Our connections with the universe

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

As I continue to read ‘‘The Life Divine’’
by Sri Aurobindo, I am starting to make connections
that I haven’t seen before…

That certain schools of thought in India, not all, but some,
hold that Brahman is all… for example, this is from the
Taittiriya Upanishad

‘‘He arrived at the knowledge that matter is Brahman’’

‘‘He discovered that mind was Brahman’’

These are just two examples of connecting Brahman with
the universe… they are one and the same… and within
that we have Atman… which is the soul… ‘’ Atman: the spiritual
life of the universe, especially when regarded as inherent in
the real self of the individual’’ Atman and Brahman are
considered to be the same thing…
That is why one can investigate the self, Atman, one
is also investigating Brahman…they are one and the same…
the eastern religions/philosophy don’t have a personal god,
as they do in the west,…belief in the universal, as in
Brahman/Atman… is just that, the universal…
it is impersonal, focused on all, not on the one…

But this belief, reminds one of some Western Philosophy,
especially Spinoza… In reading Spinoza, one could be
reading some Indian text… the belief in that impersonal
universe and that god is nature, or that Brahman is all…

Two very different cultures over thousands of years,
engaged in the very same thought… the question in
my mind is not about the this ‘‘belief that the universe
and everything within it are essentially one and the same
with god, or that god is identical to the universe’’
and the universe is impersonal, and quite indifferent
to the fate of one individual, or group of individuals…
the question for me arises in the need for this belief…
Why this need for a faith in the universe and god,
in being one?

One of the things that is most noticed about human beings,
is that we are social beings… we are, for lack of a better word,
designed, by evolution, to engage with each other… we
seek out, all of us, connections, to each other, to our society,
to the world and beyond, to the universe…
I often bring up Maslow and his pyramid of values,
where all human beings have certain needs, among which
are the biological needs of food, water, shelter, health care,
education, and we have psychological needs of love,
of a sense of belonging, of safety/security, of esteem…
but I might argue that these needs don’t answer all our
needs, we also have a very strong need to connect to
others… and that includes connecting to the universe…
and religion is one such way to connect to the universe…
and within Eastern Religions, the need to connect to
the universe, is along the lines of the universe and god
being the same thing… Brahman and Atman, being the
same thing… to seek out the universe, all one needs to do
is to seek out and become one with our Atman… our soul…
because Atman and Brahman are the same thing…
we are beings that try to connect to each other and
the universe… I would list this connection as part
of the needs of human beings…and I would put
this need for connection as part of our psychological
needs…

one could, could make this need for connection
as, perhaps, the most important need of human beings
in terms of our psychological needs…
one of the profound discovery of being human
lies in our grasping that we are temporary beings…
that we are of short duration, that as of the moment
we are born, we begin that long road to death…
We don’t make that connection until long after
we are born… and some, never make that connection…

My mom, who is 90 years old, live in a nursing home, she
has dementia, and her days are simply waiting for death…
she doesn’t realize it, she has dementia… but every single
day is just a day closer to death… she has, literally nothing
to live for… she is unable to really function anymore…
she must be watched all the time, and she can’t do anything
by herself… for me anyway, her life is totally pointless at this
time… she is waiting to die, nothing more… is that even living
anymore? the Kantian questions, she is unable to answer those
questions… ''What am I/we to do?" ''What should I/we believe in?"
''What can I/we know?" She can no longer make connections anymore…
and is that really living?

But I/we can still make connections, we are still functioning…
the questions of pantheism, that the universe is Brahman/Atman
vs the western question of a personal god, is a real question that
needs to be addressed by us…

Do the Kantian questions change with the knowledge/understanding
of Brahman universe, or do the questions change with the
knowledge/understanding of the western belief in a personal god?

Kropotkin

2

As in the first post, I laid out some possibilities…
but here I lay out other possibilities…

That human beings are beings that connect to idea’s,
objects, beliefs and values and of course, to other
human beings… that is perhaps the most human function
we have, our need to connect…

but let us try this… let us remove our need to connect
to the universal… which in this case is god or Brahman/Atman…
what if, what if there is no god, no Brahman/Atman?
that there is no universal for us to connect to? Now what?

