10 Great Spiritual Thinkers on Universal Brother and Sisterhood

Perhaps one of the most significant accomplishments of the early theosophical movement was a certain success in popularizing the notion of universal brotherhood. The notion does have roots in esoteric traditions (Masonry, Rosicrucianism, and further back), but it's 20th century influence can be linked to certain Christian schools and socialist movements as well. To what extent theosophy has been a specific influence on the esteemed company presented below would require further research, although it can already be quite apparent in several cases. Suffice to observe that some of the greatest spiritual leaders and social activists of the 20th century have been eloquent and powerful spokespeople of this beautiful ideal.

1- Leo Tolstoy 

 

Theoretically it follows, indeed, having extended the love and interest for the personality to the family, the tribe, and thence to the nation and the state, it would be perfectly logical for men to save themselves the strife and calamities that result from the division of mankind into nations and states by extending their love to the whole of humanity. (The Kingdom of God is Within You, 1894, 45)

 

2- Jane Addams

This paper is an attempt to analyze the motives which underlie a movement based, not only upon conviction, but upon genuine emotion, wherever educated young people are seeking an outlet for that sentiment for universal brotherhood, which the best spirit of our times is forcing from an emotion into a motive. These young people accomplish little toward the solution of this social problem, and bear the brunt of being cultivated into unnourished, oversensitive lives. They have been shut off from the common labor by which they live which is a great source of moral and physical health. They feel a fatal want of harmony between their theory and their lives, a lack of coordination between thought and action. I think it is hard for us to realize how seriously many of them are taking to the notion of human brotherhood, how eagerly they long to give tangible expression to the democratic ideal. (Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 116-17)

3- Helen Keller 

 

The idea of brotherhood redawns upon the world with a broader significance than the narrow association of members in a sect or creed, and thinkers of great soul like Lessing challenge the world to say which is more godlike, the hatred and tooth-and-nail grapple of conflicting religions, or sweet accord and mutual helpfulness. Ancient prejudice of man against his brother-man wavers and retreats before the radiance of a more generous sentiment, which will not sacrifice men to forms, or rob them of the comfort and strength they find in their own beliefs. 

 

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next. Mere tolerance has given place to a sentiment of brotherhood between sincere men of all denominations. The optimist rejoices in the affectionate sympathy between Catholic heart and Protestant heart which finds a gratifying expression in the universal respect and warm admiration for Leo XIII on the part of good men the world over. The centenary celebrations of the births of Emerson and Charming are beautiful examples of the tribute which men of all creeds pay to the memory of a pure soul. (Optimism: An Essay 1903, pp. 46-47)

4- Mohandas K. Gandhi

My mission is not merely brotherhood of Indian humanity. My mission is not merely freedom of India, though today it undoubtedly engrosses practically the whole of my life and the whole of my time. But through realization of freedom of India I hope to realize and carry on the mission of the brotherhood of man. My patriotism is not an exclusive thing. It is all-embracing and I should reject that patriotism which sought to mount upon the distress or the exploitation of other nationalities. The conception of my patriotism is nothing if it is not always, in every case without exception, consistent with the broadest good of humanity at large. 

Not only that, but my religion and my patriotism derived from my religion embrace all life. I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth. I want, if I don't give a shock, to realize identity with even the crawling things upon earth, because we claim descent from the same God, and that being so, all life in whatever form it appears must be essentially one. (Young India, 4-4-1929, p.107/The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, 1945, p. 135 )

5- Martin Luther King Jr.

And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. (“Beyond Vietnam,” 4 April 1967, NNRC)

 

It really boils down to this: all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny… Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly… This is the way our universe is structured. We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality. (“A Christmas Sermon for Peace”, 1967)

6- Thích Nhất Hạnh 

 

Harmony, however, is impossible if we do not have a global ethic, and the global ethic that the Buddha devised is the Five Mindfulness Trainings. The Five Mindfulness Trainings are the path we should follow in this era of global crisis because they are the practice of sisterhood and brotherhood, understanding and love, the practice of protecting ourselves and protecting the planet. The mindfulness trainings are concrete realizations of mindfulness. They are non-sectarian. They do not bear the mark of any religion, particular race, or ideology; their nature is universal. (The World We have) https://www.lionsroar.com/the-world-we-have/

7- Desmond Tutu 

For this universe has been constructed in such a way that unless we live in accordance with its moral laws we will pay the price. And one such law is that we are bound together in what the bible calls “The bundle of life”. Our humanity is caught up in that of all others. We are human because we belong. We are made for community, for togetherness, for family to exist in a delicate net work of interdependence. Truly, ‘it is not good for man to be alone’. For none can be human alone. We are sisters and brothers of one another whether we like it or not. (Tutu D 1999. No Future Without Forgiveness. Johannesburg: Rider, 154)

8- The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso

Today, the world is interdependent as never before, which is why we need a keen sense of the oneness of all human beings. We have to take the whole of humanity into account. We have to understand what we have in common with everyone else. (Twitter, Oct 2, 2020)

I don’t like formality. There’s no formality when we’re born and none when we die. In between we should treat each other as brothers and sisters because we all want to live a happy life. This is our common purpose and our right. (Twitter, Jan 24, 2020)

9- Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio

This is the true path of peace, not the senseless and myopic strategy of sowing fear and mistrust in the face of outside threats. For a real and lasting peace will only be possible “on the basis of a global ethic of solidarity and cooperation in the service of a future shaped by interdependence and shared responsibility in the whole human family” (Fratelli tutti, 3, 127)

  

10- Helena Blavatsky

We are all brothers—by the laws of Nature, of birth, and death, as also by the laws of our utter helplessness from birth to death in this world of sorrow and deceptive illusions. Let us, then, love, help, and mutually defend each other against this spirit of deception; and while holding to that which each of us accepts as his ideal of truth and reality—i.e., to the religion which suits each of us best—let us unite ourselves to form a practical ‘nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF RACE, CREED, OR COLOUR.’ ("What good has Theosophy done in India?" Lucifer, Vol. II, No. 8, April, 1888, p. 91 -(CW 9, 134))