal family situation. In a recent article on my other blog, I had a discussion that continued via email with a blogpal on the matter of 'no man is an island' and her difference of reading of the quote I had given. It was a reworded reference to the original John Donne poem in which the writer says, "I feel we are all islands in a common sea."

The simple fact is that each of us is currently an individual component. Yes, we all belong and are connected to each other by many commonalities and are interdependent for much that is about our physical survival. However, the jiva self, that part of us that identifies as an individual, is self-aware and seeks to connect in whatever way it can, is absolutely an 'island' until such time as it returns to the Totality of Self in OM. It searches for the reunion. However, for the majority, the understanding of that ultimate goal is lost or completely unknown to them. 

The human critter is profoundly spiritual, even when it intellectually denies and vilifies such a concept. Every human being (with a few exceptions one supposes, for exceptions are there to make the rule, is it not?) lives by a philosophy of one type or other. To do that is to address the spirit. If they reject the established philosophies (such as Advaita Vedanta, for example), they will fall to working via one of the many ideologies that permit them to follow their impulses and desires. 

For that is the key driver in all of us. Desire. If we do not have a clear idea of the ultimate desire - to return to the Totality of Existence - then space is left for all our vasana-driven lusts and urges to rise and push us forward.

Sometimes that can be very positive, for even in the absence of 'religion' we tend as a species to have an idea of what is positive and negative in social terms. 

It is also, though, what is behind the "I"ness movement that even turns up in the titles of various tech equipment... We live now in a general societal norm that seems to prize the egotistical and individualistic "look at me" nature that places personal needs before the needs of those around us. Blame is sometimes laid on social media for self-obsession, but it might also be noted that social media arose and flourishes because of that very selfishness that is inherent in the group personality. 

Now, in a pandemic world, we have seen both the best and worst of these traits appear not just at a personal level, but at the national and international level. There are world governments that symbolise selfishness in the extreme. 

We have a long way to go, as a species, before we truly merge as one...