Why is humanity fragmented? The answer lies in human history. Historically, humankind lived in geographical pockets that were isolated from each other. We felt connected with each other by proximity to each other within the same locale. Shared culture and language shape our perception of our underlying reality. Our social organization, economics, and politics added to our sense of kinship, giving us an identity that distinguishes us from other communities with whom our interactions were rare and limited in their contexts.
Our spiritual leaders, prophets, sages and seers, perfectly knew the underlying reality of our being. They knew that the entire universe was united and underlain by an unseen spiritual reality which expressed itself partially through the universe and its various beings. They knew this reality was not open to definite intellectual understanding and was essentially ineffable. They knew that it could only be referred to in a nuanced and metaphorical manner. They also knew that they must talk about it because of the meaningfulness inherent in its knowledge, however incomplete. Out of their unbounded love and compassion, they wanted to address everyone in their target populations to help improve individual and community living.
Our spiritual leaders used divinity as a metaphor for pointing to the unseen reality. The divine images were shaped by the dominant language and culture of the area and were unavoidably different for different communities. The desire to address entire communities, the human weakness for easy and definite answers and the difficulty of communication about the abstract reality were primarily responsible for the common acceptance of the divine metaphors as the reality itself. Thus, what were meant as pointers became the many fragmented realities in place of the one integrative reality they were meant to indicate.
The one unseen and integral reality that underlies all that there is in the universe is thus seen by various people as diverse forms of divinity shaped by our language and culture. The divine forms are invariably anthropomorphic, attributing limited human characteristics to the unlimited spiritual reality underlying humanity and all that exists.
Assumed limitations of the one unlimited amounts to its fragmentation. This assumption results from our ignorance about the one underlying reality that our sages, seers and prophets spent their lifetimes to see, and we could not because we did not make the effort.
