This happened a long time ago. A unique golden deer named Ruru used to live in a dense forest. His glow was like gold and his heart was full of compassion. One day a man was drowning in the river. Ruru looked at him and rescued him without any fear, regardless of his life. The man promised Ruru that he would not tell his presence to anyone.
But after some time, after getting greed, the person gave information about Ruru to the king, thinking that he would get a reward. The king sent soldiers to catch Ruru. When Ruru came to know about this, he himself went to the king and told the whole incident. The king was influenced by his compassion and honesty and ordered the person to be punished. But Ruru requested the king to forgive the man. The king agreed to Ruru and forgave the man.
Can there be any approach to see ourselves in every person? Is it possible that we feel pain of a stranger? Fear of an animal, dry branch of a tree, drying of a river – can all these awaken any feelings within us? If yes, then that feeling, that vision, that feeling – this is the feeling of all souls.
That is, the one who has seen me everywhere and has seen everything in me, I never go away from him and he never goes away from me. This verse is the root of universal self -respect. This is an approach where there is no ‘others’. Where there is no duality, there is only one universal experience – that everything is the expansion of the same soul.
Sarvathava means to see the whole creation as a reflection of one’s own. This is a unique experience where the limited identity of the soul disappears and we all experience ourselves as a consciousness. Even today we can experience it in different moments of our life. Imagine, when a mother is worried about her child’s pain, when a doctor feels the pain of her patient in her body, when a seeker sinks into meditation and starts listening to the heartbeat through the deep rhythm of her breath – then she really experiences a sense of unity.
The biggest disease of man, the greatest inertia, is the difference between ‘I’ and ‘Tu’. This is ego. These are our limited thoughts and our small identity. We are lost in our identity and forget that we are one with all existence. The only way to eradicate these boundaries is to understand that ‘I am in everyone and everyone is in me’. This truth allows us to enter the state of universal self.