If there is no god/no Brahman/Atman, what does this
mean for us as human beings? What can we connect to?
Does being unable to connect to the universal, make us
less human? or more human? As a vital part of being human
lies in our need to connect, what if we cannot connect to
this universal? There is a mental illness… where one
cannot connect to other human beings… we call this
Sociopathy… an inability to emphasize with others…
a sociopath struggles to understand or share the feelings
of others… this is a connection… we connect with
others by sharing or emphasizing with others…
is the inability to connect to the universe, is that
the same as being a sociopath?
No, and I hold that it’s because of the way we were built
by evolution… we can hold one dog as dear as we hold
ourselves or our spouses… but increase that to multiple
dogs and with each dog, we are less able to emphasize
with each dog… there is a limit, a human limit
to this emphasizing with others… we can hold one
person as dearly as ourselves, but we lack the ability
to do the same with multiple number of human beings…
I live in a city of roughly 30,000 people… even I were to
know each person, I don’t, but even if I were to know
each of those 30,000 people, I am unable to emphasize
with each and every one of them…it isn’t humanly possible…
Those 30,000 people are simple an abstract number to me…
and yet, we have people who can, without abstract feeling,
hold a large number of people as having value…

We have several examples of people who have valued
larger number of people than we usually do…
Jesus is one such person… he called for a ‘‘universal’’
value of having faith in god…for him, there were two
types of people, those who believed and those who didn’t…
his connection was about those who believed and those
who didn’t… but we have others, who also had believed
in more universal values… like Gandhi and MLK…

So, the question becomes, are your connections geared
toward the one or the universal?

Kropotkin

3

So, what would a belief in universal values look like?

If we were to follow Jesus, we would hold to values like
tolerance, acceptance, open-mindedness, compassion,
mercifulness, to name a few values that are universal values
that Jesus believed in…values that are geared toward
the many, not the individual… if I were to follow Jesus,
I would engage in these universal values of love, tolerance,
acceptance, and compassion… Ummm, it seems to me
that these values are also present today… under a name
that I can’t place right now…

Kropotkin

4

So, the question becomes, how do we best connect to
others? Which values work best in connecting to others?
and just as importantly, having others to connect with us?
Do values like hate, anger, greed, lust, violence, intolerance,
do those values create a connection to us, from us? Can
I connect to another who expresses hate or anger toward me?

One of the most human of experiences is this connection
that we create to others… so, how do we engage
in creating connections to others?

One of the most powerful connections we can make with
another is by the value of love… Love is one of the
major, if not the major connection we have with others…
and do we express love best with the values of hate, anger,
greed, violence, intolerance?

Or is the value of love best expressed by the values of
love, peace, acceptance, tolerance, compassion?

What values did Jesus or Gandhi or MLK, express?

Kropotkin

5

let us flip this script a bit…

What if, what if there is no one, no ultimate reality, no
Brahman… what if all we see is all there is?
and does that knowledge change your life?
I have argued that the reality we see, is the reality
that is… there is no Brahman, no ultimate reality to
see or find… now what? What are we to do now?

Does that change the idea of love and belonging and
acceptance and being/finding peace change?
No, and that is the beauty of this… regardless if
there is or isn’t an ultimate reality, we can still
engage in seeking out that which connects us…

hate and anger and violence, that doesn’t connect us…
it divides us, separates us, and forces us into
more anger and hatred and violence… for it is
the human path to respond to the emotions we receive
in the same way… If someone present us with violence
or hated, it is natural to respond in the same manner…
that is only human… if someone tries to punch me,
I respond the exact same way and return the ‘‘favor’’,
that is why we try to treat people with love and peace
and hope… it is only natural to respond that way back…

but those who hate and have anger, will say, that is naive,
that only by force can one discover peace… that is wrong…
walk softly and carry a big stick… they say… the peace
that is found within violence or potential violence is not peace
at all… it is a temporary truce, at best… true peace is found
within mutual respect and love… the man, group, state
that can only respond with violence, is not engaged in
seeking out peace at all… and they find themselves,
again and again and again, in fighting and violence…
if there is only this reality, not a heaven or some ultimate
reality, then there is only here…

and here is where you find what you bring… if you bring
violence and hate, that is all you get, if you bring
peace and love, that is what you will get… you get what
you bring to the table…

and one might say, well, someone might take advantage of you…
and so what? are you so small that you can’t afford that…
are you so poor that you can’t even be generous?
if someone takes advantage of me, I can afford it,
but peace, and mutual relations requires that we
dance as one, I can’t give to you unless you give to me…
that is the dance… we can mutually benefit each other
as it helps both of us… if you take and not give, it doesn’t
benefit either one of us…
peace and love and mutual benefits, requires action
from both of us, not just one of us…
but hate and anger and greed require only one person,
and that is why it fails… it can only benefit one…
and success, true success helps/benefits both parties…
for we are together in this… there is no way we/you and me,
survive without aiding each other… for that is the social aspect
of society… I can only survive with you help and you can
only survive with my help… that is the nature of being human…
we do not rise and fail alone, we can only succeed with each
other… that is the bottom line of being human…
alone we die, success/ survival can only come when
we work together… my success can only come with you
and your success can only come with me… that is
the true nature of reality… not god, or Brahman or
Atman, but in the day to day living with each other…
with day to day actions that benefit each other…
not with violence or carrying a big stick,
but with peace and a helping hand…

Kropotkin