A true life-story goes: A huge convention of swamis had booked a buffet at a restaurant. All the monks from that order came to Mumbai from every part of the world. They had ordered a vegetarian buffet. Due to a mix-up, the restaurant served a non-vegetarian buffet. What a hullabaloo there was!
Some swamis screamed at the steward. One slapped the poor waiter who was himself bewildered at this mess. Suddenly, the monks noticed that the chief swami, the revered head of the order, had helped himself to the fare from the buffet spread. He was sitting at their table, the plate in front of him.
They rushed to him crying, “Master, Master, it is non-vegetarian food!” The Master looked at them, his eyes pools of calm wisdom, “Yes, I know,” he said softly. “And I wish that my brothers show the same tenderness and solicitousness towards their fellow human beings as they show to the poor creature on this plate.” There was a stunned silence. Every brother of the order hung his head in shame.
Diwali needn’t be a festival of lights only on our window-sills, trees and streets; it can be an eternal, celestial glow in our hearts, minds and public consciousness. We can be a caring, compassionate people with that special one-for-all-and-all-for-one luminosity in our eyes. Our politicians and police — after all, they too are ‘us’ — can be sensitive, understanding and enlightened in their thoughts, speech and actions. There will be that great healing hush of the universe, the special peace and prosperity of a Buddha in our country when the firecrackers of self-loathing, hate and derision in our hearts are stilled and the sweet fresh saplings of understanding, goodwill and gratitude take root.
I don’t want these to be mere words; I want these to be feelings. I want us to practise these humane values. I do not want lynching mobs spreading their hatred like a forest fire from tree to tree, from person to person, consuming the delicate shrubs of decency, tolerance and humility. For, when these fires die down — and they have to — they leave behind a terribly sad darkness of futility. I do not want that darkness for any of us.
The route to radiance
If our lives are to be healthy and our spirits to flourish, we must turn our backs on the stifling darkness gathering around free thinking, free speech and creative expression and turn our faces toward the great light of growth. To me, light is more than watts, diyas and candles.
Light is a beautiful metaphor of a higher, liberal, greatly tolerant and accepting way of being. Light is knowledge, a consciousness awakened to science and song, to goodness and grace. Light is love and joy, kindness and wisdom.
This Diwali, let’s invoke and reflect the natural lovingness of our spirit. And who are the ambassadors of this glorious light? Our thoughts. Our thoughts create a world inside our head, an island of our individual understanding, which reflects in our behaviour. If we let the dark thoughts of possessiveness, anger and arrogance rule our psyche, we allow these hostile mob-thoughts to take over our mind. These feed on self-serving gossip and nasty opinions that sow disquiet, discord and illness.
There is another way. The great route to radiance. The sunlit path of amity and sanity. To step on this path, we just have to intelligently scrutinise our thorny thoughts and ask ourselves gently, “Are these making me healthier and happier?” It lights a lovely candle of enquiry. It enables us to savour the sweet simplicity of peace, a moment of emancipation from all negativity, a great awakening to delicious wellbeing. If each individual were to practise this reflective exercise, each one of us would light up, until the entire society would be aglow with thousands of lights.
Once you come into this vast, clear, tranquil mental space nourished by this peaceful self-reflection, you’ll know the deep delight of dropping the heavy load of prejudices. You will witness your spirit dance and glide in the form of a large feather — a vision that is imprinted in my being. You will also witness your entire body as an ethereal river of light. This is what each one of us is, dear reader, just light! Behind our personality, temperament, intellectual formations, architecture of beliefs, we are a beautiful, living stream of light.
Keeping it simple
We can uncover this original identity of ours by embracing simplicity. Simplify thinking, speaking and behaving by choosing only that which really counts — like goodness in thought, goodwill in action, harmonious words in speech, and gentleness in behaviour. Believe me, there’s luxurious ease in desisting from directing barbs or wrapping oneself in a sanctimonious, superior sulk. A peaceful mind becomes luminous and inspiration floats in…
Blessed are the pure in mind
For they think no more, no less.
Wherever they look, they find
Things of beauty they can bless.
Blessed are the egoless ones,
Their mind with acceptance paved,
Their lives radiant as a thousand suns
With all the good thoughts they’ve saved.
Treasure good thoughts, share them continually. Personal- and mob-rage manifest when they are absent. Rage is a form of inner trauma, an intense shaking inside. A new therapy called ‘Light-points’ touches specific spots on the head and body to calm nerves, ease tense muscles and allow healing light to flow softly in, to release the mind from its self-imprisoning views. The light is neither intrusive nor painful — it’s as gentle and healing as a mother’s touch. It asks neither for psychological evaluations nor explanations, it just sweeps away in its gentle wake, fears which contain the seeds of reactive anger. It seems to say, “I understand even if you don’t and it’s okay.”
The light of understanding flows through us continually when not obstructed by our ‘we-and-they’ attitudes. One fine, sunny morning, a colonel and a civilian were out on their daily walk. They noticed a man sitting on his chair and hoeing the garden. “Lazy bloke!” commented the colonel scathingly, locked in by his judgment of what was right or wrong. The civilian, however, noticed something the colonel had not and pointed it out silently to his friend. Across one side of the chair lay two crutches. As understanding flooded the Colonel, he stood there speechless. Then, he saluted the hoer. When the light of understanding enters our being, our heart opens like a flower to the sun.
For some people, the transformation can happen in a second, for some it takes time. I suggest, each of us write a soul-vision statement that contains our individual essence. Start with “I am” to make it uniquely yours. As in: “I am a true child of the light as are all my fellow-
beings. My soul’s essence contains kindness, gratitude, understanding and humour. To live from my essence, I commit to loving speech and deep listening to bring joy to myself and all. I shall refrain from speaking words that divide and cause discord.”
When we honour our spirit by affirming its qualities every day, we animate and enlarge these beautiful qualities of the light within us. Every moment is an opening to come alive in light. And it is this light of understanding and love which can and will transcend all differences, doubts, dogma. For, our very birth is the tender kiss Light bestows on this Earth.