The underlying premise of the Vedic world view, one which I espouse whole-heartedly, is that we are all one thing, which is pure consciousness. Love. We are all unique, individual expressions of the same ONE thing, just like my pinky looks different and has a different function from my ear, but they are absolutely both a part of me.

My struggle with this world view is that this oneness is not the day-to-day experience of everyone in the world. A lot of people have it really, really bad in this world, to a point where they can’t even conceive of ‘it’s all one thing’. In other words, I can afford to have this world view because I’m white, educated, and was raised in a healthy, well-to-do family. Yes, I’ve worked hard, but I’ve also been given unfathomable opportunities- large ones, and daily micro-opportunities- just by virtue of being born into this body.