INSIGHTS – Surge 97
November 3, 2013
THE LIGHT OF INTELLIGENCE WITHIN YOU
Hear the audio of this at (YouTube) Voice S97
The celebrated Gayatri mantra1 refers to a divine light within each of us, which directs our thoughts (and emotions). Where is this light? Is it just poetry or do we have something scientific about this revelation? We normally understand the power of thoughts and emotions but here we are told there is something above or beyond both these acclaimed faculties. Is this an abstract concept or a solid reality?
In the well-known story of “the lost tenth man,’ each of the ten members of the group that swam across a river counted the other nine but left out himself. Everyone therefore concluded that they were ten before and were only nine now. The tenth man had drowned and died. Everyone went by what he could see outside himself and ignored himself. The kind words of a passerby helped them to realize they had not lost anyone. Likewise we usually count all our bodily faculties, intellectual abilities and emotional strengths but leave out the Self, the supreme light within.
To get back in touch with the hidden Self, the Atma, is all the more necessary in these days of fast technological growth. Someone2 remarked recently, referring to the story of Kisa Gautami and The Buddha where the lady had lost her son and the Great One advised her to get a handful of mustard seeds from a house that had not known death. The writer said, if The Buddha were to re-enact the episode, he would ask the bereaved mother to fetch some mustard seeds from a house that did not have a mobile phone! In developing countries like India, we find families in poor villages or slums have multiple mobiles though they may not have drinking water or proper toilets.
Technology has apparently solved a thousand problems but has surely created a thousand new ones too. “Revolution in technology has resulted in hefty salary, enhanced purchasing power, erratic work schedule, work pressure and ailments,” says the author referred to above. With our access to Google search and many other popular features of the Internet like the FaceBook, Wikipedia and YouTube, we are certainly enjoying a higher standard of living but, as Swami Chinmayananda often asked, where has our standard of life gone? There was a report just ten days back that a teenage girl committed suicide because her parents forbade her from using the social network FaceBook. Millions among us are unable to set our priorities and get lost in the endless ‘little pleasures’ of modern technology.
Stop, and Proceed – is the simple message of the day, to avoid more accidents. We need to just stop our engagement in doing, talking, thinking and feeling; we need to return home to the silence deep within, where transcendental intelligence (divine light, bhargo devasya) awaits us. It has the capacity to heal us, to restore our sanity. If we have no idea of what this hidden power is, we are to take help from mystics of the great spiritual traditions of the world. The ancient Upanishads3 made the call, “Know that, which the mind cannot know but which empowers the mind to know everything.” Sri Ramana Maharshi’s advice on self-inquiry and Sri J Krishnamurti’s comments on self-observation are examples of how mystics in recent times pointed to coming upon this light of intelligence that is not bound by thought.
Swami Chidananda
Solan, Himachal Pradesh
Notes:
1 Om bhur bhuvah svah tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.
2 Latha Shashidhar in an article “IT has done more harm than good,” in The Hindu, Chennai, September 15, 2013 – page 14.
3 Kenopanishad 1.5
Announcement: Fowai Forum invites those in and near Pune to the Holistic Seminar – 3600Effectiveness, with speakers Swami Chidananda, Ranjini Manian (Chennai) and Dr Sid Gautam (North Carolina). Click on event or see fowai.org/360-effectiveness
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