PREMA JYOTHI - Newsletter of the Prema Trust and Sacred Earth Community June 2025
Ekoham Bahusyam – I am One, let Me become Many
The basis of the universe is Oneness. This postulation is not just made within a spiritual context. It is now a widely accepted idea within the scientific community where the ‘singularity’ is described as the state before the expansion of the universe.
If it arose from one, it is reasonable to consider that all is One, that everything has not just a connected nature, but is essentially of the same nature. The question arises as to what is that nature. The second question arises as to how we can discover what that nature is.
This newsletter will explore the last question and what emerges from the ‘ground of being’ (the Oneness) and the manifestation of that ‘ground of being’ in our lives (the Flow).
The singular nature of God or Consciousness is a fundamental truth of all faiths. However, it is often overlaid with dogma until the underlying premise is lost and we get entangled in argument about our differences, when more usefulness can arise from understanding our similarities. With an open heart we embark on a journey into the possibility of unity, inner and outer. A journey that accepts that the Oneness and its manifestation into Flow are not separate.
How Do We Perceive our Oneness
“If you thus make an enquiry, everything in this universe represents only the principle of oneness. If you establish this truth firmly in your heart, the same feeling will reflect everywhere.” - Sathya Sai Baba
In giving this invitation, Sai asks us to inquire. But where should we inquire? If we believe our senses, then we see clearly that the phenomenal universe is something we can observe. Therefore, we must be separate from it in a sense. This is one scientific viewpoint, still predominating much of the thinking. This approach allows us to measure, or record that which is outside of us. It is a perfectly valid view, in a sense, if the physical universe is all that there is. But science has begun to ‘think outside of the square’ to consider other possibilities. Quantum physics (or quantum mechanics) postulates that matter and energy are two sides of the same coin, perfectly interchangeable. Quantum mechanics also postulates the ‘observer effect’, where the consciousness of the observer affects what is being observed. This effect is postulated as being associated with the ‘wave state’ of manifestation, rather than the ‘matter state’.
The postulations of quantum mechanics are largely based on field theory. A field is a sphere of influence. The magnetic field that surrounds an ordinary magnet is not visible but is detected by its effect on the observable particles and waves that surround it. So too, the field of the human organism that is created by both the energetic body and the thoughts of the organism. It is almost as if fields are the scientific evidence of the oneness that pervades the universe.
Recent cosmologists also postulate the existence of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’. These two are said to pervade the universe. Could these be the most subtle of the manifestations of Oneness?
Yet, for all this external evidence of Oneness, the most compelling argument for the universe arising from Oneness is not to be found on the external level, but the internal level. If we go inside ourselves, in the silence of our hearts we come into a place of stillness. From that stillness, if we remain for some time in that place, there arises an awareness of expansion. This allows us to experience that we are greater than the one we perceived that we were. That awareness, if experienced deeply, allows us to experience that we are not separate from the universe around us. Diving deeper still, we come to a place where there is only that, the sublime absolute – the One.
Naturally, this experience (which is not really an experience, but a beingness) does not arise just because we go inside. We are drawn out to the world through our senses and our minds. Our senses distract us from the silence. We hear noise. We smell or taste and we identify with our bodies through these sensations. So too does the mind distract. But this time, it is through thoughts of the past or the future, and through a desire for external objects or outcomes that bind us to the sensation. The place where we experience the Oneness is outside of this physical and mental experience. It witnesses the fluctuations of life and mind and is not attached nor involves itself in the temporary mundane experience that limits life to the physical and mental.
The Oneness transcends religious dogma and concepts of a separate ‘God’
Jesus – Picture materialised by Sai Baba
When I was a child, I used to attend church regularly with my parents as well as Sunday School. There was the prevailing idea that we were all ‘sinners’ and that we could only be saved by attending church and adhering to ‘Christian dogma’ regarding being ‘saved’ by the death of Jesus. If we did this, we would go to heaven. If not, hell was our destination. I used to wonder about this, particularly as to what happened to those who had lived prior to Jesus. Were they destined for a fiery eternity? I really felt that this was most unfair. Then I would ponder, what of those who never heard of Jesus? This was also unfair. I often experienced Jesus’ love but could not reconcile this with what the church was teaching.
