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 The
Divine Light within Us
To you, the gracious Divinities,
the most adorable Sons and Daughters of the all-powerful Godhead, my adorations
by the thousands, my deepest reverence and my divine love!
Down through the centuries, numberless saints, sages, personalities of immortal
fame and light, like the mystics of the East, the saints and sages of the West,
men of deepest philosophical perceptions and intuitive awareness, have
conclusively stated, on the strength of their experiences, that we are all
forms, embodiments of the Divine Consciousness.
This Consciousness is the bearer of countless powers, energies, and forces. It
is unconditioned, unlimited, infinite. It is deathless, indestructible. Our
strength is in It. Our real personality and face is in that Consciousness.
Our life's truest joy, its illimitable peace, and its endless glory, rest in It.
It is our life-breath, the sustainer of our whole being, and the substance of
all that we are deep down in our souls. It is that which is in union with the
indescribable, unknown, invisible Divinity that is sustaining all the manifested
phenomena, that is pervading all the created universes.
It is That that is the cloud that we see, through the physical eyes. It is That
which is behind all sounds, forms, names, colours. It is all-creative,
all-sustaining. Something of a little of the experience of this great, grand
Reality made St. Theresa of Avila declare, that "Thou, O Supreme Divine
Consciousness, art my support, my joy, my glory!"
Psychology
and Our True Nature
Coming down from this status of
understanding, experience, into the world of modern psychology in all its
branches of study, we find an altogether different picture of us presented
therein.
Much knowledge is presented us concerning ourselves, our minds, our behaviour,
our characteristics and traits. Minds highly disciplined and exclusively devoted
to the extension of psychological human knowledge, are constantly seeking to
enrich our knowledge concerning our mind, our behaviour, our instincts, urges.
But, on a deeper examination we find that all the wealth of information that
these several modern psychologists present to us, though very useful, is not
very valuable, because its vision concerning us, its report of our strength and
our nature, its reading of our possibilities and potentialities, are so limited
and restricted that they do not present to us a right view concerning ourselves.
They do not hold true mirrors to the greatness that we find in ourselves. They
do not present true pictures and portraits of the imprisoned Splendour in us.
Specially when we look to some specific forms of modern psychology presented by
psychoanalysts, we find that we bear in ourselves all that is animal, dark, all
that is demonic, all that is full of urges, instincts, propensities, blind
forces, primitive tendencies, energies, much of which we should be really
ashamed. But this insight into our nature does not exhaust the reaches, the
realms, the dimensions of our inner consciousness. This is a report concerning
us from a standpoint and with a perspective that is all too narrow.
Our experience of ourselves from many standpoints, from many levels, discloses
to us that we have levels of being which far transcend the levels studied,
pursued, perceived, known, tabulated by modern psychologists.
We are not merely what we are in our outer consciousness, awareness, physical
awareness. The conscious being is only something, a segment, a fragment of our
real being. Beneath this conscious being, our conscious awareness, there is
something called the subconscious being. Beneath the subconscious we have a vast
unconscious field. The conscious personality, the subconscious being, the vast
unconscious being, these do not exhaust our whole inner being. These do not
constitute all that we are in ourselves. These are petty, small layers, -
beneath them, above them is the vast superconscious divine individual. Therefore
it is not merely the apes, the demons, the animals that are there in us, but
also the Gods, the Angels and the Supreme Godhead Himself.
Therefore, when we begin to look at ourselves through the eyes of the best of
the psychologists, we do not have true reports of our inner being. We do not
have real insights into our essential nature, with the result their reports
concerning us, though useful at a certain level of experience, are valueless
elsewhere. They are useful, as I said, only for purposes of assisting and
helping us to transform this material which is weak, human, animal. When we
begin to direct our attention towards this wondrous Divine Consciousness that is
resident and seated within our inner being, we find a real understanding
concerning ourselves, we are on the way to a true knowledge concerning what we
are, where we are, to whom we are related.
We have seen just now that the conscious, the subconscious, and the unconscious
are only three small exterior layers. That behind them is a deathless Light.
Behind them, and above them, is an immortal Life. Beyond and beside them, there
is in us the Breath of the Almighty, there is the infinite Divine Kingdom, the
Kingdom of Godhead.
