Devotion Brings Inner Light – The Real Diwali Within!

A ‘medium’ is always necessary for any energy to be expressed or a program to be communicated. For example, the sun may shine bright in space, but unless light travels in a medium and is reflected we may not be able to see it. Though we experience light everyday and night, light itself is a very mystique phenomenon that has intrigued scientists and physicists for hundreds of years. Deepawali is the festival of this mystic light, celebrated all over India. Bharatiya, the citizens of India, have since ancient times been worshippers of light. The outer light is only a reflection of the inner light. When the inner light shines brightly, then we will have celebrated Deepwali in the true sense.

Every living being has a program that can manifest with the help of the body, which is the basic tool or medium of expression. Beyond the physical body, there is the astral body, which is a much subtler medium for communication. The Gods or deities have an even purer medium of expression that is finer than both the physical and subtle bodies. Beyond that level, there is no body-medium of any kind, no particles, nothing, only the Pure Program. This is the stage that we call Nirvaan (enlightenment) because there is no necessity of expressing through any medium.

One cannot convey the experience of God using limited words of comparison and expression of the physical-level world. At the most, you can try to explain His existence through the effect on the physical body, just like a blind man can tell you that a lamp feels warm even though he is unable to see its light. The wish to experience God can be sought through the following easy ways.

One can only experience God fully when one is able to go beyond the material and subtle bodies and limitations. First of all, you have to learn to transcend the normal means of communication. You can try to convey a message without using words, just by looking at the other person, or to listen to somebody even when he’s not speaking. We find this very difficult because one is not in the habit of listening, but it should be possible to look at a person and hear the question in his or her head. You can slowly develop this ability by making it a habit i.e. try or practise it every day.

A meditator is expected to live as follows. To observe maun (silence) and to concentrate on the subtler things. The meditator tries to communicate without speaking, to listen without hearing, to be satisfied without eating. God is very subtle. When He is offered prasad, He is able to enjoy it without actually eating it. In the same way, one should be able to appreciate (and feel satisfied) by the aesthetic quality and pleasant aroma of food without eating it (or needing to eat it). If you can develop such an ability, then you have reached the level where there is a chance that you can experience God. 

What is God? God is goodness, and this means that to see God, you should develop the possibility to see the good in every person and every situation. If you only look for the negative side of things, you will find ugliness and evil everywhere. This is also one of the aims of deep-cleaning our homes and surroundings before Deepawali. Once the outer is clean and positive, the hope is that we shall slowly get into the habit of seeing good, and in turn God, everywhere.

If you are interested in experiencing God, then firstly, you should drop your old habits of seeing only the faults and negativity in others. It’s important to make a new start, to forget about whatever is bad and start seeing only the good things in life. 

After all, it is a choice to decide how you experience everything. One should realise that one is free to select either the good or the bad. For example, you can choose whether to take cheap food from the roadside, or to eat sattvic food that is cooked and served in a proper manner. If your interest is that eating should be Annayoga meditation, then naturally you will rather go hungry than consume some junk food. Your outlook should not be to fill the stomach, but to take some beautiful food that will nourish the body and be transformed into energy. That is why sattvic and nourishing delicacies are an inseparable part of all the traditional festivities.

Read more about how devotion to god brings out inner light.

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