In my twenties, I was travelling in India. By this time, I had rejected God and especially Christianity. The great father in the sky concept, which was how I pictured the Christian concept of a benevolent (or malevolent if you consider the punishment of hell) father looking over his children, seemed farcical to me.
Along the trail, I happened to pick up a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi, a profound book that has touched many lives. The book slowly drew me into the world where miraculous happenings were commonplace. But they were not enough to plant a seed of faith in a God inside my mind. However, one part of the book changed all that. In a beautiful chapter, Yogananda talks of his experience of samadhi or cosmic consciousness. In this experience, Yogananda becomes one with all creation, and then is absorbed in a great Oneness. Reading of this instance opened my eyes and my heart, realising that God was not a separate being, not simply a benevolent force, but was everything – a great Oneness if you like. My mind had traversed the idea of a great father figure, as well as the rejection of the notion of God, until it settled in the feeling that I was One and opening to the possibility of truly experiencing that. It was then that I realised that Sathya Sai Baba is what many books had alluded to – the living embodiment of the One.
In the aftermath of that moment, I walked the streets of Trivandrum in a very blissful state. The world seemed to flow about my being, and I hardly noticed the busyness nor the dirt beneath the feet. All was. It was simply that feeling of being and living in a flow of consciousness. I started talking to Sai as if He was there beside me (He was, just not in a physical sense). All the pain and all the sadness I had experienced before this time seemed to melt away. For the first time since my childhood, I experienced joy and hope. Life began to flow. God was no longer separate. God was inside me in the most intimate way, my friend and my beloved.
From Oneness emerges Flow
“Then the time came when the words began to flow, the sentence patterns changed and ‘clear voices’ began to speak from within the tangled weave. My writing was beginning to reflect the light and shade that coloured the words of the elders on the marae. I heard the voices of the old ones joined with the music of the land itself. The sounds of the rivers, the cries of the birds, the strength of the tall trees, the enduring presence of stone and the warmth of the sun gathered around the words. In the voices of the grandfathers and grandmothers, the poet, the writer and the spirit became one. And here was the paradox – in becoming one they allowed a simple sentence to carry many levels of meaning. Truth was bound within truth, and within that truth, a deeper truth again was hidden. It was as it had always been.” Barry Brailsford – The Song of the Stone
Barry Brailsford is the ‘author’ of The Song of Waitaha, a book detailing the history of the Waitaha nation, who arrived in this country nearly 2,000 years ago. Barry was given the task of writing this history by the elders of the Waitaha nation. At first, he struggled but, as the above quote reveals, a time came when the book almost wrote itself. In life we have struggles. Often, we feel stuck, unable to open to anything other than the inner and (sometimes) outer obstacles that we face. We can project our inner difficulties into the outside world and believe that the challenges are coming towards us. However, in this state we fail to realise that all life is One. We posit a difference between us and the rest of the world.
Like Barry, we find ourselves in a sort of limbo state, neither moving forward nor finding any answers. But also, like Barry, we can alter our perspective and come to realise that the answer lies not in facing the outer ‘foe’ initially but going deep into that place where there is no separation – deep into a place of surrender. From the silence of that place, the stillness of that space where we are merged with the oneness within, we emerge into a state of Flow.
Like Barry, when coming to write this newsletter, I was bereft of inspiration. I couldn’t figure out how to link oneness and flow in a meaningful way. I knew they are linked; I just could not get clarity as to how. But the creation has a way of answering our dilemmas, be they profound or seemingly trivial. On reading Barry’s book, I came across the paragraph quoted above, and everything clicked. I was back in the flow and the inner voice spoke as to how all is connected – the Oneness flows out from deep inside. It becomes reflected in the pool of creation, like the sun reflecting on the waters.
The emergence of flow from the oneness is by way of a heart that is open to the reality of who we really are and the reality of the whole. That reality is Aroha or Prema, supreme inclusive Love.