It is this Kingdom that is, as I have earlier stated, our strength, our glory,
our real life. Conscious of this Infinite, this Godhead, this Kingdom within us,
we can live here on earth and conquer all the psychological fields of our
experience. Because this Kingdom, or Godhead, or Divine Consciousness is within
us, there is constantly in us a hunger for the Infinite, an aspiration after
Perfection, a longing for Divine Experience, a deep urge for unlimited Peace and
Happiness.
What do the great psychologists know of these? No good purpose is served, and no
human evolution furthered if we exclusively concentrate ourselves upon small
urges like the sex urge, the instinct for revenge and so on. We must gain a
deeper understanding and a greater knowledge concerning these higher urges,
higher demands in human personality and nature. A little while ago I have made
mention of these higher tendencies in us, urges in us, demands in us. It is not
an acquisitive instinct, or sex instinct, or the urge for revenge that are
operative in us - the self-preservative instinct, the instinct of procreation,
the urges of hatred, the propensities or tendencies towards a narrow, weak,
animal life, - but there are higher urges in us, higher demands in us, higher
longings in us.
I have stated earlier that there is something called hunger for divine
perfection in us. We find that in us there is not only a hunger for divine
perfection, an aspiration after divine experience, a thirst for being in tune
with an infinite divine Power and Love and Life, but also a constant resistance
to the phenomena of death, a constant shrinking away from pain and suffering and
sorrow, a constant urge for exceeding our limitations and breaking our barriers.
Nobody wants to die, because the inner divine Consciousness in each individual
says, "I am immortal." Nobody wants to be unhappy, because the nature of the
essential divine Being within us is illimitable Happiness. Nobody wants to be an
idiot or dull or ignorant, because the inner being or soul in us is full of
Knowledge, endless and illimitable Knowledge.
Therefore there are in us constant aspirations after immortality or
deathlessness, constant search or impulse towards the illimitable or
unconditioned joy and happiness, constant and irresistible and irrepressible
hunger for wisdom, knowledge. And therefore, if there is to be a psychology of
spiritual unfoldment, if there is to be a psychology of the human endeavour
towards the attainment of infinite divine Perfection, if there is to be a
specific psychological study of the ways, manners and patterns through which
this perfection is conducted, then that psychology has to take altogether a
different view of human personality.
The
Spiritual Psychology
That psychology would be something
far more profound, vast, valuable. It would be conscious not only of all that is
dark in human nature, but of all that is glorious and deathless and divine in
the human individual. Such a psychology would seek to pile up information,
reliable knowledge concerning the human individual, his urges and aims. Such a
psychology would study human behaviour and human aims and demands and needs, not
in terms of the results emergent from conducting researches with Pavlov's dogs,
not from a deeper study of largely misunderstood and ill-interpreted contents of
the subconscious and unconscious - in such a psychology we would find the human
individual bearing an immortal Principle.
We would begin to see the human individual not only in terms of his animal
behaviour, but in relation to what he is capable of disclosing from within
himself. In such a psychology no human individual is any more an eating,
sleeping, drinking, procreating animal, but essentially a son of God or a
daughter of God, - a person capable of highest creative activity, capable of
turning out to be a Buddha, or a philosopher like Plato, or a saint like St.
Catherine or Theresa, or a scientist like Einstein, or musicians like Beethoven
and Bach. Thus we would look upon the human individual as capable of highest
creative activity. We would judge the strength of a human individual on the
content of infinite divine Consciousness that he carries in himself.
Instincts, urges, wishes, passions, common animal propensities, these do not sum
up the human individual, as I said earlier. These do not sum up the human
individual because earlier I have drawn your attention to the fact there are
also higher urges in human individuals, the higher demands, higher aspirations,
higher powers. There are a number of capacities, capacities for philosophic
thinking, for scientific activity, for poetic creation, for vast spiritual
experience, capacities even for becoming one with God, the potentiality to seek
conscious union with an omnipresent, omnipotent Being, called God. Therefore the
psychology of spiritual unfoldment begins with a correct estimate of the real
nature of Man.
