{"id":2748,"date":"2007-01-25T00:51:12","date_gmt":"2007-01-24T23:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=2748"},"modified":"2007-09-26T11:37:41","modified_gmt":"2007-09-26T10:37:41","slug":"the-vision-of-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=2748","title":{"rendered":"The Vision of Unity"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gokulananda das<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The life of the animal is incapable of higher inquiry, constricted as it is by the sensory limitations of their reduced awareness. The capacity for self-inquiry into our source and purpose is the special prerogative of the rare human form of life. Without such inquiry, our higher spiritual potential remains unknown. By the proper use of our God-given intelligence, we can direct our search for truth towards the higher knowledge to be found within the Vedic revalation. <\/p>\n

Our mercilful God has offered us this perfect revelation about our real spiritual identities and our inate enduring loving relation to Him; and He has preserved its integrity within an unbroken disciplic succession “evam parampara praptam” of His empowered servants, the authentic Vedic teachers (Acharyas). <\/p>\n

The Vedas brightly shine as the great “light that has lighted the world”, to remove the darkness of ignorance from our hearts: “When, however, one is enlightened with the knowledge by which nescience is destroyed, then his knowledge reveals everything, as the sun lights up everything in the daytime”B.g.5.16. By seeing through the eyes of the scriptures “sastra-caksu”, we can gradually rise above our chronic ignorance to perceive reality as it is: that everything is controlled by the all-good Personality of Godhead, Bhagavan Sri Krishna “Ishwara parama Krishna”, Who is One without a second, all-pervasive and all-cognizant. Out of His infinite mercy, Lord Krishna also descends to enlighten all mankind about His supreme dominion over all that be, and blesses us with the immortal nectar of His perfect words in the Bhagavad-gita, the essence of all the Vedas “vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo.” <\/p>\n

Therein He reveals to Arjuna, and to all of mankind, the full truth of how He creates, maintains and annihilates the whole cosmic affair; and the true identity of all beings as eternal souls, His parts and parcels forever connected to Him in loving service. He also explains how all existence is the vast interplay of His limitless inconceivable potencies: “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me”I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings” B.g.10.8\/20. <\/p>\n

He then reveals how He can be perceived within all of His creation: “I will tell you of My splendorous manifestations”for My opulence is limitless”I am the generating seed of all existences”there is no end to My divine manifestations”Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor”With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe”.B.g.10.39-42<\/p>\n

Enlightened by such glorious revelations, the faithful soul becomes enthused to awaken this inate spiritual vision of unity. By fully acknowledging that everything belongs to God, the aspiring devotee then engages his whole energy, body, mind and soul, in the devotional service of the Lord, conducted through the nine-fold process of bhakti-yoga: “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform – do that”as an offering to Me” B.g.9.27. Focusing fully on his loving connection with the Lord, he absorbs himself in hearing and chanting about the Lord; he thus gradually revives his natural pure consciousness, Krishna consciousness, the original energy of every soul. Only through this process of loving surrender can we attract the Lords causeless mercy: “To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me” B.g.10.10. <\/p>\n

As the Lord reveals Himself to His surrendered devotee, such a fortunate soul becomes blesssed with the glorious epiphany of the Lord&rsquo;s presence everywhere and His benevolent control over all beings. In that sublime vision of unity, nourished by full devotion, one can constantly see the Lord within and without: “A true yogi observes Me in all beings and also sees every being in Me. Indeed, the self-realized person sees Me”everywhere. For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost to him, nor is he ever lost to Me” B.g.6.29-30. <\/p>\n

Thus the soul imbued with pure devotion forever remains with the Lord in a perfect communion of hearts, and constantly swims in the Ocean of truth and bliss, in the perpetual vision of the Lord’s infinite beauty and splendour. This enduring bond of pure love is the very essence of Vaisnavism and constitutes the highest potential of human life. Jai Sri Krishna! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Gokulananda das<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our mercilful God has offered us this perfect revelation about our real spiritual identities and our inate enduring loving relation to Him; and He has preserved its integrity within an unbroken disciplic succession “evam parampara praptam” of His empowered servants, the authentic Vedic teachers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-gokulananda-das"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}