Lighting the Inner Lamp

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The Inner Lamp

 

To keep a small oil lamp burning on its altar is an age-old, sacred

practice in every Hindu shrine. The pujari or purohit (the worshipper

or the priest) or his assistants take turns to tend its flame—adding

oil and trimming or replacing the worn-out wick whenever necessary.

In the shrines where resources are meagre or the paucity of time

plays a role, the altar lamp is lit only in the morning and evening

or at least once a day. Lighting the altar-lamp is an essential part

of maintaining a shrine; in its absence the shrine is incomplete and

deficient.

 

Like a shrine without a lamp, human life without the light of

devotion and faith is incomplete. Sometimes this inner light is

compared to Self-knowledge which reveals the real nature of our being

and the true purpose of life. Sri Krishna says in the Gita1 that to

those devotees, who are unwavering in their devotion, 'out of sheer

compassion for them, I, abiding in their hearts, destroy the darkness

in them born of ignorance, by the luminous lamp of knowledge.'

Elucidating what Sri Krishna means by the 'luminous lamp of

knowledge' Acharaya Shankara says,

 

'characterised by discrimination; fed by the oil of contentment due

to Bhakti; fanned by the wind of absorbing meditation on Me;

furnished with wick of pure consciousness evolved by the constant

cultivation of Brahmacarya and other pious virtues; held in the

reservoir of the heart devoid of worldliness; placed in the wind-

sheltered recess of the mind, withdrawn from the sense-objects, and

untainted by attachment and aversion; shining with the light of right

knowledge, engendered by incessant practice of concentration.'

 

In other words, when a person lives a life of devotion, purity and is

free from all sense-cravings, he develops a kind of inner faculty

that guides and illumines his intellect and all his life. It is like

coming across a self-help book, easy to access and make use of.

 

Inner lamp is the lamp of viveka (discrimination) and shraddha (faith

and devotion). When a person begins to rise above his lower nature

which consists of considering sensory pleasures—gross and subtle—as

the highest, and living a self-centred life, he soon realises the

need for a more reliable source of guidance than what he had been

following till then. His search for a higher source begins only when

his higher nature becomes active. Sri Krishna speaks of two persons

(dva imou purushou loke)2 residing in every person. These two persons

refer to two natures that every human being naturally inherits as a

human being. The lower nature is ego-driven and holds enjoyment of

senses as the only way to become happy. It is the cause of all

misery, of all crimes, of all tragedies and all pain. Lower nature

manifests itself naturally.

 

The higher nature, though inherent in every human being, awakens only

when a person is disillusioned with the false promise of happiness

that lower nature lures him into. It is the source of all strength

and happiness, wisdom and kindness. It is this higher nature which

really makes a man great, worthy of human admiration and emulation.

 

The Need for Guidance

 

It is a truism to say that one needs guidance in life. An average

human being takes it for granted that he or she needs guidance in

most matters in life. No one ever questions it or resents when he

asks for help how to apply for a visa, or learn the skill in playing

football, or how to operate a computer. Everyone expects guidelines

and considers it outrageous if he is asked to do something without

sufficient guidelines. Be it learning music or playing hockey or

deciding what to cook for the next meal, there is absolutely no way

to do without some guidelines.

 

As in the mundane matters, so also in spiritual matters, one needs

guidance and help. Guru, one's spiritual teacher, is surely the most

accepted authority in this matter. Without the help of a guru, one's

spiritual striving remains largely scattered and ineffective. But

then, the real guru never tries to make his students dependent on

him. Being a true master of inner freedom himself, he seeks to make

his student also a master of freedom and joy. One of the ways he does

this is to light up the inner lamp in the student's mind.

