My journal: Unity in Diversity

[Guest guest]

30 Jan

It is such a pretty sight watching softly falling snow, slowly but gently covering every surface around. Akhil [my son] and I sat by the big window looking at each snowflake that swirled its way to the window and stuck to the glass – small flakes, big flakes, tiny flakes, medium flakes, teeny ones, giant ones – each one a different shape, each one as perfectly symmetrical as can be, each one, even the tiniest one, proudly showing of its perfectly proportionate six arms for a brief second, before they all fall into one huge blanket of snow, one inseparable from the other, just a big white expanse. When the sun comes out, they’ll all melt into water, rush into creeks, lakes and rivers, and then to the sea, their source, their mother, their God.

 

They made me think of myself, and every other human, each born, perfectly made, each having our own personality and name and form. We are all reflections of the universe experiencing its diversity. The universe is creating and expanding, and enjoying the results of its expansion in each one of us. In Swami’s words, “Expansion is my life”.

 

We all have our own beauty, race, religion, each a little different, each one perfect, the image of God. But deep down, we’re all the same – more than 99% of our constitution and make up is the same among all humans. It’s the less than 1% difference that shows up as “different” in our faces and features, heights and weights, genders and ideas. God must be laughing at us about ignoring the 99% that we all should be celebrating and rejoicing about, and instead countries go to war because of that 1% difference, people develop prejudices, think they’re superior to each other.

 

“I separated myself from myself so that I may be myself. When I love you, I love myself. When you love yourself, you love me. See in me yourself, for I see myself in all of you. You are My life, My breath, My soul… you are all my forms.”

- Baba

 

And like the little snowflakes, we too will all one day realize the unity in diversity – we will all enjoy and rejoice and celebrate our differences, and see God in all, in every single person. We will all unite and merge back into our source, our God.