All is Only God

Published on October 25, 2018
There are two divisions of all the scriptures (philosophies)  – theistic and atheistic.  Among the theistic scriptures the Gita is an important one.  The basic principle of the Gita is “Vasudevah Sarvam”  i.e. “All is only God”.   The philosophers, who are satisfied with their philosophy, with their opinion only, stopped there, without any further progress.  But those who were not satisfied with their philosophy, realized “Vasudevah Sarvam” i.e.  “All is God”.  Having realized “All is God”, all ideological differences among philosophers and their philosophies (ideologies) are totally wiped out and they all become one. 

In the scriptures there is description of the world, the soul and God, because there is no other entity besides these three, in the entire universe.   In the Gita these three have been called out by various names;  as Jagat  (world) has been called Aparaa (lower Nature),  Kshetra (field),  body,  Kshara (perishable)  etc.,  Jeeva (soul) has been called Paraa (higher Nature), Kshetrajna (knower) and Akshara (imperishable)  etc.,  and Paramatma (the Supreme Soul) i.e. God has been called Brahma  (the Absolute) andPurushottam  (Supreme Person)  etc.  

In the Gita the Lord has mentioned Apara (world) and (Para) Soul  –  Both His Prakriti (Nature or Power).      The powerful has no independent existence, without the power, similarly the world and the Jeev (embodied soul) has no independent existence without God.  The Jeev is a part of God and the world is a part of the Jeev because  the Jeev has sustained the world  – “yayedam dhaaryate jagat”  (Gita 7/5).  

Therefore in the Gita the description of the world (universe), the Jeev and the Supreme Being (God) does not mean that they are different entities, but it means that they are one and the same.  

God is equally related with both the higher Nature and the Lower Nature. But the higher Nature (Para) bears no relation with the lower Nature (Apara).  The reason is that the nature of the two is totally different from each other. Para is unchanging and imperishable, while Apara (body and world) are kaleidoscopic and perishable.  Para Prakriti, being a part of God is of God’s nature  i.e. as God is unchanging and imperishable, so is His Para Prakriti(soul).  It means that the soul is an indivisible part of God, while the body is an indivisible part of the world.   

From book “Jeevan Upyogi Pravachan”  or “Art of Living” in English by Swami Ramsukhdasji