In such a psychology the human individual is primarily a spiritual individual,
and a spiritual individual who bears in himself all the splendours and wonders
of the Kingdom of God. In such a psychology man is an immortal wearing a mortal
garb. Man is a being capable of infinite Joy, infinite Peace, infinite Power,
though apparently lost in weakness, limitations. In such a psychology man is
steadily, slowly and in an integral way led forward to an experience of the
highest content within himself.
A
Psychology of Transformation and Self-Mastery
In such a psychology, on the path
of the divine life, an elevated life of aspiration, longing for divine
perfection, search for real and lasting peace and happiness, the human
individual takes up all this subconscious dross and casts it into the terms of
light and knowledge. It is true that normal human nature is full of
imperfections, weaknesses, and shortcomings, but this normal, human, animal
psychological nature and substance have to be transformed into the terms of
divine aspiration and experience.
It is possible for us to take up passions, lust, and convert them into
friendliness and love for all humanity. And from here we can proceed still
further and carry this transformation onward. We can take up this friendliness
and love for all humanity and make it an unlimited, unconditioned, infinite
divine Love.
We can in a similar way take up every urge which is animal, weak, human, and
transform them into powers, radiances. The instinct for acquisition could be
transformed into the desire for possessing endless wealth, possible for us by
pursuing the Divine. The small instinct for sense-pleasures and low pleasures
could also be taken up and transformed into love for higher pleasures. Whatever
is human, animal, could be turned or transformed into the terms and nature of
the Divine.
The subconscious and unconscious reaches can be invaded by a higher light. They
can be subjected to the transforming impact and power of a higher consciousness
and awareness. The subconscious and unconscious levels in our being can be
illuminated. It is possible for us to grow in wisdom, in knowledge, in love, and
in devotion. It is also possible for us because we bear an endless number of
powers, to conquer the mind, rule the mind, and not be ruled by it. Our
thoughts, our emotions are not ourselves. We are more than our thoughts and our
emotions. We can dispel our thoughts and emotions. We can think whatever
thoughts we may want to think, and entertain whatever feelings we may wish to
entertain. We are bigger than our emotional and mental beings. We can stand back
from our thoughts and emotions, and observe their nature and understand their
movement. We can either accept them or reject them.
Generally, the normal human individual is a slave of them, is lost in them, is
absorbed in them, is governed by them. If thoughts of hatred arise in him, his
being is fully filled with anger and hatred, his reason and sense are lost in
that hatred. He becomes one with those thoughts or feelings or emotion of hatred
and does irrational things and brings harm to himself and to others. But those
in whom there is awakening of divine Love, those who are aroused to the
awareness of a divine Presence within and around themselves, those who are
conscious of a higher destiny and a greater content within themselves, those who
are taking pains to achieve perfection, will stand back from their emotions and
thoughts. They control, redirect, govern, rule their thoughts and emotions. Such
individuals also know they are more than the body they inhabit, they do not
become the slaves of the body, they can abstract their inner consciousness and
exceed the bodily limitations.
It is true, in normal human individuals who have no divine aspirations, no
greater vision of themselves, this capacity to stand back even from the body or
rule the body is not developed.
So, we cannot only stand back from the mind, the body, but we can also conquer
and stand back from the environment. The environment is a field of experience
presented to our senses. We have the choice to close our eyes and not experience
the visual experiences, or we have the choice before us to exclusively
concentrate on a particular thing here on the table, and not see anyone around
us. In this manner there are many ways by which we can stand back, above,
transcend the environment.
If it is supposed that we are amidst a group of people consisting of men and
women and children, it is still possible for us not to react to that group in a
human way. By a slight change in our attitude, by a little turn in our vision,
by a direction of our thought and feeling towards the Divine Presence, it is
possible for us while looking at all these people to look only to the Divine
deep down in them. Seated face to face with a group of persons, it is yet
possible for us to slip away into an internal experience and vision which
discloses to us only Godhead, and God alone. In this manner there are numberless
higher powers in us which need to be developed, unfolded.
