Joseph Pallattil
‘All is God and the God is all’ is the core of the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. If this is the case, where do individual beings come? What is the significance of the individual realities of the universe? The answers for these questions are based on the fact that, Baruch Spinoza focuses on the pantheistic merging of the individual with the All.
For some time he had a conception of the world as a process of impersonal and invariable law. It is a progression of unchangeable law and this process is impersonal. Later we can see a development in his pattern of understanding of the world and other realities. Then, he perceives the reality of the world as something personal and, therefore, lovable. This diversion happened because of his religious spirit, in which he was brought up. Now, he merges his own being with the universal order.
According to Spinoza, “the greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole universe.” The attainment of self-realization is consisted in this understanding. I am in union with the whole universe. In the Whole, I see myself. In me, I see the Whole. What is the fundamental aim of an individual being? The answer is attaining this knowledge about this union of the individual being with the whole universe. Therefore, our separateness is something illusory. Our distinctiveness is unreal. We are the part of a great stream of law and cause. We are part of God. We are flashing forms of a being greater than ourselves. We witness our death. But, we are endless, while we die. We are immortal, while we perish physically.
Our bodies are cells in the body of the race. Our race is an incident in the drama of life. Our minds are restless flashes of an eternal light. Our mind is an eternal mode of thinking. This mind is determined by another mode of thinking, and this one again another mode of thinking, and so on to infinity. Therefore, they all contribute the eternal and infinite intellect of God.
Spinoza’s pantheism remind us that we are part of the universe. It makes in me a sense of belongingness to the universe. That is, I am part of the entire reality. This understanding motivates me to be responsible to the nature in such a way that I am accountable to the nature as a member or part of the universe. I will not engage in any activity that spoils this relationship of mutual communion between me and other realities in the world. I will take care the nature.
