Light

[Guest guest]

Q: Swamiji, after the arati, we touch the light to our eyes. What is

the significance of this?

 

A: It signifies that our sight is being purified. The entire universe

is supposed to be looked upon as God, but we don't see it as God, do

we? But for instance when we offer fruits ... suppose you eat a

banana when you are hungry. You just eat it and throw away the skin.

But suppose you put the same banana in front of God and sit and pray

and imagine that He has accepted it. And you feel a sense of

sacredness and holiness associated with it. The way you will eat the

fruit then will be quite different from the way you would without

offering it, for there is a difference of sacredness and holiness

associated with it. In the same manner, when we offer the entire

universe back to Him, we are only acknowledging symbolically: " O

Lord, I did not know that You Yourself have become this whole

universe. But now, through Your Grace, my eyes of knowledge are

opened and now I look at it in a different way. So everything becomes

sacred to me. " That is why the light is considered as sacred. It is

not only the light which has become sacred, the fruits which are

offered, the flowers - everything associated with it - the cloth,

even the plates. This is the beginning of spiritual life, trying to

see God everywhere. We have to start somewhere and that is the

significance of it. Reverence comes with that.

 

- Swami Dayatmananda