TO ABIDE IN ONENESS, BECOME UNDIVIDED
(Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda)
As seekers of the Divine we have begun a journey that has no limits. In worldly pursuits we can limit ourselves to a certain area; but in the spiritual pursuit, while one-pointedness is one of the great virtues, it has a special meaning. We are one-pointed after the Divine, while at the same time knowing that the Divine is all-inclusive. In other words, our one-pointedness is to negate the many and affirm the One, the One that includes the many, that has no limits.
Thus, in our journey towards the Divine we must be both one-pointed and all-inclusive. That must also include our own nature. We are not the intellect only, nor are we only our emotional nature, we are also our will. Indeed, intellect and emotion, without being backed up by will, will not take us very far. Therefore, integral yoga must include a deep understanding of the path, it must include a great desire or love for it, and it must be backed up by our will. That is true integral yoga. That is what lifts us up to an understanding of the Divine, to an experience of the Divine.
However, we are also human beings living in a world. We are meant to express what we understand, what we have experienced. So we also have to deal with our human nature, and our human nature is a nature of desire—desire for sensual pleasures and desire for ego satisfaction. Both pull us away from the understanding and the peace of we have found within. Therefore, our yoga is not complete when we have found something within. We must be able to live it without.
Here too we will find that we must employ our whole being, take an integral approach, leave nothing out. To conquer our lower nature requires a sophisticated understanding of how it works; it requires a powerful desire to overcome those things that take us away from our one-pointed absorption in seeking the One alone, and it requires the will to overcome all obstacles.
One part of the understanding that we need can be learned from those who have overcome addictions. A person may be a hopeless alcoholic, for example. Through following the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, and with the help of the Divine, they may overcome their addiction and never take a drink again. However, there is one thing that they recognize—no matter how firm they have become in their vow never to take a drink again—and that is that they are only one drink away from becoming an alcoholic again.
Similarly, in our yoga life, we must always have great humility. Circumstances may have allowed us to live a good life, a religious life, a decent life, but we must be always aware that avidya maya will be present within us until the very end, and it is the job of avidya maya to make us perfect by constantly tempting us to go the wrong way. It will strengthen us in our resolve, if we are aware of it through understanding, if we have a constant desire to overcome it—a love of the good rather than the pleasant—and the strong will to resist temptation.
Pujya Swami Chidanandaji has an expression, “Till the last breath in the body,” Till the last breath in the body we must be humble and practise integral yoga, which means our intellect, our emotions and our will—not only in our inner yoga, but also in the way we think and act in the world. To abide in Oneness we must first become undivided, become integrated.
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