All these processes and the consciousness governing these processes, go to
constitute the field of this psychology of spiritual unfoldment. Every
imperfection, however great it may be and with which we may be burdened, can be
rejected, thrown out, or transformed, sublimated. There is absolutely no
inevitability in any of our weaknesses, limitations. The Godhead in us is so
all-powerful, that it is possible when we are in love with Him, in union with
Him, to work wonders and miracles. When that happens, we will be the inheritors
of the whole earth. We will be the owners of the Kingdom of God, we will be
called the real Sons and Daughters of the Godhead, we will be the real
personalities in continued contact and experience with an unlimited Joy, Peace,
Power, Grace. Therefore it should be our aim, our endeavour, our struggle, to
achieve this infinite divine Perfection here on earth, through the present
limitations which can be conquered.
It is true as psychologists and psycho-analysis point out, there are some ugly,
dark, nasty forces in our nature, but it is mischievous and very wrong to make
too much of them. It would be more disastrous if we completely ignore the higher
elements and factors and principles in our inner personality. However great may
be the darkness in us, it is nothing compared to the illimitable Light within
us. Conscious of this illimitable Light, let us conquer the darkness however
vast it may seem to our human experience.
However persistent may be some of the passions in our inner nature, let us not
forget the fact that we can weaken their force and render more strong our higher
urges and longings. However chaotic, troublesome may be our mind, let us not
forget it is possible for us to make it a pool of light and order and harmony.
The
Path of Perfection
Let us not stand always against
the background of normal human or animal nature, but set ourselves in the
context of the greatest men, mystics, philosophers, saints, sages, artists that
have gone by. And also let us seek to study the true reports concerning our
nature and our relations with the infinite Godhead presented in great revelatory
texts of the world. Then look at ourselves, know our inner strength, understand
the richness of the divine Consciousness within us, - and in relation to It,
know our subconscious, unconscious, and lower nature to be something that is
conquerable, something that can be effaced and thrown out of ourselves.
We can exalt our whole inner being to a new vision, new experience, new
richness, new glory.
Great is the opportunity or the circumstance of our birth, because it is in
human life alone that something of the powers of Divinity within us can be
brought into increasing operation.
Human life is not purely an extension of animal existence. We have splendid
specimens of human individuals who have achieved highest divine perfection. And
we have also in us splendid longings, aspirations, demands for such an
experience. Therefore, we are drawn to state that we are not merely an extension
of animal nature. There is much in us that is entirely divine and glorious. We
are the meeting-point of the nature that is below us, and of all that is in the
Kingdom of God.
There is in us the capacity for almost infinite unfoldment of infinite peace,
power, perfection. This understanding is the beginning, the foundation necessary
for achieving perfection. This is the equipment we need in order that we may
step on the journey towards achievement of supermanhood, divine manhood,
Godliness.
Once we are upon this path we would be returning love for hatred. Once we are
upon this path, we would be looking upon each other not as one imperfect
creature opposed to the other, but as expressions of the Divine Being.
Once we are upon this path we would try to check and restrain, govern and rule
our common animal nature, and constantly seek to pursue higher aims, higher
goals, higher ideals. Each day our life would be expressing harmony, order,
decency, nobility, divinity.
It is true, life is set in limitations and therefore is constantly exposed to
experience of pain, sorrow, suffering. But once we are conscious of the Godhead,
once we are on the road to an awareness and experience of the infinite,
immortal, eternal Being, we are given not only the power to endure this pain and
suffering and sorrow on earth, but constantly granted the delight, the peace,
the power of the Godhead.
It is only by this consciousness of Godhead, or conscious union and communion
with the God's Presence and Power within and around us, that there is a
possibility of our conquering unhappiness, gaining peace, living fearlessly and
demonstrating a strength altogether above the human.
Let us constantly seek to pursue this path of divine perfection or
God-experience, or realisation. Let us not pay much attention to the dark forces
in us. When our attention, our conscious interest, and our heart's best efforts
are given over to the pursuit of the powers of Light and Love, these dark forces
die a natural death, are starved out.
Constantly let us seek to exalt our spirit, grow rich in wisdom, attain
increasing purity by continued and constant self-restraint and self-discipline,
obtain a new poise and peace in life by constant pursuit of the higher values
and ideals; bear difficulties of life with great cheerfulness and understanding
that they will pass away, and God's power will be ours.
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