The Absolute (God) Is Like the Sun

The Yogis reject the notion of referring to the Supreme Intelligence responsible for the creation of all things as God, as the term tends to evoke the image of a human-like deity with personal attributes. Instead, they prefer to employ the term Absolute, as it more accurately conveys the true nature of this entity. The Absolute encompasses everything without exception and exists beyond the realm of relativity.

And they find it helpful to use the analogies of the sun and the ocean to explain the relationship between the Absolute and all beings.

As the sun is reflected in the ocean, and in every tiny drop of the ocean; so is the Absolute, reflected in each manifestation as a soul.

The reflection is not the sun itself, and yet it is not an illusion or a false thing— for the sun has sent forth a part of itself; its energy; its heat; its light; its substance. And this is the miracle and the mystery, that while the presence is in the drop, still the sun itself is not there, except in appearance. One seeing the reflection in the drop, sees the shape and light of the sun, and yet the sun is in the sky.

So that while the sun is in the drop, it is in the sky— and while it is in the sky, it is in the drop. This is the divine paradox— that contains within it the explanation of the many which is one, and the one which is many. Each being real— each being apparently separated, and yet not really separated. And the sun may shine on millions of drops, and the drops may reflect millions of suns in that way. Yet while each drop contains the sun, still there is only one sun, and it still remains in the sky.

May each drop, each of you, understand that it has within it the sun of life, and learn to grow into an actual realization of its presence.