The Path of Light

OSHO, IN HIS DARSHAN DIARIES, HAS GIVEN NAMES RELATED TO INNER LIGHT, TO SOME OF HIS SANYASINS. DOES THAT INDICATE THAT THE SPIRITUAL PATH FOR THOSE SANYASINS IS THROUGH THE ‘LIGHT’?

Definitely the names Osho has given to his sannyasins are indicative of their spiritual paths. They are informers of our path. The names given such as ‘Alok’ or ‘Abha’ are indication that they should travel through that path. They should go inside through that path. The light is the path as well as the destination. Osho has given a number of meditation techniques connected with ‘light’ in his books, entitled ‘Meditation, First and Last Freedom’ and ‘Tantra Sutra’.

Here in Nirati Samadhi program we use all those techniques. Osho has not told them clearly. They are supposed to be secret. He has referred to them during his discourses, but not very openly. They are secrets and can be told to only deep meditators. Here in Nirati Samadhi program also those diamonds and pearls that Osho spread in his discourses have been made use of. Definitely the names, Osho has given connected to light, are indicative of the spiritual path, and the destination.

SAINTS HAVE SAID THAT THERE IS LIGHT OF THOUSANDS OF SUNS INSIDE. IF ACTUALLY SO MUCH LIGHT IS HIDDEN INSIDE US THEN I AM SCARED IF I GO DEEP IN MEDITATION I MIGHT GETBURNT. PLEASE THROW LIGHT ON MY PROBLEM.

Pandit Gyan Prakash Chaturvedi, you are asking me to throw light on your problem! There might be a problem if I throw more light! You might burn! No it’s not true that the Inner Light gets so intense. There is no extreme light or the light of thousand Suns inside. Definitely the light is there but this kind of description is wrong. Some people, spiritual masters use the kind of techniques in which the palms of the hands are pressed hard on the eyes for seeing the golden light inside. That is not divine light. That is a physical phenomenon happening due to pressing of the eyes. Because of pressing of the eyes, light can be seen on the retina. That is not the true inner light. That kind of light which is seen through the pressing of the eyes; the light which is said to be brighter that thousands of Suns, has got nothing to do with spirituality. Definitely there is something else inside. It may be called Golden Flower as Chinese saint Lin chi also called it or flower of several petals or any other name that any other saint has given it but the description of thousands of Suns is totally wrong. The inner light is redness, darkness, evening, pleasant, cool and light. If the simile of sun is given then we will have to add – cool and peaceful. It’s better if the simile of moon is given.

Pandit Gyan Prakash Chaturvedi, do not be scared, go within. Find that ultimate light. That is the all- pervading, Paramatma. Go deep in it, so deep that you also become all-pervading. You also become light-like.

IN SPIRITUALITY ARE THE WORDS, “ALOK” (LIGHT) OR ‘INNER LIGHT USED ONLY METAPHORICALLY OR IS THERE ACTUAL PHYSICAL TRUTH IN IT? IS THAT INNER LIGHT ACTUALLY PRESENT OR THAT IS MERELY A METAPHORICAL DESCRIPTION?

Bodhi Shashi, this is an actual experience and not a metaphor. The inner light is actually there. This is not poetry.
Drown yourself in Samadhi, meditation and you can start seeing. In India spirituality is known as ‘knowing by seeing’ (Darshan). Not contemplation or philosophy but seeing. Saints have seen their inside, known their inside. There is a lamp burning inside, the lamp of ‘Name’, without any oil or wick. Neither there is any oil, nor any lamp nor wick and yet it’s burning and there is light. That lamp of Name, reach to that. It’s not just a symbol it is actually there. Some people think it’s a symbol. Non-understanding is problem and understanding islight. No, it’s not like that. There is actually light inside. Yaari says:
Oh loner! Light the lamp in the temple.
(BIRHAN MANDIR DIYANA BAAR).
With just a little bit of effort and being on the spiritual path, the light starts burning.

And the easiest way to light the lamp, as Saint Sunder Das said, is from lamp to lamp. If an unlit lamp sits in a ‘Satsang’ with a lighted lamp, through the master’s blessing and nearness of the saint, gradually his lamp also gets lighted. Osho has named a discourse series ‘Lamp lights a lamp’. In the last discourse of this series, Osho says, “the meaning of ‘lights a lamp’ is sitting with a master and listening to the soundless sound. If you sit with a person within whom the light of ‘Name’ is there, your heart’s musical chord will also get struck. In synchronicity with the master, his heart’s chord will make your heart’s chord also play. There is light in him. Your inside will also get lighted with the light of the ‘Name’. This is the meaning of ‘lamp lights a lamp’— JYOTI SE JYOTI JALE.

So, Bodhi Shashi this is not a symbolic description, but a true reality. But there is a difference between the inner and the outer light. The outer light has got speed. It travels at the speed of 300,000 km/second. But you come to know of the inner light when all the activities have come to an end. Mind has lost its wandering. Then, one comes to know of the inner light. We will miss the inner light if there is any activity going on inside. The outer light is full of heat, but the inner is cool like the moonlight, peaceful, cool and pleasant. There are seven colours in the outer light. In the inner light also there are amazing colours but it’s mainly colourless. When it travels through different ‘chakra’ (in the body) different colours are reflected in it. Just like a rainbow of seven colours made from the light of the sun outside, in the inner self also there is a beautiful rainbow. For the light outside be it of a small lamp, a megastar or the sun, fuel is needed. The inner light is without any oil or wick. The light is there without any fuel. And it will never burn out. Outside, however big the source of fuel might be, the light will burn out one day. Our sun also will burn out one day after some years, thousands or hundred thousands. Its fuel is decreasing every day. The inner lamp of consciousness will never burn out. There, nothing will come to an end, because nothing ever began there. That which has a beginning has an end too. So the outer light has a beginning and an end. The inner light is without beginning or end. These are some of the differences between the outer and the inner light. But the inner light is as much of a reality as the outer. It’s not a symbol or a metaphor. Here in Murthal, Madhopur, Karma and in Chitwan, in the Samadhi programme of third level known as Nirati Samadhi, meditation for seeing inner light is carried out. Through this meditation every seeker comes to know of the inner light.