 

A well known phrase from Buddha's parting message given to his

beloved disciple Ananda says, 'Be a lamp unto yourself' (atma deepo

bhava). One can become a lamp unto oneself only if he is awakened to

a higher mode of living and is willing to direct his steps in its

radiance. Sri Ramakrishna compared every human being with an eternal,

divine light, burning in the inner recesses of one's personality. But

in most cases it is like a lamp with a glass cover which has a thick

layer of black soot. Usually this soot-layer is so very thick that it

lets out very little light. One might even mistake that there is no

light within at all. But if one can clean the glass case, the light

begins to shine forth. The cleaning of glass case means purifying the

mind from its present clinging to matter and making it a fit medium

for inner light to emanate. The light is already there—we have to

only make the glass case clean.

 

This inner light shines forth through viveka and shraddha. Let us try

to understand what is meant by these two terms.

 

Viveka: Viveka means the power to segregate, the power of intellect

to make positive discrimination and choosing the right course of

thought and action. Viveka determines what to let in and what to

avoid. It is like the sentry at an entrance of a building. It is the

duty of the sentry to let in only the authorised people and prevent

the unwanted visitors. He has to be alert and ever-ready. If he

neglects his duty, he creates disorder and disharmony everywhere.

Viveka is the power that questions, checks and prevents whatever is

unwanted and harmful. It also welcomes and preserves all helpful and

nourishing ideas. As the central power that administers and regulates

all our decisions, Viveka is a sine qua non for higher life.

 

Viveka cannot function without vairagya or detachment. To be detached

is to be fair. If one is not detached, one becomes prejudiced and

unfair. A partial mind cannot take right decisions. One needs to be

impartial which is what detachment does to us. Detachment essentially

means detachment to sensory pleasure and becoming free from the hold

of ego.

 

Though viveka is the power to make right, fair decisions, in most

people it remains dormant. Only in a few people it develops fully. A

child learns to recognize the objective world around as living and

non-living. When it grows a little, it learns to make a distinction

between what is pleasant and what is unpleasant. The people who are

extremely immature and crude in their thoughts and actions, are the

people who have not outgrown this stage. Greater the number of such

people in a society or an organization, the greater are its problems

and suffering.

 

As a child develops, it learns to distin- guish between good and bad.

A still higher level of distinction lies in finding out the

difference between the pleasant and good. Both are not same. Yama,

the teacher of the Katha Upanishad, points that pleasant (preyas) and

beneficial (shreyas) are the two ways in which the people respond to

life-experiences. Most people follow the preyas, the pleasant, for it

is comfortable and easy to follow.3 Only a few learn to follow

shreyas, the beneficial, for it requires self-restraint and self-

discipline.

 

Shraddha: Shraddha is a complex term. It is not mere faith, as it is

wrongly translated by many. It is a compound term. It is a

combination of faith, respectfulness and courage. Shraddha is the

power of receptivity, the ability to grasp and hold on to the higher

principles that govern life. For many people understanding and

retaining spiritual precepts is difficult and an awesome job. It is

so because they lack shraddha.

 

Shraddha is faith plus respectfulness plus courage. Think of the

marvellous courage Nachiketa, the young hero of Kathopanished, had.

He was a mere boy, so to say, but had indomitable faith in truth and

was bold enough to respectfully question his own father. The

Upansishad says right at the beginning, shraddha-avivesha,

shraddha 'entered into him'. He believed in the efficacy of the Vedic

Yajna that his father was performing and he objected to his father

giving away the scrawny cows, contradictory to what scriptures laid

down. But he remained humble and respectfully pointed out the

hypocrisy of his father's charity. He displayed his courage when he

met Yama who granted him three boons in lieu of the three nights he

had to wait. When he asked for the second boon, which was about

knowing a particular ritual to go heaven, Nachiketa told Yama with a

beaming countenance, 'Please go ahead; I am equipped with Shraddha'

(shraddhadanaya mahayyama).4

 

Let us not conclude that viveka and vairagya are required only in

spiritual matters. We need them in all departments of life and in all

situations that we encounter in our day-today life. For the so-called

distinction between 'spiritual' and 'worldly' is fictitious. We have

only one life for we have only one mind. If part of our mind

is 'spiritual' and part 'worldly,' which part will take us where?

