The wisdom of the ancients documented in India’s Advaita Vedanta suggests that behind the diversity of all existence, there exists a single reality. And that reality is the presence of the divine within you, me and all creation, bound together by consciousness. It is an all-encompassing (Sat), all-knowing (Chit), and innately content (Ananda) reality that exists at our very core, and surfaces when we turn inwards. When the mind is purified by meditation, reality dawns, luminous and transcendent, and it becomes apparent that beneath the individuality that we guard so dearly, lies a universality that flows through us all, keeping us connected to the source.

Consider a necklace of multicoloured and assorted beads. Each bead is unique with a distinct appearance. Each bead is also part of a bigger whole, the necklace. At the centre of every bead runs a cord that binds the string of beads together into one unified whole. Now imagine that the bead is an individual, conscious only of its external uniqueness. When this individual looks within, into the core of their soul, they discover the common cord that permeates all. This realization leads to the expansion of this individual from within, as their strands of consciousness, now unfettered by conditioning and constructs, flow outward to merge with all that exists. The single reality transcends the self.

Yoga, the ancient Indian study that explores holistic wellness by maintaining the natural balance of the five quintessential elements that make up the human body, echoes the same narrative of unity.  The elements that constitute all matter -earth, fire, air, water and space also make up the human body.

India’s ancient sages and philosophers who set off in search of the ultimate truth about life and their place in it, have propounded that life is nothing more than an individual’s quest for this single reality, a union with the universal source.