These days there are countless courses and seminars teaching people how to link with flow. These may have their use, but I feel the key is observing the life around us. I was blessed to have a father who somehow in this crazy world managed to remain (most of the time) in a calm and steady state of being. I recall watching him in his later years weave baskets. There was no fuss, he simply stood at a table, outside most of the time, for he was more at home in the outdoors, weaving cane into a basket. His quiet acceptance of what is, is a lesson that still remains with me. Flow is very much about observing our lives, accepting what is with a positive calm and meeting the need of the hour.
It is extraordinary how, when we live in that place of surrender, the universe becomes a benign mother, gifting us exactly what we need.
The Nature of Flow
Flow is not having everything nice and lovely falling into place in our lives. Recently Savitri and I were in an accident where our car and caravan were both written off. The incident was dynamic and (on the outer level) scary, with the car and caravan careering wildly across a two-lane highway and finally crashing with an explosive force into the crash barrier on the side of the road. Somehow, we simply got out of the car feeling no sense of shock or trauma! Later I realised that this reaction was the result of our inner spiritual practice. The occurrence was not benign, but the inner response was the result of Grace – Sathya Sai’s loving protection and guidance. It felt, and still feels, that this was the way it is meant to be.
When we are in flow, we are in peace. When we are in Oneness, we are in peace. Turmoil results from a mind that cannot accept life, always wanting more. All the conflicts that are raging on this planet have arisen from desire for something (outside of ourselves) more. Once we get into the cycle of conflict, our inner turmoil drives us to fight for more. There is also a fear that we will never have what the other person has. So, we take ourselves out of the flow of the now into a future where our desires are fulfilled.
But desire never leaves us in peace. It urges us on to acquire more and more. Desire and regret are two sides of the same coin – one projects into the future, and one takes us back to the past. Both take us out of the calm stream that is the emergent oneness, the flow arising from the pure heart.
But flow is not a static state. As its name suggests, it is a dynamic evolutionary force that brings to us the reality of who we really are. Just as a river has the goal of reaching the ocean, so too we flow towards our inner reality. To continue the analogy of the river and the ocean, if we observe a stream of water flowing into the ocean, we cannot say exactly when the river becomes the ocean. The boundary is fluid in that the ocean sometimes comes to meet the river, or the river sometimes has a longer wait before mergence. The river must match the tidal nature of the ocean. Back and forth goes the water, the salty mixing with the less salty waters. So too do our lives have this dynamic nature. We are not always still in the heart; we sometimes have to ‘take on’ the world with action. The river crashes around the rocks at times. However, the river must reach the ocean; it is inevitable. The dynamic action we take can also be a manifestation of flow. The key question is, ‘does this action serve our evolution?’
The Harmony of Oneness and Flow
Spiritual life is not all about secreting ourselves away from the world. Even those who appear to be on permanent retreat (monks, yogis, hermits, etc) are serving in their own way. There is a dharmic impulse to serve in all beings, all creation. The sun serves continually for millions of years, sharing life-fostering light to the planet. A tree serves by offering shade and food or even its own life (in the case of being used for timber or heating).
Animals often show enormous compassionate impulses. I watched a video of lion cubs who had lost their mother in a zoo-park. Having no alternative, the zookeepers had a female dog suckle the cubs. After the cubs were grown, the dog remained with the lions, who would show great affection to the dog by licking its fur. When the dog had her own pups, the lions even nurtured the little ones! The act of dharmic service performed by the dog resulted in a lifetime of aroha between the species. Turns out, this is quite common and there are many videos showing incidents like this one.
Ganga flowing around the rocks at Gangotri – on her way to nurture the Indian plains
We are all serving when we are in the flow. When we fight against the flow, we no longer serve, but our lives become antithetical to the flow. The sacred river Ganga provides water for millions of people. She flows around the rocks on her way to serve. Our lives can be like Ganga, flowing around the difficulties and challenges in life to offer ourselves in Love. When we recognise the sublime harmony that arises from the recognition of the unity of all creation (the oneness) we are automatically in the flow, which expresses itself as service and surrender. – Satyavan
