A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga | Page 8

Life is but One--the Universe is a living Unity, throbbing,
thrilling and pulsating with the Will-to-Live of the Absolute. Back of

all apparent shapes, forms, names, forces, elements, principles and
substances, there is but One--One Life, present everywhere, and
manifesting in an infinitude of shapes, forms, and forces All individual
lives are but centers of consciousness in the One Life underlying,
depending upon it for degree of unfoldment, expression and
manifestation.
This may sound like Pantheism to some, but it is very different from
the Pantheism of the schools and cults. Pantheism is defined as "the
doctrine that God consists in the combined forces and laws manifested
in the existing Universe," or that "the Universe taken or conceived as a
whole is God." These definitions do not fit the conception of the
Absolute, of the Yogi Philosophy--they seem to breathe but a refined
materialism. The Absolute is not "the combined forces and laws
manifested in the universe," nor "the universe conceived as a whole."
Instead, the Universe, its forces and laws, even conceived as a whole,
have no existence in themselves, but are mere manifestations of the
Absolute. Surely this is different from Pantheism.
We teach that the Absolute is immanent in, and abiding in all forms of
Life in the Universe, as well as in its forces and laws--all being but
manifestations of the Will of the One. And we teach that this One is
superior to all forms of manifestations, and that Its existence and being
does not depend upon the manifestations, which are but effects of the
Cause.
The Pantheistic Universe--God is but a thing of phenomenal
appearance, but the Absolute is the very Spirit of Life--a Living,
Existing Reality, and would be so even if every manifestation were
withdrawn from appearance and expression--drawn back into the
source from which it emanated. The Absolute is more than Mountain or
Ocean--Electricity or Gravitation--Monad or Man--It is
SPIRIT--LIFE--BEING--REALITY--the ONE THAT IS. Omnipotent,
Omnipresent; Omniscient; Eternal; Infinite; Absolute; these are Man's
greatest words, and yet they but feebly portray a shadow thrown by the
One Itself.
The Absolute is not a far-away Being directing our affairs at long
range--not an absentee Deity--but an Immanent Life in and about us
all--manifesting in us and creating us into individual centers of
consciousness, in pursuance with some great law of being.

And, more than this, the Absolute instead of being an indifferent and
unmoved spectator to its own creation, is a thriving, longing, active,
suffering, rejoicing, feeling Spirit, partaking of the feelings of its
manifestations, rather than callously witnessing them. It lives in
us--with us--through us. Back of all the pain in the world may be found
a great feeling and suffering love. The pain of the world is not
punishment or evidence of divine wrath, but the incidents of the
working out of some cosmic plan, in which the Absolute is the Actor,
through the forms of Its manifestations.
The message of the Absolute to some of the Illumined has been, "All is
being done in the best and only possible way--I am doing the best I
can--all is well--and in the end will so appear."
The Absolute is no personal Deity--yet in itself it contains all that goes
to make up all personality and all human relations. Father, Mother,
Child, Friend, is in It. All forms of human love and craving for
sympathy, understanding and companionship may find refuge in loving
the Absolute.
The Absolute is constantly in evidence in our lives, and yet we have
been seeking it here and there in the outer world, asking it to show
itself and prove Its existence. Well may it say to us: "Hast thou been so
long time with me, and hast thou not known me?" This is the great
tragedy of Life, that the Spirit comes to us--Its own--and we know It
not. We fail to hear Its words: "Oh, ye who mourn, I suffer with you
and through you. Yea, it is I who grieve in you. Your pain is mine--to
the last pang. I suffer all pain through you--and yet I rejoice beyond
you, for I know that through you, and with you, I shall conquer."
And this is a faint idea of what we believe the Absolute to be. In the
following lessons we shall see it in operation in all forms of life, and in
ourselves. We shall get close to the workings of Its mighty Will--close
to Its Heart of Love.
Carry with you the Central Thought of the Lesson: CENTRAL
THOUGHT. There is but One Life in the Universe. And underlying
that One Life--Its Real Self--Its Essence--Its Spirit--is The Absolute,
living, feeling, suffering, rejoicing, longing, striving, in and through us.
The Absolute is all that really Is, and all the visible Universe and forms
of Life is