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3
The Idea of Unity
Do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, the neighbour who is near of kin, the neighbour who is a stranger, the companion by your side, the wayfarer and those whom your right hand shall possess. -Al Quran
WHAT LIFE SHOULD MEAN
In
n the preceding chapters, we have established the concept
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interact with one another, and the expansion of the eternal consciousness. In India, in Vedic, Buddhist and Islamic writings, the cosmic character of life is taken for granted. It is regarded as an inherent property of an infinite, timeless and eternal Universe. In Western philosophy, the idea that living seeds or spermata have been ever present in the cosmos was posited by the pre-Socratic philosopher, Anaxoragas,1 as early as 500 BC. The law of biogenesis says that all life comes from life, and that each organism comes from one or two parents of its own species. It thus inherits its characteristics in unbroken lineage from its ancestors from the beginning of its species on Earth, and, if we accept the theory of evolution, from the beginning of all life on Earth.
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