Namaskar. Humanity is one and indivisible. All life is one and indivisible. There was a time in human history when the people of a different race or a different nationality would be enslaved by conquerors, made to work as slaves for those who were the conquering nation, conquering race because human beings could not perceive the unitary nature of humanity. They could only perceive themselves as a group, separate from another. And they felt thus entitled to exploit and harm the other because they considered themselves separate, apart, and superior.
Whenever people divide themselves into groups, this psychology tends to dominate. When there is self and other the defence mechanisms come to support and justify one's own actions and the fulfilment of one's own needs even at the exploitation of others. When this psychology of self and other dominates a group of people, be it a clan, a religious group, a nation, a tribe, even a race, the group that feels superior will inevitably put their needs above the other whom they feel is not equivalent to them. This is not simply about race. People do it on nationality. People do it on region of a country. People do it to any group they feel is not equivalent to them and whom they might exploit.
These attitudes have dominated human history and have made human history a blood bath. And there has been much toil and pain and suffering on the part of those who have lost wars, have lost their nations, their lands, to the conquerors. This psychology is very active today in the world. In some places it is white versus black. In others, it's this nationality versus that nationality, this religious approach versus that religious approach.
This is an inherent fault or failing in human societies and to guard against it is of extreme importance. In the country in the United States today, the concept of systemic racism that has undermined even subtle values in the society, has come forward pointing out the subtle beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours that support racism. No longer is it slavery, but these subtle beliefs and behaviours mark distinctions that are significant. And you will find that not only in race but in other parts of the world in national identity. Those of a particular national within another nation will be looked down on. There will be systemic prejudices.
But the history of humanity is not subtle. Those were not simply attitudes or subtle behaviours but massive oppression, enslavement of other, brutality, all because the needs of one group that feel superior are put above the needs of the other, and because the people fail to see the unitary nature of human life. They fail to see that all living beings love their life. All living beings want to be happy. They fail to see the unity of life. The call to unity is the call to the true way.
In today's United States there is not so much unity. There is ideological split of significance and the danger of seeing self-superior to other. Even this same psychology extends beyond those in human form, to prejudice those who are not in human form, who are part of the animal kingdom, to exploitation. And thus one species exploits other species in mass farming, called farming, but really enslaving of animals that are put to death after cruel treatment. This is the same psychology that divides according to national identity, divides according to race, divides according to species that feels superior to the other.
It is an inherent disease within humanity. The only way to rout that disease is by awakening yourself to the unitary nature of life, of living beings that all are manifestations of divinity. All living beings put upon this earth love their life, want to have their children, want to grow and live and find happiness.
When it is understood that your basic humanity, your basic life flow in this manifest world is the same as that of other living beings, is the same as that in the animal kingdom, even in the plant kingdom, then how can you live a life of harm? Through unconscious attitudes, bigoted belief systems, people continue to live lives of harm. What does it mean to follow ahimsa? What does it mean to have true magnanimity of mind? What does it mean to love God, to love guru, to love living beings? It means getting rid of this bigotry, this small mindedness, this division of self and other. It means finding your heart centre and living from that. And how to do this?
Most people you will find are motivated by social approval - money, wealth, that which can make them feel secure and feel above others. Acquiring those things is a dominate activity of human life. Everyone wants to be in the higher social realm - you are a doctor, you are a lawyer, you are a wealthy man. No one wants to be on the bottom rung of the social ladder. People are motivated by this desire, and they follow leaders, they give their allegiance to leaders and to groups. This is the animal instinct within human beings to do these things.
But, when consciousness awakens and conditioned behaviour and attitudes are questioned and awareness is brought to life, one begins to have choices whether to follow these animal instincts or to begin to make conscious choices as to what to follow.
Don't follow leaders. Follow Parama Purusha. Follow the supreme divinity at the core of all life. If that divinity becomes the polestar of your life, and you awaken to that unconditional love, then many of these habitual unconscious systemic prejudices fall away in the wake of deep love because that divine one, Parama Purusha sees no distinction between one person and another, between the deer in the forest and the lion, and the human. The love of Parama Purusha is unconditional and is showered on all. All are the children. All are part of the one. All are his children. All are her children. There is no separation.
So, when you align yourself with that great divinity, you align yourself with that love and when you truly align yourself with that love, much of this conditioned mind, conditioned approach, changes. Then you say, well if this is the case why are there the Crusades, why are there the slaughter of Muslims by Hindus? Why is this religious group fighting with that religious group? Why are these things happening if people are dedicated to God? I tell you it is not out of dedication to God. It is out of social climbing this inherent desire to be above others, to follow leaders for one's safety and protection. These are instinctual habits of the human mind.
If you want to be a true spiritualist, if you want to be a true lover of God, you must sacrifice this animal tendencies, this survival instincts that lead you to follow leaders, to follow belief systems, to follow authority. Some say turn East. Some scriptures say turn West. Whom to follow? What to follow? Follow the practical man. Follow the way to the divinity. Do not follow these systemic prejudices, systemic forms of racism, systemic forms of species division, systemic forms of distinction between self and other.
The true yogi is their own man, their own woman. Their loyalty is to Parama Purusha. Their loyalty is to God not to any person, not to any group. For this division of groups is part of the animal instinct that drives much of humanity. But one who has melded themselves into Parama Purusha, one who has melded themselves into surrender to the ways of the one God knows that all are the children of the one, and that that one loves everyone unconditionally. There is no division, no separation.
Let that deep sadguru, that one true divinity, be the polestar of your life, be your leader, be your guarding force and no other. Then surely you will adopt his ways, her ways, and you will begin to shed these conditioned responses into a love which is unconditional. Doing this is how you become a sadvitra. (sp?) A sadvitra is not simply an idea, a belief system. It is going beyond beliefs, going beyond identities with this group or that group, to living solely to surrender to the one God, to Parama Purusha, and letting unconditional love that sees no differences, no boundaries of species, of race, of nationality, of this particular religion or that religion. When you let that one love, that one great one be your guiding force and live your life in surrender to that, letting that love flow through you, then you are on the path of the sadvitra. Alright? Are there any questions? Alright. Namaskar.