Cultivating the Awareness of the Light Within

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“Cultivating the Awareness of the Light WithinThe heart and mind can find peace and harmony by contemplating the transcendental nature of the true self as supreme effulgent

lightFrom the Yoga Sutra of PATANJALI, second century B.C.Patanjali is often called the father of yoga because he was the first person to codify and write down yoga practices. In this meditation instruction, he is telling us to let go of all distracting sights, smells, and sounds and meditate on our spiritual nature, our luminous true self. He is telling us to look inside and experience the radiance within. All cultures, peoples, and religious groups through all times have talked about the phenomena of light in the context of the religious or mystical experience. Those who have seen visions of holy beings typically see them surrounded by white light. People have always described going to the light, finding the light, being called by the light, dissolving in the light. We read about light in The Egyptian Book of the Dead as well as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Men, women, and children who have had classic near-death experiences vividly describe arriving in a

place of white light; they speak of themselves and others as being bathed in white light.Prior to being described as the light of any religion, light was just light. Light is a part of the primary source material. Later, as the history of mankind developed, the concept of light became institutionalized; it was then interpreted according to cultural and religious beliefs. Pure light thus became light of God, light of truth, light of Buddha, light of Jesus, cosmic light, and ocean of light depending upon where you were born and what you were taught. Light, however, is constant. It is fundamental energy. The New Testament, referring to John the Baptist, reads: "He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light that all might believe through him." Later Jesus says, "Put your trust in the light while you have it so that you may become sons of light." . . . British mystic George Fox, who founded the Quaker religion, used the term "inner light" to describe our

ability to personally experience God within ourselves. He himself had such an experience, which left him with the lifelong conviction that everyone can hear God's voice directly without mediation by priests or church ritual. This is the central tenet of the Society of Friends.According to Buddhism, all beings are imbued with a spark of inner divine light. In describing our original Buddha-nature, we use such phrases as innate luminosity, primordial radiance, the unobscured clear natural mind, and the clear light of reality. . . . The Jewish mystics use similar words when they speak of the inner spark or the spark of God. The Koran, referring to man, talks about the little candle flame burning in a niche in the wall of God's temple.Almost inevitably a spiritual search becomes a search for divine or scared light. By cultivating our inner core, we search for this light in ourselves as well as the divine.” Lama Surya Das, Awakening to the

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Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

 

"So, when you’re coming out of it, still, these things hang over. Still, you get affected by them. Even when you’re rising higher and higher, you find suddenly you are again pushed down to some sort of a funny situation, to some sort of a degrading things. Of course, sometimes you are shocked at yourself. Sometimes you accept all that.So, for a Sahaja Yogi, it is very important that, after coming to Realization, he has to be very introspective. Instead of seeing the bad of others, he should try to see what is bad in within himself. It’s very important that you have to know how far you are going towards your spirituality because Christ did not need this. He did not even have to introspect himself. He was something which was beyond any corruption and for Him it was just a physical transformation on the sense that He died and then He resurrected Himself.But for us, it is very

different. We are now Sahaja Yogis but we were ordinary human beings. We had no Light within us. Now the Light comes within us and we see the Light then what do we become? We have to become the Light, itself. Christ was the Light. He did not have to become. We have to become the Light. And now you have to guard on the way this Light might get disturbed, might be reduced or maybe completely extinguished.So carrying on, yourself, with this Light, first thing you should know that if you see the Light is not proper means you are not the Light. You have to become the Light. When you are the Light, then in that Light you can easily see how your mind works, what ideas it gives, what affects your mind while you’re ascending. Is this the worry or is this the responsibility that you have? Or is this from the bad habits you had, that there is an impediment in your growth as a spiritual personality?So you have to guard yourself all the time and see for yourself how you are

progressing. It’s a very beautiful journey — very, very beautiful journey.” Sri Mataji Nirmala DeviRome, Italy — April 11, 1993"