The Background of Thought-4.

There is a famous statement of Neo-Platonist origin: “This is a centre which is everywhere.” 

We cannot think of a centre that is everywhere. 

Such a thing is never seen anywhere in the world. 

The centre of a circle is only in one place; it cannot be everywhere in the circle. 

But this is a centre which is everywhere in the sense that it has a uniform characteristic. 

However much we may scratch our head, we cannot understand what all this means because we have never seen such a thing in our life. 

With effort of thought we have to subdue the old habit of thinking, cultivate a new habit altogether in a reoriented form, and strive to learn this art of Yoga proper, which is the system introduced for the appreciation and recognition of the centre that is everywhere. 

Because the centre is everywhere, the circumference can be nowhere. 

We have heard this said many times, and we dismiss it as a joke and a humorous gesture made by an old philosopher, but he has said the ultimate truth of things. 

We call it the Atman in Sanskrit, and the great Neo-Platonist said it is a centre that is everywhere – the Atman which is everywhere.



We are always likely to think the Atman is within us. 

How can it be everywhere? When it is within us, naturally it is very clear.

It is within you, and within that person, and within this object, and so on. 

So there are many ‘withins’. Naturally we are led, due to a sensory interpretation of this centre, to regard it as manifold, or a multitude of intuitively grasped subjects, or Purushas. 

This is absolutely far from the truth. 

The Atman, which is the centre of our being, is also the centre of other beings, organic or inorganic. 

Inasmuch as they are uniformly spread, they can only be one ultimately, and yet we have to comprehend this uniformity of centre or Atman without bringing the idea of circumference or externality.

Continues...