Dear Beings of Light, our theme for the evening. And it will have two parts. First, a contemplation on illumination as the very birthright of your Being as the realization of becoming, and second, the experience of reuniting as dispelling the darkness of ignorance. On this pilgrimage from the self to the Self. And you will pass through the ignorance of causation and identification to again realize, awaken, and return to the pure light as the Consciousness—’That’ you are.
You had a most beautiful one this morning [referring to Rabindra’s session]. You might say a lullaby and song for your heart. The science of mantra is a living experience of enlightenment that awakens the consciousness darkened by ignorance.
So, a little background to this beautiful and experiential meditation. You’ll find it in Swami Veda’s book Kundalini: Stilled, or Stirred. Kundalini, the beautiful light of consciousness, and when ‘stilled’, an intensification in its subtlety. For this reason, “When I left the sun,” the narrative by Swami Veda, will be your meditation for the evening. It becomes a contemplation that naturally leads you inward, pulling and guiding you through the pilgrimage that eventually returns you to the source of light, the source of hiraynagarbha, the womb that births the sacred word, the living word, the word that is carried through transmission in our lineage. In the same manner that St. John has said in the Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word was God.” A living lineage by way of understanding these subtle principles of mantra,‘man’, to think, and ‘tra’, to protect, to hold, to share and nourish. As you learned this morning about the nourishing aspect of the mantra, nourishment for the soul, nourishment for the heart, the nourishment for your personality to beautify your relationships.
Swami Veda’s pre-sanyasa name was ‘Usharbudh Arya’. ‘Usha’ is another name for the dawn. He is a holder of the dawn and was known as Pandit Usharbudh in his early years. During this time, he created one series of poems called ‘Hymns to the Mystic Light’. With this background, you can better understand the principle of mantra as word. Mantra is the vibration of consciousness that carries feeling that you recognize as your own being. A feeling that carries an identity of your self. Mantra has that illuminating quality that awakens of an internal light of being. Swami Veda would recall that when Swami Rama passed the diksha to him through that sacredness of the lineage, it felt like 10,000 suns radiating immense light. This is called the solar initiation. The lineage, through initiation, passes these principles of consciousness that awaken and draw us out of the darkness of misidentification and ignorance.
‘Light’ has been the greatest subject of adoration throughout human history, and addressed in the Rig Veda, the most ancient of the ancient scriptures of revelation. The lights shining in the skies must have attracted the attention of the Vedic sages, and thus they began to sing what was revealed through that revelation. And the coming of the light of dawn, after the darkness of night, gave them hope. And thus they referred to ‘Usha’, the dawn, when looking to recognize their own spiritual light. They knew that a subtler light of consciousness lay hidden in the shadows of perception. For those attending to the outer world, there were layers of light waiting to be discovered deep within the human soul. It is called ‘Jyoti’. We have just sung of that – tamaso mā jyotirgamaya. So Jyoti, the light of wisdom and truth, becomes manifest in the ideals of the spiritual life, and this became the ambition of those Vedic sages. The Vedic rishi realized the source of light, and the process of awakening, and the purification of the darkness of ignorance. In that state of awakening, the voice of God spoke to the ancient sage and enjoined him to guard the oath of light through non-harming, kindness and compassion. And they received mantras, as the oath of light. They received the revealed word to guard the path of light which wisdom had opened.
As an introduction to our pilgrimage and meditation, let me share a verse from Swami Veda’s narrative, “When I Left the Sun” that will also introduce our Sangha Mantra and the Vasudeva principle.
O fellow beams of light, have we journeyed so far, forgetting our birth as the light beams of that magnificent light, the sun. As sun rays we have been one with the light of the sun. As the sun rays, each of us, the sun rays, we have been one with the light of the sun. We, whose nature, in that illumination, in that nature is light and remains light. Whose nature is bliss, and always remains blissful, whose nature is sweet, sugandhim, and ever remains sweet. For your eternal nature is in that Lord, and that Lord dwells within you, Vasudeva. Your eternal nature is the Lord, and that Lord dwells within – Vasudeva.
On your pilgrimage along the spiritual path, you begin to recognize the depths of light you are pursuing. Such a person searches for the inner light when a calling arises, ‘know thy self’ in relation to the outer world, with its laws and with its causes and effects. And, one passes through many stages of transformation, thus eliminating the lower for the higher, the gross for the more subtle, merging the smaller into the greater, and uniting the small part of that personality into a wholeness, crossing the boundaries and loosening the ties of bondage until the outer world and inner world are realized as one. These infinite divine forces, these universal forces, are the forces within our personality. They are our experiences that express an inner craving, express that quest to know and to love and be loved. This is the quest of light, to be in light, with light, and experience the human fullness of that enlightenment as peace, happiness, and bliss. This inherent impulse, is felt in every human being, every living being, every sentient being. It is the impulse that becomes the breath. And in that impulse the thought of SoHam arises with each breath. Thus every human being can realize their true nature. The darkness of ignorance and confusion that surrounds, that veils, that diminishes the light of knowledge, remains the bondage to which we seek freedom.
Thus your true nature is light. Why would you claim knowledge in untruth, happiness in jealousy, friendship in harmful relationships, and freedom when living with fears? The darkness of untruth, the darkness of those angers and guilts and depressions hold on to the instinct of the fear of death. That abhinivesha is our primary attachment that maintains ignorance.
So aspire for truth that leads to immortality.
mṛtyormā amṛtaṃ gamaya
And from the shadow of darkness, that fear of death, lead me to the immortality.
oṃ asato mā sadgamaya
tamaso mā jyotirgamaya
mṛtyormā amṛtaṃ gamaya
Cross this ocean of darkness and you arrive at the shore of truth, goodness, and beauty. The very nature of the immortal one that you are.
Once again, dive within the very mindfield of your buddhi, your intelligence, not to use it superficially simply for judging or deciding, but for the power of that iccha shakti, the power of intention, the power of sankalpa, willpower. So as you resolve that “May the intention be in this life to awake and attain the purpose of life, to diminish the darkness of ignorance, to reveal the light of love.”
So as to now mentally recite Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudeva with full intention as purposeful life unfolds through these sacred words, through the sacred word, that illuminating and vibrating quality of the consciousness that is awakening and carrying you further and further on that pilgrimage. As a ray of light from the Center of Consciousness, you venture outward into the darkness to be lost, and then once again to be found and and thereby return to the light. That is what is called samsara. You, a being of light, venture out from that pure sun as a ray and become mingled and entangled in the darkness. And, you say, “I am darkness.” When the mantra is there to protect you, when the living lineage of the revealed word is there as your companion and guide, a moment will dawn when you understanding your life. With that awakening, you follow that light wave back to the source of light. You are the ray of consciousness returning to the Sun, the source of Consciousness. Let each meditation become this pilgrimage.
In this moment, relax, release, breathing out, letting go; and breathing-in rejuvenating, filling and fulfilling.
Smoothing out the breath rhythms and uniting the fractured mind into that one wave of the mantra thought. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya mantra, Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, as the japa of the special Sangha mantra, that prayer for humanity, the peace and internal joy of the minds of humanity.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudeva,
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Om.
Editor’s Note:
