The Light of Man is the Self
Divine Life
Society Publication: The
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda
Janaka asks sage Yajnavalkya: In this human being, what is the light which
illumines itself and illumines others? What is the power depending on which the
person works? Ultimately, it is a sort of illumination, an awakening, a
knowledge, which can be regarded as 'the light'. Now, what is this light? How
do you work in this world; with the help of what? What is the aid that you have
in this world which enables you to perform your function?
Yājñavalkya said: "Well,
the simple answer to this question as to what is the light with the help of
which people work in this world is that the sun is the source of all
light." It is due to the existence of the light of the sun that people
move about, perform their activities, and appear to be contended. Janaka agreed
that this is so indeed.
When the sun sets, and there
is darkness everywhere, what is the light, with the help of which people act?
Then Yājñavalkya said the moonlight is the only support for them. All actions
are performed by the moonlight if the sunlight is not there.
But if moonlight is not there, if sunlight also is not there, what is light, with the help of which you will work? "Fire is the light then." You light a fire if there is no sun and no moon, and with the light and the warmth of the fire that you burn, you may be comforted, and you may do your work.
But if fire also is not there,
what is the support then? So Yājñavalkya
says: "When the sun sets, when the moon is not there and fire does not
burn, by sounds and by speech people communicate their ideas with one another.
Merely by speech they can work, if everything else fails."
But suppose there is nobody
around you and nobody speak, no sound is coming forth, then how will you act? Your
own self is the light; there is nothing else afterwards. You guide yourself, by
yourself. Apart from the five senses, we have a sixth sense in us by which we
act when everything else fails. It is a kind of inward illumination which
begins to reveal itself when everything else fails as a support. That light is
our own self. Why is it that we should wait for the time when everything else
has failed, before the light within manifests itself to guide us and that we
can be a light to our own selves?
Ordinarily, the light within
gets attached to the external temptations and stimulants from outside sources.
It may be sunlight; it may be any object of sense. Our selves get absorbed in
the objects outside and become totally dependent on externals. We appear to
have some sort of independence and a capacity to exist by ourselves, only when
everything external fails.
Normally, we feel that we
require many external appurtenances to sustain us from outside. We require a
bungalow; we require many other facilities to exist; we require friends and
servants; we require food and water; we require so many things. Without these
things, we feel we cannot live. But if nothing of this kind is there, still we
will exist. And that capacity to exist, when everything goes, reveals itself
only when everything goes, not before, because of the dependence and the hope
that the self pins upon the objects of sense outside, due to their presence.
That you have a light of your own; that you have a worth of your own; that you
have a status of your own, you cannot realize as long as you are dependent on
things outside.
We have been brought up in an
atmosphere of dependence. Always, we are depending on somebody or something –
on parents, on teachers, on society, on bosses, on money, on wealth. All sorts
of things are there on which we hang for our support. But there can be
circumstances when we are deprived of all supports. When we are deprived of
every kind of external assistance, the self that we are, the strength that we
are, the status that we have, comes to our relief and begins to act. It is
impossible to imagine what that light is and what that strength is.
We have got maximum power
within us. We are mines of strength. We are not poor weaklings as we appear to
be. We appear so on account of certain defects in our personality. One of the
defects is the habit of depending on things; the other defect is our intense
desire for objects of sense. Every desire draws energy from the body, from the
Pranas, the senses and the mind, and pours it upon the objects which we are
contemplating. We get depleted of all strength due to contemplation of objects.
Secondly, there is also an inward feeling that we cannot exist without these
objects. So, for these reasons, the light within gets stifled and smothered and
it is not seen. It is like a light inside a bushel, as they say, and its
existence remains undiscovered.
Ātmanaivāyam jyotiṣāste,
palyayate, karma karute, vipalyeti iti: You depend on your own self when
everything else goes. This is what Yājñavalkya says. Your self is your light;
your self is your knowledge; and your self is your strength; your self is your
sustenance. There is nothing except your self when everything else fails.
The Light of Man is the Self: The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda
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