There is an interesting story to illustrate this pretended

distinction.

 

A certain Elector of Cologne in Germany was also an Archbishop. One

day he used profane words in the presence of a farmer who could not

conceal his astonishment. Trying to justify himself, he said, 'My

good man, I am swearing not as an Archbishop, but as a prince.' For

which the intelligent farmer replied: 'But, your Highness, when the

prince goes to hell what will become of the Archbishop?'

 

If a part of the mind indulges in telling an untruth or indulges in

anger, will the other part of the mind remain unaffected and

spiritual?

 

Lighting up the Lamp

 

Lighting up the inner lamp of viveka and shraddha begins with the

awakening to a new reality of life. This means learning to look at

life from a different perspective, a better perspective. And this

means discovering the ultimate goal of life, which according to

Vedanta, is to experience the all pervading reality of our being, the

Atman. Sri Ramakrishna's homespun phrase 'God-realization is the

purpose of human life,' drives home the same truth in a much more

intimate manner. Anyone can discover this goal for himself through

patiently analysing how short-term all other goals in life are.

 

Seeking that ultimate goal is the fuel for the inner lamp. One should

not give up this search, however discouraging and daunting may be the

path. The oil that burns the inner lamp is the oil of constant

seeking, and of absolute integrity of purpose. This seeking manifests

through our willing to undergo all hardships and to carry on with out

spiritual striving. Besides doing mediation and prayer, one of the

very vital constituents of this seeking lies in keeping a watch over

oneself. Our habitually outgoing mind finds it easy to look at and

point out what others are doing or even thinking but rarely does it

learn to find out how much needs to be done in one's own life. Holy

Mother's well-known words, 'Learn to see your own faults,' points out

the need to introspect and self-inquiry as the means to attaining

peace and joy in life.

 

Keeping the inner lamp of constant discrimination and shraddha

burning is an essential need for healthy living. One needs to be

always alert. Let not the oil of seeking burn out. In other words,

let not the goal of life slip from our inner eyes. We need to replace

or trim the wick from where the light of wisdom emanates and lights

our steps. The wick means our attitude and outlook towards life. We

may need to check occasionally whether what we believe needs revision

or modification.

 

The calm mind is likened by Sri Krishna to 'a lamp kept in a spot

sheltered from the wind.' Indeed the most essential condition for

drawing benefit from its inner light, the mind should remain calm.

What makes us restless is our endless identification with the pheno-

menal world and forgetting our true nature which is divine.

Maintaining the inner calm may be challenging but it is worth all the

effort. Many of us are apt to curse the world saying what a hell it

is. But, says Swami Vivekananda, 'To those who have not controlled

their minds, the world is either full of evil or at best a mixture of

good and evil. This very world will become to us an optimistic world

when we become master of our own minds.'5 Indeed the Hindu festival

of lights (deepavali) is a celebration of this fact. When Rama, the

king of our hearts, the representative of the higher Self, 'comes

back' into our life, everyone rejoices by lighting lamps everywhere.

The festival of light is, in fact, a celebration of the light of

wisdom.

 

When we are equipped with our inner lamp, no darkness of the external

world can threaten us anymore for, light has no fear of darkness.

However intimidating may be the darkness of the night, a lighted lamp

has nothing to become anxious. It may be tiny in size but does the

size of a lamp preclude its ability to locate a piece of gold?

 

Says the Bible, 'For Thou wilt light my candle; the Lord my God will

enlighten my darkness.'6 An Upanishadic seer sends a fervent prayer

to God, 'From darkness, lead me to light' (tamaso ma jyotirgamaya).7

Whatever be our language and expression, lighting the inner lamp is

what is wanted in life—in order to walk on the path that leads to

inner light and joy.

 

(Source: The Vedanta Kesari, November 2006)