Swami Venkatesananda

MESSAGE OF LIGHT

The ancients 'saw' truth, incorporated it in pleasant rituals to ensure its perpetuation and the moderns enjoy the pleasantry (thus depriving the ritual of its life) and faithfully preserve the embalmed rite! Diwali is no exception. 

The darkness of the night is dispelled by the light that is kindled on Diwali. A single lamp may not be powerful enough to illumine a whole street, even as a single pious action may not bring about illumination of the self. But it is possible to illumine the whole street with strings of little lamps (Diwali), even as, if all the little acts of one's life are holy, there is illumination of the self.

The lamps enable us to see objects hidden in the darkness. The light of the sun enables us to see the world outside during the daytime, and at night the same light of the sun reflected by the moon and stars illumines the earth. An inspiring mantra in the Katha Upanishad declares, "The sun, the moon, the stars and the flame do not illumine 'that', but it is 'that' which makes them luminous." What is that? Sight. Light is useless in the absence of sight.

But, what do we mean by 'sight'? Surely, the eyes, the retina, the optic nerve, the brain-centre, are not capable of 'seeing'. These are all present in a corpse which does not see. Enquiry into this is meditation.

- Swami Venkatesananda