Multiplicity in Unity

Multiplicity arises from unity. The one itself becomes the many just as a single seed becomes a tree in all of its luxuriant growth of roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit. The many are not opposed to the One. The many are the One. The key is to see the One in the many and the many in the One, not to try to reduce the many to the One. The former is universality. The latter is a dead uniformity.

Hinduism is noted for the complexity of its views of reality, which seem bewildering for a mind trained to think that there is only One God. Its many names and forms for the Divine, its numerous great teachers from the most ancient times to the present generation, and its many practices and paths of Yoga encompassing all human temperaments - is difficult even for a broad mind to comprehend. While other religions have a single strand, Hinduism appears like the tail of peacock.

Hinduism recognizes many great spiritual teachers and leaders saints, sages, seers, prophets, incarnations, yogis and siddhas through the millennia. 

[ Back ] [ David Frawley ] [ Up ] [ Next ]